Civil War Photo Friday: Union mortar boat

This ugly little vessel is a mortar boat. Used primarily by the Union navy, they were armored rafts carrying a heavy mortar. As the siege of the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg got underway 150 years ago this week, many of these vessels were towed up the Mississippi River and used to bombard the fortified city.

Mortars are handy in that they provide indirect fire. Instead of shooting directly at a target like regular artillery, they launch their projectiles at an arc, so they can hit targets behind hills and other obstructions.

In my sequel to A Fine Likeness, one of these mortar boats makes an appearance. Captain Allen Addison of the Union navy, and son of the protagonist in the first book, is at the siege of Vicksburg in his gunboat the USS Essex watching a group of mortar boats do their thing, when an incoming rebel shell gives him a nasty surprise. . .

. . .but you'll have to read about that later. I still have about 15,000 words to go before the book is done.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.