CSS General Beauregard
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 The General Beauregard (center right) rams the Monarch while other Confederate ships sink, burn, or run aground in the First Battle of Memphis.
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Confederate States | |
| Name | General Beauregard |
| Namesake | General P.G.T. Beauregard |
| Launched | 1847 |
| Acquired | January 1862 |
| Commissioned | April 1862 |
| Fate | Sunk at action, 6 June 1862 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Sidewheel steamer |
| Tonnage | 454 long tons (461 t) |
| Propulsion | Steam engine, side wheels |
| Armament | 4 × 8 in (200 mm) guns |
CSS General Beauregard was a
Confederate Navy during the American Civil War
.
Built in
cotton-clad ram
, installing 4-inch (100 mm) oak and 1-inch (25 mm) iron sheathing over her bow, with cotton bales sandwiched between double pine bulkheads to protect her boilers.
Service history
Battle of Plum Point Bend
Conversion completed on 5 April, and now renamed CSS General Beauregard, the ship steamed to
Fort Pillow, Tennessee, to defend the approaches to Memphis. On 10 May 1862, General Beauregard, Capt. J. H. Hart, and seven more of Montgomery's fleet, attacked the Federal Mississippi ironclad flotilla. The Battle of Plum Point Bend
witnessed effective ramming tactics by the Confederates, although General Beauregard succeeded only in keeping her four 8-inch guns bravely firing in the face of a withering hail of Union shells. Montgomery's force held off the Federal rams until Fort Pillow was safely evacuated, 4 June, then fell back on Memphis to coal, on the fifth.
Battle of Memphis
After Fort Pillow fell,
CSS General Sterling Price, also engaging Monarch. General Beauregard, backing out, gave Union flagship USS Benton
a close broadside with a 42-pounder, and Benton replied with a shot into the Confederate's boiler, killing or scalding many of her crew, 14 of whom, in agony, were rescued by Benton. General Beauregard was sunk off the coast of NC and lies at Carolina Beach.
See also
- Bibliography of early American naval history
References
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
External links
