Origin :
http://www.americanmilitaryhistorymsw.com/blog/466917-css-arkansas-scourge-of-the-mississippi/
I'm reading a book about the secession war. Many battles , but this one on the Mississipi river
has kept all my attention.
After, you'll better know a great soldier, the Commander Isaac Newton Brown (CSN) and his boat "The Arkansas" (CSS).
========================================================================
CSS ARKANSAS: SCOURGE OF THE MISSISSIPPI
March 10, 2010
At the start of the Civil War the Confederate States had, essentially, three major ship building facilities with which to augment a virtually non‑existent navy: Norfolk, Memphis and New Orleans. Unable to compete with the Union ocean‑going fleet, at least in head‑to‑head terms, the Confederacy began to concentrate on constructing small, powerful riverine vessels which would enable her to aggressively defend her control of the major rivers of the South, ships built along the lines of one of the first Confederate ironclad, the CSS Virginia. The Virginia was, essentially, a rebuilt version of the U.S.S.Merrimack, a burnt‑out wooden ship which the Confederates dredged up and replated with iron, turning it into a floating iron house. Its looks belied its power, however, as its legendary first appearance in Hampton Roads can attest.
Confederate naval plans in 1861 included building a fairly large number of similar ironclads. Among these were two gunboat/ rams in various stages of construction at Memphis‑ the Arkansas and the Tennessee. A frustrating combination of shortages and bureaucracy had delayed construction of both of these vessels, so that by early spring, 1862, both ships lay unfinished in the Memphis shipyards when, on April 25, David Farragut's West Gulf Blockading Squadron steamed up the mouth of the Mississippi past Forts Jackson and St. Phillip and captured New Orleans. With another Union flotilla assembling at Cairo, the threat to Memphis was too great to ignore, especially after the Confederate disaster at Fort Donelson and the defeat at Shiloh. The Tennessee was scuttled and the hull of the Arkansas was hauled off to the Yazoo River for further work.
In late May, Jefferson Davis placed Navy Lieutenant Issac N. Brown in charge of completing the Arkansas's construction. Brown, an officer whose naval experience was mostly of the administrative and engineering kind, suddenly found himself, for the first time, in command of a warship‑and one that was merely a hull which lay floating in the delta overflow several hundred yards from the nearest dry land. Slowly, and with no little pushing on Brown's part, the makeshift shipyard at Yazoo City laid the armored plates over the unfinished hull (some of it rather randomly improvised because of the need for haste), forming the prow into a ramming beak of solid iron. The somewhat faulty and lethargic screw engines were assembled, and the ten heavy naval guns put in place, four to port and stern and the remaining six broadside guns inside the walls of its casement housing. By the second week of July theArkansas was ready for a trial run.
At the beginning of July Farragut's fleet had managed to pass up river, avoiding most of Vicksburg's shore batteries, to where it sat right below the mouth of the Yazoo River, awaiting further developments. The Confederate commander at Vicksburg, Earl Van Dorn could not let the Arkansas remained bottled up at Yazoo City, where it was fairly useless and easy to find by land forces, so he decided to see if it could run past the larger Union warships and roam free in the lower Mississippi, at, worst pulling some of Farragut's fleet with it down river, lessening the pressure on the beleaguered city.
On the morning of July 12,1862, manned by a gerry‑rigged crew of some 180 newly-trained hands, about a third of whom came from Jeff Thompson's Missouri guerrillas, the Arkansas steamed down the Yazoo towards the Mississippi. Progress was slow, as the crew tested the ship's idiosyncratic dual screw engines, each of which had an unfortunate propensity to stop working while the other turned the‑ ship in a maddening circle. The going was not made any easier by the tortuous path of the Yazoo: first the Arkansas lost part of her smokestack to low‑hanging vines and then she ran aground on her banks. It wasn't until the morning of July 15th, lying 10 miles from the mouth of the Yazoo, that the Arkansasprepared to face her first test.
