Commander Walke Runs the Gauntlet

The Union Navy was busy during the early months of 1862.  With commanders Andrew Hull Foote and Major General John Pope fresh off recent success, Union forces looked to Island No. 10 as their next step to securing the Mississippi River. 

Flag Officer Foote was against the idea of running past the batteries at Island No. 10, as his gunboats from the flotilla were still wounded from the repulse at Fort Donelson earlier in the year.  Foote himself already revered service on the Western rivers as "anomalous," as he never fully felt comfortable with the Navy under the direction of the War Department (this did not change until later in the year - at the time, all Western theater operations were under the orders of Henry Halleck).  Despite his apprehension, the gunboats sailed downriver from Cairo in the middle of March to make preparations for their attack at New Madrid and Island No. 10, complete with additional mortar rafts for a siege. 

Foote and Pope could not agree on a successfully strategy for the siege.  Foote, always calculated and methodical, laid up the fleet in the river bend just above Island No. 10.  Pope requested that the separated forces join together by running past the batteries at Island No. 10.  Foote, still dealing with the injuries inflicted at Fort Donelson, declared the idea foolish.  He did not feel his gunboats were capable of running the myriad batteries along the low bend in the river.  Thus, the next few weeks saw bombardment, not movement of the fleet downriver.  The mortars were less than satisfactory, however.  Something else had to be done to defy the batteries at Island. No. 10.  Union forces created a canal in haste to allow transports and supplies to flow downriver out of sight from the guns.  It was not deep enough for the gunboats to move past.  Pope demanded gunboat projection, which was communicated to Foote from General Halleck.  Foote would have to go against his own judgement and run past the batteries.

Commander Henry Walke volunteered his ship, the Carondelet, to run past the batteries.  Walke retrofitted the ship with anything available to help it stay together, including rope and chain.  He also went to great lengths to dampen the sound of the ship itself, diverting exhaust steam from the smokestacks to make it as silent as possible. The ship was made dark enough to blend in the water as it sought the opportunity of pitch black night to aid its escape from the batteries. 

On the unusually dark night of April 4, 1862, Walke found that chance to act.  Moving downriver, everything seemed to be going smoothly until it was spotted near the second battery. A fire ignited from the buildup of the diverted smokestacks, giving away her position.  Thankfully, the fire from shore was highly inaccurate and the ship was able to escape without major damage.

The Carondelet, accompanied by the Pittsburg two days later, spent the next few days firing at Confederate shore batteries below New Madrid.  They also took the opportunity to spike the guns on the rebel shore batteries at Watson's Landing.  This allowed Pope's Army of the Mississippi to move up the rear of Confederate forces, cutting them off completely from outside contact.  It was only a matter of time before the surpised troops surrendered. 
 

U.S. GUNBOAT CARONDELET,
April 7, 1862.

Maj. Gen. JOHN POPE, Commanding U. S. Forces, New Madrid.

        SIR: Agreeably to your instructions of the 6th instant, I proceeded down the Mississippi about 6.30 this morning. Attacked, silenced, and spiked all the guns of the rebel batteries opposite your batteries. The lower one made a desperate resistance. It consisted of two 64-pounder howitzers and one 32-pounder gun. Two were dismounted and the other disabled by our shots. I then took and spiked temporarily a 64-pounder howitzer about half a mile above, and a quarter of a mile above that found a 64-pounder spiked. I took on board a man who reported himself to me as a spy, whom I send to you. The rebels had set fire to a house on the shore.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. WALKE,Commander, U. S. Navy.

"Drive On": The Genius of James Buchanan Eads

Building a naval fleet is not the work of a military organization alone. In the Civil War as now, the Navy depended upon businesses and individuals of action to help conceive and produce the nation's ships of war. John Ericsson traditionally receives effusive praise and a surfeit of attention for his role in designing the Monitor and a host of other ingenious creations. But Ericsson has a forgotten counterpart in the American west: James B. Eads. Without Eads's shipbuilding and design collaboration, the western ironclad flotilla may never have come into being, or its birth might have been a great deal more painful.
James Eads started, as many great figures of American history, under inauspicious circumstances. Raised in relative poverty, as a boy, Eads supported himself by working in a variety of menial capacities on commercial riverboats. His job selling apples to hungry passengers took him to the west's great ports and waterways and gave him an expert knowledge of western rivers and their unique navigational challenges.
Eads applied his experiences while still a young man, designing a primitive diving bell that allowed him to descend upon submerged wrecks and salvage their valuable cargoes. Eads achieved such great success that he went on to design and construct several purpose-built boats, which he called submarines. These unique river craft were capable of raising entire wrecks, and Eads's salvage operations had little competition. By the 1850's, Eads had earned a fortune, and he entered retirement at the age of 37.
The arrival of the Civil War brought the prominent St. Louisan out of his permanent retreat. Working with U.S. Attorney General (and Missourian) Edward Bates, Eads secured an audience with cabinet leaders in Washington. Nothing definitive resulted from this tentative spring meeting, but policy makers heard his proposals for the fortification of the upper Mississippi. Naval Constructor Pook also had the opportunity to evaluate Eads's design of an armed and front-armored riverboat. Pook saw promise in the energetic riverman's ideas. Secretary of War Simon Cameron thought the notion of a Mississippi ironclad absurd, and he axed any early construction efforts.
Undeterred, Eads followed his own motto of "Drive On" and presented new proposals to the government. Eads believed his Submarine no. 7 could be refitted and converted into a formidable warship. The Army's Navy advisors needed only approve the proposal, and the improved shallow-draft ship could be delivered within months. But Commander Rodgers saw no merit in converting no. 7. Military authorities would later reconsider the offer.
In August 1861, the Army and Navy finally came to their senses. A few timberclads and a swarm of lightly-armed riverboats would be insufficient force to pacify the Mississippi. The war in the west demanded an ironclad gunboat fleet. In early August Eads won the bid to construct seven ironclads, all to be delivered within three months. The contract secured, and his expertise finally acknowledged, Eads rapidly plunged into work and set his shipyards to the task. The ironclads would be built in Mound City, Illinois, on the Ohio River, and at the burgeoning Mississippi river port at Carondelet, Missouri, south of St. Louis. Once completed these "Pook Turtles" or "City Class" ironclads would form the core of the Union's western naval might. Eads would continue to design and build ironclads in the west, launching the Osage and Neosho in 1862, and several more vessels later in the conflict. Eads's shipbuilding centers became some of the chief hubs of naval activity in the west, and would remain commercial centers long after the war concluded.
Eads may have been the only man capable of properly undertaking such a huge building project in far-flung territory the Union military often regarded as a side show to the big show. Certainly, the Union benefited greatly from his unceasing energy and forward-thinking action. Had the South had its own James Eads, the war for the west might have gone a great deal differently.

In upcoming posts, we'll explore the west's naval bases, including Carondelet and Mound City, where thousands of laborers built the City Class ironclads that helped win the war.