River Defense Fleet The River Defense Fleet was a set of fourteen vessels in Confederate service , intended to assist in the defense of New Orleans in the early days of the American Civil War . All were merchant ships or tow boats that were seized by order of the War Department in Richmond and converted into warships by arming each with one or two guns , protecting their engines by an interior bulkhead , and strengthening their bows so they could be used as rams . Although they were nominally a part of the Confederate States Army , all of their officers and most of their crews were civilians . A portion of the fleet was retained in the south part of the Mississippi River and a portion was sent north to defend against Union movement from the north . The portion of the fleet in the south took part in the battles at Forts Jackson and St . Philip . The portion of the fleet in the north took part in the battles at Plum Point Bend and Memphis . Experience showed that they could stand up to the opposing Union vessels only under very special circumstances ; when those conditions were not met , they were overwhelmed . By the middle of 1862 , the entire fleet had been eradicated , either by enemy action or at their own hands . Origin of the River Defense Fleet . Immediately after the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861 , the seceded states had to confront the blockade against their ports that was proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln . They also had to consider the threat posed by Union General - in - Chief Winfield Scott ' s Anaconda plan , which envisioned a thrust down the Mississippi that would culminate in the conquest of New Orleans . Although the Anaconda was never formally adopted as a basis for Federal strategy ( in fact , it was more or less explicitly rejected by Scott ' s successors ) , its mere existence reminded Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his government of the importance of the Mississippi River . Many citizens , both in and out of the government , brought forth suggestions for its defense . Among them was the brainchild of a pair of riverboat captains , James E . Montgomery and J . H . Townsend . The proposal put forth by the two captains was to utilize ships with appropriate characteristics of size and speed , converting them into rams by strengthening their bows with strips of railroad iron . Their machinery was to be protected by internal bulkheads . They would be lightly armed , only one or two guns apiece according to the wishes of their captains , as they would not be expected to slug it out with the armored gunboats then being built for the Union . Instead , they were to rely on ramming , to hit the slow enemy gunboats where they were most vulnerable . The captains would be selected by Montgomery and Townsend from among the experienced rivermen at New Orleans , and each captain would subsequently hire his own crew . Bypassing the War and Navy Departments in Richmond , Montgomery and Townsend had their scheme endorsed by the entire Mississippi delegation to the Confederate Congress , and also by Major General Leonidas Polk , who was a personal favorite of President Davis . Their political method was proven effective when Congress approved their plan , appropriating $ 1 , 000 , 000 even before Townsend had returned to New Orleans to supervise the conversions . Conversion of the merchant vessels . Following enactment of the appropriation bill , Secretary of War Judah P . Benjamin sent a telegram to Major General Mansfield Lovell , commandant of the military department that included New Orleans , instructing him to seized fourteen steamers for war purposes . This was the first association of General Lovell with the River Defense Fleet ; he was soon to become the fleet ' s most persistent and severe critic . He immediately objected to the irregular nature of the fleet , delivering the prescient remark , " Fourteen Mississippi River captains and pilots will never agree about anything once they get under way . " In obedience to the order , he took possession of fourteen steamers in the name of the government . Some of the original fourteen were swapped for others as Lovell became more familiar with the intention of the War Department , but in the end the fleet still consisted of fourteen vessels . Each vessel was modified by strengthening her bow by filling the interior with solid oak , planking over the forward 20 feet ( 6 . 1 meters ) with oak sheathing , and covering the sheath with railroad iron 1 inch ( 25 millimeters ) thick . The engines were protected by a double bulkhead . The inner bulkhead was made of pine beams 12 inches ( 30 centimeters ) square , the outer of beams 6 inches by 12 inches ( 15 centimeters by 30 centimeters ) . The outer bulkhead was plated over with railroad iron like that on the bow , 1 inch ( 25 millimeters ) thick . The space between the bulkheads , 22 inches ( 56 centimeters ) , was packed with compressed cotton . Although the cotton was the least important part of the armor , it caught the public fancy , and the vessels that received this kind of armor came to be called " cottonclads . " The conversion process for the cottonclads reached completion in the month of 16 March to 17 April 1862 , which was coincidentally just the time that the Union fleet under Flag Officer David Glasgow Farragut began its buildup in the lower river , as they prepared for the attack on New Orleans . Although the finished rams were supposed to be sent up the river to aid in the defense of Island Number 10 and Memphis , Lovell persuaded the War Department to let him retain the first six in the vicinity of New Orleans . In the order of their completion , the six were : " Stonewall Jackson " , " Warrior " , " Defiance " , " Resolute " , " General Breckinridge " , and " General Lovell " . By this time , Captain Townsend was no longer associated with the fleet . As Captain Montgomery went with the northern section , another riverboat captain , John A . Stephenson ( sometimes spelled Stevenson ) was chosen for overall command of the six New Orleans vessels . The remaining eight , all sent to Memphis , were " General Bragg " , " General Sterling Price " , " General Earl Van Dorn " , " Colonel Lovell " , " General Beauregard " , " General M . Jeff Thompson " , " Little Rebel " , and " General Sumter " . The last was completed on 17 April , the day before the anticipated bombardment of Fort Jackson and Fort St . Philip began . Because they were expected to be used primarily as rams , the armament of the fleet was minimal , amounting to only one or two guns on each . Furthermore , their captains would not devote time to gun practice . This led to another command anomaly , as artillerymen from the Army were assigned to work the guns on the rams , but remained subject to the orders of Army officers . The River Defense Fleet in battle . The Battle of Forts Jackson and St . Philip . Three separate commands operated on the Mississippi near New Orleans . One was the Confederate States Navy , at that time led by Commander John K . Mitchell . Another