And a formidable test it would be. Word from Van Dorn had informed Brown that at least two dozen men‑of‑war lay anchored in the Mississippi just north of Vicksburg, while even more federal gunboats were descending from the north. To make matters worse, it appeared that the Union fleet was aware of the presence of the Arkansas and was expecting her to appear momentarily, although exactly from where they were not sure. To that end, the two Union flag officers, Charles Davis and David Farragut, decided to send three ships‑the Carondolet, the wooden gunboat Tyler and the ram Queen of the West, which had no guns‑up the Yazoo to make a reconnaissance in force. At 7 A.M. on the morning of July 15th lookouts on the Tyler spotted an approaching smokestack around the narrow bend of the river. Before the Tyler could spring into action, the Carondolet fired a bow shot and then commenced to turn around while the Queen, after a shell burst over her decks, simply ran for cover. TheCarondolet's maneuver was ill‑advised, as most of her armor plate was fore and along her sides; she had virtually no protection for her stern. With Union shot from Carondolet's stern two 32 pounder smoothbores bouncing off her iron walls, Brown brought the Arkansas around to broadside the Carondolet, gradually pounding the bigger ship into submission until it ran aground. As the woodenTyler headed back for the Mississippi, the Arkansas now pulled alongside the floundering Carondoletand raked her with another series of broadsides from her 9" Dahlgrens and watched as the vessel, shrouded in steam, ran aground.
With one ship disposed of Brown now gave chase to the Tyler, whose commander, Captain Gwin, knew full well that she could not withstand the ironclad's fire. Fortunately, the huge, paddle‑ wheeling Tyler was somewhat faster than the Arkansas (which had a top speed of only 8 knots, and that going downriver with both engines working well) and she steamed frantically into the Mississippi to warn the fleet. The Arkansas was not unharmed. Several of her crew had been killed, her stack was riddled with shot, and Brown, himself, had been knocked unconscious in such a fashion that his crew thought him dead. The engagement had reduced her engine power to about one‑fourth capability (lack of engine power is why Brown did not attempt to use the Arkansas as a ram) but had managed to raise her engine and gun room temperatures to above 120 degrees.
Five miles down river from the Yazoo, Farragut's and Davis' gunboats hugged the banks in parallel lines.
Van Dom's estimates were, as usual, inflated, but there were at least twenty warships of every kind:
a half‑dozen rams, four or five ironclads and almost a dozen gunboats. Unfortunately, all, except for the recently captured ram, General Bragg, were at anchor, and, despite the sounds of battle up‑river and the appearance of the Tyler and Queen of the West steaming rapidly towards them, neither Davis nor Farragut made any move to change that status. Still, it was an unsettling sight to the crew of the slowly steaming Arkansas as it emerged from the mouth of the Yazoo to see the veritable forest of federal masts clouding the sky. Easily outnumbered by at least 20‑1, to the crew her days appeared numbered. Battered as his ship was, however, Brown decided on an aggressive course and, increasing power to maximum capacity, the Arkansas steamed down river into the heart of the federal flotilla.
Only the ram Lancaster spun into action, cutting her chains, drifting into the river and turning to face the oncoming Arkansas. As the two ships steamed directly towards each other, the Arkansas let loose with a volley of bow fire from her 8" Dahlgrens. Within a few minutes a shell pierced Lancaster's boilers and the ship exploded in a series of spectacular bursts, quickly becoming a smoldering hulk. By this time the Arkansas had entered the channel between the lines of federal gunboats, all of which now began to pour volleys of withering fire on her as she steamed down river. With her broadside 9" Dahlgrens and 32‑ pounder smoothbores answering each enemy volley, the Arkansas took a fearful pounding. While most of the shot careened wildly off her plated sides, a few smashed through her walls, and shrapnel and chunks of her armor plating, blown off by the shot, scattered around the housing, killing and maiming crew members and filling the overheated cabin with dense smoke. The battering soon knocked her boiler connections loose and she rapidly began loosing steam, until she was virtually inching forward through the continual salvos, some from less than 100 yards off. Ferocious broadsides from the USS Richmond and Hartford seemed to have little effect on her armor as the Arkansas,having pounded two approaching rams into submission, slowly came within range of the end of the gauntlet ‑ and the two biggest gunships in the fleet, the Essex and the Benton.
