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''Little Rebel'' was a cotton-clad ram that had been converted from a Mississippi River steamer to serve as the flagship of the Confederate River Defense Fleet in the American Civil War. Sent from New Orleans to defend against the Federal descent of the Mississippi, she was among the force that engaged vessels of the Union Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla at the Battle of Plum Point Bend on May 10, 1862. On June 6, she again was involved in an action with the Federal gunboats, this time at the Battle of Memphis. In the battle, a shot from a Federal gun pierced her boiler, disabling her, and she was then pushed aground by the Federal ram and captured. Subsequently repaired and taken into the Union Navy, she served through the remainder of the war, seeing only limited action. After the war, she was deemed surplus by the Navy Department. Sold, she reentered the merchant service, where she remained until 1874. ==Confederate service== ''Little Rebel'' was built as ''R. E. and A. N. Watson'' at Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, in 1859. She was acquired at New Orleans, Louisiana, by the Confederate Army in January 1862, and selected by Captain James E. Montgomery, a Mississippi River boatman, to be part of his River Defense Fleet. On January 25, 1862, Montgomery began her conversion to a cotton-clad ram by placing a 4-inch oak sheath with a 1-inch iron covering on her bow, and by installing double pine bulkheads filled with compressed cotton bales to protect her engines.〔ORA I, v. 10/1, pp. 38–39.〕 On April 11, ''Little Rebel''s conversion was completed and she steamed from New Orleans to Fort Pillow, Tennessee, where she operated in defense of the river approaches to Memphis. On May 10, 1862, off Fort Pillow, ''Little Rebel'', in company with seven other vessels under Captain Montgomery, attacked the ironclad gunboats of the Federal Western Gunboat Flotilla. The action of Plum Point Bend was marked by successful ramming tactics by the Confederates, but ''Little Rebel'', under Captain J. White Fowler, serving as Montgomery's flagship, was unable to get into the battle except with her guns. Brigadier General M. Jeff Thompson, CSA, who witnessed the battle said that ''Little Rebel'', under a shower of enemy missiles, "ran amid the storm as heedlessly as if charmed."〔ORN I, v. 23, p. 55.〕 Meanwhile, her guns supported Montgomery's other vessels which were ramming Union boats.〔Joiner, ''Mr. Lincoln's brown water navy,'' 63–67.〕 Later Montgomery's force held off the Federal rams and gunboats until Fort Pillow was evacuated on 1 June. Then the Confederate vessels fell back on Memphis to take on coal. Following the Federal capture of Fort Pillow, Flag Officer Charles Henry Davis, USN, commanding the Western Flotilla, pressed on without delay and appeared off Memphis with a superior force on June 6, 1862. The flotilla was accompanied by the Ellet rams, a separate group of vessels commanded by Col. Charles Ellet, Jr. Montgomery, unable to retreat to Vicksburg because of his shortage of fuel and unwilling to destroy his boats, determined to fight. In the ensuing Battle of Memphis, ''Little Rebel'' attacked the ram , one of the two rams to participate in the battle. The Confederate vessel was hit in her boilers by fire from and then was struck by ''Monarch'' and driven ashore by the blow. Her surviving crew fled to safety, abandoning ''Little Rebel''.〔Tucker, ''Blue and gray navies,'' pp. 146–148.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Little Rebel (1859)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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