The Battle of Plum Point Bend took place in Tennessee during the American Civil War on May 10, 1862, on the Mississippi River, between ships of the Confederate River Defense Fleet and the Union Western Flotilla. Fighting for control of the Mississippi had been ongoing since the prior year as Union forces pushed downriver to Fort Pillow, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Memphis. The Union had been using mortar boats to bombard Fort Pillow, and had settled into a regular routine. The Union's daily tactic was to send a single mortar boat guarded by an ironclad warship to a position further downriver to shell the fort, while the rest of the fleet remained upriver. On the morning of May 10, the Confederates attacked in the hope of capturing the guard ironclad and then surprising the rest of the Union fleet.