The Essex was under repairs, dead in the water, and could only offer a brief series of salvos, but the Benton, Davis' flagship, slipped her moorings and headed into the river to intercept the slowly‑moving Arkansas. Seeing the huge Benton dead ahead, Brown ordered her crew to get up as much steam as possible and ram the gunship. While fire from Benton's broadside guns raked her bow and slanted off her sides, the Arkansas steamed straight for the defiant vessel. At the last second, the Benton surged ahead and the Arkansas' ram could only slash into her wake, missing Benton's stern by only a few feet.
The entire citizenry of Vicksburg, which had lined the bluffs to watch the battle, sent up a huge cheer as the Arkansas emerged from the smoke and, her boilers almost shot, drifted towards the landing at the base of the city's bluffs. It was obvious to Brown that, despite her spectacular success, she was in no condition to proceed any further, especially as there was, in view, another Union fleet down river from the city, waiting for a third shot at the Confederate ironclad. Her crew had suffered heavily: blood and body parts were smeared all over her floor and walls, her iron coverings were battered and twisted, half the guns were incapable of firing and her casement housing had huge holes in its sides. Brown needed time to repair what he could and replenish his crew from the Vicksburg populace, if possible.
Farragut, in a decidedly bad temper following the embarrassment of his fleet, was in no mood to leave the Arkansas alone. A Confederate ironclad of Arkansas' magnitude would wreak tremendous harm not only in the lower regions of the Mississippi but to the fleets arraigned against Vicksburg; it had to be destroyed. That night he moved several of his gunships down river to join the lower fleet, each of the ships attempting to hit the Arkansas as they passed under the guns of Vicksburg. Most missed, but one shot did find its mark, killing half a dozen men and causing even more damage to the ironclad. Both sides then seemed content to rest for a few days, only the Union showing any semblance of action with an ineffective mortar shelling of the boat, not one shot of which hit its mark.
Then, on the 22nd of July, Farragut made his move. The Arkansas was still moored at the landing when the Essex and the Queen of the West appeared around the upriver bend and steamed at full power straight for the Confederate ironclad. Brown frantically called for steam, as his gunners rushed to load. The Essex reached mid point in the river directly opposite the Arkansas, spun to port and headed directly for the midships of the sitting boat, her bow guns blazing. Brown let loose her lines and brought the Arkansas around to meet the Essex head on, just as the Essex passed to her starboard. She let loose another volley, which ripped through Arkansas' housing with some more ensuing crew casualties, and then surprisingly, her attention diverted by the firing, she ran aground in the shallow banks. The Arkansas, as well as the Confederate shore batteries, now focused on the floundering gunboat, which just barely managed to heave herself off the mud and head back downstream. The Arkansas now turned to face the onrushing Queen, almost too late. The Union ram slammed into the deadly bow of the Arkansas trying to push her over on her side and suffering, instead, a deadly broadside from the ironclad. The Queen, blinded by the smoke and shaken by the volley of shell, bounced off the Arkansas'deadly bow, swung aside, and slid onto the shore. Brown now tried to bring the Arkansas around to rake the floundering Queen, but the latter, like the Essex, somehow managed to break loose of the mud and run away, this time up river.
The Arkansas had now survived four federal attacks in the space of a week, but her crew was reduced to one‑tenth of its initial strength and the ship was in no condition to proceed anywhere. Even worse, her commander, (newly promoted) Captain Brown, had to be sent home to recover from not only his wounds but the strain and pressure of his command. Lieutenant Henry Stevens was placed in charge of repairing the vessel and making it fit for further service.
