TEXT: Mississippi River Gunboats
  of the American Civil War
  1861– 65
  New Vanguard
  OSPREY
  P U B L I S H I N G
  Angus Konstam • Illustrated by Tony Bryan
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  New Vanguard • 49
  Mississippi River Gunboats
  of the American Civil War
  1861–65
  Angus Konstam • Illustrated by Tony Bryan
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  INTRODUCTION
  The struggle for the Mississippi River was the longest, most challenging
  and diverse campaign of the Civil War. It involved the widespread use of
  ironclads, steam-powered gunboats, modern fortifications, amphibious
  riverine landings, and the employment of mines. All of these were new,
  relatively untested instruments of war. Not only would this new form of
  warfare dominate the struggle for the spine of America, but the struggle
  would take place on a hitherto unimaginable geographical scale. The
  river was the natural highway through the continent, and the theater of
  operations would stretch along it for some 700 miles from Mound City,
  Illinois, to the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, although the fall of Vicksburg
  in July 1863 ensured that the Mississippi River itself was cleared of
  Confederate naval forces, other Southern naval units continued to
  operate on many of the Mississippi’s tributaries. Fighting along these
  secondary waters would ensure that gunboats of both sides would
  continue to see service until the end of the war. Although ironclads such
  as the USS Cairo or the CSS Arkansas captured the public imagination,
  the battle for the Mississippi and her tributaries could not have been
  fought were it not for the dozens of less glamorous wooden gunboats
  who contested America’s inland waterways. This work describes these
  remarkable little warships.
  MISSISSIPPI RIVER GUNBOATS 
  OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 
  1861–65
  3
  The Mississippi River port
  of Memphis, Tennessee,
  served as the principal
  naval yard for the
  Confederate River Defense
  Fleet on the upper
  Mississippi. A nascent
  naval base had been
  created on the city’s
  riverfront before the war.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  THE MISSISSIPPI THEATER
  At the outbreak of the Civil War, both sides were largely unprepared for
  the conflict. This lack of readiness was most apparent in the two navies;
  the Union fleet was scattered across the globe and the Confederate Navy
  had not yet come into being. From the start, President Lincoln and his
  Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, both supported the adoption of a
  broad strategy, outlined by General Winfield Scott. His strategy,
  nicknamed “the Anaconda plan,” envisioned the blockade and
  encirclement of the Confederacy by naval forces. A coastal blockade
  would be augmented by a strike down the Mississippi River from the
  north, linking up with the ocean-going fleet at New Orleans. By seizing
  control of the Mississippi River, the Union would be able to split the
  Confederacy in two. Not only would this starve the heartland of the
  Confederacy of resources of men and provisions from the western states
  of Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, but it would also reopen the river to
  Northern trade, a vital prerequisite for economic growth. 
  The only problem was that the Union had no naval forces on the river
  which could fulfil these lofty strategic goals. On April 29, 1861, a St Louis
  businessman called James M. Eads sent a proposal to the Navy
  Department outlining the facilities available on the Missouri and Illinois
  shores of the Mississippi River. Although Gideon Welles was fully
  involved in the establishment of a blockade around the Confederate
  coast, a dialog involving Eads and both the Army and the Navy resulted
  in the order to produce a small riverine flotilla. The first of these wooden
  gunboats entered service in August, at a time when the Confederates
  were busy constructing their own fleet. The state of Louisiana had
  purchased a couple of river steamers, and had converted them into
  gunboats. A second flotilla was earmarked for the defense of the upper
  Mississippi River, along the Tennessee shore. Similarly, the capture of the
  Union’s Norfolk Navy Base in Virginia ensured the Confederates had
  access to sufficient guns to defend the river, and several powerful
  batteries were planned to block Union access to the Mississippi,
  Cumberland, and Tennessee Rivers. The Confederates were well aware
  of the importance of the Mississippi River to their survival, and the
  4
  The naval yard at Mound City,
  Illinois, served as a supply and
  repair base for Union river
  gunboats. The facilities were
  basic but, following the transfer
  of the river fleet from Army to
  Navy control in August 1862,
  more extensive floating repair
  shops were created.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  Union strategy. Even if they
  only held one bastion on the
  river, or kept one warship
  afloat, the South would deny
  the use of the river to the
  enemy. Both sides braced
  themselves for a campaign
  that would be fought over
  huge distances, and require
  the close cooperation of both
  land and naval forces. The
  challenges facing strategists
  were daunting.
  What emerged was a
  campaign involving the attack
  on these Confederate naval
  and riverside defenses by two
  fleets: One descending the
  river from Cairo, Illinois, and
  the other (after the fall of
  New Orleans in April 1862)
  working its way up from the
  Gulf of Mexico. After a brilliantly executed attack on Fort Henry and
  Fort Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, Union naval
  forces in the upper Mississippi faced a series of imposing fortifications.
  Although the fortifications at Island No. 10 and Fort Pillow were
  captured by other means, Union wooden gunboats had their chance for
  glory in two battles at Fort Pillow and Memphis. In these two
  engagements the Confederate River Defense Fleet was decimated, and
  only the guns of Vicksburg prevented the entire river falling into Union
  hands. Even then, Confederate naval units on the Yazoo River caused a
  near collapse of the Union naval effort before the city of Vicksburg fell
  to General Grant in July 1863. When Port Hudson fell a week later, the
  entire Mississippi lay in Union hands, and dozens of wooden gunboats
  patrolled the hard-won water. Control of tributaries such as the
  Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers ensured that Union gunboats,
  transports, and supply boats could travel unimpeded into Tennessee,
  Kentucky, Mississippi, and upper Alabama. Further to the west,
  Confederate forces operated on the Red River, and a campaign there
  would culminate in a humiliating retreat by the Union, and would
  ensure that Confederate resistance in Arkansas and northern Louisiana
  would continue until the end of the war. 
  The gunboats produced by both north and south represented a
  solution to the strategic and logistical problems which faced the naval
  commanders of both sides. Both converted and purpose-built wooden
  gunboats would play their part in this great conflict. Although to most
  sailors, they were mere “floating wooden bandboxes,” these vessels were
  capable of performing tasks other warships were unable to perform. Like
  a giant fan, the Mississippi River and its tributaries spread across
  thousands of miles of the American heartland. The little wooden
  gunboats of both combatants would reach into virtually every part of this
  brown-watered arena.
  5
  Union river transports played a
  vital part in the campaigning
  along the Mississippi River 
  and its tributaries. This rare
  photograph is of the river
  transport Chickamauga, 
  operated by the War Department.
  (National Archives)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  THE UNION RIVER FLEET
  The Timberclads
  When James B. Eads submitted a proposal to build a flotilla designed to
  wrest control of the Mississippi River from the Confederates, he was
  echoing the call by General Winfield Scott to make the river a major focal
  point of Union strategy. Eads was a successful St Louis businessman, and
  experienced in riverboat construction. The Navy was hard-pressed just to
  establish a blockade around the Confederate coastline, so the matter was
  passed to the War Department, which ran the US Army. What the Navy
  Department could do was to send an experienced naval officer to
  supervise operations. In May 1861, Commander John Rodgers, USN, and
  Naval Constructor Samuel Pook were sent
  westward, with orders to work with Eads and the
  theater commander, General McClellan. As the
  War Department put it:
  “Mr. James B. Eads, of St Louis, has proposed as a
  means of defense … the employment of the boats owned
  by the wrecking company of which he is a member, and
  has advised that said boats be taken by the Government
  and properly armed and equipped for that service … It
  is ordered that the subject be referred to General
  McClellan, who will consult with Mr. Eads and with
  such naval officer as the Navy Department may send
  out for that purpose, and then, as he shall find best,
  take order for the proper preparation of the boats.” 
  Rodgers was allocated access to naval personnel, but everything else
  had to be arranged through the Army. 
  While Rodgers and Eads discussed plans for the creation of an
  ironclad flotilla, Pook inspected three sidewheel steamers on the Ohio
  River which Rodgers had selected as potential gunboats for “naval
  service in these waters.” Pook agreed with Rodgers’s selection, and on
  June 8 the US Government duly purchased the Lexington, Tyler, and
  Conestoga in Cincinnati for $62,000. 
  As warships, the trio were less than ideal. Observers dubbed them
  “bandboxes.” Their engines were located above the waterline, and their
  high sides made them easy targets. Pook supervised their conversion,
  lowering their engines, reducing their superstructure, and reinforcing
  their hulls to allow the vessels to carry heavy guns. Oak bulwarks five
  inches thick protected the gun crews from small arms fire. By the end of
  June 1861 this initial work had been completed, although Rodgers and
  Pook criticized the standard of workmanship of the Cincinnati yard
  which undertook the conversion. As the water level of the Ohio dropped
  due to seasonal factors, Rodgers ordered the gunboats to be brought
  down to Cairo, together with the shipyard workers, but they only got as
  far as Louisville, Kentucky, before they were trapped by the falling
  waters. Lieutenant Seth L. Phelps arrived in Louisville to take charge of
  the stranded vessels. Two other officers (Lieutenant Roger Stembe and
  Master Joshua Bishop) tasked with command of the riverboats began to
  recruit naval volunteers in Cincinnati. The Army did little to help. 
  6
  The gunboat USS Tyler was the
  most powerful of the three
  timberclad gunboats which saw
  service in the Union river fleet.
  She can be distinguished from
  the USS Lexington by the
  midships position of her
  smokestacks, and from the USS
  Conestoga by her shorter hull.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  Meanwhile, McClellan had been replaced by General Fremont, and
  the new regional commander asked for Rodgers’s removal, due to the
  complaints of local businessmen that he was not displaying enough
  largesse with naval contracts. The capable Rodgers was duly sent back east. 
  At Louisville, Phelps struggled to complete the gunboats. Phelps
  complained “there is no paint for the boats,” and questioned the quality
  of the rivermen hired by his colleagues. Finally, the river rose enough for
  the three gunboats to continue on to Cairo, where their guns and stores
  waited for them on the quayside. The trio constituted the only river
  defense available to the Union, and were duly put to work by the Army.
  While they were crewed by Navy personnel, they (and all other Union
  river gunboats) came under Army control. The river flotilla would only be
  transferred to the US Navy in August 1862. They were available for service
  by August 15, 1861, and six days later the Tyler fired the first naval “shot in
  anger” on the Mississippi, engaging Confederate patrols on the Missouri
  shore. The trio would operate in support of the Army until enough
  warships were gathered to permit independent naval operations. 
  These wooden gunboats were only protected by timber. With a touch
  of sarcasm, in comparison with the ironclads designed by Eads and Pook,
  they were duly dubbed “timberclads.” Despite their fragile appearance,
  they were useful, well-armed warships. The Conestoga only carried four
  32-pounders, but her consorts were
  stronger, allowing the emplacement
  of a heavier broadside arma-
  ment. The Lexington carried two
  32-pounder, 
  and 
  four 
  8-inch
  smoothbores, while the Tyler carried
  one 32-pounder and six 8-inch
  smoothbore pieces. Although all
  these weapons were smoothbores,
  changes were made to these
  ordnance suites during the war. The
  Lexington and Tyler were issued with
  30-pounder rifles by late 1862 (two
  and three respectively) but the
  7
  The timberclad gunboat USS
  Lexington usually operated in
  conjunction with the USS Tyler,
  and served with distinction
  throughout the war. She is
  probably best remembered for
  providing naval gunfire support
  to General Grant’s Union Army at
  the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862.
  The timberclad gunboat USS
  Conestoga first saw service 
  in September 1861, and
  subsequently took part in the
  attacks on Fort Henry and Fort
  Donelson. She was sunk in a
  collision with the USS General
  Price in March 1864.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  Conestoga was not similarly up-gunned. The effectiveness of rifled guns
  against shore positions had been demonstrated on both the Mississippi
  and the Eastern seaboard, so this re-equipping reflected a change in
  the perceived role of the gunboats, from vessels designed to fight
  other warships to ones capable of suppressing fire from
  Confederate shore positions.
  The Rams
  In 1861 Charles Rivers Ellet, Jr., was a civil engineer with
  experience in the building of bridges and dams. During the
  Crimean War (1854–56), he traveled to Russia as an observer,
  and had become convinced that the ram used by the
  warships of antiquity could be adapted. By using steam
  power, it could become a viable modern naval weapon. He
  convinced the Union War Department of the worth of his
  idea and, in early 1862, he was made a colonel, with orders to
  create a ram flotilla, which would join the timberclads on the
  Mississippi. During April he purchased nine vessels, both
  sidewheelers and sternwheelers, at various ports on the Ohio
  River, and began the work of converting them into warships. This
  work took place in several yards: the Queen of the West and Lancaster
  were converted in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Switzerland in Madison,
  Indiana, the Monarch in New Albany, Indiana, and the Mingo, Lioness,
  and Sampson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When they became ready for
  final fitting out they were taken to New Albany or Mound City for
  completion. Another ram, the T.D. Horner, was deemed unsuitable, and
  used as a tug instead, while a ninth vessel was used as transport. 
  These vessels varied in size, appearance, and propulsion system, but
  all shared two characteristics. They were designed primarily as rams, and
  they were commanded by Colonel Ellet, whose enthusiasm for ram
  tactics had led to their creation. They mostly
  possessed little in the way of armament (usually
  one or two 12-pounder howitzers or 24-pounder
  smoothbores), but they had their bows reinforced
  by timber, and their hulls strengthened to absorb
  the shock of a collision. They were also faster than
  the timberclads, having an average speed of 12
  knots. On May 26, 1862, the first of these ships
  joined the timberclads above Fort Pillow. Although
  an independent unit, the ram flotilla formed part
  of the Western Gunboat Flotilla, as the timberclads
  were now designated. When the rest of the river
  fleet came under the control of the US Navy in
  August 1862, the rams remained under orders of
  the War Department. Some critics considered
  them to be “brown paper rams,” but Ellet’s vessels
  would demonstrate their worth in action.
  Although the need for the rams passed, as
  Confederate naval forces were swept from the
  Mississippi, the notion of the ram as a weapon
  remained in vogue. Two other rams were built for
  the War Department during 1863 and on
  8
  Colonel Charles Ellet was a
  staunch advocate of the wooden
  ram, and his flotilla of “Ellet
  rams” helped turn the tide of 
  the war on the upper Mississippi
  River. He was mortally wounded
  at the Battle of Memphis in
  June 1862.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  completion they were transferred to
  the Navy. The first of these to enter
  service was the Avenger, built in New
  Albany, Indiana, and completed in
  February 1864. Three months later 
  the same yard completed the gunboat
  Vindicator, which was duly taken to
  Mound City and converted into a 
  ram. Both joined the Mississippi
  Squadron in the summer of 1864, 
  and participated in patrols around
  Vicksburg, and on the Yazoo River.
  They were not particularly successful,
  although 
  they 
  were 
  formidable
  gunboats, combining their ram with 
  a powerful armament, including 
  a 100-pounder Parrott bow rifle
  mounted in a wooden casemate. The
  Vindicator engaged the Confederate
  ram Webb off the mouth of the Red River in April 1865, but otherwise they
  saw no active service. 