was the Louisiana state navy . The third was the River Defense Fleet . On 20 April 1862 , after the bombardment of Fort Jackson and Fort St . Philip had begun , General Lovell tried to rationalize the command situation by ordering that henceforth everything afloat would be subject to the orders of Commander Mitchell . The order was met with a flat refusal by Captain Stephenson , who argued that " [ every ] officer and man on the river defense expedition joined it on the condition that it was to be independent of the Navy . " This act of apparent mutiny could not be punished because of the peculiar relation of the fleet to the Army . On the night of 24 April , Farragut ' s fleet made its historic run past the Mississippi River forts that defended New Orleans from the south . Because the Rebel leaders had not coordinated the responsibilities of the forts and the associated river fleet , the action was divided into two independent parts . Each ship of the attacking column was past the forts before she had to contend with the defending Confederate vessels , which therefore received the undivided attention of the Yankee gunners when they met . Under the circumstances , only one of the River Defense Fleet managed to close with the enemy : Stonewall Jackson was able to ram USS " Varuna " while that unfortunate gunboat was simultaneously being rammed by " Governor Moore " of the Louisiana navy . " Varuna " sank , the only Federal ship lost that night . " Stonewall Jackson " did not escape unscathed . Holed by shots from other Federal ships assisting " Varuna " and unable to reply , she was run ashore by her crew , where they abandoned her and set her afire . Of the remaining five members of the fleet , one ( " Warrior " ) was destroyed by a broadside from USS " Brooklyn " . " Resolute " was run ashore and abandoned by her crew . Ten men from CSS " McRae " boarded her but were unable to get her off , so they burned her . " General Breckinridge " and " General Lovell " were abandoned and burned by their crews . Only " Defiance " escaped unharmed ; she fled to New Orleans , where her crew left her and her captain turned her over to Commander Mitchell . Unable to do anything else , Mitchell ordered her to be burned in the general destruction of Confederate property when the city fell . The Battle of Plum Point Bend . Although the New Orleans section of the River Defense Fleet was wiped out , the eight vessels in the northern section were able to gain a measure of redemption if not revenge on 10 May 1862 , when they surprised the Union Western Gunboat Flotilla in a small action near Plum Point Bend on the Mississippi , a short distance above Fort Pillow . The battle took place about 40 miles ( 64 kilometers ) north of Memphis as the crow flies , but more like 50 miles ( 80 kilometers ) on the river . The Federal flotilla was scattered , with a single gunboat and mortar raft in an exposed position and away from support by the rest of the gunboats . Despite knowledge that the Rebel ram fleet was nearby , the Yankees failed to send out picket boats . They therefore had no warning that the enemy fleet was on the way until they saw their smoke over the trees of Plum Point . Caught unprepared , the gunboats of the flotilla got up steam and entered the battle one at a time . This allowed the rams to concentrate on each opposing vessel as she came on the scene . Suffering the effects of multiple collisions , USS " Cincinnati " and " Mound City " had to be grounded in shoal water to keep them from sinking . By this time , the other gunboats of the flotilla had got up steam and were entering the fray , so Captain Montgomery withdrew his fleet . They escaped with only slight damage . Because Montgomery did not state his aims in the action , it is difficult to evaluate the magnitude of the Rebel victory . While disabling two gunboats was a signal accomplishment , neither was lost for long . Within a few weeks , both had been raised , repaired , and restored to service . At best , therefore , the fleet had delayed the Federal timetable by a short time . The Battle of Memphis . Less than a month after the engagement at Plum Point , the River Defense Fleet was again in action against the Western Gunboat Flotilla , but conditions were far from the same . One change may or may not have had a significant effect on the battle . The strange divided command system of the fleet , in which the guns were manned by artillerymen who were not part of the crews , unraveled in the face of mounting Confederate losses that affected morale adversely . The gunners and rivermen were increasingly at odds , and on at least one occasion the soldiers refused to accompany the fleet on a minor mission . Finally , on 5 June 1862 , Brigadier General M . Jeff Thompson removed his men . This would certainly have been serious if the rams had been intended to rely on their guns . As it was , the departure of the soldiers affected the fleet only marginally , although it certainly did not help . The very next morning ( 6 June ) , the Federal flotilla was unified and ready to meet its opponents . Furthermore , it was joined by a pair of Union rams , which mirrored in many ways the Confederate force , including faulty organization . The fleet had little choice but to give battle at Memphis , although they did not enjoy the local superiority in numbers that they had had at Plum Point . The battle was a melee , largely because confused chains of command on both sides made it a series of uncoordinated clashes between opposing rams , while those on the Confederate side were also exposed to the gunfire of the Federal flotilla . Although details cannot be reliably established , the outcome was unequivocal : one Union ram was sunk ( later to be recovered ) , while seven of the eight Rebel vessels were either sunk or in the possession of the Yankees . " General Earl Van Dorn " alone escaped . She fled to safety up the Yazoo River , only to be burned ( somewhat unintentionally ) on 26 June . Summary . The end of the River Defense Fleet rather early in the war permitted the people who had to work with it to evaluate its performance . None did so with more vehemence than General Lovell . Although his criticism was directed at the six vessels of the New Orleans section of the fleet , it can be applied with little alteration to the entire force : " Unable to govern themselves , and unwilling to be governed by others , their almost total want of system , vigilance , and discipline rendered them nearly useless and helpless . " In a larger context than merely a group of fourteen ships , the end of the River Defense Fleet , coupled with the demise of privateer ing , also marked the effective end of naval war conducted by amateurs . The increasing divergence between merchant ships and warships meant that the latter had to be commanded , and largely manned , by men who devoted their lives to the profession . Since the Civil War , no major maritime nation has considered resorting to private fleets , no matter what the circumstances . References . Abbreviations used in these references :