From: Dictionary of American Fighting Ships, Vol. A, 1991, Navy 

Department, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval History 

Division, Washington, D.C.



ABEONA



StwStr:

t. 206;

l. 157';

b. 31';

dph. 4';

a. 2 30-pdr. P.r., 2 74-pdr. sb., 2 12-pdr. r.



ABEONA-a stern wheel steamer built in 1831 at Pittsburgh, Pa.-was 

purchased by the Navy on 21 December 1864 at Cincinnati, Ohio, converted 

to a so-called "tinclad" gunboat at Mound City, Ill., and commissioned 

there on 10 April 1865-the day after General Robert E. Lee surrendered 

in Virginia-Acting Master Samuel Hall in command.



From that day, the gunboat performed patrol and guard duty on the 

Mississippi River and its tributaries-primarily in the Mississippi 

Squadrons Fifth (the Mississippi between Natchez and Vicksburg) and the 

Tenth (the Cumberland and Upper Ohio) Districts. After all organized 

Confederate resistance ceased and the South had begun its painful and 

uncertain return to a peaceful way of life, ABEONA was decommissioned, 

at Mound City, on 4 August 1865.



She was sold there on 11 August 1865 to J. A. Williamson et al and was 

redocumented under the same name on 17 October 1865. The veteran stern 

wheeler operated on the Mississippi and its branches until she caught 

fire at Cincinnati on 7 March 1872 and was destroyed.