Jonathan H. Carter

Jonathan H. Carter (died 1887) was a North Carolina-born planter, sailor, and Confederate States of America gunboat builder.

Civil War

Carter was a member of the first graduating class from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. He resigned as a lieutenant from the United States Navy on April 25, 1861, two weeks after the siege of Fort Sumter, South Carolina.

Two days later, Carter entered the new Confederate navy. He was sent to New Orleans to convert a sidewheel steamer, the Ed Howard, into a war vessel. He was given command of the gunboat, which he renamed the Polk, presumably after former U.S. President James K. Polk of Tennessee. Carter assisted in the evacuation of New Madrid, Missouri, and saw action at Tiptonville, the seat of Lake County, in the northwestern corner of Tennessee. On the Yazoo River, Carter torched the Polk on June 26, 1862, to prevent its capture by Union forces.

Thereafter, Carter was ordered to contract for and to supervise the building of one or more gunboats on the Red River on October 3, 1862. He built the ironclad gunboat Missouri at Shreveport, in northwestern Louisiana, which he launched on April 14, 1863. Carter was placed in command of the Missouri and of the naval defenses in western Louisiana in the fall of 1863. Low water levels in the Red River prevented the Missouri from participating in the defense of western Louisiana when the army of Union General Nathaniel P. Banks...
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