Engagement at Hickman and Columbus, KY, with the Union gunboats

5fish

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, USS Lexington and the USS Tyler, and the Confederate shore batteries along with the CSS Jackson.


snip...page 112 and 113... event...

The first naval action that took place on the Mississippi occurred on September 2, 1861. (This incident also, r~:~:=;.: constitutes the first "shots in anger" fired at each other in I by the regular forces of the two nations." The U.S.S. Tyler Lexington had accompanied the transports Belmont and Graham which disembarked troops under Col. Wagner at Belmont. Later the boats, under command of Commander John Rodgers and Commander R. N. Stembel, respectively, went down the river for reconnaissance pwposes toward Hickman, some eighteen mils away. Rodgers states in a letter to Gideon Welles, Secretary of Navy: When we arrived in sight of Hickman we discovered a Rebel gunboat, with the Confederate flag flyiog, off that town. The boat fired a shot at us, to which we replied. A number of tents extending for half a mile were upon the shore fronting the river. When three or four shots had been exchanged, a battery on shore fired several guns, then another battery opened up on us. The Lexington and this vessel fired some twenty shots, when, finding the CUlTent just setting us down upon their batteries, with which we were in no condition to cope, having little powder on board and only half enough gun tackles for working the battery, we returned. Upon passing Columbus and the cbalk bluffs, we were fired upon by the Rebels with muskets principally, but also by two great guns.l. The a:bove mentioned Rebel .boat was the C.S.S. Yankee, a cODverted tug boat covered with railroad iron. Outside of shells thrown into the Southern camp, neither side scored any hits.

Here the CSS Yankee and CSS Jackson the same boat...

 

5fish

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Here is the USS Tyler...


On September 4, 1861, the U.S.S. Tyler and Lexington engaged the CSS Jackson and shore batteries near Hickman and Columbus, Kentucky. Two days later, the ships supported Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant’s seizure of Paducah. On November 6th, the Tyler was involved in supporting General Grant at the Battle of Belmont. Commander Walke described some of the action at Belmont in the following few lines:
 
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