14. A Union Ironclad in Confederate Hands
The USS Indianola was a Union ironclad river gunboat that served in the Western Theater during the American Civil War with the US Navy’s Mississippi Squadron. She was built in Cincinnati in 1862, and was hurriedly commissioned into service before she was completed because of a perceived threat to the city. Once she was completed, she was sent to operate in the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers. In early 1863, she ran past Confederate batteries in Vicksburg to reach the Red River and help block Confederate supplies from sailing down its waters.
Once she reached her destination, however, the Indianola was set upon by Confederate rams on the night of February 24th, 1863, ran aground, and was captured. That derailed Union plans to blockade the Red River, and her presence in Confederate hands was too great a threat to Union operations in the region to be endured. So plans were made to recapture the ironclad or destroy it so as to deprive the enemy of its use. The outcome was one of the Civil War’s most successful deception operations and hoaxes.
