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Civil War Gunboat Ship Paintings and Prints by C. Ron Virts
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Description
The Mississippi River system was the highway of the western part of the Confederate and United States. At the beginning of the war, the South controlled the Mississippi from Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio emptied into the Mississippi, to New Orleans. There were several important rebel strongholds along the Mississippi, including Memphis, Island Number Ten, on the Tennessee-Kentucky border, and Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Union realized that controlling the Mississippi River system was essential to their strategy because doing so would separate Texas, Arkansas, and Most of Louisiana from the rest of the South, which would limit troops and supplies from these western states.
Having realized the importance of controlling the western rivers, the Union then realized that it needed an inland navy to do this successfully. The North commissioned James B. Eads, who had made a fortune before the war raising sunken ships from the Mississippi, to build ironclads specially designed for rivers. These Eads ironclads were designed by Samuel M. Pook. They were paddle boats with most of their armor and heavy guns in the front, with thinner iron plating and smaller guns on the sides. Eads built seven such ironclads for the Union. By the end of the war, the North had begun building twenty-four riverine ironclads and had commissioned twenty-two of them. The first task of this fleet of ironclads was to take Forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers respectively. General Ulysses S. Grant, USA, and Commodore Andrew H. Foote, USN, who where in command of the western front of the war at the time, had planned for "Foote's Flotilla," as the group of ironclads were called, to shell the forts, and for the land forces to move in. Fort Henry was taken with ease on Feb. 6, 1862 before the ground forces had even arrived by four ironclads, the USS Essex, USS Cincinnati, USS Carondelet, and USS St. Louis. However, since Fort Donelson was perched on a high cliff, the ironclads sustain too much damage to be of any use in taking it in their attack on Feb. 14. This was accomplished by Grant's ground forces later. The method used by the ironclads in shelling the southern forces in most of the battles was simple. The ironclads would line up side by side with their heavily armored ends facing the object of their fire. They would fire in succession, with the one on the left firing, then the one next to it, and on down the line, until the end was reached, and the process started over. The advantage to this was that it enabled continuous fire, with one gun firing while the others reloaded.
The next rebel stronghold heading south on the Mississippi was Island Number Ten on the Tennessee-Kentucky border. Island Number Ten was located at a double bend in the Mississippi River, shaped like the capital letter "N", with Island No. 10 at its southeast corner and the town of New Madrid, Missouri at its northwest corner. The Confederates had batteries on the island and on the east side of the river from the northwest promontory to the shore opposite the island. The promontory extending to the southeast corner of the "N" was a swamp. The Union knew that it wouldn't be able to capture the island without first having the bank of the river south or east of it. The north had dug a canal through the swamp from the northeast corner of the "N" to New Madrid, which was deep enough for troop transports but not ironclads. Union troops were able to occupy New Madrid, but were unable to get across the river due the Confederate batteries there. They needed the aid of ironclads to get across the river, but the ironclads were unable to get past the island during the day because their flanks had no armor to protect then from the rebel fire from the island. So on April 3, 1862, the USS Carondelet was able to sneak past the island under the dark of night, followed by the USS Pittsburgh the following night. They then proceeded to destroy the rebel works on the promontory sticking into the northwest corner of the "N" so the troops could cross from New Madrid. The next Confederate stronghold heading was Memphis, Tennessee. Fort Pillow was located eight miles above Memphis, and Foote's Flotilla of ironclads began shelling it on April 14. Despite attempts by a fleet of Confederate ramming ships, Foote captured Fort Pillow on May 4, followed by Fort Randolph, a little further down on the river. He was able to defeat these rams, which were essentially swift steamboats mounted with a few guns due to the aid of a similar group of eight Union ramming vessels with no guns and some iron plating under the command of Colonel Charles Ellet Jr. These ramming vessels were designed to outmaneuver slower gunboats and ram into them. The swifter Union rams combined with fire from "Foote's Flotilla" was able to sink the rebel rams Beauregard, General Bragg, Colonel Lovell, General Price, Little Rebel, Jeff Thompson, and Sumpter. On May 5, Foote defeated the rest of the rebel ramming ships, and subsequently took Memphis.
