U. S. Gunboat Lexington

Way, Frederick, Jr., 1901-1992
Hartford, John

picture

Lexington (Steamboat)
Gunboats

1860-1869

U. S. Gunboat Lexington. One of the first Union boats to put in at Cairo, after the outbreak of hostilities was the U. S. Gunboat Lexington, originally a packet steamer, a wooden vessel built at Pittsburg in 1860 and regularly used as a passenger and freight boat. She was sold to the government in 1861 and the War Department ordered her with the U. S. Gunboat Conestoga and the Gunboat Taylorto the Cairo-Mound City vicinity for conversion into a gunboat, after the declaration of War. The Lexington was of lesser tonnage than the Conestoga and when deeply laden had a draft of only six feet. Her maximum speed was seven knots per hour. The contracted cost of remodeling her into a gunboat amounted to $2213.44 which included new siding, decking and a paint job in addition to innumerable other repairs. What the Lexington lacked in size, however, she offset by her heavy armamant and her work during the war was among the best. After a series of meritorious engagements she was finally laid up and went out of commission in July of 1865. For the sum of $6000 (she originally cost more than $20, 000) the Lexington was sold at auction at Mound City a month later to Thomas Scott and Woodburn.

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