Wisconsin Public Television University Place History Sandwiched In  Hank Whipple, "The Mississippi River in the Civil War"  March 15, 2011 UP567    cc >> Paul Rogovitch: Good afternoon and welcome to another History Sandwiched In at the Wisconsin Historical Museum. Today, we're very lucky to have back Hank Whipple, who has been here before. Many people have probably seen him here before, or in other venues. He's an emeritus member of the Board of Curators at the Historical Society. His specialty is maritime history and preservation. He lectures. He writes. He's won the Mystic Seaport prize for maritime history writing. And if you've never been to Mystic Seaport, you should go. Today, we're more riparian, I think the word is, rather than maritime, right? Riparious, is that correct? >> Riverine, we're using. 

>> Riverine, okay. We're combining this with the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. Hank Whipple will talk about the Union's plans on the Mississippi River. So please welcome Hank Whipple. (applause) >> Hank Whipple: Thank you very much. I stopped down here Saturday after lunch to see how the advance rush tickets were going. (laughter) And my god, all these people out there... (laughter) And I got home, I told my wife, and she said, "It weren't for you." (laughter) But that's one of the leveling actions. The definition of an expert is two fold. One, you're over 25 miles from home. 

I don't make that. And two, you're spouse is not in attendance. I don't make that today, either. (laughter) I'd just like to call to your attention this month's issue of the Naval History magazine from the U.S. Naval Institute is on the Civil War Navies, so you might find that of particular interest and use. The Civil War is always looked upon is, I think in all of our ideas, are land battles. Bull Run, Gettysburg, Antietam, this type of thing. We all know about these. But the conflict of the war between the states was also involved on the rivers, harbors, along the coast, and the bays of American waterways. So here we have the Civil War starts, we have the non-green are the Union states, and here we have the Confederate states. Although the naval engagements of the Civil War may not have been as well known to the public, and there were fewer of them, and they were less bloody. 

But the effort to blockade the southern ports and the conquest of the western rivers were important factors in the war's outcome. At the start of the war, neither side was prepared for any kind of a war at sea. The Union had about 90 ships of various types and sizes, of which only five were ironclad steam frigates. The Confederacy had none. Wood was no longer a substitute for warships, as both England and France already had ironclad navies. Unlike the North, the South had neither the facilities for metal fabricating, nor men or skills to do it. By war's end, we would see that the Union navy would have 670 ships and the South did manage to come up with 50. The key players in the strategy is Winfield Scott, who was the senior army member. He was the hero out of the Mexican War. You had Gideon Wells, the Secretary of the United States Navy, and Mallory, who was the Confederate Naval Commander. 

 Unlike his contemporaries, it was pretty clear to Scott that to win the war in the south, they would have to invade the south. They would also have to cut off its source of supplies and its source of ability to export, as they were dependent on European markets. This was not the generalized philosophy among Union commanders. They had sort of a capture the flag mentality. On to Richmond. Once we took Richmond, the Confederate capital, the whole thing would fold. At least that was their thinking. It took them four years to get there, by the way, to go the 100 miles from Washington, DC, to Richmond.  In order to blockade the South, they had to go all the way from just about Newport, Virginia, all the way down to Florida, around over to the gulf, over 3,500 miles, until they got to the Rio Grande River. There were about 180 ports in the Confederacy. 

The other thing that part of Scott's thought was the blockade would give them time to build a Union army. They didn't have a substantial army. And he knew that if they went down south, they would be invading. The war would have to be an invasion of the south. The South would be fighting a defensive war for their homeland and they'd be close to supplies. All these things were not really good from a Union strategy.  The North had the strategic advantage over the South. Just to give you some figures on it, they ad a population of 23 million. The South had nine, of which 3.5 million were slaves, not necessarily a dependable group from the Confederacy's point of view. The North had 100,500 factories. 

The South had 20,000. The North produced 540,000 bushels of grain a year, versus 331,000. They had 20,000 miles of railroad lines, as opposed to 9,000. Their bank deposits were $180 million, as opposed to $45 million.  If we look at this comparative chart, basically the colors, blue is the Union, gray is the Confederacy. You can see how all these different populations, agriculture, livestock, railroad. All the advantage was to the North. And the South strategy had to be, make a war so protracted and costly to the North that the population would start losing interest, similar to what was going on toward the end of the Vietnam War. That was a strategy that was an effective strategy. Only Scott had the vision to see what needed to be done. 

