• View from Battery DeGolyer

    Vicksburg

    National Military Park Mississippi

  • Battlefield Restoration Project

    The project is near completion on the South Loop. Contractors will be moving to the Phase III area at Graveyard Rd and Union Ave after Memorial Day. Please watch for truck traffic moving through the USS Cairo parking lot and on the tour road in this area. More »

Explosion Sinks the USS Cairo

Hole blown in the port bow of the USS Cairo

NPS Photo

Hole blown in the port bow of the USS Cairo

On December 12, 1862, the USS Cairo was busy clearing Confederate torpedoes (today called underwater mines) from the muddy Yazoo River. Upon hearing small arms fire, Commander Selfridge thought his vessel was under attack and ordered Cairo into position. Two Confederate sailors, Acting Masters Zedekiah McDaniel and Francis M. Ewing, names now lost to history, hid behind a river bank and waited as the Cairo maneuvered to the front of the flotilla.

At the right moment, the two Confederates detonated the torpedoes with an electric charge. Two explosions ripped a large hole in the port bow causing the Cairo to quickly fill with water. Within 12 minutes, it sank to the bottom in six fathoms (36 feet) of water, but with no loss of life. The USS Cairo became the first armored warship in history to be sunk by an electronically detonated mine.

Did You Know?

Thomas O. Selfridge

Thomas O. Selfridge, captain of the USS Cairo, commanded three boats which sank during the war. Each began with the letter "C"-Cumberland, Cairo, and Conestoga. The coincidence was noted after the Conestoga sank, and Selfridge was assigned to the USS Osage, which survived to the end of the war.