The operation would require a deep penetration into enemy territory that was dominated by water, so cooperation between the two services was necessary. The Union Army forces were commanded by Brigadier General Leonard F. Ross, while the Union Navy flotilla was led by Lieutenant Commander Watson Smith, whose extremely poor health was an important factor in the ultimate failure of the expedition.
The expedition began on February 3, 1863 with the breaching of a levee on the Mississippi River, allowing water to flow from the river into a former channel that connected with the Yazoo River through a series of other waterways. The attacking fleet passed through the cut into Moon Lake, through the Yazoo Pass to the Coldwater River, and then into the Tallahatchie, which combines with the Yalobusha to form the Yazoo River, which met the Mississippi a short distance above Vicksburg. From the start, the expedition was delayed by natural obstacles that were more serious than the perfunctory Confederate resistance, so forward motion was as little as ten miles (16km) a day. Because progress was so slow, the Confederate Army under Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton was able to set up a fort and block passage of the Federal fleet near the town of Greenwood, Mississippi. The Federal fleet did not approach the fort until March 11; then, the ironclad gunboats of the fleet were repulsed in a series of gunfire exchanges on three separate days. Because of the nature of the ground, much of which was under water, the Army troops present could not contribute significantly to the battle.
Following the third repulse on March 16, Lieutenant Commander Smith's health failed him completely, and he turned command over to Lieutenant Commander James P. Foster. Foster and Ross decided to withdraw to the Mississippi. They were temporarily persuaded to try again when they met reinforcements for the Army, but they resumed their retreat when the new army commander, Brigadier General Isaac F. Quinby, saw the futility of further attacks. The entire force had returned by April 12, and the expedition was over.
Background
The Vicksburg campaign was bogged down in early 1863, following the repulse of the Union forces under Brigadier General William T. Sherman at Walnut Hills (or Chickasaw Bayou) late the previous year. Major General Ulysses S. Grant wanted to keep his troops busy until he could begin active campaigning later in the spring, so he ordered them to undertake several moves that would give the appearance of activity but would not bring on a major battle. Grant, writing in his memoirs long after the event, stated that he did not have great confidence that any of them would prove successful, although he was prepared to take advantage of them if they did.[2] One of the operations he put in motion became known as the Yazoo Pass expedition because it used a waterway of that name.
Geography
The western part of the state of Mississippi, from the Tennessee state line to the north and Vicksburg at the south, is a part of the flood plain of the Mississippi River. As such, it is quite low; in many places, it is in fact lower than the level of the river. The region is therefore occupied by numerous marshes, brakes, sloughs, bayous, lakes, creeks, and rivers that in the geologic past were parts of the river bed. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, overflow from the Mississippi continued to pass into these waters, and they could be used as alternatives to the main river for water transportation. One such route left the Mississippi at a point a little south of Helena, Arkansas, passed through Moon Lake (an oxbow lake, i.e. a former loop of the river that had been cut off when it changed course), and followed the Yazoo Pass to the Coldwater River. The Coldwater is a tributary of the Tallahatchie River, which combines with the Yalobusha to form the Yazoo River at Greenwood, Mississippi. The Yazoo then flows 188 miles (303km), to reenter the Mississippi a short distance above Vicksburg. This changed in 1856, however, when the coming of the railroad induced the state to drain some of the land for agricultural uses. To that end, they built artificial levees to confine the river to its main course. Deprived of its principal source, the water level behind the levee dropped as much as eight feet (approximately 2.5 m).[3]
Preliminaries
1865 descriptive map
The Army and Navy had distinct but not incompatible reasons to get their forces to the east of Vicksburg. Grant wanted to get his soldiers onto dry ground with no rivers between him and the Confederate defense. Once that was done, he believed that he could flank Pemberton's Confederate army. At the same time, he could divert a part of the expedition up the Yalobusha River to destroy a railroad bridge that was enabling the enemy to threaten his own line of communications. Porter's purpose was to use his armored gunboats to destroy Rebel shipping at Yazoo City. He emphasized that any enemy ironclads must be destroyed, if possible on the stocks. Although the two services had divergent goals, this did not affect the expedition adversely; its ultimate failure is ascribed to other causes.[4]
A preliminary survey by Acting Master George W. Brown in the tinclad USSForest Rose confirmed the feasibility of the operation, and on February 3, 1863 a group of some 400 pioneers under Lieutenant Colonel James H. Wilson dug two gaps in the levee at the site where the Old Yazoo Pass had formerly met the Mississippi. At this time, the difference in water level between the river and the former stream bed was eight feet (2.4m), so the water rushed through the openings with great vigor, enlarging the gap and carrying away everything in its path. By the next day, the gap had increased in size to 80 yards (73m). The flow was so great that the vessels assigned to the expedition could not safely enter for several days. The flotilla of gunboats and army transports passed through the gap on February 24 and immediately proceeded into Moon Lake.[5]
Advance and Confederate response
Map of the path of the Yazoo Pass expedition from the Mississippi River to the Coldwater River, prepared by Lt. Col. James H. Wilson (Corps of Engineers).
