ed_flanagan
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- Jan 26, 2018
Last week I gave a lecture On Admiral Henry Walke to the Nassau County Civil War Round Table at the Bellmore Public Library out on Long Island, NY. If anyone is interested, here are my talking points. I hope I did Admiral Walke the justice he deserves. GROG! OH!
Henry A. Walke: The Man Who Ran the Guns & Lived to Draw About It
On the USS Benton, the flagship of the Western Flotilla, a battered Flag Officer Andrew Foote, writes out an order to the Captain of the USS Carondelet to run the guns of the Confederate batteries on Island No. 10 with ominous postscript:
"Should you meet with disaster, you will, as the a last resort, destroy your machinery, and, if possible to escape, set fire to your gunboat or sink her, and prevent her from falling into the hands of the Rebels"
Who was the recipient of this order? An old acquaintance of Flag Officer Foote from his Midshipmen's days: Commander Henry Walke, a 35 year veteran of the US Navy. Walke was described as a tall, taciturn, impatient, something of martinet and not partially well liked. Walke was also a noted and talented artist who painted and sketched scenes of his voyages around the world and actions from the Mexican-American War.
Henry Walke was born at Ferry Manor Plantation, Princess Anne County, Virginia, December 24, 1809; son of a Yale educated father Anthony Walke, whose family emigrated from England to Virgina in the seventeenth century. In 1811 his parents moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, with his father serving in the Ohio House of Representatives and in the Ohio Senate.
In early 1827, Walke was appointed midshipman and March 27, 1827 reported to the Gosport Navy Yard, in Norfolk, Virgina to the receiving ship USS Alert as Acting Midshipmen under the command of Lt. David G. Farragut. He would be assigned to the USS Natchez in July 1827. Walke serves on all the foreign stations; which included a three year cruise around the world, on the West India Station three times, the Brazilian and Mediterranean stations twice and the Pacific Squadron. With long voyages and patrols, Walke passes his time to develops his skills to sketch and to paint, and produces artwork of peoples and places that he has visited from Asia to South America.
Around 1835 Walke marries Sarah J. Aim, of New York, whom Walke describes as "Bright, pretty and hospitable, an affectionate daughter, wife and mother" and would pass away in 1855. They had one son, Henry A. Walke, who would serve under his father as clerk, paymaster and master onboard the USS Supply, USS Tyler, and USS Carondelet, and was present during the Pensacola Crisis and the actions at Belmont, Forts Henry and Doneldson.
Walke would remarried two more times, Jane Elm Burger in 1856, who passes away the following year. Walke would remarried again, to Julia Reed in 1858 and would have four child Francis Edward Walke, Mary Evelyn Walke, Katherine Cornelia "Katie" Walke and William Anthony Walke.
During the Mexican-American War he serves as the second in command of the Bomb Brig USS the Vesuvius. During the war the USS Vesuvius participated in the blockade Laguna, bombardment of Vera Cruz and supported landings at Tuxpan and Tabasco. This experience would serve Walke well fifteen years later on the Mississippi.
After serving for eight months on the USS Vesuvius, Walke returns to the United States in late 1847 and goes on extended leave to work on his Naval lithograph portfolio series called the "Naval Scenes in the Mexican War."
In 1855, he was promoted to commander, and then was furloughed and placed on the retired list by the infamous Naval Efficiency Board. Walke would eventually returned on half-pay to the active list in January 1858, but would not receive a posting until August 1859 when he was made the captain of the storeship USS Supply.
The Pensacola Crisis & The Civil War
In January 1861 while being stationed at the Pensacola Naval Yard, the State of Florida is debating secession after the election of Abraham Lincoln. Walke assists with the evacuation of Army Lieut. Adam Slemmer's command at Fort Barrancas to Fort Pickens. When the Navy Yard surrenders, three commissioners from the sovereign States of Alabama and Florida came to the ships under a flag of truce, demanding their surrender as part of the naval establishment; this, of course, was refused. Although Walke had been ordered to Vera Cruz, he decides instead sail the officers' families along with the paroled prisoners on board the USS Supply to New York.
For this act of commonsense charity he was court-martialed by the outgoing Secretary of the Navy Isaac Toucey for disobeying orders. After a long trial, he was found guilty and was reprimanded by the new Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles. While the country applauded his patriotism in rescuing over a hundred sailors, soldiers and noncombatants and help saves Fort Pickens for the Union, but the Navy takes a dim view of disobedience.
Wells relives Walke from arrest and is placed back on the "Retired List" and spends of the Spring and Summer of 1861 on the sidelines in Brooklyn.
While the US Navy looked tolerably imposing on paper at the start of the Civil War, it was completely unprepared for serious operations such as blockade running from Mexico to the Chesapeake and the Atlantic shipping lanes. So unprepared was the US Navy that Congress would censured outgoing Secretary of the Navy Toucey. Of the 90 ships listed, only 42 were in commission, with only a dozen in Northern waters and 3 in at the Pensacola Navy Yard, with the rest in foreign stations.
When the US Navy begins to expand, Walke is restored to duty and is ordered in early September out West to Detroit to inspect Lighthouses. When he arrives out west is he was ordered to St. Louis to report to Captain Andrew Foote, commander of the new Western Flotilla on Mississippi river, who gives him the command of the Timberclad USS Tyler.
