Battle of Memphis

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First Battle of Memphis

Battle of the rams.
Ward, A. R., artist

Date	June 6, 1862
Location	Shelby County, Tennessee
Result	Union victory

Combatants

United States of America

Confederate States of America

Commanders

Charles Henry Davis
Charles Ellet, Jr.

James E. Montgomery
M. Jeff Thompson

Strength

U.S. Ironclads Benton, Louisville, Carondelet, Cairo, and St. Louis and U.S. Army Rams Queen of the West and Monarch

C.S. Navy Rams General Beauregard, General Bragg, General Sterling Price, General Van Dorn, General Thompson, Colonel Lovell, Sumter, and Little Rebel

Casualties

180

Joint Operations Against New Madrid, Island No. 10, and Memphis
New Madrid – Island No. 10 – Memphis I

The First Battle of Memphis was a naval battle fought on the Mississippi River on June 6, 1862, during the American Civil War. It resulted in the Union fleet capturing the city of Memphis, Tennessee.

[edit] Battle

The Total Annihilation of the Rebel Fleet by the Federal Fleet under Commodore Davis." "On the Morning of June 6th 1862, off Memphis, Ten

After defeating the Confederates at the Battle of Island Number Ten, the Union fleet was able to steam downriver to threaten Memphis. Opposing them was a small flotilla of makeshift crafts. Confederate gunboats, some of them converted paddleboats armored with cotton bales (colloquially known as "cottonclads"), were pitted against Union ironclads and rams. The battle lasted one and a half hours and was watched by the civilian population from the Chickasaw Bluffs. The Union fleet quickly captured or sunk most of the Rebel forces, with the survivors retreating southwards down the river towards Vicksburg, Mississippi. Casualties were extremely lopsided with 180 Southerners killed or injured and only one casualty for the North. The battle ended with Union commanders landing at the city docks and taking control of Memphis, giving the Union army a port for moving supplies down the river.

Another Civil War military engagement also took place in Memphis, the Second Battle of Memphis in April 1864, when Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest led a nighttime cavalry raid on his hometown of Memphis with the intent of freeing Confederate prisoners and capturing Union generals encamped in Memphis. The raid failed in both goals, but forced the Union Army to guard the area more diligently.