He recommended this to Lincoln. After a cabinet debate, he prevailed with Lincoln, so the blockade and the riverine activity started as the commencement of the war against the South. Scott's plan was dubbed, sarcastically by the media, the "Anaconda Plan." An anaconda is like a boa constrictor. It goes around its victim and really strangles it to death. They were doing this as a joking approach to things. Under Scott's plan, it involved joint army and navy operations, which would advance down the Mississippi River, to divide and conquer the South, while army support would blockade the Atlantic and Gulf Coast and take the port cities.  Let's look at the river campaigns. Here we have the Mississippi River. This is Cairo, Illinois. The places we'll be talking about are Fort Davidson over here on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, Ten Mile Island on the Mississippi, Memphis. 

You come on down to Vicksburg and then New Orleans. As I indicated, it took four years for the "On to Richmond" people to finally get to Richmond. But the blow which turned out to be a fatal blow to the Confederacy was the maritime attacks on the western rivers and along the coast.  The western rivers plan was by gaining access and control of the Mississippi, and also controlling the tributaries, this would allow the Union to advance deep into the South, and also have a supply line via the water. You can see that these rivers, the Tennessee River runs way down into Alabama. It goes over here to Muscle Shoals. The Cumberland River comes on down through most of Tennessee. The rivers would then be used for the purpose, as I indicated, supporting the land operations. West of the Mississippi, we had the Arkansas and we had the Red River. This also was a riverine operation from the Union. 

The Mississippi struggle was the longest and the most challenging and diverse campaign of the Civil War. It involved the widespread use of ironclads, steam-powered gunboats, modern fortifications, amphibious riverine landings, and the employment of naval mine, which was then called a torpedo. Not only would this new form of warfare dominate the western rivers, but the struggle would take place in a hitherto unimaginable geographical scale, stretching 700 miles from Cairo down to New Orleans.  Captain David Farragut, who I think maybe even now he got promoted to Admiral in our audience today, I noticed his uniform. (laughter) All right. He commanded the Union forces on the New Orleans operation. The army commander was Major General William F. Butler. They would start in the Gulf and go up to the river, with the idea, or the goal was to get up and take New Orleans up here.  The South had no city more important than New Orleans. It was the funnel through which poured all of the agricultural products of west of the river, and those on the near east side of the river. 

It was the source of imports and exports for that whole western part of the Confederacy. It also was the railroad head for all the major railroads leading to southern cities. In addition, it was also the manufacturing hub of the south. They had more machine shops and shipyards than any other city in the South. This was obviously recognized by Scott and adapted by Lincoln as a policy. The initial attempt at blockading the Confederacy in New Orleans didn't turn out well. Starting up the river, you have what they call three passes in the delta area, that lead into one channel. They Union ships started up that, but they were sent running back downstream by fire boats that the Confederacy had. This is where you get a highly flammable boat and you add even more flammable stuff to it, light it on fire, and just let it float down the river. Most of the Union ships at that time were wooden and highly combustible, so you got out of there so that you didn't lose your ship. 

Additionally, 90 miles down river from New Orleans, above the passes, were two forts. Fort Jackson on the west side and Fort St. Philips on the east bank, about a half mile down river. Each fort was located on a slight bend of the river, which caused vessels to have to slow down in order to make the turn. In slowing down, they're more vulnerable targets. They were going slower, they were there longer. Each of those two Confederate forts were well manned and well stocked with food, supplies, and ammunition. The Union officer in charge of taking New Orleans was Admiral David Porter, who was familiar with the river, having made at least 30 passages up the river, or down the river, during his naval career.  His force was comprised of 18 warships, having a total of 250 heavy guns. They were supported by 20 large schooners, each fitted out with 32-pound guns. The 32-pound is the weight of the ball that was in the gun. 