Since the Western Flotilla was under control of the War Department and not the Navy Department, when he arrives out West, he reports to the local army commander, a newly minted Brigadier General, Ulysses Grant. Grant being a man of few words and much action, promptly orders him to take the USS Tyler with a detail of officers to reconnoitered down the Mississippi to Columbus to scout Confederate positions.
The Raid on Belmont
In early November, General Grant receives reports of Confederate forces sending reinforcements to Missouri, so Grants decides to takes preemptive measures to disrupt Confederate movements. Grant decides to send a force into Northeastern Missouri and a diversion from Paducah, Kentucky. Early on the night of November 6th and 7th, Grant takes his command of two brigades on several transports with Walke commanding the USS Lexington and his USS Tyler, and cruises down the Mississippi on a raid on the Confederate camp at Belmont across the river from Columbus.
Once Grant's troops disembarked above Belmont at Hunter's Farm landing, Grant orders Walke's gunboats to keep the Confederate batteries busy. Walke spends the day battling with Confederate batteries. But once the Confederate barriers found their mark on USS Tyler, killing a sailor, Walks heads back to the landing zone. When he sees the Confederate reinforcements attempting to get between Grant and the landing zone, Walke orders the gunboats to fire on the advancing troops and driving them back in the woods, which allows Grant's troops to embark back on the transports.
When one of Grant's Brigade Commanders, General John McClernand, discovered that one of his regiments, was missing and unaccounted, hails down Walke, who escorts General McClernand and his transport back towards Belmont and retrieves his missing regiment.
The Pook Turtles
With the war started, the War (Army) Department contracts Mississippi River shipbuilder James B. Eads to build the famed City Class Ironclads (or better known as the Pook Turtles) in his Missouri shipyards. These river gunboats would form the backbone of the Union's Western Flotilla. The Pook Turtles proved to be rugged ships, but were founded to be underpowered and the unarmored roofs and stern proved venerable to plunging fire and direct shots.
Once the new City Class Ironclad gunboats are launched and commissioned, Walke was transferred to the new City-Class Ironclad Gunboat USS Carondelet. Like many of the naval officers sent out to the Western Flotilla, Walke was one the several "Restored Officers" and under a cloud by the US Navy as a result of the 1855 Naval Efficiency Board and his Fort Pickens' Court Martial. While seen as a demotion, it was opportunity to render service to the Union and Walke would make his mark as one of fightingest Captains of the US Navy during the War of the Rebellion.
Forts Henry & Donaldson
On February 6, 1862, Walke takes part in the Naval assault upon Fort Henry under Flag-Officer Foote. After a heavy bombardment, a half-flooded Fort Henry surrenders, Walke was given command of the fort till the Army arrives. With Fort Henry secured, Grant orders Walke to take the Carondelet and the timberclads to steam back to the Ohio River and down the Tennessee River to Fort Donelson.
Walke was ordered to steam ahead of the fleet and to signals his arrival with his guns when he gets to fort, which he does on February 13th. When Flag Officer Foote arrives with the rest of the fleet in the evening and the next day, the entire fleet attacks the Confederate river batteries. The Confederate batteries had heavy seacoast artillery and inflicted heavy damaged on Union gunboats, with the Carondelet suffering severely with 4 killed and 32 wounded. Walke noted "Before the decks were sanded, there was so much blood on them that our men could not work the guns without slipping." Her pilot house was beaten in with three out four pilots mortally wounded. One of the ship's rifled guns burst, seriously wounded Walke's son, Fourth Master, Henry A. Walke.
RUNNING THE GUNS OF ISLAND NO. 10
After undergoing major repairs back in Mound City, the USS Carondelet re-joins Foote's fleet above Island No. 10, the next Confederate Gibraltar on Mississippi, which blocked the New Madrid Bend. Bristling with 10 batteries with over a 100 guns, a floating battery with 9 guns, and two nearby forts of 7 and 14 guns. After Fort Donaldson, an invalid Flag Officer Foote was very leery of running his vulnerable gunboats passed a heavily fortified position along a "S" shaped river bend.
The Union's Western Theater Army commanders, the prickly General Henry W. Halleck, the local Army commander, the pompous General John Pope, along with Assistant Secretary of War, Thomas Scott, bombards Foote with orders to run his ships passed Island No. 10 and threaten to remove him and the rest of the US Navy commanders and replace them with Army personnel, if Foote failed to do so. Halleck and Pope realized that if they failed to take Island No. 10 sooner rather than later, the Confederate River Defense Force would be able finish it's ship building program, which would block the middle Mississippi River for the foreseeable future.
Foote attempts to bombards the Confederate batteries for the next two weeks with little results. This apparent inaction drives General Pope to have a canal dug around Island No. 10 While the canal enables Pope's transports circumvents Island No. 10., but it is not deep enough for Foote's ironclads
Since the Western Flotilla was under control of the War Department and not the Navy Department, this threat was a real one. After a few weeks of being battered by the Army Command, Foote held a Council of War with his captains on March 30th, and asked for volunteers to run the guns, and Walke volunteers to run the gauntlet. Walke's offer to accept this assignment, which Foote had little faith of success, proceeds to ready his ship.
