JULY 21ST
US steamers carrying troops arrive to protect Evansville, Indiana, at request of the states's Governor Morton. Confederate guerrillas had captured Henderson, Kentucky, across the Ohio River, and were now driven away. These coordinated Army-Navy attacks help keep Confederates from reoccuppying positions along the interior rivers.
JULY 22ND
USS Essex and Queen of the West attack the CSS Arkansas which was at anchor with a disabled engine at Vicksburg. Many of the Confederates on board the Arkansas were ashore sick and wounded from the action of July 15th. Queen of the West rammed the Arkansas, but with little effect and the Essex exchanged close quarter gunfire. Both Union ships were badly damaged.
Confederate commander Brown described one of the Essex's broadsides from twenty feet away like "nothing that I had ever heard before....We were so close that out men were burnt by the powder of the enemy's guns..."
President Davis telegraphs Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus that the CSS Arkansas desperately needs boatmen and with the blockade becoming more effective, there has to be a lot of them out of work and wants the governor to find some.
Old B-Runner
No comments:
Post a Comment