Gunboats Down the Mississippi

Gunboats Down the Mississippi is the story of the Federal fresh-water navy which engaged in the actions on the Western rivers and contributed to the opening of the Mississippi River for the Union. This phase of the Civil War is told here for the first time in its entirety; and this account supports the belief of some historians that Vicksburg, not Gettysburg, was the crisis of the Confederacy. From the first days of the Civil War, the importance of the Mississippi was obvious to both belligerents. The Confederacy was receiving much-needed supplies from the states to the west of the river. The Union forces sought to stop this flow of supplies by opening the river from Cairo to the Gulf of Mexico and by completing the Union blockade of the South. In the Federalist fleet were ironclads, tinclads, woodclads, and rams. Many were hastily reconstructed river steamers. They were manned by officers and men of the regular naval forces and by former river steamer pilots and crews. All were under the unusual dual control of the War Department and the Navy Department. Engaging in joint amphibious operations, the Federal forces succeeded in opening the Mississippi with the capitulation of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863.