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USS Cincinnati (1862-1866)

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USS Cincinnati, a 512-ton Cairo class ironclad river gunboat, was built at Mound City, Illinois, for the U.S. Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla. Commissioned in January 1862, early in the following month she took part in the capture of Fort Henry, Tennessee. During March and April 1862, Cincinnati participated in the successful seige of the fortress at Island Number Ten. On 10 May, in an action near Fort Pillow, she was rammed by ships of the Confederate River Defense Fleet and sank in shallow water.

Raised and repaired, Cincinnati was transferred to the Navy in October 1862 and engaged in operations on the Yazoo River during the latter part of that year. In January 1863, she took part in the White River campaign, including the capture of Fort Hindman, Arkansas. Further activities on the Yazoo were followed by combat at Vickburg, where she was heavily hit by enemy shore batteries and sunk on 27 May 1863. Cincinnati was again raised, repaired and returned to service, spending most of the rest of the Civil War patrolling on the Mississippi and nearby rivers. In February 1865, she was sent to operate in the Mississippi Sound and Mobile Bay areas. USS Cincinnati was decommissioned in August 1865. Sold in March 1866, she sank later in that year.

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