  After 1862, clashes with Confederate warships were almost unknown,
  and the rams became less useful. While the Queen of the West carried a
  respectable armament of four guns (accounts vary, but the most probable
  suite was one 20- or 30-pounder Parrott rifle and three 12-pounder
  howitzers), other rams had a limited armament. The Switzerland was
  converted into a gunboat in late 1862 and, although her exact armament
  is unknown, photographs and sketches suggest she carried eight guns,
  probably a mixed suite of 12-pounder howitzers and 24-pounder rifles or
  smoothbores, split between two broadsides. As other rams were used in
  shore bombardments from late 1862 on, it seems probable that the
  remaining ships of Ellet’s fleet were converted shortly after they were
  transferred into naval service in August 1862. These fast, useful vessels
  clearly had their role redefined as the war progressed, although they still
  retained their ramming capability. 
  Tinclads
  It soon became apparent that the Union needed more than a few
  powerful ironclads and rams on the Mississippi. While the principal units
  of the River Flotilla were occupied in the seizure or bombardment of
  Confederate shore positions or the destruction of enemy warships, other
  river gunboats were needed to patrol the hundreds of miles of rivers
  which led through occupied territory. Their roles were to escort supply
  boats and troop transports, to patrol for signs of enemy activity, or to act
  as dispatch boats, linking the Union armies in the Western Theater with
  their depots and recruiting bases further north. For this purpose dozens
  of flat-bottomed river steamers were purchased and converted into
  warships. Although many were propelled by sidewheel propulsion, the
  majority were sternwheelers, similar to or smaller than the craft made
  famous as Mississippi “gambling” boats (more accurately they were
  passenger ferries). To protect them from enemy small arms fire from the
  shore, these vessels were lightly armored with thin metal sheeting. This
  9
  LEFT The Ellet ram USS
  Switzerland was an ungainly,
  slab-sided vessel, but her roomy
  casemate permitted the addition
  of extra armament following the
  destruction of the Confederate
  River Defense Fleet in
  June 1862. 
  The late-war ram USS Vindicator
  photographed moored to a
  riverbank on the Mississippi in
  late 1864. She fought the CSS
  Webb when the Confederate ram
  made a dash from the Red River
  down the Mississippi in April
  1865. (US Navy) 
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  gave rise to the name “tinclad.”
  From June 19, 1863 (just before 
  the fall of Vicksburg), apart
  from the two largest vessels,
  these tinclads were allocated
  identification numbers, which
  were painted on the sides of the
  vessels’ pilot houses.
  The largest of these tinclads
  served as a Command Ship for
  acting Rear Admiral David
  Dixon Porter, who had assumed
  command of Union river forces
  in September 1862. The Black
  Hawk was built in New Albany,
  Indiana, in 1848, and began life
  as a luxury paddle steamer
  called the New Uncle Sam. She
  was purchased by the Navy Department for $36,000 in November 1862,
  and although she was theoretically converted into a gunboat, she
  retained many of her luxurious internal fittings. She joined the fleet on
  December 6, 1862, above Vicksburg, and served as the Union command
  vessel on both the Mississippi and Red Rivers until she was destroyed by
  an accidental fire off Cairo, Illinois, in April 1865. She carried two 
  32-pounder smoothbores, two 30-pounder Parrott rifles, and two 
  12-pounder pieces, but she only fired her guns in anger once, during an
  attack on Haynes’ Bluff, Mississippi, in late April 1863. The large stately
  flagship was too valuable a vessel to risk in action. 
  The second large un-numbered tinclad was the Ouachita, a former
  Confederate steamer called the Louisville, which was captured on a
  tributary of the Red River in July 1863. She was duly converted into a
  gunboat, and entered service on January 18, 1864 in time to participate
  in the Red River Campaign. She carried five 30-pounder Parrott rifles
  and eighteen 24-pounder and fifteen 12-pounder smoothbores, making
  her the most powerful gunboat in the Western Theater.
  These two vessels were the exception. Most of the other 69 tinclads to
  enter service displaced less than 200 tons, and were armed with far less
  10
  The Union timberclad gunboats
  USS Lexington and USS Tyler
  engaging Confederate shore
  batteries at Columbus, Kentucky,
  in January 1862. These small but
  powerful vessels probably saw
  more service than any other
  gunboats in the Western Theater. 
  The USS Ouachita was the
  largest and best-armed tinclad
  gunboat on the Mississippi,
  carrying almost 40 guns,
  including five 30-pounder Parrott
  rifles. She participated in the
  capture of the Confederate
  ironclad CSS Missouri on the Red
  River in June 1865.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  impressive suites of ordnance. Almost all carried between four and eight
  guns, a mixture of whatever was available, although rifled guns were
  introduced as they were produced. In all but one case, the largest guns
  carried were 30-pounder rifles or 32-pounder smoothbores, although 
  20-pounder rifles, 24-pounder smoothbores and 12-pounders of both
  types were far more common. 
  The exception was the USS James Thompson (renamed Manitou, then
  Fort Hindman in late 1863) which was 150 feet long and displaced 
  280 tons. She was purchased by the Navy Department at Jeffersonville,
  Indiana, in March 1863, and entered service just weeks later, after having
  strips of tin nailed around her superstructure and paddlewheel boxes.
  She carried an unusually heavy armament of two 8-inch smoothbores in
  her bow, with two more on each broadside.
  The USS Marmora (No. 2) was a more typical tinclad. She was built in
  Monongahela, Pennsylvania, then sold to the Navy Department in
  September 1862. She was 155 feet long and displaced 207 tons. Her twin
  engines and boilers powered a sternwheel that was capable of propelling
  the ship at just under 7 knots. She was armed with two 24-pounder and
  two 12-pounder rifles arranged in broadsides in her tinclad casemate,
  although four more 24-pounders were added in mid-1864. She entered
  service in October 1862, and participated in expeditions up the Yazoo
  and White Rivers during a distinguished wartime career, which also
  involved attacks on the defenses of Vicksburg and Fort Hindman. 
  All in all these tinclad river gunboats were ungainly, slow and
  unprepossessing, but without them the Union would never have
  managed to supply its field armies in the West, or keep them in
  communication with each other.
  Other Union gunboats and service craft
  In addition to these main gunboat types, the US Navy and the War
  Department operated a number of other vessels on the Mississippi and
  its tributaries. Some of these, such as the USS General Bragg or the USS
  Sumter, were gunboats captured from the Confederates. Others
  performed non-combatant roles. Several captured Confederate vessels
  11
  The powerful tinclad USS Fort
  Hindman (No. 13) had her name
  changed several times, being
  commissioned as the USS James
  Thompson. Her name was altered
  to celebrate the capture of the
  Confederate fort guarding the
  Arkansas River. (US Navy)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  were used as storeships or ordnance boats, while other support craft
  were purchased by the War Department. These vessels included the 
  625-ton USS Red Rover, the US Navy’s first hospital ship. Around a dozen
  tugs were attached to the river fleet, and these were frequently called on
  to guide the larger warships through narrow tributaries, or to pull them
  off sandbars. Although the tugs were unarmed, other support craft
  occasionally carried a minimal armament of 12-pounders or sometimes
  larger pieces. Their role was strictly a supporting one, and these guns
  were purely provided for self-defense.
  THE CONFEDERATE RIVER FLEET
  The New Orleans Squadron
  In the summer and fall of 1861 shipyards in and around New Orleans
  converted or laid down a small flotilla of warships, both wooden gunboats
  and ironclads. These included two floating batteries, three ironclads and
  numerous river gunboats, or converted ocean-going steamers. A fleet of
  10 wooden warships (including three tugs) was ready to contest the attack
  on the defenses below New Orleans by Commodore David G. Farragut’s
  Western Gulf Blockading Squadron on April 24, 1862. In addition, 
  two ironclads were available,
  although one, the Louisiana, was
  still unfinished, and needed to
  be towed into position. The
  sidewheel gunboat CSS Jackson
  was absent from the fleet when
  the Union attacked, and the
  remainder constituted the core
  of the naval defenses of New
  Orleans. Political control of this
  flotilla was a complete mess. Two
  gunboats, the CSS McRae and
  the CSS Jackson belonged to the
  regular Confederate Navy, as did
  the ironclads CSS Manassas and
  Louisiana and a handful of tugs
  12
  The US Navy’s first hospital ship
  was the USS Red Rover, a former
  Confederate river steamer which
  was captured at Island No. 10 
  in April 1862. She carried a
  medical staff of 30 doctors and
  nurses, and had facilities for the
  treatment of over 200 casualties.
  (US Navy)
  The Governor Moore pictured
  after the fight with the USS
  Varuna below New Orleans,
  moments before the crew
  abandoned ship and her
  commander set her on fire. She
  was not officially a Confederate
  naval vessel as she remained
  part of the Louisiana Provisional
  Navy until her destruction.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  and tenders.  The cottonclad rams Governor Moore and General Quitman
  were operated by the Louisiana State Navy rather than the Confederate
  government, while six other cottonclad gunboats or rams belonged to the
  River Defense Fleet, run by the Confederate Army (Defiance, General
  Breckenridge, General Lovell, Resolute, Warrior, and Stonewall Jackson). Neither
  group was willing to take orders from the Navy, and all three existed as
  separate administrative and tactical entities.
  The McRae was a former Mexican steamer which had been seized for
  piracy in 1860. She was still impounded in New Orleans when Louisiana
  seceded from the Union. The long, sleek, bark-rigged gunboat was
  powered by a single screw, and armed with a 9-inch Dahlgren
  smoothbore on a central pivot mounting, in addition to a regular
  broadside armament of six 32-pounders and a 12-pounder. By contrast
  the Stonewall Jackson was armed with a single gun, mounted on her
  quarterdeck. Her primary armament was a ram, and during the Battle of
  New Orleans in April 1862 its effectiveness was demonstrated when the
  vessel rammed and sank the gunboat USS Varuna. The Governor Moore
  was also a ram, and she struck the Varuna herself, but with little effect.
  Even more spectacularly, in order to keep firing when the two ships were
  locked together, the crew of the 32-pounder on her forecastle fired
  through their own deck in order to hit the Varuna below her waterline.
  Both the Governor Moore and the Stonewall Jackson were sunk during the
  battle. The second Louisiana vessel, the
  General Quitman, was a ram, but it failed to hit
  any Union target.
  As for the appearance of these vessels,
  Captain Beverley Kennon, the commander of
  the Governor Moore, provided a detailed
  description.
  “The vessel which I commanded was formerly the
  ocean-built wooden paddle-steamship Charles
  Morgan of about 900 tons and having a walking-
  beam engine. When armed by the State of Louisiana
  she was named the Governor Moore, and
  received 2 rifled 32-pounders (not banded and not
  sighted), and a complement of 93 persons. She was
  not iron-plated in any manner whatever. Her stem
  was like that of hundreds of other vessels, being
  faced its length on its edges above water with two
  strips of old-fashioned flat railroad iron, held in
  place by short straps of like kind at the top, at the
  waterline, and at three intermediate points. These
  straps extended about two feet abaft the face of the
  stem on each side, where they were bolted in place.
  The other ‘rams’ had their ‘noses’ hardened in like
  manner. All had the usual-shaped stems. Not one
  had an iron beak or projecting prow under the water.
  All of them had their boiler-houses, engines, and
  boilers protected by a bulkhead of cotton bales which
  extended from the floor of the hold to about five feet
  or more above the spar deck. These and other such
  13
  Union sharpshooters from the
  75th New York Regiment picking
  off the gunners of a Confederate
  gunboat on a Louisiana river in
  January 1863. Ambushes from
  the shore were a frequent
  occurrence on the Mississippi
  River and her tributaries
  throughout the war. 
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  vessels were fitted out by the State
  and the city of New Orleans after
  the regular navy neglected to take
  them, and to Lieutenant-Colonel
  W.S. 
  Lovell 
  (ex-lieutenant
  United States Navy) is due the
  credit of their novel construction.
  “Of the remaining seven
  ‘rams’ the General Quitman
  was like my ship, but smaller.
  The remaining six had been tug-
  boats, and were of wood, with
  walking-beam engines. Each of
  them mounted one or two guns,
  had about 35 men, and measured not far from 150 tons. These six ‘rams’ were an
  independent command, and recognized no outside authority unless it suited their
  convenience; and it was expected that this ‘fleet’ and its branch in Memphis
  would defend the upper and lower Mississippi, without aid from the regular
  navy.”
  The River Defense Fleet
  Initially, a small flotilla, consisting of the gunboats Livingston, General
  Polk, Pontchartrain and Maurepas, was available for service and was
  stationed at Island No. 10. These four gunboats were all sidewheelers,
  and displaced between 390 and 460 tons each. Three were built in New
  Albany, Indiana, and purchased into service in New Orleans in 1861,
  while the Livingston was originally designed as a towboat, but was
  purchased while still being built in New Orleans, and she was completed
  as a gunboat. The General Polk was a long, sleek vessel, but only carried
  three 32-pounder guns, two of which were rifled. The remaining three
  vessels were shorter, stockier, and slower, but carried a larger armament,
  six to eight guns, including at least two 32-pounder rifles per vessel.
  Three of them were destroyed to prevent their capture after the fall of
  Memphis in June 1863, but the Pontchartrain continued to operate on
  the Red River until her destruction in turn in October 1863. 
  Until March 1862 the flotilla was augmented by the Confederate
  naval vessels McRae and Jackson (described above), but these returned
  south to defend New Orleans when Union forces threatened the city. 
  The floating battery New Orleans also assisted the naval flotilla at
  Island No. 10. It was immobile, and had to be towed into place, then
  moored. Consequently, when the land defenses were flanked, the naval
  flotilla escaped downriver, but the New Orleans had to be destroyed to
  prevent her capture.
  While this small flotilla was operating around Island No. 10, a second
  force was being converted in yards in and around New Orleans. Like
  their counterparts in the New Orleans Squadron, this Confederate River
  Defense Fleet was operated by the War Department, and charged with
  the defense of the upper stretches of the Mississippi, while the southern
  contingent remained around New Orleans. This force, which took part
  in the defense of Fort Pillow and the Battle of Memphis (June 6, 1862),
  centered around a force of eight river steamers, most of which were
  converted into rams. Under the command of Captain J.E. Montgomery,
  14
  The elegant screw gunboat CSS
  McRae was formerly a warship 
  in the Mexican Navy, and was
  bought into Confederate service
  in 1861. She operated in the
  Mississippi Delta until her
  destruction at the Battle of 
  New Orleans in April 1862.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  whose flagship was the Little Rebel, the eight-vessel fleet consisted of the
  General Bragg, General Sterling Price, General Sumter, General Earl Van Dorn,
  General M. Jeff Thompson, Colonel Lovell and General Beauregard. When the
  four light gunboats retired from Island No. 10, this fleet constituted the
  only effective naval force on the upper stretches of the Mississippi,
  between Cairo and Memphis.
