The first USS Osage was a single-turreted Neosho

USS Neosho (1863)

USS Neosho was a ironclad river monitor laid down for the Union Navy in the summer of 1862 during the American Civil War. She was named after the Neosho River that flowed through Kansas and Oklahoma. After completion in mid-1863 the ship spent time patrolling the Mississippi River against...

-class river monitor named after the American Indian tribe

Osage Nation

The Osage Nation is a Native American Siouan-language tribe in the United States that originated in the Ohio River valley in present-day Kentucky. After years of war with invading Iroquois, the Osage migrated west of the Mississippi River to their historic lands in present-day Arkansas, Missouri,...

 living in the Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

 area (at that time).

Osage was launched 13 January 1863 by James Buchanan Eads

James Buchanan Eads

Captain James Buchanan Eads was a world-renowned American civil engineer and inventor, holding more than fifty patents.-Early life and education:...

 at his Union Iron Works

Union Iron Works

Union Iron Works, located in San Francisco, California, on the southeast waterfront, was a central business within the large industrial zone of Potrero Point, for four decades at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries.-History:...

, Carondelet, Missouri, and commissioned at Cairo, Illinois

Cairo, Illinois

Cairo is the southernmost city in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is the county seat of Alexander County. Cairo is located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. The rivers converge at Fort Defiance State Park, an American Civil War fort that was commanded by General Ulysses S. Grant...

 on 10 July 1863, Acting Volunteer Lt. Joseph Pitty Couthouy

Joseph Pitty Couthouy

Joseph Pitty Couthouy was an American naval officer, conchologist, and invertebrate palaeontologist. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he entered the Boston Latin School in 1820. He married Mary Greenwood Wild on 9 March 1832.Couthouy applied to President Andrew Jackson for a position on the...

 in command.

Osage and her sister-ship were the first of Eads' river warships to employ the "turtleback" design which became his hallmark and were the only monitors to be propelled by stern wheels. Their shallow draft made them extremely useful in the riverine warfare to come.

Service history

She sailed from Cairo for patrol duty in the Red River

Red River (Mississippi watershed)

The Red River, or sometimes the Red River of the South, is a major tributary of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers in the southern United States of America. The river gains its name from the red-bed country of its watershed. It is one of several rivers with that name...

, and participated in the expedition up the Black

Black River (Arkansas)

The Black River is a tributary of the White River, about 300 mi long , in southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas in the United States. Via the White River, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed...

, Ouachita

Ouachita River

The Ouachita River is a river that runs south and east through the U.S. states of Arkansas and Louisiana, joining the Tensas River to form the Black River near Jonesville, Louisiana.-Course:...

, and Washita

Washita River

The Washita River is a river in Texas and Oklahoma, United States. The river is long and terminates into Lake Texoma in Johnston County , Oklahoma and the Red River.-Geography:...

 Rivers, 29 February to 5 March 1864. She also participated in the expedition up the Red River to Alexandria, Louisiana

Alexandria, Louisiana

Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....

, 12 March to 22 May and assisted in the capture of Fort DeRussy

Fort DeRussy (Louisiana)

Fort DeRussy, located four miles north of Marksville, Louisiana, was a Confederate stronghold during the American Civil War defending the lower Red River Valley in Louisiana....

 on 14 March.

Transferred to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron on 1 February 1865, Osage participated in the attack on Spanish Fort, Alabama

Spanish Fort, Alabama

Spanish Fort is a suburb of Mobile, Alabama in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States, located on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. The 2000 census lists the population of the city as 5,423. It is part of the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley micropolitan area....

, near Mobile

Mobile, Alabama

Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...

 on 28 March 1865. The next day she was sunk by a torpedo in the Blakely River. Her hulk was raised and sold at auction at New Orleans on 22 November 1867.