Running the Vicksburg Batteries in the Forest Queen

General Ulysses S. Grant recalled in his Memoirs how “when it was first proposed to run the blockade at Vicksburg with river steamers [in April 1863], there were but two captains or masters who were willing to accompany their vessels and but one crew. Volunteers were called for from the army who had had experience in any capacity navigating the western rivers. Captains, pilots, mates, engineers, and deck hands enough presented themselves to take five times the number of vessels we were moving through this dangerous ordeal. All but two of the steamers was commanded by volunteers and all but one so manned.”

The only vessel with an all-civilian crew was the steamboat Forest Queen under the command of Captain Daniel Conway. As the fleet tried to drift past Vicksburg, alert Confederate gunners discovered them and after lighting a house on the opposite side of the river afire, pounded the fleet with shell after shell. Billy Blanker, clerk aboard the Forest Queen, proudly gave the following description of how the civilians handled their first time under fire.

“During the engagement, Captain Conway stood nobly at his post upon the hurricane deck, smoking his cigar and giving his orders as coolly as if the iron tempest that howled around him was nothing more than a summer shower. The pilots also stood up to their work like men, both of them remaining in the pilothouse until we landed below Vicksburg. The engineers stood like iron men to their posts, running the boat a mile and a half after the steam pipe was shot away. In short, all hands acted like brave men and there was no flinching on the part of anyone.”

The Forest Queen, riddled with shot and its steampipe shot away, made it past Vicksburg under the tow of the gunboat Tuscumbia with three men scalded but otherwise ready for service ferrying Grant’s army from the Louisiana side to the Mississippi side of the river.

Billy Blanker’s letter, written the morning after the Forest Queen ran the gauntlet at Vicksburg, first was published in the April 30, 1863, edition of the Aurora Journal in his hometown of Aurora, Indiana. Blanker, a native of Germany, had married Captain Conway's daughter Mary in 1861. 

The Forest Queen, along with two other transports the Silver Wave and Henry Clay, sail in the rear of Admiral Porter's column of six gunboats in this depiction of running the Vicksburg batteries. It was hoped that the smoke and confusion of battle would serve to shield the unarmed transports, but Confederate gunners lit afire a house on the Louisiana side of the river that lit up the scene like daylight. The Henry Clay eventually caught fire and sank, but the other two transports, pummeled but still afloat, made it past Vicksburg. 
    

On board steamer Forest Queen, below Vicksburg, Mississippi

April 17, 1863

Mr. Editor,

          I feel in duty bound to give you a few particulars of the Forest Queen’s running of the blockade past Vicksburg. At 9:30 p.m. on the 16th, an order came from Admiral Porter to leave our moorings, go out in the stream and form in line as follows: six ironclad gunboats, then the transports: the stern wheeler Silver Wave, the Forest Queen, the Henry Clay, with the gunboat Tuscumbia bringing up the rear.

Our crew consisted of:

Captain Daniel Conway

Pilots John L. Conway and James M. Miller

Clerk Billy Blanker

Chief Engineer Wilson Johnson of Madison, Indiana

Assistant Engineers Joseph Aust of Louisville and A.L. Gale of Madison

Mate L.P. Noble of Vevay, Indiana

Carpenter Z. Lamb of Memphis

Watchman Owen Conley of Cincinnati

Cabin boys David Scott of Memphis and Henry Norman of New Orleans

Firemen Frank Thompson of New Albany, Indiana, Lewis Craig of Gallipolis, Ohio, James Wells and ‘N- Bill’ of Memphis, all colored

Deck hands Henry Dickman of Cincinnati, Dennis McDermot of Cairo, Illinois, W. Wheeler, H. Colman, W. Green, and ‘N- Reuben’ of Memphis.

 

Clerk William Charles "Billy" Blanker
Forest Queen

          We were also accompanied by P. Burke, a private in Co. D of the 8th Missouri Infantry who “wanted to see the fun” and he saw it. He says that he has been in eight battles and this was the heaviest fire he ever faced. The crew of the Silver Wave were all soldiers except the captain whose name is McMullen. I am only acquainted with the pilot of the Henry Clay, John Taylor formerly of Aurora, Indiana.

          I said we started at 9:30 p.m., the gunboats in the lead under the immediate command of Admiral Porter, the whole fleet slowly drifting down the river. When within a mile of the upper battery, the pickets gave the alarm and soon the signals at the different batteries gave notice that they were prepared for us. The ball soon opened and the rush of the solid shot and screeching of shells mingled with the roar of the cannon made awful music for our civilian ears. Still we got along pretty well until just as we turned the point when the Rebels set fire to a frame house on the Louisiana side of the river which lighted up the river as bright as day.

          They were thus enabled to distinguish between the gunboats and the transports and their shots soon began to tell. A shot took away a part of our pilot wheel and cut the bell ropes communicating with the engine. Thus disabled, the boat swung around with her bow upstream. But Captain Conway, learning what was the matter, gave his orders through the speaking trumpet and soon got her headed downstream again.

Just then, the whistle of the Henry Clay sounded and looking in that direction, I saw her enveloped in smoke and steam. This was the last we saw of her as she burned in a few minutes. I learned subsequently that her pilot John Taylor got ashore safely. We were making good time down the river when we came within range of their crossfire. Then the shots seemed to come from every direction: through the stern, across the bows, etc. Well, I thought it was raining shot and shell and if you see the riddled Queen you would think so yourself.

The gunboat Tuscumbia took the Forest Queen under tow when the transport's steampipe was shot away and brought the vessel safely past the Vicksburg batteries.  

We had nearly got past when a 12-lb shot cut off our steam pipe, robbing us of our motive power and scalding some of our men. We were under good headway and floated past the batteries when the Tuscumbia took us in tow and landed us tow miles above with Warrenton batteries within our own picket lines and in sight of Vicksburg.

During the engagement, Captain Conway stood nobly at his post upon the hurricane deck, smoking his cigar and giving his orders as coolly as if the iron tempest that howled around him was nothing more than a summer shower. The pilots also stood up to their work like men, both of them remaining in the pilothouse until we landed below Vicksburg. The engineers stood like iron men to their posts, running the boat a mile and a half after the steam pipe was shot away. In short, all hands acted like brave men and there was no flinching on the part of anyone. Our casualties are Carpenter Z. Lamb, badly scalded, D. Scott and P. Burke slightly scaled; the rest of us escaped without a scratch.

As soon as the Warrenton batteries are silenced and we get our steampipe fixed, we shall go down to New Carthage.

Source:

Letter from Clerk Billy Blanker (William Charles Blanker), S.S. Forest Queen, Aurora Journal (Indiana), April 30, 1863, pg. 2


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