Battle of Plum Point Bend
The Battle of Plum Point Bend took place on the Mississippi River in Tennessee, U.S., between ships of the Confederate River Defense Fleet and the Union Western Flotilla on May 10, 1862. Fighting for control of the Mississippi River had been ongoing since the prior year, and Union forces had pushed downriver to Fort Pillow, which was 50 miles (80 km) on the river north of Memphis, Tennessee. The Union had been using mortar boats to bombard Fort Pillow, and had settled into a regular routine. Each day, a single mortar boat guarded by an ironclad took a position further downriver to bombard the fort, while the rest of the fleet remained upriver. On the morning of May 10, the Confederates attacked, in the hope of capturing the guard ironclad and then surprising the rest of the Union fleet.
Battle of Plum Point Bend, Tennessee, May 10, 1862. The Confederate vessels are to the right, while the Union ironclads are in the center and left
USS Cincinnati, a stern-wheel casemate gunboat, built in 1861.
CSS General Sterling Price, converted from a Mississippi steamboat in 1862.
Ironclad battle on the Mississippi River near Fort Wright, May 10, 1862 (Currier & Ives lithograph)
The River Defense Fleet was a set of fourteen vessels in Confederate service, intended to assist in the defense of New Orleans in the early days of the American Civil War. All were merchant ships or towboats that were seized by order of the War Department in Richmond and converted into warships by arming each with one or two guns, protecting their engines by an interior bulkhead, and strengthening their bows so they could be used as rams. Although they were nominally a part of the Confederate States Army, all of their officers and most of their crews were civilians. A portion of the fleet was retained in the south part of the Mississippi River and a portion was sent north to defend against Union movement from the north.
Union fleet passing the forts, 28 April 1862.
Battle of Plum Point Bend, 10 May 1862.
The Total Annihilation of the Rebel Fleet by the Federal Fleet under Commodore Davis. On the Morning of June 6, 1862, off Memphis, Tenn. CSS General Beauregard (center foreground) is being rammed by the federal ram Monarch. At left are the disabled federal ram Queen of the West and the Confederate ships General Sterling Price and Little Rebel.
{Ex CSS} USS General Bragg probably photographed at Cairo or Mound City, Illinois, circa 1862–63.