Louisiana's Military Heritage:

     Vessels named CSS PONTCHARTRAIN

CSS PONTCHARTRAIN

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

The Confederate PONTCHARTRAIN (1859 ~ 1863):

CSS PONTCHARTRAIN started life as a side-wheel wooden-hulled packet named LIZZIE SIMMONS.  She was built in New Albany, Indiana, in 1859.  She was known to ply the New Orleans-Ouachita River run under Captain George Hamilton Kirk in 1860.  In 1862, following the outbreak of war, she operated on the New Orleans-Memphis run with Captain W. B. Richardson at her helm and W. C. Porter serving as her clerk.  She sailed at this time with the MARY E. KEENE, another side-wheeler owned by Captain Richardson.

Wartime records, however, show that the Confederates purchased the LIZZIE SIMMONS from Captain Richardson at New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 12, 1861, and outfitted her as a gunboat.  Rechristened CSS PONTCHARTRAIN, she was not ready for service until March of 1862.  At that time, she was placed under the command of Lieutenant J. W. Dunnington, CSN, and assigned to the fleet under Flag Officer G. N. Hollins, CSN, for the defense of the Mississippi River and the Louisiana coast.

PONTCHARTRAIN fought at Island No. 10 and New Madrid, Missouri, in March and April of 1862.  After the evacuation of New Madrid on April 07, she and CSS MAUREPAS were sent up the White River into Arkansas.  On June 17, 1862, she cooperated with the army in a hard-fought battle at St. Charles, Arkansas.  During the engagement, two of her 32-pounder rifled guns were transferred to the fort there.  Her commanding officer, Lieutenant Dunnington, and his men joined the army in the fort's defense and were among the prisoners taken when it fell to Union forces.

PONTCHARTRAIN moved farther upstream and remained inactive until the following summer in 1863.  She was attacked by the Union gunboat GENERAL PRICE that fall and was burned opposite Little Rock, Arkansas, to avoid capture.  Two dates are commonly given for this occurrence:  September 10 and October 09, 1863.

In July of 1871, low water on the Arkansas River made the surviving wreckage of the PONTCHARTRAIN visible for all to see.

Ship's Statistics

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All information on CSS PONTCHARTRAIN 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**