CSS Colonel Lovell
| History | |
|---|---|
 Confederate States | |
| Name | Colonel Lovell |
| Launched | 1843 |
| Acquired | 1861 |
| Commissioned | 1861 |
| Fate | Rammed and sunk, 6 June 1862 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Side-wheel cotton-clad ram |
| Tonnage | 521 long tons (529 t) |
| Length | 162 ft (49 m) |
| Beam | 30 ft 10 in (9.40 m) |
| Draft | 11 ft (3.4 m) |
| Propulsion | Steam engine, side paddle wheels |
CSS Colonel Lovell was a cotton-clad ram ship of the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War
Service history
The sidewheel steamer Hercules' was built at Cincinnati, Ohio,[1] in 1843.[2] She was operated by the Ocean Towing Co. until the American Civil War;[1] this company was based out of New Orleans, Louisiana.[2] Hercules had tonnage of 521 tons,[3] a beam of 30 feet 10 inches (9.40 m),[4] a length of 162 feet (49 m), and a draft of 11 feet (3.4 m).[2] She was primarily used as a towboat, bringing ships upriver from the Head of Passes to New Orleans. Hercules likely had one funnel and was probably equipped with hog chains.[5] In 1862, the Confederacy purchased 14 civilian vessels, including Hercules, for conversion into military vessels for service on the Mississippi River. The purchased occurred under the auspices of Confederate Major General Mansfield Lovell. These ships became the River Defense Fleet and were operated by the Confederate States Army, not the Confederate States Navy.[6]
Known as cottonclads,[7] the vessels were intended to be used as rams. To convert the civilian vessels into warships, iron plating was added to their bows, and wooden bulkheads packed with cotton were added as protection for the ships' critical machinery.[8] These conversions were oversaw by Lieutenant Colonel William S. Lovell (brother to Mansfield Lovell), who had been educated at the United States Naval Academy.[9] William Lovell also oversaw the arming of the vessels, as the ordnance and disbursing officer for the fleet.[3] Hercules was renamed Colonel Lovell after William Lovell, who became one of the first graduates of the Naval Academy to be the namesake of a warship.[10] Of the River Defense Fleet vessels, Colonel Lovell was the second slowest, faster than only CSS General M. Jeff Thompson.[3] Under the command of vetern riverboat pilot Captain James C. Delancy,[1][11] Colonel Lovell left the shipyard in New Orleans where she was converted on April 17, 1862.[12] Union reports claimed she was armed with four cannons,[5] while the naval historian Edward B. McCaul notes that the eight River Defense Fleet vessels sent up the Mississippi River combined for a total armament of two cannons; the unarmed ships were armed with a single 32-pounder gun placed at the stern after reaching Fort Pillow. Subsequent to the Battle of Plum Point Bend,[13] which was fought on May 10,[2] four of the ships (including Colonel Lovell) had their armament augmented by a 8-inch smoothbore cannon at the bow.[13]
Battles of Plum Point Bend and Memphis
The eight River Defense Fleet ships which had gone upriver were at Fort Pillow were under the command of Captain James E. Montgomery. Fort Pillow was under bombardment by mortar boats from Union Navy force commanded by Captain Charles Henry Davis. The Union fleet had fallen into a routine of having a single mortar boat bombard the fort each day from a position downriver of the rest of the fleet, guarded by a single ironclad. Montgomery saw an opporutinty and decided to attack with his cottonclad rams.[14] The resulting attack, known as the Battle of Plum Point Bend, occurred on May 10.[2] Montgomery had his ships approach the Union position in order of speed, which left Colonel Lovell as the second-to-last ship in the Confederate line.[15] The crew of the downriver ironclad, USS Cincinnati, were caught by suprise and Cincinnati was rammed and sunk. Davis's other ironclads moved downriver as the became ready, and USS Mound City was also sunk.[16] Colonel Lovell, General M. Jeff Thompson, and CSS General Beauregard arrived later in the battle;[17] the remaining Union ironclads had reached the battle site by this time and Montgomery soon ordered a withdrawal.[18]
