Bombardment of Island "Number Ten" in the Mississippi River: By the Gunboat and Mortar Fleet, Under the Command of Flag Officer A.H. Foote (Original Lithograph)

Currier & Ives.

[New York] : Currier & Ives, 1862

9 1/2 x 13 in., framed.  Color lithographic print of civil war ironclads at the Kentucky Bend in the Mississippi River, near New Madrid, Missouri.  "The Bombardment commenced on Saturday afternoon, March 15th 1862, and continued until midnight of April 7th, when the whole Island with all its vast munitions of war, fell into the hands of the gallant forces, under Commodore Foote. 'A Nations thanks are due them.'" The foreground is dominated by low-lying ironclads firing mortars at the island in the background. The yellow-orange rainbow arcs from the mortars dominate the picture. The success of the Union ships opening up the river opened up Memphis to capture by Federal forces two months later. "Currier & Ives : a catalogue raisonne," Gale, 1983, no. 0666.