The naval contingent consisted of seven gunboats and a tug. Five of the gunboats were of a type known colloquially as "tinclads," vessels of light draft carrying thin armor capable of protection only against infantry weapons: USSRattler, Marmora, Signal, Romeo, and Forest Rose. The other two were the larger and heavier Baron De Kalb, one of the original City class ironclads, and Chillicothe, an inferior second-generation copy. Later, another gunboat, Petrel, and two rams, USS Lioness and USS Dick Fulton, would join the expedition. Lieutenant Commander Watson Smith led the flotilla from his flagship Rattler.[6]
The Army contributed nine infantry regiments that were carried in thirteen transports. An additional 600 or so soldiers were sent aboard the tinclads to defend them, if necessary, from Rebel boarding parties that could be expected in an operation so deep in enemy territory. Grant would have sent more troops, but a shortage of available transports prevented him from doing so. The troops were a part of the XIII Corps, under the command of Brigadier General Leonard F. Ross. Later, they would be reinforced by a column led by Brigadier General Isaac F. Quinby, who ranked Ross.[7]
The Confederates in the meantime were not idle. Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton was aware of his opponents' intent as soon as the levee had been breached, if not before, and he gave orders to Major General William W. Loring to stop them. He immediately organized some work details to block the Yazoo Pass and Coldwater River by felling trees across the streams, but they were largely ineffective. The obstructions were quickly removed by Union army engineers under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Wilson. More serious, however, was a fort that Loring ordered to be built a few miles upstream from the point where the Tallahatchie and Yalobusha Rivers combine to form the Yazoo. A peculiarity of the courses of the Tallahatchie and the Yazoo is that they flow past each other on opposite sides of a neck of land that is only a couple of hundred yards (or meters) wide.[8] Here, Loring's men made a barricade of cotton bales, covered them with layers of dirt, and mounted a pair of heavy guns. This hastily constructed earthwork was named "Fort Pemberton," or sometimes "Fort Greenwood." He had other batteries lining the bank of the Tallahatchie almost all the way to the Yalobusha, and still others on the Yazoo. In addition, he had built a boom or raft that could be swung out to block the stream, and in the channel just downstream of this he scuttled a ship, the former Star of the West.[9]
Loring had time to set up the defense because the progress of the Union flotilla was painfully slow. Instead of pushing ahead with his ironclads, Lieutenant Commander Smith insisted that the entire force, gunboats and transports alike, should move together. They could move only in daylight hours, but Smith continued to recoal his vessels during the day. Furthermore, they would waste hours in the early mornings and would stop at midday for lunch. Moving faster than the current, according to Smith, "brings us foul."[10] Ross protested strongly against the lack of urgency, as did Smith's second in command, Lieutenant Commander James P. Foster. Their pleas were disregarded. Smith's torpor may have been a result of his declining health; he had been sick when the expedition started, but he had stayed on, hoping that he would improve when his fleet was in motion. Instead, he only got worse, and he eventually had to relinquish command to Foster. By then, however, it was too late.[11]
Clash at Fort Pemberton
Opposing forces near Fort Pemberton. The Union fleet and battery are shown in blue, the Confederate forces in red.
