This island lies in a sharp bend of the
Mississippi River, about 40 miles below
Columbus, and within the limits of
Kentucky.
At the beginning of the
Civil War it was considered the key to the navigation of the
lower Mississippi.
To this island some of the troops and munitions of war were transferred when
General Polk evacuated
Columbus, and all the troops there were in charge of
Beauregard.
On March 8, 1862, he sent forth a proclamation in which he called for bells with which to
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make cannon, and there was a liberal response.
“In some cities,” wrote a Confederate soldier, “every church gave up its bells.
Court-houses, public institutions, and plantations sent them.
And the people furnished large quantities of old brass—andirons, candlesticks, gasfixtures, and even door-knobs.”
These were all sent to New Orleans to be used in cannon foundries.
There they were found by
General Butler, sent to
Boston, and sold at auction.
Beauregard had thoroughly fortified the island, and, after the capture of New Madrid, it became an object of great interest to both parties, for it was besieged by the Nationals.
For this purpose
Commodore Foote left
Cairo, March 14, 1862, with a powerful fleet of gun and mortar-boats.
There were seven of the former iron-clad and one not armored, and ten of the latter.
On the night of the 15th
Foote was at
Island Number10, and the next morning (Sunday) he began the siege with a bombardment by the rifled cannon of his flag-ship, the
Boston.
This was followed by the mortar-boats, moored at proper points along the river shore, from which tons of iron were hurled upon the island and the batteries on the
Kentucky bank opposite.
All day long the artillery duel was kept up without much injury to either party.
Meanwhile a battery of Illlinois artillery had been landed on the
Missouri shore, in a position to assail the
Confederate flotilla near the island.
The next day a tremendous attack on the
Confederate works was made by a floating battery of ten guns, formed of three gunboats lashed together, side by side, followed by three others separately.
The day's work was barren of any decisive result.
The island shores were lined with
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A mortar-boat. |
batteries.
So the siege went on, with varying fortunes, until the first week in April, when
Beauregard telegraphed to
Richmond that the “Federal guns” had “thrown 3,000 shells and burned 50 tons of gunpowder” without damaging his batteries or killing one of his men.
The public began to be impatient; but victory was near.
General Pope was chafing with impatience at New Madrid.
He wished to cross the river to the peninsula and attack the island in the rear, a movement that would insure its capture.
The opposite shore was lined with Confederate batteries, and it would be madness to attempt a crossing until these were silenced.
Gen. Schuyler Ham-
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ilton proposed the construction of a canal across the neck of a swampy peninsula of sufficient capacity to allow the passage of gunboats and transports, so as to effectually flank
Island Number10 and insure its capture.
It was undertaken under the supervision of
Colonel Bissell, and was successfully performed.
In the mean time daring feats against the shore batteries had been performed; and during a terrible thunder-storm on the night of April 3,
Captain Walke ran by the Confederate batteries with the gunboat
Carondelet, assailed by all of them, her position being revealed by the flashes of lightning.
It was the first vessel that ran by Confederate batteries on the
Mississippi River.
She had not fired a gun during her passage, but the discharge of three assured anxious
Commodore Foote of the safety of the
Carondelet after the dangerous voyage.
Perceiving the perilous fate that awaited them after the completion of the canal, the
Confederates sank steamboats in the channel of the river to prevent the gunboats descending it, and they unsuccessfully attempted to escape from the island.
After the
Carondelet had passed the batteries, Beauregard was satisfied that the siege must speedily end in disaster to his command; so, after turning over the command on the island to
General McCall, and leaving the troops on the
Kentucky and
Tennessee shores in charge of
General McCown, he, with a considerable number of his best soldiers, departed for
Corinth to check a formidable movement of National troops through
middle Tennessee towards
Northern Alabama.
The vigorous operations of
Pope after he passed through the wonderful canal
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hastened the crisis.
McCall and his troops, in their efforts to escape from the island, were intercepted by
Pope's forces under
Generals Stanley,
Hamilton, and
Paine; and on April 8, 1862, Island
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The Carondelet. |
Number Ten, with the troops, batteries, and supports on the main, was surrendered.
Over 7,000 men became prisoners of war; and the spoils of victory were 123 cannon and mortars, 7,000 small-arms, many hundred horses and mules, four steamboats afloat, and a very large amount of ammunition.
The fall of
Island Number10 was a calamity to the Confederates which they never retrieved.
It caused widespread alarm in the
Mississippi Valley, for it appeared probable that
Memphis, one of the strongholds of the
Confederates, where they had immense work-shops and armories, would soon share the fate of
Columbus, and that National gunboats would speedily patrol the great river from
Cairo to New Orleans.
Martial law was proclaimed at
Memphis, and only by the wisdom and firmness of the mayor were the troops and panicstricken citizens prevented from laying the town in ashes.
Preparations for flight were made at
Vicksburg, and intense alarm prevailed at New Orleans among the disloyal population.
It seemed as if the plan devised by
Fremont, and now partially executed, was about to be successfully carried out.
Curtis had already broken the military power of the
Confederates west of the
Mississippi, and a heavy National force, pressing on towards
Alabama and
Mississippi, had just achieved a triumph on the banks of the
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Tennessee, a score of miles from
Corinth.
See
Fremont, John Charles.
