Western Gunboat Flotilla
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Western Gunboat Flotilla
The Mississippi River Squadron was the Union brown-water naval squadron that operated on the western rivers during the American Civil War. It was initially created as a part of the Union Army, although it was commanded by naval officers, and was then known as the Western Gunboat Flotilla and sometimes as the Mississippi Flotilla. It received its final designation when it was transferred to the Union Navy at the beginning of October 1862. History American Civil War The squadron was created on May 16, 1861, and was controlled by the Union Army until September 30, 1862. John Rodgers was the first commander of the squadron and was responsible for the construction and organization of the fleet. Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote relieved Rodgers and encouraged the army commander in the west, Major General Henry W. Halleck, to authorize an expedition down the Tennessee River against Fort Henry. Operating in conjunction with Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the District of Cairo, Foote subdue ...
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Bombardment And Capture Of Island Number Ten On The Mississippi River, April 7, 1862
A bombardment is an attack by artillery fire or by dropping bombs from aircraft on fortifications, combatants, or towns and buildings. Prior to World War I, the term was only applied to the bombardment of defenseless or undefended objects, houses, public buildings, etc. It was only loosely employed to describe artillery attacks upon forts or fortified positions in preparation for assaults by infantry. Since then, it has come to mean any mass attack delivered by artillery or short-range tactical missiles, and later, aerial bombardment delivered by aircraft or long-range missiles. History In its old strict sense, the term was only applied to the bombardment of defenseless or undefended objects, houses, public buildings, etc., by an assailant with the object of disheartening his opponent, and specially to force the civilian population and authorities of a besieged place to persuade their military commander to capitulate before the actual defenses of the place have been reduce ...
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Ulysses S
Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature. Ulysses may also refer to: People * Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name Places in the United States * Ulysses, Kansas * Ulysses, Kentucky * Ulysses, Nebraska * Ulysses Township, Butler County, Nebraska * Ulysses, New York *Ulysses, Pennsylvania * Ulysses Township, Potter County, Pennsylvania Arts and entertainment Literature * "Ulysses" (poem), by Alfred Lord Tennyson * ''Ulysses'' (play), a 1705 play by Nicholas Rowe * ''Ulysses'', a 1902 play by Stephen Phillips * ''Ulysses'' (novel), by James Joyce * ''HMS Ulysses'' (novel), by Alistair Maclean * Ulysses (comics), two members of a fictional group in the Marvel Comics universe * Ulysses Klaue, a character in Marvel comic books * Ulysses: Jeanne d'Arc and the Alchemist Knight, a light novel Film and television * ''Ulysses'' (1954 film), starring Kirk Douglas based on the story of Homer's ''Odysse ...
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Vicksburg Campaign
The Vicksburg campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in the Western Theater of the American Civil War directed against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress city that dominated the last Confederate-controlled section of the Mississippi River. The Union Army of the Tennessee under Major General Ulysses S. Grant gained control of the river by capturing this stronghold and defeating Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton's forces stationed there. The campaign consisted of many important naval operations, troop maneuvers, failed initiatives, and eleven distinct battles from December 26, 1862, to July 4, 1863. Military historians divide the campaign into two formal phases: operations against Vicksburg (December 1862 – January 1863) and Grant's operations against Vicksburg (March–July 1863). Grant initially planned a two-pronged approach in which half of his army, under Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, would advance to the Yazoo River and attempt to reach Vic ...
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Battle Of Arkansas Post
The Battle of Arkansas Post, also known as Battle of Fort Hindman, was fought from January 9 to 11, 1863, near the mouth of the Arkansas River at Arkansas Post, Arkansas, as part of the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. Confederate forces had constructed a fort known as Fort Hindman near Arkansas Post in late 1862. In December of that year, a Union force under the command of Major-General William T. Sherman left for an expedition against Vicksburg, without Major-General John A. McClernand because neither Major-Generals Henry Halleck nor Ulysses S. Grant trusted McClernand. After Sherman's force was repulsed at Chickasaw Bayou, McClernand arrived and took command from Sherman in January 1863. McClernand led an expedition to capture Arkansas Post, despite disapproval from Grant. After arriving near the fort on January 9, Union infantry moved into position on January 10. A major Union naval bombardment of the Confederate fort occurred that evening. Early in the aftern ...
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David Dixon Porter
David Dixon Porter (June 8, 1813 – February 13, 1891) was a United States Navy admiral and a member of one of the most distinguished families in the history of the U.S. Navy. Promoted as the second U.S. Navy officer ever to attain the rank of admiral, after his adoptive brother David G. Farragut, Porter helped improve the Navy as the Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy after significant service in the American Civil War. Porter began naval service as a midshipman at the age of 10 years under his father, Commodore David Porter, on the frigate . For the remainder of his life, he was associated with the sea. Porter served in the Mexican War in the attack on the fort at the City of Vera Cruz. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was part of a plan to hold Fort Pickens, near Pensacola, Florida, for the Union; its execution disrupted the effort to relieve the garrison at Fort Sumter, leading to Sumter's fall. Porter commanded an independent flotilla of mortar boats at the ca ...
