v1.1.2 / chapter 21 of 93 / 01 oct 09 / greg goebel / public domain
* While battles raged in front of Richmond, the war went on elsewhere. On the Mississippi, the Confederacy abandoned Fort Pillow, and then Federal rams and ironclads crushed a rebel fleet in front of Memphis. Such Confederate setbacks in the Mississippi Valley led to the replacement of Beauregard as regional commander with Braxton Bragg. However, due to General Halleck's lack of drive, Federal movements in the region bogged down and the threat faded. Although Union fleets under Farragut and Henry Davis threatened Vicksburg, seizing the city was beyond their means.
Other Federal efforts at the edges of the Confederacy met with even less luck. A gunboat expedition up the White River to support General Sam Curtis' force in Arkansas suffered severe casualties, and an assault on Charleston, South Carolina, was an outright disaster.
* If the Federal seizure of Corinth, Mississippi, seemed like a non-event, it still had major strategic implications. Corinth was a rail hub and the Federal army of 100,000 men could move in almost any direction against Confederate forces in the region, which included Beauregard and his army of 50,000 men in Tupelo, Mississippi; Major General Edmund Kirby Smith in Knoxville, Tennessee, with 12,000 men; or the 2,000 rebels in Chattanooga, Tennessee. These and a number of scattered smaller forces were all the Confederacy had in the region to oppose Halleck. Fort Pillow was now hopelessly isolated, and Beauregard ordered it and lesser works further downstream evacuated on 4 June, leaving Memphis defenseless,
J.E. Montgomery and the captains of the eight Confederate rams docked at Memphis were proud of themselves for sinking two Federal ironclads upriver of Fort Pillow in May, and believed they had taught the Yankees a lesson. They were thoroughly mistaken: they had simply made the Yankees mad.
The Federals chose a particularly ironic tool for getting their revenge: steam rams of their own, the creation of a 51-year-old engineer from Pennsylvania named Charles Ellet JR. Ellet had bombarded the government since the beginning of the war with various ideas. He was particularly obsessed with his proposal for ram warships, so much so that one naval officer said that after a time Ellet "had nearly gone insane on the ram question and had written and besieged the departments in Washington until they nearly went insane, too."
It wasn't until March 1862, after the beating dealt to the wooden warships blockading Hampton Roads by the CSS VIRGINIA, that Secretary Stanton took a personal interest in Ellet's rams. Stanton made him a colonel and told him to build as many of the rams as needed to clear the rebels off the Mississippi. Ellet purchased nine steamers and converted them into rams in 50 days. They joined the Union fleet above Fort Pillow on 25 May.
Ellet's rams were very different from their Confederate counterparts downstream. Ellet regarded iron beaks as ineffective and designed the vessels to destroy through sheer momentum. The rams carried no guns and no armor. The main weapon of each was simply a powerful steam engine, solidly mounted to stay in place even under heavy shocks, driving a hull reinforced at the prow with timbers and braced by three solid beams running the length of the vessel. These vessels were capable of 15 knots (28 KPH), making them the fastest ships on the river. They were potentially very effective in river warfare, where there was little room for maneuver.
Ellet's fleet had strong unity of command, since the captains of the rams were all Ellets. Seven of them were nephews and brothers, and one was his 19-year-old son. They had been all for steaming downstream and pitching into the rebels immediately, but Flag Officer Davis was cautious. Although he had raised the CINCINNATI and the MOUND CITY, three of his seven gunboats had gone upriver for repairs and Davis didn't feel ready to take on the Confederates. Ellet wanted to go ahead anyway, but could not get Davis to consent.
Although the Confederates in Memphis heard about the new vessels, they remained complacent, assuming they were merely transports. The rebels were also working on two monster ironclads, the ARKANSAS, which had been launched, partly armored, and then towed south to be completed, and the TENNESSEE, which had neither been launched or armored. If these two ironclads were completed, the rebels felt they would have the means to deal with the Federals on the river.
