CSS Maurepas

History
Confederate States
NameMaurepas
NamesakeLake Maurepas
Owner
  • J. A. Cotton
  • Bayou Sara Mail Company
Launched1858
In servicePurchased from civilian service, 1861
FateSunk as obstruction, June 17, 1862
General characteristics
TypeSidewheel steamer
Tonnage399
Length180 feet (55 m)
Beam34 feet (10 m)
Draft7 feet (2.1 m)
PropulsionSteam
Complement79
Armament
  • 5 or 6 cannons

CSS Maurepas was a sidewheel steamer that briefly served as a gunboat in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Built in 1858 in Indiana as Grosse Tete (English: "big head"), the vessel was used in commercial trade until 1860 and then delivered mail until 1861, when she was acquired by the Confederate Navy.

After being outfitted with five or six cannons and renamed Maurepas, she was sent to the defenses of Columbus, Kentucky, in March 1862, and participated in actions near Island Number Ten. After an abortive naval skirmish near Fort Pillow in Tennessee, Maurepas and the gunboat CSS Pontchartrain were sent up the White River to resist Union advances and aid transport. On June 16, the eve of the Battle of Saint Charles, Maurepas was sunk as an obstruction and her cannons sent ashore.