THE NAVY IN THE CIVIL WAR
Published
1883, 1885
------------------------
VOLUME III.
THE
GULF
AND
INLAND WATERS.
BY
A. T. MAHAN
COMMANDER, U.S. NAVY
CHAPTER
VI
MINOR OCCURRENCES IN 1863
On the 4th of July, the same day that Vicksburg surrendered,
an attack was made upon Helena, in Arkansas, by the Confederates in force. The
garrison at the same time numbered 4, 000 men, the enemy were variously
estimated at from 9,000 to 15,000. Having attacked the centre of the position;
the Confederates carried the rifle-pits and a battery upon the hills, in rear of
the town, which commanded all the other defensive works as well as the town
itself. They then began pushing masses of troops down the hill, while their
sharpshooters were picking off the artillerists in the main fort, called Fort
Curtis. Guns had also been placed in commanding positions near the river, both
above and below the town, and opened fire upon the line of defensive works
across the river bottom, there about a thousand yards in width.
Lieutenant-Commander Pritchett, of the Tyler,
seeing how the assault was about to be made, placed his vessel in front of the
town, so that her broadside played upon the enemy descending the hills, while
their artillery above and below were exposed to her bow and stern guns. From
this advantageous position the Tyler
opened fire, and to her powerful battery and the judgment with which it was used
must be mainly attributed the success of the day; for though the garrison fought
with great gallantry and tenacity, they were outnumbered two to one. The enemy
were driven back with great slaughter. General Prentiss, commanding the post,
took occasion to acknowledge, in the fullest and most generous manner,
Pritchett's care in previously acquainting himself with the character of the
ground, as well as the assistance afterward rendered by him in the fight. Four
hundred of the enemy were buried on the field and 1,100 were made prisoners.
While Grant was occupied at Vicksburg and Banks at Port
Hudson, General Taylor, commanding the Confederate forces in West Louisiana, had
concentrated, on the morning of the 6th of June, a force of three brigades at
Richmond, about ten miles from Milliken's Bend and twenty from Young's Point. At
Milliken's there was a brigade of Negro troops, with a few companies of the
Twenty-third Iowa white regiment, in all 1,100 men; and at Young's a few
scattered detachments, numbering 500 or 600. Taylor determined to try a surprise
of both points, having also a vague hope of communicating with Vicksburg, or
causing some diversion in its favor. At sundown of the 6th one brigade was moved
toward Milliken's Bend one toward Young's Point, the third taking a position in
reserve six miles from Richmond. The force directed against Young's Point
blundered on its way, got there in broad daylight, and, finding a gunboat
present, retired without making any serious attempt. The other brigade,
commanded by McCulloch, reached its destination about 3 A.M. Of the 7th, drove
in the pickets and advanced with determination upon the Union lines. The latter
were gradually forced back of the levee, the Iowa regiment fighting with great
steadiness, and the Negroes behaving well individually; but they lacked
organization and knowledge of their weapons. Accordingly when the enemy, who
were much superior in numbers, charged the levee and came hand to hand, the
colored troops, after a few moments of desperate struggle, broke and fled under
the bank of the river. Nothing saved them from destruction but the presence of
the Choctaw, which at 3.30 A.m. had
opened her fire and was now able to maintain it without fear of injuring her
friends. The Confederates could not, or would not face it, and withdrew at 8.30
A.M. What the fate of these black troops would have been had the Confederates
come upon them in the flush of a successful charge seems somewhat doubtful, in
view of Taylor's suggestive remark that "unfortunately some fifty of them
had been taken prisoners."
Immediately after the surrender of Vicksburg, Porter followed
up the discomfiture of the Confederates by a series of raids into the interior
of the country through its natural water-ways. Lieutenant-Commander Walker was
again sent up to Yazoo City, this time in company with a force of troops
numbering 5,000, under Major-General Herron. During the month that had passed
since Walker's last visit, the enemy had been fortifying the place, and the
batteries were found ready to receive the vessels. General Herron was then
notified, and when his men were landed, a combined attack was made by the army
and navy. The Confederates made but slight resistance and soon fled, abandoning
everything. Six heavy guns and one vessel fell into the Union hands, and four
fine steamers were destroyed by the enemy. Unfortunately, while the DeKalb
was moving slowly along she struck a torpedo, which exploded under her bow and
sunk her. As she went down another exploded under her stern, shattering it
badly. This gunboat, which at first was called the St.
Louis, was the third to be lost of the seven. The Cincinnati
was afterward raised; but the DeKalb
was so shattered as to make it useless to repair her.
