Thieves Of Mercy

HISTORICAL NOTE

When New Orleans fell to David Farragut’s fleet, it signaled the beginning of the end for Confederate control of the Mississippi, and a great blow to the Confederacy overall. Not because New Orleans was an active shipping port-the river had been sealed off from the sea by the Union blockade for some time-but because the city was still an important center for shipbuilding and the natural command center for operations on the Mississippi.

Despite its importance, and the obvious threat of Farragut’s fleet in the Gulf, Secretary of the Navy Mallory believed that the greater threat to New Orleans was the squadron of City Class gunboats and the Union Army coming down from the north. Mallory insisted that Flag Officer George Hollins keep his small squadron in Tennessee to oppose the Union advance. It was only at the last moment, and largely on Hollins’s initiative, that the naval forces of the river were moved south to oppose Farragut, a case of too little too late.

With Hollins’s fleet nearly wiped out at New Orleans, the bulk of the Mississippi River defense rested with the River Defense Fleet.

This fleet was not a part of the navy, but rather of the War Department, and under the command of the general of the army in the Mississippi Department, Brigadier General M. Jeff Thompson. The fleet was first organized in January of 1862 and consisted of fourteen steamers fitted with rams in the bow and a single gun fore and aft. The ships were specifically not gunboats, as the army had no faith in the riverboat crews’ ability with ordnance. They were designed to be fast rams, sinking their enemies in the manner of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

For command of the ships, the army looked specifically to experienced river men, captains and pilots. The men they found were fiercely independent, which is not usually a good quality for military men who must work in organized and concerted efforts. General Lovell, in command in New Orleans, recognized the potential for trouble when he wrote, “Fourteen Mississippi captains and pilots would never agree about anything after they once get underway.”