United States Ram Fleet
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The United States Ram Fleet was a small group of ironclad rams on the Mississippi River during the American Civil War.
In March 1862, the U.S. Army authorized the noted civil engineer Charles Ellet, Jr., to establish a flotilla of steam rams for employment on the Western Rivers. Ellet converted several powerful river towboats, heavily reinforcing their hulls for ramming. These ships had light protection for their boilers and upperworks, but were originally given no artillery. With the rank of Colonel, Ellet led his force in action during the Battle of Memphis on June 6, 1862, where rams played an important role in the Union victory against the Confederate River Defense Fleet. However, Colonel Ellet died several days later of a wound received at that action.
Alfred W. Ellet, Charles Ellet's younger brother, then took command of the rams. Under his leadership, the rams figured prominently in actions around and below Vicksburg, Mississippi, into 1863. Ellet's ram fleet was technically owned and operated by the Army even after the transfer of the Western Gunboat Flotilla to the Navy and was always somewhat independent of Navy command. After the threat of Confederate warships declined, it was reorganized as the Mississippi Marine Brigade, employing its ships and troops for amphibious operations. The Ellet fleet was disestablished in August 1864, and its surviving ships were transferred to other duties.
The Ram Fleet included the following ships:
- USS Lancaster
- USS Monarch
- USS Queen of the West
- USS Switzerland
- USS Lioness
- USS Mingo
- USS Samson
- USS Fulton
- USS T.D. Horner
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This article includes information collected from the Naval Historical Center, which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain. |
