Today's classic warship, CSS, then later USS General Bragg
Sidewheel cottonclad gunboat
Displacement. 1,043 t.
Lenght. 208'
Beam. 32'8"
Draft. 12'
Speed. 10 k.
Armament. 1 30-pdr. r., 1 32-pdr., 1 12-pdr. r.
GENERAL BRAGG, originally MEXICO, was built at New York, N.Y., in 1851. She was owned by the Southern Steamship Co. before Maj. Gen. M. Lovell, CSA, under orders from Secretary of War J. Benjamin, impressed her for Confederate service at New Orleans, La., on 15 January 1862. Capt. J. E. Montgomery, a former river steamboat captain, selected her to be part of his River Defense Fleet and on 25 January ordered her conversion to a cottonclad ram with a 4-inch oak sheath and a 1-inch iron covering on her bow, and double pine bulkheads filled with compressed cotton bales.
On 25 March 1862 GENERAL BRAGG's conversion was completed and she was sent from New Orleans to Fort Pillow, Tenn., where she operated in defense of the river approaches to Memphis, Tenn. On 10 May 1862, off Fort Pillow, GENERAL BRAGG, in company with seven other vessels under Captain Montgomery, attacked the ironclad gunboats of the Federal Mississippi Flotilla. In the engagement of Plum Point Bend GENERAL BRAGG, Capt. W. H. H. Leonard, went into the lead and closed USS CINCINNATI. The Union ship retreated to shallow water, but GENERAL BRAGG pursued despite vicious fire from nearly the whole Union fleet and rammed CINCINNATI, preventing her further retreat. GENERAL BRAGG received CINCINNATI's broadside, and, as her tiller rope was cut, drifted down river out of action leaving GENERAL STERLING PRICE and GENERAL SUMTER to finish off the Union ship.
Later Montgomery's force held off the Federals until Fort Pillow was evacuated on 1 June. The Confederate rams then fell back on Memphis to take on coal. Following the Union capture of Fort Pillow, Flag Officer C. H. Davis, USN, commanding the Mississippi Flotilla, pressed on without delay and appeared off Memphis with a superior force on 6 June. Montgomery, unable to retreat to Vicksburg, Miss., because of his shortage of fuel, and unwilling to destroy his boats, determined to fight against heavy odds. In the ensuing Battle of Memphis on 6 June 1862, GENERAL BRAGG, called by Brig. Gen. M. Jeff Thompson, CSA. "the best and fastest" of Montgomery's vessels, was fired by a Union rifle shot bursting in her cotton protection. In the ensuing Union victory against the small Confederate force, GENERAL BRAGG grounded on a sand bar and was captured by Union forces, who, with great difficulty, managed to save her.
Following repairs, she entered Federal service and operated along the Mississippi River and its tributaries during the rest of 1862 and into 1863. GENERAL BRAGG was fitted out at Cairo, Ill., departing 9 July 1862 for Helena, Ark. She sailed 16 August 1862 as part of an escort to steamer Iatan carrying 500 troops to the mouth of the Yazoo for reconnaissance of Confederate batteries and guerrilla parties. For the next 15 months, except for periods of repair at Memphis, she patrolled the river from Helena to the mouth of the Yazoo River, where she guarded against Confederate movements toward Vicksburg. With the fall of Vicksburg in July 1863, GENERAL BRAGG remained in the vicinity until her departure 13 December, for her new station at the mouth of the Red River. During the spring of 1864, it was her duty to guard the mouth of the river in support of the joint expedition against Shreveport on the Red. She began patrolling the river again, and 15 June engaged a Confederate battery with Naiad near Tunica Bend, La. For a time the ships got the worst of the action amid a hail of shot and musketry, but eventually drove off the Confederates with the help of Winnebago. GENERAL BRAGG was disabled in the action.
The remainder of GENERAL BRAGG's career was spent patrolling the Mississippi from the mouth of the Red River to Natchez, Miss. Infrequently she cruised as far south as Baton Rouge and New Orleans. She was decommissioned on 24 July 1865 and sold in September. Renamed Mexico, she was employed for U.S. civilian purposes until 1870, when she was sold to foreign interests.