The folks over at Wikipedia are trying to figure out whether the Texas Revolution featured the first use of a steamboat in warfare. I've helped them out as much as I can, but military history really isn't my thing.
Posted by Ben Brumfield at April 3, 2006 06:09 AMIn 1835 a steamboat called Jardine was fired upon as she tried to sail up the Pearl River between Canton and Macao in defiance of the local governor-general's orders. Don't know if this qualifies.
Posted by: Alan Allport at April 3, 2006 06:45 AMAccording to Lawrence Sondhaus, Naval Warfare, 1815-1914 (London and New York: Routledge, 2001), p. 20, the first use of a steamship in battle would be either the Diana in the First Burma War (1822-5 - though Wikipedia says 1823-6 :) or (more likely) the Kateria in February 1827, during the Greek War of Indpendence - ie the better part of a decade before the Texas Revolution.
Posted by: Brett at April 3, 2006 11:26 PM