At this same time Lieutenant-Commander Selfridge, with a force
of light-draught gunboats, entered the Red River, turned out of it into the
Black, and from the latter again into the Tensas; following one of the routes by
which Grant had thought to move his army below Vicksburg. This water-line runs
parallel with the Mississippi. Selfridge succeeded in reaching the head of
navigation, Tensas Lake and Bayou Macon, thirty miles above Vicksburg, and only
five or six from the Mississippi. The expedition was divided at a tributary of
the Black, called Little Red River; two going up it, while two. continued up the
Tensas. Afterward it went up the Washita as far as Harrisonburg, where the
batteries stopped them. Four steamers were destroyed, together with a quantity
of ammunition and provisions.
A few weeks later, in August, Lieutenant Bache, late of the Cincinnati,
went up the White River with three gunboats, the Lexington,
Cricket, and Marmora. At a second Little Red River, a narrow and crooked
tributary of the White, the Cricket
was sent off to look for two steamers said to be hidden there. Bache himself
went on to Augusta, thirty miles further up the White, where he got certain news
of the movements of the Confederate army in Arkansas; thus attaining one of his
chief objects. He now returned to the mouth of the Little Red, and, leaving the Marmora
there, went up himself to see how the Cricket
had fared. The little vessel was met coming down; bringing with her the two
steamers, but having lost one man killed and eight wounded in a brush with
sharpshooters. On their return the three vessels were waylaid at every available
point by musketry, but met with no loss. They had gone two hundred and fifty
miles up the White, and forty up the Little Red River.
During a great part of 1863, Tennessee and Kentucky, beyond
the lines of the Union army, were a prey not only to raids by detached bodies of
the enemy's army, but also to the operations of guerillas and light irregular
forces. The ruling feeling of the country favored the Confederate. cause, so
that every hamlet and farm-house gave a refuge to these marauders, while at the
same time the known existence of some Union feeling made it hard for officers to
judge, in all cases, whether punishment should fall on the places where the
attacks were made. The country between the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers
early in the year harbored many of these irregular bodies, having a certain
loose organization and a number of field-pieces. The distance between the two
streams in the lower part of their course being small, they were able to move
from the banks of one to the other with ease. It was necessary, therefore, to
keep these rivers patrolled by a force of gunboats; which, though forming part
of Porter's fleet, were under the immediate orders of Captain Alexander M.
Pennock, commanding the naval station at Cairo. West of the rivers, between
them and the great river, the western parts of Kentucky and Tennessee and the
northern part of Mississippi were under control of the Union troops, though
inroads of guerillas were not unknown. Nashville was held by the Union forces;
but the Confederates were not far away at Shelbyville and Tullahoma. The
fights between the gunboats and the hostile parties on these rivers do not
individually possess much importance, but have an interest in showing the
unending and essential work performed by the navy in keeping the communications
open, aiding isolated garrisons, and checking the growth of the guerilla war.
On the 30th of January Lieutenant-Commander S. L. Phelps,
having been sent by Captain Pennock in the Lexington
to make a special examination of the condition of affairs on the Cumberland
River, reported that, a transport having been fired upon twenty miles above
Clarksville, he had landed and burned a storehouse used as a resort by the
enemy. As he returned the vessel was attacked with some Parrott rifles and
struck three times; but the heavy guns of the Lexington drove the enemy off. Going down to Clarksville he met
there a fleet of thirty-one steamers, having many barges in tow, convoyed by
three light-draught gunboats. These he joined, and the enemy having tested the
power of the Lexington, did not fire a
shot between Clarksville and Nashville. As a result of his enquiries he
thought that no transport should be allowed to go without convoy higher than
Fort Henry or Donelson, situated on either river on the line separating Kentucky
and Tennessee. The Lexington was
therefore detained, and for a time added to the flotilla on those rivers.
Four days later, Lieutenant-Commander Le Roy Fitch, in active
charge of the two rivers, was going up the Cumberland with a fleet of
transports, convoyed by the Lexington
and five light-draughts. When twenty-four miles below Dover, the town on the
west bank near which Fort Donelson was situated, he met a steamer bearing a
message from Colonel Harding, commanding the post, to the effect that his
pickets had been driven in and that he was attacked in force. Fitch at once left
the convoy and pushed ahead as fast as he could. A short distance below the town
he met a second steamer with the news that Harding was surrounded. At 8 P.m. he
arrived, and found the Union forces not only surrounded by overwhelming forces
but out of ammunition.
The enemy, not thinking about gunboats, had posted the main
body of his troops in a graveyard at the west end of the town, the left wing
resting in a ravine that led down to the river, thus enabling the vessels to
rake that portion of his line. The gunboats opened fire simultaneously up the ravine,
into the graveyard and, upon the valley beyond. Taken wholly by surprise, the
Confederates did not return a shot, but decamped in haste. Leaving two boats to
maintain the fire through the ravine, Fitch hastened up with the other four to
shell the main road, which, after leaving the upper end of the town, follows
nearly the bank of the stream for some distance. The attacking force in this
case was 4,500 strong, composed of regular Confederate troops under Generals
Wheeler, Forrest, and What-ton. By 11 P.m. they had disappeared, leaving 140
dead. The garrison, which numbered only 800, had defended itself gallantly
against this overwhelming force since noon, but was in extremis when the
gunboats arrived.
