Ibex I (Gunboat)
1865
A variety of wild goat found in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
I
(Gunboat: tonnage 235; length 157'0"; beam 33'0"; depth of hold 4'6"; armament 2 30-pounder Parrott rifles, 2 12-pounder rifles, 4 24-pounder howitzers)
The side wheel steamer Ohio Valley, built at Harmer, Ohio, in 1863, was purchased by the Navy at Cincinnati, Ohio, from Theodore Johnson on 10 December 1864. Renamed Ibex, she was commissioned at Mound City, Illinois, on 4 April 1865, Lt. Cmdr. Robert L. May in command.
After fitting out as a “tinclad” gunboat at Mound City, Ibex was ordered to Memphis for duty with the Mississippi Squadron’s Eighth District on 29 April 1865. She served in the Mississippi assisting Rear-Adm. S. Phillips Lee in attending to many of the innumerable tasks entailed in closing the Mississippi Squadron. Decommissioned at Mound City on 5 August 1865, Ibex was sold at public auction less than a fortnight later to Thompson Dean on 17 August 1865.
Re-documented as Harry Dean on 5 October 1865, the former veteran of naval service on the Mississippi was lost when she exploded at Gallipolis, Ohio, on 3 January 1868.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
25 May 2022
