Iron-clad Gunboats

No arm of the national service has done such good work and brought about so successful results since the war commenced as the iron clad gunboats.  And the only objection which can be found to the recent appropriation of ten millions of dollars by Congress for the purpose of increasing our navy in this direction is, it is too small.  These boats are not hereafter to be viewed in the light of an experiment.  They have been tried, and the trial has been more than satisfactory.  And what is not a little singular, while England has made such an ado over her iron-clad ships, we have put iron plated vessels to the test of an actual fight before her.  It is not to be wondered that the rebels of Kentucky and Tennessee dread Commodore Foote’s little fleet, for the power of offensive and defensive operations evinced by the gunboats, was something entirely new in the history of naval battles.  During the attack on Fort Henry a 128 pound ball struck the Cincinnati and although the vessel trembled from stem to stern, the plates turned the ball aside and it did no damage.  And the only balls which found their way into the boats were those which struck where there was no casing.

Our naval architects have always favored the plating of gunboats and small vessels rather than frigates, and as the event has proved with good reason.  The British frigate Warrior leaked badly on her trial trip and the French frigate La Gloire, which has already cost a mint of money had to be stripped of her armor for the same reason and some new arrangement of the plates to be tried.  But our gunboats are open to no such objections of this kind and seem destined to become the most important and popular branch of our naval service.  Several vessels of this class are now in process of construction and it is expected that in a few months we shall have on the ocean a fleet of twenty iron-clad, light draft gunboats, besides those on the western waters.  This will do very well for a beginning, but congress should see to it that we have more of them built immediately.  If we don’t need them to crush out the rebellion, we may want them to look after the allies in Mexico, and it would be well to have them ready.

Great expectations are also placed on the operations of the new mortar boats, which are yet to be tried.  They carry heavier guns than the gunboats, higher placed and more of them, and will, it is expected prove of much more value in attacking strong fortifications, and those considerably elevated above the water, like the defences of Columbus.  The mortars they carry will throw a 13-inch shell three miles, and at this distance the boats themselves would present no available mark for ordinary guns, so that they would be almost out of the reach of danger while themselves dealing out death and destruction.  There are two mortar fleets already constructed – one on the western waters, which seems likely to be tried soon at Columbus, and the other under the command of Com. Porter, which has gone round to Ship Island.  New Orleans may receive a visual from both of these fleets soon, and if she is wise she will not withstand their battering powers.  If, after trial, these boats prove useful as the iron-clad gunboats, the rebels have nowhere any fortifications that can stand against them and it would be fool hardiness to attempt resistance when their guns are brought to bear.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 8, 1862, p. 3