Battle of Island Number Ten The Battle of Island Number Ten was an engagement at the New Madrid or Kentucky Bend on the Mississippi River during the American Civil War , lasting from February 28 to April 8 , 1862 . The position , an island at the base of a tight double turn in the course of the river , was held by the Confederates from the early days of the war . It was an excellent site to impede Union efforts to invade the South along the river , as vessels would have to approach the island bows on and then slow down to make the turns . For the defenders , it also had an innate weakness in that it depended on a single road for supplies and reinforcements , so that if an enemy force could cut that road , the garrison would be trapped . Union forces began the siege shortly after the Confederate Army abandoned their position at Columbus , Kentucky , in early March 1862 . The first probes were made by the Union Army of the Mississippi under Brigadier General John Pope , which came overland through Missouri and occupied the town of Point Pleasant , Missouri , almost directly west of the island and south of New Madrid . From there , the Union army moved north and soon brought siege guns to bear on New Madrid . The Confederate commander , Brig . Gen . John P . McCown , decided to evacuate the town after enduring only one day of bombardment , removing most of his soldiers to Island No . 10 but abandoning much of his equipment , including his heavy artillery . Two days after the fall of New Madrid , Union gunboats and mortar rafts came down to attack Island No . 10 from the river . For the next three weeks , the defenders on the island and in nearby supporting batteries were subjected to bombardment by the vessels , mostly carried out by the mortars . While this was going on , the army at New Madrid was digging a canal across the neck of land to the east of the town ; several transports were sent to the Army of the Mississippi by way of the canal when it was finished , providing the army with the means of crossing the river and attacking the Confederate troops on the Tennessee side . Pope persuaded Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote to send a gunboat past the batteries , to aid him in the river crossing by warding off any Southern gunboats , and by suppressing Rebel artillery fire at the point of attack . This was accomplished by , under Commander Henry Walke , on the night of April 4 , 1862 . This was followed by , under Lieutenant Egbert Thompson two nights later . With the support of these two gunboats , Pope was able to send his army across the river and trap the Confederates who were trying to flee . Outnumbered at least three to one , they felt their cause was hopeless , and decided to surrender . At about the same time , the garrison who had remained at the island decided that resistance was futile for them as well , so they surrendered to Flag Officer Foote and the Union flotilla . The Union victory marked the first time the Confederate Army lost a position on the Mississippi River in battle . The river was then open to the Union Navy as far as Fort Pillow , a short distance above Memphis . Only three weeks later , New Orleans fell to the Union fleet led by David G . Farragut , and the Confederacy was in danger of being cut in two along the line of the river . Background . Geography . Island No . 10 owed its name to the fact that it was at one time the tenth island in the Mississippi River south of its junction with the Ohio . An evanescent product of the river , it was an enlarged sandbar , roughly long and wide at its maximum width , and standing about above low water . More important than the island itself was the course of the river in its neighborhood . Island No . 10 was at the southern extremity of a clockwise turn of the river through 180° , which was followed immediately by a counterclockwise turn that left the river moving almost parallel to its original course , but displaced to the west by about . The turns are quite tight ; the distance from the southern limit of the first turn to the northern limit of the second is only by air , or measured along the river channel . The double bend , which still exists in almost the same location , is known as the New Madrid Bend . The mainland behind the island on the south side was connected to the town of Tiptonville , Tennessee , by a good road on the natural levee of the river . This was the only approach to the island on dry land through Tennessee , as the region is otherwise a mixture of lakes , sloughs , and swamps , with the nearest high ground nearly to the east . Reelfoot Lake , the largest of these , was long and in places wide . In low water , the northern end of Reelfoot Lake was near Tiptonville , but in high water such as was present in the spring of 1862 , it extended north to beyond the bend . The water was nowhere very deep , so that individual soldiers could cross it by wading or using makeshift rafts , but an army trying to do so would not be able to move its heavy equipment , and also would lose cohesion . For these reasons , Island No . 10 was considered to be invulnerable to land attack from the Tennessee side . It also meant , however , that the only route for either reinforcement or escape was the Tiptonville road . The land on the Missouri side was higher , although not high enough to give guns mounted there the advantage of plunging fire . The river banks , about above low water , were roughly only one - third as high as the bluffs that had aided the Confederate defense against gunboats at the Battle of Fort Donelson . At high water , although shore - based guns would not be drowned as they had been at the Battle of Fort Henry , they would nevertheless be no higher than the guns of vessels on the river . The town of New Madrid ( pronounced MAD - rid ) , which gives the bend its name , is at the northern apex of the second turn . It is most noted as eponym of the most violent earthquakes to take place in the 48 contiguous United States in historical times . Opposing forces . Confederate command . During the first year of the war , the Confederate forces in the West went through a series of command changes that are often confusing , and left responsibility for particular actions hard to pin down . Although New Madrid was in Missouri , it was in a pro - Southern part of the state , and therefore fell within the purview of Confederate Department No . 