CSS City of Vicksburg-- Part 2: Fighting the Queen of the West

In early February 1863, the Vicksburg was tied up by landing of the City of Vicksburg and Union Admiral David Porter ordered one of his ships, the Queen of the West, to run past Vicksburg's strong defenses and attack the Vicksburg.

The ship's commander, Charles Rivers Ellet, did so and on early morning of February 2, came in sight of Vicksburg.  Its batteries opened on the Queen of the West, which was partially turned to take advantage of deflecting projectiles.  This caused the ship's way to be lost and she drifted down river.

Ellet had his guns shotted with incendiary shells and opened on the Vicksburg and rammed her.

Afterwards, Ellet reported:  "The Vicksburg was the largest and strongest steamer on the river, and I think they were preparing to use her against our transports, being very fleet."

Deserters reported a large hole in the side of the Vicksburg from the ramming.  She was also on fire and only held afloat by being buoyed up by her coal barges.

--Old B-Runner

Era No.5

From Military Wiki.

One of the ships I mentioned in the talk given on the Queen of the West and Indianola.

Shallow draft steamer built in 1860 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Was chartered by the Confederates early in 1863 to transport corn from the Red River to Camden, Arkansas.

As the steamer, laden with 4,500 bushels of corn, proceeded to her destination on 14 February 1863, she rounded a sharp bend 15 miles from the mouth of the Black River, came upon and was captured by the USS Queen of the West.

After the loss of the Queen of the West the same day, her crew fled to Union positions in the Era No. 5.

The Era No. 5 was then assigned to  Colonel Charles Rivers Ellet's river fleet, fitted out with protective cotton baling and used by the Union ships as a dispatch boat and transport on the Mississippi River.

--Old B-Runner

Charles Rivers Ellet Epilogue

Charles Rivers Ellet (and I love his middle name considering his service) was not finished after his Queen of the West was lost.

On March 26, he ran his ram Switzerland past Vicksburg again.  The ram Lancaster was with him, commanded by his cousin, John A. Ellet.  Both ships received heavy fire from the Vicksburg batteries and the Lancaster was run aground and sunk to prevent capture by Confederate forces.

The Switzerland was damaged, but repaired and continued duty on the Mississippi River until the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson.  Ellet also went on to command the Marine Brigade.

He died very young at the age of 21 on October 29, 1863.

--Old B-Runner

Charles Rivers Ellet, the Queen of the West and USS Indianola-- Part 5: The Black Terror Causes USS Indianola to Be Destroyed

The chase was on.  The Indianola was moving up the Mississippi River, but slowly.  Even worse, the ship stopped to take cotton on board which cost her time she did not have.  The Confederate pursuit ships were commanded by Joseph L. Brent of the Confederate Army.

The Confederate ships caught up with the Indianola near Palmyra Island, about 30 miles south of Vicksburg.  After being rammed six times in the space of an hour and with the Queen of the West upriver and bearing down hard (along with the current) for a final ramming, the USS Indianola surrendered after also running aground.

The loss of both the Queen of the West and the Indianola derailed the supply line on the railroad.

With the Confederates working rapidly to raise the Indianola, it was decided to make a fake ironclad and send it down river from the Union position north of Vicksburg, so the Black Terror was built.  An old coal barge was lengthened and had a casemate built along with Quaker guns and two smokestacks made out of pork barrels.

The Black Terror was sent downriver on February 27 and frightened Confederates destroyed the Indianola.

--Old B-R'er

Charles Rivers Ellet & the Queen of the West-- Part 3

A major reason for the Queen of the West to run past the Vicksburg batteries was to disrupt trade going on between Port Hudson and Vicksburg via supplies coming down the Red River.

The Berwick hay gad to be destroyed however.

SECOND MISSION  February 8, 1863

The Queen of the West rendezvoused with the DeSoto and on February 12, both ships went down the Atchafalaya River and destroyed Confederate material.

