Battle of Memphis

Warbox
conflict=First Battle of Memphis
colour_scheme=background:#ffcccc;color:#2222cc


caption="Battle of the rams."
Ward, A. R., artist
partof=American Civil War
date=June 6 1862
place=Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee
result=Union victory
combatant1= flagicon|USA|1861 United States (Union)
combatant2= flagicon|CSA|1861 CSA (Confederacy)
commander1=Charles Henry Davis
Charles Ellet, Jr.KIA
commander2=James E. Montgomery
M. Jeff Thompson
strength1=U.S. Ironclads "Benton", "Louisville", "Carondelet", "Cairo", and "St. Louis", and U.S. Army Rams "Queen of the West" and "Monarch"
strength2=C.S. Navy Rams "General Beauregard, General Bragg, General Sterling Price, General Earl Van Dorn, General M. Jeff Thompson, Colonel Lovell, General Sumter", and "Little Rebel"
casualties1=1
casualties2=180 (unreliable)|

The First Battle of Memphis was a naval battle fought on the Mississippi River immediately above the city of Memphis on June 6 1862, during the American Civil War. The engagement was witnessed by many of the citizens of Memphis. It resulted in a crushing defeat for the Rebels, and marked the virtual eradication of a Confederate naval presence on the river. Despite the lopsided outcome, the Union Army failed to grasp its strategic significance. Its primary historical importance is that it was the last time civilians with no prior military experience were permitted to command ships in combat. As such, it is a milestone in the development of professionalism in the United States Navy. [Abbreviations used in this article:

ORA---"War of the Rebellion; a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate Armies," 70 volumes in four series; Washington: General Printing Office, 1880--1901. ORN--"Official records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion," 30 volumes in two series; Washington: General Printing Office, 1894--1922.]

Background

The defending Confederates closely matched the advancing Federal force in raw numbers, with eight Rebel vessels opposing nine Union gunboats and rams, but the fighting qualities of the former were far inferior. Each was armed with only one or two guns, of a light caliber that would be ineffective against the armor of the gunboats. The primary weapon of each was its reinforced prow, which was intended to be used in ramming opponents.

The Confederate rams were distinguished by a unique feature of their defense against enemy shot. Their engines and other interior spaces were protected by a double bulkhead of heavy timbers, covered on the outer surface by a layer of railroad iron. The gap between the bulkheads, a space of 22 inches (56 centimeters), was packed with cotton. [ORA I, v. 52/1, pp. 37--38.] Although the cotton was the least important part of the armor, it caught the public attention, and the boats came to be called "cottonclads." (Later in the war, ships' crews were often protected from small-arms fire by bales of cotton placed in exposed positions, and these vessels were also referred to as cottonclads. They differed, however, from the originals of the category.)

The Federal force consisted of five gunboats, four of which were known semi-officially as 'Eads gunboats,' after their builder, James Buchanan Eads, but more commonly as 'Pook Turtles,' after their designer, Samuel H. Pook, and their strange appearance. [ORA III, v. 2, p. 815.] The fifth gunboat, flagship USS "Benton," was also a product of the Eads shipyards, but was converted from a civilian craft. Each of these vessels carried from 13 to 16 guns. The other four vessels were rams, with no armament whatever, aside from small arms carried by the officers. All of the rams had been converted from civilian riverboats, and had no common design. [ORN I, v. 23, p. 34.]

Organization

Both sides entered the battle with faulty command structures. The Federal gunboats were members of the Western Gunboat Flotilla, commanded directly by Flag Officer Charles H. Davis, who reported to Major General Henry W. Halleck. The gunboats were thus a part of the United States Army, although their officers were supplied by the Navy. [ORN I, v. 22, p. 280.] The rams were led by Colonel Charles Ellet, Jr., who reported directly to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. [ORN I, v. 23, p, 75.] Thus the Federal 'fleet' consisted of two independent organizations, with no common command outside of Washington.

The Confederate arrangement was even worse. The cottonclads were about half of a group of 14 river steamers that had been seized at New Orleans and converted into rams to defend that city. Known as the River Defense Fleet, it was split in two when the Confederate holdings on the river became threatened from both the north and the Gulf of Mexico. Six were retained below New Orleans to face the fleet of David G. Farragut, while eight were sent up to Memphis to block the Federal descent down the river. (Sending them this far north did not violate their original purpose, as Memphis was regarded as a shield for New Orleans.) The northern (Memphis) section was commanded overall by James E. Montgomery, a riverboat captain in civilian life. The other boats were also commanded by former civilian riverboat captains, selected by Montgomery, and with no military training. Once under way, Montgomery's command ceased, and the rams operated independently. The futility of this arrangement was recognized immediately by military men, but their protests were disregarded. [ORA I, v. 6, p. 817.] Furthermore, the captains would not either learn how to handle the guns themselves, nor assign crew members to the task, so gun crews had to be drawn from the Confederate Army. The gunners were not integrated into the crews, but remained subject to the orders of their army officers. [ORA I, v. 10/1, p. 589; ORN I, v. 23, p. 699.]

