Vicksburg Campaign-The Fortress Surrenders

On July 7, 1863, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles received the following telegram from the Office of the U.S. Military Telegraph at the War Department:

"From U.S. Miss Squadron, Flagship Blackhawk

Hon. Gideon Welles Secretary Navy

Sir, I have the honor to inform you that Vicksburg has surrendered to the U.S. Forces on this 4th of July.

Very Respectfully, Your Obedient Servt D.D. Porter Acting Rear Admiral."

In a more complete report to Welles, Porter noted that the Navy's mortar boats fired over 7,000 shells at Vicksburg; the ships fired about 4,500 shells from their direct fire weapons with an additional 4,500 fired from Navy guns on shore. On top of that, the Navy provided 6,000 shells to the Army. He also commented that "the capture of Vicksburg leaves us a large army and naval force free to act all along the river. The effect of this blow will be felt far up the tributaries of the Mississippi."


Upon hearing the news, President Lincoln is to have said "The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea."

The Navy Memorial at Vicksburg National Military Park



Vicskburg Campaign-The Navy Unloads Its Firepower.

One of the chief reasons for Union victory in the West was the close
cooperation  between General Grant and Admiral Porter.

While the the Navy bombarded Port Hudson from the river and land, Admiral Dixon Porter set up a similar operation for Vicksburg itself. The admiral had the USS Cincinnati, Mound City, Carendolet, Benton, and Tuscumbia approach within 300-400 yards of the Confederate guns.  The two sides exchanged shots for over two hours before the Union squadron withdrew.  Porter often coordinated closely with General Ulysses S. Grant's ground assaults.  It was during one of these raids that Confederate gunners found their mark on Cincinnati, striking the ironclad in several critical places.  The ironclad soon sank.

Porter's ships bombarding Vicksburg at night.

Direct assaults did not make much progress.   Union leadership decided on a  more passive siege.  Ground forces would bombard from land, while Porter deployed a number of heavy guns from river and land to shell the fortress town.  Porter brought up mortar boats equipped with 175 mortars (not all of them functioning) from the south to augment his ironclad squadron. 

In addition to his warships, Porter placed IX-Inch and X-inch Dahlgrens and 100 pounder Parrott Rifles on scows (flat bottom river boats).  On land, he contributed five VIII-inch and two IX-inch Dahlgrens, two 42-pounder rifles, and older 32-pounder smoothbores.  All the guns were added to Grant's artillery batteries and manned by sailors from Porter's squadron. From 27 May to 3 July 1863,  Porter's gunners bombarded Vicksburg.  The gunners usually fired either first thing in the morning or at night, as Porter did not want to exhaust his gunners during the hot summer days. 

"Siege of Vicksburg"-Compare this print to the war time sketch
 of the same scene by Theodore Davis.

Porter directed the gunners not only to fire at the town, but also at the town supply depots, such as its cattle herd. The bombardments killed several hundred heads of cattle, making the Confederate's supply situation that much worse. 

One target Porter directed his gunners to stop firing at was the infamous "Whistling Dick" gun.  "Dick" was an 18-pounder rifle that made a distinct "whistling" sound when fired.  It is credited with sinking Cincinnati.  After many failed attempts to knock the gun out, Porter told his ships not to specifically target it anymore. 

In addition to the massive bombardment, Naval forces assisted in keeping Confederate relief columns from coming to Vicksburg's rescue. Porter deployed Brigadier General Alfred Ellet's Mississippi Marine Brigade to help Union ground forces fend off approaching enemy units.  This unique formation now under Navy control was a combined unit of infantry and cavalry with its own river transports.  The unit also took control of plantations along the river where newly freed slaves produced cotton for Union forces.

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Porter received a note during the siege indicating that Admiral Andrew Hull Foote died in a New York hospital on 27 June.  Considered one of the Navy's finest seamen (and rabid teetotaler), he suffered an injury during the Fort Donelson campaign which he never fully recovered from.  He was to take over the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, but his injury prevented him from travelling.  All the ships in the squadron lowered their flags to half mast. 

