Water batteries against gunboats: Defenses of Vicksburg, part 2

Continuing from yesterday’s post on the Confederate defenses of Vicksburg, now let me turn to the big guns… and those with some real “names.” During the siege of Vicksburg not all the pressure the defenders came from the land approaches.  With Federal gunboats still working along the Mississippi, the Confederates had every reason to retain the batteries at the city’s riverfront.  Those heavy guns would parry any attempt by the Federals to take the city by riverine assault.

Colonel Edward Higgins commanded the river batteries.  In his consolidated report of the siege, filed on July 25, 1863, he offered a list of cannons under his command and their dispositions:

The line of batteries extended along the river front, commencing at a point above Fort Hill, on the right of my line, to a redoubt which terminated the extreme right of the rear lines and met my left, a distance of 3 miles, and consisted of 8 10-inch columbiads, 1 9-inch Dahlgren, 1 8-inch columbiad, 1 7.44-inch Blakely gun, 1 7-inch Brooks, 1 6.4-inch Brooks, 3 smooth-bore 42-pounders, 2 smooth-bore 32-pounders, 8 banded and unbanded 32-pounder rifles, 1 18-pounder rifle, 1 20-pounder Parrott, 1 Whitworth, 1 10-inch mortar, 1 8-inch siege howitzer, making in all 31 pieces of heavy artillery, besides 13 pieces of light artillery, which were placed in position to prevent a landing of the enemy on the city front. These batteries were divided into three commands, as follows: The upper batteries, from Fort Hill to the upper bayou, were worked by the First Tennessee Artillery, under Col. Andrew Jackson, jr. The center batteries, or those immediately on the city front, were under charge of Maj. F. N. Ogden, Eighth Louisiana Artillery Battalion, to whose command was attached Capt. S.C. Bains’ company, of Vaiden Light Artillery. The lower batteries were in charge of the First Louisiana Artillery, under Lieut. Col. D. Beltzhoover. A portion of the Twenty-third [Twenty-second] Louisiana Volunteers was joined to Lieutenant-Colonel Beltzhoover’s command.

The batteries offered an impressive weight of fire, on paper at least. Keep in mind that some of these guns arrived at at time that other sectors, namely Charleston, were also requesting heavy guns.

On May 18, 1863, Federal gunboats appeared both up and downstream of Vicksburg, seemingly prepared to rush up with the anticipated infantry assault.  The following day, positions on the north end of the river batteries came under fire of Federal sharpshooters.  Responding to that threat, traverses went up overnight to the side and rear of the four gun water battery.  Throughout May 20 and 21, Federal gunboats and mortar boats maintained fire on the batteries but with little effect.

Timed with army assaults on the lines, again the navy moved up to bombard the river batteries.  Higgins reported:

On the 22d, at 9 a.m., four iron-clads and one wooden gunboat engaged the lower batteries, and after an engagement of one hour and a half were repulsed. Two of the iron-clads were seriously damaged. This engagement was creditable To the First Louisiana Artillery, who, with ten guns, mostly of small caliber, contested successfully against thirty-two heavy guns of the enemy. Our casualties were only 2 wounded during the fight; one 10-inch columbiad and the 18-pounder rifled gun were temporarily disabled. The Blakely gun burst at the muzzle.

The siege had just began and three of Higgins’ best guns were on the disabled list.  All three were eventually returned to service.  The Blakely, soon obtaining the nickname “Widow Blakely” as it was the only weapon of that type in the lines, was repaired by cutting down the cracked muzzle.  The 18-pdr rifle was likely the famous “Whistling Dick,” and likewise returned to service.

On May 23 Higgins released eleven of his light field pieces to reinforce the landward defenses (and thus those guns appear on the table shown yesterday).  With pressing needs in the siege lines, later more of the guns and crews shifted to the landward side.  The two Brooke rifles burst during the siege.  For the rest of the siege, the remaining heavy guns worked against the gunboat threat and also fired counter-battery against Federal weapons on the Louisiana shore. (And I plan to examine some of the more interesting of those exchanges in line with 150th anniversaries, with this being a “setup” post in that regard.)

According to Higgins’ report, the last shots from the river batteries came at 5 p.m. on July 3.

(Higgins’ report comes from OR, Series I, Volume 24, Part II, Serial 37, pages 336-340.)

Redans and field artillery: The defenses of Vicksburg, Part 1

From an artillery perspective, the siege of Vicksburg offers interesting characters such as “Whistling Dick” and “Widow Blakely” But the heaviest burden for the defense of the city fell to field artillery batteries facing the Federals entrenched around the city. The transition of field artillery to garrison roles brings the requirement for something more than field expedient earthworks.

The man tasked with building those works was Major Samuel H. Lockett, Chief Engineer for Lieutenant-General John C. Pemberton. Lockett started his task by improving and repairing existing works constructed the previous December. Working under Lockett was a team of engineer officers, sappers, miners, and contract labor -

The working force under my control was as follows:

Twenty-six sappers and miners, of Captain Wintter’s company; 8 detailed mechanics and foremen; 4 overseers for negroes; 72 negroes hired, 20 being sick; 3 four-mule teams, 25 yoke of draught oxen.

An accurate return of the intrenching tools was never obtained, from the fact that they were always employed and so much scattered. The number, however, was not far from 500 of all kinds.

The work on the lines was generally done by fatigue parties detailed from each command to work within the limits of its own line.

Lockett’s engineers began directly working to improve the lines on the night of May 17. The following day most of the artillery was in positions, though not fully prepared positions.