This it mold do in relative peace, as Farragut now moved his entire fleet downstream, while Davis prepared to steam north to Memphis, leaving Vicksburg alone. Van Dom now saw an opportunity to use the Arkansas to support a land operation he planned against the federal held city of Baton Rouge. To this end he ordered Stevens to make the Arkansas ready to sail with the objective of reaching Baton Rouge, some 125 miles downriver from Vicksburg, on the morning of August 5th to sweep the five Union gunboats Farragut had left to guard the city ‑ Essex, Sumter, Kineo, Katahdin and Cayuga ‑from the river and support Breckinridge's attack. Both Stevens and Brown, from his sick‑bed, complained that the Arkansas was too damaged to take part in such an operation, that it would require extensive repairs to make her normally unpredictable engines seaworthy. Van Dom, however, insisted and Stevens stepped up his refitting work, pushing off for the trip downstream late on August 3rd.
It was obvious from the start that her hastily repaired engines couldn't stand the strain of continuous steaming. Twice the Arkansas had to stop to allow the engines to rest, to tighten her moorings and make some makeshift adjustments. On the morning of the 4th she halted a third time about 25 miles north of Baton Rouge while she underwent another inspection. At this time her engineers reported to Stevens that, barring any undue strain, the engines would last until they reached Baton Rouge. So Stevens, once again, sent the Arkansas forward until, by late afternoon she reached a spot within sight of the city and anchored to replenish her coal supply. No sooner had she done this then one of her engines sputtered and died, and her crew spent the night feverishly attempting to, yet again, repair it. By 9 A.M., with the sounds of the ongoing battle for the city reaching them from downriver, theArkansas, for the last time, steamed out into the center of the Mississippi and headed straight for her old enemy, the Essex.
The Essex quickly spotted the approaching Arkansas and turned to meet her. Just as the Essex opened fire with her bow guns disaster struck: the Arkansas' port engine ripped from its mooring and broke into pieces. With the Essex bearing down on her, and the Arkansas able to only steam in circles, Stevens ordered the ship to be run into the shore. Her crew jumped onto the banks while her gunners loaded every working gun with shot and charge. As his men watched in tears, Stevens had the Arkansas set on fire and pushed into the current, drifting downriver towards Baton Rouge. Within a few minutes all of her guns went off in a massive volley, sending the Essex scurrying for safety. A short time later, raging with fire, the Scourge of the Mississippi exploded in a massive burst of flames, iron and splintering wood and sank silently to the bottom of the river.
The Arkansas and Her Antagonists / The artillery
A note on naval artillery nomenclature. The Civil War was a period of transition in naval gunnery. Breech loading, rifled guns were coming into use while the more traditional muzzle loading smoothbores were becoming more efficient in terms of construction, propellants and shell design. Three main types of weapons were carried on ships. The SB (smoothbore) was still most common. Its size was described two ways, by the caliber (diameter) of its barrel (in inches) or the "standard" weight of its shell. This latter
nomenclature was misleading as there was often more than one type of shell available and weights were not always standard. A 20 pounder cannon had a barrel diameter of 3.75 inches, a 32 pounder cannon had a caliber of 6.3 inches.
Larger shells did not mean equally larger calibers as shell mass increased more quickly than caliber. The other major type of cannon had rifling, which made it more accurate and its faster moving shells more effective against thick wood, or iron dad, bulkheads. Indeed, with all this new naval ordnance, an iron dad ship was not shell proof, simply more shell resistant. The damage inflicted on the Arkansas is evidence of this effect. Howitzers were largely for supporting land operations, as they acted more like mortars that could through their shells over obstacles like hills or fortress walls. The river gunboats carried enormous quantities of ammunition, enabling them to essentially fire all day long. These large ammunition supplies were made possible because these boats were operating on a river and could easily go ashore for additional fuel and food.
==============================================================
How many shells and civil war ammo are in The Mississipi River ...
