USS Ozark ( 1863 ) 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 a large number of 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 . Description . The ship was long overall and had a beam of . She had a depth of hold of and a draft of six feet . " Ozark " had a tonnage of 578 tons burthen . She was powered by a pair of two - cylinder steam engines , each driving two four - bladed , propellers , using steam generated by four boilers . The engines were designed to reach a top speed of . They had a bore of and a stroke of . " Ozark " could carry about of coal . All of the machinery was built by the Franklin Foundry of St . Louis , Missouri . The ship was fitted with three rudders , and the armored pilothouse was mounted on top of the gun turret . The officers ' stateroom s were built on deck out of light pine , and a hurricane deck was positioned between the turret and the deckhouse , between the two funnels . The hull was subdivided by three transverse and three longitudinal watertight bulkheads . " Ozark " s main armament initially consisted of two smoothbore , muzzle - loading Dahlgren gun s mounted in a twin - gun turret forward . The 11 - inch gun weighed and could fire a shell up to a range of at + 5° elevation . By July 1864 , her armament had been reinforced by the addition of one Dahlgren gun and three Dahlgrens , all on pivot mounts . One of these guns was mounted at the bow , another at the stern and the two others were abreast the deckhouse , one on each broadside . The 10 - inch Dahlgren weighed and could fire a shell up to a range of at + 19° elevation . The nine - inch gun weighed and could fire a shell to a range of at an elevation of + 15° . " Ozark " was chosen as the testbed for an experimental " underwater battery " that consisted of a nine - inch Dahlgren gun firing through a pipe in the side of the hull below the waterline . Cost overruns caused the project to be cancelled in January 1863 before it could be tested . The cylindrical Ericsson - style turret was armored with six layers of wrought iron plates . The forward of the hull was protected by two layers of plates that extended below the waterline . Aft of the bow section , the hull ' s armor consisted of two layers of plates . The ship ' s deck was protected by iron plates one inch thick . Construction and service . 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 .