USS CARONDELET: History: Union Navy Jack United States, Laid down: August, 1861, Launched: October, 1861, at St. Louis, Missouri, Commissioned: 15 January 1862 at Cairo, Illinois. General characteristics: Displacement: 512 tons, Length: 175 ft (53,34 m), Beam: 51 ft 2 in (15.60 m), Draught: 6 ft (1.83 m), Propulsion: Steam engine, Speed: 4 knots, Complement: 251 officers and men, Armament: Like many of the Mississippi theatre ironclads, USS CARANDOLET had its armament changed multiple times over life of the vessel. To expedite the entrance of CARANDOLET into service, she and the other City-class gunboats were fitted with whatever weapons were available; then had their weapons upgraded as new pieces became available. Though the 8 in (200 mm) Dahlgren smoothbore cannons were fairly modern most of the other original armaments were antiquated; such as the 32-pounders, or modified; such as the 42-pounder "rifles" which were in fact, old smoothbores that had been gouged out to give them rifling. These 42-pounder weapons were of particular concern to military commanders because they were structurally weaker and more prone to exploding than purpose-built rifled cannons. Additionally, the close confines of riverine combat greatly increased the threat of boarding parties. The 12-pounder howitzer was equipped to address that concern and was not used in regular combat. Armour: Casemate:2.5 in (64 mm) Pilothouse: 1.25 in (32 mm)
USS CARONDELET (1861) was a City-class ironclad gunboat constructed for the War Department by James B. Eads during the American Civil War. It was named for the town where it was built, Carondelet, Missouri. CARANDOLET was designed for service on the western rivers, with a combination of shallow draft and variety of heavy guns (and a light howitzer), she was suited for riverside bombardment and ship-to-ship combat against Confederate gunboats. Built in St. Louis, Missouri in 1861.USS CARANDOLET, an ironclad river gunboat, was built in 1861 by James Eads and Co., St. Louis, Missouri, at the Union Marine Works, in Carondelet, Missouri under contract to the United States Department of War. CARANDOLET was commissioned 15 January 1862, at Cairo, Illinois, U.S. Navy Commander Henry A. Walke in command, and reported to Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla, commanded by U.S. Navy Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote.
Union Army service: Between January and October 1862, CARANDOLET operated almost constantly on river patrol and in the capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February; the passing of Island No. 10 and the attack on and spiking of the shore batteries below New Madrid, Missouri, in April; the lengthy series of operations against Plum Point Bend, Fort Pillow, and Memphis, Tennessee, from April through June, and the engagement with CSS Arkansas on 15 July, during which CARANDOLET was heavily damaged and suffered 35 casualties.
Union Navy service: Transferred to Navy control with the other ships of her flotilla on 1 October 1862, CARANDOLET continued the rapid pace of her operations, taking part in the unsuccessful Steele's Bayou Expedition in March 1863. One of those to pass the Vicksburg and Warrenton, Missouri batteries in April 1863, CARANDOLET took part on 29 April in the five and one-half hour engagement with the batteries at Grand Gulf. She remained on duty off Vicksburg, bombarding the city in its long siege from May to July. Without her and her sisters and other naval forces, the great operations on the rivers would not have been possible and the Federal victory might not have been won. From 7 March to 15 May 1864, she sailed with the Red River Expedition, and during operations in support of Union Army movements ashore, took part in the Bell's Mill engagement (part of the Franklin-Nashville Campaign) of December 1864. For the remainder of the war, CARANDOLET patrolled in the Cumberland River. The CARANDOLET had several commanding officers over the duration of her service. Post-war decommissioning and sale. She was decommissioned at Mound City, Illinois, on 20 June 1865, and sold there on 29 November 1865.
Subsequent career and sinking : In 1873, shortly before she was to be scrapped, a flood swept the CARANDOLET from her moorings in Gallipolis, Ohio. She then drifted approximately 130 miles down the Ohio River, where she grounded near Manchester, Ohio. Her ultimate fate remained unknown until a May 1982 search operation by Clive Cussler's National Underwater and Marine Agency pinpointed the location of the wreckage, just two days after a dredge passed directly over the wreckage, demolishing most of the wrecked vessel.
Erhard Jung
USA Forever stamp 2013 sg?, scott? (she is the seventh ship in the squadron)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Carondelet_%281861%29
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineL ... carndt.htm