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Photo # NH 42926:  USS Owasco.  Lithograph published in 1861

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Owasco (1862-1865)

USS Owasco, a 691-ton Unadilla class screw steam gunboat built at Mystic, Connecticut, was commissioned in January 1862. She soon departed for the Gulf of Mexico, arriving in mid-February. The next month she captured two would-be blockade runners off the Louisiana coast. From then until mid-year, Owasco operated on the Mississippi River with the mortar flotilla that bombarded Confederate fortifications below New Orleans and at Vicksburg. In addition to towing the flotilla's sailing schooners, the gunboat also used her own weapons to shell enemy positions.

In October 1862, Owasco participated in the capture of Galveston, Texas. Present when the Confederates retook the city at the beginning of 1863, she continued to serve along the Texas coast until the Civil War ended more than two years later. She took part in the capture of Brazos Santiago, at the mouth of the Rio Grande River, in early November 1863. While enforcing the blockade, she helped capture or destroy ten sailing vessels between May 1863 and April 1864. USS Owasco was decommissioned in July 1865 and sold the following October. She was subsequently used for commercial purposes under the name Lulu and was still in existence in 1885.

This page features the only views we have related to USS Owasco.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

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Photo #: NH 42926

USS Owasco
(1862-1865)

Lithograph published by Shearman & Hart, New York City, 1861.
The original lithograph was issued with different titles to represent many, if not all, of the Civil War "90-day gunboats". See Photo # NH 2016.

Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 76KB; 740 x 555 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 59141

"Attack of the Rebels upon our Gun-boat Flotilla at Galveston, Texas, January 1, 1863."


Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1863. USS Harriet Lane is shown in the left distance, under attack by the Confederate gunboats Neptune and Bayou City. The grounded USS Westfield is at right, being blown up to prevent capture. USS Owasco is in the center of the view.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 142KB; 740 x 565 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 21 October 2001
New image added 30 October 2001