USS Tyler, a 575-ton "timberclad" gunboat,
was converted from the commercial side-wheel steamship A.O.
Tyler, which had been built in 1857 at Cincinnati, Ohio. Acquired
in June 1861 for the Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla, she was
commissioned in September with officers provided by the Navy.
One of the first Federal warships on the Western Rivers, Tyler
saw extensive action on the Mississippi and its tributaries throughout
the Civil War, beginning in early September 1861 when she engaged
CSS Jackson near Hickman, Kentucky. During 1861 and early
1862, she participated in operations on the Ohio, Upper Mississippi
and Tennessee Rivers, firing her guns at Confederate forces on
several occasions and participating in the capture of a number
of enemy vessels and strategic positions.
In April 1862, Tyler played an important role in the
Battle of Shiloh. In June, she joined other Union gunboats in
operations on the Yazoo River, where she had a running battle
with the Confederate ironclad Arkansas
on 15 July 1862. Over the following year, Tyler was further
employed on the Yazoo and in support of Army campaigns in Arkansas.
She was formally transferred from the Army to the Navy in October
1862. From mid-1863 to the end of the Civil War she was mainly
active in the Arkansas area and engaged an enemy shore battery
at Clarendon, Arkansas, on 24 June 1864. Tyler was placed
out of service soon after the end of the great conflict and was
sold in August 1865.
This page features all our views of USS Tyler.
Photo #: NH 55826
USS Tyler (1861-1865)
Wash drawing by F. Muller, circa 1900, depicting Tyler
anchored off shore, with two mortar rafts tied up to the river
bank, in the Mississippi River area during the Civil War.
Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.
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Photo #: NH 95020
USS Tyler (1861-1865)
Anchored on one of the Western Rivers, circa 1862-65. A small
cutter is in the foreground and a "City" class ironclad
is in the right distance.
Identification of this ship as Tyler is probable, based
on photographs of all three "timber-clad" gunboats.
Collection of Commander George M. Bache, USN.
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Photo #: NH 49975
USS Tyler (1861-1865)
Tied up by a river bank in the Mississippi River area, during
the Civil War, with her crew's laundry hung up to dry.
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Photo #: NH 49976
USS Tyler (1861-1865)
Tied up for repairs in the Mississippi River area, during the
Civil War. The planking has been removed from the side of her
port paddle box.
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Photo #: NH 59003-KN (Color)
"Gun-Boats Fitting Out at Cincinnati, Ohio, for Government
Service on the Mississippi"
Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1861.
This example has been hand-tinted in water colors.
The scene represents the conversion of the first "timber-clad"
gunboats for the Western Gunboat Flotilla, in mid-1861. These
ships were Conestoga, Lexington and Tyler,
two of which are depicted here.
Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, DC.
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Photo #: NH 59004
"The Flotilla of Federal Gunboats for the Protection of
the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, Under the Command of Captain
John Rodgers, U.S.N. -- From a Sketch by our Special Artist at
Cairo, Illinois"
Line engraving published in "Frank Leslie's Illustrated
...", 1861, depicting the "timber-clad" gunboats
Tyler, Lexington and Conestoga.
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Photo #: NH 1997
Battle of Belmont, Missouri, 7 November 1861
Engraving published in Rear Admiral Henry Walke's "Naval
Scenes and Reminiscences of the Civil War in the United States
..." (1877), depicting the first attack by the gunboats
Tyler and Lexington.
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Photo #: NH 59014
"The retreat -- the Tyler shelling the Rebel troops"
Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1861,
depicting USS Tyler in action during the Battle of Belmont,
Missouri, on 7 November 1861. She is followed by several transport
steamers.
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Photo #: NH 58898
"The Gun-boat Attack on the Water Batteries at Fort Donelson"
Line engraving, based on a sketch by Alexander Simplot, published
in "Harper's Weekly", 1862, depicting the bombardment
of Fort Donelson, Tennessee, by Federal warships, 14 February
1862. Many of the ships were damaged in this action. As identified
on the engraving, they are (from left to right): "Timberclads"
Tyler and Conestoga; Ironclads Carondelet,
Pittsburg, Louisville and Saint Louis.
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Photo #: NH 68448
"Pittsburg Landing. From a photograph taken a few days after
the battle."
Engraving after an artwork by J.O. Davidson, published in "Battles
and Leaders of the Civil War", Volume I, page 489. It shows
six transports at Pittsburg Landing shortly after the Battle
of Shiloh, in April 1862. The original caption reads: "Of
the six transports, the one farthest up stream, on the right,
is the Tycoon, which was dispatched by the Cincinnati
Branch of the Sanitary Commission with stores for the wounded.
The next steamer is the Tigress, which was General Grant's
headquarters boat during the Shiloh campaign. On the opposite
side of the river is seen the gun-boat Tyler.
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