Lincoln's Admiral

by James P. Duffy

  The Queen set out on her mission at four-thirty on the morning of February 2, 1863. Porter hoped the ram could make the passage before dawn, and thus surprise the men aboard the rebel steamer. Knowing the chivalrous attitude of the Ellets concerning rescuing men from burning enemy boats, and not wanting Ellet to expose himself to danger any more than required, Porter told him, “It will not be part of your duty to save the lives of those aboard [the City of Vicksburg].”

  Ellet knew from previous experience that when a ram made such a dangerous run, the boat’s pilot came in for special attention by enemy gunners and sharpshooters. With this in mind, the vessel’s pilot house was moved to a somewhat more protected location. However, when the side-wheeler was under way, the temporary cable leading from the pilot’s steering wheel snapped. The Queen was forced to stop while the wheel was moved back to its original place. This lost time meant the attack would have to be made shortly after sunrise. Surprise would no longer be on Ellet’s side.

  As the Union ram came within range, the upper Vicksburg batteries opened fire on her. Unable to return the fire, Ellet concentrated on his mission, to ram the City of Vicksburg. Unfortunately, the Southern steamer was tied to a wharf that protected her from direct attack. This forced Ellet to turn his ram at a 90-degree angle in order to approach her. As he did so, the river current caught the stern of the Queen and swung her around with such force that Ellet lost both speed and direction. The Queen’s bow no longer faced the Vicksburg. Shot and shell punctured the boat in numerous places. Two shells almost completely destroyed the pilot house. When several cotton bales used to protect the starboard paddle wheel were set on fire by enemy shelling, Ellet was forced to give up the attack. The ram dropped downriver, out of range of the batteries.

  After stopping for repairs, Ellet took his ram on a series of raids against enemy shipping. In quick succession, he captured two steamers loaded with supplies for Port Hudson, and a third that had already unloaded her cargo there. Running low on coal, he sent a signal overland to Porter, who floated an unmanned barge loaded with coal past the Vicksburg batteries. Also joining Ellet was a small steam tug, the De Soto. Together the two entered the Confederacy’s main trans-Mississippi supply highway, the Red River. On February 12, Ellet’s lookouts spotted a Confederate Army wagon convoy full of military supplies. The soldiers landed quietly and proceeded to attack and destroy the twelve-wagon convoy. When shots were fired from a nearby plantation, wounding one of his men, Ellet put every building on the plantation to the torch.

  Ellet continued his destructive raids until his vessel became grounded on the evening of Saturday, February 14, during a battle with rebel steamers at Fort DeRussy. Enemy fire set the Queen ablaze, forcing Ellet and his crew to abandon her. Although a few of Ellet’s men were captured, most escaped by floating downriver on cotton bales. The survivors of the battle crowded aboard the De Soto. The tug soon had her own problems, as the rebel boats pursuing them closed in. A broken rudder prevented the tug’s skipper from managing her properly, but he was able to ride the river’s current and make his escape. With the tug unable to be steered properly, Ellet put all his men aboard a captured Confederate steamer, the Era No. 5, where he had left a prize crew aboard earlier. The entire party returned to the Mississippi and headed north.

  On Sunday afternoon, Ellet was cheered to meet the newly completed Union ironclad Indianola south of Natchez. Lashed to the sides of the ironclad were two coal barges with enough fuel to keep both boats at their posts for several weeks. The Indianola was commanded by Lieutenant Commander George Brown. Porter had sent the ironclad below the Vicksburg batteries to support Ellet in his campaign against Confederate river traffic. Brown ordered Ellet to turn his boat around and head south with him, his intention being to use both boats to close the mouth of the Red River.

  Taking up the Indianola’s station blockading the entrance to the Red River, Brown decided to send the overcrowded Era north. He expected that when word reached Porter that the Queen had been lost, another vessel would be sent to aid him. Porter, however, was away when word of Ellet’s mishap reached his fleet. His subordinates failed to take any action pending Porter’s return.

