USS Mississippi (USN Card 23) “Largest Ship in the U.S. Navy”- Perry’s Flagship

The Ships of Rebel Raiders    - The Men o’War

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

USS Mississippi (USN Card 23) “Largest Ship in the U.S. Navy”- Perry’s Flagship

......and the bane of Confederate Coffee Drinkers!

When Commodore Matthew Perry went to Japan he wanted to make a big impression – and so he chose the biggest vessel he could find for his flagship.  At over 3,300 long tons, in 1861 the USS Mississippi (USN Card 23) was easily the largest ship in the fleet.  Having served in the Mexican War, she was also already a veteran combatant. 

As the Civil War broke out, USS Mississippi was sent to blockade Key West, and within less than a week on station, captured an inbound blockade runner packed with Brazilian coffee (a highly-prized commodity the South would do without for four years). The massive warship was then sent to the mouth of the river whose name she bore -  and while on blockade duty captured another coffee ship, thus depriving the Confederacy of much-needed caffeine.

When David Glasgow Farragut took on Forts Jackson and St. Phillip in April 1862, USS Mississippi was with him – and it was two massive broadsides from her huge Paixhans Guns that wrecked the Confederate ironclad ram, CSS Manassas. (CSN Card 71).  (Farragut is a leader counter in the game and appears on three cards – giving strategic and tactical advantages on USN Cards 33 and 1, respectively, and with his presence on the map allowing play of the card marking his flagship, USS Hartford – USN Card 37).

Despite protestations by Captain Melancton Smith that her displacement and length made her unsuited for operations upriver, in March 1863 Farragut sent her to support the attack on Port Hudson. As Smith feared, she grounded while under enemy fire.  Smith and his exec, George Dewey (of Manila Bay fame over 40 years later), struggled mightily to refloat her – but Confederate gunners could not miss this huge, immobilized target.  Smith finally gave the order to scuttle her – and when the fires he set reached her magazine, the largest ship in the U.S. Navy became a part of the river with which she shared her name.

The Ships of Rebel Raiders - The Ironclads

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

Part III – The Rebel Ironclads: CSS Manassas  - Dewey and the 1st Rebel Ironclad

The cigar-shaped turtle-shelled iron-sheathed ram CSS Manassas (CSN Card 71 in Rebel Raiders on the High Seas) “amounted to the war’s first ironclad,” says Princeton professor and noted historian James McPherson in his new book, War Upon the Waters. 

The former Mississippi River towing boat was one of three ironclads the South was hurriedly constructing at New Orleans in the late winter and early spring of 1862.  When the Union fleet began to steam upriver, however, only one – CSS Manassas – was ready for action.  (CSS Mississippi was under construction and although CSS Louisiana was fully armed her engines were not working properly – so she was towed downriver to serve as an armored floating battery). 

On April 18 the Union began bombarding Forts Jackson and St. Philip, and on the 24^th the West Gulf Squadron under Farragut (USN Card 1) aboard USS Hartford (USN Card 37) made its move.  The CSS Manassas went out to meet them, supported by half a dozen little gunboats and rams and some fire rafts.  Farragut saw the fearsome monster and signaled to Captain Melancton Smith aboard USS Mississippi (the largest ship in the U.S. Navy, and USN Card 23) to “run her down.”

In their game of “naval chicken” the commander of the ironclad blinked first, and as he veered off the mighty USS Mississippi riddled her with a broadside at 50 yards.  The solid shot pierced her boilers, and CSS Manassas caught fire and sank.

Little Known Fact:  conning the USS Mississippi was a young, 24-year-old lieutenant – George Dewey, of “You may fire when ready, Gridley” fame at Manila Bay in 1898.

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,  

July 8, 1863 – The Surrender of Port Hudson:  The Father of Waters Runs Free

            Historical Event:   The fall of Vicksburg greatly impacted the morale of the defenders of Port Hudson, the last major Confederate fortification on the Mississippi.  After months of siege by General Nathaniel Banks’ Union forces, Confederate General Franklin Gardner finally agreed to surrender his hungry, beleaguered garrison of 6,000 – less than half of whom were deemed fit to hold a rifle. 

            Gardner and his men had fought well – repulsing numerous attempts by the Union Navy to pass the batteries.   They scored a signal success on March 14, 1863 when they sank the USS Mississippi (which appears in the game as USN Card 23).  She was lost when Admiral Farragut (who appears as a leader in the game as well as on USN Card 1- Damn the Torpedoes- and USN Card 33 – The Grand Fleet) tried to fight his way past the batteries, lashing ironclads to one side of his big ships for their protection, and transports and supply ships to the far side for theirs.  Only the USS Hartford  (his flagship, which appears in the game as USN Card 37) made it past the guns on the bluffs.

            (See the illustration below: Color depiction of the Seige of Port Hudson during the Civil War entitled, "Battle of Port Hudson" published by L. Prang & Co., Boston, c.1887)

            The fall of Port Hudson opened the last 40 miles of river to the Union, thus allowing Lincoln to proclaim that as of this date “The Father of Waters Flows Unvexed to the Sea.”

            Game Connection:   Although due to the scale of the map Port Hudson itself is not in the game (it is represented along with its sister fortress of Baton Rouge, which lies 25 miles downriver, by a space named for the later) the capture of the Mississippi in its entirety is represented.  Opening up the river not only fulfills one of the key Union conditions for victory, it also greatly increases the supply attrition roll for the South – a phase that bleeds the Confederacy of Victory Points earned through running the blockade and raiding.  As those Victory Points may also be traded in for additional forces (ironclads, batteries, counterattacks, more ships, cards), losing those additional points each turn due to the Union capture of the river makes it noticeably more difficult for the South – whose interior is now open to attack from Union armies marching east from the Mississippi ports.

