Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 28, 1833, Albert Leary Gihon received his medical degree in 1852 and was a professor at the Philadelphia College of Medicine and Surgery from 1853-54. Appointed and commissioned an assistant surgeon in the U.S. Navy in May 1855, Gihon was assigned to the sloop of war Portsmouth. ...
The steamboat Lady Gay was built in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1865 for the Atlantic & Mississippi Steamship Company; she was 286.4 feet long, 43.2 feet wide, and weighed 1,406 tons. She was the second largest in terms of tonnage on the Mississippi River system. Steamboats such as the Lady Gay were used to transport Union ...
Undated photograph of the landing on the White River at DeValls Bluff, Arkansas; first occupied by Union troops and heavily fortified in 1863, it was a major Union supply base in Arkansas. In the background it is possible to see the tents of an army encampment. DeValls Bluff was important to Union efforts to supply ...
Two post-Civil War photographs of steamboats on the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri; one includes a bridge spanning the river into Illinois; the other features a loading and unloading area with supplies in the foreground. St. Louis was a major supply port for the Union forces in the Trans-Mississippi Theatre. Following the ...
This photograph shows an unidentified sailor from the USS Benton, a Union ironclad gunboat. A sailor’s flat hat often bore a ribbon with the name of the ship to which he was assigned; note the name of the Benton on this sailor’s hat. The USS Benton was converted by St. Louis engineer James B. Eads ...
This photo of Robert Walker, a young African-American “First Class Boy” dressed in a sailor’s uniform, has “Our Bob” written on the bottom. “First Class Boys” in the U.S. Navy were generally young men under 17 years of age. They were paid $9 per month and performed various sailor duties, including serving as ...
