Naiad (Stern Wheel Gunboat)
1864-1865
A nymph in Greek mythology who lived in and gave life to lakes, rivers, springs, and fountains.
(Stern Wheel Gunboat: tonnage 183; length 156'10"; beam 30'4"; draft 6'0"; depth of hold 4'5"; speed 6 miles per hour; armament 8 24-pounders)
The stern-wheel steamer Princess, built in 1863 at Freedom, Pa., was purchased by the Navy from F. Martin at Cincinnati, Ohio, on 3 March 1864; renamed Naiad; and commissioned on 3 April 1864, Acting Master Harry T. Keene in command.
Acquired to bolster Union strength along the Mississippi and its tributaries against Confederate cavalry and guerilla raids, Naiad served in the shallow and dangerous waters of these ever changing streams through the end of the Civil War, from time to time engaging southern shore batteries. On 15 and 16 June 1864, with General Bragg and Winnebago, she dueled Southern artillery at Ratliff's Landing, La., silencing the riverbank guns on both occasions. Again on 2 September, she snuffed out the fire of a Confederate battery near Rowe's Landing, La. The constant patrol of the rivers by Naiad and her sister tinclads helped the Union to maintain open communications and supply lines in the West while preventing the South from mustering her dwindling and far flung resources to oppose General William Tecumseh Sherman and General Ulysses S. Grant.
Naiad was decommissioned at Cairo, Illinois, on 30 June 1865 and was sold at auction at Mound City, Illinois to B. F. Beansly, on 17 August 1865.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
18 May 2022
