The Last Boat

Not the USS Kate, but when she would have looked like

The USS Kate was purchased by the Union Navy December 23^rd 1864 from J B Porter and Son of Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Kate B Porter was built at Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania in 1864.  She was purchased from J B Porter and Son of Cincinnati, Ohio December 23^rd 1864 by the Union Navy.  They re-christened her the USS Kate and converted her into a gunboat.  She was commissioned at Mound City, Illinois under the command of Lieutenant W R Wells, and set to work patrolling the Mississippi River.  The Kate was one of the last Union ships on naval duty in the Mississippi River.

When the Civil War ended the Kate was order to the Tennessee River, where she went to work cleaning up the hulks of barges and gunboat which had been sunk.  In August 1865 she was sent to the Jefferson Barracks Reserve where she was disarmed.  The Kate was decommissioned at Mound City, Illinois March 25^th 1866.  She was sold at auction and re-commissioned the James J Trover on April 12^th 1866.  She ended her life stranded on the Missouri River about 300 miles below Fort Benton, Montana on June 21^st 1867.