The Destruction of the Gunboat Indianola

Stiles/Akin

Sergeant Major
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Atlanta, Georgia
by the winter of 1863, the Mississippi River was in Union hands except for the stretch between Vicksburg, Mississippi and Port Hudson, Louisiana. The Union Navy was busy trying to secure the Mississippi as the Union Army prepared for the upcoming spring campaigns against Vicksburg and Port Hudson.
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USS-Indianola.jpg

The Red River empties into the Mississippi between Vicksburg and Port Hudson, and was a vital waterway for providing supplies of all types to these Confederate garrisons. To disrupt this supply line from Texas and northwest Louisiana, Admiral David D. Porter decided to try running some of his river gunboats south past the formidable Vicksburg artillery batteries.
https://ironbrigader.com/2012/06/10...jnB_d5mj9zCQSUBvBrejdco5DHf_Gs-USP1y7HnXlIkbw
 
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https://ironbrigader.com/2012/06/10...jnB_d5mj9zCQSUBvBrejdco5DHf_Gs-USP1y7HnXlIkbw

by the winter of 1863, the Mississippi River was in Union hands except for the stretch between Vicksburg, Mississippi and Port Hudson, Louisiana. The Union Navy was busy trying to secure the Mississippi as the Union Army prepared for the upcoming spring campaigns against Vicksburg and Port Hudson.
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View attachment 294729
The Red River empties into the Mississippi between Vicksburg and Port Hudson, and was a vital waterway for providing supplies of all types to these Confederate garrisons. To disrupt this supply line from Texas and northwest Louisiana, Admiral David D. Porter decided to try running some of his river gunboats south past the formidable Vicksburg artillery batteries.
If this is an accurate depiction of this vessel, then the after guns were purely chasers and could not contribute to broadside fire. The forward gun-house apparently did have the ability to fire a certain degree aft. Interesting.The pilot house is riverboat style, but ironed. She looks formidable, but her weakness may have been a vulnerability aft near the wheels against boarding parties. You would want two assault boats to try it, though. One to draw fire from the forward gunhouse, the second to come in at an angle outside the arcs of the stern chasers. A cotton-clad with the "corvus" type boarding ramps might have worked. Your boarding party would want a healthy supply of grenades and revolvers. Snipers would concentrate on the pilot house and the gun ports when open. A night action against a layered threat including a ram proved her downfall. They never should have left her alone. Even a small armed steamer in support could have brought fire on the assault force and diverted some of their assets. We do know that her structure was heavily built and she was certainly repairable. Taylor and Pemberton nearly went at it over her salvaged guns.
 
They never should have left her alone.

To be fair, she had been sent to join another boat and they were intended to operate together. Unfortunately, that boat was the Queen of the West, which fell into Confederate hands and was then used against Indianola. When the Indianola was sunk, she was struggling back upstream towards Vicksburg after having heard about the Queen.

Brent's account of the capture of Indianola is one of the reasons I think rapid-fire small-caliber weapons were so crucial to gunboat operations. The Confederates basically packed a boat with riflemen and the incessant small-arms fire was a significant factor in the Indianola's defeat. A theoretical Gatling or two aboard Indianola might have changed the picture considerably.
 
To be fair, she had been sent to join another boat and they were intended to operate together. Unfortunately, that boat was the Queen of the West, which fell into Confederate hands and was then used against Indianola. When the Indianola was sunk, she was struggling back upstream towards Vicksburg after having heard about the Queen.

Brent's account of the capture of Indianola is one of the reasons I think rapid-fire small-caliber weapons were so crucial to gunboat operations. The Confederates basically packed a boat with riflemen and the incessant small-arms fire was a significant factor in the Indianola's defeat. A theoretical Gatling or two aboard Indianola might have changed the picture considerably.
I agree with you on the contribution of small arms fire. Consider what might have happened at Memphis if Jeff Thompson's troops were still be aboard and able to concentrate fire on the pilot houses of the two lead Union rams. It might have made quite a bit of difference in terms of letting the RDS disengage and retreat down river. Lack of coal is often mentioned as the reason the Confederate rams remained to fight, but those boats were perfectly capable of burning wood if necessary and there tended to be wood piles along the river every 25 miles or so. If the Union rams gave aggressive chase, they would have to separate from the cover of the slower city class gunboats' fire. All of the southern rams had stern chasers and in a run down river it is likely that two or more of them could concentrate on the lead Union rams. The Union boats would be forced into a slow closing rate under fire with no artillery to reply with.
 
Sirs, is the above drawing accurate? Looking at other renderings, the forward casement doesn't have the rearward oblique gunports...

Unfortunately, I am not certain that question can be answered with absolute certainty. Based on what we know of her "semisisters" Tuscumbia and Chillicothe, I am doubtful of the rear oblique ports; although Oscar Parkes (the illustrator of the image in OP) was a respected naval artist, he appears to have interpreted the forward casemate as octagonal (it looks to me like there are forward oblique ports as well), whereas Tuscumbia unquestionably had a rectangular casemate even though she had a wider beam to work with.
 
Unfortunately, I am not certain that question can be answered with absolute certainty. Based on what we know of her "semisisters" Tuscumbia and Chillicothe, I am doubtful of the rear oblique ports; although Oscar Parkes (the illustrator of the image in OP) was a respected naval artist, he appears to have interpreted the forward casemate as octagonal (it looks to me like there are forward oblique ports as well), whereas Tuscumbia unquestionably had a rectangular casemate even though she had a wider beam to work with.
I saw that too Mark, and although Dr Parkes is renowned for accuracy (only three errors have ever been found in "British Battleships" for example), and was / is a marine artist who has never been given his due, I think he may be wrong about the Indianola.
 
