November 4, 1864 Friday “… that devil Forrest was down about Johnsonville and was making havoc among the gun-boats and transports,” wrote Gen Sherman when he heard of Forrest on the Tennessee River. Paddle-wheelers U.S.S. Key West, commanded by Acting Lieutenant King, U.S.S. Tawah, commanded by Acting Lieutenant Goudy, and small steamer U.S.S. Elfin, commanded by Acting Master Augustus F. Thompson, were destroyed after an engagement with Confederate batteries off Johnsonville, Tennessee, along with several transport steamers and a large quantity of supplies. Acting Lieutenant King, in command of the naval group, was patrolling the river and protecting the Union depot and headquarters at Johnsonville as the forces of Confederate General Forrest suddenly struck the city. On 3 November, King discovered a strong Confederate field battery emplaced to command a narrow channel in the Tennessee River between Reynoldsburg Island and the west bank two miles below Johnsonville. Confederate gunboat Undine, lately captured from the Union, twice attempted on the 3rd to lure King and his gunboats downriver in range of the batteries without success. On the morning of 4 November, Undine again came upriver from the Confederate batteries, and this time King took his three ships down to engage her. At about the same time, Lieutenant Commander Fitch, commanding U.S.S. Moose and five other small steamers, Brilliant, Victory, Curlew, Fairy, and Paw Paw, approached the downstream side of Reynoldsburg Island, to support King. The Confederates burned Undine and opened on the Union gunboats with shore fire. Because of the narrowness of the channel and the commanding position occupied by the batteries, Fitch could not bring his ships closer to Johnsonville to aid Key West, Tawah, and Elfin, which had retired to a position off the town to protect the transports and supplies. The Confederates then moved their main batteries along the river to positions opposite Johnsonville, leaving sufficient guns to block Fitch's passage, and commenced a fierce bombardment of the gunboats, transports, and wharf area. After fighting for nearly an hour against great odds, King at last ordered his three riddled gunboats fired. Army Assistant Quartermaster Henry Howland, a witness to the action from ashore, described it: ". . . for nearly thirty minutes the cannonading was the most terrific I have ever witnessed. The gunboats fought magnificiently and continued firing for more than twenty minutes after they were all disabled, when Lieutenant Commander King was compelled to order them abandoned and burned." King and most of his men escaped to the waterfront, which by this time was itself a roaring inferno as Union officers put the torch to supplies on the wharves to prevent them from falling into Southern hands. The gunboats and transports were lost, but General Forrest was prevented from capturing them intact, and was thus unable to cross the river in force and capture Johnsonville. Instead, the Confederate commander, anxious to press his advantage, moved his batteries downstream to cut off Fitch and the gunboats below Reynoldsburg Island. Fitch, nevertheless, succeeded in withdrawing his forces safely. Confederates estimated the damage at $6,700,000. The Southerners did have to abandon their captured gunboat Undine, but they disrupted Thomas’ supply line and diverted forces he needed at Nashville. Union officers at Johnsonville were censured for negligence. On Nov 5 Forrest pulled away, unscathed, and headed south toward Hood by way of Corinth, Mississippi.
Maj Gen John C Breckinridge led a “miscellaneous force” from southwest Virginia into east Tennessee until Nov 17. He drove the Federals back to Strawberry Plains, Tennessee before he withdrew. William MacRae, CSA, and Peter Burwell Starke, CSA, are appointed to Brigadier General.
_________________ Gen Ned Simms 2/XVI Corps/AotT Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em. VMI Class of '00
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