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The ironclad gunboat, Essex.
Watercolor by Ens. D. M. N. Stouffer, ca. 1864-65.
David Dixon Porter Papers, Library of Congress, Prints &
Photographs Division.
The Essex was first built in 1856 and originally called the New Era, served as a
ferry until Federal government bought her in 1861. At James Eads' shipyard in Carondelet,
it was mounted with 9 guns, which included three 9-inch Dahlgren guns, one 10-inch
Dahlgren gun, two 50-pound rifled Dahlgren guns, one long 32-pounder and one 24-pound
howitzer. Leaving St. Louis on Dec 3, 1861, the Essex was disabled during the attack on
Ft. Henry by a
32 lb. Confederate shell passing above one of the bow guns, into the flue and into the
boiler. This resulted in the deaths of twenty men, with many injured. Among the wounded
was Capt. W. D. Porter. The Essex was returned to St. Louis for repairs, where she was
"lengthened forty feet, her boilers and machinery were placed below the
waterline, and her casemates were raised from six and a half to seven and a half feet in
height."
The ship's defenses included: "Her forward casement, of wood thirty inches thick, is plated with India-rubber one inch thick and one and three fourths inch iron; side casemates, of wood sixteen inches thick, plated with one inch India-rubber and three fourths inch iron; The roof is bomb proof. The pilot-house is of wood, eighteen inches thick, plated with one inch India-rubber and one and three-fourths inch iron. She has false sides, which render it impossible for anything like a steam ram to attack her effectively. Her hull cannot be reached by any such contrivance, and even if it could, the water-tight compartments into which the hold is divided by bulk-heads, being forty in number, would render the sinking or otherwise disabling of the boat by collision an impossibility. If one or more of the compartments should be broken into, the disadvantage to the craft from taking water would be comparatively slight." When everything was complete, the Essex measured "two hundred and five feet in length and sixty feet in width. Her hold is five and a half feet in depth." Powered by two steam engines that included "cylinders of twenty-three inches in diameter and six feet stroke." Her three boilers were "twenty six feet long and forty-two feet in diameter, working two wheels twenty-six feet in diameter and eight feet bucket. She has much more power than any of the other Western gunboats, will be proportionately faster than any of them, and having two wheels adds greatly to the precision of her movements."
The Essex served as Capt. Andrew Hull Foote's flagship during the attack on
Ft. Henry. Received a hit in the boiler, wounding and killing 40 men. (Capt. W. D. Porter
was scalded and blown overboard, but later rescued.) On July 22, 1862 failed to destroy
the Confederate ironclad C.S.S. Arkansas at Vicksburg. Was run aground but drifted to the
protection of the union mortar ships. Defended Union forces at Baton Rouge under attack of
Van Dorn's Confederate forces. Was part of a second sorties against the CSS Arkansas, but
rebel crew burned her after engines died and ran aground. Operations against Port
Hudson. Red River Expedition.
Officers were: Capt. W. D. Porter, Commander; Robert K. Riley, first master and executive officer; G. W. Walker, second master; D. P. Rosenmiller, third master; Spencer Kellogg, fourth master; Joseph H. Lewis, paymaster; Thomas Rice, surgeon, Joseph Heep, chief engineer; ______ Sterns, first assistant engineer; J. Wetzell, second assistant engineer; Thomas Fletcher, third assistant engineer; Matthew Snyder, gunner; J. H. Mammon, boatswain; E. H. Eagle, boatswain's mate; Thomas Steele, carpenter. Total number of officers and crew numbered one hundred and fifty men. This ship served with distinction during the seige of Vicksburg and Port Hudson campaign. [History of Saint Louis City and County, by J. Thomas Scharf; Louis H. Everts & Co.; 1883]
[Ulysses S. Grant Camp, No. 68 SUVCW]
[St. Louis American Local History Network]Copyright 1999, Scott K. Williams, All Rights Reserved