Memphis I

Battle of Memphis
First Battle of Memphis

Alexander Simplot

Date: June 6, 1862
Location: Memphis, Tennessee
Commanders: Union-Flag Officer Charles Davis, Col Charles Ellet Jr,
Confederate-James Montgomery
Strength: Union-5 ironclads, 2 rams, Confederate-8 rams
Casualties: Union- 1, Confederate- ~180
Result: Union Victory, Memphis falls to Federal control
Current Status: Municipal parks, unprotected

With the fall of Corinth Mississippi in mid-1862, Memphis Tennessee, the fifth largest city in the Confederacy was isolated and mostly evacuated. However the Confederate River fleet made up of eight cottonclads was unable to retreat due to the lack of coal. When an ad-hoc ironclad fleet of Federal gunboats and rams appeared at Memphis, led by Col. Charles Ellet Jr. the Confederate leaders elected to fight instead of burning the vessels. The fleets had previously fought on May 10, 1862 at Plumb Point Bend near Fort Pillow, when the Confederates bloodied the Union fleet before falling back. On June 3, 1862, while thousands of Memphis citizens watched here on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi, the two fleets clashed again.

Confederate battery positions overlooking the Mississippi

The Union ships lined up upstream and opened fire as the the Confederates advanced, then two Confederate rams charged ahead. The Federal flagship, the USS Queen of the West, then broke formation and charged, ramming into the CSS Colonel Lowell as seen in the photo above. The Queen of the West was rammed in turn by the other Confederate rams. Both fleets were civilian in nature, and it showed as the battle quickly degenerated into a chaotic demolition derby with rival ships ramming each other. In 90 minutes though, the better armed and armored Federal fleet destroyed the Confederate navy, the majority of which were sunk; only one ship, the CSS General Earl Van Dorn, managed to break off and flee towards Vicksburg. 

Col. Ellet, mortally wounded in the foot by a pistol shot, was the only Union casualty; Confederate losses are estimated at 180. With this victory, Union control of the Mississippi was assured, though no attempt was made to secure the river until months after the fact. 

Memphis also fell to Union occupation, excepting an exceptional Confederate raid in 1864. 

Much has changed on the site of this naval battlefield. The Mississippi River, a notoriously fickle river, has greatly changed its position, and the middle of the battle is now cut by Mud Island, while some of the old field of battle is now buried in farmland on either bank. This website has suggested some of the locations of the sunken Confederate ships: http://www.numa.net/expeditions/battle-of-memphis/

The largest preserved area are the bluffs from which Memphis citizens observed the battle. 

While a few Confederate batteries were said to be positioned here at the beginning of the war, when the Battle of Memphis occurred there were no land defenses; the batteries had been redeployed to fight at Shiloh. This park was defiantly named "Confederate Park" in 1901 and ironically when I visited the locals were all African-American. As of 2013, after much local controversy, the park has been renamed Memphis Park.

To visit Memphis Park, head to downtown Memphis.  It is located between Front St. , Riverside Dr., and Court Ave.
https://www.google.com/maps/@35.1481367,-90.0553756,17z?hl=en

Corinth Siege Lines

Siege of Corinth

First Battle of Corinth

 Junction of the Mobile and Ohio and Memphis and Charleston Railroad

Date: April 29- May 30, 1862

Location: Shiloh National Military Park, Corinth, Mississippi
Commanders: Union-Maj Gen Henry Halleck; Confederate-Gen Pierre Beauregard 
Strength: Union-120000, Confederate-65000
Casualties: Union- ~1000, Confederate- ~1000
Result: Indecisive; Strategic Union Victory
Current Status: National Military Park, nonprofit preservation, unprotected

Corinth
Founded in 1853 at the intersection of the Mobile & Ohio and Memphis & Charleston railroads, the Corinth was originally named Cross City, then renamed after the Greek City on the crossroads. The railroad
intersection connected the only major East-West line in the entire South with the closest North-South Railroad to the Mississippi River.  As a result, according to Maj Gen Henry Halleck, it was the second most important Union objective in mid-1862 after Richmond.

 Consequently the city of 1500 was fought over for the next seven months, including the Battles of Shiloh, the Siege of Corinth, and the Second Battle of Corinth. Though Corinth representatives voted against secession, much of the city was destroyed by the end of the war.


