A Fighting Tow

The USS Osceola left Boston, Massachusetts towing the monitor the USS Canonicus, they reached Hampton Roads, Virginia on May 3^rd 1864.

The USS Osceola was a wooden, double ended side-wheel gunboat.  It was launched at Boston, Massachusetts by the Curtis and Tilden Company on May 29^th 1863.  She was delivered to the United States Navy Yard in Boston and placed under Commander J M B Cletz on February 10^th 1864.

The Osceola left Boston towing the monitor USS Canonicus on April 22^nd 1864.  They reached Hampton Roads, Virginia on May 3^rd 1864.  The next night the Osceola headed up the James River as part of a joint expedition to clear a path for Army transports through Confederate mines in the river.  The troops landed safely at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia as a part of Union General Ulysses S Grant’s campaign against Richmond, Virginia.  She spent the rest of the year supporting the Union offensive, including an attack on Fort Fisher near Wilmington, North Carolina causing the fort to fall into Union hands.

The Osceola was decommissioned on May 13^th 1865.  She was sold at auction on October 1^st 1867.