Battle of Lucas Bend

Porter's USS Essex (view after thorough refit in mid-1862, as an ironclad)

Date	January 11, 1862
Location	Lucas Bend, Mississippi River, Carlisle County, Kentucky
Result	Inconclusive, Confederate ships escape.

Belligerents

United States (Union)

CSA (Confederacy)

Commanders and leaders

Admiral Andrew Hull Foote
Cmdr. William D. Porter

Flag Officer George. N. Hollins
Cmdr. John Rodgers

Strength

Two ironclad gunboats

USS Essex
USS St Louis

Three cotton clad gunboats

CSS Jackson
CSS Ivy
CSS General Polk

One floating battery

CSS New Orleans

One on-shore battery at Columbus

Casualties and losses

None

Unknown

Two ironclad gunboats

Three cotton clad gunboats

One floating battery

The Battle of Lucas Bend took place on January 11, 1862 near Lucas Bend, four miles north of Columbus on Mississippi River in Kentucky as it lay at the time of the American Civil War. In the network of the Mississippi, Tennessee and Ohio rivers, the Union river gunboats under Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote and General Ulysses S. Grant sought to infiltrate and attack the Confederate positions in Tennessee. On the day of the battle, the Union ironclads Essex and St Louis, transporting troops down the Mississippi in fog, engaged the Confederate cotton clad warships General Polk, Ivy and Jackson towing the gun platform New Orleans at a curve known as Lucas Bend in Kentucky. The Essex, under Commander William D. Porter, and the St Louis forced the Confederate ships to fall back after an hour of skirmishing during which the Union commander (which one?) was wounded. They retreated to the safety of a nearby Confederate battery at Columbus, where the Union vessels could not follow.

The battle marked one of the first occasions where timberclad warships were convincingly outclassed by the newer ironclad warships, and it would be one of the last naval engagements to see timberclad warships perform a major role. The term timberclad is usually reserved for the Union ships Lexington, Tyler, and Conestoga which had heavy timber attached as 'armor'. Most Confederate gunboats used cotton bales as their armor. See battle of Plum Run where Confederate 'timberclads' fought well against the ironclads.

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Wikipedia