Confederate Ironclads Strike at Charleston

CSS Chicora

In the first months of 1862, two Confederate ironclad rams were begun in Charleston. They were designed by John L. Porter, one of the builders of the Virginia. Their construction was payed for by contributions from the women of South Carolina. They were 170 feet long, and covered in several inches of iron. The CSS Chicora and the CSS Palmetto State were ready by fall.

Gunboats in the harbor

The gunboats went out to attack the blockading squadron on the night of January 30th. They chose that day because one of the most important ships of the war had just been captured by the blockaders. It was a British ship carrying many military supplies, including engines for two other ironclads under construction. They hoped to recapture the blockade runner before it was sailed North. The Union blockading squadron off the harbor at the time was 10 ships, but they were wooden and lightly armed, intended to only deal with blockade runners. The commander of the Palmetto State reported this on the ensuing battle:

As we approached the bar, about 4 A.M., we saw the steamer Mercedita lying at anchor a short distance outside it...the men stood silently at their guns...they did not see us until we were very near. Her captain hailed us, and ordered us to keep off or he would fire... we struck him on the starboard warter, and dropping forward part-shutter, fired the bow gun. The shell from it, according to Captain Stellwagen who commanded her, went through her diagonally, penetrating the starboard side, ... through the seam-drum of the port boiler, and exploded against the port side of the ship, blowing a hole in its exit four or five feet square.

For a Civil War ship, a shot through the boiler was very destructive. The scalding steam was released, and it flowed through the ship burning the crew, and without the boiler the ship could no longer be controlled. The Mercedita was unable to defend itself because its guns could not aim low enough to strike the Confederate ironclads, which rode low in the water. With no other alternative, the Mercedita was surrendered to the Confederacy.

USS Mercidita

The CSS Chicora did just as well as its sister ship. It moved on the Keystone State, and one of its first shots pierced the Keystone State's boiler, killing and wounding 40 men. The Keystone State lowered its flag, indicating its surrender. The captain of the Chicora ordered a boat to be sent to take over the prize. He wrote:

While the boat was in the act of being manned I discovered that she was endeavoring to make her escape by working her starboard wheel, the other being disabled, her colors down. I once started in pursuit and renewed the engagement. Owing to superior steaming qualities she soon widened the distance to some 200 yards. She then hoisted her flag and commenced firing her rifled guns, her commander, by this faithless act, placing herself beyond the pale of civilized and honorable warfare.

After this dishonorable act, there was a bout of long range firing with the other Union ships and the battle was broken off at 7:30. The two small ironclads had broken the blockade around Charleston. However, it did not last long. As soon as the news reached the Federal high command, they sent the USS New Ironsides and several sister ships of the Monitor, and the blockade was reestablished since the two small ironclads were no match for the larger Northern ships. If the blockade was to be permanently broken by the Confederacy something more would be needed.

USS Keystone State

The Trent Affair Begins

Wesaw a few months ago how Mason and Slidell were appointed as Confederate ambassadors to European nations. Their job was to convince France and England to recognize the Confederacy as a nation and assist them in securing their independence.

But getting over to Europe was not easy for Mason and Slidell, since most of the Confederacy's ports were blockaded by the large Union fleet. Early on the morning of October 12^th, they were able to avoid the Union fleet off Charleston. They stopped in Cuba, and left on the British mail ship the Trent on November 7th.

Wilkes

Pursing Mason and Slidell was Captain Charles Wilkes. He knew that it was important to the war that the Confederates not convince England to ally with them, and he decided the best way to do that was to capture the ambassadors before they arrived. He had an reputation as a reckeless officer, and Seward in Washington had been warned, “He will give us trouble. He has a superabundance of self-esteem and a deficiency of judgment. When he commanded his great exploring mission he court-martialed nearly all his officers; he alone was right, everybody else was wrong.”