While Walke waited for a moonless night, he had the Carondelet's exposed areas shored up with whatever was available, including planks from a nearby wreak and has a coal barge loaded with coal and hay lashed to the post side. The ship's steam was routed from the smoke stacks through the pipes into the wheel house, to avoid having the steam and smoke making the tell-tale noise and smoke of a steamship. Walke describes his ship "at that time resembled a farmer's wagon prepared for market."
Since this assignment was considered as almost a suicide mission, this was a strictly a volunteer operation. Since the 1st Master and Executive Officer Richard Wade,who had been invalided since Fort Donelson, the master from the USS Cincinnati, 1st Master, William R. Hoel, an experienced pilot, had steamed down the Ohio And Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, almost 200 times, volunteers to pilot. All precautions were made, was prepared, below decks, ammunition was stored in the magazine. It was made certain that a generous supply of small arms was readily available: pistols, cutlasses, boarding pikes and muskets were all checked and ready. Plus a detachment of army sharpshooters was attached to protect the ship.
It was a dark and stormy night on April 4th and around 10 o'clock the moon had gone down, and the sky, the earth, Walke describes "the river were alike hidden in the black shadow of a thunder-storm, which had now spread itself over all the heavens. As the time seemed favorable, I ordered the first master to cast off. Dark clouds now rose rapidly over us and enveloped us in almost total darkness, except when the sky was lighted up by the welcome flashes of vivid lightning, to show us the perilous way we were to take. Now and then the dim outline of the landscape could be seen, and the forest bending under the roaring storm that came rushing up the river.
Almost half way pass the batteries, the dried out chimneys started to fleer up fire, which alerted the Confederate batteries, who frantically tried to fire on the Carondelet. Walker gives the order for full speed ahead and Master Hoel orders the ship to steam closer to Island Number 10 avoid the shoals. The results were dozens of shots were fired at the Carondelet, mostly over the Carondelet, with only one shot landing on the coal barge (and which Walke kept as a souvenir in his Brooklyn house).
When the Carondelet arrived at New Madrid, it fires its signal gun, a successful running of the guns. Walke remembered "When we arrived at New Madrid about midnight with no one hurt, and were most joyfully received by our army. At the suggestion of Paymaster, "Grog, Oh!" was whistled and all hands "spliced the main brace."
The leading 19th century naval historian, Alfred T. Mahan, called Walke's running of Island No. 10 "One of the most daring and dramatic events of the war."
Two nights later when her sister ship, the USS Pittsburgh runs Island No. 10's guns, and General Pope orders the gunships to escorted troop transports down the river. They were ordered silenced the batteries at Watson's Landing and covered the landing of Pope's army near Tiponville. This would seal the fate of the Island #10. This was done on short order with few casualties.
After completing capture the Confederate forts and positions below Island No. 10 near Tipton, the USS Pittsburgh comes alongside the USS Carondelet. When it's Captain, Lieutenant Thompson, shouts over to Walke "Congregations Walke we did it!"" An annoyed Walke grabs the ship's trumpet and shouts back at Thompson "**** you, I don't congratulate you!" "You sulked behind my boat and fired shots over my deck!" "**** you!" "If you ever do such a thing again, I will turn my batteries on you and blow you out of the water!"
The results of Island No. 10 resulted in the capture of 3 rebel generals, 4,500 troop troops, over hundred artillery pieces and a massive amount of arms and ammunitions at the loss of only 7 killed, 14 wounded and 4 missing. But events down the Tennessee River at a place by Pittsburg Landing would over shadow the near bloodless triumph at Island No. 10.
Flag Officer Foote was awarded with a Thanks of Congress and a $40,000 prize, which rubbed General Pope the wrong way because of Foote's reluctance to run the guns. Pope would unsuccessfully lobby Congress to recognized Commander Walke as "a most gallant and meritorious officer who has rendered move distinguished services to his country than nine-tenths of those who have received thanks and rewards from congress."
Clearing the Mississippi
The next stop on the Western Flotilla's tour of the Mississippi was Plum Point Bend near Fort Pillow, Tennessee. An increasingly invalid Flag Officer Foote was replaced by Flag Officer Charles H. Davis. On May 10, 1862, eight Confederate rams of Confederate River Defense Force steamed up the river at full speed to attack mortar boat No. 16 and her escort, the USS Cincinnati. Since the USS Carondelet was practically the only boat with her boilers lit, she was ready to protect the Union ships being attacked and counter-attacks the Confederate rams long enough till the other Union boats arrived. The Battle of Plum Point Bend resulted in one of the first real naval battles of the Civil War between the Confederate and Union navies.
While a tactical standoff, the Confederates abandoned Fort Pillow, with the import city of Memphis next. On June 6, Walke, with the Carondelet, engaged in the battle of Memphis, which the combine Union Navy ironclad and Army Rams routes and eliminated what was left of the Confederate River Defense Force and capturing the important city of Memphis. This opens up the Mississippi all the way from Cairo to Vicksburg.
Fun Up The Yazoo
By the summer of 1862, with the exception of Vicksburg, the Union Navy controls the Mississippi from St. Louis to New Orleans. Both the Western Gulf Blockade Squadron under Flag Officer David Farragut and the Western Flotilla under Flag Officer Charles H. Davis, were anchored between Vicksburg and the Yazoo River. While the Union Navy is total control of the Mississippi, half their crews suffering from the summer heat and fevers, including Walke.
