Black Terror (ship)

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Black and white drawing of a fake steamboat flying a pirate flag and with "Deluded people cave in" written on it
An 1863 depiction of Black Terror

Black Terror was a fake warship used in the

CSS William H. Webb
.

Not wanting Indianola to be repaired and enter Confederate service like Queen of the West, Union Navy officer David Dixon Porter had a fake ironclad constructed to bluff Confederate salvage workers into destroying the wreck of Indianola. A flatboat or barge was expanded with logs, and outfitted with fake cannons, lifeboats, and smokestacks. The fake vessel cost less than $9 (equivalent to $189 in 2020) and was named Black Terror. At 23:00 on February 25, the fake ship was released downstream, and successfully convinced the Confederates that it represented a real threat. Believing they faced an actual warship, the Confederate salvage crew of Indianola blew up the ship's remains, although some cannons were later recovered. The naval historian Myron J. Smith has since suggested that Black Terror was actually a later fake designed to reveal the location of Confederate artillery batteries, and that the story has been conflated with a possible earlier ruse aimed at forcing the destruction of Indianola.

Background

Main article: Vicksburg campaign

In 1861, during the opening stages of the

David G. Farragut took a Union Navy force up the Mississippi towards Vicksburg, Mississippi, which was still controlled by the Confederates.[4] However, Farragut's ships could not force the city into submission on their own, and with the river level falling, coal running short, and Farragut ill, the Union vessels fell back to New Orleans.[5]

Farragut made another attempt in June, this time accompanied by an infantry force led by

ironclads led by Flag Officer Charles Henry Davis that had come downstream from Memphis, Tennessee.[7] Farragut and Davis reached the conclusion that Vicksburg could not be taken by the navy forces without a larger infantry presence, which was unlikely to be released for the Vicksburg expedition at that time.[8] Williams's men attempted to dig a canal that would bypass Vicksburg, but the attempt failed. In July Farragut and Williams withdrew downstream, and Davis's ships moved north to Helena, Arkansas.[9] In August, Confederate forces created a second stronghold on the river by fortifying Port Hudson, Louisiana.[10] Union infantry came downriver from Memphis and Helena in December 1862, but were repulsed at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou.[11]

Operations on the Red

Led by

CSS William H. Webb, and two steamers. Queen of the West and William H. Webb caught up to Indianola on February 24 and severely damaged the Union ship by ramming it. Sinking, Indianola was abandoned by intentional grounding and abandoned by her crew, most of whom were captured. Three sailors escaped to tell Porter.[15][16]

Cruise of Black Terror

With the remains of Indianola in Confederate possession, salvage crews and impressed plantation slaves began working on the ship to get it repaired and refloated. United States Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles believed that Indianola represented a significant threat in potential Confederate hands and ordered that a squadron of ships be sent to take the wreck back. Having recently lost two other rams to Confederate fire, Porter did not believe he had a sufficient number of ships for Welles's proposed squadron,[17] and the ships he did have would have been at risk of being outmaneuvered by the faster William H. Webb and Queen of the West. Instead, Porter decided to create a fake ironclad to bluff the Confederates into abandoning the salvage of Indianola.[17][18]

Black and white engraving of exploding ship in center, with ships at the left and right
Destruction of Indianola, with Black Terror on the left

Porter, who described the loss of Indianola as "the most humiliating affair that has occurred during this rebellion",

pilothouse was an outhouse.[16] Two old boats were attached to davits.[21] Logs served as cannons, and fake smokestacks were made from barrels. In order to give the contraption a black appearance, it was coated in mud and tar.[17][22] Another illusion was made by mixing tar and oakum in pots, lighting the mixtures on fire, and placing them at the bottom of the "smokestacks" to produce smoke. Porter's creation was given the name Black Terror;[17] it had cost either $8.23 (equivalent to $173 in 2020)[19][23] or $8.63 (equivalent to $181 in 2020)[17][24] and taken 12 hours to build.[17] The words "Deluded people cave in" were written on the side of the ship, and it flew both the American flag[19] and a skull and crossbones flag.[23][b] The intention was for the vessel to be mistaken for the ironclad ram USS Lafayette.[25]

