"Pawed Geese" Uncle Sam in battle. Arkansas Starts and Loses
Guns are unloaded on the battleship Arkansas. Black and white newspaper and magazine graphics of those years
Ah, what is moving there along the river,
Plays with white smoke and shines with metal in the sun.
What is heard there in the distance,
These sounds of a weary familiar fly towards.
Oh, don't lie to me forebodings,
Yes, my eyes did not lie.
White swan gliding on the wave
The steamer is moving along smoothly.
"Steamboat" Leonid Utyosov
Plays with white smoke and shines with metal in the sun.
What is heard there in the distance,
These sounds of a weary familiar fly towards.
Oh, don't lie to me forebodings,
Yes, my eyes did not lie.
White swan gliding on the wave
The steamer is moving along smoothly.
"Steamboat" Leonid Utyosov
History military equipment. Last time we settled on the fact that the gunboats of the southerners went to Fort Pillow and hid there, preparing to unexpectedly attack the ironclads of the northerners. The languid expectation of the upcoming battle put pressure on the nerves of both, but then seven ram ships came to the aid of the northerners. They were commanded by Colonel Ouellet of the American Army, and it was he who built them. He chose the fastest ships that he had at hand, ordered to sheathe their bows with metal and armor the car and paddle wheels on them.
Federal battleship "Galena" with traces of battle damage. The photo clearly shows the core, which is stuck in his hull above the waterline
Now the Southerners had eight ramming ships, and the Unionists had only seven, but they had seven more armored gunboats. Upon learning of this, the southerners acted decisively: they blew up the fortifications of Fort Pillow, and they themselves rushed to attack the ships of the northerners, stationed on the Mississippi at Cape Relrod. The inhabitants of Memphis rushed to watch such an impressive spectacle, as a result, masses of people literally stuck around the banks surrounding the place. By the way, in this place they were quite elevated, so a real “theater” came out for them: they themselves were in relative safety, because the ships didn’t shoot upwards, but they could see absolutely everything from above! Moreover, they were mostly women, old people and children, because most of the southerners-men were in the army. Those who could not or were too lazy to go ashore climbed onto the roofs of houses, and even on the city bell towers there was practically no crowding!
Arkansas' first fight with Carondelet. The wooden gunboat "Taylor" can be seen in the distance. Interestingly, due to the lack of protective paint, the ship of the southerners was painted ... pink, which is why it was even nicknamed the “red ram of the Mississippi”! The big drawback of the battleship was its vertical armor, installed in this way in order to save metal
The ships approached, and a deafening cannonade began. In the cramped and hustle of battle, one southern ram sank his own ship. Then another ship caught fire and threw itself into the shallows, after which another ram exploded from the explosion of steam boilers. Finally, the Confederate flagship also sank, all pierced by cannonballs, but her crew managed to swim to safety.
Battle of the river battleships on the Mississippi. Particularly affected in such battles were the "Tom Sawyer steamboats", armored with cotton bales. They were even given their name "cottonclad" - that is, "cotton armadillo"
The result of the 70-minute battle was the complete defeat of the rebel squadron, another 150 people were killed and wounded, while the Unionists had only ... one lightly wounded on their ships!
But on the other hand, the inhabitants of Memphis received a wonderful sight, better than any modern blockbuster: ships collided with a roar, a total of 600 guns rattled, steam boilers and cool chambers exploded on ships, throwing huge pieces of torn metal into the air, and wooden hulls made a terrible crack from battering rams and cannonballs! However, when the thick powder smoke dissipated, a terrible picture appeared before the eyes of the inhabitants of the city - the completely defeated ships of the Confederate squadron. And then they realized that the northerners would land troops right now, subject them all to terrible violence, and ... rushed to escape to the city and beyond! This is how the northerners took Memphis, and it was another step towards achieving the victory of the industrial North over the agrarian South.
Arkansas goes to battle!