On November 8^th, Wilkes caught the Trent as it was leaving Cuba. The Trent was neutral and would make no resistance even though they viewed the search by the Americans as illegal. Mason and Slidell were taken off the Trent, after formally refusing to come and being brought by an armed guard. This moment would seem very low for the Confederacy. But although their ambassadors were captured, it was a blessing in disguise. The Trent Affair would bring England to the very edge of war with the United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Charles-Wilkes.jpg

Battle of Port Royal

Flag Officer Du Pont, Union Naval Commander

As we have discussed before, a part of the Union's plan to win the war was through a blockade of the South. But one problem that they faced was the need to resupply their coal burning ships. They decided to attack Port Royal, near Hilton Head, South Carolina since it was close to both Charleston and Savannah.

Map of Port Royal

To defend the port, the Confederates had constructed two forts on opposite sides of the bay. Beauregard, who drew up the plans, recommended against building them because they were too far from each other to provide support. Fort Wagner and Fort Beauregard each contained 13 guns, mostly of a small caliber in a water battery, and ten and six respectively to guard against land attack. They had over 3,000 troops to defend these positions. There were also four small gun boats available, but they were too weak to stand up to the Federal warships.

For the attack on Port Royal the North assembled what was, up to that point, the largest fleet to sail under the American flag, with 19 warships and 68 other ships. On the way to Port Royal, on November 1, the fleet was struck with a storm. The fleet was scattered and four ships were sunk. By November 4 the fleet was reassembled, except for a few ships which had to return home for repairs. Some naval skirmishing occurred on November 4 and 5, which showed that the Confederate gunboats would do little in the face of the powerful Federal vessels. The Union army commander also informed the fleet commander that the army could not participate in the attack because the lost ships contained necessary ammunition. Flag Officer Du Pont, the fleet commander, decided to go on with the naval attack. The battle was delayed until November 7th because of bad weather. Du Pont decided to go with a strategy similar to that used at the Battle of Hatteras Inlets. He would have his ships bombard while moving, hoping to thus avoid the forts' fire.

Bombarding Port Royal

As the Union fleet opened fire on the forts at around 9:30 AM, the plan quickly fell apart as the ships fell out of line to get better shots. They had found a position to be able to fire on Fort Walker without the defenders being able to put up an effective return fire. All but three of its water facing guns were disabled, and the Confederates began to abandon the fort. The Union fleet seeing this, ceased fire and occupied the fort. The garrison was allowed to escape unpursued. The commander of Fort Beauregard, although his command had suffered much less damage, feared that his retreat would be cut off and ordered his men to retreat. They were undetected, and were able to escape although their stores fell into Union hands.

Confederate Fort Receiving the Union Fire

The casualties were relatively light in this battle, with 11 Confederates dead and 47 wounded, and with the Union fleet having 8 killed and 23 wounded. Although this battle has largely been forgotten, it had an important effect on the flow of the war. A Union author wrote:

The Battle of Port Royal Bay has been somewhat overshadowed by the later naval victories of the war, but at the same time it was admirably planned and brilliantly executed. It was a battle in which ships engaged and captured forts on shore which were supposed to be impregnable to attack from the sea, for the army remained on board its transports and took no hand in the fighting, not landing until the forts had been abandoned under the fire of the naval guns. It had a good moral effect, for it came at a time when the Confederate arms had been generally successful and the feeling of despondency at the North was widespread, and this effect was felt abroad as well as at home. The object for which the expedition set out had been perfectly successful, and the plan carried out in its entirety, without hitch or mistake.¹

1. Biographical Memoirs (Washington City: National Academy of Sciences, 1895), vol. III, p. 36

Battle of the Head of Passes

CSS Manassas

One ship built by the Confederacy to break the blockade was the CSS Manassas. It was rebuilt from an icebreaker, and was intended to defend the Mississippi River. It was only 2 ½ feet above the water, and was covered in 1 ½ inch armor. She carried only one gun, and had an iron point on the front for ramming. It was originally built to be a privateer, but the Confederate navy seized it for the defense of the nation.

