This day 150 years ago in Rebel Raiders’ History

-Dedicated to Civil War episodes, battles, people and ships that also appear in my game, GMT’s Rebel Raiders on the High Seas,  

A Bad Day on the Mississippi....Union attacks repulsed; Ironclad USS Cincinnati sunk

May 27, 1863

            Historical Event:   Bad day on the Mississippi.   Bank’s ground assault on Port Hudson repulsed with heavy losses.  Porter’s fleet duels with Vicksburg batteries – USS Cincinnati sunk.

            May 27, 1863 was a bad day for the Union on the Mississippi River.  General Nathaniel Banks’s ill-conceived plan to rush the Rebel lines at Port Hudson resulted in the decimation of his army.  After losing nearly 1,850 dead and wounded, Banks called off the attack and resumed his siege.

            At Vicksburg, David Dixon Porter led a powerful force of ironclads to bombard Fort Hill, the city’s chief bastion on the water.  The at first inconclusive pounding turned to tragedy, as Rebel gunners sunk the USS Cincinnati  (pictured below, courtesy of  U.S. Naval Historical Center; the “action” shot is from the new stamp issued last week by the U.S. Postal Service).

            Game Connection:  Vicksburg is one of the key ports on the Mississippi the Union must take to win Rebel Raiders on the High Seas.  Due to the scale of the map Port Hudson itself is not shown, but is represented by the fort space at Baton Rouge, which incorporates both important locales between Vicksburg and New Orleans.

            Porter (USN Card No. 2) is represented as a leader and a card in the game, and counters represent his ironclads and other warships, as well as the Rebel ships and batteries, like that upon Fort Hill, with which they contended for mastery of the great river.