===================================
http://www.americanmilitaryhistorymsw.com/blog/466917-css-arkansas-scourge-of-the-mississippi/
I'm reading a book about the secession war. Many battles , but this one on the Mississipi river
has kept all my attention.
After, you'll better know a great soldier, the Commander Isaac Newton Brown (CSN) and his boat "The Arkansas" (CSS).
========================================================================
CSS ARKANSAS: SCOURGE OF THE MISSISSIPPI
March 10, 2010
At the start of the Civil War the Confederate States had, essentially, three major ship building facilities with which to augment a virtually non‑existent navy: Norfolk, Memphis and New Orleans. Unable to compete with the Union ocean‑going fleet, at least in head‑to‑head terms, the Confederacy began to concentrate on constructing small, powerful riverine vessels which would enable her to aggressively defend her control of the major rivers of the South, ships built along the lines of one of the first Confederate ironclad, the CSS Virginia. The Virginia was, essentially, a rebuilt version of the U.S.S.Merrimack, a burnt‑out wooden ship which the Confederates dredged up and replated with iron, turning it into a floating iron house. Its looks belied its power, however, as its legendary first appearance in Hampton Roads can attest.
Confederate naval plans in 1861 included building a fairly large number of similar ironclads. Among these were two gunboat/ rams in various stages of construction at Memphis‑ the Arkansas and the Tennessee. A frustrating combination of shortages and bureaucracy had delayed construction of both of these vessels, so that by early spring, 1862, both ships lay unfinished in the Memphis shipyards when, on April 25, David Farragut's West Gulf Blockading Squadron steamed up the mouth of the Mississippi past Forts Jackson and St. Phillip and captured New Orleans. With another Union flotilla assembling at Cairo, the threat to Memphis was too great to ignore, especially after the Confederate disaster at Fort Donelson and the defeat at Shiloh. The Tennessee was scuttled and the hull of the Arkansas was hauled off to the Yazoo River for further work.
In late May, Jefferson Davis placed Navy Lieutenant Issac N. Brown in charge of completing the Arkansas's construction. Brown, an officer whose naval experience was mostly of the administrative and engineering kind, suddenly found himself, for the first time, in command of a warship‑and one that was merely a hull which lay floating in the delta overflow several hundred yards from the nearest dry land. Slowly, and with no little pushing on Brown's part, the makeshift shipyard at Yazoo City laid the armored plates over the unfinished hull (some of it rather randomly improvised because of the need for haste), forming the prow into a ramming beak of solid iron. The somewhat faulty and lethargic screw engines were assembled, and the ten heavy naval guns put in place, four to port and stern and the remaining six broadside guns inside the walls of its casement housing. By the second week of July theArkansas was ready for a trial run.
At the beginning of July Farragut's fleet had managed to pass up river, avoiding most of Vicksburg's shore batteries, to where it sat right below the mouth of the Yazoo River, awaiting further developments. The Confederate commander at Vicksburg, Earl Van Dorn could not let the Arkansas remained bottled up at Yazoo City, where it was fairly useless and easy to find by land forces, so he decided to see if it could run past the larger Union warships and roam free in the lower Mississippi, at, worst pulling some of Farragut's fleet with it down river, lessening the pressure on the beleaguered city.
On the morning of July 12,1862, manned by a gerry‑rigged crew of some 180 newly-trained hands, about a third of whom came from Jeff Thompson's Missouri guerrillas, the Arkansas steamed down the Yazoo towards the Mississippi. Progress was slow, as the crew tested the ship's idiosyncratic dual screw engines, each of which had an unfortunate propensity to stop working while the other turned the‑ ship in a maddening circle. The going was not made any easier by the tortuous path of the Yazoo: first the Arkansas lost part of her smokestack to low‑hanging vines and then she ran aground on her banks. It wasn't until the morning of July 15th, lying 10 miles from the mouth of the Yazoo, that the Arkansasprepared to face her first test.
