Special Edition: The Deadliest Shot (June 18, 1862)
On June 18, 1862, Preston Bishop, serving as surgeon’s assistant on a hospital ship in Memphis, Tennessee, witnessed the return of the gunboat Conestoga, carrying the men who were wounded yesterday during the naval battle at Saint Charles, Arkansas. In what was described as the most deadly shot of the war, fire from a Rebel battery on a bluff overlooking the White River, struck the Mound City’s casement, pierced the armor plating protecting the ship, and punctured the ship’s pressurized steel drums scalding many of the sailors aboard. Bishop described the scene in a letter to his father: “They were brought up here to the Hospital Boat, and a more pitiful sight, I hope, I may never witness again, they were scalded awfully they could not get any medical attendance until they got here, many died on the way up and out of about 25 that were brought here there are about 10 or 15 yet alive…left to tell the tale.”
Bishop also described what happened to the survivors after the accident: “When the men jumped overboard to escape the Steam it was only to be Shot down by the Rebels while in the water, and this is the style of warfare, it is high time we were hoisting the Black Flag, they have threatened never to show us Gun Boat Boys any quarter.” Bishop’s account was verified by Captain Andrew M. Williams, who was serving as Chief of Engineers on Confederate General Thomas Hindman’s staff. Williams reported, “When the explosion took place the boat's crew jumped into the water and into boats to escape the scalding steam that was pouring out of every hole and crevice. I immediately ordered all the sharpshooters that remained in the field, about 20 in number, to the river bank to shoot them; numbers of them were killed in the water.”
Shortly after the battle, a correspondent from the Cincinnati Commercial traveling with the fleet jumped aboard the Mound City and described what he saw: “Here lay the bodies of 20 men scalded to death, others with their mangled bodies severed asunder by the fatal shot.” He added, “The gun deck was literally strewn with from 75 to 80 others, who, being badly scalded and horribly disfigured, were tearing off their clothing, and long strings of bleeding flesh dangling from their finger ends, hands, arms, and lacerated bodies, and with eyes burnt out.”
Lieutenant George M. Blodgett, U.S.N., a native of Huntington, Vermont, was commanding the timberclad Conestoga during the battle at Saint Charles. He also attempted to describe the dreadful scene in a letter home: “The victory was most dearly purchased; a shot having struck the Steam Chest of the Flag Ship Mound City, Capt. [Augustus H.] Kilty, scalding all but 25 out of a crew numbering 175 svg—100 have since died, 25 were either drowned or shot by the enemy while in the water struggling for life-boats were sent to the rescue of those in the water when were being utterly murdered by the Sharp Shooters from the shore.” Blodgett added, “My feeble power of description is not capable of describing the awful scenes that met my eyes upon boarding the ill fated vessel—I immediately sent all the medical assistance at my command who did everything in their power to relieve the wounded, still 50 died within 4 hours after the accident happened.”
The best Confederate account of the incident was written by Captain John W. Dunnington. A native of Kentucky, he resigned from the United States Navy in April 1861, and was appointed as a Lieutenant in the C.S.N. He took command of the Pontchartrain, a side-wheel paddleboat, in early 1862. The C.S.S. Pontchartrain was converted into a gunboat and operated at Columbus, Kentucky, New Madrid, Missouri, and Island No. 10 on the Mississippi River, before moving up the White and Arkansas Rivers. After the battle, Dunnington and most of his men escaped to Little Rock.
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