USS New Era

From Turtledove

USS New Era was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.

In April, 1864, the New Era was anchored on the Mississippi River in support of the Union garrison at Fort Pillow. The New Era added its guns to the defense of the fort until fire from Confederate sharpshooters forced the vessel to "button up" its gun ports. Though Fort Pillow was captured by the Confederates and a large portion of its USCT garrison massacred, New Era remained in the area to pick up those who had escaped. Over the next two days the gunboat continued to intermittently shell the woods near Fort Pillow to dissuade the Confederates from establishing a battery or burning a number of barges along the river bank. New Era's crew also assisted in burying many of the dead from Fort Pillow. When Confederate forces left the area on April 14th, the New Era steamed back north toward Island No. 10 with civilian and military survivors of the Fort Pillow Massacre. Through the remainder of the war the steamer operated on the upper Mississippi and its tributaries protecting Union communications on the waterways.