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Arkansas (Ironclad Ram)

1861–1862


Image related to Arkansas
Caption: CSS Arkansas (Ironclad Ram) running the Union Fleet at Vicksburg, Miss., 15 July 1862

(Iron-clad Ram: length 165 feet; beam 35 feet; draft 11 feet 6 inches; speed 8 knots; complement 200; armament: two 9-inch smoothbore cannon, two 9-inch 64-pounders, two 9-inch shell guns, two 6-inch rifled cannon, two 32-pounder smoothbore cannon; type Arkansas)


Image related to Arkansas
Caption: CSS Arkansas (Ironclad Ram); artist's interpretation.

(Ironclad Ram: length 165’; beam 35’; draft 11’ 6”; speed 8 knots; complement 200; armament: 2 8-inch smoothbore, 2 8-inch 64-pounders, 2 8-inch shell guns, 2 6-inch rifled cannon, 2 32-pounder smoothbore; type Arkansas)

On 16 August 1861, the Confederate Congress appropriated $160,000 to construct two ironclads at Memphis, Tenn. in order to defend the Mississippi River. Arkansas, a twin-screw ram, was laid down during October 1861 by J. T. Shirley.

Arkansas and Tennessee, were sister ships, each protected by 3 inches of railroad "T-rail" iron. They had 18 inches of wooden backing at each end and 12 inches along the side of the casemate. Arkansas’ iron ram extended ten feet forward of her bow while two 450 horsepower short-stroke screw engines, salvaged from a sunken steamer, provided propulsive power for her twin screws, but when one engine stopped, the remaining screw could only propel her in a circle. A lack of insulating material could cause inside temperatures to reach 130 degrees.

Contractor John L. Porter started construction on both ironclads at the John T. Shirley Yard and he hoped that both could be finished within four months. A shortage of both skilled laborers and materials; however prevented him from meeting that deadline. By April 1862, with Union forces closing in on the city, the decision was made to burn Tennessee. Arkansas was then moved up the Yazoo River for completion and safety to Greenwood, Miss.

44 year old Lt. Isaac Newton Brown, Confederate States Navy, took command of the ship on 26 May 1862. He was born in Caldwell County, Kentucky, but spent his later youth in western Tennessee. In March 1834 he joined the United States Navy as a midshipman and received a commission as a lieutenant in 1846. Soon afterwards he served in the Mexican-American War. Shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, he resigned his commission. Two months afterwards, he accepted a commission as a lieutenant in the fledgling Confederate States Navy and was assigned to the Mississippi River region by the Confederate Navy Department.

Lt. Brown ordered Arkansas towed to Yazoo City, Miss. to complete her with the help of local planters providing laborers and forges. When he arrived however, he found a mere hull without armor, engines in pieces and guns without carriages. Supplies of railroad iron intended as armor lay at the bottom of the river on a sunken barge. Brown quickly ordered a recovery mission and the armor was pulled up out of the mud. After working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the workers finally completed Arkansas during the first week of July 1862 after five strenuous weeks of labor under a hot summer sun. She had been fully outfitted except for the curved armor intended to surround her stern and pilot house. In its place, Brown recalled that, boiler plate was attached to these areas “for appearance’s sake.”

Brown noted that Arkansas “now appeared as if a small seagoing vessel had been cut down to the water's edge at both ends, leaving a box for guns amidships. The straight sides of the box, a foot in thickness, were covered with one layer of railway iron; the ends closed by timber one foot square, planked across by 6” strips of oak, were then covered by one course of railway iron laid up and down at an angle of 35 degrees ... shield flat on top, covered with plank half-inch iron ... large smoke-stack came through top of shield ... pilothouse raised about one foot above shield level. Through the latter led a small tin tube by which to convey orders to the pilot.”

By June of 1862, the Confederacy had lost all of its major strongholds on the Mississippi except Vicksburg, Miss. and Port Hudson, La. New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Natchez had fallen downstream of the city, while Island No. 10, Fort Pillow and Memphis had fallen to the north. Though Vicksburg refused to surrender to Union Commodore David G. Farragut, he had been able to steam his ships past the city’s fortifications in late June.

With most Confederate ships having been destroyed during the battles for New Orleans and Memphis; General Earl Van Dorn, commanding the defenses at Vicksburg, grew increasingly concerned about the two Federal fleets converging on the city. The Federal Navy had a large force made up of a squadron of ships under Farragut that had come up from the Gulf of Mexico and a flotilla of gunboats and rams under Flag Officer Charles H. Davis from upriver.

