The Final River Gunboat Battle of the Civil War

During the early months of the American Civil War, river gunboats were deployed on the midwestern rivers by both sides. Following the battles of Fort Pillow and City of Memphis in 1862, in which the Union essentially destroyed the Confederate river gunboat fleet, there were very few incidents of gunboat against gunboat in support of Army operations along the rivers. By spring of 1865, very few Confederate gunboats remained in the midwestern waters. Three of these (CSS Missouri, CSS Merite and CSS William H. Webb) were stationed in the Red River. Although the war obviously was winding down in the east, in mid-March 1865, Secretary of the Confederate Navy, Stephen R. Mallory, decided to move Webb from the Red River to Mobile Habor, which was still in Confederate hands. To do so, Webb had to run past a large number of Union gunboats stationed at the mouth of the Red River and in the lower Mississippi. The stage was set for the final engagement of gunboats during the war.