Yazoo City shipyard

[rebelatsea]

Thank you Rebel, I didn't realize that the Powell was intended for sidewheels. Was this the case with both Bigbee boats? I wonder if Waggner may have been sent to one of the late inland build yards. Perhaps those in Georgia? Based upon a separate discussion on this board of CSS Montgomery and your writeup in your book, there is a clear pattern from about mid 1864 that there was not as high a priority in completing some of the late vessels because of a lack of available crewmen. In the Trans-Mississippi this problem appeared early and the attempted remedy was to supply seamen to operate the vessel with Army gun crews. By 1865 Confederate Army commanders were loathe to detach artillerymen for such purposes.

Georgew, there were for "Bigbee" boats, two twin screw and two sidewheel constructed at Oven Bluff. The plans are attributed to John L. Porter but Sydney (his Brother) was the Constructor together with J. W Watson. They were certainly based on J.L. Porter's Gunboat no 1 plan.
Of the four ships, the two screw and one sidewheel were sent to Mobile for completion. The other sidewheeler may be the remains found at Sunflower Bend, a nearby creek. The two engines of the Powell were specifically stated to have come from the CSN Naval Ironworks at Columbus.
None of the three ever received armour or guns, and indeed there was probably no one to crew them anyway.
Oddly the Montgomery did receive her guns and armour, but was never commissioned, again probably for lack of a crew.
I did wonder if William Waggner went back to Columbus to work with James H Warner as his constructor.

 

[DixieRifles]

There is a wealth of other information about the Star of the West, but there are some statements about her correct history.

Thanks for the details. I have collected a lot of info on the ship. My post was based upon info that I had read but I dont know my source. It could have been one booklet on the Yazoo Pass Expedition or another thread on CWT.
What was the purpose of the the ship while at Yazoo City?

 

[USS ALASKA]

Yazoo City seems to be at least 25 miles, (straight line), from the nearest railroad using this map from the LoC...

Map illustrating the operations of U.S. Forces against Vicksburg

Shows the tracks of Genl. Grant, General Blair, and Admiral Porter, and sites of Union victories. Relief shown by hachures. LC Civil War maps (2nd ed.) 288 This map differs from G3984.V8S5 1863 .U55 CW 287 by the addition of "Adml. Porter's track." Available also through the Library of Congress...

www.loc.gov

...Green being the Southern Railroad of Mississippi and Blue the Mississippi Central Railroad.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[USS ALASKA]

Some information from the Yazoo Library...

https://yazoolibraryassociation.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/confederate-navy-yardyazoo.pdf

Found a reference to...

"Payment Summary for Yazoo City, 1862-1863," Subject File for the Confederate States Navy, 1861-1865. (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1091, Records Group 45, National Archives Building, Washington D.C.), Subject File PI: Industrial Activity.

...but cannot find it online anywhere.

Found a nice wrap-up article on the Mariners Museum site...

CSS ARKANSAS: THE YAZOO CITY IRONCLAD

By October 1861, there were five ironclads under construction in New Orleans, Cerro Gordo, Tennessee, and Memphis. It would be an extreme challenge to place these ironclads in the water as effective warships with limited industrial infrastructure. It was all about the questions of time, iron...

blog.marinersmuseum.org

...that I thought of value for the list of sources at the end.

On Google Books you can read excerpts from The Fight for the Yazoo, August 1862-July 1864: Swamps, Forts and Fleets on Vicksburg's Northern Flank by Myron J. Smith Jr. which has some...interesting...reviews on Amazon.

Also on Google Books you can read excerpts from Running the Batteries The Story of the Western Gunboat Flotilla by Peter Ericson

Also see http://www.confederatenavy.com/CSS_Arkansas.htm

Hope the helps,
USS ALASKA

 

[DixieRifles]

"Payment Summary for Yazoo City, 1862-1863," Subject File for the Confederate States Navy, 1861-1865. (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1091, Records Group 45, National Archives Building, Washington D.C.), Subject File PI: Industrial Activity.

This thread that I posted might be of interest. Someone speculated the bank note was used for payment on the CSS ARKANSAS.

John M. Nixon - CSN Paymaster

 

[DaveBrt]

Some information from the Yazoo Library...

https://yazoolibraryassociation.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/confederate-navy-yardyazoo.pdf

Found a reference to...