The evacuation of Fort Pillow removed the major obstacle to a Union attack on Memphis. Davis and Ellet finally came to an agreement, and on 6 June four Union ironclad gunboats came around a bend in the river towards the city, followed by four of Ellet's rams. The eight Confederate rams steamed out to meet them, watched by an audience of tens of thousands who lined the banks, hoping they would see the Yankees take another beating. When the first shot was fired, Ellet, on the ram QUEEN OF THE WEST, waved his hat to attract the attention of his brother on the ram MONARCH, and shouted: "Round out and follow me! Now is our chance!"
The two rams surged forward between the ironclads, whose crews cheered as they steamed past. The QUEEN OF THE WEST bore down on the COLONEL LOVELL at the head of the Confederate line. When the rebel ship turned to avoid a head-on collision, the Union ram struck the enemy ship amidships, almost cutting her in half. The COLONEL LOVELL sank immediately. Despite its heavy reinforcements, QUEEN OF THE WEST took considerable damage herself from the collision.
The MONARCH charged the GENERAL PRICE. When the BEAUREGARD tried to intercept, the Union ram slipped between the two rebel vessels, which then collided. The GENERAL PRICE lost a sidewheel and her captain beached the vessel. The MONARCH turned sharply and rammed the BEAUREGARD, which took a shell from one of the ironclads in her engine at the same time. The BEAUREGARD's captain surrendered the ship.
The Confederate ram LITTLE REBEL was destroyed by the ironclads and the rest of the rebel ships decided to turn around to run for it, but only the VAN DORN escaped. In a two-hour battle, the Federals destroyed three of the Confederate rams and captured four, which they would turn to their own use. The only casualty among the Federals was Ellet, who was wounded in the knee by a pistol shot. The many Confederates killed included Montgomery himself.
Powder smoke had shrouded the fight from the watchers on the banks, but it was obvious after smokestack after smokestack disappeared who was winning and who was losing. The crowd wailed. Things went quiet and the smoke cleared, revealing the utter defeat of the Confederate rams. There was nothing to do but set the TENNESSEE on fire and wait for the Yankees to arrive, which they did soon, in the form of a rowboat carrying Ellet's 19-year-old son and three seamen, who hoisted the Stars & Stripes over the post office. Two US Army regiments arrived later to secure the city. Ellet's wound was not considered serious, but in that climate, as C.F. Smith had proved, even a scrape was potentially lethal, and Ellet died two weeks later of an infection. Two weeks after that, his wife, Ellie, worn out by grief, followed him to the grave.
* The news of continued Confederate military reverses was an embarrassment to Beauregard. Jefferson Davis was furious that Corinth had been given up without a fight. Beauregard replied to Davis's icy queries over the matter with all the formality he could muster, pointing out his subordinates had approved the withdrawal and that it was done in a professional fashion. It was, Beauregard said to an aide, the equivalent of a "brilliant victory".
Beauregard had other problems besides Richmond's disapproval. His health had been poor all spring, and his doctors had been telling him to take a rest. With his troops settled at Tupelo, a far healthier place than Corinth, he figured he could recuperate at Bladon Springs, in southern Alabama, and leave Braxton Bragg in charge. Beauregard was getting ready to leave when on 14 June he learned to his surprise that Bragg had been summarily ordered to command the defenses of Vicksburg. Beauregard wired Richmond, saying that Bragg would be needed with the army since Beauregard was going on a short sick leave. Then, realizing that he had not justified his leave to the War Department, as an afterthought wrote a letter describing his condition, posted it by mail, and went south.
Bragg was in a touchy situation and immediately wired Richmond for clarification. He received an answer immediately. He was assigned to permanent command and Beauregard was relieved of duty. Bragg wired Mobile to alert Beauregard of the change, who replied with as much grace as he could. He was still bitter, and wrote a close friend to describe Jefferson Davis as "that Individual ... That living specimen of gall and hatred."
Cumberland Gap was evacuated the same day Beauregard was relieved. It seemed as though the Federals were now poised to push far into the Confederacy.
