Soon after this fight the government flotilla was reinforced by seven river steamers that had been converted into rams along the Ohio River by Col. Charles Ellet, Jr. Part of them were stern-wheelers and part side-wheelers. They were strengthened with fore-and-aft bulkheads, and the boilers were protected with two feet of oak. Ellet had independent charge of them, with instructions to coöperate with the gunboats under Flag Officer Davis.

Meantime the advance of the government army in Tennessee had made it impossible for the Confederates to hold Fort Pillow, and it was evacuated on June 4, 1862. On the evening of the 5th the government flotilla came to anchor just above Memphis, that was yet in Confederate control. The Confederate fleet was seen at the levee next morning, but they soon cast off and took a position where the Union fleet could not fire on them without danger of throwing shells into the city. It was to be the last battle between the two flotillas, and a great throng of citizens gathered on the bluffs.

The Battle of Fort Pillow.

From a painting by Admiral Walke.

The government gunboats started at 4.20 o’clock and dropped slowly down, stern first, until the Confederates opened fire, when they turned about and returned the fire with vigor. The Union rams under Ellet had, until this time, kept in the rear, but when the firing began two of them—the Queen of the West and the Monarch, swift vessels for their day—took advantage of the smoke, dashed through the government line, and boldly headed for the Confederate boats.

This attack was wholly unexpected, and the crowds of Memphis citizens on the heights groaned aloud. The officers of the Confederate ships were startled, too. Some of their vessels swerved about under the nervous handling of their tiller wheels, and that gave the gallant Ellet the opportunity he hoped for. With the Queen of the West he crashed fairly into the broadside of the Confederate ship Lovell, and she sank out of sight immediately. But as the Queen of the West hauled clear, the quick-witted pilot of the Confederate ram Beauregard rammed her, and she was headed for the Arkansas shore, where she grounded. The government ram Monarch was close behind the Queen of the West, and the Confederate rams Beauregard and Price made a dash at her from opposite sides. She cleverly eluded them, and they crashed together, the Beauregard making a hole in the Price that sent her to the Arkansas shore.

That mishap very naturally confused the pilot of the Beauregard, and while he was recovering his wits the Monarch turned on him and rammed. Just then a shot from the Benton pierced the Beauregard’s boiler, and with the steam and scalding water pouring over her crew, she surrendered. The Monarch took charge of her and towed her over toward the Arkansas shore, where she sank and quelled the agonies of the dying by burying them under the river.

And then, to add to the disasters of the Confederates, a shot pierced the steam-chest of the Little Rebel, sending her also to the morgue on the Arkansas shore.