Although Cerro Gordo was not very important in terms of antebellum steamboat commerce, it achieved brief significance during the early part of the Civil War as an example of a shipyard that specialized in the conversion of commercial steamboats to gunboats for the Confederacy.  Here a commercial steamer, the Eastport (originally built in New Albany, Indiana, in 1852, and purchased by Leonidas Polk for the fledgling Confederate river defense force in October 1861), was cut down to the main deck level, then refitting began to convert her to an armored vessel.  Lt. Isaac Brown (later commander of the famous CSS Arkansas) oversaw this work (he also arranged to purchase in Nashville additional steamboats intended for conversion).  However, after the fall of Fort Henry on February 6, 1861, Federal gunboats were sent up river on a raiding expedition, forcing the Confederates to scuttle the unfinished Eastport and abandon Cerro Gordo.  The Federals subsequently raised the Eastport and she later served the Union cause (visit the Eastport page for information about her Federal service).

  River Ports and Shipyards

Last update:  December 5, 2001