"Payment Summary for Yazoo City, 1862-1863," Subject File for the Confederate States Navy, 1861-1865. (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1091, Records Group 45, National Archives Building, Washington D.C.), Subject File PI: Industrial Activity.

...but cannot find it online anywhere.


Hope the helps,
USS ALASKA

Here are the Yazoo PI records, found on Fold3, and they are the ones referenced above:

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Yazoo City seems to be at least 25 miles, (straight line), from the nearest railroad using this map from the LoC...

That question has puzzled me since I was child.

Yazoo City was ... and remains ...isolated (a long way from rail tracks that could transport the volume of iron needed
for any shipyard).

Granted, local carpenters in the vicinity easily produced gun carriages and other wooden deck furniture.
It's well documented lumber mills ( down the road) in Canton, Mississippi produced virtually all of the specialized wood products.

But I'm only a novice speculating among many Civil War Navel experts.

Iron was different shipment.

 

[Biscoitos]

That question has puzzled me since I was child.

Yazoo City was ... and remains ...isolated (a long way from rail tracks that could transport the volume of iron needed
for any shipyard).

Granted, local carpenters in the vicinity easily produced gun carriages and other wooden deck furniture.
It's well documented lumber mills ( down the road) in Canton, Mississippi produced virtually all of the specialized wood products.

But I'm only a novice speculating among many Civil War Navel experts.

That question has puzzled me since I was child.

Yazoo City was ... and remains ...isolated (a long way from rail tracks that could transport the volume of iron needed
for any shipyard).

Granted, local carpenters in the vicinity easily produced gun carriages and other wooden deck furniture.
It's well documented lumber mills ( down the road) in Canton, Mississippi produced virtually all of the specialized wood products.

But I'm only a novice speculating among many Civil War Navel experts.

Iron was different shipment.

runs through there. We have taken it from Memphis to New Orleans and back quite a few times. There really is not a station there, just a shelter

That question has puzzled me since I was child.

Yazoo City was ... and remains ...isolated (a long way from rail tracks that could transport the volume of iron needed
for any shipyard).

Granted, local carpenters in the vicinity easily produced gun carriages and other wooden deck furniture.
It's well documented lumber mills ( down the road) in Canton, Mississippi produced virtually all of the specialized wood products.

But I'm only a novice speculating among many Civil War Navel experts.

Iron was different shipment.

Amtrak's famous "City of New Orleans" has been running through Yazoo City since the mid 1990s. We have taken it from Memphis to New Orleans quite a few times. Yazoo City is a "flag stop," meaning the train doesn't stop unless a passenger has prearranged to board. There is no real station, just a small shelter on the platform.

The first RR came to Yazoo City in the 1880's. I used to know more about the early RRs but haven't thought about it in years. When I was a kid my family took me to Yazoo County to show me the oil fields at Tinsley. There was a huge number of derricks pumping oil. The trains carried a lot of that oil to refineries.

I don't know if freight trains even still operate in Yazoo City.

Some of the RR experts might weigh in on the question of whether the tracks there now could transport the amount of iron any shipyard might need. That's beyond my knowledge base.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Passenger trains did run through Yazoo during the 1990's, but that was not the case during the 1860's.

Most of the iron on the CSS Arkansas was raised from the scuttled (first CSS Tennessee ) ... and floated/towed down to Yazoo via the many Delta river networks.

My apologies for not being specific, but I was referring to the transportation of the quantities of iron required the much larger projects under construction at the Yazoo naval yard.

(The " Yazoo Monster " ect.)

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Last month, a friend of mine (native of Yazoo) invited me to a weekend at his new hunting camp in the lower Mississippi Delta.

As we were driving away from Yazoo City, he said:
" You're a Civil War Buff ... look to the right and you'll see where the old Confederate Navy Yard was ... ".

I couldn't believe it.

We were driving though cotton/soybean fields and a section of industrial level farm warehouses.
Moreover, we were still about one mile from the Yazoo River.

But my friend is from family that has been in Yazoo since before the War, so I had no reason to doubt him.
It still amazes me how rivers can drastically change course over the years.

 

[DixieRifles]

I couldn't believe it.

