Just read an ACW mag article about how, at 1 point when Porter was sailing up the Mississippi River with his ironcals during the Vicksburg campaign, his boats were faced with the obstacle of big sandbanks which they ran aground upon, while at the same time defending CS infantry came out & started shootin at em- the ironclads to their chagrin couldn't elevate their guns to shoot back, while Sherman's infantry reinforcements were still too far away to be of assistance. Porter's fear at that time, after ordering all his crew behind cover, was that the Rebs could, seeing how helpless his fleet was, try to storm the ironclads to capture em. WI that had in fact happened, & the US ironclad flotilla had been captured ? Would the fall of Vicksburg have been totally averted or at least postponed ?