* The Federal occupation of Corinth, Mississippi, left Union forces in a position to strike against a weaker and demoralized enemy at will. Unfortunately, with Halleck in charge, "will" was not much in evidence. Morale faltered in the ranks. Corinth made Cairo look good. There was little water in Corinth, a summer drought set in not long after the Federals arrived and made matters that much worse, and such water as was to be had was full of dirt and disease. Flies and mosquitoes were thick, and Northerners became acquainted with an unfamiliar bloodsucking parasite, the chigger mite, that was even nastier. As a Wisconsin man put it, the chigger's mission was "to eat and die; every soldier was a walking chigger cemetery."
There was demoralization at the top as well. General Sherman was talking with General Halleck and Halleck mentioned that Grant had applied for a month's leave, to depart in the morning. Sherman suspected something was up. He went over to Grant's tent, where he found Grant forlornly bundling up some letters. Grant confirmed that he was leaving. When Sherman asked him why, Grant replied: "Sherman, you know. You know I am in the way here. I have stood it as long as I can, and can endure it no longer."
Sherman asked: "Where are you going?"
"Saint Louis."
"Do you have any business there?"
"Not a bit." Sherman didn't accept this reply casually. He pointed out that a year before the papers had called him "crazy as a loon" and now he was in "high feather". He told Grant that if he departed, "events would go right along, and he would be left out; whereas, if he remained, some happy accident would restore him to his true place." The game wasn't over yet, not by a long shot, and if he left he would simply deal himself out of it. Grant gave it some thought. He said he would consider the matter, and not leave without getting in touch with Sherman. A week later Grant told Sherman he would stay.
* Halleck had accumulated an army of 120,000 men, enough to roll over any opposition the Confederates might be able to organize against them, but on 9 June he began to methodically dismember his own force -- not without some reason: he had to hold down a large territory where the locals weren't always very enthusiastic about the Union cause, and besides, if all of his soldiers remained holed up in unhealthy Corinth through the summer, a good number of them would be struck down by disease.
Buell was ordered to march east with four divisions and hook up with Ormsby Mitchel, the general whose advance on Chattanooga had come to frustration in April, to organize another push on Chattanooga. From there, the combined force could move northeast to Knoxville, or due south to Atlanta. This was the only fighting Halleck planned for the moment. Sherman was sent west to Memphis with two divisions to repair railroads and generally attempt to restore normalcy to the lives of the population. McClernand was also sent off with two divisions to Jackson, Tennessee, with the same mission. Halleck stayed in Corinth with the remainder of his force, where he provided direction for the other three parts.
One of the consequences of this shuffling was that George Thomas went back to the command of his old division, which was stationed with Halleck in Corinth, and Grant was put back in charge of what had been his old Army of the Tennessee, which included Sherman's and McClernand's commands. Grant received permission to set up his command in Memphis with his friend Sherman, and rode off on 21 June with an escort of a dozen cavalrymen. Confederate raiders got wind of Grant's travel plans, but were too slow and failed to capture him.
Grant arrived in Memphis on 24 June and found things "in rather bad order, secessionists governing much in their own way." He asked Halleck for more troops, but Grant was still on a short leash. Despite the command rearrangement, he was only slightly in a better position than he had been before the change, and the result of the request was another session of bickering with Halleck that went on for several weeks.
* Union Brigadier General Sam Curtis's victory at Pea Ridge in March had left him holding the field in Arkansas. Van Dorn and Price had marched away to Corinth, and the rebels had no force in Arkansas that could oppose the Federals. This situation lasted until the last day of May, when the Confederate government appointed Major General Thomas Hindman, a Helena lawyer who had been a congressman and led a division at Shiloh, to direct the defense of Arkansas and neighboring regions.
Hindman was a sharp little man with a big head of steam, and he ramped up the fight against the Yankees as fast as he could. He enforced conscription, brought in troops from Texas, set up his own munitions and supply factories, and even organized sewing circles of women to make uniforms. Hindman was a bright light in a dark fog of Confederate gloom, and volunteers began to gather to his flag. Some of the volunteers were from Missouri. They were sent back home to organize guerrilla bands and raise hell in the Federal rear.
