Ok you Trans-Mississippi and Vicksburg buffs. The Arkansas and White River systems were the only major tributaries to the Mississippi River that were not completely controlled by the US Naval Gunboat Fleet prior to the fall of Vicksburg.

The only major Confederate Naval Vessel on the Arkansas River was the CSS Ponchartrain. Her guns were used in 4 major land implacements on the Arkansas and White Rivers, 3 of which still exist today. The US navy would only patrol the mouth of the Arkansas River with the USS Conastoga to guard against her re-entering the Mississippi River. According to the OR's she was still concidered a substancial threat, as a Ram, to the Union Navy, while she was anchored at Little Rock, even as late as August 1863, even without her Guns. Apperently the Union Navy kept very close tabs on her. Why would they be so interested in such an unarmed boat? Very little seems to be known about her outside of the OR's references.

Has anybody ran across anything else on this vessel, such as discription, armament, etc.?