page_title: Robert Townsend (captain)
section_title: USS Miami
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Townsend (captain) / Civil War service / USS Miami
caption_attribution_description: English: USS Miami (1861), sidewheel gunboat used in the American Civil War
context_page_description: Captain Robert Townsend was a Civil War-era ship Captain in the United States Navy. He served twice, once before the war then again during the war. He saw active combat while serving aboard three ships, most notably as commander of the USS Essex from 1863–1864, an ironclad gunship on the Mississippi River. Captain Townsend died of heatstroke while commanding the USS Wachusett in China in 1866, and is buried in Albany, New York.
context_section_description: In 1862 Townsend was acting-lieutenant of the Miami under the command of Abram Davis Harrell. The Miami was a side-wheel, double-ender gunboat with a crew of 134 and armament of one 80-pounder Parrott rifle, one 9 inch smoothbore, and four 24-pounder cannon. The ship participated under Admiral David Farragut as part of the Mortar Flotilla in neutralizing Confederate forts below New Orleans. Eliminating the forts permitted the Union ships to move upriver and eventually take New Orleans. Townsend became Commander of the Miami by October of that year.
caption: USS Miami
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