In 1852, the sidewheel steamerEd Howard was launched at New Albany, Indiana. She was 280 feet (85m) long and had a beam of 35 feet (11m),[1] along with a draft of less than 6 feet (2m).[2] She had a tonnage of 390 tons.[1][3] She was a packet steamer between Nashville, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana. On March 7, 1856, she sank the steamboat Henry Lewis in an accidental collision. In a separate incident, she also collided with and sank the steamboat Swallow. In 1860, her master was J. W. Fowler.[4] With the formation of the Confederate States of America and the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, the Confederacy began the task of creating a navy from scratch.[5] The Ed Howard was at New Orleans in 1861, and was purchased by the Confederate government,[1] for $8,000 by CommodoreGeorge N. Hollins. Confederate general Leonidas Polk desired the vessel for use on the upper portion of Confederate control on the Mississippi River, and Ed Howard was in turned named General Polk after him. Polk requested and received the assignment of First Lieutenant Jonathan H. Carter to command of the vessel, which was a gunboat.[2] The vessel was also known solely as Polk.[3]
The work to convert General Polk from a civilian steamship into a warship took place at Algiers, Louisiana. Part of the labor requirements were met by leasing slave labor, and over $9,000 of materials were required to complete the conversion, which was slowed by rainy weather. The bow and stern of the ship were armored with iron bars.[6] A total of 77,305 pounds (35,065kg) of iron was ordered by Carter for use on General Polk. Part of her superstructure and passenger spaces were removed during the conversion. Carter wanted General Polk to be armed with true rifled cannon, but none were available so the Confederate authorities converted old smoothbore32-pounder guns into rifled pieces.[6] While her initial armament was two rifled 32-pounders and a smoothbore 32-pounder,[7] at various points during her military service, the armament varied between three and seven cannons.[3] Upon conversion, she had a draft of less than 4 feet (1.2m).[7] Between the cost of purchase, conversion, and repairs, General Polk cost the Confederacy $60,459.99.[8]General Polk was re-launched by the end of September and was commissioned on October 22.[7] On November 10 she left New Orleans for Columbus, Kentucky, which had been occuppied by Polk's Confederate army forces. She arrived there on November 20.[9] On November 30, General Polk, along with two other Confederate gunboats, met the approach of three Union vessels and followed them back towards Fort Holt. January 11, 1862, saw General Polk and three other Confederate vessels skirmish with two Union ironclads in the Battle of Lucas Bend. The Confederate vessels had moved upriver for reconnaissance purposes, when the ironclads sighted a Confederate ship that was, according to the naval historian Neil Chatelain, likely General Polk. The two sides fired on each other for about 20 minutes until the Confederates withdrew downriver.[10]
In early March 1862, the Confederates abandoned Columbus. The naval forces at Columbus, under the command of Hollins, withdrew to New Madrid, Missouri.[11] Union troops captured Point Pleasant, Missouri, on March 6, and began establishing an artillery position there. General Polk and the gunboat CSS Pontchartrain fired on the position at Point Pleasant on March 7, but were unable to silence it. Further Confederate attempts to silence the guns through March 9 also failed.[12] On March 13, Union forces opened fire on the Confederate positions at New Madrid with heavy artillery. General Polk was struck by four shots, and the Confederates decided to withdraw.[13]General Polk and the gunboat CSS Livingston escorted a transport for the evacuation of one of the Confederate defensive positions, Fort Thompson.[14] On March 18, General Polk joined five other Confederate ships in a failed attempt to silence a Union battery that had taken up a position across the Mississippi River from Tiptonville, Tennessee, at Riddle's Point. General Polk was hit by a Union shot that passed all the way through the vessel, with the exit hole being below the waterline. The damage caused the ship to have to be withdrawn from the fighting.[15]General Polk was intentionally run aground by the Confederates to prevent her from sinking.[16]
Map of the Island No. 10, New Madrid, and Point Pleasant areas
