USS Cairo Gunboat & Museum

James Eads built USS Cairo in Mound City, Illinois, in 1861, one of the City-class casemate ironclads that served as river gunboats. She captured the Confederate garrison at Fort Pillow in June 1862. On June 6, she joined seven Union ships and a tug off Memphis against eight Confederate gunboats. Five enemy vessels sank or ran ashore, two were damaged, one escaped. On December 12, 1862, while clearing mines from the Yazoo River before an attack on Haines Bluff, Cairo struck a torpedo detonated by volunteers hidden behind the riverbank. She sank in twelve minutes. All 175 crew escaped. Vicksburg's surrender in July 1863 marked the turning point of the Civil War. Cairo went down eighteen months earlier, forgotten under silt and sand. Impacted in mud, she became a time capsule. Edwin Bearss of Vicksburg National Military Park studied Civil War maps and set out with a simple magnetic compass. With Don Jacks and Warren Grabau, he found the ship in 1956. In October 1964, 3-inch cables cut deeply into the wooden hull during salvage. The ironclad could not be lifted intact. They cut Cairo into three sections and towed the battered remains to Vicksburg. Funding delays halted restoration until June 1977, when the vessel was transported to the park and partially reconstructed on a concrete foundation near the National Cemetery. A shelter was completed in October 1980. The museum opened in November. The recovery revealed weapons, ammunition, naval stores, and personal gear. A sailor's rope knife survives in good condition. Only three other Civil War-era ironclads exist. The gunboat sits within Vicksburg National Military Park near the National Cemetery. Museum open daily 8:30am–5pm. Free.