USS Lexington (1861) - Red River

Red River

The Confederate defenders were driven off at Simmesport and General Smith's troops marched on Fort De Russy, Louisiana, which was taken by the combined land and naval forces on 14 March 1864. The next day Lexington with gunboat Ouachita, followed by the Eastport, pushed on toward Alexandria, Louisiana, chasing Confederate steamers fleeing toward safety above the Alexandria rapids; but the Union ships arrived less than an hour too late to capture six steamers which had succeeding in getting over the falls. Confederate steamer Countess which grounded in flight and a barge left behind were burned to prevent capture. The army transports arrived the next day and troops were landed to occupy that town.

On 7 April Lexington and five other gunboats steamed over the falls toward Shreveport, Louisiana, to support General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks who was advancing up the valley. Three days later the hulk of steamer New Falls City, sunk in a narrow stretch of the river near Springfield Landing, Louisiana, blocked the progress of the expedition. Before this obstruction could be removed, word arrived from Major General Banks of his defeat at the Battle of Sabine Crossroads near Grand Encore and retreat toward Pleasant Hill. The transports and troops of Brig. Gen. T. K. Smith were ordered to return to the major force and join Banks. The high point of the Union's Red River campaign had been reached. From this point, with falling water levels and increased Confederate shore fire the gunboats would face a desperate battle to avoid being trapped above the Alexandria rapids.

Lexington silenced the shore battery but the Confederate cavalry poured a hail of musket fire into the rest of the squadron. The rebels fought with unusual pertinacity for over an hour, delivering the heaviest and most concentrated fire of musketry. What Porter described as "this curious affair,...a fight between infantry and gunboats", was finally decided by the gunboats' fire, which inflicted heavy losses on the Confederates, including the death of their commander, General Thomas Green. This engagement featured the use of a unique instrument, developed by Chief Engineer Thomas Doughty of Osage and later described by Selfridge as "a method of sighting the turret from the outside, by means of what would now be called a periscope..." The high banks of the Red River posed a great difficulty for the ships' gunners in aiming their cannon from water level. Doughty's ingenious apparatus helped to solve the problem. Thus was the periscope, a familiar sight on modern gun turrets and on submarines, brought into Civil War use on the western waters.

Upon reaching Grand Encore the fleet faced a dangerous situation. The Red River, normally high until late June, had fallen so much that the gunboats could not pass over the rapids and it seemed that the better part of the Mississippi Squadron was doomed to destruction as the Union Army made plans for evacuation. However, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Bally USA, proposed a plan for building a series of dams across the rocks of the falls and raising the water. A center opening would let the ships ride out on the crest of the water. On 9 May 1864 the dam had nearly reached completion but the pressure of the water became so great that it swept away two stone barges which swung in below the dam on one side. Seeing this accident, Admiral Porter mounted a horse and rode up to where upper vessels were anchored and ordered Lexington to get underway.

Lieutenant Bache succeeded in getting Lexington over the upper falls, then steered her directly for the opening in the dam where the furiously raging waters seemed to promise only her destruction. She entered the gap in the dam with a full head of steam and pitched down the powerful torrent with several heavy rolls, hung for a moment on the rocks below, then reached the calm, deep water to the ringing cheers of some 30,000 voices. She was soon followed by the remainder of the vessels and the Union's valuable fleet was saved.

On 15 June 1864 Lexington seized the Confederate steamers Mattie, M. Walt and R. E. Hill, at Beulah Landing, Mississippi, with cotton on board. She repulsed an attack on White River Station, Arkansas, on 22 June 1864. For the rest of the war she continued patrol and convoy duty.

She arrived at Mound City, Illinois on 5 June 1865 and decommissioned there on 2 July 1865. Lexington was sold to Thomas Scott and Woodburn on 17 August 1865.