Curtis had planned to march on Little Rock after his army had recovered from Pea Ridge, but Hindman's energetic military activities were making this an unattractive option. Curtis traded messages with the War Department on alternatives, and then decided to march on Helena, Arkansas. From there, he could cooperate with Halleck for a military push down the Mississippi. The march to Helena turned out to be difficult. Rebel bushwhackers sniped at the Federals continuously, burned food supplies, and fouled sources of drinking water by throwing dead cattle in them. Curtis was also confronted with a specific military obstacle: a fort at the town of Saint Charles, on the White River about 60 miles (97 kilometers) upstream from the Mississippi. Curtis sent messages to the War Department, asking for gunboat support.
The naval war on the Mississippi was idle for the moment and the gunboats were available. Immediately after the fall of Memphis, Flag Officer Davis was ordered to send an amphibious force up the White River in response to Curtis's request for help. Four ironclads steamed upriver, with transports carrying an Indiana regiment following them. The ironclad MOUND CITY was in the lead, having been raised and repaired after being sunk by the Confederate ram fleet in May.
On 17 June 1862, the fleet approached the rebel fort. The colonel in charge of the Indiana regiment wanted to attack the fort by land, but he was ignored. The ironclads steamed forward to pound the fort at close range. They were pounded back immediately, and the MOUND CITY took a 42-pounder (19 kilogram) shot that smashed through armor and blew open the steam boiler, scalding to death or drowning 125 of the ship's 175-man crew. Only 25 men escaped injury. The ironclad drifted back downstream, and the other vessels withdrew. The Indiana colonel then surrounded the fort and forced it to surrender without losing any of his soldiers. There were only about 100 rebels in it. The objective had been accomplished, but as victories went it was not very satisfactory.
* Downstream on the Mississippi, Flag Officer Farragut was having problems of his own. After his trip up the river to Vicksburg in May, he returned with his fleet downriver to New Orleans. There he was flooded with angry telegrams from the War Department concerning his failure to attack Vicksburg. When he heard the news, assistant Navy Secretary Gustavus Fox cried out: "Impossible!" -- and immediately dispatched an order in triplicate by three different ships instructing Farragut to go back upriver immediately. Two days later Fox sent an even more emphatic message:
BEGIN QUOTE:
The President requires you to use your utmost exertions (without a moment's delay and before any other naval operations are permitted to interfere) to open the Mississippi and effect a junction with Flag Officer Davis.
END QUOTE
On 6 June, as the Confederate fleet was being crushed by Davis's ironclads and Ellet's rams at Memphis, Farragut started back upriver. The fleet arrived on 25 June. Davis's ironclads were by then not far upriver from Vicksburg, waiting to see what they could do to help. This time, Farragut had more soldiers, a total of 3,200, and brought along his mortar schooners. He set them to pounding the Vicksburg batteries. This went on for two days, and then on the 28th, Farragut decided to run upriver past the guns of Vicksburg. Eleven warships started out at 2:00 AM, and opened fire on the city in the darkness, while the Confederate batteries returned the fire.
It was not particularly effective fire in either direction. Although Farragut's flagship, the HARTFORD, scored a few hits on the batteries, most of the Union fire fell short. Similarly, the rebels scored few hits on the Federal warships. Only three of the vessels had to turn back, and Farragut suffered only 15 dead and 30 wounded. For the citizens of Vicksburg, however, the bombardment was terrifying. A Confederate officer wrote: "The roar of the cannon was continuous and deafening. Loud explosions shook the city to its foundations; shot and shell went hissing through the trees and walls, scattering fragments far and wide in their terrific flight; men, women, and children rushed into the streets, and amid the crash of falling houses commenced their hasty flight to the country for safety." A woman was killed by a shell fragment.
All the fighting and terror were for nothing. Farragut concluded that his run past the city had served no purpose, and wrote Navy Secretary Gideon Welles that it would take 12,000 or 15,000 men to take Vicksburg. With 10,000 rebels defending the city, there was little Farragut could do with the 3,200 men he had with him. For lack of anything better to do, the men's commander, Army Brigadier General Thomas Williams, put his men ashore on the Louisiana side of the river, and set them to work digging a canal across a hairpin turn to divert the Mississippi away from Vicksburg. In the meantime, Farragut's fleet was idle upriver of Vicksburg, presenting a good target for an attack, if the Confederates could find the means.
