Published January 19, 2025
By Phil Reyburn
To reclaim the Mississippi River during the Civil War, the Lincoln Administration contacted St. Louis businessman James B. Eads and awarded him a contract to build and equip for the navy seven gunboats in sixty-three days. Known as the city-class ironclads, they were the St. Louis, Cairo, Carondelet, Cincinnati, Louisville, Mound City, and Pittsburgh.
The Federal government converted other vessels like the ferry, New Era, into timber-clad gunboats. New Era’s bow alone was initially covered with iron. On January 11, 1862, at Lucas Bend, Kentucky, New Era, now U.S.S. Essex and St. Louis skirmished with and chased three Confederate cotton clad gunboats back down Mississippi River. This was the first naval action in the Western Theater.
After the disaster at Fort Henry on February 6th, where Essex was hit 15 times and knocked out of the fight, Commander William D. Porter spared no expense in a total overhaul of the gunboat. He turned Essex into one of the most powerful ironclads on the Western rivers and wasted no time in returning the gunboat to action as Essex participated in the July 13, 1862, assault on Vicksburg, Mississippi.
The gunboat C.S.S. Arkansas was the last hope the Confederacy had to maintain control of the Mississippi River. The rebel ironclad was a match for North’s city-class ironclads.
On July 15th, Arkansas left the Yazoo River on its way to Vicksburg. But to reach Vicksburg, she had to run a gauntlet through David G. Farragut’s Gulf Squadron of sloops-of-war, ironclads, and mortar boats; and with her guns booming, she blasted a path through the Federal fleet, leaving the admiral mortified.
By day’s end Arkansas, suffering severe damage, was docked in Vicksburg. Out on the Mississippi River, the embarrassed Union commanders vowed to destroy her. There were undoubtedly a few meetings to plan the rebel gunboat’s demise. Finally reaching an agreement, Commander Porter and Flag-officers Farragut and Davis set out on July 22nd to destroy Arkansas. Under the cover of the guns of Davis’s Western Flotilla, Porter’s Essex, the rams Queen of the West and Sumter attacked the moored Arkansas. With full steam ahead and guns blazing, Porter charged like a “mad bull” striking the Arkansas a glancing blow, which left Essex grounded on the bank and under fire by every Rebel gun in the area. Severely damaged Porter still managed to back Essex out into the channel and downstream out of the fight. The Queen twice rammed the rebel gunboat, but she too failed to sink her and ran for her life. Unbelievably still afloat, the indomitable Arkansas survived to fight another day.
That day would come August 5th when Arkansas left Vicksburg to join the fighting at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Essex now the only ironclad below Vicksburg came forth to do battle. Her engines barely working, Arkansas was heading toward Essex when one engine failed. Out of control and with her crew abandoning ship, Arkansas’s officers opted to scuttle the gunboat. Still firing at the Arkansas, Essex watched as she disappeared in a thunderous explosion.
With Memorial Day 1896 approaching, a reporter for The Quincy Morning Whig interviewed George Pollock, a Civil War brown-water sailor on the U.S.S. Essex and currently a molder at a local foundry. The piece appeared in the Whig’s Saturday, May 24th edition. Pollock’s story follows:
“A grateful nation will on next Saturday strew fragrant flowers in loving remembrance over the graves of the heroic dead. Here in the inland we are accustomed to thinking of those heroes as soldiers, but there are in Quincy quite a few old sailors, who fought for the flag afloat and saw a deal of hard service in the navy. Mr. George Pollock, of No. 416 South Third Street, is one of these old sailors, and served in the Mississippi river squadron. Mr. Pollock was in St. Louis at the outbreak of the war, and being a crack shot with a rifle intended to enlist in the sharpshooters, but a friend persuaded him that the navy was a better branch of the service. So, he enlisted [December 2, 1861] on the gunboat Essex as a first-class fireman, who ranks as a noncommissioned officer. The Essex, by the way, was the first ironclad ever built by the United States. She had been a ferry boat at St. Louis but had been protected by a boiler iron casemate and turned into a vessel of war. She was commanded by Capt. Porter. . ..
“Mr. Pollock saw a deal of hard fighting in the river squadron, and altogether his vessel was under fire and in action thirty-seven times. In action he had charge of a gun crew that handled a nine-inch shell gun. He was on the Essex at Ft. Henry in February 1862, when a 100-pound shot from a rebel battery plowed through her armor and into her boiler, causing an explosion which killed thirty-seven of her men [Officially 11 killed, 23 wounded, and 5 missing]. During the five months she was undergoing repairs, he was on the Pittsburg.”
“On the quarter-deck of the Essex at Vicksburg, Mr. Pollock heard a conversation between Admiral Farragut [Porter’s adoptive brother] and Capt. Porter, in which the latter urged permission to dash under the rebel batteries and sink or capture the rebel ram Arkansas. The admiral, however, refused permission because the Arkansas was the much superior vessel, being armored with railroad iron, which their guns could not pierce, and the attempt would involve a useless loss of life. Afterwards the Essex destroyed the Arkansas by getting her into a corner and poring incendiary shells into her.”
With the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, and Port Hudson, Louisiana on July 9, 1863, the Mississippi River was open to the sea and the Confederacy split in two. The Union navy in concert with the Federal armies accomplished the job in 18 months.
George Pollock was discharged on September 26, 1864. In 1868, he and his wife moved to Quincy. George Pollack died June 6, 1906. He is buried in Woodland Cemetery.
Phil Reyburn is a retired field representative for the Social Security Administration. He authored Clear the Track: A History of the Eighty-ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, The Railroad Regiment; and co-edited Jottings from Dixie: The Civil War Dispatches of Sergeant Major Stephen F. Fleharty, U.S.A.
SOURCES
Bearss, Edwin C. The Fall of Fort Henry, Tennessee. Reprinted from The West Tennessee Historical Society Vol. XVII, 1963 Eastern National Park and Monument Association, Fort Donelson National Military Park: Dover, Tennessee, 1989 Edition.
Coombe, Jack C. Thunder Along the Mississippi, the River Battles that Split the Confederacy. Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 1996.
Find A Grave. George Pollock (1835-1906). Woodland Cemetery, Quincy, Adams County, Illinois.
“The Man About Town.” Quincy Morning Whig, May 24, 1896, 4.
“Memorial to Post Members.” Quincy Daily Journal, December 28, 1906, 5.
Merrill, James M. Battle Flags South, The Story of the Civil War Navies on Western Waters. Cranbury, New Jersey: Associated University Presses, Inc. 1970.
“Veteran Molder and Sailor Dead.” Quincy Daily Whig, June 5, 1906.
