The Ram Arkansas

Sons of Confederate Veterans Army of Northern Virginia Maryland Division Camp #1398 Colonel William Norris Sons of Confederate Veterans July 2012 The Ram Arkansas Compatriot Robert Jones gave a wonderful talk on the history of the CSS Arkansas. It took months to build, and lasted one There will not be day in combat…and what an exciting day that was! a meeting on Tuesday, July3. Soon after the secession of Tennessee, efforts were made to con- The next regular struct vessels for war purposes, and at Memphis were commenced meeting is two ironclad rams, the Arkansas and the Tennessee. Upon the fall scheduled of Memphis the latter vessel was burned, but the Arkansas was for Tuesday carried by her commander, Capt. Charles H. McBlair, to the Yazoo Aug. 7, at 7 p.m. River. Captain McBlair was relieved of command by Lieut. Isaac N. Brown, who by extraordinary and unparalleled exertions got her ready for service by July 1862. She was indifferently armored, but had a formidable battery, viz., two 8-inch columbiads, two 9-inch Dahlgren guns, four 6-inch rifles and two smoothbore 32-pounders. She drew 14 feet of water and had a maximum speed of six knots. She was admirably officered with Lieuts. H. K. Stevens, J. Grimball, See Inside A.D. Wharton, C. W. Read, A. Barbot and George W. Gift; Surg. H. Washington, Asst. Surg. C. M. Morfit, Asst. Paymaster Richard Tay- 150th Anniversary lor; Engineers City, Covert, Jackson, Brown, Doland, Dupuy and of the Battle of Gettis; Acting Masters Phillips and Milliken; Midshipmen Bacot, Fredericksburg 4 Scales and Tyler; Gunner Travers and Master's Ma- Guest Speaker 7 te Wilson, with Messrs. Shacklette, Gilmore, Brady and Hodges as pi- Adjutant lots, and a crew of 200 Activities 7 men, principally soldiers and river men. Upon con- sultation with General Honoring Maryland’s Real Van Dorn, commanding Son 8 Yazoo River: July 15, 1862 CSS Arkansas, USS Carondelet, USS Tyler and USS Queen of the West Continued on page 2 Page 2 Sons of Confederate Veterans The Ram Arkansas Continued from page 1 at Vicksburg in the summer of 1862, Captain Brown determined to proceed in the Arkansas to that city, distant by water about 50 miles. To do this he had to pass the vessels of Admi- ral Farragut and Flag-Officer Davis, and the rams of Colonel Ellet. These vessels were at anchor in the Mississippi, three miles below the mouth of the Yazoo, and among them were six ironclads, seven rams and 10 large ships of war. On the morn- ing of July 15, 1862, Captain Brown started in the Arkansas for Vicksburg. About six miles from the mouth of the Yazoo River he was met by the United States ironclad Carondelet, Captain Walker; the gunboat Tyler, Lieutenant Commanding Gwinn, and the ram Queen of the West. All three of these vessels turned, and a running fight ensued. The ram made a straight wake, but the other two fought well. The Tyler was too weak to encounter the Arkansas, though her commander, Gwinn, did all that could be expected of him. The Arkansas Lieutenant bestowed most of her attention to the ironclad Carondelet, kill- Isaac N. Brown ing and wounding many of her men, and finally driving her into shoal water. Captain Brown asserted that she lowered her colors; this Captain Walker denied, but there is no doubt that the Arkansas would have made a prize of her could she have spared the time to stop, which she could not. In the encounter with the Carondelet, Captain Brown was badly wounded and two of his pilots were killed. One was the Yazoo River pilot who, as they were carrying him below, had the courage and devotion to exclaim with his dying breath, "Keep in the middle of the river!" The Arkansas' smokestack was so riddled that she could hardly make more than one knot per hour when she entered the Mississippi; but this, with the current of the river, enabled her to run the gauntlet of Farragut's fleet. Capt. A. T. Mahan says: Captain The ram [Arkansas] now followed the Tyler, which had kept up her fire and remained within range, losing many of her peo- A.T. Mahan ple, killed and wounded. The enemy was seen to be pumping a heavy stream of water both in the Yazoo and the Mississippi, and her smokestack had been so pierced by shot as to reduce her speed to a little over a knot an hour, at which rate, aided by a favoring current, she passed through the two fleets. Having Continued on page 3 PageSons 3of Confederate Veterans Page 3 The Ram Arkansas Continued from page 2 no faith in her coming down, the vessels were found wholly unprepared to attack; only one, the ram General Bragg, had steam, and her commander unfortunately waited for orders to act in such an emergency.... She [the Arkansas] fought her