Civil War Navy Special Edition Daybook-Sea Stories-Now Online

The next issue of The Daybook is now online.  This issue is our third "Special Edition" installment on the Navy's role in the American Civil War.  This issue took a different approach than most of Daybooks.  Inside the reader will find the Civil War at Sea unfiltered.  The participants of the war are going to speak to you directly without a historian interpreting the events.  All parts of the war at sea are covered.  From the shores of France where two cruisers battle it out, to the siege lines of Charleston, to the corner of the Confederacy where a lone blockade runner attempted to put to sea. 

Some of the articles one will find are March 9, 1862 log book entry of USS Monitor (which sums up the entire Battle of Hampton Roads in ten sentences); excerpts from the logs books U.S. Navy ironclads on the front lines; excerpts from an African American sailor serving in the U.S. Navy; the day the Navy took a dog and sheep into custody; letters to home from a grief stricken officer; and Admiral David Dixon Porter's surreal conversation with a plantation overseer.

If you would like a print copy of the Daybook, head on over to the Hampton Roads Naval Historical Foundation's page and become a member!

The Admiral and the Overseer in the Vicksburg Campaign

In order to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi, Union forces had to control the Yazoo River.  David Dixon Porter had his men and ships begin clearing out trees and sweeping the river for torpedoes. During the operation, Porter witnessed local plantation owners setting fire to their stocks of cotton.  He also noticed that plantation's overseer did not seem to care that his boss had just set the place on fire.  He took no notice to the Yankee forces in his backyard, either.  Seeing this, the flag officer struck up a conversation with the overseer.  Here is how Porter remembered the conversation in his book Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War :

A burly overseer, weighing over two hundred pounds, sat at the door of log-hut with a pipe in his mouth. He was a white man, half bull-dog, half blood-hound, and his face expressed everything that was bad in human nature, but he smoked away as if nothing was the matter—as Nero fiddled while Rome was burning. He looked on us with perfect indifference; our presence didn’t seem to disturb him at all. Doubtless he felt quite secure; that we didn’t want anything so bad as he was.

I called to him, and he came down in his shirt-sleeves, bareheaded, and looked stolidly at me as if to say, “Well, what do you want?”

“Why did those fools set fire to that cotton?” I inquired.

“Because they didn’t want you fools to have it,” he replied. “It’s ourn, and I guess things ain’t come to such a pass that we can’t do as we please with our own.”

“Tell them we won’t trouble it,” I said; “it is wicked to see such material going off like smoke.”

In five minutes he had a dozen Negroes at his side, and they were all sent up the bayou on a full run to stop the burning of cotton. He believed our word, and we did not disappoint him.

“And who are you ?” I inquired of the man.

“I am in charge of this plantation,” he replied; “this is the mother of my children”—pointing to a fat, thick-lipped Negress who stood, with her bosom all bare and arms a-kimbo, about ten yards away—”and these fine fellows are my children,” he continued, pointing to some light-colored boys who had followed him down.

“I suppose you are Union, of course? You all are so when it suits you,” I said.

“No, by G-- , I’m not, and never will be; and as to the others, I know nothing about them. Find out for yourself. I’m for Jeff Davis first, last, and all the time. Do you want any more of me?” he inquired, “for I am not a loquacious man at any time.”

“No, I want nothing more with you,” I replied; “but I am going to steam into that bridge of yours across the stream and knock it down. Is it strongly built?”

“You may knock it down and be d—d,” he said, “It don’t belong to me; and, if you want to find out how strong it is, pitch into it . You’ll find a hard nut to crack; it ain’t made of candy.”

"You are a Yankee by birth, are you not ?” I asked.

“Yes, d—n it, I am,” he replied; “that’s no reason I should like the institution. I cut it long ago,” and he turned on his heel and walked off.

We came to one more bridge; down it went like nine-pins, and we steamed slowly on, forcing our way through small, lithe willows that seemed to hold us in a grip of iron. This lasted for an hour, during which we made but half a mile. But that was the last of the willows for a time. Had they continued, we would have been obliged to give it up. The small sprouts, no larger than my little finger, caught in the rough plates of the overhang and held us as the threads of the Lilliputians held Gulliver.