We were driving though cotton/soybean fields and a section of industrial level farm warehouses.
Moreover, we were still about one mile from the Yazoo River.

Just ask someone where is the remains of the SULTANA. In a cotton field or something----but some distance from the Mississippi River.

 

[georgew]

Here are the Yazoo PI records, found on Fold3, and they are the ones referenced above:

View attachment 425992

View attachment 425993

View attachment 425994

View attachment 425995

Am I reading one of the receipts above re payment for loading of the machinery of the Capitol, Tennessee and Ivy correctly? The reason this could be a big deal is that if the machinery of the Tennessee was shipped from Yazoo City, then it would likely refer to the machinery that most of us assumed would go into the Yazoo Monster building at the shipyard there. These were horizontal engines with drive shafts and propellers. So you wonder where these engines and boilers actually went. Likely to Alabama, but possibly to the Columbus Ga. engine works for refurbishment. Ivy (aka "Joy") and the Capitol were side-wheel boats.

 

[Bradley]

...numbers and types of workers...

I've been researching slave impressment and the Vicksburg Campaign and of course Yazoo comes up sporadically. An excerpt from a letter dated October 4, 1862, from H. C. Tyler to Martin Luther Smith saying Smith is out of luck getting slaves out of Yazoo County to improve fortification of Vicksburg because they are already employed getting timber for the gunboat (which I take to be reference to the so-called Yazoo Monster?):

...I think it will be impossible to get the Negroes from Yazoo County, all the available Negroes are at work getting out Timber for the Gun Boat, some Three hundred are employed & also all the Teams that can be had in the Country are employed, in hauling in the Logs & Timber, enough can not be had to do this work...

 

[rebelatsea]

Am I reading one of the receipts above re payment for loading of the machinery of the Capitol, Tennessee and Ivy correctly? The reason this could be a big deal is that if the machinery of the Tennessee was shipped from Yazoo City, then it would likely refer to the machinery that most of us assumed would go into the Yazoo Monster building at the shipyard there. These were horizontal engines with drive shafts and propellers. So you wonder where these engines and boilers actually went. Likely to Alabama, but possibly to the Columbus Ga. engine works for refurbishment. Ivy (aka "Joy") and the Capitol were side-wheel boats.

CSS Tennessee's engines came from the Alonzo Childs, CSS Memphis / Phoenix had Capitol's machinery which went into CSS Montgomery when Phoenix was stripped and scuttled. CSS Nashville's machinery came from the Vicksburg .All we know about the monster's sidewheel machinery is : 40ft sidewheels powered by two "standard western river" type engines. As she didn't actually receive her machinery (it says here!) we can speculate that it may well have been intended to be that of either Vicksburg, Alonzo Childs or Capitol. The two screw engines most likely were the pair from CSS Arkansas not completed sister. If the machinery from Ivy plus the two screw engines to went to Columbus, then that may indicate where the Machinery for CSS Powell, which was a sidewheeler and the twin screw Bigbee boat at Mobile came from, as they had engines "provided by the CS ironworks at Columbus Georgia".
If the latter supposition is true then now we know where all the Mobile Vessels derived their power plant from

 

[rebelatsea]

The Republic, built at Jefferson Indiana in 1855 was said to be a very fast steamer used as a transport. She had smaller wheels than usual at 25ft x 9ft and faster running machinery than most of her comtemporaries. Isaac Newton Brown did indeed intend to convert her to a tinclad ram - before he discovered her true condition, as Trout and Apples said. The boilers, machinery and wheels were sent to James H Warner at Columbus. By a process of elimination I have tried to find what Warner did with it. There seem to two possibilities: 1) CSS Powell the sidewheel "Bigbee boat" that was sent down to Mobile for completion or, 2) that it was converted to screw propulsion and employed in CSS Jackson. I'm open to other suggestions.

Assistant Constructor Waggner (I have seen it spelt Waggonner) was indeed at Charleston, assigned to assist the shipbuilders there. He seems to have left Charleston around the time of CSS Columubia's completion. Where did he go from there?