2 . In command of the department was Maj . Gen . Leonidas Polk . The region of the bend was brought to official notice by one of Polk ' s subordinates , Brig . Gen . Gideon J . Pillow . Neither Pillow nor Polk was actively involved in developing the defenses at the bend , but the latter assigned an army engineer , Captain Asa B . Gray , to the task . Gray worked hard , but he was not given the resources to complete the task . On September 15 , General Albert Sidney Johnston superseded Polk in command of Department No . 2 , with Polk remaining in a subordinate position . Like his predecessor , Johnston took no active interest in Island No . 10 . In early February , just in time for the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson , General P . G . T . Beauregard was sent to the West to command the Army of the Mississippi , and became in effect Johnston ' s second in command . He recognized the importance of Island No . 10 , and issued the orders to abandon Columbus and move its garrison there . His health failed him at this time , so he could not take personal charge . When he recovered , he and General Johnston were preoccupied with preparations for the forthcoming Battle of Shiloh . Transferred from Columbus to Island No . 10 was Major General John P . McCown , who thereby became local commander . He remained in charge until after New Madrid was taken by the Union Army of the Mississippi ; on March 31 , 1862 , he was replaced by Brig . Gen . William W . Mackall . Through all of these command changes , the vessels of the Confederate States Navy along the entire length of the Mississippi were led by Flag Officer George N . Hollins . Because the river lay in two military departments , Hollins had to work with both the man in charge at the New Madrid Bend and the man in charge of the defenses of New Orleans . Union command . At this time , command of the Union forces was also in flux , but it had little bearing on the issue . From the time the campaign against New Madrid began , in late February 1862 , the Army of the Mississippi was led by Maj . Gen . John Pope . The army was a part of , first , the Department of the Missouri , and after March 11 , the Department of the Mississippi , both under Maj . Gen . Henry W . Halleck . The name change represented organizational changes in the army that did not affect the campaign . The warships employed in the campaign were part of the Western Gunboat Flotilla , led by Flag Officer Andrew H . Foote . Foote was a captain in the US Navy , but the flotilla was organized as part of the U . S . Army , so he reported to , and was subordinate to , Halleck . Early defense preparations . The widespread publicity given to Union General in Chief Winfield Scott ' s Anaconda Plan made the Confederate government aware of the threat that would be posed to the Mississippi Valley by a water - borne invasion along the course of the river . In response , they set up a series of defensive positions along the river . Among them were Fort Pillow , north of Memphis , and extensive works at Columbus , Kentucky , both of which positions were important in relation to Island No . 10 . Construction of the batteries on and near the island began in mid - August 1861 , directed by Captain Asa B . Gray . He began by laying out a battery on the Tennessee shore about above the island . This battery , known as Battery No . 1 or the Redan Battery , commanded the approach to the bend . Vessels coming down the river would have to move directly toward its guns for more than a mile . It was not very effective , as it was sited on low ground subject to flooding . Almost as soon as work was started , however , the attention of Maj . Gen . Leonidas Polk was diverted to the capture and fortification of Columbus . Work continued at Island No . 10 , but it was not regarded as urgent and so was denied both equipment and workers . The importance of the New Madrid Bend rose dramatically when Fort Henry and then Fort Donelson fell to Union forces in early February 1862 . Columbus was cut off from rest of the Confederate Army , and faced capture by Union troops advancing overland from the Tennessee River to the Mississippi . To avoid losing the garrison and its equipment , General Beauregard ordered that the position be abandoned as quietly as possible . The process began on February 24 , when the first members of the Columbus garrison arrived at Island No . 10 . Two days later , its new commander , Brig . Gen . John P . McCown , arrived , and immediately set to work to strengthen the position from Battery No . 1 to Point Pleasant . McCown , with adequate resources , was able to transform the island and nearby mainland into a formidable obstacle for any fleet attempting to pass . By the middle of March , five batteries containing 24 guns had been built on the shore above the island ; 19 guns were in five batteries on the island itself ; and the floating battery " New Orleans , " with nine guns , was moored at the west end of the island . In addition , two forts had been set up at New Madrid : Fort Thompson to the west , with 14 guns , and Fort Bankhead with 7 guns to the east , where St . John ' s Bayou met the Mississippi . The Confederate Navy also supported the position . Flag Officer George N . Hollins commanded six gunboats in the river between Fort Pillow and Island No . 