In the middle of July, Davis and Farragut were informed by two Confederate deserters, that the Confederate ironclad ram, the CSS Arkansas was ready for action and coming down the Yazoo River. A sick Walke was ordered to conduct a early morning reconnaissance of the Yazoo River with his ship, the USS Carondelet, his old ship The USS Tyler and the US Army Ram, the USS Queen of the West.
Several miles up the Yazoo River, Walke runs into the ram CSS Arkansas, commanded by his old navy friend, Captain Isaac Brown, steaming down the Yazoo. With The CSS Arkansas, being better armored and faster, Walke tries to retreats to avoids being rammed and was pursued in running fight with her unarmored stern being exposed to Arkansas bow guns. After The USS Carondelet takes dozens of direct hits in her unprotected stern, knocking out the steering gear.
Disabled and to avoid being rammed and sunk, Walke runs the Carondelet into the bank. When the Arkansas finally passes Walke's crippled ship it fires repeated broadsides into the Carondelet, which returns with broadsides at the passing Rebel ironclad. The CSS Arkansas keeps on her way through the massive combined Union Navies to Vicksburg. The damaged to the Carondelet was 4 killed, 16 wounded and 10 missing with the stern blown to pieces. But the badly damaged ironclad was able to make quick repairs and to steam back to the Union fleet when relief ships found her heading back towards the Mississippi.
Walke and his sick crew were able to escape the Southern heat and river fevers for the rest of the summer when the Carondelet is ordered back at Mound City for major repairs. One pleasant news for Walke, he is recommended for promotion to full Navy Captain by Flag Officer Davis and by Generals Grant and Pope. He promoted to Captain in August and promised command of the new Ironclad Ram, USS Lafayette when she commissioned in early 1863.
In the fall of 1862 Flag Officer Davis is replaced by a more aggressive and very ambitious Admiral David Dixon Porter. Since Walke has a similar temperament to Porter and being one of the flotillas' senor captains, Porter would leave Walke pro tem commander during his absences. Porter would give Walke command of the gun-boats patrolling the river below Helena, and in December, makes another excursion up the Yazoo.
By the spring of 1863, General Grant begins his Vicksburg Campaign, and orders Admiral David Dixon Porter to run Vicksburg guns on the night of April 4, 1863. Three weeks later on April 29th, 1863, Walke commands second division of Porter's fleet at the landing of Grant's army at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, which leads to the capture of Vicksburg on July 4th, 1863.
Blockade Runners and Raiders
With the Mississippi River secured, Walke remains in the Mississippi squadron until September 24, 1863, when he was ordered East and is rewarded with the command of the USS Sacramento and sent in search of the CSS Alabama. When he arrived at Lisbon he learned of her destruction by the USS Kearsarge, but he was able to blockade the CSS Rappahannock at Calais for fifteen months. When the Rappahannock escapes, he pursued her to Liverpool, where he held her until the end of the war. After the war he was detached from USS Sacramento and returned home to await orders.
Post Civil War & Retirement
Walke was promoted commodore 1866 and sent back west in 1868 to command the Mount City Naval Station, to oversee the closing of the once powerful naval station. While waiting for orders to his next assignment, Walke is promoted to rear admiral on 20 July 1870. He was placed on the retired list on 26 April 1871. However, his service to the Navy did not end when he recalled for special duty by the senior admiral of the Navy, Admiral David Dixon Porter, when he was appointed to the United States Lighthouse Board.
After the war, Admiral Walke, for several years, and at great expense and trouble, appeals to Congress to undue the 1855 Naval Efficiency/Retirement Board, whom without just cause or a hearing, on ex parte evidence, retired and dismissing over 100 naval officers, including some of which distinguished veterans of the war of 1812 and many whom would render important service during the Civil War like William D. Porter and Augustus H. Kilty, without pay, or on half-pay or two-thirds full pay. Walke was able to get Congress, to not only restored the back pay to him, but to all the officers of the navy who had been retired, some of whose families were almost destitute of the means of living.
During the war Walke had kept up a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and after the war he wrote up a short book or pamphlet called "Naval Scenes on the Western Waters," which was never formally published but was circulated among other naval officers apparently for their comments. The results were his rather angry and defensive memoirs: "Naval Scenes and Reminiscences of the Civil War….." published in 1877, complete with his color illustrations of his Civil War actions and places.
A few years later in 1885, a more peaceful Walke, contributes and illustrates a long and highly regarded article: "Operations of the Western Flotilla" in Century Magazine's "Battles and Leaders" series, which were edited into two entries of the four volume "Battles and Leaders" set. His Civil War illustrations continued to be used to this day in many books dealing the Civil War and the US Navy.
Walke retires to his house on 492 Third Street in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn to spend his retirement painting. A reporter describes his house as "hung with charming paintings, the results of his skill with the brush. He had been in almost every land on the globe, and wherever he went that his occupation did not prevent it, he sketched and took notes. For many years after his retirement from the navy his leisure hours were spent in reproducing these sketches on canvas, and it is doubtful if a finder collection of views from any great artist's studio than are included in Admiral Walke's mammoth portfolio. He likewise collected a good size museum of relics and mementoes possessing rare historic value."
