Island Number Ten, Operations at
ISLAND NUMBER TEN, OPERATIONS AT
ISLAND NUMBER TEN, OPERATIONS AT. From 15 March to 7 April 1862, six ironclads and ten mortar boats commanded by Union flag officer Andrew H. Foote cooperated with twenty-five thousand men led by Major General John Pope in capturing Island Number Ten, located in the upper part of a triple bend of the Mississippi, fifty-five miles below Cairo, Illinois. It was protected by forty-nine guns on the island and—on the opposite Tennessee shore—by a floating battery of nine guns and twelve thousand men. The decisive factor was the running of the batteries at night by the Carondelet and Pittsburg, which enabled Pope's forces to cross the river south of the island and capture about half of the Confederate defenders. This operation was the first achievement in the campaign to divide the Confederacy by gaining control of the Mississippi.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Daniel, Larry J. Island No. 10: Struggle for the Mississippi Valley. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1996.
Charles LeeLewis/a. r.