5 Montgomery, James

See Smith, Arkansas, pg. 117;  https://www.fold3.com/image/249/282155034 where an invoice dated 13 Aug 1862 shows that James Montgomery was paid for his “pilotage” of the CS Steamer McRae and the CS Gunboat Arkansas.  I. N. Brown, Commander CSN, certifies the charges are correct and that Mr. Montgomery was “employed by me.”

Capt. Brown's report contains this statement, "These two last named [fireman Cusick and pilot Gilmore] fell in the action with the enemy's fleet as they passed us at Vicksburg after the morning conflict." In Ragland's Fisher Funeral Home Records, pg. 198, is this interesting entry, "Unknown, 17 Jul 1862; A Pilote & Fireman Killed on Arcansas."

Do not confuse this Pilot James Montgomery with Capt. James Montgomery of the Confederate River Defense Fleet (seen in Smith's Arkansas, pg. 49).

This short notice was found in the Confederate Veteran, Vol. XX (1912), pg. 396. "Mrs. James Montgomery, of Ghent, Ky., would like to hear from any comrades who remember her husband as pilot on the gunboat Jackson, thought to have been the first gunboat leaving New Orleans. He was afterwards on the McRay, Commodore Hollins's flagship, and was also on the Arkansas Ram when her officers deemed it necessary to blow her up to prevent her falling into the hands of the Federals. At the close of the war he was in Texas under General Magruder."

[There was also a Capt. (later Commodore) James Edward Montgomery of  the Confederate River Defense Fleet (CRDF), not to be confused with our pilot James Montgomery. Commodore Montgomery was not associated with the Arkansas' activities except to supply men from his crew to assist in her final stages of construction on the Yazoo River. He angered Capt. I. N. Brown by releasing his men, despite their still having time to serve, before Capt. Brown could recruit them for his Arkansas crew.]

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