James Buchanan Eads
An inventive civil engineer and
businessman, Eads helped to think
up the idea of a Union flotilla of
ironclads in the Mississippi.
The seven City-class ships were
constructed at his shipyards.
ACTION ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVERriver flotilla arrived with
its seven ironclads plus a
group of mortar schooners,
but their guns failed to have
a decisive impact on the
island’s defenses. Pope’s
solution was to work his way
around the Confederate position and cut
its supply line through Tennessee. He
dug a canal to move troop transports
downstream of the island and also had
two ironclads slip past the island’s
batteries under cover of darkness. With
this support, his troops were able to
cross the river to the Tennessee shore.
Surrounded and outnumbered, the
island garrison surrendered on April 8.
Confederate success
The chief remaining obstacle between
the Union gunboats and their destination
Memphis was Fort Pillow, which the
gunboats started to bombard in May.
Desperate to defend Memphis, the
Confederates sent eight cottonclad rams
north, leaving New Orleans seriously
short of naval defense. On
May 10, the cottonclads,
commanded by James
Montgomery, inflicted
a sharp reverse on the
Union flotilla at Fort
Pillow. They pressed
through Union
gunfire to ram the
ironclads USS Mound
City and USS Cincinatti,
both of which sank.Memphis falls
This action, often known
as the Battle of Plum Point Bend,
boosted Confederate morale, but did
not reverse the tide of the war. Fort
Pillow fell regardless, abandoned by the
Confederates after the Union capture of
the vital railroad junction at Corinth in
late May left it exposed to land attack.
By June 1862, New Orleans had
fallen to Farragut’s fleet and Memphis
was now indefensible in the face of
Union armies pushing south from
Tennessee. A climactic river battle was
fought in sight of
the city on June 6.
Impressed by the
effectiveness of the
Confederate rams
at Plum Point
Bend, the Unionflotilla had acquired its own squadron
of nine rams—converted tugs rebuilt
by Pennsylania engineer Charles Ellet
and crewed by civilian riverboat men.
When Montgomery’s cottonclad rams
steamed out to meet the Union flotilla,
cheered on by crowds of spectators on
the Memphis bluffs, they were crushed
by Ellet’s rams and the gunfire of the
five remaining Union Pook Turtles.
Only one Confederate ship escaped.Vicksburg stands firm
With the fall of Memphis, only the
Confederate fortress at Vicksburg stood
in the way of Union control of the
Mississippi. In late June, Farragut’s fleet
steamed upriver to join the river flotilla
in a combined attack on Vicksburg, but
their guns made little impression on a
determined garrison. On July 15, CSS
Arkansas, a Confederate ironclad arrived
at Vicksburg and sailed through the
Union fleet, disabling the ironclad USS
Carondelet and inflicting substantial
casualties before taking refuge under
the fortress’s guns. This act of bravado
was followed by
the withdrawal of
the Union ships in
late July, conceding
that for now
Vicksburg could not
be overcome.Confederate efforts to reverse Union gains
on the Mississippi failed, but Union forces
found it difficult to make further progress.ASSAULT ON BATON ROUGE
In late July, Confederate troops under John C.
Breckinridge were sent to retake Baton Rouge
with support from the ironclad CSS Arkansas
and a river squadron. Breckinridge attacked
on August 5 with some success, but his naval
support never materialized, as the Arkansas
suffered engine failure. Exposed to fire from
Union gunboats, the Confederates withdrew.ATTEMPTS TO TAKE VICKSBURG
Through the second half of 1862, efforts by
Union General Grant to mount a land assault
on Vicksburg were equally unsuccessful. The
Confederate fortress at Vicksburg was not
conquered until July 1863 190–193 ❯❯.THE BATTLE OF BATON ROUGEAFTER
The number of Union casualties
recorded at the naval battle of
Memphis. The victim was Charles
Ellet, commander of the Union
rams, who was fatally wounded. The
Confederates lost about 180 men.