way boldly through, passing between the vessels of war and the transports, firing and receiving the fire of each as she went by, most of the projectiles bounding harmlessly from her sides; but two 11-inch shells came [went] through, killing many and setting on fire the cotton backing. On the other hand the Lancaster, of the ram fleet, which made a move toward her, got a shot in the mud receiver which disabled her, scalding many of her people, two of them fatally. The whole affair with the fleets lasted but a few minutes, and the Arkansas, having passed out of range, found refuge under the Vicksburg bat- teries. The two flag-officers [Farragut and Davis] were much mortified at the success of this daring act, due as it was to the unprepared state of the fleets; and Farragut in- stantly determined to follow her down and attempt to destroy her as he ran by. Colonel Scharf says in his history: “The Federal line was now forced, and the Ar- kansas emerged from the volcano of flame and smoke, from an hour's horizontal iron hail of every description, from 32 to 200 pounders, hurled by a fleet of about 40 formidable war vessels—shattered, bleeding, triumphant!... They were welcomed by the patriotic shouts of the army at Vicksburg, and the siege of that city was virtually raised.” This last assertion may be disputed. The loss in the Federal fleet on this occasion was, according to Captain Mahan, 13 killed, 34 wounded and 10 missing. Captain Brown reported his loss as 10 killed and 15 badly wounded. The New York Herald made the loss in the Federal fleet 42 killed and 69 wounded. On July 22nd the United States ironclad Essex and ram Queen of the West made an attack on the Arkansas as she lay at the wharf at Vicksburg. They were driven off with loss. The Arkansas at the time had but 41 men on board. On the 3d of August the Arkansas, under the command of Lieut. H. K. Stevens, Captain Brown being on shore sick, left Vicksburg to co-operate with General Breckinridge in an attack upon Baton Rouge. On the way her ma- chinery occasioned trouble, and finally broke down altogether. Lieutenant Ste- vens then burned her to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy, the officers and crew escaping, And so end- ed the Arkansas. Source: The Confederate Military History, Volume 12, Chapter VIII CSS Arkansas by R.G. Sherrett Page 4 Sons of Confederate Veterans 2012 Field Trip & Tour In commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Fredericksburg Fredericksburg, Va. Aug. 11, 2012 You are invited to our fourth summer field trip to the Fredericksburg, Va., area and to the Fredericksburg National Military Park. Four major Civil War engagements (the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Chancellorsville Cam- paign, the Battle of the Wilderness and the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House) occurred in the area between 1862 and 1864 during the Union Army’s campaigns to take the Confed- eracy’s capital in Richmond. Our tour this year features the first of these engagements— the Battle of Fredericksburg, which took place Monument to Richard Kirkland, 1865, between Dec. 11-15, 1862 (the Civil War’s only Fredericksburg. This sculpture depicts major engagement during the winter months). the well-known incident in Fredericks- This battle, in which General Lee valiantly burg where a Confederate soldier, Sar- defended the Confederate Capitol at Rich- gent Richard R. Kirkland, risked enemy mond against Northern incursion, included fire to bring water to the injured Union some of the most intense hand-to-hand and soldiers in front of Marye’s Heights. urban combat of the entire war. Join us on this exciting and informative guided field trip and tour with both on and off the field presentations and other events. The first head-to-head confrontation between Gen. Robert E. Lee and Maj. Gen. Am- brose Burnside, as army commander, occurred in the outskirts and within the city limits of Fredericksburg. The Union’s river crossing and futile frontal assaults on the fortified ridge, known as Mayre’s Heights behind and south of the city, is remembered as one of the most one-sided battles of the American Civil War, with casualties more than twice as heavy and those suffered by the Confeder- ates. The southern flank produced roughly equal casualties (and five Metal of Honor re- cipients) but the northern flank was com- pletely lopsided. The Union suffered 12,653 casualties and the Confederates sustained 5, Continued on page 5 Sons of Confederate Veterans Page 5 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Fredericksburg Continued from page 4 377 casualties.

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