The Confederate position at Fort Pillow was rendered untenable by the Union victory at the Siege of Corinth which ended on May 30; the fort was abandoned on June 4. The Confederate ships which had been at Fort Pillow retreated downriver to Memphis, Tennessee, where the arrived on June 5. That night, faced with a shortage of coal, Montgomery and his captains held a council of war which resulted in the decision to fight the approaching Union fleet rather than scuttle part or all of the fleet.[19] With Davis's ships approaching Memphis on the morning on June 6, Montgomery deployed his ships into two columns, each of which was arrayed en echelon. The two front ships were General M. Jeff Thompson and Colonel Lovell, the latter of whom was part of the left column. These two ships were in the front rank due to their slower speed and because both were equipped with the 8-inch cannon, which was more effective against the armored Union ironclads.[20] The First Battle of Memphis followed as Davis, with nine warships, fought Montgomery's fleet. The Union fleet consisted of five ironclads and four vessels of the United States Ram Fleet.[21]
Two of the rams, Monarch and Queen of the West, were in the lead of the Union approach. Montgomery countered by sending CSS General Sterling Price and Colonel Lovell to fight the rams. Colonel Lovell headed directly for one of the Union rams. The naval historian Neil Chatelain writes that Delancy "lost his nerve at the last minute" and tried to steer the ship out of the way by having the engines backed;[22] while the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships instead attributes what happens next to the ship suffering an engine malfunction.[2] Colonel Lovell was rammed by Queen of the West with such force that the Confederate ships was nearly broken in two. She sank quickly; 68 of her 86 crewmembers perished.[22] Delancy was one of the survivors.[2] Montgomery's fleet was defeated in the battle and Union forces took Memphis;[23] all but one of the Confederate ships were destroyed or captured.[24]
References
- ^ a b c Chatelain 2020, p. 81.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Colonel Lovell". Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 8 November 2025.
- ^ a b c McCaul 2014, p. 22.
- ^ Gaines 2008, p. 93.
- ^ a b Canney 2015, p. 164.
- ^ Chatelain 2020, pp. 79–81.
- ^ Calore 2002, p. 141.
- ^ Canney 2015, pp. 160–161.
- ^ Chatelain 2020, pp. 80, 84–85.
- ^ Chatelain 2020, p. 80.
- ^ McCaul 2014, pp. 16–17.
- ^ Chatelain 2020, p. 86.
- ^ a b McCaul 2014, pp. 17–18.
- ^ Chatelain 2020, pp. 80, 122–123.
- ^ McCaul 2014, p. 98.
- ^ Chatelain 2020, pp. 123–125.
- ^ Tomblin 2016, p. 105.
- ^ McCaul 2014, p. 107.
- ^ Chatelain 2020, pp. 127–128.
- ^ McCaul 2014, p. 131.
- ^ Chatelain 2020, pp. 128–129.
- ^ a b Chatelain 2020, p. 129.
- ^ Chatelain 2020, p. 132.
- ^ McCaul 2014, p. 148.
Sources
- Calore, Paul (2002). Naval Campaigns of the Civil War. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-1217-4.
- Canney, Donald L. (2015). The Confederate Steam Navy 1861–1865. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer. ISBN 978-0-7643-4824-2.
- Chatelain, Neil P. (2020). Defending the Arteries of Rebellion: Confederate Naval Operations in the Mississippi River Valley, 1861–1865. El Dorado Hills, California: Savas Beatie. ISBN 978-1-61121-510-6.
- Gaines, W. Craig (2008). Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-3274-6.
- McCaul, Edward B. Jr (2014). To Retain Command of the Mississippi: The Civil War Naval Campaign for Memphis. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-1-62190-135-8.
- Tomblin, Barbara Brooks (2016). The Civil War on the Mississippi: Union Sailors, Gunboat Captains, and the Campaign to Control the River. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-6704-6.
