Thomas W Spencer
1828-1862
Thomas W. Spencer was a carpenter aboard the U.S. Ram
Queen of the West, a side-wheel steamer built at Cincinnati, Ohio in 1854.
It was purchased by the United States Department of War in 1862 and fitted out
as a ram for Colonel Charles Ellet Jr.'s Ram Fleet, which operated on the
Mississippi River during the American Civil War. She was commanded by his son,
Colonel Charles Rivers Ellet.
Thomas W. Spencer was shot and killed in
action on board the Queen of the West near Vicksburg, Mississippi during
operations on the Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers.
On February 14, 1863, the
Queen of the West was captured by the Confederates on the Black River
when it was ran aground and abandoned. She was then operated by the Confederate
States Army as the C.S.S. Queen of the West until April 11, 1863, when
she was attacked and destroyed by Union ships on the Atchafalaya River in
Louisiana.