The Little Steamboat That Opened The Cracker Line

The Story of the USS Chattanooga, a “home-made” steamboat built by the Quartermaster Department in October 1863 to carry supplies to General Grant’s starving army at Chattanooga, Tennessee.  As told by Assistant Quartermaster William Le Duc, who “commanded”the Chattanooga.

By William G. Le Duc, Brevet Brigadier-General and Assistant Quartermaster, U.S.V.

In answer to the urgent demand of Rosecrans for reinforcements, the Eleventh Corps (Howard’s) and the Twelfth Corps (Slocum’s) were sent from the east to his assistance under command of General Hooker. Marching orders were received on the 22d of September, and the movement was commenced from the east side of the Rappahannock on the 24th; at Alexandria the troops and artillery and officers’ horses were put on cars, and on the 27th started for Nashville. On the 24 of October the advance reached Bridgeport, and on the 3d Hooker established headquarters at Stevenson, and Howard the headquarters of the Eleventh Corps at Bridgeport, then the limit of railroad travel, eight miles east of Stevenson.

At Bridgeport I found Captain Edwards, Assistant Quartermaster, from Detroit, preparing to build a steamboat to navigate the river, by mounting an engine, boiler, and stern-wheel on a flat bottomed scow, to be used in carrying and towing up supplies until the completion of the railroad.

I quote from my Diary:

Oct. 5, 1863.-General Hooker was over yesterday . . . and examined the little scow. He appreciated the probable importance of the boat, and ordered me to take it in hand personally and see that work was crowded on it as fast as possible. . . . We also looked over the grade of the Jasper Branch Railroad, which is above high-water mark, and must be used if supplies are sent on the north side of the river. He directed me to send him a report in writing, and a copy for General Rosecrans, of my observations and suggestions, and to go ahead and do what I could without waiting for written orders. I turned my attention to the boat. Captain Edwards has employed a shipbuilder from Lake Erie-Turner, an excellent mechanic, who has built lake vessels and steamers, but who is not so familiar with the construction of flat bottomed, light-draught river steamers. He has a number of ship and other carpenters engaged, with some detailed men from our own troops, making an efficient force. Men who can be serviceable as rough carpenters are abundant; not so with calkers, who will soon be needed, I hope. The frame of the boat is set on blocks, and is only five or six feet above the present water of the river. This mountain stream must be subject to sudden floods, which may make trouble with the boat.

Oct.16.– . . . I found Turner, the master mechanic, in trouble with the hull of the little boat. The planking was nearly all on, and he was getting ready to calk and pitch her bottom when I went to Stevenson. The water had risen so rapidly that it was within sixteen or eighteen inches of her bottom planks when I returned, and Turner was loading her decks with pig-iron that the rebels had left near the bridge-head. He thought he would thus keep the hull down on the blocking, and after the waters went down would then go on and finish.

“But,” I said, “Turner, if the planking gets wet, you cannot calk and pitch until it dries.” “That’s true; and it would take two weeks, and may be four, to dry her after she was submerged, and who knows how high it may rise and when it will abate!” “Then, Turner, what’s the use of weighing it down with pig-iron. Rosecrans’s army depends on this little boat: he must have supplies before two weeks, or quit Chattanooga. Can’t you cross-timber your blocks, and raise the hull faster than the water rises?” “No; I’ve thought of that, and believe it would be useless to try it. Captain Edwards and I concluded the only thing we could do was to weigh it down with pig-iron, and try to hold it, but if the water rises very high it will be swept away, pig-iron and all….. . I went rapidly over to Edwards’s tent . . . and found him in his bunk, overcome by constant work, anxiety, and despair. . . In answer to my question if nothing better could be done than weigh the hull down with pig-iron he said, “No; I’ve done all I can. I don’t know what the water wants to rise for here. It never rose this way where I was brought up, and they’re expecting this boat to be done inside of two weeks, or they will have to fall back!” I turned from his tent, and stood perplexed, staring vacantly toward the pontoon-bridge. I saw a number of extra pontoons tied to the shore – flat bottomed boats, 10 to 12 feet wide and 30 feet long, the sides 18 inches high.  I counted them, and then started double-quick for the boatyard, halloing to Turner, “Throw off that iron, quick! Detail me three carpenters: one to bore with a two-and-half or three-inch anger, and two to make plugs to fill the holes. Send some laborers into all the camps to bring every bucket, and find some careful men who are not afraid to go under the boat and knock out blocks as fast as I bring them down a pontoon.”

26th.-Work on boat progressing favorably; as many men are at work on her as can be employed.

Extract from a letter dated Nov. 1st, 1863:

“There’s a light ahead now, Davis, on the north shore.”

“Yes, and another on the south, I think.”

“One or both must be rebels’ campfires.

Extracted from:  Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. III
1884-1888