In early March 1896 after a long healthy life, Walke catches a cold, which developed into the "Grip" and he passed away on March 8, 1896, in his Park Slope home. Admiral Henry Walke was buried in Brooklyn's Green-wood Cemetery with full military honor befitting an American Admiral and a hero of the Union.
Henry A. Walke: The Man Who Ran the Guns & Lived to Draw About It
On the USS Benton, the flagship of the Western Flotilla, a battered Flag Officer Andrew Foote, writes out an order to the Captain of the USS Carondelet to run the guns of the Confederate batteries on Island No. 10 with ominous postscript:
"Should you meet with disaster, you will, as the a last resort, destroy your machinery, and, if possible to escape, set fire to your gunboat or sink her, and prevent her from falling into the hands of the Rebels"
Who was the recipient of this order? An old acquaintance of Flag Officer Foote from his Midshipmen's days: Commander Henry Walke, a 35 year veteran of the US Navy. Walke was described as a tall, taciturn, impatient, something of martinet and not partially well liked. Walke was also a noted and talented artist who painted and sketched scenes of his voyages around the world and actions from the Mexican-American War.
Henry Walke was born at Ferry Manor Plantation, Princess Anne County, Virginia, December 24, 1809; son of a Yale educated father Anthony Walke, whose family emigrated from England to Virgina in the seventeenth century. In 1811 his parents moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, with his father serving in the Ohio House of Representatives and in the Ohio Senate.
In early 1827, Walke was appointed midshipman and March 27, 1827 reported to the Gosport Navy Yard, in Norfolk, Virgina to the receiving ship USS Alert as Acting Midshipmen under the command of Lt. David G. Farragut. He would be assigned to the USS Natchez in July 1827. Walke serves on all the foreign stations; which included a three year cruise around the world, on the West India Station three times, the Brazilian and Mediterranean stations twice and the Pacific Squadron. With long voyages and patrols, Walke passes his time to develops his skills to sketch and to paint, and produces artwork of peoples and places that he has visited from Asia to South America.
Around 1835 Walke marries Sarah J. Aim, of New York, whom Walke describes as "Bright, pretty and hospitable, an affectionate daughter, wife and mother" and would pass away in 1855. They had one son, Henry A. Walke, who would serve under his father as clerk, paymaster and master onboard the USS Supply, USS Tyler, and USS Carondelet, and was present during the Pensacola Crisis and the actions at Belmont, Forts Henry and Doneldson.
Walke would remarried two more times, Jane Elm Burger in 1856, who passes away the following year. Walke would remarried again, to Julia Reed in 1858 and would have four child Francis Edward Walke, Mary Evelyn Walke, Katherine Cornelia "Katie" Walke and William Anthony Walke.
During the Mexican-American War he serves as the second in command of the Bomb Brig USS the Vesuvius. During the war the USS Vesuvius participated in the blockade Laguna, bombardment of Vera Cruz and supported landings at Tuxpan and Tabasco. This experience would serve Walke well fifteen years later on the Mississippi.
After serving for eight months on the USS Vesuvius, Walke returns to the United States in late 1847 and goes on extended leave to work on his Naval lithograph portfolio series called the "Naval Scenes in the Mexican War."
In 1855, he was promoted to commander, and then was furloughed and placed on the retired list by the infamous Naval Efficiency Board. Walke would eventually returned on half-pay to the active list in January 1858, but would not receive a posting until August 1859 when he was made the captain of the storeship USS Supply.
The Pensacola Crisis & The Civil War
In January 1861 while being stationed at the Pensacola Naval Yard, the State of Florida is debating secession after the election of Abraham Lincoln. Walke assists with the evacuation of Army Lieut. Adam Slemmer's command at Fort Barrancas to Fort Pickens. When the Navy Yard surrenders, three commissioners from the sovereign States of Alabama and Florida came to the ships under a flag of truce, demanding their surrender as part of the naval establishment; this, of course, was refused. Although Walke had been ordered to Vera Cruz, he decides instead sail the officers' families along with the paroled prisoners on board the USS Supply to New York.
For this act of commonsense charity he was court-martialed by the outgoing Secretary of the Navy Isaac Toucey for disobeying orders. After a long trial, he was found guilty and was reprimanded by the new Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles. While the country applauded his patriotism in rescuing over a hundred sailors, soldiers and noncombatants and help saves Fort Pickens for the Union, but the Navy takes a dim view of disobedience.
Wells relives Walke from arrest and is placed back on the "Retired List" and spends of the Spring and Summer of 1861 on the sidelines in Brooklyn.
While the US Navy looked tolerably imposing on paper at the start of the Civil War, it was completely unprepared for serious operations such as blockade running from Mexico to the Chesapeake and the Atlantic shipping lanes. So unprepared was the US Navy that Congress would censured outgoing Secretary of the Navy Toucey. Of the 90 ships listed, only 42 were in commission, with only a dozen in Northern waters and 3 in at the Pensacola Navy Yard, with the rest in foreign stations.
When the US Navy begins to expand, Walke is restored to duty and is ordered in early September out West to Detroit to inspect Lighthouses. When he arrives out west is he was ordered to St. Louis to report to Captain Andrew Foote, commander of the new Western Flotilla on Mississippi river, who gives him the command of the Timberclad USS Tyler.