And one 13-inch mortar, that's the diameter of the mortar on the foredeck of the ship.  Here's what they had to do to get by these two forts. In addition, the Confederates had taken a bunch of hulks, chained them together so they ran across the river. That was another obstacle, how do you get by that when you're being shelled all the time. Many attempts to take the two forts failed. A two-week barrage of artillery and mortars did not do the trick. Finally, Admiral Farragut grew impatient. He said we have to get on to New Orleans. We can't keep dillydallying around here with these two forts. His first step was to have the gunboat Itaska break through the chain of ships. 

Revving up his engines to full speed, the Itaska plowed into the chains, snapping them. And with anchor chains hung over the side as additional makeshift armor, and shells pouring into the fort, the first of Farragut's ships, the gunboat Cayuga, ran past the battery. They were hit 42 times. The crew had laid flat on the deck, and only six men were slightly injured. The remainder of the fleet followed suit, destroying the fort as they proceeded on up the river to New Orleans. Fourteen of Farragut's ships made it safely past the forts. By daybreak, they anchored off New Orleans. Without having to fire a shot at that point, the city surrendered to Union troops.  Within two days, the two forts, Jackson and St. Philips also surrendered. With New Orleans in Union hands, Farragut now proceeded up river with several gunboats capturing Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Natchez, Mississippi, by mid-May. 

The only Confederate stronghold city remaining on the lower Mississippi was the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, which was regarded as the Gibralter of the South. Starting on May 23, 1862, the fleet shelled the city for several days, made no progress, withdrew south for a while, went further up the river again, shelled it for several more weeks with no result.  Success was also found during the winter of 1861-1862, with then Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant, who at that time was an inconspicuous commander of a military post in Cairo, Illinois. He proposed a joint Army expedition up the Tennessee to take Fort Henry. Here you've got the Mississippi, the Ohio, and here's the Tennessee. And right above here is the Cumberland.  The two main characters in that were Grant and Admiral Foote. The plan was approved on January 30, 1862. And Grant with 15,000 men, supported by armored gunboats and river craft, under the command of Foote proceeded down the Tennessee to Fort Donelson. The seven gunboats shelled the fort for several days. 

The commander of Fort Henry came to the conclusion that it was not tenable to hold it, so they moved inland to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River, which is only about two miles. Here is one of the river gunboats that the Union had at that time. Here is Fort Donelson, which is on the Cumberland River.  With Fort Henry in Union hands, the Tennessee River was now open all the way down to Alabama. The attack on Fort Donelson was delayed until February 12, due to inclement weather. With some 27,000 Federal troops coming as an overland attack, they also then came down the river. The Confederates transferred 12,000 reinforcements to Fort Donelson, making the strong position. Its earthworks were at 100 feet above the river. The outlying system of rifle pits embraced an area of about 100 acres. The naval bombardment that had reduced Fort Henry was not as effective on Donelson, and the Confederate artillery caused damage to several Union vessels. 

The eventual loss of the fort was not due to military superiority, it was due to a divided Confederate command. Neither of the commanding generals could decide what to do, so nothing got done. So, on February 16, the Confederate commander, Brigadier General Simon Buckner, who was an old friend and classmate of Grant's, realizing the situation was hopeless, asked for the terms of surrender. Soon afterwards, Grant sent his famous message: "No terms except unconditional surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." The terms were accepted. Between 12,000 and 15,000 Confederate troops surrendered, 20,000 rifles, 48 pieces of artillery, 17 heavy guns, 2,000 to 4,000 horses, and a large quantity of stores and munitions fell into Federal hands. The Army-Navy battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson dealt the Confederacy a blow from which it never really fully recovered. Kentucky and most of middle and west Tennessee had to be abandoned. The vital industrial and transportation center of Nashville was permanently out of Southern hands. Foreign governments also took notice of these situations, and this started to adversely affect the credits of the Confederacy. 

 Now proceeding down the Tennessee River, Grant and his naval colleagues landed at Pittsburgh Landing. They're almost down now to the Mississippi border. They put ashore and things seemed to be going pretty well when all of a sudden, 40,000 unknown and unsuspected Confederate troops attacked them. This became the two-day battle of Shiloh. Shiloh is located on the Tennessee River, as I indicated, near the border with Mississippi. Fortunately, the river provided access for quick reinforcements that came and saved the day the second day of the battle for Grant. But the losses were unprecedented and terrible. There were 50,000 Union and 41,000 Confederates wounded. There were 13,000 Union and 11,000 Confederate soldiers killed. Don't forget, the way they kept their statistics, the dead were dead on the battle field. 

