Part Two: Down River from Port Hudson to Baton Rouge

Beginning April 16, 1862, the US Navy’s West Gulf Blockading Squadron under Flag Officer David Glasgow Farragut began a thunderous bombardment of the Confederate forts Jackson and St. Philip, guardians of the lower Mississippi River and the approaches to New Orleans, Louisiana. Seven nights later, on April 23, 1862, after a pitched river battle, Farragut‘s West Gulf Squadron steamed past the two forts.

Isolated, the forts surrendered on April 25^th.

That same day, New Orleans, largest and economically the most important city in the Confederacy, was occupied by the Union Army under General Benjamin Butler.

With the fall of New Orleans, coupled with the April 5th surrender of the Confederate stronghold at Island Number 10 near Tiptonville, Tennessee, Southern trade along the Mississippi River slowed to a trickle. Despite this, maintaining transport of materials, troops and supplies across the river was imperative in keeping contact with the Trans-Mississippi states of Texas, Arkansas and Missouri.

Towns along the Mississippi became the Confederate army’s defensive bastions, each one controlling a section of the Mississippi with infantry and artillery manning fortifications covering the crossing point on both sides of the river, with cavalry patrolling the roads in between.

Once New Orleans was in federal hands, the state capital at Baton Rouge surrendered as well. With the state capital’s fall, Farragut continued his ascent of the Mississippi River. His goal was to make contact and join with his counterpart Flag Officer Samuel Foote’s fleet of ironclad gunboats and rams coming downriver.

It is at this point that you, as the Inventor/creator of your “Infernal Machine” submersible, join the pages of history.

Farragut has taken New Orleans but, unlike the original builders of the fishboat, CSS “Pioneer,” you and your project team have not scuttled your creation and high-tailed it for Mobile, Alabama.Though the Mississippi south of New Orleans is closed to you, the River is still open to the north, which is where (in this version of history), you, your project team and your “fishboat” are heading. Many towns along the river are still in Confederate hands, towns that have wharves and machine shops that could serve as a base of operations for your underwater marvel.

The port of Baton Rouge would have been an excellent location for this, had not the state capital surrendered when New Orleans fell. Since the Yankees have occupied Baton Rouge in force, it falls to your Underwater Wonder to keep the Yankee navy at bay for as long as possible. Though there is a road network of sorts paralleling the Mississippi River and its valley, the road is at the river’s mercy, being frequently flooded or washed away when the Mississippi “takes a notion,” as the locals say.

This makes dependable river traffic the most highly sought-after form of local transport, and also the hardest to protect.

We begin our reconnaissance mission in:  

Port Hudson

Thirty five river miles north of Baton Rouge is Port Hudson, a major river port. The town is located on an outside elbow of the Mississippi River. Artillery batteries positioned on nearby bluffs command traffic up and down the river for several miles. Additionally, Port Hudson protects vital commercial traffic coming down the nearby Red River from western Louisiana and Texas. The town is an active railhead that connects with the rest of the Southern rail network.

Roos Landing

Traveling five miles south from Port Hudson on the Mississippi, our first stop is the landing at Roos plantation, just upriver from Bayou Clause.

In contrast to the elevated countryside around Port Hudson, the land around Roos plantation is low, sandy and heavily thicketed. At Roos Landing, the river is near to three fathoms deep (“Mark Three” in river parlance) in the main channel. Additionally, Roos Landing marks a fork in the Mississippi River’s course. The Confederate army maintains a look-out post here that communicates with the defenses at Port Hudson using a semaphore station.

Springfield Landing and Bayou Clause

Five miles south of Roos Landing, the Mississippi splits around an un-named island, passing Bayou Clause just inside the west fork, with Springfield Landing showing up three miles further south on the river’s eastern shore. A savvy captain has the choice of proceeding south either via the aforementioned Bayou Clause, or keeping to the east bank and fetching up at Springfield Landing. This split in the river’s course gives a returning boat captain a chance to lose any Yankee pursuers coming north, whether by road or by river.

Lobdell’s Landing

Eight miles further south, Union pickets based out of the old U.S. Army’s “Pentagon” Barracks at Baton Rouge are active. Mobile patrols on land and on the River have been sighted operating where the Mississippi takes a sharp “S”-curve just before the Lobdell plantation landing. The Mississippi is still plenty deep here, so running “Awash” while keeping to the main channel can still be your Captain’s best bet.

Wall’s Landing

Just three miles south of Lobdell’s plantation, Wall’s Landing is the furthest north that vessels from Farragut’s fleet have advanced up the Mississippi River. The shoaling of the river here has momentarily halted the Union Navy’s advance of her deep-draft screw-sloop warships.

While soundings are being taken to chart a safe course northward, the Yankee Navy’s powerful, shallow-draft river ironclads are the prey you will most readily encounter on this section of the Mississippi.

U.S. Barracks

Thirteen miles farther on is the Yankees’ current base of operations, housed in the old pentagonal-shaped U.S. Barracks. At nearly three-quarters of a mile from bank to bank, the Mississippi has widened noticeably since our departure from Port Hudson. Though a series of wing dams on this stretch narrow the focus of the River’s current and retard erosion, the looked-for goal of deepening the main channel to allow deep-draft vessels passage upriver is still elusive. Once again, the Union shallow draft ironclads are the most numerous prey to be found here.

Baton Rouge

A mile south is the end of our river junket; Baton Rouge, capital of the state of Louisiana and the main anchorage for the Union Navy’s West Gulf Blockading Squadron. The US Navy’s most powerful warships are anchored here within sight of the Louisiana Capitol Building, as are the transport ships filled with naval stores and other supplies…

… and definitely a “target-rich environment” for your Underwater Terror.       

(Note: All graphic images of Infernal Machine game materials used in this series of articles are subjective and may change and appear different in their final form.  All images show sourcing unless otherwise noted.)

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“Rocks & Shoals”: Navigating Infernal Machine’s New Orleans Action Board Part 1

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