USS Kickapoo, a 1300-ton Milwaukee class double-turret ironclad river monitor, was built at Carondelet, Missouri, and commissioned in July 1864. She served off the mouth of the Red River, Louisiana, until October, when she was assigned to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. Kickapoo was then sent to Mobile Bay, Alabama, to support the campaign against the city of Mobile. She took part in mine clearance and bombardment operations in the spring of 1865, helping to rescue crewmen from the monitors Milwaukee and Osage when they were sunk by Confederate mines. In June 1865, Kickapoo went to New Orleans, where she was decommissioned in July. She was twice renamed in 1869, becoming Cyclops in June and Kewaydin in August. The ship was sold in September 1874.

This page features all our views of USS Kickapoo.

Photo #: NH 64090 USS Kickapoo (1864-1874) Photographed in the Mississippi River area, circa 1864. Online Image: 60KB; 740 x 460 pixels Note: This image also has been identified as showing USS Milwaukee (1864-1865). See Photo # NH 510.
Photo #: NH 66507 USS Kickapoo (1864-1874) Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken in the Mobile Bay area, Alabama, in March 1865, showing the ship with an anti-mine "torpedo rake" mounted over her bow. Copied from Francis T. Miller's "Photographic History of the Civil War", Volume 6, page 319, (published in 1911).
Photo #: NH 63187-KN (Color) USS Kickapoo (1864-1874) Color lithograph by J.H. Bufford after an original drawing by William Jefferson, circa 1864. It is entitled "The United Stated Iron Clad Monitor 'Kickapoo' of the Miss. Squadron. David G. Woods, Commanding, Sept. 1864" and is dedicated to Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter by William Jefferson. Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.
Photo #: NH 1730 USS Kickapoo (1864-1874) Oil painting depicting the ship during the Civil War. Courtesy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936.
Photo #: NH 59155 "The Siege of Mobile--Wreck of the 'Osage' and the Monitor 'Milwaukee.'" Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 29 April 1865, depicting USS Osage striking a mine and sinking near Spanish Fort on 29 March 1865. The wreck of USS Milwaukee, which had been sunk by a mine on the previous day, is in the center middle distance. The twin-turret monitors at right are two of the following: USS Winnebago, USS Chickasaw and USS Kickapoo. Ships in the right distance are "Double-Ender" and "Tinclad" gunboats also engaged in attacking the Confederate-held Spanish Fort.