Soon after the start of the Civil War, during the naval buildup on
the central Mississippi River, celebrated engineer Charles Ellet,
Jr., formed the Ram Fleet under U.S. secretary of war Edwin M.
Stanton. Perhaps the most bizarre unit organized by the Union, the
rams were shunned by both the army and the navy as useless
instruments of wax. However, on June 6, 1862, they proved their
worth by defeating the Confederate ironclads at Memphis while the
U.S. Navy simply watched. In this lively study, the first on the
rams since 1905, Chester G. Hearn details the formation and wartime
exploits of Ellet's fleet, reviving the history of this fascinating
but forgotten brigade.
Though a staunch supporter of the Union, Charles Ellet entered
the war mainly to test a theory the Navy Department rejected --
that fast, unarmed rams could win battles against conventional
gunboats. He manned his original Ram Fleet with daring civilian
boatmen, a small sprinkling of infantry to act as boat guards, and
thirteen family members as officers, including his brother, Alfred,
who assumed command when Charles was mortally wounded at Memphis.
The navy had no interest in Ellet's rams and no army commander
wanted to be burdened with a small fleet of unarmed riverboats he
was forbidden to use as transports, so Stanton retained control of
the flotilla himself, leading to months of command confusion.
The force nobody wanted soon grew to include the Mississippi
Marine Brigade, another flotilla of fast riverboats formed by
Alfred Ellet to transport the brigade's mounted companies to
trouble spots along the river. Although the unit performed some
useful services, it often followed its own agenda, plundering
plantationsand small towns under the pretext of fighting
guerrillas. General Grant's subordinates, unable to control the
brigade, ultimately disbanded it in the late summer of 1864.
The army lost or destroyed many of the brigade's records upon
its dissolution, but through painstaking research Hearn has
constructed its colorful history. Filling a void in the annals of
operations along the Mississippi, Tennessee, and Red Rivers,
Ellet's Brigade is a rare glimpse into one of the few remaining
unexplored facets of the Civil War.
General
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