Since the Western Flotilla was under control of the War Department and not the Navy Department, when he arrives out West, he reports to the local army commander, a newly minted Brigadier General, Ulysses Grant. Grant being a man of few words and much action, promptly orders him to take the USS Tyler with a detail of officers to reconnoitered down the Mississippi to Columbus to scout Confederate positions.
The Raid on Belmont
In early November, General Grant receives reports of Confederate forces sending reinforcements to Missouri, so Grants decides to takes preemptive measures to disrupt Confederate movements. Grant decides to send a force into Northeastern Missouri and a diversion from Paducah, Kentucky. Early on the night of November 6th and 7th, Grant takes his command of two brigades on several transports with Walke commanding the USS Lexington and his USS Tyler, and cruises down the Mississippi on a raid on the Confederate camp at Belmont across the river from Columbus.
Once Grant's troops disembarked above Belmont at Hunter's Farm landing, Grant orders Walke's gunboats to keep the Confederate batteries busy. Walke spends the day battling with Confederate batteries. But once the Confederate barriers found their mark on USS Tyler, killing a sailor, Walks heads back to the landing zone. When he sees the Confederate reinforcements attempting to get between Grant and the landing zone, Walke orders the gunboats to fire on the advancing troops and driving them back in the woods, which allows Grant's troops to embark back on the transports.
When one of Grant's Brigade Commanders, General John McClernand, discovered that one of his regiments, was missing and unaccounted, hails down Walke, who escorts General McClernand and his transport back towards Belmont and retrieves his missing regiment.
The Pook Turtles
With the war started, the War (Army) Department contracts Mississippi River shipbuilder James B. Eads to build the famed City Class Ironclads (or better known as the Pook Turtles) in his Missouri shipyards. These river gunboats would form the backbone of the Union's Western Flotilla. The Pook Turtles proved to be rugged ships, but were founded to be underpowered and the unarmored roofs and stern proved venerable to plunging fire and direct shots.
Once the new City Class Ironclad gunboats are launched and commissioned, Walke was transferred to the new City-Class Ironclad Gunboat USS Carondelet. Like many of the naval officers sent out to the Western Flotilla, Walke was one the several "Restored Officers" and under a cloud by the US Navy as a result of the 1855 Naval Efficiency Board and his Fort Pickens' Court Martial. While seen as a demotion, it was opportunity to render service to the Union and Walke would make his mark as one of fightingest Captains of the US Navy during the War of the Rebellion.
Forts Henry & Donaldson
On February 6, 1862, Walke takes part in the Naval assault upon Fort Henry under Flag-Officer Foote. After a heavy bombardment, a half-flooded Fort Henry surrenders, Walke was given command of the fort till the Army arrives. With Fort Henry secured, Grant orders Walke to take the Carondelet and the timberclads to steam back to the Ohio River and down the Tennessee River to Fort Donelson.
Walke was ordered to steam ahead of the fleet and to signals his arrival with his guns when he gets to fort, which he does on February 13th. When Flag Officer Foote arrives with the rest of the fleet in the evening and the next day, the entire fleet attacks the Confederate river batteries. The Confederate batteries had heavy seacoast artillery and inflicted heavy damaged on Union gunboats, with the Carondelet suffering severely with 4 killed and 32 wounded. Walke noted "Before the decks were sanded, there was so much blood on them that our men could not work the guns without slipping." Her pilot house was beaten in with three out four pilots mortally wounded. One of the ship's rifled guns burst, seriously wounded Walke's son, Fourth Master, Henry A. Walke.
RUNNING THE GUNS OF ISLAND NO. 10
After undergoing major repairs back in Mound City, the USS Carondelet re-joins Foote's fleet above Island No. 10, the next Confederate Gibraltar on Mississippi, which blocked the New Madrid Bend. Bristling with 10 batteries with over a 100 guns, a floating battery with 9 guns, and two nearby forts of 7 and 14 guns. After Fort Donaldson, an invalid Flag Officer Foote was very leery of running his vulnerable gunboats passed a heavily fortified position along a "S" shaped river bend.
The Union's Western Theater Army commanders, the prickly General Henry W. Halleck, the local Army commander, the pompous General John Pope, along with Assistant Secretary of War, Thomas Scott, bombards Foote with orders to run his ships passed Island No. 10 and threaten to remove him and the rest of the US Navy commanders and replace them with Army personnel, if Foote failed to do so. Halleck and Pope realized that if they failed to take Island No. 10 sooner rather than later, the Confederate River Defense Force would be able finish it's ship building program, which would block the middle Mississippi River for the foreseeable future.
Foote attempts to bombards the Confederate batteries for the next two weeks with little results. This apparent inaction drives General Pope to have a canal dug around Island No. 10 While the canal enables Pope's transports circumvents Island No. 10., but it is not deep enough for Foote's ironclads
Since the Western Flotilla was under control of the War Department and not the Navy Department, this threat was a real one. After a few weeks of being battered by the Army Command, Foote held a Council of War with his captains on March 30th, and asked for volunteers to run the guns, and Walke volunteers to run the gauntlet. Walke's offer to accept this assignment, which Foote had little faith of success, proceeds to ready his ship.
While Walke waited for a moonless night, he had the Carondelet's exposed areas shored up with whatever was available, including planks from a nearby wreak and has a coal barge loaded with coal and hay lashed to the post side. The ship's steam was routed from the smoke stacks through the pipes into the wheel house, to avoid having the steam and smoke making the tell-tale noise and smoke of a steamship. Walke describes his ship "at that time resembled a farmer's wagon prepared for market."
