The USS Neosho, named after the Neosho River that ran through Kansas and Oklahoma, was an ironclad river monitor built by James B. Eads at the Union Iron Works, Carondelet, Missouri, and commissioned on May 13, 1863.

It was one of the “Turtleback design” ironclads, measuring 180 feet long and weighing 523 tons with a draft of only 4 feet 6 inches and a crew of 100 officers and men. The Neosho and its sister ship USS Osage were the only two stern wheeler monitors.

Neosho was assigned to patrol the Mississippi River and its tributaries to prevent Confederate raiders and flying batteries from ambushing Union supply ships. From March 12 to May 22, 1864, the Neosho was engaged in Admiral David Dixon Porter’s unsuccessful Red River expedition.

The USS Neosho was decommissioned on July 23, 1865, and placed on reserve. Reactivated and renamed the Vixen in June 1869 and renamed the Osceola in August 1869, the ship was decommissioned again and sold on August 17, 1873.

Albumen by Unknown Photographer

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