Civil War

For Yazooans the War Between the States at first seemed far away. For its first full year, though scores of Yazoo boys had already enlisted and many were fighting in distant Virginia, life at home went on quietly. And in those early, heady days of the conflict, most Yazooans expected things to remain that way.

Then in the Spring of 1862, in rapid succession, came stunning, sobering Confederate losses nearer home in the Western Theater. Union victories at Pea Ridge in Arkansas and Shiloh in Tennessee brought the war to Mississippi’s doorstep. The U.S. Navy entered the Mississippi River in force from both north and sough, quickly capturing New Orleans and Baton Rouge, then Memphis. With Vicksburg as President Lincoln’s next target, and Admiral Farragut steaming toward it, Yazoo City and Yazoo County, in the space of a few weeks, found themselves almost in the center of the storm.

During the rest of the war, the Yazoo River was controlled by Union gunboats, and Yazoo County saw many raids out of their Vicksburg stronghold by Federal Expeditions. Yazoo City itself was temporarily occupied six times.

A few of the most important military actions in Yazoo County were these:

On May 22, 1863, General U.S. Grant dispatched 12,000 troops to meet Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, who was said to be massing a large force to relieve Vicksburg. The Union troops were placed under General Frank Blair. In the Yazoo County village of Mechanicsburg, Blair met Colonel W. Wirt Adms’ Mississippi Calvary. Greatly outnumbered by the Union troops, the Confederates were forced back toward the Big Black River. Southeast of Mechanicsburg, the Confederates rallied and made one last attempt to stop the Union advance, but were outgunned by the Union artillery. However, the Union expedition returned to Vicksburg.

A historic event occurred on July 12, 1863, when one of the first underwater mines was used to sink the Union ironclad, the USS Baron DeKalb, which still rests on the bottom of the Yazoo River and can still be seen during times of low water. You can visit the gravesite of the designer of that mine in Glenwood Cemetery.

A Confederate Navy Yard at Yazoo City produced the Ironclad Ram CSS Arkansas in the summer of 1862, which single-handedly blazed its way into the midst of the huge Yankee fleet besieging Vicksburg. Causing great damage, it was among the reasons leading the U.S. Navy to call off the siege and return downstream.

A Yazoo native, Lt. Charles “Savvy” Read, who served at stern-gunner on the Arkansas, went onto a swashbuckling career as a Confederate privateer, once capturing 21 small ships in 21 days off the coast of New England until he was captured while attempting to hi-jack a Yankee vessel tied up to a dock in the harbor of Portland, Maine.

In February and early March 1864, a strong Union force out of Vicksburg occupied Yazoo City while raiding up the river for cotton, mules and other needed supplies. Almost half of the expedition was African-American troops of the First Mississippi Calvary (African descent) and Eighth Louisiana Infantry (African descent). In an effort to regain or destroy the booty being collected on the Yazoo City waterfront, some 1,300 Confederates, composed of Texas and Tennessee cavalry brigades commanded by General Sul Ross and R.V. Richardson, attacked the occupiers on March 5. Heavy fighting in the main streets of downtown Yazoo City left 31 Federal dead, 121 wounded and 31 missing. The Southerners losses were 6 dead and 51 wounded. The Union expedition hastily abandoned Yazoo City the next day.

On April 22, 1864, another surprising and most uncommon event occurred on the Yazoo River two miles upstream from Yazoo City. A Federal gunboat, the tinclad USS Petrel, tied up to the river bank near the mouth of Tokeba Bayou, was attacked and captured by a combat patrol from the 11th and 17th Arkansas Consolidated Mounted Infantry. Accurate fire from the opposite bank by two 10-pound Parrot rifles partially disabled the vessel, causing part of its crew to flee. Then Arkansas boys swimming across the swift-flowing muddy waters took their prize.

On May 19, 1864, Federal troops again came into Yazoo City and got out of hand. Despite the efforts of the provost guards, they burned the courthouse, the lawyers’ offices, and several dwellings.

By the last few months of the war, Yazoo County had been so overrun by the frequent raids of the enemy that there was little of value left and the county had practically no strategic value.