Gunboats on the River

Gunboats on the River. . The Confederate offensive stalled late Sunday afternoon in the rugged expanse of Dill Branch ravine in front of you. Both sides were weary and worn down after a brutal day of fighting. General Ulysses S. Grant's desperate and depleted army regrouped to defend Pittsburg Landing as steamboats brought reinforcements from General Don Carlos Buell., From the river, two wooden gunboats, the USS Lexington and the USS Tyler, unleashed their big guns on the Confederates. The gunboats fired on Confederate forces visible from the near (west) shore of the river, helping repulse the final Confederate attack of the day. After nightfall, the gunboats, anchored along the far (east) shoreline of the Tennessee River behind you, fired their shells deep into Grant's captured camps., It rained heavily during the night. Every fifteen minutes the enemy threw two shells from his gunboats, some of which burst close around my men, banishing sleep from the eyes of a few, but falling chiefly among their own wounded, who were strewn thickly between my camp and the river. , Brigadier General Patrick R. Cleburne , 2nd Brigade, Hardee's Corps, (caption) , The gunboats, USS Lexington and USS Tyler, were assigned to the Union army but manned by navy personnel.