The banks of the bayou were high with right behind us with an army, and an army, too, that was no respecter of ducks, chickens, pigs, or turkeys, for they used to say of one particular regiment in Sherman’s corps that it could catch, scrapes, and skin a hog without a soldier leaving the ranks. I was in hopes they would pay the apostate Yankee a visit, if only to teach him good manners.

Counter-Insurgency Operations on the Upper Mississippi, October 1862

Confederate partisan activity was not limited to Louisiana.  Wherever there was a Union incursion into the Mississippi River, Confederate partisans made themselves present, harassing Union shipping.  These insurgent operations became particularly acute in the Upper Mississippi region, an area allegedly secured earlier by U.S. Naval victories.  At the time, however, civilian shipping was being seized.   Writing to Secretary Welles, Acting Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter suspected that insurgents were secretly supplied from Confederate sympathizers in St. Louis. "The war would never end this way," he commended. 

Thus, Porter developed a three part plan to clear the area of partisans. 

1) What would be later be called in the Vietnam War a "free fire zone," Porter accounted that civilian shipping would only be allowed to dock at authorized points of the river.  Any ship found in an unauthorized landing area would be considered hostile and subject to seizure and arrest. 

2) Ships would be placed at certain locations along the river that were known to be partisan hot spots to keep them clear.  Porter admitted on this part of the plan, "I find it very difficult to comply in all causes with such demands of the squadron."

3) He used the "City"-type ironclads with armed landing parties to conduct raids against suspected partisan strongholds.  He instructed that any partisan found not be treated as a prisoner-of-war and that the partisans be punished ten fold for any stolen property found of them. 

USS Louisville

The ship's company of USS Baron DeKalb carried out one of the first raids under Porter's plan.  The ironclad docked at Hopefield, Arkansas (now called West Memphis) and twenty-five men under the command of DeKalb's carpenter (which was a warrant officer rank in the 19th century Navy) landed.  They "procured" horses from the locals and pursed ten partisans for nine miles in a dramatic running battle. The sailors eventually captured the partisans.  It is not known what was done to them.

USS Louisville carried a similar raid a short time later in relation for an incident aboard the steamer Gladiator, north of Helena, Arkansas.  Earlier, partisans captured the ship and allegedly shot several of the passengers.  Reinforced by 300 soldiers from 11th and 24th Indiana, Lieutenant Commander Meade (nephew of the Army of the Potomac general) led a detachment of sailors in pursuit of the partisans.  These partisans, however, successfully eluded Meade's force.  Either out of frustration or part of a longer term plan, Meade order his men to burn down every house and field with a two mile area.

Partisans continued their raids, in some cases as far up as the Ohio River. The Mississippi River Squadron likewise continued their's.  Porter concluded that this type of aggressive counter-insurgency was necessary.  He wrote, "This is the only way of putting a stop to the guerrilla warfare, and though this method is stringent, officers are instructed to put it down at all hazards."

Porter's Mortar Fleet in Hampton Roads

Many historians and enthusiasts agree that the U.S. Navy's James River Flotilla was ill-equipped to attack the Confederate garrison at Fort Darling along Drewry's Bluff in May 1862.  Besides the lack of Union Army units nearby, the Flotilla's ships were designed for ship to ship action.  They were not designed to tackle a fort sitting far above the river.  Why didn't the Navy use mortar boats on the James River as in the Mississippi?  Even if they were less than effective at engagements like Island No. 10, their involvement might have inflicted some damage on the approach to Richmond.  Although this was intended to occur, the ships did not arrive in time. 

On July 9, 1862, Secretary Welles, ordered Porter and most of the mortar fleet to transfer from the Mississippi River to the James.  The mortar ships were used against Vicksburg for much of June in preparation for an assault on the fortress city.  However, Welles received reports that Union ground forces under General Halleck were not ready to attack and the water level in the Mississippi was beginning to drop.  Seeing that the mortar ships could be better used in the East and with the endorsement of Assisstant Secretary Fox, Welles ordered the transfer.

