While I'm in the writing mood, I thought I'd share this lil tidbit with y'all.

The following is rewritten based on an article which appeared in the Jan 7, 1996 edition of the Vicksburg Sunday Post.

"First Shots Of War Between States"

On the day of secession (9 Jan 1861) Gov. Moore of Louisiana had sent word to Gov. John J. Pettus of Mississippi that he had information that Northern states were sending an expdition downriver to fortify U.S. garrisons and arsenals. In particular, Moore advised, the "Silver Wave," loaded with cannons should be halted and seized.

Pettus acted immediately, ordering Capt. Kerr and 16 of the Jackson Artillery to join units at Vicksburg and "take such position as would enable him to prevent any hostile expedition from the Northern States descending the river."

Three local units were already in camp for their annual Eighth of January muster, a traditional Southern celebration commemorating the defeat of the British by Andrew Jackson at New Orleans in 1815. The encamped men were members of the Volunteer Southrons, the Vicksburg Sharpshooters and the Warren Guards, the latter being a new company that was making its first appearance. These units were later joined by a new company from Edwards Depot, comanded by Capt. A. B. Atkinson and Lt. L. A. Lindsey.

By the time the Jackson Artillery arrived, the news and rumors had spread like fire in the wind, and the talk in Vicksburg was that the Silver Wave not only had on board cannons but also 500 ruffians -- called Wideawakes -- that would ransack the city. The boat was expected on the night of Saturday, January 12th.

The Silver Wave failed to appear at the expected hour but the Southern defenders were still at their posts the following night when the steamboat "A. O. Tyler" rounded DeSoto Point, headed downriver toward the Vicksburg Landing. As the unsuspecting vessel came within range, the sound of cannon fire broke the quiet of the cold winter night and shells passed across her bow, splashing into the muddy waters of the Mississippi.

Captain John Collier [part owner of the boat and brother-in-law of the gentleman for whom she was named] was no stranger to Vicksburg, for his boat made routine stops here on her run from Cincinnati to New Orleans. Uncertain what the firing was all about, Collier continued toward the wharf. Another boat, the "City of Louisiana", steamed between the Tyler and the Mississippi defenders, and the firing ceased.

Pulling into the landing, the Tyler was quickly boarded by armed troops. Collier had ignored the cannon signal to halt, he was told, and though he was well-known to the men of the boarding party, he was ordered to take the boat back upstream to the bend below Fort Hill and give an explanation to the officers of the militia there. When searches of the Tyler and the Silver Wave, which finally arrived several days later, found neither weapons of war nor ruffians, both vessels were allowed to continue their journeys peacefully.

As many of you may know, the Tyler would later be purchased by the Union and converted into a "Timberclad" gunboat at Cincinnati. She, along with her sister-ships the U.S.S. Conestoga and the U.S.S. Lexington were the first Union gunboats to be commissioned for service on the western rivers.

Exactly seven months after the Vicksburg incident, on August 13, the U.S.S. Tyler would fire the first purely hostile shots heard on the western rivers at a group of Confederate scouts on a hill near Commerce, MO.

The U.S.S. Tyler was also the boat on which my 3rd great-grandfather, James Thomas Matthews, served and she, along with the U.S.S. Lexington would still be on active duty when the last shots of the war were fired.