And a formidable test it would be. Word from Van Dorn had informed Brown that at least two dozen men‑of‑war lay anchored in the Mississippi just north of Vicksburg, while even more federal gunboats were descending from the north. To make matters worse, it appeared that the Union fleet was aware of the presence of the Arkansas and was expecting her to appear momentarily, although exactly from where they were not sure. To that end, the two Union flag officers, Charles Davis and David Farragut, decided to send three ships‑the Carondolet, the wooden gunboat Tyler and the ram Queen of the West, which had no guns‑up the Yazoo to make a reconnaissance in force. At 7 A.M. on the morning of July 15th lookouts on the Tyler spotted an approaching smokestack around the narrow bend of the river. Before the Tyler could spring into action, the Carondolet fired a bow shot and then commenced to turn around while the Queen, after a shell burst over her decks, simply ran for cover. TheCarondolet's maneuver was ill‑advised, as most of her armor plate was fore and along her sides; she had virtually no protection for her stern. With Union shot from Carondolet's stern two 32 pounder smoothbores bouncing off her iron walls, Brown brought the Arkansas around to broadside the Carondolet, gradually pounding the bigger ship into submission until it ran aground. As the woodenTyler headed back for the Mississippi, the Arkansas now pulled alongside the floundering Carondoletand raked her with another series of broadsides from her 9" Dahlgrens and watched as the vessel, shrouded in steam, ran aground.
With one ship disposed of Brown now gave chase to the Tyler, whose commander, Captain Gwin, knew full well that she could not withstand the ironclad's fire. Fortunately, the huge, paddle‑ wheeling Tyler was somewhat faster than the Arkansas (which had a top speed of only 8 knots, and that going downriver with both engines working well) and she steamed frantically into the Mississippi to warn the fleet. The Arkansas was not unharmed. Several of her crew had been killed, her stack was riddled with shot, and Brown, himself, had been knocked unconscious in such a fashion that his crew thought him dead. The engagement had reduced her engine power to about one‑fourth capability (lack of engine power is why Brown did not attempt to use the Arkansas as a ram) but had managed to raise her engine and gun room temperatures to above 120 degrees.
Five miles down river from the Yazoo, Farragut's and Davis' gunboats hugged the banks in parallel lines.
Van Dom's estimates were, as usual, inflated, but there were at least twenty warships of every kind:
a half‑dozen rams, four or five ironclads and almost a dozen gunboats. Unfortunately, all, except for the recently captured ram, General Bragg, were at anchor, and, despite the sounds of battle up‑river and the appearance of the Tyler and Queen of the West steaming rapidly towards them, neither Davis nor Farragut made any move to change that status. Still, it was an unsettling sight to the crew of the slowly steaming Arkansas as it emerged from the mouth of the Yazoo to see the veritable forest of federal masts clouding the sky. Easily outnumbered by at least 20‑1, to the crew her days appeared numbered. Battered as his ship was, however, Brown decided on an aggressive course and, increasing power to maximum capacity, the Arkansas steamed down river into the heart of the federal flotilla.
Only the ram Lancaster spun into action, cutting her chains, drifting into the river and turning to face the oncoming Arkansas. As the two ships steamed directly towards each other, the Arkansas let loose with a volley of bow fire from her 8" Dahlgrens. Within a few minutes a shell pierced Lancaster's boilers and the ship exploded in a series of spectacular bursts, quickly becoming a smoldering hulk. By this time the Arkansas had entered the channel between the lines of federal gunboats, all of which now began to pour volleys of withering fire on her as she steamed down river. With her broadside 9" Dahlgrens and 32‑ pounder smoothbores answering each enemy volley, the Arkansas took a fearful pounding. While most of the shot careened wildly off her plated sides, a few smashed through her walls, and shrapnel and chunks of her armor plating, blown off by the shot, scattered around the housing, killing and maiming crew members and filling the overheated cabin with dense smoke. The battering soon knocked her boiler connections loose and she rapidly began loosing steam, until she was virtually inching forward through the continual salvos, some from less than 100 yards off. Ferocious broadsides from the USS Richmond and Hartford seemed to have little effect on her armor as the Arkansas,having pounded two approaching rams into submission, slowly came within range of the end of the gauntlet ‑ and the two biggest gunships in the fleet, the Essex and the Benton.