I have been in contact with a guy from in or near Montgomery, who's wife is descended from the then yard manager. As well as new information about the CSS Montgomery, her family papers indicate that Constructor Wagner (surely our Waggner?) was directed by Mallory to assist Joseph Pearce "as he was not a well man". Buchanan seems to have sent Wag(g)ner to Montgomery to get the second Nashville , which he had stopped, completed. Wagner seem to have done so but to a different plan to Porters.

 

[USS ALASKA]

THE CIVIL WAR COMES TO YAZOO - 1862 - 1864
(Originally titled "The Battle for Yazoo," this pamphlet was compiled from information supplied by Glen Jones, Mississippi Chemical Corporation; Edwin C. Bearss, Research Historian, Vicksburg National Park, and Sam Olden, President, Yazoo Historical Society. It was first produced by the Yazoo County Chamber of Commerce.)

The Vicksburg campaign was to last for fourteen months, and the initial attempt to take it by a purely naval action was fruitless. But in the months before that first siege was abandoned, Yazoo City was spurred into action. A string of earthwork fortifications manned with cannon were built on the bluffs above the town and the Yazoo River. A barricade of submerged rafts, old boats and chains was placed across the river at Liverpool Landing some 15 miles downstream. Hurriedly the Confederate Navy Department, with the help of local artisans and plantation owners, created a rudimentary navy yard a half-mile south of town on the eastern bank of the Yazoo River. Yazoo City soon became a key naval bastion almost by accident, and its one great contribution to naval warfare was probably the most incredible vessel ever to engage an enemy fleet. The ironclad ram CSS Arkansas was a child of misfortune from the beginning. She was one of several ships being built at Memphis when Union forces threatened that city. Of all the vessels in the yards, only the CSS Arkansas was saved. Her unfinished hull was towed down the Mississippi and up the Yazoo to near Greenwood where work on her stopped.

https://visityazoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Civil-War-Comes-To-Yazoo.pdf

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

THE CIVIL WAR COMES TO YAZOO - 1862 - 1864
(Originally titled "The Battle for Yazoo," this pamphlet was compiled from information supplied by Glen Jones, Mississippi Chemical Corporation; Edwin C. Bearss, Research Historian, Vicksburg National Park).

I miss Mr. Ed Bearss.

 

[rebelatsea]

The Republic, built at Jefferson Indiana in 1855 was said to be a very fast steamer used as a transport. She had smaller wheels than usual at 25ft x 9ft and faster running machinery than most of her comtemporaries. Isaac Newton Brown did indeed intend to convert her to a tinclad ram - before he discovered her true condition, as Trout and Apples said. The boilers, machinery and wheels were sent to James H Warner at Columbus. By a process of elimination I have tried to find what Warner did with it. There seem to two possibilities: 1) CSS Powell the sidewheel "Bigbee boat" that was sent down to Mobile for completion or, 2) that it was converted to screw propulsion and employed in CSS Jackson. I'm open to other suggestions.

Assistant Constructor Waggner (I have seen it spelt Waggonner) was indeed at Charleston, assigned to assist the shipbuilders there. He seems to have left Charleston around the time of CSS Columubia's completion. Where did he go from there?

I now have the answer to my own question. When John L Porter made a tour of the shipyards including Charleston, he went to Mobile where Franklin Buchanan wanted Joseph Pearce removed calling him "a perfect old woman". In fact the poor man was ill, not helped by Buchanan's bullying. John L said the nearest Constructor available was his brother Sidney. Buchanan bluntly refused "The man is a drunk" . Porter then asked William Waggner to come up from Charleston to Mobile, but in fact he went to Montgomery where the Yard Manager was struggling to build the second Nashville type ironclad which became the Montgomery, without assistance.

As an aside Porter was so displeased by the alteration made to the Tennessee (at Buchanan's insistance) and the man's behaviour that he telegraphed Secretary Mallory to have Buchanan replaced. Mallory took no action with the results we know now.

 

[Trout and Apples]

The Republic, built at Jefferson Indiana in 1855 was said to be a very fast steamer used as a transport. She had smaller wheels than usual at 25ft x 9ft and faster running machinery than most of her comtemporaries. Isaac Newton Brown did indeed intend to convert her to a tinclad ram - before he discovered her true condition, as Trout and Apples said. The boilers, machinery and wheels were sent to James H Warner at Columbus. By a process of elimination I have tried to find what Warner did with it. There seem to two possibilities: 1) CSS Powell the sidewheel "Bigbee boat" that was sent down to Mobile for completion or, 2) that it was converted to screw propulsion and employed in CSS Jackson. I'm open to other suggestions.

