CSS Gaines, an 863-ton side-wheel gunboat, was built at Mobile, Alabama, in 1861-62. She served her entire career as part of the defenses of Mobile Bay. On 5 August 1864, Gaines participated in the Battle of Mobile Bay, receiving crippling damage from the gunfire of Union warships. After the battle, she was beached near Fort Morgan and destroyed by her own crew.

This page features all our views of CSS Gaines.

Photo #: NH 53878 CSS Gaines (1862-1864) Late 19th Century reproduction of a pen and ink drawing of 1864 vintage.
Photo #: NH 42396 "Battle of Mobile Bay ... Passing Fort Morgan and the Torpedoes" Print after an artwork by J.O. Davidson, 1886, depicting the Union and Confederate squadrons at the moment that USS Tecumseh sank after striking a mine ("torpedo"). Confederate ships (left foreground) are Morgan, Gaines and Tennessee. Union monitors visible astern of Tecumseh are Manhattan and Winnebago. USS Brooklyn is leading the outer line of Union warships, immediately followed by USS Hartford. Courtesy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936.
Photo #: NH 42392 "Battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864" Reproduction of an 1864 pen & ink drawing by George S. Waterman, C.S.N., depicting the action as seen from above and inside the entrance to Mobile Bay. Confederate ships present are (as identified on the drawing): Selma, Morgan, Gaines (shown twice, in the battle line, and beached off Fort Morgan after the battle) and Tennessee. Union monitors shown are (from the front of the line): Tecumseh (sinking after striking a mine), Manhattan, Winnebago and Chickasaw. The leading two steam sloops in the Union line are Brooklyn and Hartford. Small diagram in the lower right represents the various efforts by Union ships to ram the Tennessee later in the action.

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