The capture of Memphis was also important because since October 1861, the southerners have been building two of the same type of battleship Arkansas and Tennessee there. But the latter, to a lesser degree of readiness, was blown up before the capitulation of the city so that it would not go to the northerners. But back in April 1862, the Arkansas was taken to the Yazoo River, in Yazoo City, where by July 14 it was launched. However, rumors about the construction of this ship did not cause much concern among the northerners. They simply poisoned the ramming ship Queen of the West, the armored boat Corondelet, and the wooden gunboat Tyler to shoot the ship while it was still on the slipway. But then the Arkansas sailed out to meet them, which the southerners managed to complete just the day before. Seeing that their shells did not cause any harm to the battleship, the northerners rushed to their heels, hurrying to connect with the rest of the squadron.
The battleship "Corondelet" - the very first enemy of the battleship "Arkansas"
And on the squadron of the Unionists on this warm sunny morning ... they were drying freshly washed linen and did not expect an attack. So the southerners forced the Corondelet to run aground, which, by the way, saved him from the ramming of the Arkansas, and managed to inflict damage on two other ships.
And this is how Arkansas was depicted on the pages of the New York Tribune on July 31, 1862
Excluded "Arkansas" from the lists fleet Confederate was on August 7, 1862, after it burned down the day before, but another, much larger warship could envy his combat career lasting less than a month. During this time, he took part in four river battles, and in each of them he had to fight almost alone against entire enemy squadrons.
On the same day, when the Arkansas almost dealt with the Corondelet, he fought his way into Vicksburg, besieged by the Unionists, while passing through the formation of Admiral Farragut's squadron, which blocked it from the side of the river. It turned out that his armor made of rails could not withstand hits from heavy shells. The ship received several through holes. Losses amounted to 12 sailors killed and another 18 wounded. The section of the chimney that passed through the casemate was also pierced, because of which it was filled with smoke, and the gunners of the battleship had to get out on the deck and wait there until they could patch the hole. Nevertheless, Arkansas nevertheless reached Vicksburg, and on Farragut's squadron, 33 people were killed and another 59 wounded by shots from an armadillo.
And here are the performance characteristics of this unique ship in its own way: length - 50 meters, width - 11 meters, displacement - 800 tons, power of a two-cylinder steam engine - 900 liters. s., speed - 8 knots. It was armed with four 163 mm Brook rifled muzzle-loading guns, two 32-pounder smoothbore guns on the sides, two 203 mm Dahlgren smoothbore guns in the bow and two of the same in the stern. In addition, an eight-ton cast-iron ram was placed on his nose. The crew consisted of 230 people.
The performance characteristics of the river wheeled battleship northerners "St. Louis" for comparison with the performance characteristics of the "Arkansas". Displacement - 512 tons, length - 53 m, speed - 9 knots, crew - 251 people, armor - iron strips 64 mm thick on a thick wooden substrate (more than 70 cm). Armament - four 203-mm Dahlgren smoothbore guns, four 42-pound and six 32-pound muzzle-loading rifled guns. In 1863, the St. Louis was lost after being blown up by a mine.
Battleship northerners "Keiro". I can’t refuse VO readers to carefully consider all these carefully drawn details
On July 22, the ships of the northerners attacked the Arkansas directly in the port of Vicksburg, but unsuccessfully, although one of the cores pierced its armor. The ship was repaired and sent to Baton Rouge in early August. The northerners sent an entire squadron led by the battleship Essex to intercept the ship. Opponents met on the river on August 6, and it was then that the southerners' luck ended. Already at the beginning of the battle, the Arkansas broke the connecting rods on both cylinders of the steam engine. The ship lost its course and was thrown ashore by the current. Then the Essex approached him and began to shoot him from such an angle, in which return fire did not threaten him.
Realizing that resistance in this case is pointless, the captain of the Arkansas ordered the team to set it on fire and flee, which was done. When the fire reached the hook chamber, the ship took off into the air.
The burning battleship Arkansas
This ended his fighting career, but the war on the rivers of North America still continued.
To be continued ...
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