Built in 1848 at St. Louis, Missouri, as the side wheel steamer Aleck Scott, the ship was purchased on May 18, 1862 by the War Department and named the Fort Henry.

Converted to an ironclad ram and renamed USS Lafayette on September 8, 1862, Lafayette was assigned to Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter’s Mississippi Squadron in time for the April 6, 1863 “run” past the Confederate batteries at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Lafayette also assisted in the bombardment of Grand Gulf, Mississippi.

In March 1864 the Lafayette joined the rest of the Mississippi Squadron in the Red River expedition, an ill-fated Army-Navy venture to invade east Texas.

Lafayette spent the remainder of the war on the lower Mississippi, preventing the movement of Confederate troops and protecting river transportation.

USS Lafayette was decommissioned at New Orleans on July 23, 1865, and sold on March 28, 1866.

Albumen by Unknown Photographer

Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 30184-D