CSS Colonel Lovell

History
Confederate States
Name	Colonel Lovell
Launched	1843
Acquired	1861
Commissioned	1861
Fate	Rammed and sunk, 6 June 1862
General characteristics
Type	Side-wheel cotton-clad ram
Tonnage	521 long tons (529 t)
Length	162 ft (49 m)
Beam	30 ft 10 in (9.40 m)
Draft	11 ft (3.4 m)
Propulsion	Steam engine, side paddle wheels

CSS Colonel Lovell was a cotton-clad ram ship of the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War

The ship was built in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1843, as Hercules, and was owned by the Ocean Towing Co. of New Orleans. She was taken over in 1861 by General Mansfield Lovell, commanding the New Orleans military district, and converted to a cottonclad ram by installation of double pine bulwarks filled with compressed cotton and one-inch iron plates on each bow. She operated under the direction of the Confederate War Department and was attached to the Mississippi River Defense Fleet, commanded by Commodore J. E. Montgomery, a former river steamboat captain.

On 10 May 1862, while operating off Fort Pillow, Tennessee, in defense of the river approaches to Memphis, Colonel Lovell, in company with seven of Montgomery's vessels, attacked the ironclad gunboats of the Federal Mississippi Flotilla. The action of Plum Point Bend which followed witnessed successful ramming tactics by the Confederates, though each of their vessels mounted at least four 8-inch guns. The Federal gunboats USS Cincinnati and USS Mound City were run on the banks in sinking condition. Later, Montgomery's force held off the Federal rams and gunboats until Fort Pillow was successfully evacuated on 1 June, and the Confederate rams fell back on Memphis to take on coal.

Following the Federal capture of Fort Pillow Flag Officer Charles Henry Davis, USN, commanding the Mississippi Flotilla, pressed on without delay and appeared off Memphis with superior force on 6 June 1862. Included in his force were two of the Federal Army's rams, commanded by Colonel Charles Ellet, Jr. Montgomery, unwilling to retreat to Vicksburg because of his shortage of fuel and unwilling to destroy his boats, determined to fight against heavy odds. In the engagement that followed, one of Colonel Lovell's engines malfunctioned and she became unmanageable. She was then rammed amidships by USS Queen of the West, and immediately struck again by USS Monarch, both of the Ellet fleet. Colonel Lovell sank in deep water in the middle of the river. Capt. J. C. Delancy and a number of his crew were able to swim ashore.

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