Known as the “Bayou St. John submarine”, this vessel was discovered when the Bayou St. John, in New Orleans was dredged by the US Government in 1878. For years, the vessel was thought to be the Confederate submarine Pioneer, but research in the 20th century showed it was of a different design. There is no surviving documentation from the Civil War about the construction of this submarine. It was presumably scuttled by the Confederacy during the Civil War when the Union capture of New Orleans was immanent.
It is being displayed in New Orleans in this picture, with what appears to be a local policeman in the photo.
I was originally going to post about the HL Hunley, which was also deployed during the Civil War. It was the first submarine to sink an enemy ship. I got distracted when I came across this submarine while making the post.
The U.S. Civil War was a time of rapid transition from Napoleonic to “modern” war.