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Sinking by Remotely Detonated Mine

When
12 December 1862
Where
Yazoo River
Part of
Event of 1862: American Civil War: Yazoo Pass Expedition – Union ironclad gunboat USS Cairo is

USS Cairo sank on 12 December 1862 after striking a remotely detonated naval mine while clearing mines from the Yazoo River.

The gunboat struck a torpedo detonated by volunteers hidden behind the river bank. The ship sank in 12 minutes, marking the first instance of a ship being sunk by a mine remotely detonated by hand.

Sources

  1. USS Cairo Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-06

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.