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Career
Ordered:	16 May 1862
Launched:	Between 1 December and 6 December 1864
Completed:	16 December 1865
Accepted:	25 April 1866
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 12 April 1873
General characteristics
Displacement:	479 tons
Length:	170 ft
Beam:	50 ft
Draft:	5 ft
Propulsion:	Quadruple Screw Steamer
Speed:	9 knots
Complement:	100 officers and enlisted
Armament:	2 × 11 in Dahlgren Smoothbore guns
Armour	6 in turret, 1 ¼ in pilothouse, 1 ¼ in hull, 1 ¼ in deck

USS Marietta, a light draft, single‑turreted, ironclad, screw monitor, was laid down in the summer of 1862. Primary construction was at the Tomlinson and Hartupee yard in Pittsburgh, PA, owned by Joseph Tomlinson and Andrew Hartupee. However, Hartupee had a separate partnership with a man named Samuel Morrow and they operated a secondary company that was also heavily involved in the construction process. Though the three men knew each other, it appears that they were not full partners as Tomlinson and Hartupee Co. had a different location from Hartupee and Morrow Co. The US government allocated $188,000 US for the construction of the Marietta.

Construction of the Marietta was slow and time consuming. The reports of the hull and machinery inspectors often mentioned that more men needed to be employed. Letters were sent to the contractors stressing the need for haste, but nothing seemed to alter the continued slow pace of construction. The many changes were incorporated during the construction by Navy inspectors further lengthening the process.

Original plans for the Marietta resembled the Ozark in many ways. The turret was 20 ft wide and was followed with an aft deckhouse. There were also twin smokestacks similar to the Mississippi River steamboat designs. The original plans also called for a forward, pyramidal pilothouse, similar to the one on the Monitor, however it is believed that the pilothouse was moved to the top of the turret before construction was completed. The Marietta had 4 horizontal, tubular steam boilers powering 2 western steamboat type engines that propelled the vessel with 4 × 6 ft 6 in propellers. She also had three rudders.

Marietta launched as a gunboat early in December 1864; completed 16 December 1864; and accepted by the Navy 25 April 1866. She was never commissioned. Soon after her acceptance Marietta was laid up at Mound City, IL. Renamed Circe 15 June 1869, the gunboat carried that name only until 10 August, when she was again named Marietta. Remaining at Mound City, Marietta was sold 12 April 1873 to David Campbell.

• See USS Marietta for other ships of this name.
• See USS Circe for other ships of this name.

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

• history.navy.mil: USS Marietta