  Meanwhile, up the Red River, a Confederate expedition was forming for the purpose of dislodging the Indianola from her station. The Union ironclad was a powerful vessel, but, unknown to the Confederates, Brown had only enough trained gunners to man two of his heavy guns. He prudently decided not to follow Ellet’s example and steam up the Red River in search of Southern vessels; instead, he anchored near the entrance to that river and waited for enemy vessels to fall into his trap. The two coal barges remained tied to the Indianola’s sides. Brown knew that when help arrived, both his vessel and those sent to help him would need the coal in order to operate against enemy traffic.

  Under the command of Major Joseph L. Brent, the Queen was repaired and refloated. Brent was ordered to steam down the Red River with a small flotilla and attack the Indianola. Along with the Queen, Brent had an ironclad gunboat, the Webb, and two cottonclad steamers loaded with Confederate infantry, the Grand Era and the Doctor Beatty.

  In the early hours of February 24, Brown learned from local sources that the Confederate flotilla was steaming downriver to attack him and that it included the ram Queen and at least one ironclad gunboat. The Indianola quickly weighed anchor and headed north toward Vicksburg. Brown hoped to meet the support boat or boats he expected Porter to have sent before he was forced to fight a numerically superior enemy. The swift ironclad could have outrun her pursuers if Brown had unleashed the two coal barges. However, he remained ignorant of the fact that no help was coming and continued to operate under the impression that the coal would be needed when help arrived. The coal barges remained tied to the sides of the Indianola, slowing her speed substantially. Because of this, the pursuing Confederate boats caught up with the Union ironclad shortly before nine-thirty that evening.

  When vessels were reported approaching from the south at high speed, Brown had his boat rounded in order to meet the flotilla head-on. The Confederate boats steamed straight toward their prey at top speed. At 150 yards, Major Brent gave the order to fire. With all guns blazing, the rebel boats attacked from three directions, limiting Brown’s ability to fight all at the same time. When several attempts to ram her failed because of the barges tied to her sides, the ironclad’s exposed stern came in for special attention. First the Queen rammed the Indianola’s stern with such force that she broke through the latter’s hull, causing serious damage. Pulling free, the Queen’s skipper, Captain James McCloskey, found his newly won vessel listing so badly that one of her huge paddle wheels spun helplessly in the air, completely out of the water. As the Queen backed away, the Webb moved in and rammed the identical spot, causing even more extensive damage. Meanwhile, the coal barges were hulled by shells fired from the two cottonclads. Both began to sink, pulling the ironclad down with them. Confederate riflemen aboard the Beatty and the Grand Era prevented Union sailors from reaching the deck and untying the barges. The ramming soon turned the Indianola completely around in the water. Her rudder was destroyed and her ability to fight diminished by the damage the ramming had also caused to her gun positions.

  In an attempt to save what he could of his vessel, Brown managed to head it toward the western shore of the river, which was ostensibly under the control of Union troops sent down by General Grant. With his stern now underwater, two enemy boats preparing to ram what was left of his vessel, and another loaded with infantry attempting to grapple and board her, Brown feared his boat would go down with little chance of his crew surviving. His only alternative was to surrender, which he did. The Union sailors were taken aboard one of the cottonclads. Later they were sent to a prison in Jackson.

  Pulling the ironclad free of the western bank, where Union cavalry units were known to be operating, Brent had the vessel towed across the river and grounded on the eastern bank. A work party soon arrived and began efforts to repair the extensive
damage sustained by the ironclad in the battle. Brent hoped to refloat another Union boat and use it against the enemy, just as he had the Queen.

  In the meantime, north of Vicksburg, Porter had returned and learned what had happened to the Queen of the West. When he heard the gunfire from downriver, he realized that the fate of the Indianola was in question as well, but there was nothing he could do. Porter had already sent many of his ironclads off on another mission, and he needed the few he had to guard his position on the river. To order another vessel below Vicksburg alone would invite another disaster, so assistance was not sent to the Indianola.