* The deepening penetrations of Federal armies into the South led to many contradictions. One of the most interesting was that although the North was enforcing a blockade against the South, and the South by policy was shipping no cotton to the North, in practice the cotton trade between the split halves of the nation was increasingly lively. The authorities on both sides knew about it and at least conditionally approved of it.
After Nashville fell to the Yankees in February, the place was economically dead. There was no cotton to trade, and Confederate currency wouldn't buy Northern goods. Then traders arrived behind the Federal armies and started looking for deals, and within two months roughly 3,600 bales of cotton had gone North at a price of about $100 a bale, or two and a half times the going rate before the war. When Memphis fell, the traders moved into the new market instantly, and within two weeks the place was busy and thriving. Local traders grew so confident that they refused to take the new Federal paper greenbacks, demanding payment in gold or silver.
The Lincoln Administration wanted to encourage commerce in rebel territories under Federal occupation to help bind them back to the Union, and if a merchant took a loyalty oath, he was free to engage in trade pretty much as he pleased. All this trade was under the nominal direction of Federal Treasury agents, operating under a convoluted structure of rules and regulations that flowed downward from Treasury Secretary Chase. The problem was that the trade didn't necessarily stop at the front lines. A Treasury agent remarked that he could not possibly "investigate the morals" involved in a particular shipment of cotton. Even if he did, there was plenty of money to go around, and turning a blind eye to irregularities in such transactions could be very profitable. Union Army officers and even enlisted men got involved with the business, with the corruption becoming appallingly widespread.
Confederate officials weren't happy about trade with the enemy either, with the upright Jefferson Davis saying that if it were justified at all, "the necessity should be absolute." The problem was that the South was increasingly confronted with absolute necessities. If the North desperately needed cotton, the South had a pressing and more fundamental need of its own: salt. The Southern states had long been net importers of salt, and with the Federal blockade and the loss of the salt mines of West Virginia, salt was in short supply. Without it, meats could not be preserved for Confederate armies in the field.
Cotton went north, salt and gold went South. Once the trade was in motion, those directly involved quickly forgot about absolute necessities and focused on lining their pockets. The lure of money was so powerful that a Briton living the Confederacy commented that "a Chinese wall from the Atlantic to the Pacific" couldn't shut off the trade between enemies. A Confederate general said that the trade made "more damn rascals on both sides than anything else."
At least one Union general, Major General Benjamin Butler, found the situation to his liking. New Orleans became a center for mysterious and profitable transactions. There was no proof that Butler had anything to do with them, but as a Treasury agent later complained, Butler was "such a smart man" and it would be very hard to find out about anything he wished to keep hidden.
* While the Yankees dealt with the Confederacy on one hand, they continued to try to isolate it on the other. The Union amphibious effort had, since the beginning of 1862, seized a number of Confederate ports, simultaneously reducing the flow of imports into the South and providing Yankee blockaders with forward bases to carry on their work. However, the soft targets were gone. On 16 June, 6,500 Federal troops moved against Charleston, South Carolina. The force had landed on James Island, to the south of the city, a few weeks earlier, and had been intermittently skirmishing with its defenders. The Yankees hoped to move close enough to Charleston to put it under siege.
As it turned out, Confederate entrenchments, skillfully set up around a resort village patriotically named Secessionville and energetically defended, proved formidable. When Union troops went forward on 16 June, they were badly handled by their leaders and even taken under fire by their own gunboats. The determination of these soldiers in the face of a "perfect storm of grape, canister, nails, broken glass, and pieces of chain", as one witness recalled it, only led to greater casualties. The rebels lost only about 200 men, while the Federals lost almost 700. One Union soldier described the fiasco as "the culmination of obstinacy and folly." The officer in charge of the operation, Brigadier General Henry W. Benham, was arrested, sent back North, and broken in rank.
Secessionville was a minor victory for the Confederates, but following in the tracks of Stonewall Jackson's brilliant campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, it helped give optimistic Southerners a feeling that the tide might, possibly, be turning in their favor. The Federals ceased their operations against Charleston for the moment. They had by no means given up.
