The road to Vicksburg, Mississippi during the American Civil War was a difficult one. By 1862 the Rebel city stood as the second to last major defense against Union assaults along the Mississippi River. The city’s capture would divide the rebel states and bring the war that much closer to an end. To get to Vicksburg, however, the Union first had to go through the river’s last line of defense: Memphis, Tennessee.
The Rebels knew this, and though rail lines were cut and the bulk of their army withdrawn, they did what they could to protect the city. Already fielding a hodgepodge navy of converted vessels and blockade runners, the Rebels gathered every available gunboat to hold the line against the Union advance.
The optimistically called River Defense Fleet, commanded by James E. Montgomery, consisted of eight river steamers from New Orleans that had been converted into cottonclads, a type of gunboat protected by bales of cotton. Though such pitiful armor proved useful against small arms fire, the shots from a proper gunboat were far more difficult to ward off for the metal-restricted Rebels.
Outnumbered by the Rebel forces, the Union fleet found itself faced with a command structure of farcical proportions that would make Gilbert and Sullivan proud. Despite being manned by Navy personnel, the boats were technically part of the Army.
1862, U.S. Civil War. Colorized by Jecinci.
Flag Officer Charles H. Davis, who commanded the gunboats, reported directly to Army Major General Henry W. Halleck. Further complicating matters, the rams were commanded by Colonel Charles Ellet, Jr., who reported directly to the Secretary of War.
Combined, the Mississippi River Squadron consisted of five gunboats, one of which was a converted civilian steamer, and four rams converted from civilian steamboats. Though the gunboats sported over a dozen guns each, the rams’ armament was only their ram and whatever sidearms the officers carried.
The Rebels considered scuttling their vessels, but with the bulk of the area’s defenses evacuated due to the cut railroads, they decided to stand and fight. Outgunned but not outnumbered, they made their stand on the morning of June 6, 1862, when the Confederate River Defense Fleet faced the Union Mississippi River Squadron. With the loud report of cannon fire echoing across the river, the First Battle of Memphis began.
The two sides exchanged long range gunfire before closing in for closer combat. Though the Union boats originally formed two battle lines, the lack of a unified command structure coupled with the independent actions of the Rebel cottonclads quickly turned the battle into little more than a naval bar brawl.
The steam from the ships combined with the smoke from their guns to create a fog of war so thick, few who witnessed or even participated in the battle were quite sure what happened.
From what was seen, several Rebel boats engaged in ramming maneuvers against the Union vessels, in response to a ramming effort by the Union against the Rebel flagship. Much beyond that was difficult to discern, but the results of the battle speak for themselves.
In two hours of battle, the Rebel squadron was almost completely destroyed. Only one ram, General Earl Van Dorn, escaped to the Yazoo River, just north of Vicksburg. The only major damage to the Union force was the disabling of the ram Queen of the West, and the death of Colonel Ellet from the measles he caught while recovering from a pistol shot to the knee.
Read another story from us: Iron Men and Iron Ships: The Riverboats of the American Civil War
Its defenses destroyed, Memphis surrendered at noon on the very day of the battle. Incompetent and hodgepodge as it was, the Mississippi Squadron had cleared the way to Vicksburg. The Union took the lessons of the laughable command structure to heart, making sure future naval units would have a clear chain of command. The Rebels, meanwhile, did what they could to hold the line at Vicksburg.
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