Louisiana's Military Heritage:

     Vessels named CSS MAUREPAS

CSS MAUREPAS

In the short four-year history of the Confederate States of America (1861~1865), only one ship bore the name of MAUREPAS, one of the largest lakes and estuaries in the State of Louisiana.

The Confederate MAUREPAS (1858 ~ 1862):

CSS MAUREPAS was first built as a sidewheel wooden-hulled packet named GROSSE TETE. She was constructed at New Albany, Indiana, in 1858 for Mr. J.A. Cotton of New Orleans, Louisiana.  Upon completion, she ran the New Orleans-Bends trade with Captain Isaac Hopper at the wheel.  She operated for the Bayou Sara Mail Company in 1860 on the New Orleans-Coast run under Captain J. McQuoid.

With the outbreak of war in 1861, GROSSE TETE was purchased by the Confederates that same year in New Orleans and rebuilt into a gunboat.  She was rechristened CSS MAUREPAS and assigned to duty with the fleet in the lower Mississippi River under Flag Officer G. N. Hollins, CSN.  She operated with the fleet at Island No. 10 and New Madrid, Missouri, from March 12 to April 07, 1862.  She was then sent up the White River with CSS PONTCHARTRAIN.  On June 16, 1862, MAUREPAS was purposely sunk as an obstruction to blockade the river near St. Charles, Arkansas, along with the sternwheeler MARY PATTERSON and the small packet ELIZA G.

Ship's Statistics

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All information on CSS MAUREPAS courtesy of the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Way's Packet Directory (1848-1994), and Mississippi River Gunboats of the American Civil War (1861-65).
 

**Copyright 1997-2006 by Louisiana Naval War Memorial Commission**