Hollins used his ships to transport supplies to the Confederate troops defending Island No. 10, even though the ships now had to pass the Union positions at Riddle's Point and Point Pleasant.[17] Early on the morning of April 8, the Confederates surrendered Island No. 10, and the Confederate fleet withdrew to Fort Pillow in Tennessee.[18] Hollins received information on April 9 that New Orleans was threatened by a Union fleet, and he left for that city. First Lieutenant Thomas Huger commanded the Confederate vessels until Commander Robert Pickney could arrive. On April 13, Huger led an abortive attack against the Union fleet near Fort Pillow. The attempt was made by General Polk, three vessels of the River Defense Fleet, and four other Confederate gunboats. Late on April 12, a Confederate scouting mission had been informed that the Union forces planned an attack for the next day. Huger decided to launch a surprise attack early on April 13 before the Union could strike, but when the Confederate ships sighted the Union fleet and saw that it was prepared for combat, they withdrew.[19] While in the Fort Pillow area, General Polk's guns were offloaded for use in Fort Randolph.[20] Pickney took command later that month,[3] and General Polk and Livingston were sent down to Memphis, Tennessee, for refitting.[21]
The fall of Corinth, Mississippi, led the Confederates to abandon Fort Pillow in early June, and Pickney ordered the Confederate warships to scatter into the various tributaries of the Mississippi River.[22] Only two of General Polk's guns at Fort Randolph were retrieved before the evacuation of the area.[20]General Polk and Livingston ended up on the Yazoo River, where they were joined by the cottoncladCSS General Earl Van Dorn, the only River Defense Fleet ship to survive the First Battle of Memphis in Confederate hands.[23] The three vessels defended the Yazoo River at Liverpool Landing, Mississippi, while the ironclad CSS Arkansas was being completed upriver.[20]General Polk's two guns were again offloaded and emplaced in a shore position.[24] On June 26, two Union ships, the ramsUSS Monarch and USS Lancaster, moved up the Yazoo River.[25] Pickney ordered General Polk, General Earl Van Dorn, and Livingston burned at Liverpool Landing to prevent them from falling into Union hands. Arkansas was on a test run down the Yazoo River when the burning occurred, but by the time the ironclad arrived, the vessels had been destroyed.[26] The wreck was removed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1878 and 1879.[27]
Canney, Donald L. (2015). The Confederate Steam Navy 1861–1865. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer. ISBN978-0-7643-4824-2.
Chatelain, Neil P. (2020). Defending the Arteries of Rebellion: Confederate Naval Operations in the Mississippi River Valley, 1861–1865. El Dorado Hills, California: Savas Beatie. ISBN978-1-61121-510-6.
Silverstone, Paul H. (1989). Warships of the Civil War Navies. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN0-87021-783-6.
Way, Frederick (1994). Way's Packet Directory, 1848–1994: Passenger Steamboats of the Mississippi River System Since the Advent of Photography in Mid-Continent America. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University. ISBN0821411063.
CSS Arkansas was the lead ship of her class of two casemate ironclads built for the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Completed in 1862, she saw combat in the Western Theater when she steamed through a United States Navy fleet at Vicksburg in July. Arkansas was set on fire and destroyed by her crew after her engines broke down several weeks later. Her remains lie under a levee above Baton Rouge, Louisiana at 30°29′14″N91°12′5″W.
USS Tyler was originally a merchant steamboat named A. O. Tyler, a commercial side-wheel steamboat with twin stacks and covered paddles positioned aft. Constructed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1857, it was acquired by the United States Navy, 5 June 1861 for service in the American Civil War and converted into the gunboat USS Tyler on 5 June 1861. She was commissioned in September 1861. She was protected with thick wooden bulwarks.
CSS Oregon was a wooden sidewheel steamer that served as a gunboat in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Built in 1846 for the Mobile Mail Line, she transported mail between New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, before the war. In 1861, she was seized by the Governor of Louisiana, Thomas Overton Moore, and served as a blockade runner before being selected for use by the Confederate Army. After transferring men and supplies to Ship Island, she was formally converted into a gunboat and armed with four cannon. Remaining behind on Lake Pontchartrain when many Confederate warships were transferred up the Mississippi River, Oregon served in the Mississippi Sound and Pass Christian areas. She took part in several minor actions involving USS New London, two of which resulted in the Confederates moving into shallow water to avoid close-range action, and the third ending when the Confederate ships abandoned the Pass Christian area. In April 1862, Union pressure confined her and other Confederate ships to Lake Pontchartrain. Later that month, with Union forces closing in on New Orleans, Oregon was sunk as a blockship. Her wreck was removed and destroyed in the early 1870s.
