The first Eads ironclad gunboat was named St Louis. In Early 1862 she was made             flagship by Admiral Foote for the fight against  Fort Donelson. March 16th, with the
USS  Benton lashed between the St Louis and the  USS Cincinnati, the upper battery of Island No. 10 was engaged. The St Louis took a  gunburst killing 2, wounding 13. In early June,  the St Louis played a part in the battle for Memphis. 17 June, the St Louis was involved  in the attack of the Southern Batteries in St  Charles, Arkansas- it was a Union victory. In  October of 1862, she was renamed Baron DeKalb.

Launched on 12 November 1894 and entered merchant  service in 1895. She was commissioned as an auxiliary  cruiser in the United States Navy on 24 April 1898 for the  Spanish American War. The St Louis was specially  outfitted with heavy drag lines in order to destroy  undersea cable communications in the West Indies and to  the mainland of South America.Decommissioned on 2  September 1898 and was turned over to Mr. J. Parker, a  representative of the American Lines. For many years, SS  St Louis was prominent as a passenger liner between  New York and Liverpool. On 17 April 1918, St Louis  was delivered to the Navy at New York to be wholly  manned and operated by the Navy as a troop transport. She was renamed Louisville (SP-1644), as a cruiser  named St Louis was already in service in the Navy. Louisville was commissioned on 24 April. decommissioned there on 9 September 1919. She was  returned to her owner on the 11th and resumed her  original name, St Louis. Scrapped in 1925.

USS St Louis, [(Cruiser # 20, C-20, later CA-18), 1906-1930] a 9700-ton built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was commissioned in August 1906. After a brief  period in the Atlantic, she was assigned to the  Pacific Fleet, arriving there in mid-1907. For  the next decade, Saint Louis served as a  training, receiving and submarine support  ship, as well as in traditional cruiser roles
along the U.S. west Coast, at Pearl Harbor and elsewhere in the eastern Pacific. In 1917,  with the U.S. entry into World War I, St Louis was transferred to the Atlantic, where she served as a transport and escorted convoys. Following the Armistice, she brought home thousands of U.S. troops from Europe. Redesignated CA-18 in July 1920, she was sent to the Mediterranean
during a period of great turmoil in Turkey. Returning to the United States late in 1921, Saint Louis
decommissioned in March 1922. After eight  years in reserve, she was sold for scrap in August 1930.

CL-49
Displacement: 10,000 t.
Length: 608’4”
Beam: 61’8”
Draft: 19’10”
Speed: 33 k.
Complement: 888
Armament: 15 6”; 8 5”; 16 1.1”; 12 20mm;
1 depth charge track
Class: St Louis

The fifth St Louis (CL-49) was laid down on 10 December 1936 by the Newport News
Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va.;  commissioned on 19 May 1939, Capt. Charles H. Morrison in command.
She was at Pearl Harbor on the fateful day in  December 1941 when the Japanese attacked. She was  not sunk there at Pearl Harbor. February 14, 1944 The  cruiser was damaged by a dive bomber in the Bismarch Archipelago. St Louis earned eleven battle stars during World War II. She was decommissioned on 20 June  1946. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 22  January 1951, and, on the 29th, she was commissioned in  the Brazilian Navy as Tamandare.