Henry Halleck

"Old Brains" Maj Gen Henry Halleck was a brilliant military theologian as well as a phenomenal administrator, but was matched by a classical 19th century sense of military strategy, supreme caution, and a prickly, frequently politicizing personality that caused him to grate with his subordinates and exasperate his superiors. In 1846, Halleck published "Elements of Military Art and Science" at the United States Military Academy, an important tactical treatsie that would quickly be used in the Mexican War and Civil War. He was the military governor of Mazatlán during the former conflict, and was later instrumental in bringing California into the Union. During the Civil War, he took over the Dept of Missouri in late 1861, and quickly attracted attention for his capable and efficient administrative reforms as well as cold, calculating demeanor and a penchant for self-promotion.


The "Siege"

As stunned by the immense losses of the Battle of Shiloh as the rest of the nation,  Maj Gen Henry Halleck, commander of the Dept of the Mississippi, went down and took personal command of the three armies he oversaw for the campaign to seize Corinth, Mississippi.  The 120,000 troops of Maj Gen Ulysses Grant's
battered Army of the Tennessee, Maj Gen Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio, and Maj Gen John Pope's Army of the Mississippi (victorious at Island No. 10), would be the largest assemblage of Union forces in the Western Theater. However, made even more cautious by Shiloh, Halleck advanced his forces at a snail's pace, having his troops dig in at every opportunity, and advancing only five miles towards Corinth between May 11 and May 30, 1862. 

Siege lines of the Army of Ohio at Corinth

Heavy skirmishing broke out at Farmington (May 3-9), Russell's House (May 17), Widow Stuarrtt Farm (May 21), Double Log House (May 27), Stuarrtt's Hill (May 27),  and Bridge Creek (May 28) as the Federal forces converged on three sides of Corinth. Though the Confederate Army of the Mississippi received reinforcements as well, notably Maj Gen Earl van Dorn's Army of the West fresh from defeat in Arkansas, Gen Pierre G.T. Beauregard could only muster some 65,000 troops, sick from the pestilential swamps around the city, and as Halleck finally began investing Corinth, Beauregard decided to save his troops from certain destruction.  On May 30, Beauregard had his troops staged various deceptions of reinforcements, and then retreated.

The Siege of Corinth was fairly bloodless, with around 1000 casualties on both sides, mostly from disease, and Halleck was heavily criticized for the glacial speed of the campaign, but Corinth had finally fallen to Union hands, cutting the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.

Halleck in turn aggravated his timid advance by unwise strategy. The massive Union army would be dismantled without a major battle, and the forces dissipated with various objectives: the Army of the Tennessee and Mississippi would consolidate Union control of West Tennessee and the Mississippi Delta, before heading over to take the Mississippi River cities.  Meanwhile Buell's Army of the Ohio would move along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad to take the important city of Chattanooga. For four months the Western Theater would basically fall silent as the Federal and Confederate armies licked their wounds and moved in different directions.

During the Siege of Corinth, Grant had been placed as second in command of the force, which did no command any troops.  Grant saw this as punishment by Halleck for the heavy losses at Shiloh and considered resigning, but was talked out of it by Sherman. It proved fortunate.

Grave of Brig Gen Joseph Hogg, a paranoid Texan Mexican War veteran who died of dysentery during the siege

Halleck was soon promoted to General-in-Chief of the US Armies replacing Maj Gen George McClellan, and moved to Washington DC to coordinate the Union forces. As General-in-Chief from 1862-1864, Halleck commanded all of the Union forces through some of the darkest days of the conflict. Lincoln had hoped he would be able to coordinate massive assaults on the Confederacy, but was soon disappointed: Called "little more than a first rate clerk" by the president, though Halleck applied his outstanding administration and logistics throughout the Union, he proved utterly incapable of directing field generals, notably the failure to link up McClellan's Army of the Potomac with Pope's Army of Virginia, leading to the latter's defeat at Second Bull Run.  

With Halleck's promotion, Grant was promoted to take over the Mississippi front, and though hobbled by the need to hold Memphis and Corinth and their long supply lines, would eventually consolidate the necessary troops for the move towards the next great Western Union Objective: Vicksburg.