First Battle of Memphis After fitting out at
New Albany, Indiana,
Monarch began active duty with the Ram Fleet. Steaming downriver in May 1862, she scouted
Fort Pillow, Tennessee, in June 1862 and joined her
sister ship, the sidewheel paddle steamer , and the
ironclad gunboats , , , , and in the Battle of Memphis on 6 June 1862. Engaging the
Confederate River Defense Fleet, the rams destroyed seven of the Confederate ships, wiping out the Defense Fleet as an effective naval force. During the battle,
Monarch rammed the
cottonclad rams
CSS Colonel Lovell and
General Beauregard. The
Union forces took
Memphis, Tennessee, on 6 June 1862, clearing the upper Mississippi River of Confederate forts and naval craft. On 26 June 1862,
Monarch and the ram pursued
General Earl Van Dorn down the Mississippi and up the
Yazoo River, the Confederates burning
General Earl Van Dorn below
Yazoo City, Mississippi, to prevent her capture.
Battle of Vicksburg Beginning in June 1862,
Monarch operated against
Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Monarch and five other ships departed
Helena, Arkansas, on 16 August 1862 on a U.S. Army-U.S. Navy expedition in Mississippi up the Yazoo River with troops landing at various points along the shore and destroying Confederate
artillery batteries on the river. Union ships captured the sidewheel paddle steamer
CSS Fairplay above Vicksburg on 27 August 1862;
Monarch then cruised the Yazoo with the sidewheel paddle steamer to prevent Confederate use of the
steamer Paul Jones and to hinder communications with Vicksburg. Later that year,
Monarch swept
naval mines in the Yazoo.
Battle of Arkansas Post Monarch joined 11 other ships in the expedition to capture
Fort Hindman, Arkansas, 4 January 1863, a point that
Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter noted as "a tough nut to crack." Joining efforts with
Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's troops on 9 January 1863, the Union ships fought in the
Battle of Arkansas Post and shared in the capture of Fort Hindman on 11 January.
Later service In February 1863,
Monarch steamed up the Yazoo to
Greenville, Mississippi, to relieve Commander Prichett, controlling guerilla activity. In April 1863, she joined the rams , , and in supporting Colonel Ellet's marine brigade in the
Tennessee Valley. With the fall of Vicksburg in July 1863 and the collapse of Confederate naval forces on the western rivers,
Monarch′s mission was accomplished. She was laid up on the Mississippi River below
St. Louis, Missouri, after July 1863 and was dropped from the naval list in 1864, but remained in reserve, ready for recall to active service. She was sunk by ice in December 1864, but was refloated and taken to
Mound City, Illinois, for dismantling in July 1865. ==See also==