Battle of Plum Point Bend

The American Civil War began in April 1861, and both the United States and Confederate governments viewed control of the Mississippi River as important.[2] In September, Confederate forces moved north and captured the town of Columbus, Kentucky, which was on the Mississippi.[3] In February 1862, Federal forces commanded captured Confederate positions at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, which had commanded the Tennessee River and the Cumberland River.[4] The naval component of the Federal effort was commanded by Andrew H. Foote.[5] After the two forts fell, the garrison at Columbus withdrew, and the Confederates then strengthened a position at Island No. 10 further downriver.[6]

Federal land forces captured abandoned Confederate defensive works at New Madrid, Missouri, on March 14.[7] A few Federal ships ran past the Island No. 10 defenses on the nights of April 4/5 and April 6/7, and the position fell on April 8.[8] The campaign then moved south to Fort Pillow, which was 50 miles (80 km) on the river north of Memphis, Tennessee. Foote's Federal vessels pursued.[9] On April 12, Federal naval ships moved to within a few miles of the fort, and then bombarded the position with a mortar boat.[10] The Federal route was to send a single mortar boat guarded by an ironclad in a position closer to the fort, with the rest of the fleet upriver; the boats would rotate on or off bombardment duty every day.[11] Captain Charles Henry Davis had taken command of the Federal squadron on May 9,[12] as Foote was struggling to recover from a wound.[13] Bends in the river allowed the Federals to take up bombardment positions that were not directly exposed to Confederate fire from the fort.[14] The Federal ships were known as the Western Flotilla.[15]

While several Confederate vessels had been sent to other threatened locations, Captain James Montgomery and eight vessels, known as the River Defense Fleet, were located off of Fort Pillow.[10] The vessels of the River Defense Fleet were cottonclad rams.[16][1] Montgomery and the commanders of his ships held a council of war on May 9, and the Confederates decided to attack. The plan was to attack the isolated mortar boat and ironclad. After capturing the ironclad, the hope was that the larger Federal fleet could be surprised and defeated. There was even some hope that the attack could drive as far upriver at Cairo, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri.[17] The crews of the gunboats were strengthened by men from M. Jeff Thompson's land force from the Missouri State Guard.[18][1] Thompson himself was present on CSS General Bragg.[18] The various ships were issued written orders, as Montgomery did not believe that his sailors were capable of accurately using signalling methods during battle. The Confederate vessels were arranged with the fastest at the front and the slowest to the rear, in order to provide the Federals with the minimum amount of reaction time after the ships were spotted.[19]

USS Cincinnati, a stern-wheel casemate gunboat, built in 1861.

On the morning of May 10, the two Federal ships on bombardment duty were Mortar Boat No. 16[lower-alpha 1] and the ironclad USS Cincinnati.[20][21] Naval historian Neil P. Chatelain states that the Confederate vessels passed through Plum Point Bend and approached the two Federal ships at around 6:30 am,[18] while historian Ed Bearss states that the Confederate advance began at 6:00 am, before rounding Plum Point Bend at 7:25 am. The Federal ironclads did not have sufficient steam pressure built up to operate effectively, and the rest of Davis's fleet was 3 miles (4.8 km) upstream.[22] Cincinnati, in particular, was caught by surprise: her crew was performing routine tasks such as holystoning the decks.[23] The vessel cast off her moorings, but steam pressure for her engines had not been maintained, and she was not able to effectively maneuver.[24] General Bragg was the forward Confederate ship, and its commander, Captain W. H. H. Leonard, ordered the ship to be accelerated to ram Cincinnati. The ironclad opened fire on the Confederate vessel.[25] The mortar boat also fired its mortars at the Confederates: Bearss reports that there were no direct hits,[26] while historian Edward B. McCaul states that two projectiles from the vessel passed through one of the Confederate ships.[27] General Bragg was still able to ram Cincinnati on the port side of her bow.[28]