The move took four weeks.  The first ships began to filter into Hampton Roads in the beginning of August.  En route to Hampton Roads, Porter's flagship USS Octorara captured the blockade runner Tubal Cain off the east coast of Key West.  That was the only postive development of the transfer.

Leaving aside the fact that the fleet arrived a full month after the Army of the Potomac ended the Peninsula Campaign, the mortar fleet and its sailors were in no shape for action.   Flag officer Goldsborough reported that many of the sailors were suffering from what we now call relapsing fever (older term: "bilious remittent"/ slang term: "camp fever"), which had spread throughout ships serving on the Mississippi.  Welles responded to this issue suggesting the Navy enlist African American men camped around Fort Monore to fill in the ranks, as there were not enough sailors in Northern ports to provide replacements. 

Upon looking at the ships themselves, Goldsborough questioned their seaworthiness to Welles. "Are these vessel to be sent up the James River in their present condition?" he asked.  Commodore Charles Wilkes further questioned Welles, implying that the Secretary was seriously misinformed about the readiness of the ships.  He stated that it would be several months before the ships could see offensive action again, as many of the mounts holding the mortars were in serious disrepair.   Furthermore, Army commanders in Hampton Roads refused to release any African Americans to the Navy. 

Thus, the idea of using mortar ships to capture Richmond was killed.  Furthermore, with Farragut and Porter's pull back from Vicksburg, the siege of the city was effectively lifted.

Commander Walke and the CSS Arkansas: 15 July 1862

 

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the engagement between the Confederate ironclad Arkansas and the Federal gunboats Carondelet, Tyler, and Queen of the West.  Unlike the Union ships,  CSS Arkansas was new and inexperienced in combat.  The Union vessels were all veterans of river offensives like Shiloh, Memphis, and the initial repulse at Vicksburg.  

The newly created Confederate ships were directed by General Earl Van Dorn, commanding the Army at Vicksburg, to bring the ship to the Rebel "Gibraltar."  The CSS Arkansas ran into the  Federal ships while she was making her way down the Yazoo River on her way to the city.  As shown, the CSS Arkansas proved to be a worthy adversary to the experienced Union fleet.  The Arkansas managed to damage the Carondelet and Tyler.  The following is an excerpt from the deck log of the USS Carondelet, written by commanding officer Henry Walke. 

