USS Benton, Albumen Photograph of Brown Water Navy Ironclad Gunboat

Lot 158

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About Auction

American Historical Ephemera & Photography, Including African Americana:Premier Auction by Cowan's Auctions

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American Historical Ephemera & Photography, I...

By Cowan's Auctions

Jun 26, 2020

Set Reminder 2020-06-26 10:00:00 2020-06-26 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : American Historical Ephemera & Photography, Including African Americana:Premier Auction https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/cowans/american-historical-ephemera-photography-including-african-americana-premier-auction-5208 Cowan's Auctions is delighted to present the June 26 American Historical Ephemera and Photography Auction, including 55 lots devoted to the African American experience, over 175 lots dating from the Civil War Era, and more than 60 lots documenting life in the American West. Cowan's Auctions dawnie@cowans.com

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Lot Description

USS Benton, Albumen Photograph of Brown Water Navy Ironclad Gunboat

Oval albumen photograph, matted to 9.75 x 8 in., featuring the USS Benton. Uncredited, n.d.

USS Benton was taken up from the civilian trade, converted into a warship named after Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri and commissioned on February 24, 1862 into the Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla. One of that fleet's heaviest armed warships, she spent her entire career as the flagship of the Brown Water Navy hosting both Admirals David Porter and Andrew Foote. Benton first steamed into action at Island No. 10 during March-April 1862 followed by a fight at Plum Point Bend on May 10 where USS Cincinnati and USS Mound City were ambushed and sunk. Reinforced by Colonel Charles Ellet's flotilla of gunboats on June 6, Benton and her consorts engaged and routed a small Confederate squadron at the Battle of Memphis. In July Benton led a contingent to attack the Rebel ironclad CSS Arkansas near Vicksburg without success - low water during the high summer forced the shallow draft vessels to withdraw to deeper water above Vicksburg. In October 1862 the navy assumed command of all military vessels on the Mississippi with Benton assigned to patrol duty on the Yazoo River. During the opening stage of the Vicksburg Campaign in April 1863 Benton "led a nighttime charge past the guns" of the river bastion and was hit at least five times by Rebel batteries, one shot a large 10" shell that "split her casemate" causing casualties. Later in the month Benton steamed with seven ironclads to bombard enemy shore batteries at Grand Gulf, Mississippi. Once more a Confederate shell penetrated Benton's armor this time accounting for 25 men wounded. The Mississippi's reliably hazardous current then overwhelmed Benton's engines and she was swept downriver as the Federal bombardment continued. Benton returned to station off Vicksburg in May and maintained the intense cannonade of the besieged city until it finally capitulated on July 4. In April 1864 Benton participated in the ill conceived Red River Campaign, the unstated objective of which was to acquire a large supply of cotton to sell to Northern speculators while not so coincidentally lining the pockets of a handful of complicit federal officers. At Shreveport, Benton fired a volley from her forward battery during the attack on Fort DeRussy causing the fort to quickly surrender. The broader Red River campaign having quickly come apart, the army lurched into a disjointed retreat while the navy found itself once more dangerously stranded by low water. Only by means of an incredible engineering feat - involving sluice dams constructed at low points in river - was the navy able to "escape on the rush of high water." By 1865 the war was nearly over for the Brown Water Navy. USS Benton's last mission was a return to Shreveport in June to take possession of the surrendered ironclad CSS Missouri. The illustrious Benton was decommissioned at Mound City on July 20, 1865, stripped of armor and guns and sold out of service on November 29, 1865.

Provenance: The Richard B. Cohen Civil War Collection

Condition

Albumen sepia toned with strong clarity, undamaged mount edges showing moderate wear, G. Benton mount with significant glue residue from oval mat now missing, not effecting albumen.
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