USS New Era (1862)

Career (US)

Laid down:	date unknown
Launched:	1862
Acquired:	27 October 1862
Commissioned:	December 1862
Decommissioned:	28 June 1865
Struck:	1865 (est.)
Fate:	sold, 17 August 1865
General characteristics
Displacement:	157 tons
Length:	137 ft 1 in (41.78 m)
Beam:	29 ft 6 in (8.99 m)
Draft:	4 ft (1.2 m)
Depth of hold:	4 ft 6 in (1.37 m)
Propulsion:	steam engine stern wheel-propelled
Speed:	not known
Complement:	not known
Armament:	six 24-pounder howitzers

USS New Era (1862) was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways. New Era was also a name initially carried (until 1861) by a timberclad (later ironclad) USS Essex.

Commissioned at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1862

New Era, a wooden stern-wheel steamer built at Wellsville, Ohio in 1862, operated on the Ohio River out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, until purchased by the Navy at Cincinnati, Ohio, 27 October 1862; and commissioned at St. Louis, Missouri, in December 1862, with Acting Master Frank W. F. Flanner in command.

Mississippi River operations

New Era arrived off Columbus, Kentucky, 24 December 1862 to support the Union army garrison there threatened by a large Confederate force. Confederate possession of Columbus would have seriously disrupted the flow of supplies to the Union fleet and troops then operating against Vicksburg, Mississippi. When the threat subsided, she returned to Cairo, Illinois.

Supporting the capture of Fort Hindman

On 3 January 1863 she headed down stream again and the next day, with ten other Union gunboats, got underway up the White River in Arkansas, with Union army troops under Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, to capture Fort Hindman. On the 11 January, Rear Adm. David Dixon Porter ordered New Era to take on board, from Baron de Kalb and Cincinnati, men wounded during the expedition for transportation to a hospital ship at the mouth of the White River; then to proceed to Island No. 10 to relieve Carondelet.

Inspecting river boats near Island No. 10

New Era was next stationed near Island No. 10 inspecting river boats out of St. Louis, Missouri, and other Northern ports to prevent illegal trade with the Confederacy. She captured steamer W. A. Knapp carrying a contraband cargo on 4 February and took steamers Rowena and White Cloud under similar circumstances on the 13th. Curlew became her prize on the 28th.

Acting Lt. Henry A. Glassford relieved Executive Officer William C. Hansford of command 4 March; and New Era captured steamer Ruth carrying contraband and Confederate mail on the 12th. Besides taking ships, she also made frequent arrests of smugglers, subversive agents, and other lawbreakers. Her duty on the upper Mississippi River bore striking resemblance to that of ships on “Operation Market Time” patrol off Vietnam over a century later.

On 16 June, New Era proceeded to a point above Island No. 10 to destroy nine boats and barges collected there for a Confederate attack on the island.

Final river operations of the war

The New Era saw action again on 12 April 1864, when she opened fire on Confederate cavalry under Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest's troopers were attempting to capture the small Federal garrison of Fort Pillow. The New Era added her guns to the defense of the fort until fire from Confederate sharpshooters forced the vessel to "button up" her gun ports. Though Fort Pillow was captured by the Confederates, and a large portion of its USCT garrison were alleged to have been massacred, New Era remained in the area to pick up survivors of the battle. Over the next two days, the gunboat continued to intermittently shell the woods near Fort Pillow, to dissuade the Confederates from establishing a battery or burning a number of barges along the river bank. New Era's crew also assisted in burying many of the dead from Fort Pillow. When Confederate forces left the area on 14 April, the New Era steamed back north toward Island No. 10, with civilian and military survivors of the Fort Pillow massacre. Through the remainder of the war, the steamer operated on the upper Mississippi and its tributaries, protecting Union communications on the waterways.

Post-war decommissioning and sale

She decommissioned at Mound City, Illinois, 28 June 1865 and was sold at auction there to W. S. Mepham 17 August 1865.

References

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