Between the 18th and 22d, the enemy succeeded in establishing their line of circumvallation at about the distance of 800 yards, extending from our extreme left to in front of the square redoubt (Fort Garrott) on the right of Brigadier-General Lee’s line. The fire of their artillery and sharpshooters soon became quite annoying, and showed the necessity of erecting numerous traverses to prevent enfilading fires, and the importance of having covered approaches from the rear. All of these improvements were made as rapidly as possible by the engineers, with fatigue parties working at night.

These improvements came none t0o soon:

On the 22d, the enemy’s artillery fire was very heavy along their whole line, and a determined assault was made on the Graveyard, Jackson, and Baldwin’s Ferry roads, and along the whole of General Lee’s front on the right of the railroad. A breach was made in the redoubt near the railroad (Fort Pettus), and many other of the raised works were considerably battered. All damages were repaired, however, at night, and the morning of the 23d found our works in as good condition as at the beginning of the enemy’s operations.

The enemy, being apparently satisfied with their attempts at carrying our works by assault, now commenced their regular approaches, and soon had possession of a line of hills on the main roads, not exceeding 350 yards distance from our salient points. These hills they crowned with heavy batteries and connected as rapidly as possible with their second parallel.

Up to this time, Major-General Ulysses S. Grant’s troops ran a string of victories across central Mississippi. Lockett’s work allowed the Confederates to stop these otherwise unchecked Federal advances. With that, the Vicksburg Campaign transitioned to a bona fide siege.

In Lockett’s entrenchments were 102 cannons. Colonel William T. Withers provided a detailed list of the weapons in the siege lines to the rear of Vicksburg:

Notice the most numerous type was the 6-pdr field gun. While useful at the shorter engagement ranges, in particular countering the sappers working forward on the parallels, those guns still lacked the throw weight needed. On the other hand, those fifteen 12-pdr howitzers fired a useful projectile, and their higher angle trajectory came in handy. Vicksburg’s defenders placed most of the heavy smoothbores and rifled guns on the waterfront. The defenders on the land side had precious few heavy rifles. And the defenders’ only mortar faced the river.

Those 102 cannons, in positions laid out by Lockett’s engineers, became the focus of six weeks of siege operations. The pick, axe, and shovel rivaled the musket in importance during late spring 1863.

(Lockett’s report is from OR, Series I, Volume 24, Part II, Serial 37, pages 329-331, with the full report continuing to page 335. Wither’s table is part of his report on page 336.)

150 years ago: Lee’s Long Arm “in the best possible condition… without an hour’s delay”

I’m having a bit of trouble here.  The Civil War 150th timelines have reached high tide.  I have trouble keeping up on several fronts!  One thread I’ve pulled on since the winter is the health of the artillery batteries in the Army of Northern Virginia.  I’ve looked at the shortage of guns and how that was (partly) resolved.  Now let me turn to the mobility – that is the horses.  In the middle of the winter of 1863, Jackson’s artillery rated, due to shortage of horses, severely diminished mobility – all but stationary in my opinion.  By the time of Chancellorsville, the batteries had upgraded some of the artillery, but shortages of horses continued to hinder the mobility of the batteries.  And the hard won victory further reduced the horsepower pulling the guns.

With General Robert E. Lee planning an offensive campaign, he called upon his Chief of Artillery, Brigadier-General William N. Pendleton, to bring the “long arm” to a state of readiness. On May 19, 1863, Pendleton related those intentions to the respective corps artillery commanders in the army:

The commanding general has just expressed to me his views. He wishes the artillery gotten in the best possible condition for service without an hour’s delay, and ready to move at very short notice. You will have notified all the battalion commanders of your corps, and exercise the most careful supervision you can over them all. The need of good grazing requires the battalions to be somewhat scattered, but let not this prevent you keeping them all constantly within call and under regular inspection, so that you will know always the strength, &c., of each battery. Be able to report with precision every particular, and have at command the whole force when required. I understand several Napoleons will be received from Richmond in a day or two. Please send me by Thursday a detailed report of every battalion, giving its batteries, the guns, transportation, men, horses, ordnance train, and entire equipment of each, and let me know where your own headquarters will be.

Earlier in the month, Pendleton dispatched, “2 men from each battalion to buy horses, amply supplied with money, with directions to offer as inducement the sale of condemned horses….”  Supervising the requisition of horses was Lieutenant-Colonel James Corley, Chief quartermaster.

The acquisition effort bore fruit within just over a week.  On May 20, Corley reported issuing 273 horses to the Second Corps batteries and 123 to the First Corps.  However he added, “Surely the artillery of the First and Second Corps cannot be in want of horses.  I am confident that if a careful inspection is made it will be found that, taking into consideration the guns actually on hand, and not those expected, that each battery will be found to be well supplied and have a few extra horses.”

The arrival of these purchased horses coincided with the recuperation of animals used in the Chancellorsville fighting.  The Jones-Imboden Raid brought in over one-thousand horses at around the same time, though most of those were earmarked for the cavalry.  Through the later part of the spring, the “Long Arm of Lee” improved in readiness and condition with new artillery pieces and fresh horses.  Very shortly, the hour would come for those batteries to form into the line of march.

(Citations from OR, Series I, Volume 25, Part II, Serial 40, pages 793, 809, and 812-3.)

Related articles

• “…such a palpable crippling of a great arm…”: Hunt’s assessment of Chancellorsville (markerhunter.wordpress.com)
• Putting the punch in the Long Arm of Lee: Tredegar rearms the ANV (markerhunter.wordpress.com)
• Oakland’s Civil War Days recalls Jones-Imboden Raid (times-news.com)