Four Feet of Water in the Hold: The USS Pittsburgh Gets Blasted at Fort Donelson

     You can still feel the excitement in Joseph H. Blythe’s words as he recalled the pummeling his vessel (the ironclad U.S.S. Pittsburgh) received during the ironclad attack on Fort Donelson on February 14, 1862.

    “We had 13 guns; every time they were fired three at once, it lifted us clear off the deck,” he wrote. “I had cotton in my ears, but they ring yet. We were kept going all the time till we got within 400 yards of their guns and were there one hour and a half, firing as fast as we could load with shell. We got 38 balls in our boat, and I don’t know how we all dodged them as we did. One 180 lb. ball went into the pilot house, where there were five pilots and ran round the room five or six times and then stopped in the pilot’s trunk. No one was hurt. I would not have been discharged without being in an engagement for all of Liverpool. The stars and stripes forever!”

    Joseph H. Blythe was serving in Co. G of the 16th Illinois went he was assigned to duty aboard the newly built U.S.S. Pittsburgh. His letter was originally published in the February 27, 1862, edition of the East Liverpool Mercury of East Liverpool, Ohio.

 

The Federal gunboat attack on Fort Donelson proved to be a deadly flop; Commodore Andrew Foote's flagship the U.S.S. St. Louis was struck 59 times and essentially disabled while the Carondelet, Louisville, and Pittsburgh also took heavy damage from the Confederate guns. 

Gunboat Pittsburgh

February 22, 1862

    I went on board the gunboat Pittsburgh on the 5th of this month, well and hearty. On the 7th we left Cairo for Fort Donelson on the Cumberland. We arrived there safely, and no doubt you have heard the result. Our boat got much praise in that battle. We did not get one man killed and only two wounded. We were the first at the fort and the last away. The Rebels fought like demons, and we all had to fall back. When we had got out of range, we found we had four feet of water in the hold. We all turned to with buckets and pumps, but it was of no use; it gained on us fast, until they run her bow on the shore. Then the carpenters plugged up three holes in the bow. By daylight we got the water out of her. That was Sabbath morning (February 16).  The infantry had taken the fort before 9 a.m.

    We had 13 guns; every time they were fired three at once, it lifted us clear off the deck. I had cotton in my ears, but they ring yet. The guns are 68, 64, and 32 pounders; so, you can judge what a noise they would make. We were kept going all the time till we got within 400 yards of their guns and were there one hour and a half, firing as fast as we could load with shell. We got 38 balls in our boat, and I don’t know how we all dodged them as we did. One 180 lb. ball went into the pilot house, where there were five pilots and ran round the room five or six times and then stopped in the pilot’s trunk. No one was hurt. Two balls came through the forward ports and came out through the stern. One went through the smokestack, and one through the steam pipes. The steam injured no one. The two starboard boats, Dinky and Gig, were shot all to pieces. One of the larboard boats was shot away, cranes and all. Three shots through the wheelhouse; nettings all blown off by shells- beds, dogs, and all blown off together; the chimneys are full of holes and the deck covered with splinters and pieces of shell.

    After we went to Cairo, they sent us to Columbus, Kentucky to reconnoiter. We went close enough to throw a few shells at them, and they returned the compliment. We are on the dry dock at Mound City, six miles above Cairo. We will get them off in a day or two and I do not know where we will go. We are governed the same as on a man-of-war. There is no end to officers; masters, mates, lieutenants, boatswains, boatswains’ mates, purser and his steward, yeoman, carpenters, ship’s cook, mess cooks, quartermaster, inspector of rations, surgeon and stewards, engineers, pilots, ship’s corporal, master of arms, gunners, quarter gunners, and 160 men to each boat.

 

P.S. I would not have been discharged without being in an engagement for all of Liverpool. The stars and stripes forever!

U.S.S. Pittsburgh

 

Source:

Letter from Seaman Joseph H. Blythe, U.S.S. Pittsburgh, East Liverpool Mercury (Ohio), February 27, 1862, pg. 3

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