USS Tyler was originally a merchant ship named A. O. Tyler, a commercial side-wheel steamboat with twin stacks and covered paddles positioned aft. Constructed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1857, it was acquired by the United States Navy, 5 June 1861 for service in the American Civil War and converted into the gunboat USS Tyler on 5 June 1861. She was commissioned in September 1861. She was protected with thick wooden bulwarks.
The U. S. S. Tyler by F. Muller
The timberclad steamer gunboat USS Tyler with crew on deck. From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Tyler with Lexington at Belmont
Tyler with Lexington at Shiloh
The Battle of Belmont was fought on November 7, 1861, in Mississippi County, Missouri. It was the first combat test in the American Civil War for Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, the future Union Army general in chief and eventual U.S. president, who was fighting Major General Leonidas Polk. Grant's troops in this battle were the "nucleus" of what would become the Union Army of the Tennessee.
Battle of Belmont, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper
Lexington and Tyler duel the Confederate batteries
Grant's troops withdraw after the battle