They didn't count you if you died a few days later. So an awful lot of the wounded became fatalities, as well. The immediate death toll was more than had occurred in all previous American wars combined.  In the spring of 1862, a few miles up the Mississippi River from New Madrid, Missouri, is a place called Island Number 10. The Mississippi River numbers their islands, at least major islands. And Number 10 had a strong Confederate fort on the island and on the Missouri side, as well. They had five batteries. All told, there were 50 canons, with calibers from eight-inch, downward. They covered the river for three miles. To clear away this Confederate obstacle that blocked the river south, Admiral Foote, once his force was assembled, proceeded from Cairo on March 14, 1862, down to the vicinity of Island Number 10. 

The mortar boat anchored along the bank continued a two-week fire on the island, which sustained no material damage. The Union General Henry Pope was advancing out of Missouri, to the west, coming with reinforcements, but had no way to get across the Mississippi River due to the fact that all the available ships south of Island 10 has been used to keep the Confederate Navy at bay down river from there. He suggested that they run the gauntlet around Island 10, get a couple of ships down to New Madrid, so he could load them and take them back across, and then attack the island. This was regarded as too risky by Foote. So they continued to shell another couple of weeks, really to no avail. Finally, they said something has to be done around here, so they said, okay, we're going to buy into General Pope's plan. Commander Henry Walke, of the USS Carondelet-- Here's a picture of it here. This is what the armored river vessels were like at that time. He volunteered for the mission. He reinforced his armament with timbers and additional anchor chains over the side. 

He also secured a coal barge to his vulnerable port side, hopefully to absorb any incoming shot. Slowly, at 10:00 at night, they set off down river, all his lights turned off on the vessel, on April 4, 1862. Periodically illuminated by lightning flashes during a severe thunderstorm, he did get past two of the batteries. Well, as would have it, a stack ignited, and that goes up just like a torch. All of a sudden, they knew he was there. All the other guns came to bear and fired upon him. Walke ran up full speed ahead to complete the run as quickly as possible. The Carondelet amazingly ran the gauntlet without taking a single hit. She docked at New Madrid at 1:00am. And here you have Island 10. 

 Pope lost no time in embarking his troops. On April 7, they landed them on the Tennessee shore across from Island 10. The river crossing was proceeded by two gunboats whose mission was to silence the Confederate batteries. This they did. The Union landed without the loss of a single man. Finding itself completely cut off, Island Number 10 surrendered to Foote that afternoon. The river was now clear all the way from Cairo to Memphis.  Here we have Henry and Donelson, Island 10, Memphis over here on the river. Union General Halleck with a force of 100,000 troops were at Corinth, Mississippi, down here. Their job was to proceed northwest toward Memphis. 

The Confederate commanding officer in Memphis had insufficient troops to defend the city. He ordered it to be evacuated. At the same time on June 6, 1862, the Union naval flotilla comprised of rams under Flag Officer Davis, proceeded south down the Mississippi from Cairo. It destroyed the Confederate fleet, as intervening in a brisk battle. From the heights above Memphis, the citizens could stand there and watch the naval engagement. The city thereupon surrendered, and now the Mississippi was open all the way to Vicksburg.  So here we come now from Memphis, go down here to Vicksburg. By mid-1862, the only strong point remaining on the river now was Vicksburg.  It's nearby Port Hudson Fort in Louisiana. Grant sent Major General Sherman over land from Memphis towards Vicksburg in December 1862 to January 1863, creating a vulnerable 200 mile line of communication, that was constantly raided, resulting in Sherman being bogged down before he got to Vicksburg. 

Grant then decided that a joint Navy expedition against the Confederate strong point initially would utilize 45,000 men. Ultimately, it used 75,000 Union troops.  Vicksburg was the most protected location on the river. Its bluffs rose 250 feet above the water, extended for 100 miles along the river. To the north, lay the impenetrable Yazoo River swamps that went for another 60 miles. Confederate fortifications extended then for another 10 miles below the city. It could not be successfully assaulted from the river, and sailing past was very risky. The naval officer in charge of the Vicksburg operation was Admiral Porter. Here's a shot of him here. Here's running the gauntlet at Vicksburg. 

