About 10,000 Memphians gathered on the river bluff at dawn on June 6, 1862, to cheer on the Confederate navy as it steamed from the harbor to defend the city against attacking Union warships.
Like a dark version of the modern Sunset Symphony, the Battle of Memphis not only drew a huge crowd -- almost half the city -- but stirred them to pack picnic lunches and spread blankets for a comfortable view of the hostilities.
The preparations were in vain. By 7 a.m. it was over. The battle, which lasted only 90 minutes, would go down in history as the biggest inland naval battle in history. In its wake, Memphis went from a bastion of the Confederacy to a headquarters of the Union army. By the end of the Civil War, freed slaves migrating to the city helped quadruple the black population to about 39 percent of the city.
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