Conestoga (Towboat/Gunboat, 1859-1864)

Photographer

Lytle, Andrew

Summary

• BOAT DESCRIPTION: Sidewheel
• BOAT TYPE: Towboat/Gunboat
• BUILT: 1859 at Brownsville, Pennsylvania
• FINAL DISPOSITION: Lost in a collision with the Gen. Price below Grand Gulf, Mississippi on March 8, 1864
• OWNERS: Daniel Bushnell and Jacob Jay Vandergrift; USQMD (1861)
• OFFICERS & CREW: Captain John A. Duble (master); Lt. Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr.
• OTHER INFORMATION: Ways - T0492; 1286; Built as a sidewheel towboat by Bushnell and Vandergrift. Her engines came from the packet J.M. Convers. First home port, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Sold to USQMD on May 7, 1861. Captain Vandergrift took her to Cincinnati where she was converted into a Civil War gunboat. At New Albany, Indiana she received five inches of wooden armor plating, classed a Rodgers timberclad, and was then turned over to Commodore Foote of the U.S. Navy on October 1, 1862. Captain Duble took her to Cairo, Illinois. She participated in several engagements in the early part of the war but was lost when she collided with the Gen. Price near Natchez, Mississippi in March 1864
• PHOTO DESCRIPTION: On the water near Baton Rouge, Louisiana