Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Volume 23 by United States Department of the Navy

Author:United States Department of the Navy
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Official Records, Civil War
Publisher: United States Department of the Navy
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

secretary Navys report, 18Q~

Page 399

NAVAL FORCES ON WESTERN WATERS. 399

The gunboats Baron DeKaib, Lieutenant-Commander J. G. Walker; Loui8ville, Lieutenant-Commander E. K. Owen; Cincinnati, Lieutenant Commanding George M. Bache; Lexington, Lieutenant- Commander J. XV. Shirk, and Signal, New Era, Romeo, Rattler, Glide, under command of Lieutenant-Commander Watson Smith, started up, while the admiral proceeded in the Black Hawk. As the iron- dads were out of coal, they had to be towed up. This expedition had been planned so suddenly that even the re- porters had not time to advise the rebels of its approach, and it arrived at White River without their knowing that any troops and gunboats were near them. No time was lost at the mouth of White River. The Black Hawk led the larger transports, while the light- draft gunboats went ahead sounding, and by evening the advance tied up to the bank 3 miles from the fort at the Post of Arkansas. This was on the [9th of January, 1863.]. All the night and the next day the troops were employed in land- ing, while the gunboats were reconnoitering the positions and trying their ranges. General Shermans corps started off to get into the rear of the works and cut off chances of escape, while the rest of the army were stationed at such places as the occasion demanded, acting as reserves, etc. The history of the army operations is to be found in General Sher- mans report of the battle, that officer having the lead, and, indeed, charge of the operations at the Post [of Arkansas], General McCler- nand being commander-in-chief of the land forces. It was arranged between the admiral and General sherman that the navy should only fire in such a direction that the shot could not reach our troops, which was well understood by the commanders of the gunboats. On the evening of the , at 5 oclock, General McClernand rode down to the edge of the bank and informed the admiral that the Union pickets were within 200 yards of the enemys works, and the main body of the troops 400 yards, and that they waited for the navy to attack. The admiral knew that this could not very well be, as it was not in accordance with the programme laid down by General Sherman ;still he determined to attack at once with the gunboats. Arkansas Post was a strong work of 11 guns and in a command- ing positionthe river narrow and full of shoals. All their guns but two commanded the channel, and three of them were very heavy, the rest were rifled. The enemy had put up marks to regulate their ranges, and abreast the fort they had planted chevaux-de-frise of heavy logs across the channel, which was shallow. The full description of the fort, interior arrangements, etc., is con- tained in the reports of the army engineers. While the army was getting ready to advance the Black Hawk and Rattler had gone up and shelled the rebels out

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.