USS Rattler (1862)
USS Rattler
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| History | |
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  United States
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| Ordered: | as Florence Miller |
| Laid down: | date unknown |
| Launched: | 1862 at Cincinnati, Ohio |
| Acquired: | 11 November 1862 |
| Commissioned: | 19 December 1862 |
| Out of service: | 30 December 1864 |
| Struck: | 1864 (est.) |
| Fate: | sank, 30 December 1864 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 165 tons |
| Length: | ~170 feet |
| Beam: | not known |
| Draught: | not known |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | not known |
| Complement: | not known |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: | tinclad |
USS Rattler (1862) was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
She was used by the Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederate States of America, especially the Mississippi River, and to be employed as a gunship when required.
Florence Miller ("tinclad" gunboat No. 1.), a wooden stern-wheel steamer built at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1862, was purchased by the Navy there on 11 November 1862; renamed Rattler 5 December 1862; and commissioned 19 December 1862 at Cairo, Illinois, Acting Master Amos Longthorne, in command.
With Rattler in the lead, sounding as she went along, Admiral David Dixon Porter's Mississippi Squadron ascended the White and Arkansas Rivers to attack Fort Hindman at Arkansas Post on 10 January 1863, in a joint Army-Navy expedition as part of the larger campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi. While the other gunboats bombarded Fort Hindman, Rattler closed within 50 yards of the Confederate guns in an unsuccessful effort to clear away a barrier of chevaux-de-frise and was forced by heavy fire to return to station.
The next day Rattler and USS Glide dashed past the fort to enfilade the Confederate position; their guns drove the Rebel troops out of rifle pits allowing Federal troops under General William T. Sherman to reach the fort unopposed. The gunboat's cannonade forced the Rebel commander to surrender Fort Hindman and some 6,500 Confederate troops.
Rattler next served as flagship of a flotilla of "tinclads" and Army transports carrying 6,000 men of General Sherman's Corps during the Yazoo Pass expedition, an abortive attempt to bypass and isolate Vicksburg by means of bayous.
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Wikipedia