On February 12, the two ships went up the Red River and captured the Era No. 5.  Then, the Queen of the West went further upstream and came under fire from Fort DeRussy and grounded thanks to a misdirected order to its pilot, who turned the ship instead of backing back down the river as ordered.  The Queen was getting hit often and finally Charles Rivers Ellet had to order the ship to be abandoned.

Ellet and the crew floated down the river on cotton bales until rescued by the DeSoto.  The ship was not burned because of concern for the first mate  who was wounded and could not be moved.

The Queen  was captured, repaired and entered service in the Confederate Navy as the CSS Queen of the West.

--Old B-R'er

Charles Rivers Ellet and the Queen of the West-- Part 2: Running Past Vicksburg

On February 2, 1863, Charles Rivers Ellet was ordered by Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter to make a run down the Mississippi River in the Queen of the West past the batteries of Vicksburg to support Admiral Farragut south of the city.

This was done in daylight and for fifty straight minutes the Queen of the West was under fire.  The ship took twelve hits but sustained just minimal damage.  Once past the batteries, Ellet found the CSS City of Vicksburg (also called the CSS Vicksburg) docked.  Ellet rammed her and set her on fire.

Enemy fire, however, forced the Queen of the West to disengage.  Damage to the Vicksburg ended her days as a fighting ship and she ended up as just a wharf ship after machinery was removed.

Union forces supplied the Queen of the West with 20,000 bushels of coal by floating an unmanned coal barge past Vicksburg.

On February 3 the Queen of the West captured three Confederate transport ships:  CSS A.W. Baker, CSS Moro, and CSS Berwick Bay.  Two of them were loaded with supplies for Vicksburg.

--Old B-R'er

MCCWRT May Meeting: Charles Rivers Elett, the Queen of the West and the Sinking of the Indianola-- Part 1

The McHenry County Civil War Round Table met on May14, 2024, and Ed Urban gave a talk on this oft overlooked aspect of the Civil War involving situations around Vicksburg as the Union Army and Navy attempted to subdue the Confederate stronghold and open the Mississippi River.

The Union forces launched four attempts at capturing Vicksburg.  The first was in May 1862, then June 1862, November 1862 and Sherman's attack on Chickasaw Bluffs.  The May attack was bungles, the June was derailed by the CSS Arkansas and November by the Confederate attack on Holly Springs.

Confederates still maintained control of the Mississippi River between Vicksburg southward to Port Hudson.

The Mississippi Ram fleet was the brainchild of Charles River Ellet.  Even though this involved ships, it was not a part of the Navy because Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles turned him down, but Secretary of War Stanton didn't.  As such, the Ram Fleet was technically a part of the Army.

(I have always been somewhat confused on this point.)

--Old B-Runner

Road Trippin' to Laurel Hill Cemetery-- Part 2: Civil War

JOHN A. DAHLGREN  (1809-1870)--  Admiral and commander of South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.  Invented the Dahlgren gun.

PERCIVAL DRAYTON  (1812-1865)--  Union Navy officer.

CHARLES ELLET JR.  (1810-1862)--  U.S. engineer who designed the Wheeling Suspension Bridge and during the Civil War , as an Army colonel, created and commanded the United States Ram Fleet in the Mississippi River.

CHARLES RIVERS ELLET  (1843-1863)--  Charles Ellett Jr's son and colonel in Union Army who commanded ships in the Ram Fleet.

--Old B-Runner

Medical Cadets in the Civil War-- Part 2: Charles Rivers Ellet

Mounting war casualties overwhelmed Army surgeons and often found themselves taking on even greater responsibility.

On August 3, 1861, Congress approved the creation of the Medical Cadets, to consist of up to 50 medical school men ages 18-23 who had a liberal education and at least two years of medical school.

Charles Rivers Ellet was one of them and he wrote in June 1861, even before becoming a medical cadet, that he routinely followed physicians around while they were making their rounds in the Washington, D.C. Army Hospitals to see how they questioned and prescribed to their patients.

So, that Charles R. Ellet.  --Old B-R'er

Medical Cadets of the Civil War-- Part 1: To Dress Wounds

On September 19th, I wrote about an engagement between the Ram Queen of the West and Confederate batteries and infantry near Bolivar, Mississippi.  The Queen of the West was commanded by Medical Cadet Charles R. Ellet.

