The Devil's Own Purgatory - Robert Gudmestad |
- By Hog Farm
Publishing details: Gudmestad, Robert (2025). The Devil's Own Purgatory: The United States Mississippi River Squadron in the Civil War. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-8491-2.
Robert M. Browning has written single-volume works about the West Gulf Blockading Squadron (Lincoln's Trident), the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (Successs is All that Was Expected), and the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron (From Cape Charles to Cape Fear), and my understanding is that the East Gulf Blockading Squadron is covered by George E. Buker's Blockaders, Refugees, and Contrabands. Gudmestad has now contributed a comprehensive work of the Mississippi River Squadron, which operated on the inland rivers of the Western and Trans-Mississippi theaters. (Farragut's capture of New Orleans and his riverine operations up to his temporarily joining forces with Davis's ships for the 1862 operations against Vicksburg are outside the scope of Gudmestad's book).
The story of the Mississippi River Squadron (originally known as the Western Gunboat Flotilla) began with the City-class ironclads and the timberclads of late 1861 and early 1862. These were the vessels which won the Battle of Fort Henry and played major roles at Fort Donelson and Island No. 10, all of which were fought largely against land-based Confederate defenses. Some weaknesses in the City-class ironclads became apparent at Fort Donelson, and the fleet took a bloody nose from Confederate ships at the Battle of Plum Point Bend, but strengthened by the United States Ram Fleet, the Western Gunboat Flotilla shattered Confederate waterborne strength at the First Battle of Memphis in 1862. Plum Point Bend and Memphis were the only real fleet engagements of the Western Gunboat Flotilla/Mississippi River Squadron. In the Vicksburg campaign (late 1862 through July 1863), the fleet played a major role in supporting river crossings, bombarding Confederate fortifications, and operating in narrow rivers and bayous; the famous stories of the CSS Arkansas's running the gauntlet of the Union fleet and the cruise of the Black Terror are discussed. After Vicksburg, with the Mississippi River under Union control, the Mississippi River Squadron's purpose focused on escort and counter-insurgency roles, with the exception of its near-disastrous participation in the Red River campaign.
What makes Gudmestad's study particularly unique is his use of large-scale data. Gudmestad collected data (largely from US wartime reports) regarding combat between the Misssissippi River Squadron and Confederate irregular units (along with regular units using guerrilla or hit-and-run tactics) and mapped these results using GIS to draw conclusions about the sort of irregular combat that the squadron participated in. Along with a team of researchers, he also produced a database of demographic information of over 14,000 sailors of the Western Gunboat Flotilla/Mississippi River Squadron using military records. This dataset allowed him to draw fresh conclusions regarding demographic trends over time within the fleet (such as varying rates of enlistment of former slaves) and their effects on the operations of the squadron. Gudmestad connects a series of later-war reverses, particularly the debacle which took place at the Battle of Johnsonville, to expiration of the enlistments of large numbers of experienced sailors and their replacement by inexperienced recruits. In another incident, the commanding officer of the tinclad USS Rattler attempted to sell his vessel to the Confederates.
The writing style is engaging, if somewhat nonstandard for an academic work (With that fight he established his reputation as a badass among fellow sailors from p. 37 representing what I believe to be the only use of "badass" I have encountered in an academic work regarding the Civil War). Gudmestad's heavy reliance on Union/US sources for the fighting at Plum Point Bend and Memphis is less than ideal given that these were chaotic combat situations which Gudmestad compares to a demolition derby; it seems unlikely to me that a good idea of which vessels were fighting each other can be drawn from the primary sources Gudmestad is principally using. The author's lower degree of familiarity with land operations stands out in a few places (The capture of Fort Hindman was a rarity: federal gunboats stood up to a Confederate fort without the army's help and forced a surrender from p. 129 is particularly jarring since the army forces suffered over 1,000 casualties and directly assaulted the Confederate works during the Battle of Arkansas Post) but do not significantly detract from the book. This is the best overall treatment of this subject that I have read.