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July 15.  At 4 a. m. proceeded up the river, gunboat Tyler and ram Queen of the West following us. At 4.30 entered Yazoo River. At 5 the Tyler and Queen of the West passed us. At 6 discovered a boat coming down the river. Immediately went to quarters and cleared the boat for action. Rebel ram opened fire upon the Queen of the West and gunboat Tyler and they immediately rounded to. We found the advancing rebel boat to be a powerful gunboat and ram. We rounded to and headed downstream, at the same time firing upon her with all our batteries as we brought them in range. Captain Walke hailed the Tyler as she passed and ordered Lieutenant Commanding Gwin to go ahead and inform the commodore of the Arkansas approach. The ram made for us and for an hour we continued a running fight (she gaining on us), distance 500 to 50 yards. Our wheel ropes were shot away, steam escape pipe cut, exhaust pipe cut, cold water supply pipe riddled with pieces of shot, and steam gauge shot away, the boat becoming unmanageable. Our tiller ropes and box being shot away, the Carondelet was unmanageable and ran upon a small stump after the Arkansas passed us. As she passed by us we called the boarders upon deck, and we gave her our starboard broadside and bow guns, firing them as the enemy came in range. At this time the Arkansas flag was down and not hoisted again while in sight. Our backing bell and speaking trumpet. being shot away, the pilot could not communicate readily with the engineer. By this time the ram had passed us and was following the Tyler. After remaining at the bank for a short time to repair damages, we made our way down the river and found the rebel boat had succeeded in passing by the whole of the flotilla and rams. We received 5 shots in the captains cabin and 3 in the wardroom, 3 of the shots passing clear through the wheelhouse, 1 lodging in the steerage mess room, 1 going through wheelhouse, carrying away deck pump, passing through bulkhead aft of steam drum, glancing up, passing over steam drum, striking carlines, carrying away 4 of them and falling into fire room. One going through the wheelhouse carrying away steam escape pipes, going through 2 coppers on the galley, through smoke pipe, through ventilators, through bulkhead forward of fire room, through loose timbers placed upon the bulkhead and entering 4 pieces of one-fourth-inch iron. One coming in captains cabin on starboard corner, carrying away 12 carlines, striking chambers of side pipe, glancing upward and cutting exhaust pipe and striking upper deck over engine room and falling to the main deck. One coming in wardroom just about amidships, cutting away 8 carlines, passing through chief engineers, surgeons, and gunners rooms, carrying away bulkheads and striking the deck and fetching up against the after stanchion on port side. Another shot came through starboard quarter, passing through second and first masters room and through the captains cabin, out of the after port. Another shot came through the iron on starboard side, breaking in casemate and the shot breaking in pieces. Two shot carrying away iron and coming through the iron into the wood on the inside. Both cutters shot away; 2 boat davits carried away; all boats falls on starboard side shot away. Three awning stanchions shot away. One shell burst on starboard side of upper deck, cutting awning in pieces and setting starboard hammock netting on fire. We expended during the engagement one 32-pound gun, weight 42-hundred weight, struck on the lower part of the muzzle, splitting the gun in two pieces; 6 boarding pikes, 1 musket, 3 revolvers, and 4 cutlasses, belts, and accouterments were lost and shot to pieces during the engagement. Four men were killed, 15 wounded., and 16 missing. Expended 90 rifle and solid shots. 

From S to 12 meridian: Came to anchor with fleet. At 8: 30 hospital boat Red Rover came off alongside and took off the wounded. Cincinnati proceeded to the assistance of the Benton. Explosion seen at the point below supposed to be a mortar schooner aground at that point. At 10: 30 the Louisville proceeded down the river. At 6:30 p. m. vessels proceeded down the river.

 

Source:  Official records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion; Series I - Volume 23: Naval Forces on Western Waters (April 12, 1862 - December 31, 1862)

Navy Nurses in the Civil War

USS Red Rover on the Mississippi River

The Civil War was a time of many "firsts" for the Navy.  Now that it is the first day of Women's history month, it would seem poignant to talk about the historic first contributions of females in the Navy.  Like African Americans, these minority members of sea service exemplified the three tenets of the U.S. Navy: Honor, Courage, and Commitment. 

Although nurses were not recruited in high numbers during this time period (especially for the Navy), effective clinicians would eventually become integral to the health and stability of any military.  It is no surprise then that disease, not combat, was the greatest killer of the American Civil War. 

Mother Mary Ann Bickerdyke

According to Susan H. Godson, the influx of nurses in the United States (Union) military grew early on as a result of  "the growing carnage on the battlefields."  Efforts were increased from newly created organizations like the Women's Central Association of Relief and the U.S. Sanitary Commission.  When fighting began on Virginia's peninsula in the spring of 1862, steamboats were converted into floating hospitals to transport the evacuated wounded.  The U.S. Sanitary commission paid for the staffing of these ships with surgeons, dressers, and now male and female nurses.  Female nurses "prepared food, stocked shelves, and made the inform as comfortable as possible."   One of the more famous eastern transporters, the City of Memphis, was led by Mother Mary Ann Bickerdyke, perhaps the most famous nurse of the war. 

USS Red Rover

In the West, ships did not have the luxury of swift transport to a shore hospital, so floating hospitals like the Red Rover were commissioned.  Commissioned on 26 December 1862, the Red Rover served with the Mississippi River Squadron for the remainder of the war.  The medical personnel included four nuns of the Sisters of the Holy Cross as well as five black women - Alice Kennedy, Sarah Kinno, Ellen Campbell, Betsy Young, and Dennis Downs, who assisted the nuns.  These women were the very first women to serve on a U.S. Navy ship, and the predecessors to the Navy Nurse Corps of the 19th century. 