The Union flotilla finally arrived in the vicinity of Fort Pemberton on March 11, more than five weeks after the levee at Yazoo Cut had been breached. A probe sent out by the Army, accompanied by Chillicothe, found that the terrain near the fort was too marshy to support an attack by infantry. The attack would have to be carried out by the gunboats, aided by whatever artillery could be brought ashore and brought to bear. Not even all of the gunboats could participate; because the river was rather narrow, only two boats could engage at a time, and these only bows on to the enemy.[12] The initial probe was followed by a more determined bombardment by Chillicothe and Baron De Kalb. In this action, Chillicothe sustained the most serious injury of the operation. A shell from Fort Pemberton passed through one of her gun ports while the 11-inch (280mm) gun was being loaded, striking the shell and causing both to explode. The gun itself was not harmed, but 14 members of the gun crew were killed or wounded. Another man was killed by a later hit. Baron De Kalb did not suffer any significant damage, because of her superior construction and because the Confederate gun crews concentrated their fire on the more vulnerable Chillicothe.[13]
The next day (March 12) was given over to repairing the damage suffered by the gunboats, and giving them additional protection by placing cotton bales on the foredecks. Smith also landed a pair of 30-pounder Parrott guns, one from his flagship Rattler and the other from Forest Rose. He also sent ashore a 12-pounder howitzer. They were sited some 800 yards (730m) from the fort, and were, like the guns in the fort, shielded by cotton bales covered with dirt.[14]
The two ironclads returned to action on March 13, this time assisted by the shore battery and the mortar boat. The Confederate gunners again concentrated their fire on Chillicothe. Although she lost only three wounded among her crew, the pounding she took from the enemy artillery loosened many of her armor plates and generally revealed the inadequacy of her construction. Baron De Kalb, although not punished so severely, lost three of her officers and men killed and three others wounded. The Rebels lost some of their men also, when a shell entered a magazine. Although it did not explode, its fuze set fire to the ammunition stored there, and the fire killed one man and burned 15 others. Another shell killed a man and wounded two others. At the end of the day, Fort Pemberton was basically unscathed; the gunboats, however, particularly Chillicothe, had been badly battered. Smith failed to note that the Confederate fire was slackening at the end of the day, their ammunition supply being depleted.[15]
Smith spent the next two days repairing his vessels and landing a broadside 8-inch (200mm) gun taken from Baron De Kalb. He and Ross decided to make a determined assault on Monday, March 16. The ironclads would be pushed closer to Fort Pemberton than before in order to be better able to silence its guns. They would advance side by side with the mortar boat lashed between them. Infantry would follow in tinclads behind them, ready to go ashore as soon as the guns in the fort were knocked out and a suitable landing place could be found. The planned attack collapsed almost immediately when a series of shot or shell hit Chillicothe's casemate. The impact buckled the armor plates in such a manner that the gun port stoppers could not be raised. Chillicothe was forced to retire, and Smith decided to pull the relatively undamaged Baron De Kalb out of action also. That was essentially the end of the Union effort. Smith finally realized that his health was impeding the expedition, so he turned command over to his second-in-command, Lieutenant Commander James P. Foster.[16]
Foster and Ross decided together that further effort would be futile, so the flotilla began to withdraw the next day. They had not gone far when they encountered a group of Union transports bringing in reinforcements under the command of Brigadier General Isaac F. Quinby, whose appointment predated that of Ross and who therefore ranked him. Quinby ordered Ross to go back down the river to renew the attack, and he persuaded Foster (whom he could not order) to accompany him. A few desultory probes were launched in the next several days, but Quinby found what Ross already knew, that the land was unsuitable for an infantry assault. Quinby received orders from Grant to return to the Mississippi, where he and Ross were needed for the next assault on Vicksburg. The flotilla withdrew from Fort Pemberton for the last time, and by April 14 all had returned.[17]
The Vicksburg campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in the Western Theater of the American Civil War directed against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress city that dominated the last Confederate-controlled section of the Mississippi River. The Union Army of the Tennessee under Major General Ulysses S. Grant gained control of the river by capturing this stronghold and defeating Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton's forces stationed there.
