USS Curlew (1862)

In 1862, the stern-wheel steamer Florence was constructed at either Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[1] or Elizabeth, Pennsylvania.[2] She had a tonnage of 196 tons,[3] a length of 159 feet (48 m), a beam of 32 feet 1 inch (9.78 m), and a draft of 4 feet (1.2 m). Her two engines and two boilers[2] allowed her to move at a speed of 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph).[1] On December 17, she was purchased by the Union Navy for military service in the American Civil War,[1] at a cost of $21,500 while the vessel was at Cincinnati, Ohio.[4] She was converted into a gunboat and renamed Curlew, after a type of bird.[1] Curlew was commissioned on February 16, 1863. She was armed eight 24-pounder howitzers as of February 1863, but according to naval historian Paul Silverstone, was also armed with six 32-pounders and one rifled 20-pounder at another point during her service history.[2] Curlew became a tinclad and was assigned the number 12, to be painted on her pilothouse.[5]

On February 17, 1863, Curlew, who was commanded by acting Master G. Hentig, left Cairo, Illinois, to join the fleet of Admiral David Dixon Porter. She served on patrol duty on the Mississippi River, taking part in a minor action against Confederate forces on the shore of Arkansas in an Union Army-Navy joint expedition. In mid-July, she was part of a multi-vessel expedition that moved into the Red River of the South, Black River, Tensas River, and Ouachita River. The Union ships captured two steamers, destroyed two others, and also destroyed a sawmill, a quantity of lumber, and Confederate supplies.[1]

From December 23 through January 14, 1864, Curlew saw service on the Ohio River and the Tennessee River, before going to Mound City, Illinois, to be repaired. Leaving Mound City on March 12, she took members of the United States Coast Survey to Grand Gulf, Mississippi.[1] On May 24, Curlew was engaged in a sharp action with Pratt's Texas Battery on the Mississippi River off the coast of Arkansas. The Confederate artillerymen and the Union gunboat dueled for about 20 to 35 minutes, with Curlew taking several hits and firing 28 shots. Curlew signaled with her ship's whistle for the nearby timberclad USS Tyler to come to her aid, but the Confederate artillery left before Tyler arrived.[6]

On May 31, Curlew returned to Mound City before again going on the Mississippi on June 30. Patrolling between Natchez, Mississippi, and Vicksburg, Mississippi, she sometimes skirmished with Confederate land forces. She then moved upriver on October 24 to again serve on the Ohio and the Tennessee.[1] On November 4, Curlew was part of a group of six steamers that came to the aid of the gunboats USS Key West, USS Tawah, and USS Elfin who were in trouble during the Battle of Johnsonville. The narrowness of the Tennessee River at that location and Confederate shore fire prevented Curlew and the other five would-be relief ships from rescuing Key West, Tawah, and Elfin, and the latter three were destroyed.[7] From February 1865 to mid-June of that year, Curlew was tasked with making surveys of the river near Cairo and Mound City.[1] She was decommissioned on July 5[2] and sold at an auction on August 17 for $7,600.[4] Her further career is unknown.[2]

• List of United States Navy ships

• Civil War Naval Chronology, 1861–1865. Washington, D.C.: Naval History Division. 1971.
• Konstam, Angus (2013). Mississippi River Gunboats of the American Civil War 1861–1865. Osprey. ISBN 9781472800954.
• Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series 2. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1921.
• Smith, Myron J. (2021). After Vicksburg: The Civil War on Western Waters, 1863–1865. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1-4766-4370-0.
• Silverstone, Paul H. (1989). Warships of the Civil War Navies. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-783-6.