  The largest of these ships was the CSS General Bragg, formerly a brig-
  rigged paddlewheel passenger steamer called the Mexico, which had
  operated in the Gulf of Mexico. She was built in New York in 1850 for
  the Southern Steamship Company, based in New Orleans, and was
  purchased by the Confederate government in January 1862. A four-inch
  oak beam was added to her bow, then covered in a one-inch layer of iron,
  making a rudimentary ram. As the vessel displaced over 1,000 tons and
  could attain a speed of over 10 knots, she was a powerful ramming vessel.
  In addition to her ram, she was fitted with a 30-pounder Parrott rifle on
  her forecastle, and a 32-pounder smoothbore on her quarterdeck. 
  Of the other seven vessels in the fleet, the General Sterling Price, the
  General Sumter, and the Colonel Lovell all displaced over 500 tons. The
  General Sterling Price was formerly the Laurent Millaudon, a sidewheel
  riverboat built in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1856. Apart from her ram, she was
  armed with four guns, one on the forecastle, another on the
  quarterdeck, and two in broadside mounts inside her wooden casemate.
  All were 9-inch Dahlgren smoothbores, making her one of the best-
  armed wooden vessels on the river. 
  Almost as powerful was the General Beauregard (formerly the New
  Orleans towboat Ocean), which carried four 8-inch and one 42-pounder
  smoothbore guns. By contrast, the General Sumter
  (once the New Orleans towboat Junius Beebe)
  carried four 32-pounder and one 12-pounder
  smoothbores. Both the Cincinnati-built steamer
  Colonel Lovell and the former towboat General
  Earl Van Dorn were armed with a single
  smoothbore gun, mounted on their forecastles.
  The armament of the M. Jeff Thompson was most
  probably a single bow gun, and the Little Rebel
  (formerly the Pennsylvania screw steamer R. & J.
  Watson) carried three 12-pounder rifles. 
  15
  The Confederate cottonclad ram
  Stonewall Jackson as she looked
  before the Battle of New Orleans.
  A wall of cotton bales protected
  her, reaching from her keel to
  above the top of her
  superstructure.
  The cottonclad ram CSS General
  Sterling Price was one of the
  Confederate River Defense Fleet
  which fought at Plum Point and
  Memphis in 1862. Although she
  was sunk in the Battle of
  Memphis in June 1862, she was
  raised, repaired, and operated by
  the US Navy as the gunboat USS
  General Price. This photograph
  was taken when she was in
  Union service.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  With their varied arm-
  ament these vessels were
  little match for the Union
  river 
  ironclads 
  which
  opposed them, but they
  were fast, capable of speeds
  of 8–10 knots, and they
  were fitted with crude
  rams. 
  Apart 
  from 
  the
  modifications to their bows
  and the addition of ord-
  nance, they were further
  protected by the creation of extra bulkheads around their machinery
  and gundecks, and cotton was compressed into the space between the
  sides of the superstructure and a false inner bulkhead (like a wood and
  cotton sandwich) creating a basic form of cottonclad protection.
  Additional bales were probably stacked around their exposed guns and
  around their pilot houses.
  Following the destruction of the Confederate gunboat flotillas at New
  Orleans and Memphis, only one other wooden Confederate gunboat
  caused serious problems for the Union. In January 1863, Colonel W.S.
  Lovell, the creator of the ram fleet was sent to Alexandria, Louisiana, to
  convert the riverboat Webb into a warship. This wooden sidewheeler had
  been built in New York in 1856, and was being converted into a privateer
  in New Orleans when the city fell to the Union. The Webb escaped to the
  Red River. Lovell gave her a ram bow, and placed a 130-pounder James
  rifle on her forecastle. She was also equipped with two 12-pounder
  howitzers, as anti-personnel weapons. Cotton bales were stacked around
  her machinery, so that only her beam engine remained unprotected.
  The CSS Webb performed well in an engagement with the ironclad USS
  Indianola, and ended her career in a dramatic charge down the
  Mississippi in the last days of the war.
  THE ROLE OF GUNBOATS
  Function
  Strategically, the Union was committed to the opening up of the
  Mississippi River, from Cairo, Illinois, to the Gulf of Mexico. This could
  not be achieved by naval forces alone, as troops had to seize and hold the
  key points along the river, then use these sites to launch attacks which
  would drive the Confederate armies eastwards away from the Mississippi
  river. By gaining access to the tributaries of the Mississippi and Ohio
  rivers, Union forces could strike deep into Confederate territory, and
  support armies operating in the heartland of the South. The Tennessee
  and Cumberland Rivers were vital arteries of war and commerce, and the
  side that controlled them could dominate Kentucky and much
  of Tennessee. 
  Following the fall of Fort Henry, which guarded the Tennessee River,
  Confederate General Johnston wrote that the loss of the fort gave the
  Union “control of the navigation on the Tennessee River, and their
  gunboats are now descending … ” He argued that the loss of Fort
  16
  The CSS General Bragg was the
  largest vessel in the Confederate
  River Defense Fleet. Although
  she was sunk at the Battle of
  Memphis, she was raised and
  served against her former
  owners. In this photograph taken
  in Mound City, Illinois, she is
  being repaired before entering
  Union service. (US Navy)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  Donelson would “open the route to the enemy to Nashville, giving them
  the means of breaking bridges and destroying the ferry boats on the river
  as far as navigable.” His prediction was correct, and after losing both
  forts, the Confederates were forced to withdraw to the south. The
  Confederates lacked the gunboats which might have been able to
  contest control of the two rivers, and consequently, they were forced to
  pull back behind the two rivers, giving up Kentucky. Similarly, control of
  the Mississippi and its tributaries allowed Union generals to move troops
  deep into the Confederate heartland, and to supply these forces from
  the bustling industrial cities of the Midwest. Without gunboats, the
  Confederacy lay wide open to the enemy. 
  Both sides realized that, but the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson
  took the Confederates by surprise, before they were able to build up the
  flotillas they needed to defend the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.
  From that point, Union gunboats had two roles, a primarily offensive
  one, involving the defeat of enemy forces on the Mississippi River, and a
  secondary defensive one, defending the Tennessee and Cumberland,
  protecting supply lines, and denying access to the region to the enemy. 
  Offensive operations usually involved the river ironclads, supported
  first by the three timberclads, and later by the Ellet ram fleet. As
  numbers were augmented by tinclad gunboats and captured
  Confederate vessels, an increasing number of gunboats were allocated a
  defensive role. Confederate measures involved a limited use of gunboats
  after the fall of Memphis and, instead, they concentrated on holding key
  defensive positions on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Clearly
  the principal river fortresses were Vicksburg and Port Hudson, but the
  Red River was also developed as a stronghold and, despite the abortive
  1864 campaign, it remained in Confederate hands until the last days of
  the war. 
  Initially, both sides built wooden rams, but following the destruction
  of the Confederate fleets at Memphis and New Orleans, the Union
  changed their role. Initially, the rams were pure naval vessels designed to
  fight enemy warships. After Memphis, they became vessels whose
  primary function was to patrol rivers, and to bombard enemy-held
  shorelines. The tinclads, which were converted into warships and
  entered service from 1862 on, were primarily designed for exactly this
  kind of role. They patrolled
  rivers, reaching anywhere
  their shallow drafts could take
  them. They guarded river
  crossings, scouted for signs of
  enemy 
  raiders, 
  escorted
  transport and supply vessels,
  carried dispatches, provided
  gunfire support to operations
  close to the shore, and
  bombarded enemy positions.
  They dragged rivers for
  torpedoes (as mines were
  then known), they cleared
  rivers of obstructions, and
  they provided a cordon of
  17
  Union river gunboats engaging
  shore targets on the western
  rivers. Attacks on enemy patrols,
  naval gunfire support, and the
  bombardment of shore positions
  were all regular tasks for the
  gunboat fleet. 
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  protection for support vessels. In short they were the workhorses of the
  Western Theater, operating everywhere they were needed, and
  performing a range of duties. When Confederate guerrillas raided into
  Indiana and Illinois, gunboats led the pursuit, and helped to contain the
  raiders. Although larger, more impressive warships such as the ironclads
  or Confederate ocean raiders, gained the glory, these simple wooden
  gunboats helped win the war for the Union.
  Manpower
  Before the war, the Mississippi River and its tributaries made up a
  bustling system of waterways, linking river ports as far north as
  Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with thriving
  markets downstream. The Missouri River branched westwards through
  Kansas, while other tributaries covered much of the Southern states
  which bordered the great river. Within days of the sucession of
  Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, access south of the
  Kentucky state line was denied to the Northern states, and the thriving
  river trade was brought to an abrupt standstill. In theory, this meant
  there should have been a rich pool of experienced rivermen for both
  sides to recruit from. In practice, this was far from the case.
  At first, the crews of both sides were a strange mixture of rivermen,
  soldiers, civilian volunteers, and professional sailors. River pilots were at
  a premium, and while many had an intimate knowledge of portions
  of the river network, few knew more than a limited stretch of
  the river. These men were invaluable, and if captured,
  financial incentives were usually offered to encourage a
  change of allegiance. 
  For the Confederates, manpower was always a
  problem. By the time the first gunboat fleets were
  ready for service, most rivermen and mechanics
  were already serving in the Confederate Army,
  and very few Army officers were willing to part
  with men under their command, however
  eligible they might be for naval rather than land
  service. Throughout the war on the rivers most
  Confederate ships were undermanned. There
  was also a shortage of trained seamen in the
  South, both in the seaboard ports and on the
  Mississippi. When the Army was ordered to
  send drafts of men for naval service, it
  frequently kept the trained rivermen, and
  instead used the demand to get rid of the most
  undesirable or incompetent elements in its
  commands. 
  A naval recruiting station (known as a Naval
  Rendezvous) was established in New Orleans, run by
  a staff of three officers. Newspaper advertisements,
  flyers, and recruiting drives were used to encourage
  volunteers, while officers continually pleaded with 
  their Army counterparts for men. Confederate Marine
  recruitment offices were also opened in Memphis and 
  New Orleans during 1861. The loss of the two cities meant that,
  18
  Lieutenant Thomas B. Huger,
  CSN, was one of the few regular
  Confederate naval officers to
  serve in the Western Theater
  during the war. He commanded
  the gunboat CSS McRae during
  the Battle of New Orleans in
  April 1864. 
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  after mid-1862, most recruits for
  Confederate 
  gunboats 
  were
  recruited locally, usually from
  drafts of state troops or local
  garrisons. 
  The Union river fleets were
  more fortunate, having access to
  the 
  bustling 
  river 
  ports 
  of
  Cincinnati, St Louis, or Pittsburgh.
  Naval Rendezvous offices were set
  up in all these cities, and from the
  outset rivermen were encouraged
  to serve in the flotillas rather than
  to sign up for service in the Army.
  Until August 1862 the Union river fleet was run by the War Department,
  so rivermen were drafted from regular military service to the river fleet.
  Officers were provided from the regular US Navy, and when the Navy
  Department took over responsibility for the ships in August 1862, their
  crews simply switched from one service to another. In addition to the
  officers, a small proportion of experienced naval ratings and petty
  officers provided a core of naval experience, and ensured some link with
  the procedures, drill, regulations, and discipline enforced in the ocean-
  going fleet. Somehow this mixture of soldiers, sailors, rivermen, and
  volunteers developed into an effective team, and by 1863 the Union
  sailors of the brown-water navy had become an experienced and 
  well-trained fighting force.
  Ordnance
  There was no typical armament for a Mississippi River gunboat during
  the war. While many were armed with large smoothbore weapons such as
  24-pounders and 32-pounders, rifled guns were also widely used, as were
  small howitzers. Occasionally, some gunboats carried larger pieces, such
  as the 130-pounder rifle. 
  In 1845 the US Navy had adopted the 32-pounder smoothbore as 
  its standard gun type, designed to augment larger “shell” guns 
  (64-pounder, 8-inch pieces, introduced in limited numbers in 1841) or
  regular “solid shot” guns (also 64-pounder pieces). Even as late as the
  Civil War, many naval officers considered the shell gun a poor substitute
  for the ship-smashing capabilities of a solid roundshot. Its range was
  approximately three-quarters of that of an equivalent solid shot, and
  although it was capable of causing more damage, and of causing fires, it
  was considered less accurate than a conventional solid projectile. 
  Perhaps the most common pieces of ordnance carried on river
  gunboats were bronze 24-pounder and 32-pounder smoothbores.
  Classified as Model 1841 pieces under the US Army’s Mordecai system,
  the US Navy had a bewildering range of gun types, as 27, 33, 42, 51, 57
  and 61-hundredweight versions of the 32-pounder were used by the US
  Navy. Of these, the last was the most widely used, as many of the earlier,
  smaller pieces were eventually converted into rifled weapons. Almost as
  common as the 32-pounder smoothbore was the 24-pounder howitzer,
  another 1841 pattern piece, whose short length made it an ideal close-
  range naval weapon. 
  19
  Union officers photographed
  while off duty. The officer (The
  Ship’s Master) in the center is
  shown carrying a hunting rifle
  and accompanied by two hunting
  dogs. Hunting along the shore
  was a popular activity when the
  opportunity presented itself. 
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  The smoothbore shell guns introduced
  into US Naval service by John A. Dahlgren
  from 1850 onward began to change this, 
  as his pieces matched conventional guns 
  in both range and accuracy. Although
  rarely seen on the Mississippi River unless
  carried on the ocean-going warships of the
  regular Navy, Dahlgren pieces exerted
  their own influence over other, earlier
  forms of ordnance. Standard long guns
  (conventional smoothbore pieces) were
  adapted to fire shell as well as solid shot,
  and a handful of his 8-inch and 32-pounder
  guns appeared on larger Union gunboats.
  A second modification to earlier guns
  was the conversion of smoothbore guns
  into rifled pieces. General Charles T. James pioneered this conversion
  process, which involved the cutting of narrow, deep grooves into the
  bores of older bronze guns. As the new rifled projectiles weighed
  approximately twice that of the original solid shot used by the cannon,
  gun designations were doubled. Consequently, a 6-pounder became a
  12-pounder and so on. The largest James rifle found on Mississippi
  gunboats was the 130-pounder, converted from a 64-pounder
  smoothbore, and carried on the wooden ram CSS Webb. In general, most
  Confederate rifled pieces were James rifles, while the Union had a
  plentiful supply of the more efficient Parrott pieces, and these were
  widely used in the river fleet. 
  Robert P. Parrott had introduced his own design of iron rifled
  ordnance for naval service in 1861. The 20-pounder and 30-pounder
  rifled pieces were commonly found on Union gunboats from 1862
  onwards. Compared to smoothbore guns, rifled pieces had a longer
  range and greater accuracy, but lacked the destructive power of the
  smoothbore shot or shell, at least against unarmored targets. By contrast,
  rifled guns mounted in fortifications could hit and penetrate the
  ironclad fleet used by the Union on the Mississippi, and could disable a
  wooden gunboat at long range with a single shot.
