USS Huntress (1862)

History
United States
Launched	1862
Acquired	May 1864
Commissioned	10 June 1864
Decommissioned	10 August 1865
Fate	Sold, 17 August 1865
General characteristics
Displacement	211 tons
Length	131 ft 8 in (40.13 m)
Beam	31 ft 3 in (9.53 m)
Depth of hold	4 ft 2 in (1.27 m)
Propulsion	steam engine stern wheel-propelled
Speed	5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph)
Armament	two 30-pounder Parrott rifles four 24-pounder howitzers

USS Huntress was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was placed into service as a gunboat assigned to support the Union Navy during the naval blockade of ports and rivers of the Confederate States of America.

Service history

Huntress, a stern-wheel steamer, was built in 1862 in

who attacked transports and gunboats.

After repairs at Mound City, Illinois, November 1864, she returned to active patrolling on the stretch of river between Mound City and Memphis. Huntress remained on that duty between March and July 1865, maintaining Union control of the Mississippi River during the waning moments of the Civil War. In July, she returned to Mound City and, after brief service transporting ordnance at the Naval Base, decommissioned 10 August 1865. She was sold 7 days later to Samuel Black. Redocumented Huntress 2 October, she resumed her career as a river steamer but was lost after stranding near Alexandria, Louisiana, 30 December 1865.^[1]

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.