USS Miami

USS Miami, a 730-ton "double-ender" side-wheel gunboat, was built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania. Commissioned on 29 January 1862, she was sent to the Gulf of Mexico to participate in the campaign against New Orleans. Once that city was captured, Miami operated in the Gulf and the Mississippi river until September 1862, when she was transferred to the Atlantic.

IX-inch Dahlgren Smooth-bore Gun,

on a slide-pivot mounting

With its crew at their stations, on board a U.S. Navy gunboat during the Civil War. Photographed by Matthew Brady.

Note anti-boarding netting; ship's wheel at left; cartridge boxes, cutlasses and revolvers worn by some men; gun-handling equipment and Marine by the rear of the gun.

It is possible that the ship is USS Miami (1862-1865), which did carry IX-inch guns at the extreme bow and stern.

During the next two years, Miami was employed in the North Carolina Sounds area, participating in a number of actions. On 19 April 1864, she engaged the Confederate ironclad Albemarle, a battle that resulted in the death of Miami's Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Charles W. Flusser. Later in 1864, she shifted to the James River, Virginia, and spent the remainder of the Civil War in that area. USS Miami was decommissioned in May 1865 and sold the following August. From then until 1869, she was employed as a commercial vessel.