page_title: USS Ozark (1863)
section_title: Construction and service
hierarchical_section_title: USS Ozark (1863) / Construction and service
caption_attribution_description: English: Engraving of the USS Ozark (1863)
context_page_description: USS Ozark was a single-turreted river monitor built for the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The ship served in the Mississippi River Squadron during the war, and participated in the Red River Campaign shortly after she was commissioned in early 1864. Ozark patrolled the Mississippi River and its tributaries after the end of the campaign for the rest of the war. She was decommissioned after the war and sold in late 1865.
  The ship's activities or owner are not known after her sale, but Ozark transported Federal troops and New Orleans police attempting to apprehend the white supremacists who killed numerous blacks during the Colfax Massacre in 1873. She ferried witnesses back and forth to their homes on the Red River during the subsequent trials in 1874. Her ultimate fate is unknown.
context_section_description: The contract for Ozark, the first ship of that name in the United States Navy and named for the Ozark Tribe of the Quapaw Indians, was awarded to George C. Bestor on 14 May 1862. He subcontracted the ship's construction to Hambleton, Collier & Co. at their Mound City Marine Ways shipyard in Mound City, Illinois. Ozark was laid down in 1862 and launched on 18 February 1863. She was towed to St. Louis for fitting out and arrived there on 27 February. Ozark commissioned on 18 February 1864, with Acting Volunteer Lieutenant George W. Brown in command. She cost about $215,000.
  Ozark spent her entire Union Navy career serving in the Mississippi River Squadron. From 12 March to 22 May 1864, she took part in the Rear Admiral David Porter's Red River Expedition to Alexandria, Louisiana. During the retreat down the Red River, Ozark was trapped above the falls at Alexandria, along with most of the other ironclads of the Mississippi Squadron, when the river's water level unexpectedly began to fall. Two temporary dams, known as Bailey's Dam, had to be built in April–May to raise the water level high enough to allow the ironclads to proceed downstream. After the end of the campaign, Ozark was assigned to the Third District, patrolling the Mississippi River between Morganza, Louisiana and Fort Adams, Mississippi. Following the end of the war, she was decommissioned at Mound City on 24 July 1865 and was sold 29 November.
  The identity of her purchaser is not known, nor are her activities after her sale, but Ozark was still in service in late 1873 and based at New Orleans. Louisiana governor William Pitt Kellogg used the ship to transport 35 soldiers of the 19th Infantry Regiment and 25 mounted members of the New Orleans Metropolitan Police to Colfax, Louisiana in October to apprehend the perpetrators of the Colfax Massacre. Due to widespread resistance by local whites, only a few men were arrested and transported to New Orleans by Ozark to stand trial in December. Prosecution witnesses were transported and housed in the ship during the trials in February–March 1874 to protect them from threats made by white supremacists. Nothing further is known about the Ozark's activities or fate.
caption: Engraving of USS Ozark
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