Fight for the Rivers

Fight for the Rivers

February, 1862February, 1862

Union strategy involved the control of the Mississippi River

• Fort Henry and Fort Donelson controlled the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers

• Union commanders wanted to seize the forts

February 2nd, 1862• Union ironclad gunboats began to bombard

Fort Henry from the river• General Ulysses S Grant arrived with 17,000

men, having steamed up the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers

The fort commander decided not to waste his 3,000 men

• He sent most of them to help Fort Donelson, 12 miles away

• The Confederates surrendered Fort Henry

Grant set out for Fort Donelson on Feb. 12th

• Union gunboats opened fire on the 14th, but the fort’s cannons caused great damage

• Grant got into position and the Confederates tried a counterattack to break Union lines

15,000 Confederate troops were trapped and surrendered• The Union seized Fort Donelson• The Tennessee and Ohio Rivers were in

Union hands, and the Union had won its first victories

Clash of the Ironclads

Clash of the Ironclads

March 8-9, 1862 armored ships known as ironclads clashed at Hampton

Roads, off Chesapeake Bay in Virginia.Although a minor battle it changed the

face of naval warfare forever

March 8-9, 1862 armored ships known as ironclads clashed at Hampton

Roads, off Chesapeake Bay in Virginia.Although a minor battle it changed the

face of naval warfare forever

The ironclads had been developed by the Confederacy

• One of the few examples where Southern technology was more advanced than that of the north

• The South was seeking ways to break the Union naval blockade

Confederates converted a partly destroyed Union ship called the

Merrimack• Engineers covered the hull with 4-inch thick

iron plating• They also added a ram to the bow• Named the new ship CSS Virginia

The CSS Virginia managed to sink two large Union warships, and damage another in just

a few hours on March 8, 1862

• The next morning the Union sent it’s own battleship, the USS Monitior to engage it

• Although smaller, it was quicker and could outmaneuver the other vessel

The two ships pounded each other for four hours

• The armor was so effective neither ship was badly damaged

• This battle changed naval warfare as each side rushed to build ironclads as quickly as possible