Beschreibung:

Lot of 3 CDVs. Carte of the US Gunboat Louisville. McPherson & Oliver: New Orleans, LA, n.d. A large number of the ship's company, some beneath protective canvas awnings amidships, can be seen loitering at the rails actually watching the photographer on shore. The starboard battery of four guns is run out as are the pair of stern chasers. USS Louisville was a purpose built ironclad gunboat constructed at St. Louis and commissioned on January 16, 1862. Originally an army warship dictated by budgetary imperative, she was later transferred to Navy command in October 1862 and served as such for the duration. USS Louisville first joined in combined operations leading to the capture of Fort Donelson on February 16, 1862. In March she assisted in the occupation of Columbus, Kentucky and capture of Island No. 10 and New Madrid, Missouri through April 7. An established routine of vigorous patrolling prevented the small Confederate naval flotilla and vital transports from ascending the Mississippi while cutting off surreptitious cross river traffic. Louisville joined the Mississippi Flotilla for the attack on Memphis and shared in the laurels for sinking or capturing the entire Rebel naval force on June 6. Afterwards, Louisville bombarded the upper shore batteries of Vicksburg before shifting to the White River. Meeting with a large contingent of Mississippi Squadron warships, Louisville joined in a combined operation in support of W.T. Sherman's troops who captured the dominant feature of Fort Hindman at Arkansas Post, bagging nearly five thousand prisoners but getting no closer to the strategic prize of Vicksburg. In April 1863, USS Louisville and others ran the batteries at Vicksburg on the 16th and engaged in the bombardment of Confederate positions at Grand Gulf silencing those guns so that the siege ring was closed by April 29. From March to April 1864 Louisville and her sisters participated in the ill-fated expedition up the Red River, which resulted in Confederate General Richard Taylor succeeding in not only defending the Red River Valley with his smaller force but also forcing Banks to retreat after defeating a portion of the Union Army at the back-to-back battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill. On June 20 gunfire from Louisville was instrumental in breaking up a Confederate attack on an isolated Union brigade at a backwater called Gaines' Landing. The final year of Brown Water Navy endeavors focused on patrolling to interdict supplies to the Trans-Mississippi while rapidly transporting supplies and troops in lieu of a satisfactory railroad network. Louisville was finally decommissioned at Mound City on July 21, 1865. CDV of the "US Steamer Gen. Price/off Baton Rouge/The USS Conestoga lying/astern/Jan. 20th 1864" as identified in period ink. A.D. Lytle: Baton Rouge, LA, n.d. General Price was originally a civilian sidewheel steamboat taken into Confederate service in 1861 as the CSS General Sterling Price. In May 1862 off Fort Pillow she and her sisters attacked vessels of the Mississippi Squadron in an action known as Plum Point Bend. During the fight the General Bragg and then the General Price concentrated on the Union gunboat Cincinnati which was rammed and heavily damaged by Price. She also managed to silence a nearby federal mortar boat but received extensive damage in exchange being "struck by a 128-pound shell which cut off her steam supply and caused a dangerous leak." She fought at the Battle of Memphis on June 6, 1862 against a decidedly superior Union force without a semblance of tactical expertise. In the ensuing chaos Price collided with the CSS Beauregard while attempting to ram the USS Monarch. She then struck Ellet's Queen of the West whose crew boarded her as she slowly settled on a sandbar. She was raised by Union and taken into Federal service at Cairo as the USS General Price on September 30, 1862. General Price was heavily involved in the Vicksburg campaign in March and April 1863, taking part in the Miss