February 15, 1863, The New York Herald
Our Special Mississippi Correspondence.
ON BOARD THE RAM QUEEN OF THE WEST,
MISSISSIPPI RIVER, BELOW VICKSBURG, Feb. 5, 1863.
The Union ram Queen of the West, which ran the blockade of the rebel batteries at Vicksburg on Monday morning last, and then ran further down the river, has just returned from a most exciting, romantic, perilous and important passage down the Mississippi river, into the Red river, and up the Mississippi again to her present anchorage in the immediate vicinity of Vicksburg. During this excursion Colonel Ellet destroyed three rebel steamboats, several hundred thousand dollars worth of stores intended for the rebel army, captured a number of rebel officers, and struck a fearful blow at the vaunted security of the rebel authorities on the Lower Mississippi.
I have already forwarded you the particulars of the ram running past the Vicksburg batteries. Herein I send you a description of her subsequent exploits. Although in the beginning I may repeat a few facts mentioned in my first despatch sent when she had passed the formidable fortifications at the city, I do so in order that the present narrative may contain a complete account of all her operations from the commencement to the close.
Whilst we could see the rebel steamboat City of Vicksburg lying opposite the city and under the protection of its guns, it was known that further down the river there were in the service of the Confederate authorities a large number of transports, which were of incalculable benefit to them in furnishing supplies to their troops at Vicksburg and Port Hudson. It was important for us that we should destroy at least a portion of their means for river transportation, and, by proving comparatively easy the accomplishment of an apparent impossibility, teach them a moral lesson. Rear Admiral David D. Porter, commanding the Mississippi squadron, requested Colonel Charles E. Ellet, commanding the co-operating ram fleet, to prepare the Queen of the West for the contemplated dangerous and important mission. Eighteen hours were allowed him within which to effect the necessary arrangements to start at the appointed time. Three hundred cotton bales were placed on board, in order to protect her machinery from serious damage by the shot and shell from the rebel batteries. The Queen of the West is a wooden vessel – her prow only is of iron. Consequently, in the absence of iron armor, these cotton bales were necessary for her protection. Next to the safety of the machinery one of the most important points to be attended to in making the arrangements was the protection of the pilot house. With the limited means at our immediate disposal it was found impossible to properly protect it. The next best thing to be done was to change the rudder wheel to a good position behind the bulwarks in the bow. That alteration was speedily effected, and the ram was ready for her dangerous excursion.
At half-past four o’clock on Monday morning, the 2d inst., this black looking craft, which we call the Queen, Colonel Ellet himself commanding, moved from her anchorage near the other steamers in the squadron. The night was favorable for her slipping past Vicksburg unnoticed in the darkness; at all events it was intended that she should attempt to run the gauntlet of the batteries before the dawn of morning. When she was moving off the darkness was so dense it must have been difficult to distinguish her on the water from either shore. Scarcely had she started before it was found impossible to steer her with that perfect accuracy which was so much desired. One cause of this was the fact that the tiller ropes were new, and had not been regularly stretched. Although the pilot could steer her past the batteries he had not such complete command over her as to make him feel certain that he would secure that nice adjustment of the rudder necessary to enable him to hit the rebel steamboat in the spot appointed. Hence the ram had to be rounded to, the wheel adjusted and the tiller ropes returned to their old position. This indispensable detention consumed an hour. After its expiration at length she proceeded on her journey. On rounding the point the first thing that greeted all on board was a splendid sunrise, the next thing a singing shell from one of the rebel batteries. It passed between the smokestacks and struck the water some three hundred yards behind her. It was fired from the battery on the highest bluff above Vicksburg, and was admirably aimed. It was daylight now, and the rebels could distinctly see the ram. After the sound of the first shot broke the stillness of the morning the rebel artillerists sprung to their pieces, and over a hundred guns were fired with astonishing celerity. For a time there was an incessant shower of cannon balls. The first shot which struck the ram was fired from the battery that opened the attack. Colonel Ellet, with several others, was then in the pilot house, where he remained during most of the time. You could actually see the cannon ball coming. It was evidently coming straight for the pilot house. The fearful thought that the first shot would be a fatal one to them flashed through the minds of every one inside. But, just as all thought it was about to hit the pilot house, happily it spared it, and went plunging through the canvass about twenty feet behind, down through the cabin, and was stopped at last by a coil of cable on the deck. Only three or four shots had struck the ram before she had reached the city.
