USS Myrtle (1862)

History
US
Ordered	as Resolute
Laid down	date unknown
Launched	date unknown
Acquired	30 September 1862
Commissioned	October 1862
Decommissioned	August 1865
Stricken	1865 (est.)
Homeport	Cairo, Illinois Mound City, Illinois
Fate	sold, 17 August 1865
General characteristics
Displacement	60 tons
Length	75 ft (23 m)
Beam	16 ft 3 in (4.95 m)
Draft	6 ft (1.8 m)
Propulsion	steam engine twin screw-propelled
Speed	10 knots
Complement	not known
Armament	not known

For other ships with the same name, see USS Myrtle.

The first USS Myrtle was a steamer purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.

She was used by the Union Navy as a tugboat and as a dispatch boat assigned to assist Union Navy ships patrolling Confederate waterways.

Assigned to the Mississippi Squadron

Myrtle, a twin screw tug, was acquired as Resolute by the Navy from the U.S. War Department 30 September 1862; renamed Myrtle 15 October 1862; and assigned to Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter’s Mississippi Squadron.

During the remainder of the Civil War she operated at Cairo, Illinois, providing tug and towing services for the squadron and serving as a dispatch boat. She served on both the Mississippi River and the Ohio River and in 1865 transferred her base of operations to Mound City, Illinois.

She was turned over to the naval station at Mound City 8 August 1865. She was sold at public auction 17 August 1865 to E. H. Ellis.

See also

• Anaconda Plan
• United States Navy
• List of United States Navy ships

References

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.