Since this assignment was considered as almost a suicide mission, this was a strictly a volunteer operation. Since the 1st Master and Executive Officer Richard Wade,who had been invalided since Fort Donelson, the master from the USS Cincinnati, 1st Master, William R. Hoel, an experienced pilot, had steamed down the Ohio And Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, almost 200 times, volunteers to pilot. All precautions were made, was prepared, below decks, ammunition was stored in the magazine. It was made certain that a generous supply of small arms was readily available: pistols, cutlasses, boarding pikes and muskets were all checked and ready. Plus a detachment of army sharpshooters was attached to protect the ship.
It was a dark and stormy night on April 4th and around 10 o'clock the moon had gone down, and the sky, the earth, Walke describes "the river were alike hidden in the black shadow of a thunder-storm, which had now spread itself over all the heavens. As the time seemed favorable, I ordered the first master to cast off. Dark clouds now rose rapidly over us and enveloped us in almost total darkness, except when the sky was lighted up by the welcome flashes of vivid lightning, to show us the perilous way we were to take. Now and then the dim outline of the landscape could be seen, and the forest bending under the roaring storm that came rushing up the river.
Almost half way pass the batteries, the dried out chimneys started to fleer up fire, which alerted the Confederate batteries, who frantically tried to fire on the Carondelet. Walker gives the order for full speed ahead and Master Hoel orders the ship to steam closer to Island Number 10 avoid the shoals. The results were dozens of shots were fired at the Carondelet, mostly over the Carondelet, with only one shot landing on the coal barge (and which Walke kept as a souvenir in his Brooklyn house).
When the Carondelet arrived at New Madrid, it fires its signal gun, a successful running of the guns. Walke remembered "When we arrived at New Madrid about midnight with no one hurt, and were most joyfully received by our army. At the suggestion of Paymaster, "Grog, Oh!" was whistled and all hands "spliced the main brace."
The leading 19th century naval historian, Alfred T. Mahan, called Walke's running of Island No. 10 "One of the most daring and dramatic events of the war."
Two nights later when her sister ship, the USS Pittsburgh runs Island No. 10's guns, and General Pope orders the gunships to escorted troop transports down the river. They were ordered silenced the batteries at Watson's Landing and covered the landing of Pope's army near Tiponville. This would seal the fate of the Island #10. This was done on short order with few casualties.
After completing capture the Confederate forts and positions below Island No. 10 near Tipton, the USS Pittsburgh comes alongside the USS Carondelet. When it's Captain, Lieutenant Thompson, shouts over to Walke "Congregations Walke we did it!"" An annoyed Walke grabs the ship's trumpet and shouts back at Thompson "**** you, I don't congratulate you!" "You sulked behind my boat and fired shots over my deck!" "**** you!" "If you ever do such a thing again, I will turn my batteries on you and blow you out of the water!"
The results of Island No. 10 resulted in the capture of 3 rebel generals, 4,500 troop troops, over hundred artillery pieces and a massive amount of arms and ammunitions at the loss of only 7 killed, 14 wounded and 4 missing. But events down the Tennessee River at a place by Pittsburg Landing would over shadow the near bloodless triumph at Island No. 10.
Flag Officer Foote was awarded with a Thanks of Congress and a $40,000 prize, which rubbed General Pope the wrong way because of Foote's reluctance to run the guns. Pope would unsuccessfully lobby Congress to recognized Commander Walke as "a most gallant and meritorious officer who has rendered move distinguished services to his country than nine-tenths of those who have received thanks and rewards from congress."
Clearing the Mississippi
The next stop on the Western Flotilla's tour of the Mississippi was Plum Point Bend near Fort Pillow, Tennessee. An increasingly invalid Flag Officer Foote was replaced by Flag Officer Charles H. Davis. On May 10, 1862, eight Confederate rams of Confederate River Defense Force steamed up the river at full speed to attack mortar boat No. 16 and her escort, the USS Cincinnati. Since the USS Carondelet was practically the only boat with her boilers lit, she was ready to protect the Union ships being attacked and counter-attacks the Confederate rams long enough till the other Union boats arrived. The Battle of Plum Point Bend resulted in one of the first real naval battles of the Civil War between the Confederate and Union navies.
While a tactical standoff, the Confederates abandoned Fort Pillow, with the import city of Memphis next. On June 6, Walke, with the Carondelet, engaged in the battle of Memphis, which the combine Union Navy ironclad and Army Rams routes and eliminated what was left of the Confederate River Defense Force and capturing the important city of Memphis. This opens up the Mississippi all the way from Cairo to Vicksburg.
Fun Up The Yazoo
By the summer of 1862, with the exception of Vicksburg, the Union Navy controls the Mississippi from St. Louis to New Orleans. Both the Western Gulf Blockade Squadron under Flag Officer David Farragut and the Western Flotilla under Flag Officer Charles H. Davis, were anchored between Vicksburg and the Yazoo River. While the Union Navy is total control of the Mississippi, half their crews suffering from the summer heat and fevers, including Walke.