I have to admit that I had never heard of any medical cadets, so had to do some further research.  There was nothing in Wikipedia, where I looked first, other than a Pre-WWII group called Medical Cadet Corps which I will write about in my World War II blog.

The Civil War's Medical Cadets:  Medical Students Serving the Union from the Journal of American College of Surgeons.

This unit consisted of young medical students created to dress wounds and to act as ambulance attendants.

I would say they were more involved with the Union Army, but since Charles Rivers Ellet, was in command of the ram Queen of the West at the action at Bolicar, Mississippi, I will include them in the Naval blog.  Plus, the general Civil War blog, Saw the Elephant is so involved with this Second Civil War.

--Old B-Cadet

September 19, 1862: Engagement at Bolivar, Mississippi

SEPTEMBER 19, 1862:  The Ram Queen of the West, Medical Cadet Charles R. Ellet, escorting two troop transports, had a sharp engagement with Confederate infantry and artillery above Bolivar, Mississippi.

Medical Cadet is sort of a strange rank for someone commanding a ship.  I'll have to look into this.

--Old B-Runner

March 27, 1862: The Ellet Rams (The Army Gets Into the Gunboat Ram Business

MARCH 27TH, 1862:  Secretary of War Stanton instructed Engineer Charles Ellet Jr.:  "You will proceed immediately to Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and New Albany and take measures to provide steam rams for defense against ironclad vessels on the Western waters."

The next day he wired Ellet at Pittsburgh:  "General [James K.] Moorhead has gone to Pittsburg to aid you and put you in communication with the committee there.  The rebels have a ram at Memphis.  Lose no time."

Later, Stanton described the Ellet rams to General Halleck:  "They are the most powerful steamboats, with upper cabins removed, and bows filled in with heavy timber.  It is not proposed to wait for putting on iron. This is the mode in which the Merrimack will be met.  Can you not have something of the kind speedily prepared at St. Louis also?"

Army Ships.  --Old B-R'er

150 Years Ago: The U.S. Ram Fleet History-- Part 2

"In November, 1863, the Secretary of War decided upon enlarging the fleet by... what was known as the Mississippi Marine Brigade....

"The fleet was continued in service until August 1864, when the War Department thought the necessity of such an organization no longer existed, and it was mustered out of the service and the boats turned over to the quartermasters...to be used as transports."

--Old B-R'er

150 Years Ago: Mississippi U.S. Ram Fleet History-- Part 1

NOVEMBER 1, 1865:  James Brooks, formerly of the U.S. Ram Fleet and Mississippi Marine Brigade, wrote a brief sketch of the ram fleet history to Brigadier general L.B. Parsons, Chief of Transportation Department in St. Louis:  "The idea...of destroying the enemy's fleet by the use of rams originated with Colonel Charles Ellet, Jr. ...About the last of March, 1862, the Secretary of War invited him to his office to consult on the subject, and ordered him...to procure the boats and make the necessary alterations...

"It (the ram fleet)...was at Memphis on the morning of 6th June (1862) and participated in the battle....  The result was a great triumph for the rams, and fully came up to the expectations of Colonel Ellet and the Government...."

--Old B-Runner

The Mississippi Marine Brigade and Mississippi River Squadron

From Wikipedia

A few weeks ago, I was writing about the ship Queen of the West, commanded by Charles Rivers Ellet and mentioned that it had been in the Mississippi River Squadron and under Army command at one time.

This has always been a confusing item to me, so did the old Wiki thing.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER SQUADRON

Initially was part of the Army though commanded by Naval officers and originally known as the Western Gunboat Flotilla.  Still confused here.  Ellet was an Army officer.


MISSISSIPPI MARINE BRIGADE

Was a Union Army unit raised as part of the US Ram Fleet.  They acted as Marines and would be transported on the rams from place to place.  Their main duty was to fight Confederate guerrillas operating along Western rivers.

