The Great Republic by the Master Historians Farragut on the Mississippi byBancroft, Hubert H.
[The rapid series of successes won by the armies of the West in early 1862,
which gave them the full control of the Mississippi as far south as Memphis, was
paralleled by as important a victory on the lower section of the river, which
caused the fall of New Orleans, and left only the section of the river between
that city and Memphis to be opened and occupied. The achievement in question was
accomplished by the navy, and constituted one of the most brilliant and striking
events of the war. Preceding a description of it, some brief review of the
general operations of the navy is desirable.
In August, 1861, an expedition was sent to Hatteras Inlet, by which Fort
Hatteras was captured. In November of the same year a powerful land and naval
force was sent to the coast of South Carolina. This assailed Port Royal Harbor,
forced the surrender of the forts, and captured the post. It proved an important
conquest, from its giving the North a convenient naval depot on the Southern
coast, and the control of the richly-fertile Sea-Island district. