— Ch. 1 · Cottonclads and Iron Turtles —
First Battle of Memphis.
~4 min read · Ch. 1 of 5
The Mississippi River ran red with smoke on the morning of the 6th of June 1862. Eight Confederate vessels faced nine Union gunboats just north of Memphis, Tennessee. The rebel ships were known as cottonclads because their engines sat inside a double layer of heavy timber packed with loose cotton bales. This cotton offered little protection against cannon fire yet became the defining feature of their armor. Each Confederate ram carried only one or two light guns that could not penetrate the iron hulls of the enemy fleet. Their primary weapon was a reinforced prow designed to crush opposing ships through sheer impact. The federal force included five gunboats built by James Buchanan Eads. These vessels earned the nickname Pook turtles after designer Samuel M. Pook due to their strange appearance. Four additional rams from the United States Ram Fleet had no armament whatsoever beyond small arms for officers.
A Fractured Command Structure
Flag Officer Charles H. Davis commanded the federal gunboats while reporting directly to Major General Henry W. Halleck. Colonel Charles Ellet Jr. led the river rams but answered only to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Two independent organizations operated without any common command outside Washington D.C. The Confederate arrangement proved even more chaotic. Riverboat captain James E. Montgomery commanded eight civilian boats seized at New Orleans and converted into rams. He selected other captains who possessed no military training whatsoever. Once the ships moved out on the water, Montgomery lost all authority over them. The individual rams operated independently despite clear orders to coordinate movements. Gun crews consisted entirely of soldiers from the Confederate Army rather than trained sailors. These men remained subject to army officers instead of naval discipline. Military experts protested this futility immediately yet their warnings went unheeded.