Posted on 03/05/2022 7:22:04 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Thursday, Feb. 27, 1862.
Tuesday, the gunboat Conestoga was ordered to proceed from Cairo to this place, for the purpose of conveying orders to such of the gunboat fleet as might be up the Cumberland River. The substance of the order was, I suppose, that all the boats which could be spared, should, together with the mortarboats, report immediately at Cairo, with a view to operations down the Mississippi River.
The Conestoga, by the way, is one of the three wooden boats, and apart from her active participation in several fights, including the gallant struggles at Forts Henry and Donelson, has been engaged in active operations ever since last June. There is not a resident on the banks of any of the rivers within two hundred miles of Cairo, to whom the appearance of the Conestoga is not as familiar as the trim of his own whiskers, or the features of his helpmate. One day she might be seen moored near some house far up the Cumberland, while her suave commander, Capt. PHELPS, explained to some wondering native the object and scope of the present rebellion -- the next day she would probably pitch a shell into the works at Fort Henry, or carefully cruise along the shore in search of, or exchanging broadsides with some masked battery; twenty-four hours after she would be cruising around Columbus, or possibly convoying transports laden with troops on some of the thousand and one expeditions that characterized for so long a period the operations at Cairo during the Summer and Fall of 1861.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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From the Tennessee Capital: Trip of Our Correspondent up the Cumberland to Nashville – 2-4
The Evacuation of Columbus: The Town Reduced to a Heap of Ruins by the Rebels – 4
Important from Washington: Regulation of Trade on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers – 5-6
Editorial: The New Tax Bill – 6-7
Editorial: Relief of Poverty in New-York – 7
Editorial: Bright and Palmerston on American Affairs – 7

USS Conestoga
Thanks for the bonus pic. I also passed it along to Twitter and FB readers.
Bkmk
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