USS Mingo ( 1862 ) The first USS " Mingo " , a stern - wheel steamer built at California , Pennsylvania , in 1859 and used to tow coal barges , was purchased at Pittsburgh by Lt . Col . Charles Ellet for the War Department early in April 1862 . Ellet Ram Fleet . She was fitted out as a ram at Pittsburgh and headed down the Ohio River 29 April to join a fleet of rams which Ellet was organizing to counter the Confederate River Defense Fleet . This group of southern rams had been fitted out in the lower Mississippi and threatened to emulate the dreaded southern ironclad ram " Virginia " in routing wooden hulled Union ships . On 10 May the Confederate flotilla made a spirited attack on Union gunboats and mortar schooners at Plum Point Bend , Tennessee , sinking and forcing the " Mound City " aground . A fortnight later all but one of the rams had joined the Union flotilla above Fort Pillow ready for action . As the ram fleet and Western Flotilla prepared to attack , General Halleck ' s capture of Corinth , Mississippi , on 30 May cut the railway lines which supported the Confederate positions at Forts Pillow and Randolph , forcing the South to abandon these river strongholds . Battle of Memphis . The Confederacy charged its River Defense Fleet , the only remaining operational group of southern warships worthy of the name fleet , with the task of stemming the Union advance down the Mississippi . The South ’ s strategy called for a naval stand at Memphis , Tennessee . On the evening of 6 June , Flag Officer Davis arrived above the city with his ironclads . Before dawn the next morning the Union ships raised their anchors and dropped downstream by their sterns . Half an hour later the Confederate rams got underway from the Memphis levee and opened fire . At this point Colonel Ellet ordered his rams to steam through the line of Flag Officer Davis ’ slower ironclads and to run down the Confederate steamers . His flagship " Queen of the West " headed straight for Colonel Lovell , the leading southern ram . A moment before the two ships crashed , one of Colonel Lovell ' s engines failed causing her to veer . The Union ram ’ s reinforced prow smashed into Colonel Lovell ’ s side , ripping a fatal hole in her hull . When Queen of the West pulled free from Lovell , she ran aground on the Arkansas shore . Meanwhile , Union ram " Monarch " crashed into foundering Lovell with a second blow which sent her to the river bottom with all but five of her crew . By then Davis ’ ironclads had steamed within easy range of the southern ships and began to score with the effective fire . In the ensuing close action , the Confederate River Defense Fleet was destroyed ; all of its ships , except the " Van Dorn " , were either captured , sunk , or grounded . Mingo and " Lioness " , ordered to protect the rear of Ellet ’ s column , reached the scene of battle after the rout was over . Memphis surrendered to Flag Officer Davis , and the pressure of relentless naval power placed another important segment of the Mississippi firmly under Union control , an open wound in the Confederate heartland . During the next few days , the rams took on cannon to prepare to fight Confederate ships which they could not reach with their deadly prows . Battle of Vicksburg . On 19 June , Mingo and four sister rams got underway downstream from Memphis . A week later , after the rams had moved down the river to a point just above Vicksburg , Ellet sent a party across the peninsula , formed by a bend in the river opposite the hillside town , to tell Farragut , just below the fortress , that the Union had won control of the upper Mississippi . Farragut ran the gauntlet past Vicksburg ’ s guns 28 June , and Flag Officer Davis joined him above the city with the Western Flotilla 1 July . The meeting of the fresh water and salt water squadrons helped buoy morale throughout the North , but control of the river which it implied could not be realized until the South lost its Gibraltar - like fortress at Vicksburg . A year of seemingly endless labor and bitter fighting awaited the champions of the Union cause before President Lincoln could write : “ The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea . . . ” On 15 July , the Confederate ironclad ram " Arkansas " , built at Memphis and completed at Yazoo , Mississippi , raced down the Yazoo River and fought through the combined Union squadrons to shelter under the guns at Vicksburg . At the first sight of " Arkansas " , " Lancaster " tried to ram the southern ship ; but when she was a mere 100 yards from her quarry , a broadside from the ironclad opened up her lines and made her unmanageable . As " Lancaster " drifted downstream , " Queen of the West " caught her and towed her to safety . The following day ram " Mingo " came alongside and took " Lancaster " to Memphis for repairs . In the coming months " Mingo " and her sister rams worked tirelessly to control the river and to help capture Vicksburg . In November she sank accidentally at Cape Girardeau , Missouri .