10 . All of these were unarmored ; the armored ram CSS " Manassas " would have been there also , but she was found to be unable to operate in the relatively shallow water . She was damaged by running aground on the way north , so she was sent back to New Orleans . Union preliminaries . Preparations by the Union for the attack on New Madrid and vicinity began before the evacuation of Columbus . On February 23 , 1862 , Maj . Gen . Pope was placed in command of the ( Union ) Army of the Mississippi , assembling at Commerce , Missouri . It was common practice at that time to go into winter quarters and await the arrival of good weather in the spring , but Pope soon had his army of 25 , 000 on the march , corduroying roads when necessary . The army arrived at New Madrid on March 3 , but were not yet prepared to attack the Confederate positions . Preparing for a siege , Pope requested that his army be supplied with some heavy artillery , which arrived on March 12 . The gunboats under Flag Officer Andrew H . Foote were not ready to cooperate with the Army of the Mississippi at this early date , as the damages they had received at Fort Donelson were still being repaired . They were finally sent down from Cairo on March 14 , with Foote yet believing that they were not ready for combat . The Union fleet was augmented by the addition of 14 mortar rafts , vessels that each mounted a single mortar . The mortars were a semi - autonomous unit under the command of ( Army ) Captain Henry E . Maynadier . Combat . First contact . Unwilling to waste his troops in an assault on the forts at New Madrid , Pope sent a brigade under Colonel ( later Brigadier General ) Joseph B . Plummer to occupy the town of Point Pleasant , on the right bank of the river almost directly opposite Island No . 10 . The movement was contested by the Confederate gunboats , but Plummer ' s troops soon learned that they had only to withdraw out of range when the gunboats appeared , and return as soon as they left . The brigade occupied Point Pleasant on March 6 , and the boats shelled their positions for the next three days . In this period , the Confederate Army remained within their fortifications , offering no support to Flag Officer Hollins . The siege guns arrived on March 12 , surprising McCown and Hollins almost as much as the winter march of Pope ' s army . They effectively closed the river to the unarmored gunboats , and prevented reinforcement of the artillery companies at New Madrid by shifting troops from Island No . 10 . The big guns opened fire on the New Madrid defensive positions on March 13 , and continued throughout the day . McCown realized that Pope would try to attack his forts by regular approach es . He felt that his reduced artillery companies would be too exhausted to resist , so he decided not to wait for the inevitable . On the night of March 13 – 14 , orders were given to abandon the town and its two forts . A heavy rainstorm hid the troop movements from the enemy , so the evacuation was accomplished without incident . There was some confusion ( which seems to have been exaggerated in Pope ' s reports ) , and the departure was so sudden that the guns in the forts had to be spiked and left behind , but most of the troops were successfully removed and redistributed . On the morning of March 14 , two deserters appeared bearing a white flag , and informed Pope that the town was deserted . Following the loss of New Madrid , some of the units at the bend were withdrawn to Fort Pillow , not quite 70 air miles ( 113 km ) to the south , but almost twice that by the river . McCown was replaced in command at the island by Brig . Gen . William W . Mackall . Although this looks like a reprimand for his poor defense of New Madrid , McCown actually was promoted to major general . The siege . The gunboats and mortars arrived on March 15 , and the siege is dated from that time . Pope , in New Madrid , and Foote , upstream of the bend , were kept apart by Island No . 10 . From the first , they did not agree how to go about conducting the operation . Pope wanted immediate action ; Foote hoped to subdue the island by the slow process of bombardment . Foote was hampered by ambiguous or even contradictory orders from Halleck , who was distracted at the time by preparations for the advance along the Tennessee River that soon culminated in the Battle of Shiloh ( or Pittsburg Landing ) . As early as March 17 , Pope was asking that two or three gunboats run past the Confederate batteries , to enable him to cross the river and trap the entire garrison . Foote demurred , arguing that his boats were not invincible , that a chance disabling shot would deliver a boat into Confederate hands , and that gunboat could then threaten all the Northern cities along the Mississippi and its tributaries . Foote ' s thinking may also have been affected by the wound he had received at Fort Donelson , which was not healing properly and kept him in pain and on crutches . For the next two weeks , fighting consisted of bombardment of the island at rather long range , mostly conducted by the mortars , and occasionally replied to by the Confederate batteries . High expectations that had been held for the mortars were dashed ; they did very little harm to the enemy position . The most significant damage incurred in this period was in fact self - inflicted : during a bombardment on March 17 in which the gunboats took part , a gun on exploded , killing three members of the crew and wounding a dozen others . After Foote had flatly rejected Pope ' s request that gunboats run past Island No . 