The United States Navy has fought on rivers at home and abroad
throughout its proud history. In the War for Independence, daring
American Sailors employed small boats--even row galleys--against
the mighty warships of the Royal Navy operating on colonial
waterways. In the War of 1812, hard-fighting U.S. naval units on
the Mississippi River helped General Andrew Jackson defeat a major
British assault on New Orleans. The only way the Navy could combat
hostile Seminole Indians in the trackless expanse of the Florida
Everglades during the 1830s was to embark armed Sailors and Marines
in small boats that penetrated deep into enemy territory. U.S.
naval expeditions up the Tabasco River were an important aspect of
the Mexican War of 1846-1848. From the first days of the Civil War,
Union and Confederate naval forces battled for control of the
Mississippi, the most strategically vital river in North America.
Employing ironclad warships in conjunction with U.S. Army troops,
the Navy's Mississippi Flotilla bombarded and then seized one
Confederate fort after another. Admiral David G. Farragut earned
lasting fame when forces under his command fought their way past
the bastions guarding the mouths of the Mississippi and captured
New Orleans, gateway to the American interior. Riverine units
enabled Union General Ulysses S. Grant to envelope and ultimately
compel the surrender of enemy forces besieged at Vicksburg. Loss of
the Mississippi split the Confederacy and helped bring about its
defeat. The early years of the 20th century found the Navy once
again mounting river operations in support of U.S. foreign policy.
Naval vessels provided gunfire support and transported troops and
supplies on rivers in the Philippines to subdue Filipino rebels.
For decades before World War II, U.S. Navy warships steamed up and
down China's broad Yangtze River protecting American missionaries
and traders, battling brigands, and promoting U.S. diplomatic
interests. In addition to deploying hundreds of thousands of troops
ashore in major landing operations in the Pacific and the
Mediterranean during World War II, Navy amphibious units
transported Allied ground forces across the Rhine River for the
final defeat of Nazi Germany. One of the most memorable chapters in
the Navy's riverine warfare history was the hard-fought struggle
for control of the waterways of the Republic of Vietnam. The U.S.
Navy, as had the French navy during the First Indochina War of
1946-1954, and the Vietnam Navy in the years afterward, recognized
the critical importance of the rivers and canals of South Vietnam
for warfighting and waterborne commerce. With the onset of major
combat operations in Vietnam during the mid-1960s, the Navy
established the River Patrol Force and the Army-Navy Mobile
Riverine Force whose charge was to secure the Mekong Delta. During
the enemy's Tet Offensive of 1968 and the Sea Lords Campaign of
later years, American and Vietnamese river units fought well and
hard against a resilient Vietnamese Communist foe. While the
Vietnam War ended in failure for the United States and the Republic
of Vietnam in 1975, the experience left us with a wealth of
information on the nature of modern riverine warfare. Insights
abound on the most successful strategies, tactics, techniques,
boats and craft, weapons, and equipment employed during the Vietnam
War. Consistent with the emphasis in recent years on "green water"
and "brown water" operations, beginning in 2005 the Navy worked to
establish a riverine warfare capability in the Naval Expeditionary
Combat Command. The purpose of the new riverine warfare units, as
stated in the Quadrennial Defense Review of 6 February 2006, will
be to carry out "river patrol, interdiction and tactical troop
movements on inland waterways."
General
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