  The following list contains some of the more common guns mounted
  on wooden gunboats of both sides which operated on the Mississippi
  River and its tributaries. In fact, such a wide range of pieces was
  employed that a full listing is beyond the scope of this book. The ranges
  given are those for the effective range of the pieces, firing solid shot, at
  an elevation of 5 degrees. Extreme range was often double this, and the
  maximum effective range for guns firing shell was usually 75–85 percent
  of the range for solid shot projectiles.
  20
  Smoothbore Gun
  Bore 
  Gun Weight 
  Gun Length 
  Construction
  Effective Range 
  12-pounder (1841 pattern)
  42⁄3 in 
  1,757 pounds 
  7ft 6in 
  Bronze 
  1,663 yards 
  24-pounder (1841 pattern)
  54⁄5 in 
  6,240 pounds 
  10ft 4in 
  Bronze 
  1,901 yards 
  32-pounder (1841 pattern)
  62⁄5 in 
  6,832 pounds
  10ft 5in 
  Bronze 
  1,922 yards 
  8-inch (Columbiad)
  8 in 
  9,210 pounds 
  10ft 4in 
  Iron 
  1,814 yards 
  9-inch (Dahlgren)
  9 in 
  9,000 pounds 
  9ft 
  Iron 
  2,100 yards 
  Recruitment into the Union Navy
  took place at Naval Rendezvous
  offices, such as this one in New
  York City. Similar offices were
  established in the major river
  ports, such as Cincinnati, St
  Louis, and Pittsburgh. Illustration
  from Leslie’s Illustrated
  Newspaper, 1861. (Author’s
  Collection)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  Life on Board
  In both the Union and Confederate fleets, conditions on board the
  wooden gunboats that operated on the Mississippi River were better than
  those found on the cramped river ironclads, or even the crowded decks
  of the Union ocean-going steam fleet. Even when the first timberclads of
  the Union fleet or the independent ram flotillas of the Confederates
  were brought into service, despite their ownership, the crews were
  organized along naval lines. A smattering of experienced naval officers
  and petty officers provided enough influence for these vessels to be run
  the Navy way, although the levels of discipline and “spit-and-polish”
  would rarely have impressed senior naval officers. Later, as Admiral
  Foote brought the Union river fleet under his control, a more exacting
  level of naval authority and discipline was introduced into the river
  21
  Rifled Guns
  Bore 
  Gun Weight 
  Gun Length 
  Construction
  Effective Range 
  9–pounder (Rodman)
  3in 
  820 pounds 
  5ft 9in 
  Bronze 
  1,830 yards 
  10-pounder (Parrott)
  3in 
  890 pounds 
  6ft 2in 
  Iron 
  1,850 yards 
  12-pounder (James)
  32⁄3in 
  875 pounds 
  5ft 
  Bronze 
  1,700 yards 
  20-pounder (Parrott)
  32⁄3in 
  1,750 pounds 
  7ft 
  Iron 
  1,900 yards 
  30-pounder (Parrott)
  41⁄2in 
  4,200 pounds 
  11ft 4in 
  Iron 
  2,200 yards 
  130-pounder (James)
  81⁄2in 
  14,896 pounds 
  10ft 10in 
  Bronze 
  2,430 yards 
  Howitzers
  Bore 
  Gun Weight 
  Gun Length 
  Construction
  Effective Range 
  12-pounder (1841 pattern)
  42⁄3in 
  788 pounds 
  4ft 5in 
  Bronze 
  1,072 yards 
  24-pounder (1841 pattern)
  54⁄5in 
  1,318 pounds 
  5ft 5in 
  Bronze 
  1,322 yards 
  The crew of a 9-inch Dahlgren smoothbore gun operating their piece during a gunnery 
  drill on a gunboat. Although only a few Mississippi river gunboats had guns of this size, 
  the firing drill remained the same. (US Navy) 
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  fleets. By the end of the war, these vessels were operated in virtually the
  same way as all other elements of the US Navy. 
  Both sides based their daily routines and fighting practices upon
  those of the prewar US Navy, and therefore there was little or no
  difference between the running of vessels of the two sides. The one
  exception was that the Confederates operated a number of semi-
  independent state squadrons or River Defense Fleets, and although
  regular naval practices were adopted, the commanders of these vessels
  operated outside the authority of the regular Confederate Navy. In
  effect, these units owed their allegiance to their own flotilla commander,
  not to any naval officer appointed by the Confederate Navy Department.
  Consequently, while regular warships were supplied and paid by the Navy
  Department, these units organized their own provisions. 
  A slightly less divisive situation existed in the Union fleet, where the
  War Department ran river operations until August 1862, but the vessels
  themselves were usually crewed by regular naval officers, and their
  multifarious crews of sailors, soldiers, and rivermen operated under the
  constraints of naval discipline. Following the take-over of the river fleets
  by the US Navy, these divisions were overcome, and the fleet developed
  into a unified naval force.
  Most gunboats operated from established bases: New Orleans,
  Memphis, or Shreveport for the Confederates; Cairo, Mound City, or St
  Louis for the Union. Due to the possibilities of snagging underwater
  obstructions such as sunken logs or debris, or of running aground on
  one of the countless frequently moving mud banks on the rivers, night
  operations were rare. When darkness fell, gunboats operating
  independently of major garrisons or bases would choose the safer bank,
  then moor alongside for the night. Armed sentries would be posted on
  deck and on shore and, if the area was considered dangerous, steam
  pressure would be maintained to permit a rapid response to any threat
  should it occur. 
  Each crew was divided
  into watches, usually divided
  into port and starboard,
  then first and last. This
  meant that, at any time, a
  quarter of the crew would
  be available to operate the
  ship, day or night, in port, 
  at 
  anchor, 
  or 
  moored
  alongside a hostile shore. If
  the commanding officer
  deemed it appropriate, the
  routine would be changed,
  so that the crew operated in
  two watches. Reveille (all
  hands) was piped at 5 a.m.,
  followed by cleaning of the
  ship, then breakfast, which
  was served at 8 a.m. The
  vessel would then be ready
  to start her operations.
  22
  Sailors caulking the hull of a
  wooden gunboat. This involved
  the wedging of tarred hemp into
  the cracks between the vessel’s
  outer planking. As most river
  ports lacked the facilities to raise
  gunboat hulls out of the water,
  repairs were usually confined to
  what could be done above the
  waterline. (Author’s collection)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  Noon marked the official start of the ship’s day, and was the hour when
  the main meal of the day was served (usually meat, vegetables and
  coffee). Afternoons were usually spent at drill. Around 4 p.m., the
  vessel was moored for the night, and the crew were given a few
  hours to themselves before lights out.
  When the vessel was not on active duty, the daylight hours
  would be spent painting the ship, maintaining the engines or
  guns, or cleaning. Unless the vessel was in its home port, where
  it could be rolled out of the water, maintenance work was
  limited to the hull and superstructure above the waterline.
  Sundays were deemed “make and mend” day, when the crew
  could wash or repair clothing, or engage in socialising. Shore
  leave was granted in friendly ports, many of which contained
  the traditional sources of amusement for sailors ashore found
  the world over. When the crew were unable to enjoy their leisure
  hours ashore, they spent their time fishing, playing cards, writing
  (for the few crewmen who were literate), or playing music. Almost
  every ship on either side had a pet, and these mascots were fed and
  tended in these leisure hours.
  For the Confederates, supply of food, pay, and clothing was a
  constant struggle, while for their Union counterparts, supply problems
  were for the most part overcome by the summer of 1862. By 1863 bases
  such as Cairo or Mound City maintained floating warehouses, receiving
  ships, maintenance workshops, and administrative offices. While naval
  uniforms were hard to come by at first, both sides introduced regular
  navy blues (whites in summer) during the first year of the war, giving the
  vessels the appearance of regular warships. Although cramped, humid
  and uncomfortable, life on board these wooden gunboats was reasonably
  bearable, at least when the vessels were not engaged in action.
  Conditions in action were a different story.
  Gunboats in Action
  When the war began, nobody who was given command of a wooden
  gunboat on the Mississippi River knew what to expect when his vessel
  went into action. Although experienced naval officers had read the latest
  theoretical treatises and kept abreast of the latest developments in naval
  and ordnance technology, the effect of shell guns, steam engines and
  even armor cladding were largely untested when the war began.
  Similarly, the introduction of the ram was an unknown quantity. The
  gunboat captains on the Mississippi would have to learn their trade the
  hard way. An examination of three actions involving gunboats, at New
  Orleans (April 24, 1862), Plum Point (May 10, 1862), and Memphis
  (June 6, 1862), will provide a broad outline of the strengths and
  limitations of these little warships.
  The river approach to New Orleans was protected by two forts: Fort
  Jackson on the western shore of the Mississippi, and Fort St Philip on the
  east. To augment the 128 guns in these fortified positions, the
  Confederates had towed down the unfinished ironclad Louisiana and
  moored her as a floating battery. The small ironclad ram CSS Manassas
  and a flotilla of 10 wooden gunboats took up positions upriver from the
  forts. Overall command of both shore and naval defenses was given to
  General Mansfield Lovell. 
  23
  A rare photograph of an
  unidentified Confederate
  seaman. When uniforms were
  issued to Confederate sailors on
  the western rivers, they were
  usually modelled on prewar US
  Navy uniforms. This sailor was
  less fortunate, and wears a thick
  homespun shirt. 
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  At 2 a.m. on April 24, Commodore Farragut’s wooden steam fleet
  approached the forts, trying to bypass the static defenses. He broke
  through a line of rafts and hulks opposite Fort Jackson, only to have his
  fleet attacked by the Manassas. This ironclad rammed the USS Mississippi
  and the USS Brooklyn, but caused minimal damage. As Fort Jackson was
  bypassed, it was up to the gunners in Fort St Philip and the wooden
  gunboat fleet to stop the Union attack. 
  The leading Union ship was the USS Varuna, and the Governor Moore
  of the Louisiana Provisional Navy charged past the milling crowd of
  Confederate vessels to attack her. In the process she rammed and sank a
  Confederate tug which got in the way. Fire from the Union ships was
  intense. As the Confederate captain recalled, “This combined attack
  killed and wounded a large number of our men and cut the vessel up
  terribly. Suddenly two, then one Confederate ram(s) darted through the
  thick smoke from the right to the left bank of the river, passing close to
  all of us.” These vessels ran aground or were disabled before they could
  ram any of the Union vessels. 
  The Governor Moore was more fortunate. Her commander (Captain
  Beverley Kennon, Louisiana Provisional Navy) ordered oil to be poured
  on his furnaces to generate more power, then aimed his ram at the
  Varuna. He opened fire on her with her bow gun, then rammed the
  Union warship. Unable to depress the bow gun sufficiently to hit the
  enemy hull in the normal way, the Confederate gun crew fired through
  the bow of their own vessel. The second such shot disabled the Varuna’s
  bow gun. “We backed clear, gathered headway again, and rammed her a
  second time as near the same place as possible.” The Varuna drifted
  inshore, where her crew tried to beach her, but then the ram Stonewall
  Jackson came up and finished the job, sinking the Union gunboat in
  shallow water. 
  24
  The wooden cottonclad ram
  Stonewall Jackson depicted
  ramming the damaged wooden
  gunboat USS Varuna. The Union
  vessel sank, but the Confederate
  ram was subsequently raked by
  the remainder of the Union fleet,
  then scuttled by her own crew.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  A
  USS Lexington
  USS Switzerland
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  B
  CSS McRae
  CSS Stonewall Jackson
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  C
  The Governor Moore and the USS Varuna at the Battle of New Orleans, April 1862
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  USS QUEEN OF THE WEST
  10
  9
  8
  7
  6
  5
  4
  3
  2
  1
  11
  28
  29
  30
  31
  32
  33
  34
  35
  D
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  KEY
  1. Coal Bunkers
  2. Cotton Bales for extra protection
  3. Signal Masts 
  4. Berth Deck (Crew’s Quarters)
  5. Pilot House
  6. Ship’s Office
  7. Wardroom
  8. Smokestacks 
  9. Identification Letter
  10. Ship’s Galley
  11. Magazine
  12. Officers’ Staterooms
  13. Captain’s Day Cabin
  14. Captain’s Stateroom
  15. Ventilation Slots
  16. Ensign Staff
  17. Main Deck
  18. Tiller Ropes
  19. Boatswain’s Store
  20. Heads
  21. After Coal Bunker
  22. Dry Store
  23. Paddlewheel
  24. Paddlewheel Box
  25. Steam Condenser
  26. Steam Inlet Pipes
  27. Engine (one of two)
  28. Upper Deck Walkway
  29. Boiler (one of three)
  30. 12-pounder Howitzer and carriage
  31. Forward Coal Bunker
  32. Forward Store
  33. Reinforced Lower Hull
  34. 30-pounder Parrot rifle and carriage
  35. Ram Bow (timber, with iron cladding)
  12
  13
  14
  15
  16
  17
  18
  19
  20
  21
  22
  23
  24
  25
  26
  27
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  E
  CSS General Sterling Price
  CSS General Bragg
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  F
  The USS Tyler fighting the CSS Arkansas on the Yazoo River, July 1862
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  G
  USS Black Hawk
  USS Rattler
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  Minutes later the Governor
  Moore was engaged by the USS
  Cayuga, followed by the rest of
  the Union flotilla as they
  steamed past, and she was
  riddled with shellfire. Burning
  from stem to stern, she sank, her
  Louisiana state colors still flying.
  The badly damaged Stonewall
  Jackson was also abandoned. 
  Further downstream the CSS
  McRae also engaged the line of
  passing Union ships, exchanging
  broadsides with the powerful
  USS Brooklyn
  and the USS
  Iroquois before the rest of the
  fleet began to pour fire into her.
  Riddled and sinking, she was
  beached and abandoned by her
  crew. The same fate befell most
  of the Confederate wooden
  gunboats in the fleet. Unable to prevent the Union progress, they were
  cut off from their line of retreat up the river. The few vessels that
  survived the fight were destroyed by their own crews to prevent capture.
  Although the effectiveness of ramming tactics had been demonstrated,
  these gunboats had also proven their vulnerability to enemy shellfire.
  On May 10, 1862, the Union river fleet was above Fort Pillow,
  providing cover for mortar boats which were bombarding the
  Confederate positions. The vessel on point guard furthest downstream
  was the casemate ironclad USS Cincinnati. Smoke was spotted, and as the
  ironclad raised steam, Captain James E. Montgomery’s River Defense
  Fleet rounded the bend. Montgomery commanded his full flotilla of
  eight rams, and led the way in his flagship, CSS Little Rebel. His vessels
  were making approximately nine knots, steaming against a one-knot
  current. The Confederates had the advantage of surprise, and before the
  Cincinnati could get fully under way the CSS General Bragg rammed her
  on her starboard side. The Cincinnati replied with a broadside at point-
  blank range, sending the large wooden ram reeling downstream. Just
  then the CSS General Sterling Price smashed into the ironclad’s stern,
  disabling her rudder. 