USS Richmond

She advanced out to battle in the early dark hours of the morning 150 years ago today, October 12, 1861. It was accompanied by a “mosquito fleet,” six small and weak gun boats and three fire rafts. The Union blockade fleet off New Orleans was three wooden sloops, along with two smaller ships. The Confederate fleet's commander, Commodore Hollis, planned to have the Manassas lead and take out the Richmond, the largest of the Union sloops. She would be followed by the gunboats pushing fire rafts, which he hoped would destroy the rest of the Federal ships.

Manassas attacks the Richmond

The Confederate fleet was sighted by a Union sloop, and the alarm flare went up. The Manassas aimed for the Richmond, but the Richmond was tied to a smaller coal ship. She struck a glancing blow alongside, but did not do significant damage. But in the collision of the blow, one of the Manassas's two engines was disabled. At this point the fire rafts were released toward the Union vessels. Seeing them, the Federal fleet cut loose their anchors and moved down river to escape. The firerafts grounded, as did the Manassas. All the Union ships but one also grounded down river. The Confederate's small gunboats fired at the Union vessels stranded on the bar, but although they did get a few hits, they did not score significant damage. The commander of one of the Union fleets panicked, and ordered the ship's magazine destroyed. Thankfully for the Union, the fuse was not successful and the crew returned to the ship.

Map of Head of Passes

Although Hollis was acclaimed in New Orleans as a hero, the ship that was actually the most damaged was the Manassas. The Manassas had been found to be too slow and unmaneuverable, the smaller gunboats too weak to do any damage, and the Federal commanders had not even made a good showing of a defense. Admiral Porter of the Union navy wrote this:

Put this matter in any light you may, it is the most ridiculous affair that ever took place in the American Navy. There is no instance during the war like it. To think that we should have to write of such a retreat is mortifying, but it stands on record, described in language that almost claims merit for the flight of the "Richmond" and her consorts, chased by a ram that was going in an opposite direction as fast as her disabled machinery would take her,— her officers thanking their stars that they got away so easily! There is nothing that can equal the comicality of Capt. Handy's performance—laying a train with a slow match to his magazine, and then hastening away in his boats with the American flag wound around him, and his remarkable antics when he found that his ship would not blow up. This presents an example unmatched in any navy in the world.

This conflict has been forgotten in the light of the more illustrious battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack. Because of the damage to the Manassas the true abilities of the ironclad were not demonstrated. However, the capture of New Orleans was put off until a later date.

The Anaconda Plan

Yesterday, George B. McClellan, commander of the Ohio troops, wrote to Winfield Scott, head of all the Union armies, about a plan he had devised for subduing the Southern rebellion. Scott objected to his plan on several points, and proposed his own, which would later be called the Anaconda Plan. He said:

We rely greatly on the sure operation of a complete blockade of the Atlantic and Gulf ports soon to commence. In connection with such blockade we propose a powerful movement down the Mississippi to the ocean... the object being to clear out and keep open this great line of communication in connection with the strict blockade of the sea-board, so as to envelop the insurgent States and bring them to terms with less bloodshed than be any other plan. ... In the progress down the river all the enemy's batteries on its banks we of course would turn and capture, leaving a sufficient number of posts with complete garrisons to keep the river open behind the expedition. Finally, it will be necessary that New Orleans should be strongly occupied and securely held until the present difficulties are composed.

A word now as to the greatest obstacle in the way of this plan - the great danger now pressing upon us - the impatience of our patriotic and loyal Union friends. They will urge instant vigorous action, regardless, I fear, of consequences ....

Scott's plan relied on the naval blockade of the Southern ports which was already coming into action. He would then move down the Mississippi river and secure New Orleans, and then wait for the South to surrender. This plan was derided at the time, and armies began to move for Richmond. As Scott predicted, they were time after time defeated in battle with heavy casualties. Many of Scott’s strategies were used, such as a strict blockade and an attack down the Mississippi river in conjunction with other attacks. While it is still debated today how effective Scott’s plan would have been if used as he intended it, elements of it did contribute greatly to the ultimate defeat of the Confederacy.