By Scott Valentine
Ever since the Army of the Mississippi had been diverted to Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck’s campaign against Corinth, Miss., the Union’s Western Gunboat Flotilla had been at anchor a few miles above Fort Pillow, Tenn. It consisted of seven ironclads and a mortar boat division. It’s orders were to harass Fort Pillow. Each morning, a mortar boat towed into position below Plum Point Bend shelled Fort Pillow’s defenses.
At 5 a.m. on May 10, 1862, the ironclad Cincinnati towed Mortar Boat No. 16 through the morning haze to a position near Craighead Point. An hour later, it commenced firing shells at the defenses of Fort Pillow. Second Master Thomas B. Gregory had charge of No. 16—his first independent command. The 47-year-old Canada native had seen prior service as the Cincinnati’s carpenter.
Soon after opening fire, Gregory heard the unmistakable huff, huff, huff of steam engines coming from the direction of Fort Pillow. The sounds belonged to the Confederate River Defense Fleet gunboats. The vessels were outfitted with rams and clad in cotton bales.
In his official report, Gregory described what happened next, “After firing five shells the enemy’s gunboats rounded the point above the fort in full view and not more than three-fourths of a mile distant. I at once trained my mortar upon them, loaded for that short range, and fired, bursting my shells directly over them. I continued that practice during the engagement that ensued, which lasted about forty minutes, in which our whole fleet of gunboats were engaged as also were theirs.”
The Cincinnati couldn’t get up steam in time to come to Gregory’s aid as a Confederate gunboat bore down on the helpless No. 16. The cottonclad “came within 60 feet of the mortar boat and fired two 32-pound shot through the iron blinds, and two volleys of musketry, which did not penetrate,” reported Capt. Henry Maynadier, who commanded the mortar boat division.
While the battle raged, Gregory fired a total of 57 rounds. Finally, he noted, “The enemy retired, with what damage I do not know.” No injuries were reported. Gregory and his crew were praised for their fighting spirit and coolness under fire.
The fight went down in history as the Battle of Plum Point Bend.
Gregory went on to become an acting lieutenant, perhaps for his actions at Plum Point Bend, and to command three tinclads: the Juliet, a sternwheeler, the Little Rebel, a single-screw steamer ram, and the St. Clair, a single-screw steamer. Assigned to guard supply convoys during the Red River campaign, Gregory commanded the St. Clair when it engaged a rebel shore battery near Eunice’s Bluff, La. Gregory exchanged fire with the battery until the transports he escorted were out of the range of the enemy.
Gregory survived the war and died in Oregon in 1878 at age 63.
Scott Valentine is a MI Contributing Editor.
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