USS Milwaukee, name ship of class of four 1300-ton double-turret ironclad river monitors, was built at Carondelet, Missouri, for Civil War service in the Western Rivers area. Commissioned in August 1864, she was sent down the Mississippi to New Orleans, Lousisana, in October and assigned to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. Later in 1864, she went to Mobile Bay, Alabama, where she spent the rest of her service career bombarding Confederate positions, clearing mines and supporting operations to isolate and capture the city of Mobile. On 28 March 1865, while engaged in an attack on Spanish Fort on the Blakely River, Alabama, USS Milwaukee struck a "torpedo" (as mines were then called) and sank. Her wreck was raised and scrapped in 1868.

This page features all our views of USS Milwaukee.

Photo #: NH 510 USS Milwaukee (1864-1865) In the Mississippi River area, circa 1864-65. Photographed by T. Lilienthal, New Orleans, Louisiana. Courtesy of the Philibrick Collection, Kittery, Maine.
Photo #: NH 46129 USS Milwaukee (1864-1865) Photographed on the Western Rivers during the last year of the Civil War.
Photo #: NH 60651 USS Milwaukee (1864-1865) Probably photographed in Mobile Bay, Alabama, in early 1865. Note awnings spread over her decks and anti-mine "torpedo rake" deployed at her bow.
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.