The first thing to be accomplished was the destruction of the rebel steamboat City of Vicksburg, which was fastened to the bank just at the city. Colonel Ellet announced his intention. The shot and shell were flying fast; the pilots were exceedingly anxious to proceed on down the river without stopping to head for the Mississippi shore and run into the rebel steamboat. It certainly was a fearful thing to pause even for a moment under such a tremendous cannonade. But when the Colonel told them that it must be done the pilots braced themselves to work, and performed their part like men. The rebel steamboat lay on the centre of a bend in the river where the current runs very rapidly. If she should be struck by the bow of any boat bearing directly down the river as the ram was at this moment, it would certainly have glanced and the rebel craft remain almost entirely uninjured. In order to make the blow effective it was therefore necessary for the Queen of the West to round to and bear across the river at her. This was done under a heavy fire, and the ram rushed at the doomed steamboat determinedly and prettily. As she neared the steamboat and the city the rebels, thinking that the Queen had been disabled, and that her commander had included to surrender, raised wild shouts of joy and burst into the most enthusiastic cheering. But they ceased their cheering when the ram struck the rebel steamer. The City of Vicksburg was built for a cotton boat; consequently, in order that she might carry the greater number of bales, her guards have been constructed very broad. As the ram ran into her the shock carried away the capstan, and in so doing broke a bar of iron five inches thick. I have since ascertained that the crash was heard across the river. The rebel steamboat reeled before the blow. But the bow of the ram was not long enough to reach the hull of the Vicksburg and thus sink her instantaneously, because the […..] of the rebel craft were so wide that they came up against the bulwarks of cotton bales by which our steamboat was protected. Had the cotton bales been absent the guards would have broken by the blow; but as it was, the cotton bales yielded to the pressure and thus the momentum of the shock was lost before the prow of the ram could reach the hull of the rebel steamboat. At the same instant the current caught the stern of the Queen of the West, and swung her round side by side with the Vicksburg. This result Colonel Ellet had anticipated, and had ordered the starboard bow gun to be loaded with the incendiary projectiles recommended by Admiral Porter. It must be remembered that the shot and shell from the rebel batteries and the musket balls from the rifles of their sharpshooters were dropping about our boat every moment. The sergeant was then ordered to fire the incendiary balls into the rebel steamboat. It was at this moment that the sixty-four round shot from one of the rebel batteries came crashing through the barricade, and striking another gun on board the ram broke and bent it as though it had been a willow wand. The sergeant did not for a moment hesitate to fire the gun. His bravery was conspicuous. Such are the men who ought to be promoted.
Simultaneously with these occurrences the Queen of the West drifted in upon the shore, and the wind, which was blowing rather briskly at the time, began to render it exceedingly improbable that our boat would be able to get out into the stream again. The situation was alarming indeed. For a few moments it was painfully perilous. See how it was – our ram had flanked in upon the shore – terrible so long as she was untrammelled, but now, hugged by the bank, almost perfectly powerless – the rebel batteries showering shot and shell upon her with increasing vigor, and the rebels, now almost certainly a prize, coming down the bank to board and seize her. So imminent did the peril of the moment seem that Captain Sutherland (who not many days before had caused a blooming Southern widow in this vicinity to become his bride), and whom Colonel Ellet ordered to blow up our steamboat with all on board, rather than have her fall into rebel hands, seized a bundle of loose cotton, and was on his way to throw the fatal flame into the powder magazine, in accordance with the arrangements, and at that instant the engineer, mistaking the signal to ahead on the larboard wheel, backed the boat instead, thus retaining her in her perilous position, when nothing but the interposition of Providence saved the boat and the lives of all. For the mistake was soon perceived, and the Queen commenced moving out. Col. Ellet had just given orders to back out and run into the rebel steamboat again – this time into her stern, which would have completely demolished her – when the cry of “fire” was raised on board the ram. A shell from one of the batteries had ignited some of the cotton near the starboard wheel, while the discharge of the incendiary balls from the bow gun had set the cotton bales on fire in front, the smoke rushing back into the engine rooms. We had partially enveloped in flames not only the rebel steamboat, but our own. It was evident that if Colonel Ellet waited to run into the Vicksburg a second time he would have to lose his Queen. Accordingly he headed her down stream, and set all hands at work extinguishing the flames. The cotton that was burning fastest was thrown overboard, and the hose played on the remaining burning bales. In this way the fire was extinguished so far as present safety was concerned; but long afterwards it was ascertained that the fire was still lurking in the cotton, and many more bales were tumbled overboard. It was at this time that the ram received most of the dozen shots which hit her, and that the men on board displayed such signal courage in exposing themselves to the concentrated fire of the rebel artillery and sharpshooters. The Queen then anchored below the mouth of the proposed canal across the neck of land, she having received no material injury. It was after the arrival at this point that I forwarded the despatch containing some of these particulars of her triumphant excursion past the Vicksburg batteries.