  By this time other ironclads had entered the fight, and the USS
  Carondolet and the USS Mound City poured fire into the General Bragg,
  which drifted away, out of the fight. The CSS General Sumter was the next
  vessel to smash into the Cincinnati, causing severe damage. The leading
  mortar boat fired mortar shells over the Sumter to prevent sharpshooters
  on her decks firing into the ironclad. The CSS General Van Dorn replied
  by firing two 32-pounder shells into the mortar boat, disabling it
  completely. The ram then steamed past and rammed the Mound City, just
  seconds after the ironclad was rammed by the Sumter. The ironclad
  limped off, and sank in shallow water. Next, the ironclad USS Benton
  arrived and fired on the CSS Colonel Lovell, while the Carondolet hit the
  Sumter’s boiler, which exploded, causing heavy casualties. 
  33
  The Louisiana State cottonclad
  ram Governor Moore shown
  locked in combat with the gunboat
  USS Varuna, after ramming her,
  during the Battle of New Orleans.
  The Confederate gunners fired
  through their own hull in order to
  hit the enemy vessel.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  Faced with annihilation, Montgomery withdrew the remainder of his
  force. As he now faced the entire Union river ironclad fleet, he had little
  option. As the Benton and Carondolet gave chase, the Cincinnati sank in 
  11 feet of water, the last casualty of the battle. In an engagement that had
  only lasted about 40 minutes, two Union ironclads had been sunk for the
  loss of 108 men, and in return for heavy damage to three Confederate
  rams. Once more the effectiveness of ramming tactics had been
  demonstrated, this time against an armored opponent. Although what
  became known as the Battle of Plum Point was a Confederate victory,
  Montgomery could ill afford such losses, and both Union ironclads were
  raised and repaired. Next time the two fleets met, the North would have
  rams of their own.
  On June 6, 1862, the two fleets met again off Memphis in a dawn
  battle, watched by numerous onlookers on the shore. Once again, the
  Confederates fielded eight vessels, as the extensive damage to the ram
  fleet had been repaired. Five Union ironclads came downriver stern first,
  followed by five wooden Ellet rams (Queen of the West, Monarch,
  Switzerland, Lancaster, and Lioness). When the vessels came within range,
  the Union ironclads turned to face the enemy and the rams charged past
  them. The Confederate rams formed into two lines, each of four ships,
  and steamed to meet them. The CSS M. Jeff Thompson fired the first shot,
  and soon every ship was firing. The Colonel Lovell and the General
  Beauregard headed toward Ellet’s flagship, the Queen of the West, but at the
  34
  An aerial representation of
  Commodore Farragut’s Union
  fleet forcing its way past the
  forts below New Orleans on April
  24, 1862. In the bottom right
  corner, a number of Confederate
  gunboats are shown supporting
  the attack of the ironclad ram
  CSS Manassas. 
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  last minute the Confederate rams reversed their paddles to slow
  themselves down, which made them turn. Ellet smashed into the side of
  the Lovell, toppling the Confederate vessel’s smokestacks and leaving her
  filling with water. She drifted off to the eastern shore and sank, taking
  most of her crew with her. The Beauregard duly rammed the Queen of the
  West on her port wheelhouse, and the Union vessel limped away. Ellet
  was mortally wounded by a sharpshooter during the clash, and he died
  shortly afterwards. The Beauregard had virtually stopped in the water by
  this time, and the Monarch headed straight for her. The General Sumter
  steered for the Monarch, but the Union ram slipped past the two
  Confederate vessels, and the Sumter and Beauregard collided. Helpless,
  the Beauregard was fired on by the ironclad Benton, and her boiler was hit.
  The Confederate ram exploded, as did the M. Jeff Thompson. The
  remaining Confederate rams turned and fled, but one by one they were
  disabled and destroyed by the ironclads. Only the Earl Van Dorn escaped
  to the safety of Vicksburg. 
  This last great ram battle on the Mississippi River not only
  demonstrated the vulnerability of wooden gunboats to the fire of heavy
  shell guns, but it virtually destroyed the last remaining Confederate naval
  units on the river. Although the Confederate Navy would have other
  successes on the rivers, its gunboat fleet had been decimated. Ramming
  tactics were effective, but the action also demonstrated the need to
  combine the ram with a powerful armament. Union leaders took this
  lesson to heart, and upgraded the armament of their wooden fleet.
  These three river gunboat actions were characterized by close-range
  mêlées involving ramming and point-blank gunfire. Ramming tactics
  worked when the attacker had the benefit of surprise. Without it,
  wooden rams and gunboats simply invited destruction at the hands of
  more powerful warships.
  35
  After ramming the Varuna, the
  Confederate ram Governor Moore
  was devastated by fire from the
  Union fleet. In this engraving the
  USS Pensacola is shown pouring
  fire into the stricken gunboat.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  36
  SHIP LIST – UNION
  Note that the entries include the vessel’s principal area of operation,
  and where applicable, the identifying number painted on the pilot
  house from June 19, 1863, onwards. Where appropriate, vessels are
  listed by type, and in the order in which they entered service. Where
  no figures are given in length, displacement or other categories this
  means that the information was never recorded.
  USS = United States Ship
  NAME
  TYPE
  COMMISSIONED
  SERVED
  DISPLACEMENT
  TIMBERCLADS
  USS Tyler
  Sidewheel gunboat
  June 1861
  Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers
  420 tons
  USS Conestoga
  Sidewheel gunboat
  August 1861
  Mississippi River
  572 tons
  USS Lexington
  Sidewheel gunboat
  August 1861
  Mississipppi River
  362 tons
  USS Avenger
  Sidewheel gunboat
  February 1864
  Mississippi River
  410 tons
  RAMS
  War Department (Ellet) Rams
  USS Mingo
  Sternwheel ram
  April 1862
  Mississippi River
  228 tons
  USS Monarch
  Sidewheel ram
  April 1862
  Mississippi River
  406 tons
  USS Lancaster
  Sidewheel ram
  May 1862
  Mississippi River
  375 tons
  USS Lioness
  Sternwheel ram
  May 1862
  Mississippi River
  198 tons
  USS Queen of the West
  Sidewheel ram
  May 1862
  Mississippi River
  406 tons
  USS Switzerland
  Sidewheel ram
  May 1862
  Mississippi River
  519 tons
  USS Sampson
  Sternwheel ram
  May 1862
  Mississippi River 
  230 tons
  Other Rams
  USS Vindicator
  Sidewheel ram
  May 1864
  Mississippi and Red Rivers
  750 tons
  USS Avenger
  Sidewheel ram
  February 1864
  Mississippi River
  410 tons
  TINCLADS
  USS Brilliant (No. 18)
  Sternwheeler
  August 1862
  Mississippi River
  227 tons
  USS General Pillow
  Sidewheeler
  August 1862
  Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers
  38 tons
  (No. 20)
  USS Fairplay (No. 17)
  Sidewheeler
  September 1862
  Ohio and Cumberland Rivers
  162 tons
  USS St Clair (No. 19)
  Sternwheeler
  September 1862
  Mississippi River
  203 tons
  USS Marmora (No. 2)
  Sidewheeler
  October 1862
  Mississippi River
  207 tons
  USS Signal (No. 8)
  Sternwheeler
  October 1862
  Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers
  190 tons
  USS Black Hawk
  Sidewheeler
  December 1862
  Mississippi River (flagship)
  902 tons
  (not numbered)
  USS Forest Rose (No. 9)
  Sternwheeler
  December 1862
  Mississippi River
  260 tons
  USS Glide (I) 
  Sternwheeler
  December 1862
  Mississippi River
  137 tons
  (not numbered)
  USS Juliet (No. 4)
  Sternwheeler
  December 1862
  Mississippi River
  157 tons
  USS New Era (No. 7)
  Sternwheeler
  December 1862
  Mississippi and White Rivers
  157 tons
  USS Rattler (No. 1)
  Sternwheeler
  December 1862
  Mississippi River
  165 tons
  USS Romeo (No. 3)
  Sternwheeler
  December 1862
  Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers
  175 tons
  USS Silver Lake (No. 23)
  Sternwheeler
  December 1862
  Mississippi and Ohio Rivers
  236 tons
  USS Cricket (No. 6)
  Sternwheeler
  January 1863
  Mississippi and Red Rivers
  178 tons
  USS Springfield (No. 22)
  Sidewheeler
  January 1863
  Mississippi and Ohio Rivers
  146 tons
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  37
  LENGTH
  ARMAMENT
  REMARKS
  180 ft
  6 x 8 in smoothbores, 1 x 32-pdr smoothbore + 
  -
  3 x 30-pdr rifles September 1862
  -
  4 x 32-pdr smoothbores
  Sunk in collision, March 1864
  178 ft
  2 x 32-pdr smoothbores, 4 x 8 in smoothbores + 
  -
  2 x 30-pdr rifles September 1862
  210 ft
  6 guns
  -
  -
  -
  Sunk in collision, November 1862
  -
  -
  Sunk by ice damage, December 1864
  176 ft
  -
  Sunk by Confederate gunfire at Vicksburg, March 1863
  -
  -
  -
  181 ft
  4 guns
  Captured by Confederates, February 1863; destroyed 
  in action, April 1863
  178 ft
  -
  -
  -
  2 guns
  Converted into a floating machine shop from 
  September 1862
  210 ft
  5 guns
  -
  210 ft
  6 guns
  -
  155 ft
  4 guns
  -
  81 ft
  2 guns
  Former Confederate steamer, captured June 1862
  139 ft
  4 guns
  Former Confederate transport, captured August 1862
  156 ft
  4 guns
  -
  155 ft
  2 x 24-pdr, 2 x 12-pdr rifles + 4 x 24-pdr 
  -
  157 ft
  7 guns
  Destroyed to prevent capture, May 1864
  260 ft
  2 x 32-pdr, 2 x 30-pdr rifles, 2 x 12-pdr 
  Burned and sunk in accidental fire, April 1865
  smoothbore
  155 ft
  6 guns
  -
  -
  6 guns
  Burned and sunk in accidental fire, February 1863
  156 ft
  6 guns
  -
  137 ft
  -
  -
  -
  6 guns
  Sunk in storm, December 1864
  154 ft
  6 guns
  -
  155 ft
  6 guns
  -
  154 ft
  6 guns
  -
  140 ft
  6 guns
  -
  The tinclad gunboat USS Prairie Bird
  (No. 11) photographed at anchor off
  Vicksburg, Tennessee, following the
  capture of the city in July 1863. She
  carried eight 24-pounder howitzers,
  and used them twice in anger, at
  Eunice, Mississippi, in June 1863, 
  and at Gaine’s Landing, Arkansas, in
  August 1864. She is typical of the
  dozens of tinclad sternwheelers 
  which served in the Union river fleet.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  38
  NAME
  TYPE
  COMMISSIONED
  SERVED
  DISPLACEMENT
  TINCLADS (CONTINUED)
  USS Linden (No. 10)
  Sternwheeler
  January 1863
  Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers
  177 tons
  USS Prairie Bird (No. 11)
  Sternwheeler
  January 1863
  Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers
  171 tons
  USS Curlew (No. 12)
  Sternwheeler
  February 1863
  Mississippi River
  196 tons
  USS Covington (No. 25)
  Sidewheeler
  February 1863
  Tennessee River
  224 tons
  USS Petrel (No. 5)
  Sternwheeler
  February 1863
  Mississippi River
  226 tons
  USS Argosy (No. 27)
  Sternwheeler
  March 1863
  Mississippi River
  219 tons
  USS Hastings (No. 15)
  Sidewheeler
  April 1863
  Tennessee and White Rivers
  196 tons
  USS Queen City (No. 26)
  Sidewheeler
  April 1863
  Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers
  210 tons
  USS Champion (No. 24)
  Sternwheeler
  April 1863
  Mississippi River
  115 tons
  USS James Thompson
  Sidewheeler
  April 1863
  Mississippi and Red Rivers
  280 tons
  (No. 13)
  USS Naumkeag (No. 37)
  Sternwheeler
  April 1863
  Mississippi River
  148 tons
  USS Fawn (No. 30)
  Sternwheeler
  May 1863
  White River
  174 tons
  USS Kenwood (No. 14)
  Sternwheeler
  May 1863
  Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers
  232 tons
  USS Key West (No. 32)
  Sternwheeler
  May 1863
  Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers
  207 tons
  USS Moose (No. 34)
  Sternwheeler
  May 1863
  Mississippi River
  189 tons
  USS Silver Cloud (No. 28)
  Sternwheeler
  May 1863
  Mississippi River
  236 tons
  USS Alfred Robb (No. 21)
  Sternwheeler
  May 1863
  Mississippi River
  86 tons
  USS Exchange (No. 38)
  Sternwheeler
  June 1863
  Tennessee and Yazoo Rivers
  211 tons
  USS Reindeer (No. 35)
  Sternwheeler
  July 1863
  Mississippi River
  212 tons
  USS Victory (No. 33)
  Sidewheeler
  July 1863
  Mississippi and Ohio Rivers
  160 tons
  USS Paw Paw (No. 31)
  Centerwheeler
  July 1863
  Mississippi River
  175 tons
  USS Peosta (No. 36)
  Sidewheeler
  October 1863
  Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers
  204 tons
  USS Tawah (No. 29)
  Sidewheeler
  October 1863
  Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers
  108 tons
  USS Glide (II) (No. 43)
  Sternwheeler
  November 1863
  Gulf of Mexico
  232 tons
  USS Wave (No. 45)
  Sternwheeler
  November 1863
  Gulf of Mexico
  229 tons
  USS Stockdale (No. 42)
  Sternwheeler
  December 1863
  Gulf of Mexico
  188 tons
  USS Alexandria (No. 40)
  Sidewheeler
  December 1863
  Mississippi River
  60 tons
  USS Nyanza (No. 41)
  Sidewheeler
  December 1863
  Mississippi River
  203 tons
  USS Ouachita
  Sidewheeler
  January 1864
  Mississippi River
  572 tons
  (not numbered)
  USS Tensas (No. 39)
  Sidewheeler
  February 1864
  Mississippi River
  62 tons
  USS Gazelle (No. 50)
  Sidewheeler
  February 1864
  Red River
  117 tons
  USS Elfin (No. 52)
  Sternwheeler
  February 1864
  Mississippi River
  192 tons
  USS Fairy (No. 51)
  Sternwheeler
  March 1864
  Mississippi River
  173 tons
  USS Meteor (No. 44)
  Sternwheeler
  March 1864
  Gulf of Mexico
  221 tons
  USS Naiad (No. 53)
  Sternwheeler
  April 1864
  Mississippi River
  185 tons
  USS Nymph (No. 54)
  Sternwheeler
  April 1864
  Mississippi River
  171 tons
  The former luxury river steam boat
  New Uncle Sam was commissioned as
  the USS Black Hawk, and served as a
  floating command vessel for Admiral
  Porter during the siege of Vicksburg
  and the Red River campaign.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  39
  The tinclad USS Peosta (No. 36) was
  converted from a Cincinnati riverboat
  bearing the same name in late 1863.