Assistant Constructor Waggner (I have seen it spelt Waggonner) was indeed at Charleston, assigned to assist the shipbuilders there. He seems to have left Charleston around the time of CSS Columubia's completion. Where did he go from there?

Rebelatsea you said

The Republic, built at Jefferson Indiana in 1855 was said to be a very fast steamer used as a transport. She had smaller wheels than usual at 25ft x 9ft and faster running machinery than most of her comtemporaries. Isaac Newton Brown did indeed intend to convert her to a tinclad ram - before he discovered her true condition, as Trout and Apples said. The boilers, machinery and wheels were sent to James H Warner at Columbus. By a process of elimination I have tried to find what Warner did with it. There seem to two possibilities: 1) CSS Powell the sidewheel "Bigbee boat" that was sent down to Mobile for completion or, 2) that it was converted to screw propulsion and employed in CSS Jackson. I'm open to other suggestions.
The Republic, built at Jefferson Indiana in 1855 was said to be a very fast steamer used as a transport. She had smaller wheels than usual at 25ft x 9ft and faster running machinery than most of her comtemporaries. Isaac Newton Brown did indeed intend to convert her to a tinclad ram - before he discovered her true condition, as Trout and Apples said. The boilers, machinery and wheels were sent to James H Warner at Columbus. By a process of elimination I have tried to find what Warner did with it. There seem to two possibilities: 1) CSS Powell the sidewheel "Bigbee boat" that was sent down to Mobile for completion or, 2) that it was converted to screw propulsion and employed in CSS Jackson. I'm open to other suggestions.

What actual evidence exists that the Republic's (or any of the "Yazoo River steamboats") engines and machinery were actually sent to Warner at Columbus, Georgia?
I find no evidence for that idea and in fact all the sources I have indicate that all those engines and machinery went only to Selma, although its possible that one steamboat's engines, etc may have gone to vessel under construction later at Montgomery.
The Bigbee boats were later contracts and by the time they would have been ready to receive their engines all the machinery from the Yazoo River steamboats would have already been utilized in previously completed gunboats.

I repeat my question:
What actual evidence exists that the Republic's (or any of the "Yazoo River steamboats") engines and machinery were actually sent to Warner at Columbus, Georgia?

 

[rebelatsea]

Rebelatsea you said The Republic, built at Jefferson Indiana in 1855 was said to be a very fast steamer used as a transport. She had smaller wheels than usual at 25ft x 9ft and faster running machinery than most of her comtemporaries. Isaac Newton Brown did indeed intend to convert her to a tinclad ram - before he discovered her true condition, as Trout and Apples said. The boilers, machinery and wheels were sent to James H Warner at Columbus. By a process of elimination I have tried to find what Warner did with it. There seem to two possibilities: 1) CSS Powell the sidewheel "Bigbee boat" that was sent down to Mobile for completion or, 2) that it was converted to screw propulsion and employed in CSS Jackson. I'm open to other suggestions. The Republic, built at Jefferson Indiana in 1855 was said to be a very fast steamer used as a transport. She had smaller wheels than usual at 25ft x 9ft and faster running machinery than most of her comtemporaries. Isaac Newton Brown did indeed intend to convert her to a tinclad ram - before he discovered her true condition, as Trout and Apples said. The boilers, machinery and wheels were sent to James H Warner at Columbus. By a process of elimination I have tried to find what Warner did with it. There seem to two possibilities: 1) CSS Powell the sidewheel "Bigbee boat" that was sent down to Mobile for completion or, 2) that it was converted to screw propulsion and employed in CSS Jackson. I'm open to other suggestions. What actual evidence exists that the Republic's (or any of the "Yazoo River steamboats") engines and machinery were actually sent to Warner at Columbus, Georgia? I find no evidence for that idea and in fact all the sources I have indicate that all those engines and machinery went only to Selma, although its possible that one steamboat's engines, etc may have gone to vessel under construction later at Montgomery. The Bigbee boats were later contracts and by the time they would have been ready to receive their engines all the machinery from the Yazoo River steamboats would have already been utilized in previously completed gunboats. I repeat my question: What actual evidence exists that the Republic's (or any of the "Yazoo River steamboats") engines and machinery were actually sent to Warner at Columbus, Georgia?

