Decks Covered With Blood - May ‘97 America’s Civil War Feature

Monongahela followed Richmond, but an enemy shot smashed into the gunboat lashed to her side, knocking out the gunboat’s rudder and causing both ships to run aground on the bank opposite Port Hudson. For 25 minutes, shells rained down on the helpless Monongahela as her captain desperately tried to free her. A Confederate officer noticed that “heavy shells were falling fast and thick… and it seemed as if the whole heavens were ablaze with thunder and lightning.” When Monongahela was finally wrenched away from shore, an overheated crankpin stalled her engines, and she, like Richmond, floated downstream, with six killed and 21 wounded.

Dewey’s ship, Mississippi, steamed after Monongahela. Dense smoke forced Dewey and Captain Melanchton Smith to rely wholly on the civilian pilot provided by Farragut. As Mississippi skirted the grounded Monongahela, her gunners tried to reply to Confederate shells but found the task difficult. Dewey recalled, “There was nothing to do but to fire back at the flashes on the bluffs and trust to his [the pilot's] expert knowledge.”

Dewey’s spirits lifted when he glanced at Captain Smith during the battle and watched him calmly lighting his cigar. He did not feel as confident about the pilot, who had never before directed a ship while under fire.

About 12:15 a.m., Mississippi approached the final battery at the entrance to the sharp westward turn. The hapless pilot then miscalculated. Thinking the ship was beyond some shoals, he ordered: “Starboard the helm. Full speed ahead.” Turning left, Mississippi churned into a muddy bank and slowly began tilting to port. Her crew pulled all portside guns toward the middle for balance, while their starboard guns returned Confederate fire.

Enemy missiles smashed down on the hapless ship. Shells tore into the wheelhouse, lifeboats and decks, hurling a deadly spray of wood and metal fragments. A cannonball being heated as an incendiary bounced loose from its handlers below deck and careened into a forward storeroom, igniting sails and ropes. For 35 minutes, part of the crew battled the ensuing blaze while the ship’s engines tried to free Mississippi from the mudbank. As Confederate gunners zeroed in, Captain Smith reluctantly said to Dewey, “Well, it doesn’t look as if we can get her off.”

About 1 a.m., Smith gave the “Abandon Ship” order. All starboard lifeboats had been demolished by enemy fire, so Smith had to remove almost 300 men using only three lifeboats. The most seriously wounded were put in the first and sent downstream to other ships, while the lightly injured and unhurt used the remaining two boats to get to shore in shifts.

Dewey now illustrated some of the leadership qualities later to make him famous at Manila Bay. When he noticed a frightened orderly rushing ahead of the rest of the men to get to safety, Dewey flattened him with an uppercut. A few minutes later the same orderly, now calmer, jumped into the river to save a wounded sailor who fell overboard. Dewey later walked up to the man he had just punched and loudly praised him.

When the boats taking the first group of sailors to shore were slow in returning, Dewey decided to go along for the second trip. He knew some men hesitated at coming back to a ship under bombardment and figured his presence would ensure that the boats returned. After receiving heavy fire all the way to shore, the boats safely landed and the men scrambled for the protection of nearby levees. Dewey ordered four men to return with him to Mississippi, but only one, a cook, obeyed. Dewey, who later termed those moments the most anxious of his career, finally cajoled and threatened enough men to man one boat, then told the men in charge of the second boat to use his gun to get the men back, if need be. At length, both boats returned to continue the evacuation.

Smith, who had been looking all over for his executive officer, hailed Dewey to his side when he returned to help search Mississippi for live crewmen. The two scoured the ship, examining bodies and constantly shouting in case a wounded man might remain among the wreckage. They located and removed one cabin boy, practically dead and covered by a heap of bodies near a gun station. Finally, Dewey and Ensign O.A. Batcheller set fire to Mississippi in two places by soaking mattresses with kerosene and lighting them.