RADM George Brown
TODAY IN NAVAL HISTORY
4 SEPTEMBER 1887
RADM GEORGE BROWN
On the moonless night of 14-15 February 1863, 27-year-old LCDR George Brown of the Union Navy’s Mississippi River Squadron took the sidewheel ironclad gunboat USS INDIANOLA south toward Vicksburg. His mission was a daring run past the vaunted Confederate batteries at Vicksburg. He towed two coal barges in case any Union warships downstream were in need of resupply. The trio passed half the batteries before their presence was detected in the darkness, and no shots struck the gunboat. Six days later Brown started back upstream. The night of 24 February found INDIANOLA at Palmyra Island, north of Grand Gulf, Mississippi. Here about 2130, lights were noted in pursuit.
CSS WEBB, DR. BEATTY, GRAND ERA and the former Union gunboat QUEEN OF THE WEST, now in enemy hands, were gunning for Brown! QUEEN closed first, ramming and sinking one of the coal barges. Covering musket fire from DR. BEATTY allowed QUEEN and WEBB to repeatedly charge Brown. Recognizing that he had to keep INDIANOLA’s vulnerable sidewheels from being struck, Brown lingered exposed on the deck to direct his pilot. At times he knelt on a ventilation grating to communicate instructions to the engine spaces below, with Confederate minié balls whizzing all around! On several occasions as the rams closed, Brown directed the fire of his gunners, aiming and discharging one gun himself. None of the Union sailors had seen action before this night, and the darkness only added to the near-panic aboard the overwhelmed INDIANOLA. Brown coolly directed his gunboat’s response for a terrifying hour. Then QUEEN succeeded in ramming from the stern, carrying away the Union rudder and punching through her hull. When a second ramming blow parted the starboard sidewheel shaft and smashed a second hull breach, INDIANOLA became unmanageable. Two and a half feet of water rapidly flooded the bilges, forcing Brown at 2320 to run INDIANOLA onto the shore. She came to rest on a sand bar just south of Palmyra Island, where, having lost only two casualties, Brown’s crew destroyed the signal books and valuable gear.
LCDR Brown and INDIANOLA were captured. He was exchanged months later in Richmond and went on to command USS ITASCA at the battle of Mobile Bay. After the Civil War he sailed the former CSS STONEWALL to Japan, upon the sale of that vessel. He was promoted to CAPT in 1877 and commanded the Department of Alaska. While overseeing the Norfolk Navy Yard this date he was promoted to Commodore. He went on to command our Pacific Station in the Philippines until his promotion to RADM in 1893. Then, following a second tour as Commandant of the Norfolk Navy Yard, RADM Brown retired 19 June 1897, his 62nd birthday.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 11-12 SEP 22
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Cogar, William B. Dictionary of Admirals of the U.S. Navy, Vol 1 1862-1900. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, pp. 21-22.
“Report of Acting Assistant Surgeon Mixer, U.S. Navy, late of the U.S.S. Indianola, regarding the operations and capture of that vessel.” IN: Stewart, Charles W. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol 24, Naval Forces on Western Waters from January 1, to May 17, 1863. Washington, DC: GPO, 1911, pp. 392-95.
Site visits. Vicksburg, and Grand Gulf Military Monument State Park, Mississippi, 15 October 2003.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: RADM Brown passed away before WWI in 1913. Our Navy has not yet named a warship for RADM Brown. In fact, deconflicting several Navy men bearing the name “George Brown” can be complicated. Brown’s son, George, Jr., as well as a second son named Hugh, both served as US Navy officers. LTJG George Peter Brown (unrelated) was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his actions at the Battle of the Philippine Sea in 1944. The Fletcher-class destroyer BROWN (DD-546) remembers an earlier and unrelated enlisted sailor also named George Brown, a hero of the Barbary Wars.
INDIANOLA’s loss thwarted RADM David Dixon Porter’s efforts to blockade the Red River, south of Vicksburg. The Red River was a pathway for the resupply of Vicksburg from the Trans-Mississippi theater. At the time Porter’s squadron was stuck north of that city, and he had been detaching warships to run past the city to blockade the mouth of the Red River. The loss contributed to Porter’s near-disastrous foray up the Red River in March-May 1864. INDIANOLA remained grounded until January 1865, when Union salvors refloated her after much effort. She was sold for scrap.
The run past Vicksburg was formidable. In Civil War days the Mississippi River ran directly in front of the bluffs of the city, then made a hairpin turn to double back past the city a second time within gun range. Since, the river has carved a new bed, but from the bluffs today, one can still see the trace of the former channel past the city.