The Essex was under repairs, dead in the water, and could only offer a brief series of salvos, but the Benton, Davis' flagship, slipped her moorings and headed into the river to intercept the slowly‑moving Arkansas. Seeing the huge Benton dead ahead, Brown ordered her crew to get up as much steam as possible and ram the gunship. While fire from Benton's broadside guns raked her bow and slanted off her sides, the Arkansas steamed straight for the defiant vessel. At the last second, the Benton surged ahead and the Arkansas' ram could only slash into her wake, missing Benton's stern by only a few feet.
The entire citizenry of Vicksburg, which had lined the bluffs to watch the battle, sent up a huge cheer as the Arkansas emerged from the smoke and, her boilers almost shot, drifted towards the landing at the base of the city's bluffs. It was obvious to Brown that, despite her spectacular success, she was in no condition to proceed any further, especially as there was, in view, another Union fleet down river from the city, waiting for a third shot at the Confederate ironclad. Her crew had suffered heavily: blood and body parts were smeared all over her floor and walls, her iron coverings were battered and twisted, half the guns were incapable of firing and her casement housing had huge holes in its sides. Brown needed time to repair what he could and replenish his crew from the Vicksburg populace, if possible.
Farragut, in a decidedly bad temper following the embarrassment of his fleet, was in no mood to leave the Arkansas alone. A Confederate ironclad of Arkansas' magnitude would wreak tremendous harm not only in the lower regions of the Mississippi but to the fleets arraigned against Vicksburg; it had to be destroyed. That night he moved several of his gunships down river to join the lower fleet, each of the ships attempting to hit the Arkansas as they passed under the guns of Vicksburg. Most missed, but one shot did find its mark, killing half a dozen men and causing even more damage to the ironclad. Both sides then seemed content to rest for a few days, only the Union showing any semblance of action with an ineffective mortar shelling of the boat, not one shot of which hit its mark.
Then, on the 22nd of July, Farragut made his move. The Arkansas was still moored at the landing when the Essex and the Queen of the West appeared around the upriver bend and steamed at full power straight for the Confederate ironclad. Brown frantically called for steam, as his gunners rushed to load. The Essex reached mid point in the river directly opposite the Arkansas, spun to port and headed directly for the midships of the sitting boat, her bow guns blazing. Brown let loose her lines and brought the Arkansas around to meet the Essex head on, just as the Essex passed to her starboard. She let loose another volley, which ripped through Arkansas' housing with some more ensuing crew casualties, and then surprisingly, her attention diverted by the firing, she ran aground in the shallow banks. The Arkansas, as well as the Confederate shore batteries, now focused on the floundering gunboat, which just barely managed to heave herself off the mud and head back downstream. The Arkansas now turned to face the onrushing Queen, almost too late. The Union ram slammed into the deadly bow of the Arkansas trying to push her over on her side and suffering, instead, a deadly broadside from the ironclad. The Queen, blinded by the smoke and shaken by the volley of shell, bounced off the Arkansas'deadly bow, swung aside, and slid onto the shore. Brown now tried to bring the Arkansas around to rake the floundering Queen, but the latter, like the Essex, somehow managed to break loose of the mud and run away, this time up river.
The Arkansas had now survived four federal attacks in the space of a week, but her crew was reduced to one‑tenth of its initial strength and the ship was in no condition to proceed anywhere. Even worse, her commander, (newly promoted) Captain Brown, had to be sent home to recover from not only his wounds but the strain and pressure of his command. Lieutenant Henry Stevens was placed in charge of repairing the vessel and making it fit for further service.