The blow left a hole in the side of the Federal vessel.[29] However, the ram had struck a glancing blow, and the hole was not sufficient to sink Cincinnati. General Bragg's ram was briefly stuck in the hull of the Federal vessel, and Cincinnati was able to fire another volley into the Confederate ship.[30] The collision spun the two ships 180 degrees.[24] More Federal fire struck General Bragg while the Confederate vessel was maneuvering back from Cincinnati, and a shot struck the tiller rope of General Bragg. The damage forced the vessel out of the action.[28] The main Federal force had become aware of the attack when Federal lookouts had spotted the smoke clouds from the Confederate vessels at about 6:00 am[31] or 6:30 am.[32][33] The ironclad USS Carondelet had steam pressure built up in preparation for movement, and the ironclad USS Mound City was quickly able to move as well, but the ironclads USS Pittsburgh, USS Benton, USS Cairo, and USS St. Louis were not prepared, despite prior orders to keep their steam up.[34]

CSS General Sterling Price, converted from a Mississippi steamboat in 1862.

Before Cincinnati could recover from the blow struck by General Bragg, CSS General Sterling Price rammed the ironclad. Cincinnati had her sternpost and rudder destroyed by the blow. The ironclad then swung out of control into an angle that allowed a third Confederate ship, CSS General Sumter to ram her.[28] The blow struck Cincinnati in the fantail. The commander of General Sumter had offered Cincinnati terms of surrender, but was rejected.[35] Water rushed into Cincinnati, putting out the fires for her engines and flooding her magazine.[30] The crew of Cincinnati was sent to the decks, ready to defend against a boarding attempt.[36] Sharpshooters on General Sumter fired on the ironclad, severely wounding her commander, R. N. Stembel.[37] Mound City and Carondelet had arrived at close range after about 10 or 15 minutes,[27] but had been unable to fire for fear of hitting Cincinnati. The situation on Cincinnati had become one of attempting to get her into shallow water before the ship sank. General Sterling Price and General Sumter pulled back from Cincinnati enough that Mound City and Carondelet were able to open fire, and Benton had entered range for supporting fire.[38]

A shot from Carondelet struck General Sterling Price, damaging the supply pipes for her boiler, knocking the Confederate ship out of the fight.[39] General Sumter was also badly damaged by a shot and forced to withdraw from the battle; the fire came from Carondelet.[40] CSS General Earl Van Dorn advanced towards Mound City, intending to ram it, all the while firing at the mortar boat, which was hit by two shots.[41] Mound City fired on General Earl Van Dorn, but did little damage.[42] Mound City unsuccessfully moved to avoid getting rammed, but General Earl Van Dorn struck the Federal ship, badly damaging it. The blow badly damaged the ironclad's bow, almost tearing it off. As a result of the collision, Mound City was pushed aside while General Earl Van Dorn kept going forward; the Confederate vessel briefly ran aground.[43] Mound City was ordered to the west bank of the Mississippi River by her commanding officer, Commander Augustus Kilty. The commander of General Earl Van Dorn was wounded during the action.[41] General Earl Van Dorn's commander, Captain Isaac Fulkerson, noticed that his vessel was further upriver than the other Confederate ships and was isolated, so he ordered his vessel to withdraw. Bearss reports CSS Little Rebel attempted to ram Mound City, but was damaged by a shot from Benton and withdrew,[44] but McCaul argues that no second Confederate ship attempted to ram Mound City and that Benton's commander's account of the incident was not accurate.[45] At this point, the fighting was largely down to Carondelet and Benton facing off against CSS General M. Jeff Thompson, CSS Colonel Lovell, and CSS General Beauregard.[46] The battle was almost over by the time the three trailing Confederate vessels arrived.[47] The Federal vessels had lighter drafts than the Confederate ones, and they entered shallower water where the Confederates could not ram them. Montgomery was aware that the armament of his ships was greatly inferior to the Federal ironclads, and ordered a withdrawal.[48] Carondelet was forward of the other still-functioning Federal ships, and came under fire from both the Confederate vessels and undershots from Pittsburgh to the rear.[49]

