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Battle of Memphis

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The First Battle of Memphis was a naval battle fought on the Mississippi River on June 6 1862, during the American Civil War. It resulted in the Union fleet capturing the city of Memphis, Tennessee.

Battle

After defeating the Confederates at the Battle of Island Number Ten, the Union fleet was able to steam downriver to threaten Memphis. Opposing them was a small flotilla of makeshift crafts. Confederate gunboats, some of them converted paddleboats armored with cotton bales (colloquially known as "cottonclads"), were pitted against Union ironclads and rams. The battle lasted one and a half hours and was watched by the civilian population from the Chickasaw Bluffs. The Union fleet quickly captured or sank most of the Rebel forces, with the survivors retreating southwards down the river towards Vicksburg, Mississippi. Casualties were extremely lopsided with 180 Southerners killed or injured and only one casualty for the North. The battle ended with Union commanders landing at the city docks and taking control of Memphis, giving the Union army a port for moving supplies down the river.

Another Civil War military engagement also took place in Memphis, the Second Battle of Memphis in April 1864, when Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest led a nighttime cavalry raid on his hometown of Memphis with the intent of freeing Confederate prisoners and capturing Union generals encamped in Memphis. The raid failed in both goals, but forced the Union Army to guard the area more diligently.

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