Portal:Nautical/December/12/Selected article

USS Cairo was a constructed for the Union Navy by James Buchanan Eads during the American Civil War. She was the lead ship of the City-class gunboats, sometimes also called the Cairo class, and was named for Cairo, Illinois.Cairo was the first ship sunk by a naval mine, on 12 December 1862 in the Yazoo River.Service in the American Civil WarCairo was built in 1861 by James Eads and Co., Mound City, Illinois, under contract to the United States Department of War. She was commissioned as part of the Union Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla, U.S. Navy Lieutenant James M. Prichett in command.Cairo served with the Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla, commanded by Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote, on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and their tributaries until transferred to the Navy 1 October 1862 with the other river gunboats.Active in the occupation of Clarksville, Tennessee, 17 February 1862, and of Nashville, Tennessee, 25 February, Cairo stood down the river 12 April escorting bomb vessels to begin the lengthy operations against Fort Pillow. An engagement with Confederate gunboats at Plum Point Bend on 11 May marked a series of blockading and bombardment activities which culminated in the abandonment of the Fort by its defenders on 4 June.