Rebelatsea you said The Republic, built at Jefferson Indiana in 1855 was said to be a very fast steamer used as a transport. She had smaller wheels than usual at 25ft x 9ft and faster running machinery than most of her comtemporaries. Isaac Newton Brown did indeed intend to convert her to a tinclad ram - before he discovered her true condition, as Trout and Apples said. The boilers, machinery and wheels were sent to James H Warner at Columbus. By a process of elimination I have tried to find what Warner did with it. There seem to two possibilities: 1) CSS Powell the sidewheel "Bigbee boat" that was sent down to Mobile for completion or, 2) that it was converted to screw propulsion and employed in CSS Jackson. I'm open to other suggestions. The Republic, built at Jefferson Indiana in 1855 was said to be a very fast steamer used as a transport. She had smaller wheels than usual at 25ft x 9ft and faster running machinery than most of her comtemporaries. Isaac Newton Brown did indeed intend to convert her to a tinclad ram - before he discovered her true condition, as Trout and Apples said. The boilers, machinery and wheels were sent to James H Warner at Columbus. By a process of elimination I have tried to find what Warner did with it. There seem to two possibilities: 1) CSS Powell the sidewheel "Bigbee boat" that was sent down to Mobile for completion or, 2) that it was converted to screw propulsion and employed in CSS Jackson. I'm open to other suggestions. What actual evidence exists that the Republic's (or any of the "Yazoo River steamboats") engines and machinery were actually sent to Warner at Columbus, Georgia? I find no evidence for that idea and in fact all the sources I have indicate that all those engines and machinery went only to Selma, although its possible that one steamboat's engines, etc may have gone to vessel under construction later at Montgomery. The Bigbee boats were later contracts and by the time they would have been ready to receive their engines all the machinery from the Yazoo River steamboats would have already been utilized in previously completed gunboats. I repeat my question: What actual evidence exists that the Republic's (or any of the "Yazoo River steamboats") engines and machinery were actually sent to Warner at Columbus, Georgia?

Rebelatsea you said The Republic, built at Jefferson Indiana in 1855 was said to be a very fast steamer used as a transport. She had smaller wheels than usual at 25ft x 9ft and faster running machinery than most of her comtemporaries. Isaac Newton Brown did indeed intend to convert her to a tinclad ram - before he discovered her true condition, as Trout and Apples said. The boilers, machinery and wheels were sent to James H Warner at Columbus. By a process of elimination I have tried to find what Warner did with it. There seem to two possibilities: 1) CSS Powell the sidewheel "Bigbee boat" that was sent down to Mobile for completion or, 2) that it was converted to screw propulsion and employed in CSS Jackson. I'm open to other suggestions. The Republic, built at Jefferson Indiana in 1855 was said to be a very fast steamer used as a transport. She had smaller wheels than usual at 25ft x 9ft and faster running machinery than most of her comtemporaries. Isaac Newton Brown did indeed intend to convert her to a tinclad ram - before he discovered her true condition, as Trout and Apples said. The boilers, machinery and wheels were sent to James H Warner at Columbus. By a process of elimination I have tried to find what Warner did with it. There seem to two possibilities: 1) CSS Powell the sidewheel "Bigbee boat" that was sent down to Mobile for completion or, 2) that it was converted to screw propulsion and employed in CSS Jackson. I'm open to other suggestions. What actual evidence exists that the Republic's (or any of the "Yazoo River steamboats") engines and machinery were actually sent to Warner at Columbus, Georgia? I find no evidence for that idea and in fact all the sources I have indicate that all those engines and machinery went only to Selma, although its possible that one steamboat's engines, etc may have gone to vessel under construction later at Montgomery. The Bigbee boats were later contracts and by the time they would have been ready to receive their engines all the machinery from the Yazoo River steamboats would have already been utilized in previously completed gunboats. I repeat my question: What actual evidence exists that the Republic's (or any of the "Yazoo River steamboats") engines and machinery were actually sent to Warner at Columbus, Georgia?