Lexington (CV 16) - Naval Cruise Book

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- - '.2i,-++r,:x::guLg44a,+,:::,g.1:ggr.rr-2.'3i1'11f 'tQi6? ' -'- ----.:: 1.55 .2 heavy rains. The stream was filled with drifting trees and a number of large white objects that looked like polar bears but were in actuality rebel contact torpedoes fcomparable to today's mines, torn from their moorings by the flood. The ships arrived in position at 11:35 a.m., when the ironclad Cincinnati opened the battle with the initial shot. A furious exchange of fire from both sides quickly followed, and several of the ships took a terrific pounding before the Fort struck her colors under the bruising bombard- ment. The fight was of rather brief duration and im- mediately upon its conclusion Flag Officer Andrew Foote dispatched his three timberclads up the Tennessee. They cruised right through the heart of the Confederate states to Alabama and at Cerro Gordo, Tennessee, captured the steamer Eastioort, which was being refitted as an ironclad ram, and two other Steamers. In addi- tion, the rebel forces were forced to burn six Steamers loaded with supplies to prevent their capture. After repairs at Carondelet, Missouri, Lexz'ng- ton and her fellow gunboat Tyler were taken up the Tennessee by Navy Lieutenant William Gwin to attack a rebel outpost at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. On March 1, 1862, Lexington and Tyler easily dislodged the Confederate artillery and infantry from the landing to permit the Army transports to land troops. At daybreak on April 6 the Confederates launched a tremendous counter-attack which bent the Union center and started swinging the left flank back into the river. The two gunboats moved in close to shore-so that their keels were almost on the river's bottom - and with double charges of grape and a short amount of powder fired into the charging South- ern ranks. After ten minutes of firing by the gun- boats the carnage and destruction was so terrible that the Southern ranks broke and scattered in a disorderly rout. Upon seeing their comrades fleeing in panic, and assuming the Union forces had launched a counter-attack, Rebel forces in other sectors broke off the attack and also fled. Lexington and Tyler were thus credited with pre- venting certain Union defeat. The Army reports to the War Department were so laudatory in their comments on the service rendered by the two gunboats that on April 19, 1862 Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles pen- ned a special letter to the Commanding Officers of the vessels commanding them and their crews for the sterling performance and ability in combat. Remaining in the Tennessee River until May when they were forced to the riverls mouth be- cause of the low stage of water, Lexington and Tyler proceeded to Cairo, Illinois to take on stores and ammunition. At the Naval Base Lex supplemented her armament with two rifled 30- pounders and then proceeded to join the main Mississippi Squadron in its attack on FortPillow. Moving down the Mississippi and into the White River with several other gunboats in mid- June, Lexington scored direct hits june 17 to si- lence the batteries at St. Charles, Arkansas, which had been thwarting the vessels' progress. After landing some embarked Indiana volun- teers to occupy the fortification, she pushed sixty- three miles further up the River, before turning back. On july 16, 1862 Congress passed an Act changing the name of the Western Flotilla to the Mississippi Squadron and turning the ships over to the Navy. During the fall Lexington was detailed to escort Army transports on the Mississippi, offering them protection from the guerilla bands which were roaming the river banks. When the autum- nal rains started falling in November, the streams were full enough once again for active operations and Lexington joined in the force at- tempting to ford the Yazoo River and land an infantry force to attack Vicksburg from the rear. The expedition got underway on December 12, with the Lex and several other light-draft gun- boats in the van of the column. The presence of torpedoes was soon discovered and the work of taking them up was extremely hazardous be- cause of the Confederate sharpshooters who were concealed behind the levees. At Haynes, Bluff further progress was halted by the Southern forts which lined the heights. Lexington and her sister ships, along with two ironclads, shelled the forts, but without success. The river's shallow draft and the possibility of 11 9--1531 7' 4.-.gzrzzrzzir-.1 -N .f.::.:::1L ? l.-l air:-.-:rv i f-:::fr-.kgif jig -7