Early on that Monday afternoon – as soon as Col. Ellet had officially informed the Admiral of his successful passage of the batteries, Capt. Sutherland having gone ashore and the remainder of the Queen’s crew having come on board – the ram started on her adventurous cruise down the Mississippi river. She started about one o’clock P. M. Passing Warrenton, a few miles below, the enemy opened fire from eight guns upon her. Four of the guns were rifled twenty-pounders. More than fifty shots were fired at her. She was struck by only two of them, sustaining no injury whatever from either. Thence she was literally Queen of the river till the time of her return. Col. Ellet stopped at a fine plantation on the Mississippi shore near the mouth of the Big Black river. The owner said he was Union man, remarking that he had in his yard a shell thrown there by Admiral Farragut’s fleet last summer. It was ascertained that the news of the ram’s having run the blockade of the Vicksburg batteries had just swept down the river by a courier. Thus it was perceived that there was no telegraphic communication between Vicksburg and Port Hudson. The Colonel embarked and proceeded again on his journey. It was after sundown when the ram passed the mouth of the Big Black river. She passed Natchez in the night without creating any excitement whatever. Her fame had not preceded her. Those who saw her on the river of course concluded that she was a Confederate steamboat, as the most credulous of persons would have thought the presence of a Yankee gunboat in that vicinity an utter impossibility. On nearing Natchez, however, it was of course expected that she would be fired upon from the rebel batteries said to be erected there. Natchez under the Hill is a handsome place. No batteries were seen on the bluffs, and the Queen floated past entirely unmolested.
Observing a light, however, on the opposite shore. Col. Ellet, rounded to and landed at Vadalia. That is a small town on the Louisiana shore. He threw out half-a-dozen pickets and went ashore himself, accompanied by Lieut. Tuthill, of the ram. It was now midnight. There was no signs of life at Natchez, but there was considerable consternation at Vadalia. Twenty-five or thirty men had apparently just arrived from the interior of the country. Vadalia was quite a trading point. As fast as seven or eight citizens were collected by our men they would be placed in a room, locked up and directed not to leave there, upon peril of their lives. In this way seven or eight persons took complete possession of the place. In common parlance, they “[…..] up” the town. This strange and unanticipated proceeding filled the minds of the inhabitants with terror. They were completely overwhelmed with consternation. The over-credulous might have imagined that by some hobgoblin process Lincoln had swallowed Jeff. Davis and that the whole confederacy had gone. At this time two horsemen were seen riding past. The gray uniform of one and the scabbard of his sword glittering in the moonlight, revealed the fact that he was a rebel officer. Colonel Ellet ordered Lieutenant Tuthill to halt him. As he did so the rebel officer caught a glimpse of the Union uniform, and adroitly making a deceptive manoeuvre with his horse, succeeded in turning him partially around. He was commanded to dismount, but instead of doing so put spurs to his horse and was off in a moment. Colonel Ellet fired two shots at him but neither took effect, and the rebel officer safely disappeared amid the romantic moonlight. His companion, who was captured, said that the officer who thus escaped was a Confederate Colonel York. As there was little prospect of surprising any more Confederates in that vicinity our party reembarked on board the ram and she once more resumed her journey down the river.
A few hours later the Queen passed Ellis’ Cliffs, on the Mississippi shore. There was no evidence that the cliffs were fortified. She passed the mouth of Red river about six o’clock on Tuesday morning. About fifteen miles below the mouth a steamboat was seen coming up. Our pilot was ordered to bear directly down upon her. Perceiving the curious manner in which the ram was running, and evidently mistaking her for a Confederate steamer, the transport blew her whistle for our boat to turn to the starboard side. She received no answer. This was of course strange, if not suspicious, and, not liking the appearance and course of the Queen, her formidable prow pointed straight at his steamboat, the Captain changed his course and ran his transport towards the Louisiana shore. The water has overflowed the land at this point and he could not get her further in than about ten feet from the bank. As the ram neared her the greatest excitement on board the Confederate craft was visible. To say the least it was comical, though, at the same time, it was serious. People were rushing about on deck, and a number of Confederate officers were seen springing overboard and swimming for the shore. A volley of musketry did not have the desired effect of preventing others attempting to escape, so Captain Connor was instructed, if the rebels persisted in further flight, to fire his bow gun into the steamboat. The Captain complied, but happily the fuse failed, or rather the gun did not go off. Had the gun been fired and hit the steamboat at the point designed it is probable that the shot might have killed some of the ladies who were afterwards ascertained to have been in the cabin. The ram, however, was by this time close enough for our men to board her. Several jumped on deck and seized her, and fired several shots at some who were still attempting to escape. This steamboat proved to be the A. W. Baker, who had discharged her cargo of rebel stores at Port Hudson, and was returning and bound up the Red river for another. We captured on her five rebel captains, two first lieutenants, several civilians and seven ladies. The colonel had scarcely succeeded in restoring order out of the confusion which had prevailed, and convinced the ladies that he would not injure any one on board, when another steamboat was announced coming down the river. Leaving a guard on the captured craft, and taking the rebel officers on board the ram, Col. Ellet ran the Queen out into the stream after the other steamboat. A shot across her bow brought her to immediately. She roved to be the Moro, laden with one hundred and ten thousand pounds of pork, five hundred live hogs, a considerable quantity of salt and other stores for the rebel forces at Port Hudson.