This it mold do in relative peace, as Farragut now moved his entire fleet downstream, while Davis prepared to steam north to Memphis, leaving Vicksburg alone. Van Dom now saw an opportunity to use the Arkansas to support a land operation he planned against the federal held city of Baton Rouge. To this end he ordered Stevens to make the Arkansas ready to sail with the objective of reaching Baton Rouge, some 125 miles downriver from Vicksburg, on the morning of August 5th to sweep the five Union gunboats Farragut had left to guard the city ‑ Essex, Sumter, Kineo, Katahdin and Cayuga ‑from the river and support Breckinridge's attack. Both Stevens and Brown, from his sick‑bed, complained that the Arkansas was too damaged to take part in such an operation, that it would require extensive repairs to make her normally unpredictable engines seaworthy. Van Dom, however, insisted and Stevens stepped up his refitting work, pushing off for the trip downstream late on August 3rd.
It was obvious from the start that her hastily repaired engines couldn't stand the strain of continuous steaming. Twice the Arkansas had to stop to allow the engines to rest, to tighten her moorings and make some makeshift adjustments. On the morning of the 4th she halted a third time about 25 miles north of Baton Rouge while she underwent another inspection. At this time her engineers reported to Stevens that, barring any undue strain, the engines would last until they reached Baton Rouge. So Stevens, once again, sent the Arkansas forward until, by late afternoon she reached a spot within sight of the city and anchored to replenish her coal supply. No sooner had she done this then one of her engines sputtered and died, and her crew spent the night feverishly attempting to, yet again, repair it. By 9 A.M., with the sounds of the ongoing battle for the city reaching them from downriver, theArkansas, for the last time, steamed out into the center of the Mississippi and headed straight for her old enemy, the Essex.
The Essex quickly spotted the approaching Arkansas and turned to meet her. Just as the Essex opened fire with her bow guns disaster struck: the Arkansas' port engine ripped from its mooring and broke into pieces. With the Essex bearing down on her, and the Arkansas able to only steam in circles, Stevens ordered the ship to be run into the shore. Her crew jumped onto the banks while her gunners loaded every working gun with shot and charge. As his men watched in tears, Stevens had the Arkansas set on fire and pushed into the current, drifting downriver towards Baton Rouge. Within a few minutes all of her guns went off in a massive volley, sending the Essex scurrying for safety. A short time later, raging with fire, the Scourge of the Mississippi exploded in a massive burst of flames, iron and splintering wood and sank silently to the bottom of the river.
The Arkansas and Her Antagonists / The artillery
A note on naval artillery nomenclature. The Civil War was a period of transition in naval gunnery. Breech loading, rifled guns were coming into use while the more traditional muzzle loading smoothbores were becoming more efficient in terms of construction, propellants and shell design. Three main types of weapons were carried on ships. The SB (smoothbore) was still most common. Its size was described two ways, by the caliber (diameter) of its barrel (in inches) or the "standard" weight of its shell. This latter
nomenclature was misleading as there was often more than one type of shell available and weights were not always standard. A 20 pounder cannon had a barrel diameter of 3.75 inches, a 32 pounder cannon had a caliber of 6.3 inches.
Larger shells did not mean equally larger calibers as shell mass increased more quickly than caliber. The other major type of cannon had rifling, which made it more accurate and its faster moving shells more effective against thick wood, or iron dad, bulkheads. Indeed, with all this new naval ordnance, an iron dad ship was not shell proof, simply more shell resistant. The damage inflicted on the Arkansas is evidence of this effect. Howitzers were largely for supporting land operations, as they acted more like mortars that could through their shells over obstacles like hills or fortress walls. The river gunboats carried enormous quantities of ammunition, enabling them to essentially fire all day long. These large ammunition supplies were made possible because these boats were operating on a river and could easily go ashore for additional fuel and food.
==============================================================
How many shells and civil war ammo are in The Mississipi River ...
===================================
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