July of 1863 represented a significant turning point in the American Civil War. The capture of Vicksburg represented final victory in the campaign in the west, cementing Union control of the Mississippi river, while victory at Gettysburg shifted the momentum of the war in the east. Given the importance, and staggering costs, of these battles, it should be no surprise that the nation has largely forgotten a much smaller, yet still important battle the same month, nearly seven thousand miles away from the US capitol.
In August of 1918, as the armies of Europe neared exhaustion, American troops of the 28th “Keystone” division were thrown into a nearly forgotten battle that fully represented the horrors of the War to End All Wars.
Of the vaunted ironclad warships of the US Civil War perhaps the mightiest and most terrifying was the confederate ram Tennessee. On August 5, 1864, she would be put to the test in the largest naval engagement of the war, an engagement that defined the divided loyalties of the War of the Rebellion.