Source: 
Godson, Susan H.  Serving Proudly: A History of Women in the U.S. Navy.  Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2001. 

Birth of the Brown Water Navy

One-hundred and fifty years ago this week, an important component to the Federal efforts in the Western Theater came to the fore - the Mississippi River Squadron.

At the onset of war both the Army and Navy officers recognized the need for river gunboats complementing land operations along the Mississippi River and tributaries. The requirements for river operations - or "brown water" - differed significantly from the more traditional "blue water" navy's warship designs. On the Mississippi, the Navy needed light draft ships capable of maneuvering within the river channels. Likely tactical scenarios placed those gunboats in close proximity to enemy river defense batteries. So on that light draft, the boats had to carry structural bracing, armor, and heavy armament. Given these and other requirements, the ironclad river gunboats evolved almost independently of the contemporary "blue water" monitors.

Complying with immediate demands, the first river gunboats were conversions of existing river craft. Three riverboats became "timberclads" with the addition of heavy oak "armor" and a battery of naval guns. While useful for river patrols and action against less well defended points, these ships lacked the armor to deal with heavily fortified river bastions or the anticipated Confederate ironclads.



In September 1861 the Army acquired the ferry New Era for conversion into a timberclad. When turned over to the Navy for operations, Commander William D. "Dirty Bill" Porter renamed the ship USS Essex in honor of the famous War of 1812 era frigate commanded by his father. Porter also had light iron plating installed on the forward casemate and sides, making the Essex an "iron-plated" gunboat. She carried three 9-inch Dahlgren guns. While more formidable than the "timberclads," the Essex was not the all the Navy required. (Of note, the Navy completely rebuilt the Essex later in 1862 transforming the ship into a proper river ironclad.)


The solution came in the form of a class of armored gunboats, designed specifically for use on the rivers. Working from a description offered by the Army, naval chief constructor John Lenthall designed a vessel with very light draft. Lenthall then recommended the Army further consult with Samuel M. Pook, a shipbuilder of note, to refine the design. Pook would do more than just refine the design, . What emerged was a vessel uniquely adapted for riverine warfare.



Pook's design featured a hull 175 feet long and 50 feet wide, but drawing a draft of only 6 feet. A central casemate, not unlike later Confederate rams in appearance, housed a battery of heavy naval guns - three 8-inch, four 42-pdrs, and six 32-pdrs as designed. Five boilers, placed low in the hull, powered a central paddle wheel. Iron plate, some 2.5 inches thick, covered the forward casemate, sixty feet of the sides, and the pilot house. Because of the incomplete armor arrangements, these were not ironclads in the strict sense of the word. Although weighing 512 tons, Pook's gunboats could make nine miles-per-hour with a head of steam.



In August 1861, James Buchanan Eads won the contract to construct these vessels. Working at yards in Carondolet, Missouri and Mound City, Illinois, Eads' project move rapidly (mostly due to stiff penalties for late delivery!). First to roll off the ways was the USS St. Louis in mid-October at Carondelet. The USS Carondelet, USS Louisville, and USS Pittsburgh followed from the Missouri yards. The USS Cairo, USS Cincinnati, and USS Mound City came out of the yards in Illinois.



These seven "City-class" gunboats became the core of the Mississippi River Squadron. The St. Louis first went into action at Lucas Bend, just above Columbus, Kentucky, alongside the Essex, on January 11, 1862. Encountering three Confederate gunboats escorting a floating battery into position, the two Federal gunboats drove off their unarmored opponents. In the first engagement these "ironclad" gunboats established ascendency on the rivers.



During the first week of February, the Essex, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Carondelet moved down the Tennessee River in support of a Federal force under General U.S. Grant. The Army didn't have much to do after the Navy's gunboats silenced Confederate defenses at Fort Henry. But assumptions about the gunboats effectiveness against shore defenses proved a bit premature. Later on February 14, at Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River four city-class gunboats could not pass the Confederate batteries. The problem was just as much tactical as technical.