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Mississippi Marine Brigade
The Mississippi Marine Brigade was a Union Army amphibious unit which included the United States Ram Fleet and operated from November 1862 to August 1864 during the American Civil War. The brigade was established to act swiftly against Confederate forces operating near the Mississippi River and its tributaries. The brigade was commanded by Brigadier General Alfred W. Ellet and operated in coordination with the Mississippi River Squadron during the Union brown-water navy battle against the Confederate River Defense Fleet and land based forces. The brigade was independent of the Union Army and Navy and reported directly to the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton. Despite the name, it was never part of the United States Marine Corps. Organization Brigadier General Alfred W. Ellet was the commanding officer of the United States Ram Fleet. The ram fleet had proven themselves a useful addition to the Mississippi River Squadron through their actions at the First Battle of Memphis an ...
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Battle Of Memphis
The First Battle of Memphis was a naval battle fought on the Mississippi River immediately North of the city of Memphis, Tennessee on June 6, 1862, during the American Civil War. The engagement was witnessed by many of the citizens of Memphis. It resulted in a crushing defeat for the Confederate forces, and marked the virtual eradication of a Confederate naval presence on the river. Despite the lopsided outcome, the Union Army failed to grasp its strategic significance. Its primary historical importance is that it was the last time civilians with no prior military experience were permitted to command ships in combat. As such, it is a milestone in the development of professionalism in the United States Navy. Background The defending Confederates closely matched the advancing federal force in raw numbers, with eight rebel vessels opposing nine Union gunboats and rams, but the fighting qualities of the former were far inferior. Each was armed with only one or two guns, of a ligh ...
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Charles Ellet, Jr
Charles Ellet Jr. (1 January 1810 – 21 June 1862) was an American civil engineer from Pennsylvania who designed and constructed major canals, suspension bridges and railroads. He built the Wheeling Suspension Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world from 1849 to 1851. He conducted the first Federal survey of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers as part of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Ellet published multiple books and essays on wide ranging topics including macroeconomic theory, suspension bridge construction, railroad construction, river flood control and steam powered battery rams. During the American Civil War, Ellet received a commission as colonel and created and commanded the United States Ram Fleet, a Union Army unit of ram ships converted from commercial steamers. His ram ships played a critical role in the Union naval victory at the First Battle of Memphis. He was wounded during the battle (the only casualty on the Union side) and died soon after. E ...
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Battle Of Plum Point Bend
The Battle of Plum Point Bend took place on the Mississippi River in Tennessee, U.S., between ships of the Confederate River Defense Fleet and the Federal Western Flotilla on May 10, 1862. Fighting for control of the Mississippi River had been ongoing since the prior year, and Federal forces had pushed downriver to Fort Pillow. The Federals had been using mortar boats to bombard Fort Pillow, and had developed a routine of having a single mortar boat guarded by an ironclad take a position further downriver to bombard the fort, while the rest of the fleet was upriver. On the morning of May 10, the Confederates attacked, in hopes of capturing the guard ironclad and then surprising the rest of the Federal fleet. When the attack came, most of the Federal ironclads did not have steam pressure built up and were not prepared to move. Three of the eight Confederate vessels, CSS ''General Bragg'', CSS ''General Sterling Price'', and CSS ''General Sumter'', rammed the guard iron ...
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Charles H
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "free man". The Old English descendant of this word was '' Ċearl'' or ''Ċeorl'', as the name of King Cearl of Mercia, that disappeared after the Norman conquest of England. The name was notably borne by Charlemagne (Charles the Great), and was at the time Latinized as ''Karolus'' (as in ''Vita Karoli Magni''), later also as '' Carolus''. Some Germanic languages, for example Dutch and German, have retained the word in two separate senses. In the particular case of Dutch, ''Karel'' refers to the given name, whereas the noun ''kerel'' means "a bloke, fellow, man". Etymology The name's etymology is a Common Germanic noun ''*karilaz'' meaning "free man", which survives in English as churl (< Old English ''ċeorl''), which developed its de ...
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Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it flows generally south for to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is , of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the thirteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Native Americans have lived along the Mississippi River and its tributaries for thousands of years. Most were hunter-ga ...
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Army Of The Mississippi
Army of the Mississippi was the name given to two Union armies that operated around the Mississippi River, both with short existences, during the American Civil War. History 1862 The first army was created on February 23, 1862, with Maj. Gen. John Pope in command. At its creation, the army consisted of 2 divisions of infantry for service along the Mississippi River. When General Pope began to move against New Madrid, Missouri, the army was expanded with units from neighboring military districts. The army now totaled 5 divisions commanded respectively by David S. Stanley, Schuyler Hamilton, John M. Palmer, Eleazar A. Paine and Joseph B. Plummer. Gordon Granger commanded the Cavalry Division of two regiments and Napoleon B. Buford commanded the "Flotilla Brigade". In this capacity the Army fought at the Battle of Island Number Ten. After the capture of Island No. Ten, the army's divisions were consolidated into 3 divisions and became the "Left Wing" of Maj. Gen. Henry ...
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