In the middle of July, Davis and Farragut were informed by two Confederate deserters, that the Confederate ironclad ram, the CSS Arkansas was ready for action and coming down the Yazoo River. A sick Walke was ordered to conduct a early morning reconnaissance of the Yazoo River with his ship, the USS Carondelet, his old ship The USS Tyler and the US Army Ram, the USS Queen of the West.
Several miles up the Yazoo River, Walke runs into the ram CSS Arkansas, commanded by his old navy friend, Captain Isaac Brown, steaming down the Yazoo. With The CSS Arkansas, being better armored and faster, Walke tries to retreats to avoids being rammed and was pursued in running fight with her unarmored stern being exposed to Arkansas bow guns. After The USS Carondelet takes dozens of direct hits in her unprotected stern, knocking out the steering gear.
Disabled and to avoid being rammed and sunk, Walke runs the Carondelet into the bank. When the Arkansas finally passes Walke's crippled ship it fires repeated broadsides into the Carondelet, which returns with broadsides at the passing Rebel ironclad. The CSS Arkansas keeps on her way through the massive combined Union Navies to Vicksburg. The damaged to the Carondelet was 4 killed, 16 wounded and 10 missing with the stern blown to pieces. But the badly damaged ironclad was able to make quick repairs and to steam back to the Union fleet when relief ships found her heading back towards the Mississippi.
Walke and his sick crew were able to escape the Southern heat and river fevers for the rest of the summer when the Carondelet is ordered back at Mound City for major repairs. One pleasant news for Walke, he is recommended for promotion to full Navy Captain by Flag Officer Davis and by Generals Grant and Pope. He promoted to Captain in August and promised command of the new Ironclad Ram, USS Lafayette when she commissioned in early 1863.
In the fall of 1862 Flag Officer Davis is replaced by a more aggressive and very ambitious Admiral David Dixon Porter. Since Walke has a similar temperament to Porter and being one of the flotillas' senor captains, Porter would leave Walke pro tem commander during his absences. Porter would give Walke command of the gun-boats patrolling the river below Helena, and in December, makes another excursion up the Yazoo.
By the spring of 1863, General Grant begins his Vicksburg Campaign, and orders Admiral David Dixon Porter to run Vicksburg guns on the night of April 4, 1863. Three weeks later on April 29th, 1863, Walke commands second division of Porter's fleet at the landing of Grant's army at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, which leads to the capture of Vicksburg on July 4th, 1863.
Blockade Runners and Raiders
With the Mississippi River secured, Walke remains in the Mississippi squadron until September 24, 1863, when he was ordered East and is rewarded with the command of the USS Sacramento and sent in search of the CSS Alabama. When he arrived at Lisbon he learned of her destruction by the USS Kearsarge, but he was able to blockade the CSS Rappahannock at Calais for fifteen months. When the Rappahannock escapes, he pursued her to Liverpool, where he held her until the end of the war. After the war he was detached from USS Sacramento and returned home to await orders.
Post Civil War & Retirement
Walke was promoted commodore 1866 and sent back west in 1868 to command the Mount City Naval Station, to oversee the closing of the once powerful naval station. While waiting for orders to his next assignment, Walke is promoted to rear admiral on 20 July 1870. He was placed on the retired list on 26 April 1871. However, his service to the Navy did not end when he recalled for special duty by the senior admiral of the Navy, Admiral David Dixon Porter, when he was appointed to the United States Lighthouse Board.
After the war, Admiral Walke, for several years, and at great expense and trouble, appeals to Congress to undue the 1855 Naval Efficiency/Retirement Board, whom without just cause or a hearing, on ex parte evidence, retired and dismissing over 100 naval officers, including some of which distinguished veterans of the war of 1812 and many whom would render important service during the Civil War like William D. Porter and Augustus H. Kilty, without pay, or on half-pay or two-thirds full pay. Walke was able to get Congress, to not only restored the back pay to him, but to all the officers of the navy who had been retired, some of whose families were almost destitute of the means of living.
During the war Walke had kept up a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and after the war he wrote up a short book or pamphlet called "Naval Scenes on the Western Waters," which was never formally published but was circulated among other naval officers apparently for their comments. The results were his rather angry and defensive memoirs: "Naval Scenes and Reminiscences of the Civil War….." published in 1877, complete with his color illustrations of his Civil War actions and places.
A few years later in 1885, a more peaceful Walke, contributes and illustrates a long and highly regarded article: "Operations of the Western Flotilla" in Century Magazine's "Battles and Leaders" series, which were edited into two entries of the four volume "Battles and Leaders" set. His Civil War illustrations continued to be used to this day in many books dealing the Civil War and the US Navy.
Walke retires to his house on 492 Third Street in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn to spend his retirement painting. A reporter describes his house as "hung with charming paintings, the results of his skill with the brush. He had been in almost every land on the globe, and wherever he went that his occupation did not prevent it, he sketched and took notes. For many years after his retirement from the navy his leisure hours were spent in reproducing these sketches on canvas, and it is doubtful if a finder collection of views from any great artist's studio than are included in Admiral Walke's mammoth portfolio. He likewise collected a good size museum of relics and mementoes possessing rare historic value."
In early March 1896 after a long healthy life, Walke catches a cold, which developed into the "Grip" and he passed away on March 8, 1896, in his Park Slope home. Admiral Henry Walke was buried in Brooklyn's Green-wood Cemetery with full military honor befitting an American Admiral and a hero of the Union.
Bringing the