The Gulf and Inland Waters The Navy in the Civil War. Volume 3.

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    | Transcriber's Note:                                       |
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    | This document is volume three of the series "The Navy in  |
    | the Civil War". For more information on the series see    |
    | the advertisement following the index.                    |
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    | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has     |
    | been preserved.                                           |
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    | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in this  |
    | text. For a complete list, please see the end of this     |
    | document.                                                 |
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THE NAVY
IN THE CIVIL WAR



THE GULF AND INLAND WATERS

BY
A.T. MAHAN
CAPTAIN U.S. NAVY


LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, & COMPANY, LTD.
St. Dunstan's House
FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1898




Copyright, 1883, by Charles Scribner's Sons
for the United States of America


Printed by the Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Company
New York, U.S.A.




PREFACE.


The narrative in these pages follows chiefly the official reports, and
it is believed will not be found to conflict seriously with them.
Official reports, however, are liable to errors of statement and
especially to the omission of facts, well known to the writer but not
always to the reader, the want of which is seriously felt when the
attempt is made not only to tell the gross results but to detail the
steps that led to them. Such omissions, which are specially frequent
in the earlier reports of the Civil War, the author has tried to
supply by questions put, principally by letter, to surviving
witnesses. A few have neglected to answer, and on those points he has
been obliged, with some embarrassment, to depend on his own judgment
upon the circumstances of the case; but by far the greater part of the
officers addressed, both Union and Confederate, have replied very
freely. The number of his correspondents has been too numerous to
admit of his thanking them by name, but he begs here to renew to them
all the acknowledgments which have already been made to each in
person.

                                                    A.T.M.

  JUNE, 1883.




CONTENTS.


                                          PAGE
LIST OF MAPS,                                             ix

CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY,                                               1

CHAPTER II.
FROM CAIRO TO VICKSBURG,                                   9

CHAPTER III.
FROM THE GULF TO VICKSBURG,                               52

CHAPTER IV.
THE RECOIL FROM VICKSBURG,                                98

CHAPTER V.
THE MISSISSIPPI OPENED,                                  110

CHAPTER VI.
MINOR OCCURRENCES IN 1863,                               175

CHAPTER VII.
TEXAS AND THE RED RIVER,                                 185

CHAPTER VIII.
MOBILE,                                                  218

APPENDIX,                                                251

INDEX,                                                   255




LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS.


                                                         PAGE

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY--CAIRO TO MEMPHIS,            _to face_  9

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY--VICKSBURG TO THE GULF,       _to face_ 52

BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS,                                     74

BATTLE AT VICKSBURG,                                       92

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY--HELENA TO VICKSBURG,        _to face_ 115

BATTLE AT GRAND GULF,                                     159

RED RIVER DAM,                                            208

BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY,                           _to face_ 229




THE GULF AND INLAND WATERS.




CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY.


The naval operations described in the following pages extended, on the
seaboard, over the Gulf of Mexico from Key West to the mouth of the
Rio Grande; and inland over the course of the Mississippi, and its
affluents, from Cairo, at the southern extremity of the State of
Illinois, to the mouths of the river.

Key West is one of the low coral islands, or keys, which stretch out,
in a southwesterly direction, into the Gulf from the southern
extremity of the Florida peninsula. It has a good harbor, and was used
during, as since, the war as a naval station. From Key West to the
mouth of the Rio Grande, the river forming the boundary between Mexico
and the State of Texas, the distance in a straight line is about eight
hundred and forty miles.