E. J. Gay, see EDWARD J. GAY EARL VAN DORN, see GENERAL EARL VAN DORN EASTPORT SwStr: t. 700 [570]; l. 280'; dr. 6'3" EASTPORT, a well modeled, fast Mississippi River steamer built at New Albany, Ind., in 1852, was acquired by Navy in January 1862 and underwent conversion to an ironclad gunboat at Cerro Gordo on the Tennessee River prior to duty with Lt. I. N. Brown's flotilla. Her alterations were about half completed when on 7 February 1862 she was captured by the Union gunboats, CONESTOGA, TYLER, and LEXINGTON, together with the materials to finish the job. EASTPORT was sent in to Cairo, Ill., and her conversion finished. She then served with the Union Army until 1 October 1862 when the ships of the Western Flotilla were turned over to the Navy and renamed the Mississippi Squadron. EASTPORT steamed on western waters until sunk on 15 April 1864 in the Red River by a Confederate torpedo. Efforts to salvage her failed and she was blown up and destroyed to prevent capture on 26 April 1864. [It has been subjected that EASTPORT may conceivably have been C. E. HILLMAN formerly, since HILLMAN's main particulars are said to match her description before iron plating.] ECLIPSE, see PETREL ED HOWARD, see GENERAL POLK EDITH, see CHICKAMAUGA EDWARD J. GAY SwStr: t. 823 EDWARD J. Gay, known also as E. J. Gay, was built at St. Louis, Mo., in 1859 and impressed into Confederate States service on 1 February 1863 for duty with Commodore Brown's fleet. The Union expedition up the Yazoo River caused her to be scuttled and burned in July 1863 to obstruct the Yalobusha River and avoid capture. EDWARD ( steam tug), see FORREST EDWARD, (steamer), see WELDON N. EDWARDS EGYPT MILLS ScStr: t. 70 EGYPT MILLS, probably built at Poplar Neck, Md., in 1856 and first enrolled at Philadelphia, was seized by Confederate authorities and operated as a river transport. After Confederate withdrawal from the Roanoke River, she was captured there with COTTON PLANT (q.v.), 22 May 1865, by Shamrock, Comdr. W. H. Macomb, USN, who maintained that the two steamers, whether "purchased or seized from their owners ... were certainly rebel Government property." EGYPT MILLS had on board a quantity of Confederate Government cotton salvaged from the Halifax, N.C., Navy Yard during evacuation. Both were "claimed as private property by citizens of Halifax and elsewhere"-without success; Macomb sent both to Norfolk in June 1866. EGYPT MILLS' documentation shows she was forfeited "for breach of laws" but redocumented as ALIDA (consistently though unaccountably shown as a side-wheeler) 14 December next and returned to commercial operation. She ended her active service in 1869. EL PARAUA, see IVY ELIZA G. Str ELIZA G. was used as a Confederate transport. On 16 June 1862 she was sunk together with MAUREPAS and MARY PATTERSON to obstruct the White River near St. Charles, Ark., against the advance of Union gunboats. ELIA SIMMONS, see PONTCHARTRAIN ELLIS SwStTug: a. 1 32-pdr. r., 1 how. CSS ELLIS was purchased at Norfolk, Va., in 1861. by the State of North Carolina and turned over to the Confederacy when that State became a member. With Comdr. W. T. Muse, CSN, in command she played an important part in the defense of Forts Hatteras and Clark in Hatteras Inlet, N.C., 28-29 August 1861, of Roanoke Island, 7-8 February 1862 and of Elizabeth City, N.C., on 10 February 1862; that day she was captured by the Union Army after a desperate struggle in which her commander, Lt. J. M. Cook, CSN, was badly wounded. ELLIS was taken into the Navy and assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. She served well until 25 November 1862 when she grounded above the mouth of New River, N.C. She was set afire to prevent recapture and demolished by the explosion of her own magazine. Lt. William B. Cushing, USN, was her last commander. ELMA Sch ELMA, also referred to as MAJOR MINTER, was taken into Confederate army service in July 1862 under plans for arming and manning her to prevent Union forces from entering Corpus Christi bay. On 11 August 1862 ELMA was run into the channel of Nueces Bay where she grounded and on the following day she was fired and destroyed to prevent capture. ELMIRA StwStr: t. 139; l. 125'; b. 27'; dr. 4'6" ELMIRA, built at Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1858, was acquired by the Confederates in 1861 for use as a transport. On 13 July 1863 she was seized by FOREST ROSE and PETREL in the Tensas River and sent into Cairo as a prize. Page 518 EMMA BETTS (Str: t. 79) EMMA BETTS, also known as EMMA BETT, was built in in 1858 at Pittsburgh, Pa., and used to transport supplies and ammunition for the Confederate army during 