Combat· American Civil War
Mississippi River Operations
A grouping of the Marine actions on the great river and its tributaries, in support of the campaign that split the Confederacy.
As the Union built its fleet of river gunboats, Marines served aboard them and at the new naval stations at Cairo and Mound City in Illinois, sharing in the long descent of the Mississippi, the reduction of Island No. 10, Fort Pillow, and Memphis, the bombardments of Vicksburg, and the actions against the Confederate ram Arkansas. At Port Hudson in 1863, when Farragut ran his ships past the batteries, the gunboat Mississippi was lost and the flagship Richmond was hit hard, her Marines among the gun crews. The river war was largely a sailors' and soldiers' affair, but the Marine guards of the gunboats took their share of the fighting that opened the Mississippi from end to end and cut the Confederacy in two.
Engagements in this conflict (11) Podcast episodes on American Civil War
Record no. 395