Joseph Brown and His Civil War Ironclads: The USS Chillicothe, Indianola and Tuscumbia

Well known in his time though now forgotten, Joseph Brown is a quintessential representative of mid-19th Century Midwestern economic and political success. A Scottish immigrant to Alton, Illinois, he made his pre-Civil War fortune as a miller and steamboat master, dabbling in riverboat design and small town politics on the side. When the war erupted, he employed his connections (including a friendship with Abraham Lincoln) to obtain contracts for the construction of three stopgap ironclads for the U.S. War Department, the Chillicothe, Indianola, and Tuscumbia. These vessels, often described as failures, were active in some of the most ferocious river fighting of the 1863 Vicksburg campaign, with one, the Chillicothe, employed on the Red River in 1864. After the war, Capt. Joe, as he was nicknamed, became a railroad executive and was elected the 25th mayor of St. Louis, MO. This work is the first devoted to his life and career, as well as to the construction and operational histories of his trio of controversial warships. See more