Having secured two prizes, Colonel Ellet, finding his supply of coal getting rather limited, concluded to return. Accordingly he sent the two prizes just ahead of him, and was soon homeward bound. He landed on a plantation on the Louisiana side, a short distance below the mouth of Red river, where he put ashore the ladies with their carriage, horses and all their private property. He also put ashore most of the civilians, retaining, of course, the rebel officers. A Red river pilot was among the civilians captured on the Baker. He persistently refused to give any information concerning the Red river, and to pertinacity added abuse and insolence. Colonel Ellet at length told him he was going to start up Red river at that very moment; that it was a matter of total indifference to him whether he would give him any information concerning the river or would not; but that he (the pilot) must go into the pilot […..] to prevent […..]. He grumbled, thought such a course was very despotic indeed, discoursed most fluently on the numerous bars to be crossed, but of course succumbed, and subsequently steered the ram carefully up Red river.
Whilst the ladies and gentlemen were being put ashore another steamboat was seen coming down the Red river. She soon rounded to at the firing of a shot across her bow. This third prize was the Burwick Bay, a fine side-wheel steamboat. She had on board about forty bales of cotton, two hundred barrels of molasses, ten hogsheads of sugar, and among other articles twenty-five thousand pounds of flour. Some was in barrels and some in sacks. Several passengers were found on board but no rebel soldiers. Just as she rounded to, however, a bundle of papers were flung overboard. Search was made for them, but they could not be recovered. From similar looking documents found on board it was supposed that they were papers concerning the captured stores. She was bound for port Hudson with those supplies.
These prizes being secured, the Queen ran fifteen miles up the Red river, but did not meet any other steamboat. His limited supply of coal would not allow the Colonel to proceed much further and still have sufficient to return. It was ascertained that the rebels have up the Red river, fifteen steamboats, a battery, and a raft across the river. The raft is constructed so as to open and pass the rebel steamboats through. Returning to the mouth of Red river, some of the captured stores and cotton were transferred on board the ram, and she steamed up the Mississippi with her prizes. Night had now come on again. Finding that the progress of the prizes was so slow, and knowing that he could not wait to bring them up, he concluded to set them on fire and let them go. Thus the Burwick Bay, the Moro and the Baker were successively set on fire. They were cut loose, and, enveloped in flames, floated down the river. It was a splendid sight to see those steamboats floating away at the mercy of the current and the flames, the light from each separate moving conflagration illumining the river for many miles. And thus they floated on; no one on board the Queen has seen them since, nor does any one ever expect to see them.
The ram returned in safety to near the lower end of the canal, where she is at present anchored. Passing Warrenton on the upward trip twelve guns, instead of eight as at first, now opened on her. She was hit half a dozen times but received no injury further than the cutting of a derrick. She arrived here at about seven o’clock this morning, and on approaching the canal found that the rebels, in her absence, had erected a powerful battery of long range guns to command her movements in the vicinity of her former temporary anchorage. Several shots passed very near her. She is still safe, however – a source of terror to the rebels.
The results of this dashing and dangerous exploit might be briefly summed up as follows: –
First – The practical establishing of the principle that a wooden steamboat can pass a line of formidable fortifications some seven miles in extent, pass them by daylight, be fired at about one hundred and twenty-five times, be struck but twelve, and come out triumphantly without material injury.
Second – The fact that the steamboat City of Vicksburg has been badly damaged by being run into forward of the water beam, while the rebel batteries and sharpshooters were blazing away at the ram. Deserters say that the Vicksburg has quite a considerable hole in her hull; that the steam pumps have been hard at work since the Queen run into her, while the rebels are compelled to buoy her up with barges placed around her.
Third – That three useful transports have been destroyed, together with an immense amount of quartermaster and commissary stores, all belonging to the Confederate government, not to mention the capture of the rebel officers.
Fourth – The moral effect of the exploit will be so great that no rebel boat will confidently venture out of the Red river from fear of being captured or destroyed. This will, to some extent, cut off both Vicksburg and Port Hudson from the immense supplies the rebels at these places have been receiving from the Red river country. Bills of lading captured show that great quantities of stores of all kinds have been shipped to both those rebel strongholds.
All the officers and men on board the ram deserve great credit for their intrepid conduct. Colonel Ellet is a youthful and dashing officer, a man of restless energy, dauntless, courage and modest manner. Admiral Porter is highly pleased with the style in which his orders were executed by the Colonel. It is not improbable that the Queen of the West may soon be heard from again.