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.
The first USS Miami was a side-wheel steamer, double-ender gunboat in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Glide was a sternwheel steamer that served as a tinclad warship during the American Civil War. Built in 1862, the Union Navy purchased her for military service late that year. After being converted to a tinclad and armed with six 24-pounder Dahlgren guns, she entered service with the Mississippi River Squadron in early January 1863. Later that month, she saw action in the Battle of Arkansas Post, firing on Confederate-held Fort Hindman. Sent the next month to Cairo, Illinois, for repairs, Glide was destroyed in a fire of uncertain origin on February 7.
USS Marmora was a sternwheel steamer that served in the Union Navy from 1862 to 1865, during the American Civil War. Built in 1862 at Monongahela, Pennsylvania, as a civilian vessel, she was purchased for military service on September 17 and converted into a tinclad warship. Commissioned on October 21, the vessel served on the Yazoo River beginning the next month. She encountered Confederate naval mines on the Yazoo on December 11, and was present the next day when the ironclad USS Cairo was sunk by two mines. After further service on the Yazoo during the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou in late December, Marmora was assigned in January 1863 to a fleet that was preparing to operate against Confederate Fort Hindman, but was not present when the fort surrendered on January 11.
The Battle of Snyder's Bluff was fought from April 29 to May 1, 1863, during the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. Federal Major General Ulysses S. Grant had decided to move most of his army down the west bank of the Mississippi River and then cross south of Vicksburg, Mississippi, at Grand Gulf as part of his campaign against the city. To cover his planned crossing, Major General William T. Sherman took Francis P. Blair Jr.'s division of his XV Corps on a maneuver up the Yazoo River to feint at Confederate defenses at Snyder's Bluff and Drumgould's Bluff.
USS Baron DeKalb was a City-class ironclad gunboat constructed for the Union Navy by James B. Eads during the American Civil War.
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.
The battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip was the decisive battle for possession of New Orleans in the American Civil War. The two Confederate forts on the Mississippi River south of the city were attacked by a Union Navy fleet. As long as the forts could keep the Federal forces from moving on the city, it was safe, but if they fell or were bypassed, there were no fall-back positions to impede the Union advance.
USS Mound City was a City-class ironclad gunboat built for service on the Mississippi River and its tributaries in the American Civil War. Originally commissioned as part of the Union Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla, she remained in that service until October 1862. Then the flotilla was transferred to the Navy and she became part of the Mississippi River Squadron, where she remained until the end of the war.
USS Signal – a small 190-ton steamship – was acquired during the second year of the American Civil War by the Union Navy and outfitted as a gunboat. She also served other types of duty, such as that of dispatch vessel and convoy escort.
USS Linden was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Navy to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.
USS Rattler was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
The Pook Turtles, or City-class gunboats to use their semi-official name, were war vessels intended for service on the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. They were also sometimes referred to as "Eads gunboats." The labels are applied to seven vessels of uniform design built from the keel up in Carondelet, Missouri shipyards owned by James Buchanan Eads. Eads was a wealthy St. Louis industrialist who risked his fortune in support of the Union.
Isaac Ferdinand Quinby was a U.S. soldier and Union general during the American Civil War.
