Louisiana's Military Heritage:

     Vessels named USS TCHIFONTA

USS TCHIFONTA

Only one ship has had the honor to bear the name of TCHIFONTA, a river in Louisiana—more commonly spelled Chefuncte, Tchefuncta, or Tchifonctee—which rises near the Mississippi-Louisiana state line and flows south some forty miles to empty into Lake Pontchartrain near the present-day town of Madisonville.  An earlier settlement named Chefuncte existed at Madisonville during the War of 1812.  Chefuncte is a Native American word meaning "chinquapin," an American dwarf chestnut tree.

USS TCHIFONTA (c. 1813-14 ~ c. 1820):

The construction of TCHIFONTA—a large, shallow draft vessel which Howard I. Chapelle calls "a cross between a frigate and a ship sloop"—was begun either late in 1813 or early in 1814 by M. Pechon at Chefuncte, Louisiana.  However, work on the ship—designed as a block ship to obstruct the Mississippi River below New Orleans—was interrupted in the spring or early summer of 1814 under orders from Secretary of the Navy William Jones.  Thus, the corvette was still on the ways during the defense of New Orleans under General Andrew Jackson in January of 1815.

The TCHIFONTA remained unfinished on the stocks until she was sold sometime during 1820 or thereafter.

Ship's Statistics

Back To U.S. Navy Vessels Page

All information on USS TCHIFONTA courtesy of the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

and the Naval Historical Center.
 

**Copyright 1997-2007 by Louisiana Naval War Memorial Commission**