USS Cairo is the lead ship of the City-class casemate ironclads built at the beginning of the American Civil War to serve as river gunboats.
Laurent Millaudon was a wooden side-wheel river steamboat launched at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1856 operating in the New Orleans, Louisiana, area, and captained by W. S. Whann. At the beginning of the American Civil War she was taken into service by the Confederate Navy as CSS General Sterling Price. On 6 June 1862, she was sunk at the First Battle of Memphis. She was raised and repaired by the Union army, and on 16 June 1862 was moved into Union service as USS General Price and served until the end of the war.
The Battle of Plum Point Bend took place in Tennessee during the American Civil War on May 10, 1862, on the Mississippi River, between ships of the Confederate River Defense Fleet and the Union Western Flotilla. Fighting for control of the Mississippi had been ongoing since the prior year as Union forces pushed downriver to Fort Pillow, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Memphis. The Union had been using mortar boats to bombard Fort Pillow, and had settled into a regular routine. The Union's daily tactic was to send a single mortar boat guarded by an ironclad warship to a position further downriver to shell the fort, while the rest of the fleet remained upriver. On the morning of May 10, the Confederates attacked in the hope of capturing the guard ironclad and then surprising the rest of the Union fleet.
The United States Ram Fleet was a Union Army unit of steam powered ram ships during the American Civil War. The unit was independent of the Union Army and Navy and reported directly to the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton. The ram fleet operated in coordination with the Mississippi River Squadron during the Union brown-water navy battle against the Confederate River Defense Fleet for control of the Mississippi River and its tributaries.
USS Monarch was a United States Army sidewheel ram that saw service in the American Civil War as part of the United States Ram Fleet and the Mississippi Marine Brigade. She operated on the Mississippi River and Yazoo River during 1862 and 1863.
CSS General Earl Van Dorn was a cottonclad warship used by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. She was purchased for Confederate service in New Orleans, Louisiana, in early 1862 to serve with the River Defense Fleet. She was converted into a cottonclad warship by installing an iron-covered framework of timbers on her bow that served as a ram, and protecting her machinery with timber bulkheads packed with cotton. A sidewheel steamer, she was 182 feet (55 m) long and was armed with a single 32-pounder cannon on the bow.
Seth Ledyard Phelps was an American naval officer, and in later life, a politician and diplomat. Phelps received his first commission in United States Navy as a midshipman aboard the famous USS Independence. He served patrolling the coast of West Africa guarding against slavers. During the Mexican–American War he served on gunboats, giving support to Winfield Scott's army, and later served in the Mediterranean and Caribbean squadrons.
USS Sumter was a 525-ton sidewheel paddle steamer captured by the Union Navy during the Union blockade of the American Civil War.
CSS New Orleans was a floating battery used by the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Converted from a floating drydock in 1861, she was commissioned on October 14, 1861. The vessel was unable to move under her own power and lacked facilities for her crew to live aboard, so CSS Red Rover was used to move the floating battery and house her crew. She was then sent upriver to assist in the Confederate defense of Columbus, Kentucky, arriving there in December. After the Confederates abandoned Columbus in March 1862, New Orleans was moved to Island No. 10 near New Madrid, Missouri. The Confederate defenders of Island No. 10 surrendered on April 8, and New Orleans was scuttled that day. Not fully sunk, the floating battery drifted downriver to the New Madrid area, where it was captured by Union forces. In Union hands, New Orleans was used as a floating drydock until the Confederates burned her in August or September 1863.
CSS General M. Jeff Thompson was a warship which served in the River Defense Fleet of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Purchased in January 1862, the vessel was operated by the Confederate States Army and named after M. Jeff Thompson, an officer in the Missouri State Guard. She was equipped with a ram and armored as a cottonclad. General M. Jeff Thompson participated in the Battle of Plum Point Bend in May 1862, before being sunk on June 6 in the First Battle of Memphis. Her wreck remained on the floor of the Mississippi River until it was removed by a snagboat in July 1867; it had caused a shipwreck about six months earlier when another vessel struck it.
