&sq=crain_ford&lang=en&file=File:1s02823u_(17290054285).jpg) Essex at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, July 1862
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | New Era |
| Launched | 1856 |
| Acquired | 20 September 1861 |
| Decommissioned | 20 July 1865 |
| Renamed | Essex in late 1861 |
| Refit | as an ironclad late 1861 |
| Fate | sold on 29 November 1865; scrapped 1870 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Ironclad |
| Displacement | 640 tons |
| Length | 202 ft (62 m) |
| Beam | 60 ft (18 m) |
| Draft | 6 ft (1.8 m) |
| Speed | 5.5 knots |
| Complement | 124 |
| Armament | 1 × 32-pounder; 3 × 11-inch Dahlgren smooth bores;1 × 10-inch Dahlgren smoothbore;1 × 12-pounder howitzer |
| Armor | 1 ¾" forward casemate, ¾" sides |
&sq=crain_ford&lang=en&file=File:USS_New_Era.jpg)
USS Essex was a 1000-ton ironclad river gunboat of the United States Army and later United States Navy during the American Civil War. It was named by her captain, William Porter, for his father's old sailing frigate, the USS Essex. This Essex was originally constructed in 1856 at New Albany, Indiana as a steam-powered ferry named New Era.