February 28, 1862---The Battle of Island Number Ten

FEBRUARY 28, 1862:         

The Battle of Island Number Ten (Battle of The New Madrid Bend or Battle of The Kentucky Bend or The Battle of New Madrid). 

This nine day battle on the Mississippi River lasted from February 28 to April 8, 1862. The position, an island at the base of a tight double turn in the course of the river, was held by the Confederates, and was an excellent site to impede Union efforts to control the river, as attacking vessels would have to make a difficult and slow hairpin turn along the river course. Union forces began the siege of Island Number Ten in the wake of P.G.T. Beauregard’s abandonment of Columbus, Kentucky. 

Union troops came overland and occupied the town of Point Pleasant, Missouri, almost directly west of Island Number Ten and just south of New Madrid, which underwent a bombardment by big siege guns. 

The Confederate commander decided to evacuate the town after enduring only one day of bombardment. He removed most of his soldiers to Island Number Ten but abandoned much equipment, including the defenders’ heavy artillery. 

The Union, on the other hand, had a full squadron of gunboats that kept up a withering ‘round-the-clock fire for days. 

Union land troops also dug a canal across the neck of land forming the hairpin in the river, allowing troops and supplies to move more quickly and efficiently to the attack. 

Faced with attack from the river and from all landward sides, the garrison surrendered to the Union flotilla. 

Union casualties were light, being only 78 killed, wounded, captured or missing, while the Confederacy lost over 7,000 men, mostly made POWs.  

The defeat coincides with the Confederacy’s “Day of Public Prayer, Humiliation, and Fasting.”