The Vicksburg & Queen of the West

The Queen of the West began as a commercial sidewheeler built at Cincinnati in 1854. Charles Ellet Jr. bought her in 1862 and made her a ram. After he died of a wound from the Memphis fight in June 1862, his brother Alfred led the fleet and his son Charles Rivers Ellet captained the Queen. On February 2, 1863 she ran the Vicksburg batteries, was hit twelve times, and had to pull away when her own cotton bales caught fire. Twelve days later she ran aground under Fort DeRussy's guns on the Red River and was captured.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Court House Museum — 0.3 mi
  Vicksburg's Greek Revival courthouse of 1860, raised on a hilltop with the labor of enslaved artisans and now a private local-history museum heavy on Confederate relics.
• Vicksburg National Military Park — 1.9 mi
  A 16-mile tour road through the trenches of the 47-day siege of 1863, with a national cemetery and the story of the thousands of enslaved people who reached freedom behind Union lines.
• USS Cairo Gunboat and Museum — 2.0 mi
  The raised hull of a Union river ironclad sunk by a mine in the Yazoo in 1862, displayed at Vicksburg National Military Park with the artifacts the river mud preserved.

More markers nearby

• Firing on the A.O. Tyler — steps away
• The Steamer Sultana — steps away
• C.S.S. Arkansas — steps away
• Red Tops — steps away