10 , someone on Pope ' s staff suggested that perhaps a canal could be cut to enable Union vessels to bypass the batteries . The canal was completed in two weeks , but it was not deep enough to provide passage for the gunboats . It proved useful , nevertheless , in that transports and supply vessels could use it , so that Pope did not have to depend on land communications . Gunboats pass the batteries , complete the siege . Pope still insisted that he needed a gunboat to cover his projected landing on the Tennessee side of the river . Foote called two councils of war among his captains ; in the first , on March 20 , his decision not to risk running past the batteries was confirmed . When Halleck wrote to Foote , saying , " Give him ( Pope ) all the assistance in your power , " Foote called a second council , on March 29 . This time , Commander Henry Walke , captain of , thought that the risk was worth the candle , and volunteered to take his boat through . Foote gave the necessary orders , and " Carondelet " was prepared for the run . She was covered with rope , chain , and whatever loose material lay at hand . A coal barge filled with coal and hay was lashed to her side . Her steam exhaust was diverted from the smokestacks ( called " chimneys " on river craft ) to muffle the sound . She then had only to wait for a sufficiently dark night to make her run . To reduce the danger as much as possible , a raid by sailors in the flotilla and soldiers from the 42nd Illinois Infantry , under Colonel George W . Roberts overran Battery No . 1 and spiked its guns on the night of April 1 . On April 2 , the flotilla , including both mortars and gunboats , concentrated its fire on the floating battery " New Orleans . " She was hit several times , and her mooring lines were parted . She drifted downstream , out of the war . On April 4 , conditions for running past the remaining batteries were satisfactory . The night was moonless , and after dark a thunderstorm came up . " Carondelet " made her way downstream , and was not discovered until she was abreast of the Confederate Battery No . 2 . She might have escaped detection completely had not her smokestacks blazed up ; the buildup of soot , no longer dampened by escaping steam , caught fire and revealed her position . The batteries opened , but their fire was inaccurate , and " Carondelet " completed the run unscathed . Pope continued to press Foote for another gunboat , and two nights later made a similar run . Pope now was able to cross the river with his army without prospect of interference from Confederate gunboats . He could also suppress enemy fire that may have opposed their landing . On April 7 , he made his move , and sent the gunboats to destroy the batteries at Watson ' s Landing , the place he had selected for the attack . When this was accomplished , the transports carried the troops across , and the landings proceeded without opposition . A few hours elapsed until Mackall was able to decide what to do next . Realizing that his position was hopeless , he put the men on the mainland in motion in the direction of Tiptonville . The motion was detected by Pope ' s spies , who gave the information to Pope . Pope then diverted his soldiers to Tiptonville , and the operation became a footrace rather than the expected battle . Mackall ' s only hope was that the gunboats would not interfere , but they did , and the retreat of his army was delayed long enough for Pope ' s men to get to Tiptonville first . The defenders were trapped , with no prospect of victory , so Mackall decided to surrender . While this was taking place , the demoralized garrison of Island No . 10 surrendered separately to Flag Officer Foote and his gunboats . The river was then open as far as Fort Pillow . Conclusion . The destruction of the Confederate garrison was complete . Only a few hundred individual soldiers managed to escape by wading or rafting across Reelfoot Lake and later rejoined the army . The number who were captured became a matter of controversy . Pope asserted , in his official reports , that he had taken 273 officers and 6 , 700 private soldiers captive . This is almost certainly a great exaggeration . Confederate records ( admittedly incomplete ) indicate that not more than 5 , 350 men were present . The number captured would then likely have been less than 4 , 500 . Aside from the prisoners taken , the number of casualties in the entire campaign was very low . From the fall of New Madrid to the surrender at Tiptonville , the Union army and navy had lost only 7 men killed from all causes , 4 missing , and 14 wounded . During the entire campaign , losses in the Army of the Mississippi were reported as 8 killed , 21 wounded , and 3 missing . Confederate losses in killed and wounded were not reported , but seem to have been similarly low . Because April 7 was the second day of the far bloodier Battle of Shiloh , the campaign for Island No . 10 soon fell from public notice . It has become memorable principally for the run of USS " Carondelet " past the batteries , whose passage marked the introduction of a new tactic in warfare . The use of steam for driving ships meant that they no longer had to slug it out with fixed forts . The tactic later became commonplace in the Civil War , being employed by Farragut at New Orleans , Port Hudson , Vicksburg , and Mobile , and by David D . Porter at Vicksburg . Consequently , the value of fixed fortifications was much diminished . The South did not learn this lesson , continuing to rely on forts until the end of the war , but the restored nation had to consider it when designing its defense system from 1865 on . Notes . Abbreviations used in these notes :