During March and April 1862, the Siege of New Madrid and the Island No. Ten campaigns helped secure Federal control of the middle Mississippi River and formed part of a string of Union victories in the western theater of the Civil War. The Confederacy had first tried to block Federal movement on the Mississippi in September 1861 by occupying and fortifying Columbus, Kentucky, but after U.S. Grant captured Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862, the supply line to Columbus was severed and the Confederates abandoned it. The next strong defensive position was at the double bends of the Mississippi around Island No. Ten and New Madrid, where swampy bottomlands, Sikeston Ridge, shore batteries, island batteries, and the forts defending New Madrid made assault difficult. In late February, Union General John Pope took command of the twenty thousand-man Army of the Mississippi and advanced on New Madrid, needing to cut both river and road supply routes to Island No. Ten. After ten days of effort, Federal troops dragged heavy siege guns into position, established a battery at Point Pleasant, and shelled the forts and gunboats. The Confederates evacuated New Madrid in the night, abandoning thirty-three cannons, several thousand small arms, tents for ten thousand men, and other stores. Pope then sought to cross the river and seize Tiptonville, but needed gunboats and transports to pass the batteries of Island No. Ten. Flag Officer Andrew Foote first relied on bombardment, which caused little damage, while Pope's engineers cut a fifty-foot-wide, twelve-mile canal through flooded timber to bring shallow-draft transports to New Madrid by April 4. Deep-draft gunboats still had to run the batteries, and on the nights of April 6 and 7 the ironclads Carondelet and Pittsburg did so successfully. On April 7 they silenced the Confederate batteries on the Tennessee shore, allowing Union troops to cross to Tiptonville and block the Confederate escape route, while the soldiers on Island No. Ten surrendered to Foote. Early on April 8, Brigadier General W.W. Mackall unconditionally surrendered his force to Pope. The victory brought the capture of three generals, two hundred seventy-three field and company officers, six thousand seven hundred privates, one hundred twenty-three pieces of heavy artillery, and large quantities of ammunition, small arms, and supplies, all at a cost of fewer than one hundred Union casualties. The campaign marked the loss of the middle Mississippi River to the Confederacy and was followed by the abandonment of Fort Pillow, the fall of Memphis, and a situation by mid-June 1862 in which only Vicksburg and Port Hudson remained before the Union could control the entire river. Two months after his triumph, Pope was called east to command the Army of Virginia before facing Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson at the Battle of Second Bull Run.
