CSS Colonel Lovell
{{Short description|Ram used by the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War}}
{{Distinguish|CSS General Lovell}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=Confederate States |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Confederate States of America|1861}} |Ship name=Colonel Lovell |Ship namesake= |Ship ordered= |Ship builder= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=1843 |Ship acquired=1861 |Ship commissioned=1861 |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship struck= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship homeport= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honors= |Ship fate=Rammed and sunk, 6 June 1862 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship type=Side-wheel cotton-clad ram |Ship tonnage= {{convert|521|LT|t|0|lk=in|abbr=on}} |Ship length= {{convert|162|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam= {{convert|30|ft|10|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship draft= {{convert|11|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship propulsion=Steam engine, side paddle wheels |Ship speed= |Ship complement= |Ship armament= |Ship armor= |Ship notes= }} |
File:Memphis-naval-battle.jpg, CSS Colonel Lovell is sinking at right.]]
CSS Colonel Lovell was a cotton-clad ram ship of the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War
Service history
The ship was built in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1843, as Hercules, and was owned by the Ocean Towing Co. of New Orleans. She was taken over in 1861 by General Mansfield Lovell, commanding the New Orleans military district, and converted to a cottonclad ram by installation of double pine bulwarks filled with compressed cotton and one-inch iron plates on each bow. She operated under the direction of the Confederate War Department and was attached to the Mississippi River Defense Fleet, commanded by Commodore J. E. Montgomery, a former river steamboat captain.
=Battle of Plum Point Bend=
On 10 May 1862, while operating off Fort Pillow, Tennessee, in defense of the river approaches to Memphis, Colonel Lovell, in company with seven of Montgomery's vessels, attacked the ironclad gunboats of the Federal Mississippi Flotilla. The action of Plum Point Bend which followed witnessed successful ramming tactics by the Confederates, though each of their vessels mounted at least four 8-inch guns. The Federal gunboats {{USS|Cincinnati|1861|6}} and {{USS|Mound City|1862|6}} were run on the banks in sinking condition. Later, Montgomery's force held off the Federal rams and gunboats until Fort Pillow was successfully evacuated on 1 June, and the Confederate rams fell back on Memphis to take on coal.
=First Battle of Memphis=
Following the Federal capture of Fort Pillow Flag Officer Charles Henry Davis, USN, commanding the Mississippi Flotilla, pressed on without delay and appeared off Memphis with superior force on 6 June 1862. Included in his force were two of the Federal Army's rams, commanded by Colonel Charles Ellet, Jr. Montgomery, unwilling to retreat to Vicksburg because of his shortage of fuel and unwilling to destroy his boats, determined to fight against heavy odds. In the engagement that followed, one of Colonel Lovell{{'}}s engines malfunctioned and she became unmanageable. She was then rammed amidships by {{USS|Queen of the West|1854|6}}, and immediately struck again by {{USS|Monarch|1862|6}}, both of the Ellet fleet. Colonel Lovell sank in deep water in the middle of the river. Capt. J. C. Delancy and a number of his crew were able to swim ashore.
References
- {{DANFS|https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/confederate_ships/colonel-lovell.html}}
{{CSN cottonclad rams}}
{{1862 shipwrecks}}
{{coord missing|Tennessee}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colonel Lovell}}
Category:Cottonclad rams of the Confederate States Navy
Category:American Civil War shipwrecks in the Mississippi River
Category:Shipwrecks of the American Civil War
Category:Ships sunk in collisions