THE UNION AND CONFEDERATE NAVIES.

627

When the River Defense Fleet was ready, eight of the vessels, commandedby Captain J. E. Montgomery , were sent up the river to meet the Union fleet,then on its way down, under Flag-Officer Davis. After a gallant but ineffectualbrush near Fort Pillow, Montgomery’s flotilla had a pitched battle at Mem-phis , on the 6th of June, with theUnion force, now strengthened by theaddition of Colonel Ellet’s ram-fleet,and was literally wiped out of exist-ence,—four of the vessels being cap-tured and three destroyed. The VanDorn alone escaped, and fleeing to theYazoo River was soon afterward burnt.

The six vessels of the River DefenseFleet, which had been retained byGeneral Lovell at New Orleans , weresent down to assist in the defense ofthe forts, but the only part they tookin the battle was to get out of the wayas quickly as possible. All of themwere captured or destroyed.

In addition to the vessels purchasedand altered, the Confederate author-ities built several new ones at NewOrleans . Of these there were threewooden boats, the Livingston, Bienville, and Carondelet , and two iron-clads,the Louisiana and the Mississippi . The Bienville and Carondelet were substan-tially built side-wheelers of light draft, built on the lakes, and were only fin-ished in March and April, 1862. They were unable to fill up their crews, andhence took no part in the action at the forts. f The Livingston, which had beenattached some time before to the flotilla in the upper Mississippi , made itsway to the Yazoo River, and was burnt there with the Poll;, and Van Dorn.The two new iron-clads, however, were intended to be by far the most impor-tant factors in the defense of New Orleans . If they had been finished in time,this intention would doubtless have been realized. The Louisiana , built bycontract with E. C. Murray, was not begun until the middle of October, andher machinery was transferred from the steamer higomar, which the contrac-tors had bought for the purpose. She was 264 feet long, and from 400 to 500tons of railroad iron were used in plating her with armor. The ship was inseveral ways badly designed, and on the 20th of April, when she was sent fromNew Orleans down the river to the forts, her engines would not work. Duringthe battle she could only serve as a stationary floating battery, and she wasblown up by Captain J. K. Mitchell on the day of the surrender of the forts.The other iron-clad, the Mississippi , a still larger and more heavily armoredvessel, was constructed by the Messrs. Tift upon a very novel and peculiardesign. To obviate the want of ship-builders and designers, she was built

| Report of Joint Confederate Committee on the affairs of the Navy Department, p. 28.

WILLIAM FAXON, CHIEF CLERK OF THE UNITED STATESNAVY DEPARTMENT DURING THE WAR.

FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.