  While these events transpired, Porter’s staff had been developing a subterfuge that, if successful, would cost the Vicksburg batteries some of their guns. Earlier, when the Queen and the Indianola had steamed down the river, several enemy guns had burst from the constant firing. Since rebel gunners had sacrificed their guns trying to sink dangerous Union boats, it was hoped that any vessel they thought was a Union gunboat trying to get below the city would elicit the same response. At Porter’s direction, the hull of an old barge was used to build an imitation of a large Monitor-type ironclad. Tarred pine boards were used to simulate huge paddle-wheel boxes and a large gun turret, and barrels were stacked end-to-end to give the impression of smokestacks. Pots of tar and oakum secured below the stacks produced the required black smoke. Mimicking naval guns, series of logs stuck out of gun ports on both sides as well as from the stern and bow, giving her the appearance of carrying enormous firepower. Union officers christened the 300-foot-long mock ironclad the Black Terror. She was towed into the center of the river, where it was hoped the current would carry her past the enemy batteries. The Black Terror was released into the swift current shortly before midnight on February 25.

  Below Vicksburg, a party of engineers worked tirelessly on the Indianola, trying to repair the rudder and other damage caused by her battle with the Confederate gunboats. Every man knew this vessel would play a key role in the Confederate defense of the river if they could refloat her before any other Union boats arrived. Work suddenly stopped when the firing of heavy guns upriver broke the nighttime silence. The men recognized the sounds of the Vicksburg batteries and grew jittery at the thought that Federal gunboats might be coming downriver to rescue what remained of Indianola. Adding to the noise were the whistle blasts of a steamboat. Peering into the darkness of the river, they were surprised to see the Queen of the West rushing south at full speed. She had been tied up near Vicksburg when the Black Terror began her run safely past the batteries and rushed south to warn the repair party.

  The mock ironclad drifted under the batteries with little or no damage. Rebel gunners pounded the river in an attempt to sink her, and were surprised when the large and seemingly powerful craft failed to return their fire. The river current did its duty for the Union. The Black Terror continued downriver in what appeared to the Confederates to be an attempt to reach the Indianola.

  The Confederate officer commanding the work parties and the soldiers guarding them cannot be faulted for the actions he took when word of the giant ironclad reached him from several sources. These included a telegram from local army headquarters, and the Queen, which stopped just long enough to give the alarm, then fled downriver. The telegram compounded the error made by those who mistook the wooden craft belching black smoke for a warship by claiming two such ironclads had run the batteries and were steaming southward. Fearing the vessel would be recovered by the approaching enemy gunboats, the officer detailed a party to blow up the Indianola where she lay. Porter’s ruse to cause damage to the Vicksburg battery cannons had inadvertently prevented the Confederates from putting a powerful ironclad to use in their effort to remain in control of the river from Vicksburg to Port Hudson.

  The loss of both the ram Queen of the West and the much-heralded new ironclad Indianola was a blow to Porter. In a rare instance of candor, he wrote the Navy Department, describing what had happened as “the most humiliating affair that has occurred during the rebellion.”

  When word of the loss of the Queen of the West and the Indianola reached Farragut at New Orleans, he was furious. He wrote Undersecretary Fox that he was “grieved” that Porter had sent his boats below the Vicksburg batteries one at a time instead of in large enough numbers to destroy the Confederate boats operating between Vicksburg and Port Hudson. He expressed surprise that the Indianola had been captured without loss of life among her crew. “I never thought much of ironclads,” he told the undersecretary, “but my opinion of them is declining daily.” The admiral was in the habit of telling all who would listen, “Give me wooden ships and iron hearts,” because he believed they were as good as any ironclad.

