10 was supposed to be the bolt on the door barring Union descent of the Mississippi but once that lock was broken the Confederacy could never close it again. Memphis fell in early June and no southern stronghold remained north of Vicksburg. 10 ended the struggle for control of the upper river. The South could never formulate a strategy to keep federal gunboats from achieving total dominance, and repeatedly sacrificed large garrisons attempting to defend the Mississippi. Southern hopes that a traditional static defense consisting of heavy cannon mounted in earthen forts would present an impassible barrier failed as muzzle-loading artillery could not fire with enough accuracy or speed to prevent steam-driven targets from running past. 10 was the Confederacy’s inability to build a river navy that could challenge Union vessels for control of the water. Federal forces occupied New Madrid and Island No. Heavy guns and several partially scuttled and damaged Confederate transports were also seized. Again, considerable military materiel was captured along with 4,500 men while the Federals suffered only a handful of casualties during the entire campaign. Union gunboats then cut off the Confederate line of retreat as Pope’s infantry advanced and captured the fleeing garrison, and on April 8 the remaining Confederates surrendered the island to Foote. On April 7 the two ironclads drove off scattered Confederate forces allowing Pope to transport his infantry to the east bank of the Mississippi. The siege was a stalemate by the beginning of April, so Foote reluctantly agreed to run past the island’s batteries at night with one ironclad passing on April 4 and a second on April 6 rendezvousing with Pope’s infantry below Island No. This included a labor-intensive attempt to build a canal to circumvent the island. 10 batteries in earnest on March 17 with little effect on either side and settled into a siege. On March 15 a federal ironclad flotilla arrived under the command of Flag Officer Andrew Foote. The Confederates abandoned New Madrid on March 13 leaving behind significant military materiel. Pope took up positions in front of New Madrid and below and opposite Island No. By mid-March the Confederates had mounted 52 canons on the Island and nearby Tennessee shore, The Confederate garrison at New Madrid numbered 3,000 and an improvised Confederate naval squadron took position near the island. ![]() At the same time the first Confederate troops arrived at Island No. 10 in February 1862 and Pope assembled the Army of the Mississippi, nearly 25,000 men to do so. Major General Henry Halleck ordered General John Pope to capture Island No. 10 only really began after General Albert Sydney Johnston’s western defensive line collapsed in mid-February 1862. The Union not only had to assemble armies, they had to design and build an entirely new type of gunboat fleet while the Confederacy had to formulate a strategy and construct defenses able to protect territory stretching from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River with limited men and material. The campaign for the island confronted both sides with significant challenges in assembling and coordinating joint army-navy forces and balancing their sometimes-divergent goals. 10 (a spit of land a mile long and 450 yards wide, so named because it was the tenth island south of the juncture of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers), it was the site of the first of three important Union victories that wrested possession of the Mississippi Valley and the nation’s most vital waterway from Confederate control. Although time and the shifting currents of the Mississippi River have long ago demolished Island No.
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