Commanded by members of the Ellet family and were part of the regular Army.

Organized in early 1863 with 350 men and officers.

The Queen of the West-- Part 5: Capture

The new pilot ran the Queen of the West aground by Confederate Fort DeRussey.  The bombardment was intense and Charles Rivers Ellet and his crew were forced to abandon the ship and float downstream on cotton bales.

Confederates repaired the ship and ten days later, the CSS Queen of the West helped capture the USS Indianola.  On April 11, 1863, it engaged Union gunboats on the Atchafalaya River and a shell from the USSCalhoun set the Queen of the West's cotton (used for protection) on fire.  It then drifted downstream for several hours before running aground and then blowing up.

Charles Rivers Ellet later commanded the ram Switzerland, then infantry from the Marine Brigade before dying of disease October 29, 1863.

The Story of a Boat.  --Old B-Runner

The Queen of the West-- Part 4: River Actions Below Vicksburg

The Queen of the West ran past the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg and destroyed the CSS City of Vicksburg in the process.  That put pressure on the Confederates at Port Hudson, south of Vicksburg and they destroyed three vessels to prevent their capture.

On February 12th, the Queen of the West steamed up the Atchafalaya River, a tributary of the Red River and destroyed wagons, supplies and burned houses in retaliation for the wounding of a Union officer.

On February 13th, the Union ironclad Indianola ran past Vicksburg to protect the Queen of the West.  The two ships then steamed fifteen miles upriver to the mouth of the Black River (a Red River tributary and on the 14th captured the steamer Era No. 5 with a cargo of corn.  Here, Ellet heard there were other Confederate ships farther upriver.

His pilot had fallen ill and he got a replacement who was probably a Southern sympathizer.

Bad Things In Store for the Queen.  --  Old B-R'er

The Queen of the West: Charles Ellet Jr.'s Rams-- Part 2

Charles Ellet, Jr. (Charles Rivers Ellet's father) was an early proponent of the ancient ram as a weapon, but didn't get any support until the CSS Virginia rammed and sank the USS Cumberland.  Secretary of War Edwin Stanton met with him and made him a colonel, authorizing him to purchase and outfit steam vessels for use in military (Army) rams.

Ellet bought seven of the fastest vessels he could find on the Ohio River and enlisted twelve family members, including his son, Charles Rivers (good middle name as it turned out).

The Queen of the West was built in Cincinnati in 1854 and weighed 406 tons and was 181 feet long.  I was retrofitted with solid oak bulkheads and other protection was added.  Four guns were mounted, but the ship's main weapon was to be its reinforced ram at its bow.  To further make the ship look menacing, it was painted all black.

In its first action, in June 1862, the Queen of the West and the Monarch jumped ahead of the Union fleet and destroyed all but one of the eight Confederate ships at Memphis.  But, Charles Ellet was mortally wounded and died two weeks later.

Watch Out for Those Rams.  --Old B-R'er

Queen of the West: Charles Rivers Ellet-- Part 1

From the February 13, 2013 New York Times Opinionator by Rick Beard.

Charles Rivers Ellet was one of the Union's youngest colonels at age 19.  A Feb. 2, 1863 report of Rear Admiral D.D. Porter said "the kind of man I like to command" a "gallant and daring officer" who will undertake anything I wish him to without asking questions.  But, he added, "The only trouble I have is to hold him in and keep him out of trouble."  He essentially was the army's counterpart to the Navy's William Cushing on the Atlantic coast.

That same day he had ordered Ellet to take the Queen of the West past Vicksburg and to reconnoiter the lower Red River and destroy any Confederate ships he encountered.

The young colonel had been a medical student when the war broke out and the fleet of Union rams, including the Queen of the West, were launched by his father, Charles Ellet, Jr., who, before the war had designed wire cable suspension bridges including the one over the Schuylkill River  and the one in Wheeling, Virginia  (now West Virginia), over the Ohio River and a 770-foot footbridge  at Niagara Falls.  He had also built canals and railroads.  Quite the engineer.

Quite the Family.  --Old B-Runner