USS Baron de Kalb (1861)

USS Baron De Kalb (1861)

For other ships of the same name, see USS St. Louis.

USS Baron DeKalb
Career (US)
Ordered:	as St. Louis
Builder:	James B. Eads Yard, St. Louis, MO
Cost:	$89,000 USD
Laid down:	August 1861
Launched:	12 October 1861 at Carondelet, Missouri
Commissioned:	31 January 1862
Renamed:	8 September 1862 as Baron DeKalb
Struck:	13 July 1863
Identification:	Yellow band on stacks
Fate:	sunk by mine, 13 July 1863
General characteristics
Class & type:	City-class
Type:	River casemate ironclad
Displacement:	512 tons
Length:	175 ft (53 m)
Beam:	51 ft 2 in (15.60 m)
Draught:	6 ft (1.8 m)
Propulsion:	steam engine - Center Wheel, 2 horizontal HP engines (22" X 6"), 5 boilers
Speed:	9 mph (14 km/h)
Complement:	251 officers and enlisted
Armament:	(see section below)
Armour:	2.5" on the casemates, 1.25" on the pilothouse

USS Baron DeKalb (1861) was a City class ironclad gunboat constructed for the Union Navy by James B. Eads during the American Civil War.

The USS Baron DeKalb, named after General Baron DeKalb of Hüttendorf near Erlangen, in present-day Bavaria, was originally named Saint Louis, and was one of seven City class ironclads built at Carondelet, Missouri and Mound City, Illinois, for the Western Gunboat Flotilla

These ironclads were shallow draft with a center driven paddle wheel. They were partially armored and slow and very hard to steer in the currents of rivers. This ironclad was also vulnerable to plunging fire and also by hits in their un-armored areas. Called "Pook Turtles" for the designer, they did yeoman service through 4 years of war and were present at almost every battle on the Mississippi River and its tributaries.