The Steele's Bayou expedition was a joint operation of Major General Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee and Rear Admiral David D. Porter's Mississippi River Squadron, conducted as a part of the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. Its aim was to move Union forces from the Mississippi River to a point on the Yazoo River upstream of Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton's defenses of Vicksburg. To avoid enemy artillery in place on the bluffs to the east of the city, the expedition would leave the Yazoo and proceed indirectly on a route through a series of waterways in the flood plain to the east of the Mississippi.
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 Yazoo City was an engagement in Mississippi during a month-long Union expedition up the Yazoo River in the American Civil War. The Union force commanded by Colonel James Henry Coates repulsed an attack led by Confederate Brigadier General Lawrence Sullivan Ross. The Union force suffered greater losses and withdrew down the river the next day with a large amount of cotton seized or bought from plantations along the river. The expedition was undertaken in cooperation with Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Meridian campaign.
USS Romeo was a sternwheel steamer that saw service as a tinclad warship during the American Civil War. Completed in August 1862 for civilian trade on the Wabash River, she was instead purchased by the Union Navy for military service in October. Commissioned in December, she cleared naval mines on the Yazoo River later that month before participating in the operations against Confederate-held Fort Hindman in January 1863. After the fall of Fort Hindman, Romeo was part of an expedition up the White River. In February and March 1863, she was part of the Yazoo Pass Expedition, and she fought with Confederates at river landings later in the year to help isolate Vicksburg, Mississippi, during the Vicksburg campaign.
Fort Pemberton is a historic artillery battery located at Leflore County, Greenwood, Mississippi. It was built in early 1863 during the Vicksburg Campaign of American Civil War. The fort was located on the route of the Yazoo Pass, near the confluence of the Tallahatchie and Yalobusha Rivers. Fort Pemberton was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 19, 1973.
↑ At present, a part of the Tallahatchie flows through a crossover channel near the former site of Fort Pemberton, thus in effect making the land opposite the city of Greenwood an island. The crossover did not exist in 1863.
↑ Star of the West was famed for her role in the first attempt to resupply Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in the final days of the Buchanan presidency. She turned back in the face of secessionist gunfire (this was before the Confederacy was established), and the Civil War was postponed for another two months. Later, on April 17, 1861, she had been captured off the coast of Texas and taken into Confederate service. Her name was changed officially at that time to Saint Philip, but almost everyone continued to refer to her by her former name. See Tucker, Blue and Gray Navies, p. 228.
↑ Smith's health was indeed failing, and he was sent North for medical treatment as soon as the expedition returned to the Mississippi, but he died soon after. See Soley, "Naval Operations," Battles and Leaders, v. 3, pp. 561–563.
↑ This was at any rate in keeping with Porter's orders to Smith, which told the latter not to use the tinclads against Confederate artillery. ORN ser. I, v. 24, p. 244.
↑ Hearn, Admiral Porter, p. 183. ORN I, ser. I, v. 24, pp. 246–247.
↑ ORN I, ser. I, v. 24, p. 247. Hearn, Admiral Porter, p. 183.
↑ Hearn, Admiral Porter, p. 184. Milligan, Gunboats Down the Mississippi, p. 135.
↑ Milligan, Gunboats Down the Mississippi, p. 136.
Bibliography
Grant, Ulysses S., Memoirs and Selected Letters: Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, Selected Letters 1839–1865. New York: Library of America, 1990. ISBN0-940450-58-5
Hearn, Chester G., Admiral David Dixon Porter: the Civil War Years. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1996. ISBN1-55750-353-2
Soley, James Russell, "Naval Operations in the Vicksburg Campaign," in Johnson, Robert Underwood, and Clarence Clough Buel, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. New York: Century, 1887–1888. Reprint, Thomas Yoseloff, 1956. Vol. 3, pp.551–570. Available at: eHistory at OSU
(ORN) Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Series I: 27 volumes. Series II: 3 volumes. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1894–1922.
(ORA) War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Series I: 53 volumes. Series II: 8 volumes. Series III: 5 volumes. Series IV: 4 volumes. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1886–1901.
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United States (Union)
CSA (Confederacy) 
Watson Smith, USN
William W. Loring, CSA