Soon afterwards, Van Dorn ordered Brown (by that point having been promoted to captain) to bring his ship down to the city. Brown then filled out the crew of Arkansas with more than 100 sailors from vessels on the Mississippi, plus nearly 60 Missouri cavalrymen with three days of naval training. The eager horse soldiers had never served big guns and most of them probably hadn’t been onboard a ship before. “The only trouble they ever gave me”, Brown later recalled, “was to keep them from running the Arkansas into the Union fleet before we were ready for battle.” He then valiantly set sail for Vicksburg in order to bolster the beleaguered city’s defenses.

Information, obtained from either a deserter or a spy, alerted Farragut that the Confederate ironclad Arkansas lay at a point up the Yazoo River. Hoping to confirm that himself, he ordered Tyler, Carondelet, and Queen of the West to steam up the tributary and destroy her if they found her. Shortly after sunrise on 15 July 1862, the Union vessels encountered the ram and a vigorous engagement erupted on the sultry Mississippi morning. The wooden gunboat Queen of the West managed to steam away from trouble, but the slow-moving ironclad Carondelet, commanded by Capt. Henry Walke, fired upon Arkansas with each of her guns and then called upon a squad of sharpshooters to take aim at the Confederates. That cannonade, however, inflicted little damage to the ironclad aside from shearing off her smokestack. Moments later, Walke inadvertently exposed his ship’s unprotected stern to Arkansas’ efficient fire long enough to be put out of commission with a shot through her steering mechanism. Soon Carondelet lumbered aground along the shallow bank. Arkansas’ deeper draft prevented her from ramming the disabled ship and she was already too close to use her guns to finish off the cripple. Furthermore, Brown insisted that Walke had struck his colors, which the Union officer angrily denied afterwards. Arkansas, under the circumstances, then pursued Tyler instead and inflicted heavy casualties after Brown ordered his gunners to fire grapeshot into her stern. The loss of Arkansas’ stack, however, caused her fires to cool and her speed to decrease, circumstances that allowed Tyler to escape the Confederate warship’s wrath and make a run for it. By that time, Queen of the West already entered the Mississippi River proper and alerted the two Union fleets of Arkansas’ impending arrival.

Arkansas again turned her attention to Tyler and began to give chase to the wooden gunboat. As both ships rounded a bend in the river however, Arkansas found herself in the thick of the Federal fleets, surrounded and vastly out-gunned. To steam south to Vicksburg and the safety of the city’s batteries, the Confederate ship would have to run the gauntlet. Union ships lined both sides of the river and each would have a turn at trying to stop the lumbering ironclad. Isaac Brown determined to steam as close to the enemy vessels as possible in order to prevent Arkansas from being rammed and also to create confusion. While Federal ships lay largely immobile with no steam up, they fired a continuous rain of shells upon the Confederate vessel. Arkansas replied with all of her guns in all directions. As the battle raged on in the heavy summer air, the temperature inside the ram climbed to over 120 degrees, but the crews worked their guns without let-up. As Arkansas slowly made her way south through the barrage, Brown caught a glimpse of Farragut’s flagship Hartford and ordered a broadside poured into her and it proved to be the final shots that the Confederates fired. The engagement with Farragut brought Arkansas to the end of the Union line of battle. She was able to steam south towards Vicksburg covered on her passage by the Southern river batteries. She arrived at Vicksburg to the sound of exuberant and lusty cheering from the citizens and within sight of the lower Federal fleet.

Farragut wanted to chase Arkansas down and destroy her with his entire fleet, but Flag Officer Davis, commanding the other Federal force refused because he thought it was a bad idea to challenge Vicksburg’s defenses. As a result, Farragut decided he would eradicate the adversary on his own. He waited until the sun was setting and hoped to blind the Confederates that would have to gaze into it to defend their positions. General Van Dorn, however, anticipated Farragut’s tactic and was waiting for the Federal fleet as shadows began to appear behind the shore batteries. As the fleet passed, it was too dark to see Arkansas. The sun had set and every gun in and around Vicksburg began engaging the Federal ships. Farragut was able to steam past the Confederate defenses, but the ironclad remained afloat.

After repairs, Arkansas once again posed a constant threat to her enemies and forced them to keep up steam 24 hours a day during the most sweltering part of the Southern summer. In order to eliminate their dilemma, Farragut tried once again to destroy the ram at her mooring. During that time, the severely reduced crew of Arkansas could only man three guns, so she depended on the shore batteries for protection. On the morning of 22 July 1862, the Federal vessels Essex, Queen of the West and Sumter mounted a poorly coordinated attack. First, Essex attempted to ram the Confederate ironclad, but as she approached, Arkansas skillfully evaded the thrust. As a result, Essex missed her quarry and ran deeply aground in the black mud of the Mississippi. For more than ten minutes she remained under fire from both Arkansas and the shore batteries of Vicksburg. Essex’ armor however, protected her crew and she lost only one man killed and three wounded. Conversely, one well-placed round from Essex penetrated Arkansas’ railroad-iron shell resulting in six killed and as many wounded. When Essex finally extricated herself from the bank, she hurried downstream to the safety of her fleet-mates in Farragut's squadron.  

