Carondelet was designed for service on the western rivers, with a combination of shallow draft and variety of heavy guns (and a light howitzer), she was suited for riverside bombardment and ship-to-ship combat against Confederate gunboats.

10 and the attack on and spiking of the shore batteries below New Madrid, Missouri, in April; the lengthy series of operations against Plum Point Bend, Fort Pillow, and Memphis, Tennessee, from April through June, and the engagement with CSS Arkansas on 15 July, during which Carondelet was heavily damaged and suffered 35 casualties.

[3] Transferred to Navy control with the other ships of her flotilla on 1 October 1862, Carondelet continued the rapid pace of her operations, taking part in the unsuccessful Steele's Bayou Expedition in March 1863.

[7] Like many of the Mississippi theatre ironclads, USS Carondelet had its armament changed multiple times over life of the vessel.

These 42-pounder weapons were of particular concern to military commanders because they were structurally weaker and more prone to exploding than purpose-built rifled cannons.