USS Eastport was a steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War . She was used by the Union Navy as a convoy and patrol vessel on Confederate waterways.
6-724: Eastport , a partially completed ironclad, was captured from the Confederates on 7 February 1862 at Cerro Gordo, Tennessee , by the Union gunboats Conestoga , Tyler and Lexington , commanded by Captain Seth Ledyard Phelps . Converted at Cairo, Illinois , into an ironclad ram for use by the Union Army , she sailed from that port late in August under the command of Captain Phelps for duty in
12-713: Is an unincorporated community in Hardin County , Tennessee . Cerro Gordo is located on the east bank of the Tennessee River , north of Savannah . It is most notable as the May 1816 landing site of the Hardin Expedition. Cerro Gordo is Spanish for fat hill. Twenty-six settlers, in two parties, struck out from Knoxville in late spring of 1816 bound for the general area which would eventually become Savannah . The first party came by boat, landing in May at "the easteward curve" of
18-738: The Mississippi River between Island No. 10 and the mouth of the White River, Arkansas . She was back at Cairo, Illinois, for repairs when, on 1 October 1862, Eastport and the other vessels of the Western Flotilla were turned over to the Navy and joined the Mississippi Squadron . Eastport sailed from Cairo to join her squadron near Vicksburg, Mississippi , but struck bottom on 2 February 1863 and returned to Cairo for repairs. She stood down
24-491: The Tennessee River . at Cerro Gordo. The second, and larger party, had traversed overland and suffered many delays. This second party was led by Joseph Hardin, Jr., son of Col. Joseph Hardin who had, before his death, accumulated several land grants to the area as rewards for his Revolutionary service. Joseph, Jr., as well as his brother, James Hardin (founder of the rival settlement of Hardinville , at modern-day Old Town, located on Hardin's Creek), executed land grants in
30-475: The Red River above Grand Ecore until 5 April, when she rounded to and stood down again. On 15 April 1864, she suffered a torpedo (mine) explosion. Despite every effort to bring her out, she had to be destroyed on the 26th to prevent her falling into Confederate hands. Captain Phelps placed 3,000 pounds of gunpowder in her hold and blew the vessel into fragments. Cerro Gordo, Tennessee Cerro Gordo
36-464: The river on 19 June for Helena, Arkansas , and served the rest of her career in the Mississippi River and its tributaries as a convoy and patrol vessel, helping capture over 14,000 bales of cotton. On 5 March 1864, she dropped down to the mouth of the Red River for the joint Army-Navy expedition. She passed through the obstructions below Fort De Russy , in whose capture she joined, then continued up
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