Despite the Valentine's Day setback, the "brown water" gunboats figured prominently in Federal plans. The force continued to grow with the addition of more gunboats, such as the converted USS Benton at the end of February. In months to follow the gunboats pressed the Confederate defenses along the Mississippi. The Mississippi River Squadron provided the mobile striking force for the combined Army-Navy team that eventually drove the wedge through the Confederacy.

USS Tyler: A Rather Useful Timberclad

Early in the war, the Army had requirement for light-draft, armed vessels to escort riverboats transporting troops and supplies along the western waterways. In the summer of 1861, the Navy barely had the notion of a production program, much less actual vessels to meet the need. An early example of cross-service coordination, in June 1861 Commander (later Captain) John Rogers consulted with Army officers and purchased three side-wheel steamers for conversion to gunboats. These were the USS Conestoga, Lexington, and Tyler. The trio cost $62,000.

Rogers complained the vessels lacked fittings and arrangements for warship service. After experimenting to find the appropriate thickness, Rogers ordered five-inch thick bulwarks placed around the vessel to provide minimum protection for the crew against small arms. This and other modifications added $41,000 to the total cost of the modified river boats, informally classed as "timberclads."

Originally named A.O. Tyler, the Tyler was the largest of the three, measuring 178 feet long with a 45 foot beam. The modified steamer displaced between 420 to 575 tons, drawing 6 to 7 feet of water. Her two cylinder engine gave a speed of 8 knots.




The Tyler's armament included six 8-inch guns and one 32-pdr initially. And these guns were put to use shortly after the ship's conversion. Part of the Western Flotilla, technically under Army control with Naval officers on board, the Tyler supported reconnaissance operations in the waters around Cairo, Illinois. In one of the earliest contest between Federal and Confederate warships, the Tyler and Lexington exchanged shots with a rebel gunboat off Hickman, Kentucky on September 4. Later in November, under Commander Henry Walke the Tyler supported General U.S. Grant's landings and assault on Belmont, Missouri.

When Grant moved down the Tennessee River in February 1862, the Tyler was among Commodore Andrew Foote's flotilla which reduced Fort Henry. Afterward, while the ironclads moved around to the Cumberland River to support operations against Fort Donelson, the three timberclads continued down the Tennessee to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, clearing the river of rebel shipping.

The high-point of Tyler's wartime career was on April 6-7, 1862. Along with the Lexington, Tyler protected Grant's river flank at Pittsburg Landing in the battle of Shiloh. During the night, the gunboats intermittently shelled Confederate positions, depriving them of much needed rest and reorganization.

Following Shiloh, Tyler along with the other timberclads operated against Confederate positions around Vicksburg. While patrolling the Yazoo River on June 15, 1862 in conjunction with the USS Carondelet and the USS Star of the West, the Tyler came under fire from the CSS Arkansas. With the Carondelet taken out of action and the Star of the West in retreat, the Tyler alone faced the rebel ironclad. The Tyler managed to reach the safety of the main Federal fleet, but was damaged.

For the remainder of the war, Tyler patrolled the lower Mississippi Valley, occasionally engaging rebel batteries. Formally, the ship was not transferred to the Navy until October 1862. In 1863, her armament increased with three 30-pdr Parrotts replacing the 32-pdrs, augmenting the 8-inch guns. Still later four 24-pdrs were added. The ship often carried a 12-pdr howitzer for landing duties. As with most of the Mississippi Squadron, the Navy sold the Tyler at the end of the war.

For all practical purposes the Tyler and her timberclad sisters were limited ersatz warships built in a period of emergency. With many river miles and battles recorded in the logbook, the Tyler turned out a rather useful warship despite this.

Sources:
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Volumes 22-24. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1908-1910.

Canney, Donald L. The Old Steam Navy - Volume Two: The Ironclads, 1842-1885. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1993. Pages 36-37.

Silverstone, Paul H. Warships of the Civil War Navies. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1989. Pages 159-160.