USS Queen of the West (1854)
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US Ram Queen of the West
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| History | |
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| Name: | US Ram Queen of the West |
| Launched: | 1854 |
| Commissioned: | 1862 |
| Fate: | Captured by Confederate States Army, 14 February 1863 |
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| Name: | CSS Queen of the West |
| Commissioned: | February 1863 |
| Fate: | Attacked and destroyed, 11 April 1863 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Sidewheel steamer |
| Displacement: | 406 tons |
| Length: | 180 ft (55 m) |
| Beam: | 37 ft 6 in (11.43 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam engine |
| Complement: | 120 officers and men |
| Armament: |
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US Ram Queen of the West, a sidewheel steamer built at Cincinnati, Ohio in 1854, was purchased by the United States Department of War in 1862 and fitted out as a ram for Colonel Charles Ellet, Jr.'s Ram Fleet which operated on the Mississippi River in the U.S. Civil War in conjunction with the Western Flotilla.
Commanded by Colonel Charles Rivers Ellet (the Fleet commander's son), Queen of the West, ram USS Monarch, and five ironclad gunboats of the Western Flotilla engaged the Confederate States River Defense Fleet at Memphis, Tennessee on June 6, 1862. In the Battle of Memphis, Queen of the West was rammed and the elder Colonel Ellet was mortally wounded, but the Union ships destroyed the Southern flotilla and won for the Union control of the Mississippi as far south as Vicksburg, Mississippi.
On July 15, Queen of the West, USS Carondelet, and USS Tyler engaged Confederate ironclad ram CSS Arkansas in the Yazoo River. The Southern ram escaped into the Mississippi and, heavily damaged, found refuge under the Southern batteries at Vicksburg. On July 22, Queen of the West and USS Essex attacked Arkansas, despite the Southern guns. Essex steamed through a hail of shell past the shore batteries and joined Admiral David Farragut’s ships below Vicksburg, and Queen of the West rammed Arkansas before rejoining the Western Flotilla ships above the river fortress.
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