Benton and Carondelet pursued the retreating Confederate vessels, but broke off the pursuit before reaching the batteries at Fort Pillow. St. Louis and Pittsburgh arrived on the scene. The former and Cairo attempted to save Mound City, but the latter vessel had to be intentionally run aground onto a shoal, where she sank. Pittsburgh was aiding Cincinnati in reaching the eastern shore, but Cincinnati was unable to reach the shore and sank in 11 feet (3.4 m) of water.[50] According to Bearss, the fighting had lasted about 70 minutes,[51] while McCaul argues for a time frame of 30 to 60 minutes.[52] Of the Federal ironclads, only Cincinnati, Mound City, and Carondelet had been involved in close-range fighting, and sailors in the Federal fleet criticized the Cairo, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis for their minimal roles in the action.[50]

On the Federal side, one sailor had been killed and three more wounded.[51] The Confederates lost about a dozen men, of whom three were killed or mortally wounded.[53] McCaul notes that these losses were very light given the amount of ordnance expended, and suggests that inaccurate smoothbore cannons and projectiles passing completely through the Confederate ships instead of bursting within them were the causes of the low casualty figures.[54] The Federals had incorrectly believed that they had inflicted heavy losses on the Confederates,[21] and Federal claims about the damage inflicted on opposing ships were also greatly overstated.[55] The Confederate ships were repaired at Fort Pillow after the battle; Thompson compared the appearance of the River Defense Fleet's smokestacks after the battle to nutmeg graters. While the superstructures and smokestacks of the Confederate vessels had been damaged, the cottoncladding had protected the ships' machinery.[56] Mound City and Cincinnati were later refloated and repaired, with the former returning to service less than two weeks later, and the latter returning in June.[1] The loss of the two ships to ramming led to the Federal ironclads being strengthened at the waterlines,[57] and Davis also changed the operating procedures for the bombardment to increase security.[58] Both sides claimed victory; Bearss describes the action as "sharp but not decisive".[51] Historian James M. McPherson states that the battle was "a definite Confederate victory",[29] historian Mark K. Christ considers the action a Confederate victory,[1] and Chatelain notes that the action was a Confederate tactical victory without long-range strategic benefits.[53] Bearss notes that the battle was one of very few fleet actions during the war, and states that "it was the only one in which the Confederates felt that they were sufficiently prepared to take the offensive".[51] Historians Paul Calore and Myron J. Smith refer to the battle as the first fleet action of the war.[59][60]

The fighting at Plum Point Bend did not stop the bombardment of Fort Pillow, although no Federal land forces were available to assist in the campaign against the fort. On May 30, Confederate forces abandoned Corinth, Mississippi, making the position at Fort Pillow untenable. Fort Pillow was abandoned on June 4, with the land garrison withdrawing to Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Grenada, Mississippi. The River Defense Fleet fell back to Memphis.[61] Reinforced by the United States Ram Fleet, Davis moved his fleet towards Memphis in pursuit.[62] With his ships low on fuel, Montgomery held a council of war that decided to fight the Federal fleet.[63] In the following Battle of Memphis, all of the ships of the River Defense Fleet except for General Earl Van Dorn were sunk.[64] Federal forces took control of the entire course of the river in July 1863, after the ends of the Siege of Vicksburg and Siege of Port Hudson.[65]

• Bearss, Edwin C. (1980) [1966]. Hardluck Ironclad: The Sinking and Salvage of the Cairo. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0-8071-0684-4.
• Calore, Paul (2002). Naval Campaigns of the Civil War. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-1217-4.
• Chatelain, Neil P. (2020). Defending the Arteries of Rebellion: Confederate Naval Operations in the Mississippi River Valley, 1861-1865. El Dorado Hills, California: Savas Beatie. ISBN 978-1-61121-510-6.
• McCaul, Edward B., Jr (2014). To Retain Command of the Mississippi: The Civil War Naval Campaign for Memphis. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-1-62190-135-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• McPherson, James M. (2012). War on the Waters: The Union & Confederate Navies, 1861–1865. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-3588-3.
• Smith, Myron J. (2010). The USS Carondelet: A Civil War Ironclad on Western Waters. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-4524-0.
• Tomblin, Barbara Brooks (2016). The Civil War on the Mississippi: Union Sailors, Gunboat Captains, and the Campaign to Control the River. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813167046.