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'Y 55+ -xveaud-rinuzmzmramhwssawnunv-remain wnmmnmmeenm-mmmn: Ohio for l1320,666, and naturally required a con- siderable amount of refitting for naval service. The conversion to a gunboat was accomplished by cutting her down to one deck, raising per- pendicular oak bulwarks around the sides as a defense against musketry, dropping the boilers into the hold, and placing the steam pipes as low as possible. She was armed with four 8-inch smoothbores and a pair of 32-pounders fone of the latter was later replaced by two 30-pounder Parrott rifles, and by 1864 she had also been armed with two additional 8-inch guns.j Commander Roger N. Stembel was assigned as first captain of Lexington, he commanded a vessel 177 feet 7 inches in length, having a breadth of 36 feet, 10 inches, weighing 448 tons, and boasting a speed of 7 knots. Furthermore, his officers were all army men! At Cairo, Illi- nois on August 12, she was assigned to duty with the Western Flotilla, an Army organization whose ships were paid for and controlled by the Army and staffed completely by Army officers and enlisted men-except for the Commanding Officer who was appointed by the Secretary of the Navy. Later, after much friction, between the Army and Navy-each wanted control of the river-going forces, but the Army didn't want to man them-naval officers and men took over the gunboats. This gunboat, along with a pair of other timberclads, Tyler and Conestoga, was placed at the disposal of General Grant and assigned to aid Union forces in maintaining control of the environ lands along the Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. During the organization of the main Union ironclad fleet she and Tyler were used to support Union Army movements and disperse possible concentrations of Confed- erate sympathizers. In this capacity Lexington supported Grant's movements against Paducah, Kentucky, where she seized the steamer W B. Perry on August 22. On September 4 Lexington briefly exchanged fire with Confederate Gunboat jackson Qformer- ly the old towboat Yankeej, but was forced to break off the engagement because of a depleted powder supply and because half the gun tackles for the cannons were not in working condition The same day shots were traded with the bat- teries at Hickman and Columbus, Kentucky. In company with another timberclad, Lexing- ton covered the advance of Grant's Army on Norfolk, Mississippi. This was accomplished by the ships steaming down the river, lobbing shells ahead of the advancing troops-much in the manner of gunfire support ships' shore bom- bardments in conjunction with amphibious land- ings or beach head attacks in modern warfare. The next day, as the town had fallen, the Union vessels engaged the batteries near Lucas Bend and attacked enemy ships in the river. jackson and a steamer took refuge under the potent Con- federate shore batteries which prevented their capture, but one vessel was severely damaged when one of Lexingtonis 8-inch guns dropped a 15-second time-fused shell into the starboard wheelhouse. The next assignment proved an uneventful one - standing guard in the Ohio River for ten days in support of an expedition to Owensboro, Ken- tucky. Returning to harassment duty in the Mis- sissippi, Lexington again engaged the batteries at Columbus on October 7. Exactly a month later she joined with gunboat Tyler to protect General Grantls Army transports during the bat- tle of Belmont, Missouri. When the reinforced Confederates, supported by fresh artillery, sud- denly launched an attack on the troop trans- ports, the two ships moved in close to shore and opened up a withering fusillade of grape, canis- ter and 5-second shells. The land-based guns could not depress quickly enough to fire on the gunboats, and the Confederates were routed with heavy casualties. The effectiveness of the timber- clads in this engagement reportedly gave Grant a high idea of the powers of floating artillery. The beginning of 1862 saw Lieutenant james W. Shirk take over as commanding officer. january was spent primarily in operations in the Tennessee, and on February 6 Lexz'ngton joined the Union flotilla for the attack on Fort Henry. There were seven Union warships in the river for the attack-three ironclads, the super-ironclad Essex and the trio of timberclads Tyler Cones toga and Lexington The morning was dark and threatening with the river running high after 10

