Federal success at
Chattanooga made it important to patrol the
upper Tennessee River, and a number of small gunboats were built for that purpose.
They were actively engaged above Mussel Shoals in keeping open communications and convoying loaded transports.
The “
General Grant,” under
Acting Ensign J. Watson, with the other sturdy little vessels of the land-locked flotilla, aided in restoring order in the thinly settled districts along the river.
She and the “
General Burnside” engaged a battery which the
Confederates had erected above
Decatur, Ala., Dec. 12, 1864.
On the 22d the “
General Thomas” had a brush with some Confederate troops near the same place and they returned her fire with fury.
Early in January of 1865 the “
Grant,” single-handed, silenced Confederate batteries at
Guntersville and Beard's Bluff, Ala. Returning a few days later, she destroyed the entire town of
Guntersville as punishment for hostile demonstrations against the gunboats.
Thus these little vessels were kept busily at work till the close of the war. The “
General Sherman” was commanded by
Acting Master J. W. Morehead; her executive officer was
G. L. McClung, by whose courtesy these fine pictures appear here.
The vessels shown above, as they lay in the
Tennessee near
Bridgeport in March, 1865, are, from left to right, the “
General Sherman,” No. 60; the “
General Thomas,” No. 61; the “
General Grant,” No. 62; and the “
General Burnside,” No. 63; all named after the military leaders whose strategy had resulted in the recovery of
Tennessee to the
Union.