Here's what the builder of
HPIM1925.JPG
had to say about the matter: "Her forward casemates had two 11-inch Dahlgren guns, and her after casemates two 9-inch. Her forward casemates were pierced for two guns in front, one on each side, and two aft, so that she could fire two guns forward, one on each side, and four angling sideways and astern. I see some accounts say the rams butted her on the sides and astern, and that the guns could not be brought to bear in that direction. Now, after what I have stated, any one must see that she was really more effective astern than anywhere else, so far as guns were concerned, for two pointed directly astern, while the other two would rake the sides back to the wheels." I'm also attaching another picture of Indianola, a water color done by a Confederate soldier who helped capture her. (Note all the cotton she was trying to haul back to Union lines.)
 
Here's what the builder of View attachment 325193 had to say about the matter: "Her forward casemates had two 11-inch Dahlgren guns, and her after casemates two 9-inch. Her forward casemates were pierced for two guns in front, one on each side, and two aft, so that she could fire two guns forward, one on each side, and four angling sideways and astern. I see some accounts say the rams butted her on the sides and astern, and that the guns could not be brought to bear in that direction. Now, after what I have stated, any one must see that she was really more effective astern than anywhere else, so far as guns were concerned, for two pointed directly astern, while the other two would rake the sides back to the wheels." I'm also attaching another picture of Indianola, a water color done by a Confederate soldier who helped capture her. (Note all the cotton she was trying to haul back to Union lines.)
Were her boilers dropped into the hold? If so I suspect that she would have been very salvageable relatively easy to repair and put back into operation. Her hull was salvaged later by Union work parties. Does anyone know if the plate on her gun houses was salvaged by the Confederates? This is the first time I've ever heard that she was carrying cotton bales amidships. I wonder if they were pressed. Also wonder if they were a fire hazard to the crew quarters behind the bales.
 
"She is ironed all around everywhere, except some temporary rooms on deck; and besides the amount of wood and iron already stated, has coal bunkers seven feet thick alongside of her boilers, the entire machinery being in the hold." This from Joseph Brown, the boat's builder (not to be confused with George Brown, the boat's captain). Don't know anything about plating being salvaged. The Confederates didn't have possession for very long, so it's doubtful they had time to do that, although they did get most (3?) of the guns. As to fire hazards, the cotton had just been picked up a few days before the capture and was on it's way to Vicksburg. It wasn't going to be on the boat long, and I guess when you're stealing cotton, you don't worry about whether it's a fire hazard or not.
And in case anyone is interested, I'll be giving a talk to the Vicksburg CWRT on the capture of Indianola this coming Monday, September 16, 2019.
 
It appears the members who responded to this thread are a knowledgeable bunch. I'm curious how the ship got it's name. Indianola, Texas was a bustling seaport around the time of the Civil War. Was this ship named after this Texas City?
 
Brent's account of the capture of Indianola is one of the reasons I think rapid-fire small-caliber weapons were so crucial to gunboat operations. The Confederates basically packed a boat with riflemen and the incessant small-arms fire was a significant factor in the Indianola's defeat. A theoretical Gatling or two aboard Indianola might have changed the picture considerably.
What about a few pintle-mounted small caliber cannon?

AND what if it was a rapid-fire breech loader??
 
It appears the members who responded to this thread are a knowledgeable bunch. I'm curious how the ship got it's name. Indianola, Texas was a bustling seaport around the time of the Civil War. Was this ship named after this Texas City?
If it was, then the US Navy was following the "political philosophy" held by the Federal government. It was still the USA from the Canadian border to the Mexican border. "Rebel" sounding ships built before the conflict, e.g. USS Mississippi in Farragut's fleet, kept their names. US ships built during the war probably had "rebel" names but, off the top of my head, I can't recall any.
 
It appears the members who responded to this thread are a knowledgeable bunch. I'm curious how the ship got it's name. Indianola, Texas was a bustling seaport around the time of the Civil War. Was this ship named after this Texas City?

Don't know off the top of my head, but there are towns called Indianola in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois that I think would be more likely sources-- would have to see if any of those were already in existence at the time.
 
I have the understanding the small arms infantry fire did not have a fatal effect nor any Confederate artillery. It was three ram strikes by the QUEEN OF THE WEST and two by the WEBB that proved fatal. The INDIANOLA was sinking and its port engine knocked out. She had to ground herself on a sandbar to keep from sinking in the deep waters of the Mississippi. The Federal vessel had only enough gun crews to operate two of the four naval guns at one time. It took about six minutes to load a Dalgren gun. It was the night time attack and the Federal gun crews were ordered not to fire unless point blank range. They had trouble seeing the target in the darkness. She surrendered due to sinking conditions. Afterwards I seem to recall the Confederates only had time to remove the two astern 9 inch Dalgrens but no time to remove the forward two 11 inch Dalgren guns. I further seem to recall one of the 9 inch gun was recaptured at Fort DeRussy. The other 9 inch may have been placed in CSA MISSOURI and/or Fort Bulow at Alexandria.
 
There was one casualty from small arms fire during the engagement. With all the shooting going on, at least one bullet found its way into an Indianola gunport and mortally wounded a Yankee sailor, which "greatly demoralized the gun detachments." He died the next day.
 
I have the understanding the small arms infantry fire did not have a fatal effect nor any Confederate artillery.

Quite right regarding the damage actually inflicted, but the suppressive fire laid down by the Confederate infantrymen aboard the boats was not something the Union gunboat sailors were accustomed to, and they tended to keep their heads down during it. I believe that none of the answering shots from the Indianola hit their targets, probably because the Union crews were not taking much time to aim...
 
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