invasion route to Little Rock. Federal forces carried that fort finally on 9 January 1863 after a combined sea and land campaign. Following that expedition, the gunboat resumed a patrol routine on the Mississippi until late April. On the 29th, she joined another expedition up the Yazoo, and it resulted in the fall of the important fortifications on Haynes Bluffs on 1 May. That operation was the gunboat's last major role in the reduction of Vicksburg which surrendered to Union forces on 4 July 1863. Tyler resumed her support for Army troops upriver invading Arkansas. On the day that Vicksburg surrendered, the gunboat brought her guns to bear on an attacking Confederate force near Helena, Arkansas. On the White River For the remainder of the war, she participated in the invasion of Arkansas, operating principally on the White River. Her last major combat with the Confederates came on 24 June 1864 far up the White River near Clarendon, Arkansas, when she engaged the Southern shore batteries which damaged and captured the gunboat Queen City. The beginning of 1865 found her still on the White River but by April she was at Memphis. Rescue efforts in the Sultana tragedy The Tyler was pressed into rescue duty with a volunteer crew to assist in the steamboat Sultana disaster, north of Memphis on 27 April 1865, as her regular complement had recently been discharged. In June, Tyler moved to Mound City, Illinois where she remained until sold at auction there on 17 August 1865. See also Anaconda Plan Union Navy References Hank Harvey, retired staffer for The (Toledo) Blade, coverage on Sultana disaster, Sunday, 27 October 1996, Section C, Pages 3,6. External links Bombardment of Fort Henry (Feb. 2-6, 1862) Ships built in Cincinnati Ships of the Union Navy Gunboats of the United States Navy American Civil War patrol vessels of the United States 1857 ships