Thieves Of Mercy

South-were sent away with Arkansas to preserve them from the Yankees. The night before the Battle of Memphis, the very last night that Memphis would remain in Confederate hands, the ship was put to the torch.

THE CAPTURE OF NORFOLK

The reader might well find the notion of Abraham Lincoln himself boarding a tug and scouting out a suitable place to land troops at Norfolk quite unbelievable, and understandably so. It is so unbelievable that it would not have been a part of this work of fiction if it had not actually happened in fact.

On a few occasions during the war, Lincoln took it upon himself to be a hands-on Commander-in-Chief, appearing personally at the front lines and even on occasion directing troop movements. To this end he had more motive and opportunity than any other President, save, perhaps, for James Madison. America’s wars, as a rule, did not take place within a day’s journey from the White House. Nor have many Presidents been saddled with the kind of lethargic and incompetent military leadership that Lincoln suffered.

In early May of 1862, with McClellan stalled at Yorktown, unwilling to advance against a Rebel army half his strength and howling for more men, Lincoln took a steamer to Fortress Monroe to see for himself what was going on. With him went Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase.

The men did not come as tourists. No sooner had they arrived than Lincoln began making decisions for Admiral Louis Golds-borough, who was not always quick to make decisions himself. Lincoln ordered Galena and Monitor to proceed up the James River and clear the way for Union traffic. On hearing that Norfolk was being abandoned, Lincoln ordered a bombardment of Sewell’s Point to test the defenses there.

Lincoln and his party boarded a tug and watched the shelling from Rip Raps. Satisfied that Norfolk could be taken, Lincoln and Stanton scouted out a suitable landing place for Union troops. The ironclad Monitor participated in most of the action, and her presence was considered essential to prevent the Virginia from interfering with the forces on the ground. On several occasions the Virginia sallied forth and showed herself to Monitor, but they did not fight. Reading the official reports from both sides, it becomes clear that the commanders of both vessels each felt it was the other ship that declined combat.

On May 10, Union Major General John Wool with four regiments of infantry landed at the spot of Lincoln’s choosing and marched unopposed into Norfolk. The fleeing Rebels had set the navy yard on fire, just as the fleeing Federals had the year before.

As it happened, the Norwegian corvette Norvier did indeed show up in Hampton Roads at this time, bearing the Norwegian minister, though, for the sake of literary convenience, the author may have shuffled the date of her arrival by a few days, no more.

THE END OF CSS VIRGINIA

The final act in the life of that mighty ironclad was pretty much as portrayed in this book. With no port left to her in the Norfolk area, Tattnall ordered her lightened in the hope of getting her up to Richmond, where she could be safe, or at least could participate in the defense of the Confederate capital.

It was only when it was too late that the pilots, Parrish and Wright, explained that what they had repeatedly told the admiral-that a Virginia raised to eighteen feet of draft from twenty-two could make it to Richmond-did not apply with a steady westerly wind. The motives that Tattnall divined for this deception, as portrayed in the book, are taken directly from his subsequent report to Stephen Mallory regarding the loss of the ship.

It is certainly true that, let loose in Hampton Roads with nothing to lose, Virginia could have done extraordinary damage. Though Tattnall did not think Parrish and Wright to be traitors, they might well be considered heroes of the Union Navy.

THE BATTLE OF MEMPHIS

With Fort Pillow abandoned, there was nothing for the River Defense Fleet to do but drop down to Memphis and await the inevitable coming of the Yankee fleet (or fleets, actually, as the army rams and the navy gunboats were as separate as the River Defense Fleet was from the Confederate States Navy).

It was not a long wait. Fort Pillow was abandoned on the fourth of June, and the Yankees were ready to fight for Memphis on the morning of the sixth. The battle went as described in the book, the ironclads anchored in a line across the river, making a formidable defensive line, though it did not put them in a position to attack.

Luckily for the Yankees, Ellet was there and ready to bring the fight to the Confederates. Steaming through the Federal line, the Queen of the West and the Monarch boldly attacked the River Defense Fleet. The Queen struck the Colonel Lovell (sometimes called the General Lovell) amidships and sank her almost instantly. As the Queen was extracting herself, the Sumter struck her a blow that sheered off her paddle wheel and sent her out of the fight.

The ram Lancaster never got into the fight. The pilot, apparently for want of courage, backed and filled until he managed to disable her rudder. The Switzerland continued to obey her order to remain half a mile astern of Lancaster, and so she too did not get into the fight until most of the heavy work was done.

The chief of the battle was fought by the brothers Ellet in Queen of the West and Monarch. Between them, and with a little help from the gunboats’ cannonade and the accidental collision of the General Beauregard and General Price, they managed to sink or destroy nearly the entire River Defense Fleet. Only Van Dorn was able to escape, running south to the last major Rebel stronghold on the river, Vicksburg.

Colonel Charles Ellet Jr., shot in the leg by small-arms fire, was described by Flag Officer Davis as “seriously but not dangerously wounded.” Unfortunately, in the days before sterilization and antibiotics, even a minor wound could prove fatal. And so it was with Colonel Ellet. After fighting illness for a few weeks, he died on June twenty- first, in Cairo, Illinois, on his way home to recuperate. His wife, stricken with grief, died a few days later.

Command of the ram fleet devolved to his brother Alfred, and later his son. Ellet’s army rams proved their worth again and again during the protracted battle for control of western rivers.

With the capture of Memphis, the Mississippi was entirely in Union hands, save for the heavily fortified town of Vicksburg. It would be more than a year before that town was taken, on the Fourth of July, 1863, the same day that Lee’s battered army was retreating from Gettysburg. Only then would Lincoln be able to say that “the Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Once again, I owe a great deal to Ed Donohoe, my friend and steam wizard. Thanks as well to a good friend and a wonderful novelist, Van Reid, for all of his support and, specifically, for suggesting some of the moments in this book. Thanks to Randy Smidy and Dave Frink for the steamboat information. Thanks to George and Amy Jepson and Tall Ships Books for their support over the years.

At HarperCollins, once again, I am grateful for the help of David Semanki and Hugh Van Dusen.

And in particular, I would like to thank Nat Sobel for everything he has done for me during my first decade as a writer.

And last, I would like to thank Lisa Nelson for… well… you know…