CSS WEBB’S RUN FOR THE SEA

The 206-foot sidewheel steamboat William H. Webb started her career as a coastal steamer in New York in 1856.  She fell into Confederate hands in 1861 and was converted to a ram a year later.  Lacking plate iron to protect her boilers, her outfitters “armored” her nevertheless with layers of cotton bales stacked around her mechanical spaces.  Her bow-mounted 130-pounder Rodman gun and two 12-pounder howitzers, along with a spar torpedo on a long pole from her bows, suited her for operations against Union gunboats on the Mississippi.  But after the fall of Vicksburg in July 1863 the Union Navy completely controlled the Mississippi.  CSS WEBB found herself trapped in Louisiana’s Red River by Union gunboats waiting at its confluence with the Mississippi.

The Confederacy was in its waning months by the time LT Charles W. Read, CSN, volunteered himself to President Jefferson Davis.   Impressed with WEBB’s phenomenal 22 knots speed, Read arrived in early April in Alexandria, Louisiana, and labored for three weeks to muster a crew and provision the vessel for duty.  He became increasingly frustrated over news of the surrender of Lee at Appomattox and wrote to President Jefferson Davis of his plan tomake a last-ditch dash to the open sea.  On this afternoon of 23 April his preparations were complete.

Read’s departure from Alexandria was timed to arrive at the Mississippi after sunset, and at 2030 WEBB charged into the “Father of Waters” under a full head of steam.  The sudden arrival of the white-painted sidewheeler took the three blockading Union gunboats by surprise.  The confusion was deepened as Read displayed a Union ensign, correctly flown at half-mast out of respect for President Lincoln’s recent death.  By the time the Federals discerned the situation, WEBB had a considerable downstream lead.  Read charged down the Mississippi at frightful speed in a chase that followed, estimated by some at up to 25 knots.  He stopped only once to cut telegraph wires along the bank and outdistanced the Union ironclads USS TENNESSEE and MANHATTAN and the gunboats SELMA and QUAKER CITY that were overtaken by surprise.  He reached New Orleans in three hours, running this city at midnight against the fire of Union gunboats that had been forewarned.  The unshaken Read now broke the Confederate ensign and plunged onward.

But 25 miles further Read reached his bitter end.  Running upon the powerful guns of the Union screw frigate USS RICHMOND and leading a flock of pursuing gunboats, Read set WEBB ablaze and ran her aground.  He and his crew were quickly rounded up before sunrise, ending this last significant action of the Confederate Navy in home waters.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  28 APR 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Clark, Charles E.  My Fifty Years in the Navy.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1984, p. 65.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, p. V-92.

Luraghi, Raimondo.  A History of the Confederate Navy.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1996, pp. 339-40.

Silverstone, Paul H.  Warships of the Civil War Navies.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, p. 231.

Trudeau, Noah Andre.  Out of the Storm:  The End of the Civil War, April-June 1865.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1994, 336-38.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  WEBB was hit only three times in this five-hour chase.  Her only noteworthy damage was to the rigging of her spar torpedo, which had to be jettisoned.  This loss of the spar torpedo may have influenced Read’s decision to scuttle the steamer rather than tackle USS RICHMOND.

Contemporary Union accounts of this episode downplay the surprise they experienced and concentrate rather on the speed of WEBB.  Ironically, despite accounts to the contrary, WEBB’s appearance had probably surprised RICHMOND as well, the latter being unprepared to offer resistance.

Charles William “Savez” Read graduated last in his US Naval Academy class of 1860.  A Mississippi native, he joined the Confederacy after Fort Sumter.  His class rank at the Academy belies his conduct as a Naval officer.  His daring raids and surprising successes earned him the nickname “Seawolf of the Confederacy.”

Lee surrendered at Appomattox on 9 April, and by this date the Civil War was all but over.  Read’s men were captured and subjected to public display in New Orleans before being paroled to return to their homes.  Two days later, on 26 April, General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the last Confederate force of consequence, the Army of Tennessee, in Greensboro, North Carolina.

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