St. Mary, a wooden-hulled, side-wheel steamer built at Plaquemine, Louisiana, was presented to the Confederate government early in 1862. Protected by cotton bales, the vessel operated on the Yazoo and Tallahatchie Rivers throughout 1862 and into the summer of 1863, serving Confederate interests in Mississippi's inland waterways. The capture of this steamer occurred as part of broader Union efforts to consolidate control over Confederate waterways and support the Union Navy blockade.
On 13 July 1863, a Union joint Army-Navy expedition composed of four warships and 5,000 troops attacked and captured St. Mary at Yazoo City, Mississippi. The article does not provide detailed information about the specific commanders, tactical maneuvers, or sequence of combat events during this engagement. Following the capture, the vessel was taken into Union Navy service without formal condemnation by a prize court, despite being appraised at less than $8,000.
After her capture, St. Mary was renamed USS Alexandria and integrated into Union naval operations. On 18 September 1863, Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter requested permission from Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles to retain the prize for naval service and suggested renaming the ship Yazoo, though this proposal was never approved. USS Alexandria subsequently served the Union Navy as a dispatch boat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways. The capture of the steamer and its conversion to Union service reflected the Union Navy's strategy of acquiring Confederate vessels to strengthen its operational capabilities on interior rivers.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
Union: 0 killed (crew rescued); Confederate: 0
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