Meanwhile, Queen of the West took her turn at making a run at the Confederate ironclad. The wooden gunboat’s captain, A.W. Ellet, however, misjudged her speed and she steamed past Arkansas and had to circle back and attempt to ram her upstream. Although she struck her target well on the second endeavor, her diminished thrust resulted in little damage upon impact. By then, Queen of the West had been riddled by some 30 balls from the shore batteries that passed through her hull, cabin and smoke pipes, but providentially she suffered no serious casualties. Her captain, losing his desire to tangle with Arkansas for a third time, then hurried her upstream to the safety of Davis’ flotilla above the city.

Throughout this period, Farragut had been pressing the Navy Department for permission to leave Vicksburg. It was clear that he would need assistance from the Army to capture the city and that help was not anticipated. Sickness among his sailors not acclimated to the heat of summer in Mississippi also reduced their fighting strength by as much as one third. Furthermore, the annual drop in the level of the river threatened to strand his deep draft ships. The constant vigilance now necessitated by the presence of Arkansas finally tipped the balance. He received permission to return to the vicinity of New Orleans and on 24 June 1862 his fleet steamed for the Crescent City. With nothing his flotilla could do, Davis also withdrew. He took his vessels back to Helena, Ark. where he could still watch the river north of Vicksburg.

With the Federal fleet gone, Capt. Brown requested and was granted four days of leave in Granada, Miss. in order to recover from several injuries that he had sustained. Before leaving, he explained to General Van Dorn that Arkansas’ engines needed repairs before she could be used. He also gave absolute orders to his executive officer, Lt. Henry K. Stevens, not to move the ship until he returned.

Unfortunately for Arkansas, Van Dorn, disregarding his subordinate’s advice, ordered Lt. Stevens to take her down to Baton Rouge, La. to support an attack on the Union position there led by General John C. Breckenridge. Citing his orders from Brown, Stevens referred the question to the Confederate Navy Department in Richmond, Va. The department chose not to intervene however and Stevens was now under conflicting orders from two superior officers. Having no other choice, he hastily prepared the bruised and battered ironclad for departure and hurriedly guided Arkansas down the river to meet the enemy.

Confirming Capt. Brown's fears, the engines broke down numerous times between Vicksburg and Baton Rouge. After each instance, the engineer was able to get them running again, but it was obvious that they were unreliable and would not last. Nevertheless, the ship was able to steam unassisted to Baton Rouge where she prepared for battle with a small Federal flotilla that included her old nemesis Essex. On the morning of 6 August 1862, Essex steamed into sight and Arkansas moved out into the river to meet her.

Precisely at that moment the crank pins on both engines failed almost simultaneously and Arkansas drifted helplessly toward shore. Lt. Stevens prepared to abandon ship. He ordered the engines broken up, the guns loaded, excess shells spread around and then the ship set afire. The ad hoc crew of sailors and cavalrymen then disembarked for the shore. Simultaneously, the ship broke free and began to drift down the river. Stevens, the last man to leave, then had to swim for the riverbank. The burning ironclad slowly drifted towards the Federal fleet that watched from a safe and respectful distance. Flames licked at the ship and began to engulf her in a funeral pyre. Shortly before noon, Arkansas exploded hurling shells, timber and railroad iron into the heavy summer air. She then silently slipped below the surface. The makeshift ironclad that had terrorized the Union Navy and inflicted much damage in her short life was gone.

<p>NH 73376 CSS Arkansas (1862-1862)</p>
The Confederates build Arkansas, 1861–1862. (U.S. Navy Image NH 73376, Photographic Section, Naval History and Heritage Command)
&quot;Battle between the Carondelet and Arkansas&quot;
Arkansas disables Union ironclad Carondelet, 15 July 1862. (U.S. Navy Image NH 2039, Photographic Section, Naval History and Heritage Command)
<p>NH 59042 &quot;The Union Gun-boat 'Essex' (Commander Porter) Destroying the Rebel Iron-clad Ram 'Arkansas', in the Mississippi&quot;</p>
Arkansas sinks during the hotly-contested battle, 6 August 1862. (U.S. Navy Image NH 59042, Photographic Section, Naval History and Heritage Command)

Paul J. Marcello

11 August 2015

Published: Wed Mar 02 10:33:08 EST 2016