CSS Ivy was a sidewheel steamer and privateer purchased by Commodore Lawrence Rousseau for service with the Confederate States Navy, and chosen by Commodore George Hollins for his Mosquito Fleet. The Mosquito Fleet was a group of riverboats converted to gunboats, and used to defend the Mississippi River in the area of New Orleans during the American Civil War.
The Battle of Lucas Bend took place on January 11, 1862, near Lucas Bend, four miles north of Columbus on Mississippi River in Kentucky as it lay at the time of the American Civil War. In the network of the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio rivers, the Union river gunboats under Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote and General Ulysses S. Grant sought to infiltrate and attack the Confederate positions in Tennessee. On the day of the battle, the Union ironclads Essex and St Louis, transporting troops down the Mississippi in fog, engaged the Confederate cotton clad warships General Polk, Ivy and Jackson and the gun platform New Orleans at a curve known as Lucas Bend in Kentucky. The Essex, under Commander William D. Porter, and the St Louis forced the Confederate ships to fall back after an hour of skirmishing during which the Union commander was wounded. They retreated to the safety of a nearby Confederate battery at Columbus, where the Union vessels could not follow.
CSS Pickens was a Cushing-class schooner revenue cutter that saw service in the navies of the United States and Confederate States of America. Built as Robert McClelland in Somerset, Massachusetts, in 1853, she served along the coasts of Louisiana and Texas before transferring her crew and officers to USRC Washington in 1859 and heading to New York for repairs. In 1860, Robert McClelland reported to South West Pass, Mississippi, and was permanently assigned to New Orleans, Louisiana, later that year. After the 1861 secession of Louisiana, her commander turned her over to the state. She entered Confederate service on February 18 and was renamed Pickens. Pickens played a minor role in the Battle of the Head of Passes before being burned to prevent its capture on April 25, 1862, after Union Navy forces entered New Orleans.
CSS Tuscarora was a sidewheel steamer that briefly served as a gunboat in the Confederate States Navy at the beginning of the American Civil War. She was about 100 feet (30 m) long, displaced 400 short tons, and was manned by a 25-man crew. The vessel was purchased in 1861 from the Southern Steamship Company by Confederate authorities in New Orleans, Louisiana. Armed with two cannons, Tuscarora was engaged in the Battle of the Head of Passes on October 12, 1861. Ordered up the Mississippi River to Columbus, Kentucky, in November, she was destroyed on November 23, 1861, when a fire of unknown origin started in her boilers and spread to the ship's munitions.
CSS Maurepas was a sidewheel steamer that briefly served as a gunboat in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Built in 1858 in Indiana as Grosse Tete, the vessel was used in commercial trade until 1860 and then delivered mail until 1861, when she was acquired by the Confederate Navy.
CSS Carondelet was a sidewheel steamer that served in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Construction for the vessel started in 1861, and she was launched on January 25, 1862, and commissioned on March 16. Her sister ship was CSS Bienville. On April 4, Carondelet, along with CSS Oregon and CSS Pamlico, took part in a small naval action near Pass Christian against USS New London, USS John P. Jackson, and the troop transport USS Henry Lewis. Carondelet suffered damage to her wheel during the fight, and likely fired the only two shots that struck John P. Jackson. Later that month, with the Confederates abandoning New Orleans, Louisiana, Carondelet was scuttled by her crew in either Lake Pontchartrain, the Tchefuncte River, or the Bogue Falaya River.
CSS Pontchartrain was a gunboat that served in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. Built in 1859 for passenger and cotton trade, she was purchased by the Confederates in October 1862. After seeing action against Union land positions during the campaigns for New Madrid, Missouri, and Island Number Ten, she was transferred to serve on the Arkansas River and the White River. In June 1862, two of her cannons were taken to a land fortification at St. Charles, Arkansas, where part of her crew saw action in the Battle of St. Charles while manning the guns. Her other cannons were then offloaded at Fort Hindman, where more of her crew were captured while fighting on land at the Battle of Arkansas Post in January 1863. Pontchartrain herself remained inactive at Little Rock, Arkansas, and was burned to prevent capture in September 1863 when the Confederates evacuated the city.
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