On the 27th of March, Fitch was at Fort Hindman, on the
Tennessee, where he took on board a force of 150 soldiers and went up the river.
On reaching Savanna he heard of a cotton-mill four miles back being run for the
Confederate army. The troops and a force of sailors were landed and took the
mill, although a regiment of the enemy's cavalry was but two or three miles
away. Finding no sure proof of its working for the army, they did not destroy
the building, but removed some of the essential parts of the machinery. Going on
to Chickasaw, south of the Tennessee
line, as the water was too low for the Lexington, he sent on two light-draughts as far as Florence, where
they shelled a camp of the enemy. The rapid falling of the river obliged them to
return. On the way a quantity of food and live stock belonging to a noted
abettor of guerilla warfare were seized.
Having returned to the mouth of the Cumberland to coal, Fitch
received a telegram on the 3d of April that a convoy had been attacked at
Palmyra, thirty miles above Dover, and the gunboat St. Clair disabled. He at
once got under way, took five light-draughts besides his own vessel, the Lexington,
and went up the river. When he reached Palmyra he burned every house in the
town, as a punishment for the firing on unarmed vessels and harboring guerillas.
A quick movement followed against a body of the enemy higher up the stream, but
they had notice of his approach, and had disappeared.
On the 24th a steamer was fired upon in the Tennessee, and
three men badly wounded. Fitch went at once to the scene, but the enemy were
off. On the 26th, cruising up the river, he found the vessels of General Ellet,
commanding what was now called the Marine Brigade, fighting a battery and body
of infantry 700 strong. Fitch joined in, and the enemy were of course repulsed.
The Marine Brigade landed and pursued the enemy some distance, finding their commander
mortally wounded.
On the 26th of May Lieutenant-Commander Phelps, with the
Covington and two other gunboats, was at Hamburg, on the Tennessee, a few miles
from the Mississippi State line. Here he ferried across 1,500 cavalry and four
light fieldpieces from Corinth, in Mississippi, under Colonel Cornyn. This
little body made a forced march upon Florence, forty miles distant, in rear of
the left of the Confederate army at Columbia, captured the place and destroyed a
large amount of property, including three cotton-mills. An attempt was made by
the enemy to cut this force off on its return to the boats, but without success.
Early in July a very daring raid was made by General J. H.
Morgan of the Confederate army into the States of Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio.
Crossing the Ohio River at Brandenburg, he moved in an easterly direction
through the southern part of Indiana and Ohio, burning bridges, tearing up
railroads, destroying public property, capturing small bodies of troops, and
causing general consternation. Fitch heard of him, and at once started up the
river with his lightest vessels to cut off the retreat of the raiders. Leaving
some boats to patrol the river below, he himself, in the Moose, came up with them on the 19th, at a ford a mile and a half
above Buffington Island, and two hundred and fifty miles east of Cincinnati. The
retreating enemy had placed two field-pieces in position, but the Moose's
battery of 24pound howitzers drove them off with shell and shrapnel. The
troops in pursuit had come up, so the Confederates, finding their retreat
stopped, broke and ran up the stream in headlong flight, leaving their wounded
and dismounted men behind. The Moose
followed, keeping always on their right flank, and stopping two other efforts
made to cross. Only when the water became too shoal for even his little paddle
steamer of one hundred and sixty tons to go on, did Finch stop the chase, which
had led him five hundred miles from his usual station. His efforts and their
useful results were cordially acknowledged by Generals Burnside and Cox, at
Cincinnati.
During the siege of Port Hudson the enemy on the west bank of
the Mississippi made several demonstrations against Donaldsonville and
Plaquemine, with a view to disturbing General Banks's communications;
threatening also New Orleans, which was not well prepared for defence. Farragut
stationed the Princess Royal,
Commander Woolsey, at Donaldsonville; the Winona,
Lieutenant-Commander Weaver, above at Plaquemine, and the Kineo,
Lieutenant-Commander Watters, some distance below. The Confederates attacked the
fort at Donaldsonville in force at midnight of June 27th. The Princess
Royal kept under way above the fort, engaging the assailants, the Winona
arriving at 4 A.M. and joining with her. The Kineo
also came up from below, but not in time to take part. The storming party of the
enemy succeeded in getting into the fort, but the supports broke and fled under
the fire of the gunboats, leaving the advance, numbering 120, prisoners in the
hands of the garrison. On the 7th of July, as the Monongahela
was coming up the river, some field batteries of the enemy attacked her, and her
commander, Abner Read, an officer of distinguished activity and courage, was
mortally wounded. Her other loss was 1 killed and 4 wounded; among the latter
being Captain Thornton A. Jenkins, on his way to assume command of the Richmond
and of the naval forces off Port Hudson.
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