  She operated on the Mississippi and
  Tennessee Rivers, and used her
  powerful armament of 14 guns
  (including three 30-pounder rifles) to
  bombard enemy troop concentrations
  at Paducah, Kentucky, in March 1864.
  (Mariners’ Museum)
  LENGTH
  ARMAMENT
  REMARKS
  154 ft
  6 guns
  Sunk after striking object in water, February 1864
  160 ft
  8 guns
  -
  159 ft
  7 guns
  -
  126 ft
  8 guns
  Abandoned and destroyed, May 1864
  -
  8 guns
  Captured by Confederates, then destroyed, April 1864
  156 ft
  8 guns
  -
  164 ft
  7 guns
  -
  -
  8 guns
  Captured by Confederates, then destroyed, June 1864
  146 ft
  5 guns
  150 ft
  6 guns
  Renamed Manitou in June 1863, and Fort
  Hindman in November 1863
  154 ft
  6 guns
  -
  159 ft
  6 guns
  -
  154 ft
  5 guns
  -
  156 ft
  6 guns
  Destroyed to prevent capture, November 1864
  155 ft
  10 guns
  -
  155 ft
  6 guns
  -
  115 ft
  4 guns
  Former Confederate transport, captured in April 1862
  155 ft
  6 guns
  -
  154 ft
  6 guns
  -
  157 ft
  6 guns
  -
  120 ft
  8 guns
  Sunk after striking underwater obstacle, August 1863; 
  salvaged and repaired, September 1863
  151 ft
  14 guns
  -
  114 ft
  8 guns
  Destroyed to prevent capture, November 1864
  160 ft
  6 guns
  -
  154 ft
  6 guns
  Captured by Confederates, May 1864
  -
  6 guns
  -
  90 ft
  2 guns
  Confederate gunboat, captured in July 1863
  -
  6 guns
  -
  227 ft
  5 x 30-pdr rifles, 18 x 24-pdr, 15 x 12-pdr, 
  Former Confederate riverboat
  smoothbores, 1 x 12-pdr
  92 ft
  2 guns
  Former Confederate gunboat
  135 ft
  6 guns
  -
  155 ft
  8 guns
  Burned to prevent capture, November 1864
  157 ft
  8 guns
  -
  156 ft
  6 guns
  -
  157 ft
  12 guns
  -
  161 ft
  12 guns
  -
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  40
  NAME
  TYPE
  COMMISSIONED
  SERVED
  DISPLACEMENT
  TINCLADS (CONTINUED)
  USS Tallahatchie (No. 46)
  Sternwheeler
  April 1864
  Mississippi River
  171 tons
  USS Undine (No. 55)
  Sternwheeler
  April 1864
  Mississippi River
  179 tons
  USS Carrabasset (No. 49)
  Sidewheeler
  May 1864
  Gulf of Mexico
  202 tons
  USS Elk (No. 47)
  Sidewheeler
  May 1864
  Gulf of Mexico
  162 tons
  USS Rodolph (No. 48)
  Sternwheeler
  May 1864
  Gulf of Mexico
  217 tons
  USS Huntress (No. 58)
  Sternwheeler
  June 1864
  Mississippi River
  211 tons
  USS Peri (No. 57
  Sternwheeler
  June 1864
  Mississippi River
  155 tons
  USS Sibyl (No. 59)
  Sternwheeler
  June 1864
  Mississippi River
  176 tons
  USS General Sherman
  Sidewheeler
  July 1864
  Tennessee River
  187 tons
  (No. 60)
  USS General Grant
  Sidewheeler
  July 1864
  Tennessee River
  204 tons
  (No. 62)
  USS General Thomas
  Sidewheeler
  August 1864
  Tennessee River
  184 tons
  (No. 61)
  USS General Burnside
  Sidewheeler
  August 1864
  Tennessee River (flagship)
  210 tons
  (No. 63)
  USS Siren (No. 56)
  Sternwheeler
  August 1864
  Receiving Ship, Mississippi River
  232 tons
  USS Grossbeak (No. 8)
  Sidewheeler
  February 1865
  Mississippi River
  196 tons
  USS Colossus (No. 25)
  Sternwheeler
  February 1865
  Mississippi River
  183 tons
  USS Mist (No. 26)
  Sternwheeler
  March 1865
  Mississippi River
  232 tons
  USS Oriole (No. 52)
  Sternwheeler
  March 1865
  Mississippi River
  236 tons
  USS Gamage (No. 60)
  Sternwheeler
  March 1865
  Mississippi River
  187 tons
  USS Collier (No. 29)
  Sternwheeler
  March 1865
  Mississippi River
  176 tons
  USS Ibex (No. 10)
  Sidewheeler
  April 1865
  Mississippi River
  235 tons
  USS Kate (No. 55)
  Sternwheeler
  April 1865
  Mississippi River
  241 tons
  USS Tempest (No. 1)
  Sternwheeler
  April 1865
  Mississippi River (flagship)
  161 tons
  USS Abeona (No. 32)
  Sidewheeler
  April 1865
  Mississippi River
  206 tons
  CAPTURED VESSELS NOT PREVIOUSLY LISTED
  USS General Bragg
  -
  -
  Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers
  -
  USS General Price
  -
  -
  Mississippi and Red Rivers
  -
  USS Sumter
  -
  -
  Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico
  -
  USS Barataria
  -
  -
  Gulf of Mexico
  -
  USS Little Rebel (16)
  -
  -
  Mississippi River
  -
  The tinclad USS Naiad (No. 53) entered
  service in the spring of 1864 and saw
  action during a series of engagements
  with Confederate shore batteries in
  Louisiana. Before being bought by the
  US Navy, she was the Princess, a
  passenger steamer operating on the
  Ohio River.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  41
  LENGTH
  ARMAMENT
  REMARKS
  -
  6 guns
  -
  -
  8 guns
  Captured by Confederates, October 
  1864; burned to prevent recapture, November 1864
  155 ft
  6 guns
  -
  156 ft
  6 guns
  -
  6 guns
  Sunk by mine, April 1865
  132 ft
  6 guns
  -
  148 ft
  7 guns
  -
  150 ft
  4 guns
  -
  168 ft
  5 guns
  Decommissioned by Navy, March 1865
  171 ft
  5 guns
  -
  165 ft
  5 guns
  -
  171 ft
  5 guns
  -
  155 ft
  8 guns
  -
  164 ft
  7 guns
  -
  115 ft
  7 guns
  -
  157 ft
  7 guns
  -
  125 ft
  9 guns
  -
  148 ft
  9 guns
  -
  158 ft
  9 guns
  -
  157 ft
  7 guns
  -
  160 ft
  10 guns
  -
  162 ft
  8 guns
  -
  157 ft
  5 guns
  -
  -
  -
  Formerly the CSS General Bragg; details listed in 
  Confederate entry
  -
  -
  Formerly the CSS General Sterling Price; details listed 
  in Confederate entry
  -
  -
  Formerly the CSS General Sumter; details listed in 
  Confederate entry; ran aground and abandoned, 
  August 1862
  -
  -
  Formerly the CSS Barataria; details listed in 
  Confederate entry; burned to prevent capture, April 1863
  -
  -
  Formally CSS Little Rebel; details listed in 
  Confederate entry
  The crew of a 100-pounder Parrott
  rifle at divisions, awaiting inspection.
  This gun formed the main armament
  of the Sassacus class gunboat USS
  Metacomet, which took part in the
  Battle of Mobile Bay. 
  (Private Collection) 
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  42
  SHIP LIST – CONFEDERATE
  CSS = Confederate States Ship; LSNS = Louisiana State Navy Ship
  NAME
  TYPE
  COMMISSIONED
  SERVED
  DISPLACEMENT
  THE NEW ORLEANS SQUADRON
  CSS McRae
  Screw gunboat
  March 1861
  -
  680 tons
  CSS Jackson
  Sidewheel gunboat
  May 1861
  -
  297 tons
  LSNS General Quitman
  Sidewheel 
  February 1862
  -
  945 tons
  cottonclad ram
  LSNS Governor Moore
  Sidewheel 
  January 1862
  -
  1,215 tons
  cottonclad ram
  CSS Warrior
  Sidewheel 
  March 1862
  -
  -
  cottonclad ram
  CSS Stonewall Jackson
  Sidewheel 
  March 1862
  -
  -
  cottonclad gunboat
  CSS Defiance
  Sidewheel gunboat
  December 1861
  -
  544 tons
  CSS Resolute
  Sidewheel gunboat
  March 1862
  -
  -
  CSS General Lovell
  Sidewheel ram
  March 1862
  -
  -
  CSS General Breckenridge
  Sternwheel gunboat
  April 1862
  -
  -
  OTHER VESSELS AT NEW ORLEANS
  CSS Anglo-Saxon
  Sidewheel gunboat
  January 1862
  -
  508 tons
  CSS Arrow
  Screw gunboat
  March 1862
  -
  -
  CSS Mosher
  Screw tugboat
  -
  -
  -
  CSS Star
  Screw tugboat
  -
  -
  -
  CSS Phoenix
  Screw tugboat
  -
  -
  -
  CSS Landis
  Sidewheel tender
  -
  -
  -
  CSS W. Burton
  Sidewheel tender
  -
  -
  -
  THE RIVER DEFENSE FLEET
  CSS Little Rebel
  Sidewheel
  February 1862
  -
  161 tons
  cottonclad ram
  CSS General Bragg
  Sidewheel 
  March 1862
  -
  1,024 tons
  cottonclad gunboat
  CSS General Sterling Price
  Sidewheel 
  January 1862
  -
  633 tons
  cottonclad ram
  CSS General Sumter
  Sidewheel 
  February 1862
  -
  524 tons
  cottonclad ram
  CSS General Earl Van Dorn
  Sidewheel 
  April 1862
  -
  -
  cottonclad ram
  CSS General M.
  Sidewheel 
  April 1862
  -
  -
  Jeff Thompson
  cottonclad ram
  CSS Colonel Lovell
  Sidewheel 
  November 1861
  -
  521 tons
  cottonclad ram
  CSS General Beauregard
  Sidewheel 
  April 1862
  -
  454 tons
  cottonclad ram
  OTHER CONFEDERATE GUNBOATS OPERATING ON THE MISSISSIPPI
  CSS Calhoun
  Sidewheel gunboat
  June 1861
  -
  508 tons
  CSS Ivy
  Sidewheel gunboat
  as privateer in
  -
  447 tons
  May 1861
  CSS James L. Day
  Sidewheel gunboat
  May 1861
  -
  414 tons
  CSS Oregon
  Sidewheel gunboat
  June 1861
  -
  532 tons
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  43
  LENGTH
  ARMAMENT
  REMARKS
  -
  8 guns
  Sunk following heavy damage in action, April 1862
  -
  2 guns
  Destroyed to prevent capture, April 1862
  230 ft
  2 guns
  Destroyed to prevent capture, April 1862
  220 ft
  2 guns
  Destroyed in action, April 1862
  -
  1 gun
  Destroyed in action, April 1862
  -
  1 gun
  Destroyed in action, April 1862
  178 ft
  1 gun
  Destroyed to prevent capture, April 1862
  -
  2 guns
  Destroyed to prevent capture, April 1862
  -
  1 gun
  Destroyed to prevent capture, April 1862
  -
  1 gun
  Destroyed to prevent capture, April 1862
  120 ft
  -
  Damaged and abandoned, April 1862; salvaged, and used as a 
  Union transport
  -
  1 gun
  Destroyed to prevent capture, June 1862
  -
  -
  Sunk in action, April 1862
  -
  -
  Sunk in action, April 1862
  -
  -
  Sunk in action, April 1862
  -
  -
  Damaged in action and captured, April 1862
  -
  -
  Damaged in action and captured, April 1862
  -
  3 guns
  Ran aground and captured, June 1862; later 
  used in Union service
  208 ft
  2 guns
  Ran aground and captured, June 1862; later 
  used in Union service
  182 ft
  4 guns
  Sunk in action, June 1862; later salvaged and 
  used in Union service
  182 ft
  5 guns
  Ran aground and captured, June 1862; later 
  used in Union service
  1 gun
  Burned to prevent capture, June 1862
  -
  Sunk in action, June 1862
  162 ft
  4 guns
  Sunk in action, June 1862
  162 ft
  5 guns
  Sunk at action, June 1862
  174 ft
  3 guns
  Captured, January 1862, and later used in Union service; transferred 
  to US Army, June 1864, and renamed General Sedgewick
  191 ft
  4 guns
  Destroyed to prevent capture, May 1863
  187 ft
  -
  Fate unknown, but probably destroyed to prevent capture, April 1862
  217 ft
  4 guns
  Destroyed to prevent capture, April 1862
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  COLOR PLATE COMMENTARY
  PLATE A 
  USS Lexington
  One of the first three Union gunboats to see service on the
  Mississippi River, the 362-ton USS Lexington carried a
  powerful broadside armament of four 8-inch smoothbore
  guns, and two 32-pounders (the latter guns carried in her
  deckhouse). She first saw action in a skirmish with the
  Confederate gunboat Jackson off Hickman, Kentucky, in
  October 1861, and also participated in the capture of Fort
  Henry on the Tennessee River. After the fort’s capture she
  roamed down the river as far as Florence, Alabama, during
  February 1862, before providing gunfire support for the army
  at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862. She spearheaded other
  drives up the White River in Arkansas and the Yazoo River in
  Mississippi during 1862 before participating in the capture of
  Fort Hindman on the Arkansas River in January 1863. Further
  operations up the Mississippi tributaries in Arkansas,
  Louisiana, and Tennessee followed. One of the most active
  Union gunboats on the Mississippi, the Lexington survived
  the war, and was sold out of service in August 1865.
  USS Switzerland
  One of the rams designed by Colonel Ellet (also known as
  War Department Rams), the Switzerland entered service in
  May 1862, just in time to participate in the Battle of Memphis
  on June 6. Although she was unable to ram anything during
  the battle, the Ellet Ram fleet distinguished themselves, and
  confounded their critics. Unlike the other rams in the fleet,
  her tall slab sides and sharp-angled superstructure permitted
  the fitting of additional armament, and extra ordnance was
  accordingly placed in a casemate on her upper deck. She
  took part in a reconnaissance up the Yazoo River in
  Mississippi before joining the main fleet outside Vicksburg.