  After weeks of waiting for the army to act, he decided he could wait no longer. Impatient to move against Port Hudson, Farragut swung into action. He informed Captain Jenkins of the disasters upriver, and told him, “The time has come; there can be no more delay. I must go - army or no army.” Recalling Commodore Bell from blockade duty off the Texas coast, the admiral told his friend, “Porter has allowed his boats to come down one at a time, and they have been captured by the enemy, which compels me to go up and recapture the whole, or be sunk in the attempt. The whole country will be up in arms if we do not do something.”

  “Doing something” meant passing the Port Hudson batteries and taking back control of the river between that bastion and Vicksburg. Burning with new determination, Farragut pressured and cajoled Banks into action. The general agreed to make a diversionary attack against Port Hudson’s rear in order to draw some of its guns away from the river. The army would also keep the nearly 20,000 Confederate troops stationed there busy while Farragut’s ships steamed past.

  Farragut remained short of ships. The majority of his squadron was still on blockade duty in the Gulf. Since his goal was to get as many large warships north of Port Hudson as possible, Farragut hoped that Bell, aboard the Brooklyn, would arrive in time to join his expedition. Some relief on this score was provided by the arrival of the Monongahela, a screw-driven sloop-of-war.

  Responding to Farragut’s pressure, New Orleans was stripped of most of its Federal defenses by General Banks, who assigned 12,000 men to Baton Rouge, increasing that city’s garrison to over 20,000 Federal troops. Leaving behind a few gunboats to keep the peace, Farragut steamed upriver with a squadron of four large warships: the sloops Hartford, Captain James S. Palmer; Richmond, Commander James Alden; and Monongahela, Captain J. P. McKinstry; and the side-wheeler Mississippi, Captain Melancton Smith. Two gunboats and several mortar frigates accompanied them. Arriving at Baton Rouge on March 11, they were greeted by Commander Η. B. Caldwell of the ironclad gunboat Essex. Caldwell had under his command two more gunboats and several mortar boats waiting for the admiral.

  Earlier the same day, Banks had left Baton Rouge with his force of more than 12,000 men, including the first Black regiments to engage in combat, the First and Third Louisiana Native Guards. The former comprised free blacks from New Orleans, many of whom were educated and possessing some wealth. Their officers were also all black. The latter were mostly freed slaves who had been trained and were led by white officers. Banks’s force also included nine companies of cavalry and several units of light artillery.

  While they waited for the army to get into position, the sailors aboard Farragut’s little fleet stripped their ships for battle. Rigging was removed and stowed, nets to catch splintered wood flying through the air were hung, chains were suspended over the sides to protect the hulls and boilers, and buckets of sand were placed near gun positions to help soak up the blood that was sure to be spilled.

  After weeks of waiting, the activity and the coming engagement revived Farragut. Men who had been with him for a long time recognized the renewed spring in his step as he moved about the Hartford, checking on all details, great or small. Older crewmen started referring to him as “Daring Dave” once more.

  Perhaps recalling the incident when the Brooklyn
had failed to pass the Vicksburg batteries because of a misunderstanding, Farragut made his instructions extremely clear for passing the Port Hudson batteries. “Bear in mind that the object is, to run the batteries at the least possible damage to our ships, and thereby secure an efficient force above, for the purpose of rendering such assistance as may be required of us by the army at Vicksburg; or, if not required there, to our own army near Baton Rouge. If they succeed in getting past the batteries, the gunboats will proceed up to the mouth of Red River, and keep up the police of the river between that river and Port Hudson, capturing everything they can. Whoever is so fortunate to get through, will proceed to carry out the views contained in the General Order, that is, stop the communication between Red River and the rebels on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, and communicate with the army and fleet above, and, if their services are not required to assist in reducing Vicksburg, return to the mouth of Red River and keep up the blockade until the want of provisions and coal makes it necessary to return to Baton Rouge. Nurse your coal with all possible care. Supplies of coal and provisions may probably be obtained from the fleet and army above. As long as supplies can be obtained, the vessels above Port Hudson will remain there.”