or wounded and another 150 taken prisoner. The Union forces captured and repaired CSS General Price, CSS General Bragg, CSS Sumter, and CSS Little Rebel, and added them to the Mississippi River Squadron. The battle of Memphis was, aside from the later appearance of the ironclad CSS Arkansas, the final challenge to the federal thrust down the Mississippi River against Vicksburg. The river was now open down to that city, which was already besieged by Farragut's ships, but the federal army authorities did not grasp the strategic importance of the fact for nearly another six months. Not until November 1862 would the Union Army under Ulysses S. Grant attempt to complete the opening of the river. The poor performance of the River Defense Fleet, both at Memphis and at the earlier Battle of New Orleans, was the final demonstration that naval operations had to be commanded by trained professionals subject to military discipline. The Ellet Rams remained in federal service, but they had no other opportunity for combat of the sort for which they were intended. They were soon transformed into an amphibious raiding body, the Mississippi Marine Brigade (with no connection to the United States Marine Corps), led by Ellet's brother, Lieutenant Colonel (later Brigadier General) Alfred W. Ellet. The demand for increased professionalism also resulted in the elimination of privateering, although the River Defense Fleet was not composed of privateers in the usual meaning of the term. The battle remains a cautionary tale, demonstrating the ill effects of a poor command structure. It is also one of only two purely naval battles of the war, excluding single-ship actions, and took place from the nearest open water. The other was the Battle of Plum Point Bend, also on the Mississippi. Another civil war military engagement took place in Memphis, namely the Second Battle of Memphis in April 1864, when Confederate general, Nathan Bedford Forrest led a nighttime cavalry raid on Memphis with the intent of freeing Confederate prisoners and capturing Union generals encamped there. The raid failed in both goals, but forced the Union Army to guard the area more diligently. See also Mississippi River Squadron United States Ram Fleet Second Battle of Memphis References Further reading National Park Service battle description CWSAC Report Update Anderson, Bern. By sea and by river: the naval history of the Civil War. New York: Da Capo Press, 1962. Crandall, Warren Daniel, History