  She was damaged in March 1863 as she and the ram USS
  FURTHER READING
  Bauer, Jack K., and Roberts, Stephen S.; Register of Ships of
  the US Navy, 1775-1990, Greenwood Press 
  (Westport, CT, 1991)
  Bennett, Frank M.; The Steam Navy of the United States,
  Warren and Company (Pittsburgh, PA, 1896)
  Canney, Donald L.; Lincoln’s Navy; The Ships, Men and
  Organization, 1861–65, Conway Maritime Press 
  (London, UK, 1998)
  Coombe, Jack D.; Thunder along the Mississippi: The River
  Battles that split the Confederacy, Sarpedon 
  (New York, 1996)
  Jones, Virgil Carrington; The Civil War at Sea [2 volumes],
  Rinehart and Winston (New York, 1960), reprinted in 3
  volumes by Broadfoot Press (Wilmington, NC, 1990)
  Musicant, Ivan; Divided Waters: The Naval History of the Civil
  War, Castle Books (Edison, NJ, 2000)
  Luraghi, Raimondo; A History of the Confederate Navy, Naval
  Institute Press (Annapolis, MD, 1996)
  Silverstone, Paul H.; Warships of the Civil War Navies, Naval
  Institute Press (Annapolis, MD, 1989)
  Still, William N., (ed.); The Confederate Navy; The Ships, Men
  and Organization, 1861–65, Naval Institute Press and
  Conway Maritime Press 
  (Annapolis, MD, and London, UK, 1997)
  Underwood, Robert, and Buel, Clarence Clough, (eds.)
  Battles and Leaders of the Civil War [Four Volumes],
  Century Company (New York, 1887), reprinted by Castle
  (Edison, NJ, 1987). Note that this source contains
  articles originally published in Century Magazine,
  including accounts by participants in the river battles on
  the Mississippi.
  Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the
  War of the Rebellion [30 volumes], Government Printing
  Office (Washington, DC, 1894–1921)
  44
  NAME
  TYPE
  COMMISSIONED
  SERVED
  DISPLACEMENT
  OTHER CONFEDERATE GUNBOATS OPERATING ON THE MISSISSIPPI (CONTINUED)
  CSS Barataria
  Sternwheel ironclad 
  September 1861
  -
  400 tons
  gunboat
  CSS Tuscarora
  Sidewheel gunboat
  August 1861
  Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers
  -
  CSS Webb
  Sidewheel 
  January 1862
  Mississippi and Red Rivers
  655 tons
  cottonclad ram
  CSS Pamlico
  Sidewheel gunboat
  September 1861
  Lake Pontchartrain
  218 tons
  CSS General Polk
  Sidewheel gunboat
  October 1861
  Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers
  390 tons
  CSS Grand Duke
  Sidewheel cottonclad 
  February 1863
  Red River
  508 tons
  gunboat
  CSS J.A. Cotton
  Sidewheel cottonclad 
  March 1863
  Red River
  372 tons
  gunboat
  CSS Livingston
  Sidewheel gunboat
  February 1862
  Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers
  -
  CSS Maurepas
  Sidewheel gunboat
  November 1861
  Mississippi and White Rivers
  399 tons
  CSS Pontchartrain
  Sidewheel gunboat
  March 1862
  Mississippi and Red Rivers
  454 tons
  CSS St Mary
  Sidewheel gunboat
  September 1862
  Yazoo River
  60 tons
  CSS Tom Sugg
  Sidewheel gunboat
  August 1861
  White River
  62 tons
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  45
  CSS Stonewall Jackson 
  One of a handful of wooden vessels that had been converted
  into warships, the Stonewall Jackson had her bow reinforced
  with wood and iron, creating a crude ram. Armed with a
  single 32-pounder smoothbore gun on her quarterdeck, the
  small sidewheel steamer had her engine rooms, boilers and
  superstructure reinforced by a bulwark of cotton bales, which
  extended from her holds up to above her upper deck,
  creating a protected bridge. In the battle of New Orleans she
  rammed and sank the USS Varuna, which had already been
  damaged by the Governor Moore, but then succumbed to
  the combined firepower of the Union fleet as it steamed past
  her. She was run aground in a sinking condition on the north
  bank of the river near New Orleans, and was then set on fire
  by her crew to prevent her capture.
  PLATE C 
  The Governor Moore and the USS Varuna at the
  Battle of New Orleans, April 1862
  In order to control the Mississippi River, the Union needed to
  control New Orleans. Its southern approaches were
  defended by the twin forts of Fort Jackson and Fort St Philip,
  and by a diverse collection of rams, gunboats, tugs, and
  Lancaster ran south past the city’s defenses, to link up with
  the ocean-going fleet below the city. Her consort was sunk.
  She was patched up, and repeated the action at Grand Gulf,
  Mississippi. For the remainder of the war she operated on the
  lower Mississippi and the Red River.
  PLATE B 
  CSS McRae
  This beautiful Confederate screw gunboat began her career
  in the Mexican Navy as the Marqués de la Habana. Her crew
  rebelled, and after committing acts of piracy, they were
  captured by the USS Saratoga in 1860. She was still
  impounded in New Orleans when Louisiana seceded, and the
  Confederate Navy duly purchased her. She became the
  backbone of the official naval presence on the lower
  Mississippi River. During 1861 she escorted blockade-
  runners out through the Mississippi Delta, then when the
  Union fleet established a close blockade, she attacked them
  in concert with other Confederate gunboats in October. Her
  final action took place on April 24, 1862, when the Union fleet
  under Commodore Farragut attacked the naval and shore
  defenses below New Orleans. She engaged several enemy
  warships at the same time, but was badly damaged. Left to
  founder, she limped upriver to New Orleans behind the Union
  fleet, then sank alongside the city wharf. She carried one
  9-inch smoothbore mounted on a 180-degree pivot behind
  her mainmast, and a broadside armament of six 32-pounder
  guns, plus a small 6-pounder rifle as a bow-chaser.
  Although numerous Union ocean-going gunboats were 
  used to enforce the naval blockade of the Confederacy,
  several “90-day” gunboats served on the Mississippi 
  during 1862. These illustrations show the lack of
  sophisticated shipbuilding facilities needed to produce
  gunboats during the war. Gunboats could be and were 
  built in primitive riverside shipyards. (Private Collection)
  LENGTH
  ARMAMENT
  REMARKS
  125 ft
  3 guns
  Captured, April 1862; later used in Union service
  2 guns
  Destroyed by accidental fire, November 1861
  206 ft
  3 guns
  Destroyed to prevent capture, April 1865
  -
  4 guns
  Destroyed to prevent capture, April 1862
  280 ft
  3 guns
  Destroyed to prevent capture, June 1862
  205 ft
  -
  Destroyed by accidental fire, September 1863
  185 ft
  4 guns
  Surrendered to Union forces, May 1865
  180 ft
  6 guns
  Destroyed to prevent capture, June 1862
  180 ft
  7 guns
  Sunk as blockship, June 1862
  204 ft
  7 guns
  Destroyed to prevent capture, October 1863
  90 ft
  2 guns
  Captured, July 1863; later used in Union Service 
  (as USS Alexandria)
  92 ft
  2 guns
  Captured, July 1863; later used in Union service 
  (as USS Tensas)
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  46
  sank with her Louisiana colors still flying. The plate depicts
  the scene when the Governor Moore fired her second shot.
  PLATE D 
  USS Queen of the West
  The USS Queen of the West was purchased by the US War
  Department in Cincinnati, Ohio, in May 1862, and converted
  into a ram, under the guidance of Colonel Charles Ellet. She
  served as Ellet’s flagship at the Battle of Memphis in June
  1862, when she rammed the Confederate wooden 
  ram Colonel Lovell. Rammed in her turn by the CSS 
  General Sumter, she came under fire from Confederate
  sharpshooters, who mortally wounded Ellet. Following
  repairs, she participated in the expedition up the Yazoo River
  which led to a running battle with the Confederate ironclad
  CSS Arkansas. She survived, and took part in operations
  around Vicksburg and on the Yazoo River before joining a
  reconnaissance expedition up the Red River into Louisiana.
  She ran aground in front of a Confederate fortification called
  Fort de Russy, on February 14, 1863 and was abandoned.
  The Confederates duly captured her, and she served against
  her former masters, participating in the sinking of the powerful
  ironclad USS Indianola near New Carthage, Mississippi, on
  February 24. Three weeks later, during an engagement on the
  Atchafalaya River in Louisiana, she was hit by a shell from the
  USS Calhoun, a former Confederate gunboat. She caught fire,
  and her crew abandoned ship minutes before the wooden
  ram exploded.
  PLATE E
  CSS General Sterling Price
  One of the Confederate River Defense Fleet, the CSS General
  Sterling Price was formerly the Laurent Millaudon, a
  Cincinnati river steamer. She was acquired and converted in
  New Orleans, becoming a “cottonclad” ram. This conversion
  involved the reinforcement of the bow with a wood and iron
  beam, the protection of the inside of her upperworks with a
  compressed “sandwich” of cotton and a wooden partition,
  and the addition of four 9-inch smoothbores. She fought at
  Fort Pillow and Memphis, Tennessee, and sank within sight
  of the city. She was duly raised by a Union salvage team, and
  she entered service as a Union river gunboat. Renamed the
  USS General Price, she operated around Vicksburg until the
  fall of the city in July 1863, apart from a brief foray up the Red
  River. Subsequently she took part in the attack on Grand
  Gulf, Mississippi, and the Red River Expedition in 1864.
  CSS General Bragg
  The largest vessel in the Confederate River Defense Fleet,
  the CSS General Bragg began her life as a ocean-going
  steamship before her conversion into a warship in early 1862.
  Like the General Sumter, her bulkheads were reinforced with
  compressed cotton, and her bows were fitted with a crude
  ram. Her principal weapon was a 30-pounder Parrott rifle, a
  rare gun in the Confederacy, although she also carried a 
  32-pounder smoothbore. She took part in the river battle of
  Plum Point (Fort Pillow) when she rammed the ironclad USS
  Cincinnati, causing her to sink, but the Confederate gunboat
  was badly damaged in the process. She was repaired in time
  to take part in the calamitous Battle of Memphis in June
  1862, when she was beached on a sandbar in a sinking
  condition. The General Bragg was raised and entered service
  The “walking beam engine” was the most common form of
  engine used on the paddleboats that plied the western rivers
  in peace and in war. Usually the structure extended several
  feet above the upper deck. This is an illustration from a
  treatise on steam engines, dated 1852. (Private Collection)
  ironclads. Before dawn on April 24, 1862, Commodore David
  G. Farragut led his ocean-going fleet against these defenses.
  Advancing in three divisions, the two leading groups were
  held up breaking through the line of obstructions in front of
  Fort Jackson, and the USS Brooklyn collided with the
  gunboat USS Kineo. In the confusion the Confederate
  ironclad ram CSS Manassas attacked the leading Union
  ships, creating more confusion. The wooden gunboat USS
  Varuna was now in the lead, followed at a distance by the rest
  of the fleet. The fleet of Confederate wooden rams launched
  an attack, but most were unable to close with the more
  powerful enemy warships. One exception was the Governor
  Moore, a wooden cottonclad ram in the service of the State
  of Louisiana. She shadowed the Varuna, and as the Union
  gunboat reached and passed the Quarantine Station, halfway
  between the forts and the city, the Governor Moore struck.
  She cut between the Varuna and the bank, then turned and
  rammed her amidships on her starboard side. As the two
  vessels were locked together, Captain Kennon of the
  Governor Moore found his bow gun was unable to fire on the
  enemy as the angle of fire was blocked by his own forecastle.
  He ordered the 32-pounder smoothbore to be fired down
  through his own deck, with the shot emerging through the
  bows of his gunboat to strike the Varuna. The first shot was
  deflected by the Governor Moore’s hawsepipe, but the
  second hit her bow gun. Next, the Governor Moore backed
  away, then as the Varuna turned, she rammed her again, this
  time on her port beam. The Varuna was a wreck, and a blow
  from the ram Stonewall Jackson finished her off. By this time
  the rest of the Union fleet had come up to the battle scene,
  and the Governor Moore was ripped apart by shellfire. She
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  as a Union gunboat, patrolling the upper Mississippi for most
  of the remainder of the war.
  PLATE F
  The USS Tyler fighting the CSS Arkansas on the
  Yazoo River, July 1862
  Like the Lexington and the Conestoga, the USS Tyler was
  one of the first Union gunboats to see service on the
  Mississippi River. Although small, she carried a powerful
  broadside armament of six 8-inch smoothbores, as well as a
  32-pounder deck gun. By September 1862 she was rearmed
  with an additional three 30-pounder Parrott rifles. She
  participated in the capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson,
  then supported General Grant’s army at the Battle of Shiloh.
  By mid-1862 the Union River fleet and the ocean-going fleet
  had joined forces above Vicksburg, but rumors that the
  Confederates were building an ironclad on the Yazoo River
  caused some concern. The USS Tyler was duly sent to
  investigate, accompanied by the USS Queen of the West and
  the casemate ironclad USS Carondolet. Soon after dawn on
  July 15, the three Union vessels had steamed several miles
  up the river when they spotted smoke coming from around a
  bend. The Tyler was well ahead of her consorts, and was the
  first to identify the oncoming vessel as the Confederate
  ironclad 
  CSS 
  Arkansas. 
  Lieutenant 
  William 
  Gwin
  commanding the Tyler fired his guns, then spun around,
  heading back downstream. Soon the three Union vessels
  were fighting a running battle, and sharpshooters on the Tyler
  wounded the Arkansas’ commander, Lieutenant Brown.
  Damage to the Carondolet forced the Union ironclad into the
  bank, and Brown closed and raked her, then brought his
  ironclad alongside and poured fire into the Union vessel at
  point blank range. Leaving her in a near-sinking condition,
  the Arkansas then backed away, intent on finishing off the
  two wooden gunboats. The Queen of the West fled downriver
  toward the safety of the Union fleet. Lieutenant Gwin wanted
  to fight, but left alone, he had little choice but to flee himself.
  Pursued by the Arkansas, the Tyler kept 200 yards ahead,
  and hit the Confederate ironclad in her smokestack, reducing
  her speed and allowing the gunboat to speed to safety. The
  Arkansas went on to run through the Union fleet to reach the
  safety of Vicksburg. The plate depicts the moment when 
  the Arkansas began backing away from the wounded
  Carondolet, and the Tyler in the foreground was left alone to
  fight the victorious Confederate ironclad.
  PLATE G 
  USS Black Hawk
  One of the strongest gunboats on the Mississippi River, the
  USS Black Hawk was built in New Albany, Indiana, in 1848 as
  the luxury river steamer New Uncle Sam. In November 1862
  she was purchased in Cairo, Illinois, for $36,000, and
  converted into a naval headquarters vessel for Admiral David
  D. Porter, the commander of the Union river forces on the
  Mississippi. She entered service in December 1862 when she
  joined the fleet above Vicksburg, and even though she was
  considered a tinclad warship, she still retained much of her
  former opulence. Palatial staircases, comfortable lounges
  and richly fitted state rooms gave the interior of the vessel the
  air of a luxury hotel, and Porter strictly enforced dress
  regulations and naval discipline. She also had teeth, carrying
  a bow armament of two 30-pounder Parrott rifles, as well as
  smoothbore guns. The floating headquarters was present at
  the capture of Fort Hindman on the Arkansas River in
  January 1863, the siege of Vicksburg during the summer of
  1863, and the disastrous Red River campaign of 1864. She
  was destroyed by an accidental fire days after the end of the
  war, in April 1865.