Cottonclad River Defense Fleet

Battle

, Montgomery and his captains had to decide whether to fight or scuttle their boats. They chose to fight, steaming out in the early morning to meet the advancing flotilla and the rams trailing behind it. [ORA I, v. 52/1, pp. 37--40.]

The battle started with an exchange of gunfire at long range, the Federal gunboats setting up a line of battle across the river and firing their stern guns at the cottonclads coming up to meet them. Two of the four rams advanced beyond the line of the gunboats and rammed or otherwise disrupted the movements of their opponents; the other rams misinterpreted their orders and did not enter the battle at all. With the Federal rams and gunboats not coordinating their movements and the Confederate vessels operating independently, the battle soon was reduced to a melee. It is agreed by all that the ram flagship, USS "Queen of the West," drew first blood by ramming CSS "Colonel Lovell." She was then rammed in turn by one or more of the remaining cottonclads. Colonel Ellet was at this time wounded by a pistol shot in his knee, thereby becoming the only casualty on the Union side. (In the hospital, he contracted measles, the childhood disease that killed some 5000 soldiers during the war. The combination of the disease and the debilitation caused by his wound was too great, and he died on 21 June. [ORA I, v. 17, p. 9.] ) Theremainder of the battle is obscured by more than the fog of war. Several eyewitness accounts are available; unfortunately, they are mutually contradictory to a greater degree than usual. [At least five independent accounts of the battle exist: ORN I, v. 23, pp. 119--121, 125--135, 136--138, 139--140; ORA I, v. 10/1, pp. 912--913, 925--927, with some repetitions.] All that is certain is that at the end of the battle, all of the cottonclads but one were either destroyed or captured, and one Yankee boat, "Queen of the West," was disabled. The sole boat to escape, CSS "General Earl Van Dorn" fled to the protection of the Yazoo River, just north of Vicksburg. Personnel losses among the Confederates cannot be estimated reliably.

Results

The battle of Memphis was, aside from the later appearance of the ironclad CSS "Arkansas," the final challenge to the Federal thrust down the Mississippi River against Vicksburg. The river was now open down to that city, which was already besieged by Farragut's ships, but the Federal Army authorities did not grasp the strategic importance of the fact for nearly another half-year. Not until November would the Union Army under Ulysses S. Grant attempt to complete the opening of the river.

The poor performance of the River Defense Fleet, both at Memphis and at the earlier Battle of New Orleans (American Civil War), was the final demonstration that naval operations had to be commanded by trained professionals subject to military discipline. The Ellet Rams remained in the Federal service, but they had no opportunity for combat of the sort for which they were intended. They were soon transformed to an amphibious raiding body, the Mississippi Marine Brigade (with no connection to the United States Marine Corps), led by Col. Ellet's brother, Lt.Col. (later Brig. Gen.) Alfred W. Ellet. The demand for increased professionalism has also resulted in the elimination of privateering, although the River Defense Fleet were not privateers in the usual meaning of the term.

The battle remains a cautionary tale, demonstrating the ill effects of poor command structure. It is also interesting in that it is one of only two purely naval battles of the war, excluding single-ship actions, and took place 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the nearest open water. (The other was the Battle of Plum Point Bend, also on the Mississippi.)

Another Civil War military engagement also took place in Memphis, the Second Battle of Memphis in April 1864, when Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest led a nighttime cavalry raid on his hometown of Memphis with the intent of freeing Confederate prisoners and capturing Union generals encamped in Memphis. The raid failed in both goals, but forced the Union Army to guard the area more diligently.

References

ee also

*Mississippi River Squadron
*United States Ram Fleet

Further reading

* [http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/tn004.htm National Park Service battle description]
* Anderson, Bern. "By sea and by river: the naval history of the Civil War." New York: Da Capo Press, 1962.
* Hearn, Chester G. "Ellet's Brigade: the strangest outfit of all." Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 2000.
* Johnson, Robert Underwood, and Buel, Clarence Clough, eds. "Battles and leaders of the Civil War." Secaucus, New Jersey, n.d.; reprint ed., New York: Century, 1887, 1888.
* Luraghi, Raimondo."A history of the Confederate Navy" (translated by Paolo E. Coletta). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1996.
* Musicant, Ivan. "Divided waters: the naval history of the Civil War." New York: HarperCollins, 1995.
* Scharf, J. Thomas. "History of the Confederate States Navy from its organization to the surrender of its last vessel." New York: Gramercy, 1996; reprint ed., New York: Rogers and Sherwood, 1887.