You can see the bluffs up there. Here's Porter and his staff on his flagship. Vicksburg was defended by 30,000 men. There were many more troops about 40 miles way, at Jackson, Mississippi. Sherman, however, was successful in isolating these additional troops, who never got to participate in the Vicksburg battle. After two failed assaults and 47 days of siege, with nearly daily artillery and naval gun bombardment on the city of Vicksburg, the city was forced to surrender. The campaign since March 29, had claimed 10,142 Union and 9,000 Confederate deaths. Confederate General Pemberton hoped to receive terms of surrender less than the normal unconditional surrender from Grant. Grant at first held out, but then realizing, what is he going to do with 30,000 wounded, hungry, dejected Confederate prisoners, how is he going to-- It'd take too many troops to take them north and get them out of there. He decided to do what was then the gentlemanly thing in the military, to give these troops and take their parole. 

That's their promise not to fight again. Those days, as you know, are long gone. He also had a psychological component. He said, look, if 30,000 wounded, bedraggled and dejected people go back home down south, the word is going to spread things aren't so good. It could be demoralizing for the entire South. So he told Pemberton that he would agree to Pemberton's request and take the soldier's parole. Port Hudson on the Mississippi, just north of Vicksburg, fell to five days later on July 9, 1863, thereby yielding the Union the total command of the entire length of the Mississippi River and isolating all the Trans-Mississippi Department, that is, Western Mississippi Confederate soldiers. Grant wrote Lincoln on July 9, 1863, his famous announcement, "The Father of waters goes again unvexed to the sea." The simultaneous victories of Vicksburg and Gettysburg lifted the moral of the President, his cabinet, and enhanced the status of the Union overseas. Without the approval of Congress, Lincoln concurred in Scott's idea about embargoing and blockading the South.  This is the area that would have to be blockaded, the dark line and the three lines are the four separate blockading squadrons. 

This was a Confederate blockade runner.  The blockade started slowly. It was ineffectual at first. But over time, it became more and more effective. Within a year, all of the ports other than Beaumont, North Carolina, had already fallen to the Union. The South was feeling the pinch. It was being choked to death. With the result that the Union was going to be victorious. Part of the countermeasures the South took were the blockade runners, which were very high speed boats that would go out to the British ports in Nova Scotia, the Bahamas, Bermuda, and then also in Havana, to smuggle cotton and tobacco out and to take stores and military supplies in. Throughout the Civil War, the sailors of both navies were undermanned. 

Both armies demanded more and more manpower. There were, obviously, black soldiers in the Union Navy. And surprisingly, there were some blacks in the South. A black could only serve in the Confederate Navy with the permission of his owner.  You could be 14 years old and serve in the Confederate Navy, or 13 years old in the Union Navy. But if you were under 21, you had to get your parents' permission to serve. The daily routine on the blockade was extremely boring. It was monotonous. Serving on the ships was totally different than the old days of sail. On sailing ships, you spent most of your time outdoors. 

In these new ships, you're indoors. It was hot. You had boilers. Smoke was coming down. Coal dust was coming down. Even on daily operations, sailors would just rush to the windows to get some fresh air. It was not a pleasant way to serve.  The hard-won triumph of the Mississippi River didn't mean the immediate end of the war. The blockade though, finally brought the strangle knot that Scott had projected.  Colonel Josiah Gorgas, who was the chief of Confederate ordnance after the loss of the Trans-Mississippi campaign said, "Yesterday, we rode the pinnacle of success. 

Today, absolute ruin seems to be our position." Naval warfare led to many inventions during the Civil War. Among these, iron ships, revolving turrets, rifled artillery, sea mines, the screw propeller, steam power replacing wind sail as a means of propulsion, and shells that exploded upon impact, not to mention rifled artillery, which is far more accurate than the old canon ball type. Scott's scoffed at "Anaconda Plan" indeed did work. The Union's coastal blockade gradually strangled the Confederacy to death. With greatly diminished exports and imports, the South was destined to lose, if the North could only hang on and keep the pressure on long enough. Thank you. (applause)