Black Terror was set free into the Mississippi at 23:00 on February 25,

Carter Stevenson, the Confederate commander of Vicksburg. When the ship burned, it blew up in an explosion that was audible at the location of Porter's fleet.[23] Confederate cavalry officer William Wirt Adams stated that only the vessel's alcohol supplies were preserved. He also believed that Queen of the West, William H. Webb, and the guns on Indianola would have been able to successfully defeat what he thought was a gunboat.[28] After continuing on for 2 miles (3.2 km) further,[17] Black Terror grounded on a mudbank about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the former location of Indianola.[19] Confederate soldiers eventually investigated the ship's lack of activity and determined that it was a fake.[17] Queen of the West, in turn, had collided with and damaged the transport Grand Era during her own retreat from the Union vessel.[29]

The Richmond Examiner, a Confederate newspaper, lambasted the destruction of Indianola, stating "laugh and hold your sides lest you die of a surfeit of derision".[17] The Vicksburg Whig also added criticism.[30] Another Confederate attempt to raise the remains of Indianola took place in early March, but was unsuccessful except for the recovery of three cannons.[30][31] Queen of the West and William H. Webb, which were still damaged from their fight with Indianola, withdrew up the Red[26] and were no longer threats to the Union on the Mississippi.[17] Later that year, both Vicksburg and Port Hudson were taken by Union forces.[17] Vicksburg fell on July 4 after joint army-navy operations and the lengthy Siege of Vicksburg[32] and Port Hudson surrendered on July 9, after hearing of the fall of Vicksburg.[33] The Mississippi River was now under Union control.[34]

Two ships hypothesis

Myron J. Smith wrote in his work Joseph Brown and his Civil War Ironclads that Porter had sent an earlier, less elaborate fake ironclad downriver towards the site of Indianola, which was the one that convinced the Confederates to destroy Indianola. Smith also refers to a letter from Porter which was published on March 25 that stated that he had not known for certain that Indianola was in Confederate hands when he sent the fake ironclad. As the second fake vessel, Black Terror would have been sent downriver in early March in order to provide evidence on where the Confederate batteries were located.[35]

Notes

  1. ^ One Union newspaperman stated that the vessel was instead 150 feet (46 m) long with a beam of 40 feet (12 m).[20]
  2. ^ One primary account states that the writing was instead "Confederate Mail Packet No. 1" on one side and "Secesh Sold" on the other.[20]

References

  1. ^ Miller 2019, pp. 6–7.
  2. ^ Miller 2019, p. 7.
  3. ^ Miller 2019, p. 118.
  4. ^ Miller 2019, pp. 123–124.
  5. ^ Miller 2019, pp. 128–133.
  6. ^ Miller 2019, pp. 135–137.
  7. ^ Miller 2019, pp. 148, 151, 153.
  8. ^ Miller 2019, p. 153.
  9. ^ Shea & Winschel 2003, pp. 22, 27.
  10. ^ Shea & Winschel 2003, p. 31.
  11. ^ Kennedy 1998, pp. 154–156.
  12. ^ Shea & Winschel 2003, p. 60.
  13. ^ Shea & Winschel 2003, pp. 64–65.
  14. ^ Chatelain 2020, p. 214.
  15. ^ a b "Indianola". Naval History and Heritage Command. July 21, 2015. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  16. ^ a b c d Miller 2019, p. 304.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Barnhart 2003.
  18. ^ Hearn 2000, p. 117.
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h Shea & Winschel 2003, p. 68.
  20. ^ a b Smith 2017, p. 211.
  21. ^ Legan 2000, p. 294.
  22. ^ Miller 2019, pp. 304–305.
  23. ^ a b c Miller 2019, p. 305.
  24. ^ Groom 2010, p. 250.
  25. ^ Legan 2000, pp. 204–205.
  26. ^ a b Shea & Winschel 2003, p. 67.
  27. ^ Chatelain 2020, p. 219.
  28. ^ a b Legan 2000, p. 296.
  29. ^ Smith 2017, p. 212.
  30. ^ a b Hearn 2000, p. 118.
  31. ^ Smith 2017, p. 214.
  32. ^ Kennedy 1998, pp. 157–173.
  33. ^ Kennedy 1998, p. 184.
  34. ^ Kennedy 1998, p. 173.
  35. ^ Smith 2017, pp. 209–210.

Sources

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