View source for CSS General Beauregard

{{Short description|Confederate Navy ship}}{{More references|date=February 2024}}
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|Ship image= [[Image:Memphis h42367.jpg|300px|The Total Annihilation of the Rebel Fleet by the Federal Fleet under Commodore Davis (Lithograph)]]
|Ship caption=The ''General Beauregard'' (center right) rams the ''Monarch'' while other Confederate ships sink, burn, or run aground in the [[First Battle of Memphis]].
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{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship country=Confederate States
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Confederate States of America|1861}}
|Ship name=''General Beauregard''
|Ship namesake=General [[P.G.T. Beauregard]]
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|Ship launched=1847
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|Ship acquired=January 1862
|Ship commissioned=April 1862
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|Ship fate=Sunk at action, 6 June 1862
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{{Infobox ship characteristics
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|Ship type= [[Paddle steamer|Sidewheel]] [[Steamship|steamer]] 
|Ship tonnage={{convert|454|LT|t|0|lk=in|abbr=on}} 
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|Ship propulsion=[[Steam engine]], side wheels
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|Ship armament=4 × {{convert|8|in|mm|abbr=on}} guns
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'''CSS ''General Beauregard''''' was a [[Cottonclad warship|cottonclad]]  [[Paddle steamer|sidewheel]] [[Naval ram|ram]] of the [[Confederate States Navy]] during the [[American Civil War]].

Built in [[Algiers, New Orleans]] [[Louisiana]] in 1847 as a towboat, the paddle steamer ''Ocean'' was selected in January 1862 by Capt. James E. Montgomery, former river steamboat master, for his [[River Defense Fleet]]. At [[New Orleans]], on 25 January, Captain Montgomery began her conversion to a [[cotton-clad]] [[Naval ram|ram]], installing  {{convert|4|in|mm|adj=on}} oak and {{convert|1|in|mm|adj=on}} iron sheathing over her bow, with cotton bales sandwiched between double pine [[Bulkhead (partition)|bulkheads]] to protect her boilers.

==Service history==

===Battle of Plum Point Bend===
Conversion completed on 5 April, and now renamed CSS ''General Beauregard'', the ship steamed to [[Fort Pillow State Historic Park|Fort Pillow, Tennessee]], to defend the approaches to [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]]. On 10 May 1862, ''General Beauregard'', Capt. J. H. Hart, and seven more of Montgomery's fleet, attacked the Federal Mississippi ironclad flotilla. The [[Battle of Plum Point Bend]] witnessed effective ramming tactics by the Confederates, although ''General Beauregard'' succeeded only in keeping her four 8-inch guns bravely firing in the face of a withering hail of Union shells. Montgomery's force held off the Federal rams until Fort Pillow was safely evacuated, 4 June, then fell back on Memphis to coal, on the fifth.

===Battle of Memphis===
After Fort Pillow fell, [[Flag officer]] [[Charles Henry Davis]], USN, commanding the [[Mississippi River Squadron]], lost no time in appearing off Memphis, on 6 June 1862. Montgomery, with a smaller squadron short of fuel, was unable to retreat to [[Vicksburg, Mississippi|Vicksburg]]; unwilling to destroy his boats, he fought against heavy odds. In the ensuing [[First Battle of Memphis]], "witnessed by thousands on the bluff," ''Beauregard'' missed ramming {{USS|Monarch|1862|6}} and "cut away entirely the port wheel and wheel-house" of her partner, [[Laurent Millaudon (steamboat)|CSS ''General Sterling Price'']], also engaging ''Monarch''. ''General Beauregard'', backing out, gave Union flagship {{USS|Benton|1861|6}} a close broadside with a 42-pounder, and ''Benton'' replied with a shot into the Confederate's boiler, killing or scalding many of her crew, 14 of whom, in agony, were rescued by ''Benton''.

==See also==
*[[Bibliography of early United States naval history]]
*[[Fort Pillow State Historic Park]]

== References ==
*{{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/cfa4/general_beauregard.htm}}

==External links==
* [https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-58000/NH-58891.html NH 58891 "The Great Naval Battle before Memphis, June 6, 1862"]

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{{CSN cottonclad rams}}
{{1862 shipwrecks}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:General Beauregard}}
[[Category:Cottonclad rams of the Confederate States Navy]]
[[Category:Ships built in New Orleans]]
[[Category:1847 ships]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of the Mississippi River]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in June 1862]]