  USS Rattler
  Formerly the Cincinnati-built river steamer Florence Miller,
  the USS Rattler was acquired by the US Navy in November
  1862, and entered service five weeks later. She is included as
  a typical example of one of the small tinclad gunboats that
  served on the Mississippi and her tributaries from 1862 until
  the end of the war. A total of 71 such vessels served in the
  Union fleet during the war, most of them seeing extensive
  service. Powered by a stern paddlewheel, the Rattler was
  armed with two bow-mounted 30-pounder Parrott rifles and
  a 24-pounder smoothbore, while another three guns were
  carried inside her tinclad hull casemate on pivot mounts. The
  Rattler took part in the capture of Fort Hindman on the
  Arkansas River, then operated extensively in the river
  networks of Louisiana before she collided with an underwater
  obstruction and was wrecked near Grand Gulf, Mississippi, in
  December 1864.
  The USS Tyler photographed at anchor during a “make and
  mend” Sunday, when the crew were allowed to wash or
  repair their uniforms. The powerful little gunboat was
  damaged during her engagement with the ironclad CSS
  Arkansas on the Yazoo River in July 1862.
  Admiral David D. Porter commanded the Union river fleets
  on the Mississippi and her tributaries from his command
  ship, the USS Black Hawk. Although she was not really a
  warship, she did carry two 30-pounder rifles and two 
  32-pounder smoothbores for her own protection.
  47
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  INDEX
  48
  Figures in bold refer to illustrations
  Anaconda Plan, the  4
  Arkansas CSS  F, 3, 46, 47
  armament  19
  Confederate vessels  13, 14, 15, 20, 45, 46
  Dahlgren guns  20, 20(table), 21
  howitzers  19, 21(table)
  rams  8, 9, 20
  rifled  20, 21(table), 41
  smoothbore  19, 20(table)
  timberclads  7-8, 44, 47
  tinclads  10, 10-11, 47
  tugs  12
  armor
  cotton  B, 13, 15, 16, 45, 46
  timberclads  6
  tinclads  9-10
  Avenger, USS  9, 36-37(table)
  Benton, USS  33, 34, 35
  Bishop, Maser Joshua, USN  6
  Black Hawk, USS (formerly the New Uncle Sam)  G, 10, 
  36-37(table), 38, 47, 47
  Brooklyn, USS  24, 33, 46
  Cairo, USS  3
  Calhoun, USS  46
  Carondolet, USS  33, 34, 47
  Cayuga, USS  33
  Charles Morgan, the  13
  Chickamauga, USS  5
  Cincinnati, USS  33, 34
  Colonel Lovell, CSS  15, 33, 34-35, 42-43(table), 46
  conditions  21-22, 23
  Conestoga, USS  6-8, 7, 36-37(table)
  Confederate naval forces  3, 4, 17, 35
  administrative control  12-13, 14, 22
  bases  3, 22
  cottonclads  E, 13, 15, 46
  crews  18-19
  on the Mississippi  4-5
  the Navy  12
  the New Orleans Squadron  B, C, 12, 12-14, 14, 15, 23-24, 
  24, 33, 33, 35, 42-43(table), 45, 45-46
  rams  B, E, 13, 14, 14-16, 15, 16, 20, 24, 33, 35, 45, 46
  River Defense Fleet  E, 5, 14-16, 15, 16, 33-34, 
  42-43(table), 46-47
  supplies  23
  uniforms  23
  cottonclads  E, 13, 15, 46
  crews  7, 18-19, 20, 21, 22, 22-23
  Cumberland River  5, 16, 17
  daily routine  22, 22-23
  Defiance, CSS  13, 42-43(table)
  Eads, James M.  4, 6
  Ellet, Colonel Charles Rivers  8, 8, 35, 46
  engines  6, 46
  Fort Donelson, attack on, 1862  5, 17
  Fort Henry, attack on, 1862  5, 16, 17
  Fort Hindman, attack on, 1863  11, 47
  Fort Hindman, USS (formerly USS James Thompson)  11, 11
  Fort Pillow, battle of  5, 14
  General Beauregard, CSS  15, 34-35, 42-43(table)
  General Bragg, CSS (later USS General Bragg)  E, 15, 16, 33, 
  42-43(table), 46-47
  General Bragg, USS (formerly CSS General Bragg)  11, 
  40-41(table)
  General Breckinridge, CSS  13, 42-43(table)
  General Earl Van Dorn, CSS  15, 33, 35, 42-43(table)
  General Lovell, CSS  13, 42-43(table)
  General M. Jeff Thompson, CSS  15, 34, 35, 42-43(table)
  General Polk, CSS  14, 44-45(table)
  General Price, USS (formerly CSS General Sterling Price)  
  40-41(table), 46
  General Quitman, LSNS  13, 14, 42-43(table)
  General Sterling Price, CSS (formerly the Laurent Millaudon, 
  later USS General Price)  E, 15, 15, 33, 42-43(table), 46
  General Sumter, CSS (later USS Sumter)  33, 35, 
  42-43(table), 46
  Governor Moore, LSNS  C, 12, 13, 24, 33, 33, 35, 42-43(table), 
  45-46
  guerrillas  18
  Haynes Bluff, attack on, 1863  10
  hospital ships  12, 12
  Huger, Lieutenant Thomas B. CSN  18
  Indianola, USS  16, 46
  interior layout  D, 46
  ironclads  3, 17, 20, 33
  Iroquois, USS  33
  Island No. 10  14, 15
  Jackson, CSS  12, 14, 42-43(table), 44
  James Thompson, USS (later Manitou then Fort Hindman)  
  11, 11
  Kineo, USS  46
  Lancaster, USS  8, 34, 36-37(table), 44-45
  Laurent Millaudon, the  15
  Lexington, USS  A, 6-8, 7, 10, 36-41(table), 44
  Lincoln, President Abraham (1809-65)  4
  Lioness, USS  8, 34, 36-37(table)
  Little Rebel, CSS (later USS Little Rebel)  15, 33, 42-43(table)
  Livingstone, CSS  14, 44-45(table)
  Louisiana  4
  Louisiana, CSS  12, 23
  Louisiana State Navy  13
  Louisville, the  10
  Lovell, Lieutenant Colonel W.S.  14, 16
  maintenance  22, 23
  Manassas, CSS  12, 23, 24, 46
  Marmora, USS  11
  Maurepas, CSS  14, 44-45(table)
  McRae, CSS  B, 12, 13, 14, 14, 33, 42-43(table), 45
  Memphis, Tennessee  3, 5, 14, 17, 18-19, 34-35, 44, 46
  Metacomet, USS  41
  Mingo, USS  8, 36-37(table)
  Mississippi River  3, 5, 18
  strategic significance  4, 4-5, 16-17
  Mississippi, USS  24
  Missouri River  7, 18
  Monarch, USS  8, 34, 35, 36-37(table)
  Montgomery, Captain James E.  14, 33, 34
  Mound City, Illinois  4
  Mound City, USS  33
  Naiad, USS (formerly the Princess)  38-39(table), 40
  New Orleans  18-19
  battle of, 1862  C, 12-14, 17, 23-24, 24, 33, 33, 34, 35, 45, 
  45-46
  New Orleans floating battery  14
  New Uncle Sam, the (later USS Black Hawk)  G, 10, 38, 47
  Norfolk Navy Base, Virginia  4
  officers  18, 19, 21, 23
  Ohio River  6
  Ouachita, USS  10, 10, 38-39(table)
  Pensacola, USS  35
  Peosta, USS  39
  Phelps, Lieutenant Seth L. USN  6, 7
  Plum Point, battle of, 1862  33-34, 46
  Pontchartrain, CSS  14, 44-45(table)
  Pook, Samuel  6
  Port Hudson  5, 17
  Porter, Rear Admiral David Dixon (1813–91)  10, 47
  Prairie Bird, USS  37
  Princess, the (later USS Naiad)  40
  Queen of the West, USS  D, 8, 9, 34, 34-35, 36-37(table), 
  46, 47
  rams
  Confederate  B, E, 13, 14, 14-16, 15, 16, 20, 24, 33, 35, 
  45, 46
  effectiveness of  34, 35
  Union  A, D, 8, 8-9, 9, 17, 34-35, 36-37(table), 44-45, 46
  Rattler, USS  G, 36-37(table), 47
  Red River  5, 9, 10, 14, 17, 46
  Red Rover, USS  12, 12
  Resolute, CSS  13, 42-43(table)
  river patrols  13, 17-18
  Rodgers, Commander John, USN  6, 7
  role  5, 9, 17, 17-18
  Sampson, USS  8, 36-37(table)
  shipyards  45
  shore batteries  4
  significance of  5
  Stembe, Lieutenant Roger, USN  6
  Stonewall Jackson, CSS  B, 13, 15, 24, 24, 33, 42-43(table), 
  45, 46
  Sumter, USS (formerly CSS General Sumter)  11, 40-41(table)
  supplies  23
  support craft  5, 11-12, 12
  Switzerland, USS  A, 8, 8, 9, 34, 36-37(table), 44-45
  T. D. Horner, the  8
  tactics  35
  Tennessee River  5, 16, 17
  timberclads  A, F, 6, 6-8, 7, 10, 17, 36-37(table), 44, 47, 47
  tinclads  G, 9-11, 10, 11, 17, 17-18, 36-41(table), 37, 39, 
  40, 47
  tugs  12
  Tyler, USS  F, 6, 6-8, 10, 36-37(table), 47, 47
  Union naval forces  4, 5
  administrative control  19, 22
  bases  4, 22
  captured vessels  11-12, 17, 46, 46-47
  crews  7, 19, 20
  rams  A, D, 8, 8-9, 9, 17, 34-35, 36-37(table), 44-45, 46
  role  17
  strategy  5, 6, 16
  supplies  23
  support craft  5, 11-12, 12
  timberclads  A, F, 6, 6-8, 7, 10, 17, 36-37(table), 44, 
  47, 47
  tinclads  G, 9-11, 10, 11, 17, 17-18, 36-41(table), 37, 39, 
  40, 47
  tugs  12
  Varuna, USS  C, 13, 24, 24, 33, 45, 45-46
  Vicksburg  3, 5, 11, 17, 44-45
  Vindicator, USS  9, 9, 36-37(table)
  War Department, Union  6, 8, 19, 22
  warfare, innovations  3
  Warrior, CSS  13, 42-43(table)
  Webb, CSS  9, 16, 20, 44-45(table)
  Welles, Gideon, Union Secretary of the Navy (1802–78)  4
  White River  11
  Yazoo River  F, 5, 9, 11, 46, 47
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
  Related Titles - New Vanguard Series
  epub ISBN
  PDF ISBN
  No.
  TITLE
  9781780961392
  9781849086271
  7
  IS-2 Heavy Tank 1944–73
  9781849089678
  9781849089548
  106
  V-1 Flying Bombs
  9781849089753
  9781849089746
  111
  Apache
  9781780961477
  9781849089555
  117
  Jeeps 1941–45
  9781849089685
  9781849089562
  122
  HMMWV Humvee
  9781780963365
  9781780963358
  124
  German Battlecruisers 1914–18
  9781780962054
  9781849088190
  131
  US Field Artillery of World War II
  9781780962061
  9781849086288
  134
  Red SAM: The SA-2 Guideline Anti-Aircraft Missile
  9781780962078
  9781849089579
  137
  Japanese Tanks 1939–45
  9781780963426
  9781780963419
  138
  US Nuclear Submarines: The Fast Attack
  9781849089692
  9781849089586
  140
  Armored Trains
  9781780962702
  9781846038587
  143
  US Cruisers 1883–1904
  9781849089661
  9781846037863
  144
  Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  9781780963464
  9781846037641
  147
  American Light and Medium Frigates 1794–1836
  9781780962085
  9781846037733
  148
  US Patrol Torpedo Boats
  9781780961484
  9781846038655
  152
  T-80 Standard Tank
  9781780961491
  9781846038730
  153
  M551 Sheridan
  9781780962092
  9781846039027
  157
  Landing Craft, Infantry and Fire Support
  9781780961507
  9781849080880
  158
  T-62 Main Battle Tank 1965–2005
  9781780962108
  9781849080897
  159
  Staghound Armored Car 1942–62
  9781780962863
  9781849082525
  162
  US Destroyers 1934–45: Pre-war classes
  9781780963372
  9781849082587
  164
  German Battleships 1914–18 (1)
  9781780962115
  9781849082679
  165
  US Destroyers 1942–45: Wartime classes
  9781780963389
  9781849082860
  167
  German Battleships 1914–18 (2)
  9781780962719
  9781849082921
  169
  US Fast Battleships 1936–47
  9781780962122
  9781849082938
  170
  Spanish Civil War Tanks
  9781782001416
  9781846039546
  171
  Mil Mi-24 Hind Gunship
  9781780962726
  9781849083034
  172
  US Fast Battleships 1938–91
  9781780962139
  9781849083065
  173
  French Tanks of World War I
  9781849089715
  9781849083072
  174
  Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carriers
  9781780962733
  9781849081863
  175
  US Submarines 1900–35
  9781849088305
  9781849081887
  179
  Special Operations Patrol Vehicles
  9781780960814
  9781849083546
  180
  Kamikaze
  OSPREY
  P U B L I S H I N G
  
  First published in Great Britain in 2002 by Osprey Publishing,
  Midland House, West Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 0PH, UK
  44-02 23rd St, Suite 219, Long Island City, NY 11101, USA
  Email: info@ospreypublishing.com
  Osprey Publishing is part of the Osprey Group.
  © 2002 Osprey Publishing Ltd.
  All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research,
  criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,
  no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
  in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical,
  photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the
  copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers.
  A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library
  Print ISBN: 978 1 84176 413 9
  PDF e-book ISBN: 978 1 47280 095 4
  ePub e-book ISBN: 978 1 47280 061 9
  Editorial by Simone Drinkwater
  Design by Ken Vail Graphic Design, Cambridge, UK
  Index by Alan Rutter
  Origination by PPS Grasmere Ltd, Leeds, UK
  Typeset in Helvetica Neue and ITC New Baskerville
  Editor’s note
  All images are part of the Hensley Collection, Jupiter Beach, Florida, unless otherwise credited.
  The Woodland Trust
  Osprey Publishing is supporting the Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading woodland conservation
  charity, by funding the dedication of trees.
  www.ospreypublishing.com
  © Osprey Publishing. Access to this book is not digitally restricted. In return, we ask you that you use it for personal, non-commercial
  purposes only. Please don’t upload this ebook to a peer-to-peer site, email it to everyone you know, or resell it. Osprey Publishing re-
  serves all rights to its digital content and no part of these products may be copied, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any
  form by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise (except as permitted here), without the written permission of the
  publisher. Please support our continuing book publishing programme by using this e-book responsibly.
  Every effort has been made by the Publisher to secure permissions to use the images in this publication. If there has been
  any oversight we would be happy to rectify the situation and written submission should be made to Osprey Publishing.
  © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Osprey System/Campaign Series (CAM)/Osprey - NVA 049 - Mississippi River Gunboats of the ACW 1861-65.pdf