USS General Grant

General Grant in 1864
History
United States
Laid down	date unknown
Launched	1863
Acquired	20 July 1864
Commissioned	20 July 1864
Decommissioned	2 June 1865
Stricken	1865 (est.)
Fate	Returned to the War Department 2 June 1865
General characteristics
Displacement	201 tons
Length	171 ft (52 m)
Beam	26 ft (7.9 m)
Draught	depth of hold 4 ft 9 in (1.45 m)
Propulsion	steam engine side wheel-propelled
Speed	not known
Complement	not known
Armament	two 30-pounder guns two 24-pounder howitzers

USS General Grant was a steamship chartered from the U.S. War Department by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy as a gunboat in waterways of the Confederate South.

General Grant was built in 1863 at Monongahela, Pennsylvania; purchased by the War Department; chartered by the Navy and commissioned at Bridgeport, Alabama, 20 July 1864, Acting Master Joseph Watson in command.^[1]

General Grant constantly patrolled the upper Tennessee River from Bridgeport until close of the Civil War, fighting guerrillas and aiding the Union Army in clearing Confederate troops from the region.

In October 1864 she destroyed 22 small boats off Port Deposit and Crow Island. On 25 November she assisted in taking up pontoon bridges under guns of Confederate sharpshooters at Decatur, Alabama. She hurled 52 shells into that town 12 December 1864 and joined USS General Thomas 15 January 1865 in the destructive bombardment of Guntersville, Alabama.

She decommissioned and was returned to the War Department 2 June 1865. She was lost when stranded in ice 18 March 1866 at Plattsmouth, Nebraska.

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

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