History
United States
Laid down	date unknown
Launched	1863
Acquired	4 November 1863
Commissioned	21 December 1863
Decommissioned	21 July 1865
Stricken	1865 (est.)
Fate	Sold, 12 August 1865
General characteristics
Displacement	203 tons
Length	not known
Beam	not known
Draught	not known
Propulsion	steam engine side wheel-propelled
Speed	not known
Complement	not known
Armament	six 24-pounder howitzers

USS Nyanza was a large steamer purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was assigned by the Union Navy to gunboat duty in the waterways of the rebellious Confederate States of America.

Construction

Nyanza, a wooden side wheel steamer built at Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, in 1863, was purchased by the Navy at Cincinnati, Ohio, 4 November 1863; and commissioned at Mound City, Illinois, Acting Lt. Samuel B. Washburn in command 21 December 1863.

Mississippi river

During the Civil War, Nyanza patrolled the Mississippi River and its tributaries protecting Union lines of communication and supply on the great inland waterway and preventing Confederate activity.

She captured schooner J. W. Wilder in the Atchafalaya River, Louisiana, 15 March 1864; and took schooner Mandoline, in Atchafalaya Bay, Louisiana, 13 April.

Post-war

After hostilities ceased, Nyanza decommissioned at New Orleans, Louisiana on 21 July 1865 and was sold at public auction to Owen Finnegan 12 August 1865.

Redocumented 26 August 1865, the side wheeler remained in merchant service until 1873.

See also

• Anaconda Plan
• Mississippi Squadron

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.