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r '--- -'-' 'A it ...... ...L K1-1-umm mu:-mq-n-munfvf 'rw 'V-11-4+ 'L :ggvw xtillinvdsindylilhv . . i r f m .,.L .-. -+-HLAC, Mgt, -L-1. - -. .. I il 1, 1 I! is H Q. li ii l 1 O ii ,, EE ll l l 1 K.. I P torpedoes prevented more than one ship from raking the fortifications at one time. A land force which attempted to dislodge the Confed- erates also failed. On December 29 the expedi- tion was given up as a failure and the ships re- turned to the Mississippi. The combined land and naval forces were then directed to proceed to the Arkansas River and at- tack Fort Hindman. The gunboat's bombard- ment, followed by the Army's assault, led to its surrender on january 11, 1863. Lexington was next detailed for duty on the Cumberland River. Although it was determined that there were no Confederate Navy ships there, the fact that its banks were infested with bands of guerillas and regular Confederate Army troops who harassed Union ship movements made necessary the presence of combat ships. Lieutenant Commander S. Ledyard Phelps as- sumed command in late january and took the gunboat up the river. Upon meeting a transport that had been fired upon some twenty miles above Clarksville, Lexington immediately steam- ed for the area and landed a naval force which burned a storehouse being used as an ammuni- tion depot by the guerillas. On the way down after the venture, the ship was suddenly taken under fire by three concealed Confederate field pieces and was struck three times. ' The first week in February another officer had been placed in command of the timberclad, Lieu- tenant Commander LeRoy Fitch, and while con- voying a fleet of Army transports he received word that Colonel Harding, commandant of the post at Dover, had been attacked. Lexington built up full steam and led five other light-draft gunboats to the scene. They arrived just in time, finding the Union forces surrounded, outnumber- ed and out of ammunition. As the troops fled towards the river bank, their closely pursuing attackers were suddenly met with an unexpected hail of grape shot from the vessels on the river The tide was dramatically turned 1n short order with the 4 500 man Confederate force routed leaving behind 120 dead A somewhat less glorious episode in Fitch s career occurred in April Upon hearing that a fleet of unarmed transports had been attacked at Palmyra, he joined with other ships in proceed- ing to the site, which was Hlaid to ashes for harboring Confederates which would fire on un- armed transportsf' An accompanying landing force also ferreted out the enemy soldiers actual- ly guilty of the attack, killing or wounding the majority. In April Lexington assisted General Grant and Colonel Webster in getting out of a tight situa- tion near Pittsburg Landing with a gunfire sup- port operation, and on june 7 she and gunboat Ckoctaw saved another Union garrison from al- most certain annihilation by their timely arrival at Millikenis Bend, Louisiana. On August 13, 1863 Lexington left Clarendon, Arkansas, and steamed up the White River in company with gunboats Cricket and Marmora. The same day the expedition, under command of Lieutenant George M. Bache aboard Lexington, burned a large warehouse and destroyed the telegraph at Des Arc. The next morning the gun- boats arrived off the mouth of the Little Red River and Cricket was sent up that stream in search of the Confederate steamers Tom Sugg and Kaskaskia. Lexington proceeded some thirty miles farther to Augusta where she accom- plished one object of the expedition by confirm- ing information that the grand Southern Army was concentrating at Brownsville, intending to make their line of defense on Bayou Meto. She then pushed down stream again and went up the Little Red River to meet Cricket which was return- ing with the Confederate steamers she had cap- tured at Searcy. For 250 miles on the White River and forty miles on the Little Red River, the gunboats were harassed with small arms fire from Rebel soldiers, although the damage inflict- ed was negligible. Lexington returned to Claren- don with other vessels of the expedition on Au- gust 16 and was later sent to Cairo, Illinois, for repairs. The first week in March 1864 Lexington ac companied an expedition up the Black and Wa shita Rivers where the Confederates about 2 000 strong were driven from point to point Fire from the vessels inflicted severe damage at Trinity and Harrisonburg and three heavy 32 pounder guns and all cotton found near the river Q . . . . . u .I . , , U - e 7 - 0 3. - 9 . l a 9 I ' af . ' . . ' - - - 9 . . lil K gg I o n o a . I tl gr 12 !Q F E