1862 and 1863 on the Mississippi and Sunflower Rivers. On 30 May 1863 she was captured and burned in Quiver Bayou by three boats from USS LINDEN and USS FOREST ROSE. EMPIRE Str EMPIRE was chartered by the Virginia State Navy under Captain Milligan. She towed ballasted ships into position to assist in obstructing the channels of the river between the forts at Norfolk in May 1861. In that same month she twice sailed under a flag-of-truce with Capt. T. T. Hunter of the Virginia Navy to arrange with the Union commander off Fortress Monroe exchange of wounded Union prisoners and passage north from Norfolk of certain families wishing to return to their Northern friends. In the latter part of June 1861 she again served as the bearer of a flag-of-truce off Fortress Monroe, this time for Brigadier General Huger, CSA. In September 1861 EMPIRE was to be provided with four guns transported by SUPERIOR and two rifled guns transported by HARMONY to assist in a plan to drive Union forces from Roanoke Island. [See APPOMATTOX, supra] On 22 October 1861 Commodore W. F. Lynch, in his flagship SEA BIRD off Roanoke Island, signed a contract with Gilbert Elliot, as agent for J. G. Martin, to build at Elizabeth City, N.C., a gunboat hull "to be fitted to machinery" out of steamer EMPIRE. The engines were never transferred because the hull was not ready to receive them before Federal armies took the area. EMPIRE, becoming APPOMATTOX (q.v.), had further need of her power plant. EMPIRE PARISH SwStr: t. 279; l. 56'; b. 31'; dph. 6'2" EMPIRE PARISH was built at New Albany, Ind., in 1859, to operate out of New Orleans, La. She continued duty there as a tow and dispatch boat for the Confederacy on the outbreak of the Civil War. On 23 June 1863 she carried dispatches from Semmes' famed Con- federate raider Sumter into the city. EMPIRE PARISH came into Union possession with the fall of New Orleans in April 1862 and was taken into the United States Navy for duty as a towboat of the West Blockading Squadron in that same locale. ENOCH TRAIN, see MANASSAS ENTERPRISE ScStr: t. 972; l. 250'; b. 28'; dph. 15'6" [Described under ADVENTURE, q.v. supra]. EQUATOR SwTug: a. 1 gun CSS EQUATOR was a wooden steamer fitted for gunboat service in Cape Fear River in March 1864. When Wilmington, N.C., fell to the Union in January 1865, she was burned to prevent capture. ERA NO. 3 Str: t. 144; l. 129'; b. 28'4"; dph. 4'4" ERA NO. 3, built at Freedom, Pa., in 1858, for service out of New Orleans, became a unit of Comdr. W. Hunter's Texas Marine Department. [See Annex III]. She was one of 25 light draft ships that patrolled rivers and coastal waters and carried troops and supplies for the State of Texas. Her operations were largely on the Brazos River, between Columbia and Velasco. ERA NO. 5 StwStr: t. 115 ERA NO. 5, a shallow-draft steamer built in 1860 at Pittsburgh, Pa., was chartered by the Confederates early in 1863 to transport corn from the Red River to Camden, Ark. As the steamer, laden with 4,500 bushels of corn, proceeded to her destination on 14 February 1863, she rounded a sharp bend 15 miles above the mouth of the Black River, came upon and was captured by USS INDIANOLA. ERA NO. 5 was then assigned to Col. C. R. Ellet's river fleet, fitted out with protective cotton baling and used by the Union as a dispatch boat and transport in the Mississippi. ETWAN SwStr: t. 132 ETIWAN, ETWAN, ETOWAH, ETOWAN or HETIWAN, was built at Charleston, S.C., in 1834. She operated in Charleston Harbor throughout the Civil War as a transport and cargo ship between the forts and city. She was damaged by striking a torpedo in the harbor in the spring of 1863 and was run ashore to prevent her sinking. She resumed her transport duties in the fall of 1863. ETIWAN was said to be the steamer moored at the wharf at Fort Johnson on 29 August 1863 when Confederate Submarine Torpedo Boat H. L. HUNLEY came alongside and attached mooring lines to her. ETIWAN unexpectedly moved away from the wharf, drawing the submarine over on her side, and the H. L. HUNLEY filled and went down, drowning five seamen of CSS CHICORA who formed a part of her volunteer crew. At the close of the Civil War ETIWAN was found wrecked in Charleston Harbor. She was fitted for service to the Army Quartermaster Department engaged in clearing the harbor after the Civil War and was documented in April 1867 as the merchant steamer ST. HELENA. ETTA, see UNCLE BEN EVERGLADE, see SAVANNAH EXPRESS Slp EXPRESS, a fishing smack which sailed under Confederate papers, was captured by USS NEW LONDON on 9 December 1861 near Cat Island Passage in Mississippi Sound. She may or may not have been a public vessel.