The Probert Encyclopaedia of Warfare

BATTLE OF MEMPHIS

During the American Civil War the city of Memphis, Tennessee was early held by the Confederates with a fleet of eight vessels under Commodore Montgomery. It was rendered defenceless and captured by the Federals on June the 6th, 1862. Commodore Davis left Fort Pillow on June the 4th, with nine Union vessels, and proceeded at once to Memphis, before which the Confederate fleet lay. An attack upon these ships was immediately begun. Four ram-boats under the Union commander, Ellet, joined Davis and did much toward destroying the Confederate fleet. Several of the Confederate ships had their boilers shot through and their crews scalded to death. Their fleet was utterly demolished.
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