           

            

Vive l'Empereur - and "Happy" Waterloo Day ...at 7 p.m. tonight the Old Guard goes up the hill....

Meanwhile...

Rebel Raiders Replay Turn 10 (Part 2) April 1864 - DuPont, Conqueror of the Mississippi

Designer Mark McLaughlin as CSA; Naval Historian Brandon Musler as USA

When we left off, the mighty CSS Alabama, upon whom the Confederacy (and Mark) had pinned their last hopes for doing ANYTHING at sea, was caught and sunk on her maiden voyage by the largest warship in the U.S. Navy - USS Mississippi.  Now it is the Union turn, and Brandon is turning his sights to another Mississippi - the river and the Rebel fortresses that dominate it at Memphis and Vicksburg...

It is 1864, and the Union has four dice now in combat.  Brandon knows the clock is ticking, and comes on strong.

He comes back at Memphis again but this time plays DuPont (Card 54) to gain a big advantage (Rebel Batteries only fire one, not two, dice in the first round of combat).  With 5 Ironclads and a Gunboat he faces a Rebel force of 2 Ironclads, 1 Gunboat and 3 Batteries.  Two Batteries are destroyed in the first round, along with an Ironclad and the Gunboat, at no loss to the North.  Mark retreats his remaining Ironclad, sending it down river to Vicksburg.   Brandon completes the destruction of the defenses of Memphis, which falls easily and at great cost in VP to the South.

The Union keeps going with its second Assault of the turn.  The Union has so many ships on the river it almost does not have space for them…so down to Vicksburg they come.   The single Rebel Ironclad that survived Memphis and the one Battery there are no match for five Yankee Ironclads – actually, six, as Brandon plays the Tyler (USN Card 18) turning his sixth ship, a Gunboat, into a virtual Ironclad for the brief battle.

Vicksburg falls.   The South is once again in the negatives in VP.

Unvexed to the Sea?

With Memphis and Vicksburg gone, the North needs only New Orleans to complete its conquest of the Mississippi.  Six Screw Sloops come up river from Forts Jackson and St. Philip.  One is lost to the Battery before the Union warships smother it in shot and shell.  Incredibly, however, despite the advantage in dice and Union Tactics – New Orleans holds!

Brandon then turns to hunting Raiders, fails to find any, and spends his builds to buy four Assaults and an Screw Sloops.  He draws four cards, as it is 1864 (the Union gets that fourth draw in 1863 turns).Two Ironclads and a free Gunboat are placed in the Navy Yards.

Rebel Raiders Replay  (Turn 10 –April 1864) -The Alabama and "Damn You, John Wayne"

Designer Mark McLaughlin as CSA; Naval Historian Brandon Musler as USA

When last we saw our valiant gamers at war, the North had swept the seas of Blockade Runners and had every Raider covered and surrounded.  Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the gateway to New Orleans, was burst open, but despite a massive force of Ironclads the Union could not blast away the Batteries at Memphis and assaults there and at Atlanta were both repulsed – narrowly, in ties, but repulsed still.

The South Holds and Now Alabama is in Play!

Although the old Blockade Runner fleet is no more, there are four new ones to try to bring home the desperately needed Cargo, along with five Raiders – four at sea and the Alabama ready to join them.

CSS Alabama is represented by a counter and a card (63).  Raiders get a plus 3 to the Speed Die Roll – making them hard enough to catch as it is – but Alabama gets one better!   There may be four Union Screw Sloops waiting off the Spanish port where Alabama has been readied for her maiden voyage, but Confederate confidence is high.

“Raphael Semmes is a Pirate We Say…”

Alabama was captained by the legendary Raphael Semmes, who had commanded the very first Raider (and only one to be armed in the South).  The Raider that begins the game in New Orleans at set up, is that vessel, the Sumter.   Unlike the real war, Sumter was caught on turn 1 (see turn one replay).  This time, however, Semmes has a better ship.

….unfortunately, Mark rolls a “1” when Alabama comes out to sea.  This is modified to a “5” – and while three of the four Union Screw Sloops roll less than that, one gets a “6” – and worse, it is no less a warship than USS Mississippi (Card 23), which, as the card correctly denotes, is the “Largest Ship in the U.S. Navy.”

Naval combat ensues.  Raiders get a single die, Screw Sloops two – although with Yankee Guns (Card 3) giving a re-roll of one die, this effectively gives the USS Mississippi a three-to-one dice advantage.  Worse, the most Alabama can score with her one shot is one hit – and Mississippi can ignore one hit in a battle.   Semmes’ only hope is that the Union ship misses and Alabama can then retreat and slip off into the night…

So how did the battle go?   Here is the song Brandon made up on the spot:

“Raphael Semmes is a pirate we say!

And we can prove it with his dead bo-day!”

More Bad News for the Confederate Navy

Their hearts broken by the demise of their hero and his fateful ship, the remaining four Raiders manage to scare up a mere two VP.  The four Blockade Runners fare worse: two get through with one VP each, and two others are captured.

Damn You, John Wayne.

In April 1863 Grant directed a Union colonel to take a brigade of cavalry behind Rebel lines to tear up railroads and burn supplies.  Grierson’s Raid was quite successful and one of the books written about it became the inspiration for the John Wayne 1959 movie, The Horse Soldiers.   Card 42 bears the same name.   Brandon plays it successfully at the start of the Confederate Turn 10 Build Phase, and as a result the South will build one fewer Battery this turn….

That single Battery goes – where else, but New Orleans.  Mark builds one Raider and buys a Counterattack, suspecting he will need it.