A. H. Foote.
From a photograph.
The first actual conflict between the gun-boats and the Confederates was on September 10, 1861, when Grant (who was then under Frémont) determined to dislodge a body of Confederates stationed on the west side of the Mississippi, eight miles below Cairo, and near Norfolk, Missouri. The Conestoga, Captain Phelps, and the Lexington, Captain Stembel, were sent down. They found the Confederates had sixteen field-pieces and a considerable body of cavalry. There was a lively bit of cannonading for a time, and two Confederate gunboats (converted river steamers) came up to join in. The Confederates’ guns were silenced, and then the government gunboats returned to Cairo.
A number of equally fruitless skirmishes followed. On November 7th there was quite a battle at Belmont, on the Missouri side of the river, opposite Columbus, Kentucky. Grant, with between 3,000 and 4,000 men, went down the river in transports convoyed by the gunboats Taylor, Captain Walke, and Lexington, Captain Phelps. They landed just out of range of the Iron Bluff forts above Columbus, and attacked the Confederates at Belmont with success, while gunboats under Walke shelled the works on the Columbus side. Although each boat might have been penetrated and its boiler exploded by a stray grapeshot, they were repeatedly carried by Walke, who was senior officer afloat, under the Confederate batteries. The reader should understand that taking a frail steamboat under the fire of heavy guns is a much more dangerous affair than going under fire with an old-fashioned ship with sails; for one shot could scarcely disable even a thin-walled sailing ship, but one shot into a steamer’s boiler not only disabled her, but slaughtered her crew with the steam. Walke and Phelps showed great gallantry on this occasion.
The Confederate troops were driven to their transports at first, but they rallied and were reinforced from the Columbus side of the river until they numbered about 7,000. Grant then retreated, and his troops were in some disorder, for they were yet undisciplined.
When Grant was compelled to retreat, Walke took the Taylor within a few yards of the banks where the Union troops embarked and drove off the victorious Confederates. It is not unlikely that Grant would have been captured but for Walke’s timely aid, for he was the last man to board the transports, and the Confederates were at hand in force with plenty of field-guns to sink the Union transports.
The Battle of Belmont: First Attack by the Taylor and the Lexington.
From a painting by Admiral Walke.
The next operation of importance was the capture of Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, just south of the Kentucky line. It was the first of the advances into the Confederate territory by way of the rivers of the West. On February 2, 1862, Flag Officer Foote assembled at Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee, the ironclad gunboats Essex, Capt. William D. Porter; Carondelet, Captain Walke; St. Louis, Captain Paulding; and Cincinnati, Captain Stembel; besides the three wooden gunboats Conestoga, Taylor, and Lexington to act as a reserve. Here the troops under Grant were embarked on transports, and the expedition proceeded cautiously up the river—cautiously because a boastful woman in a wayside house had told a scouting party that the ships would be blown out of water by torpedoes before passing an island just below the fort. On Tuesday, February 3d, the expedition had arrived within a few miles of Fort Henry, and the troops were landed, and a combined assault by the ironclads and the troops was ordered. But before the movement could be made, a tremendous storm came on; the river rose until the gunboats, with both anchors down, had to keep their engines going at full speed to hold their own against the tide and the flotsam.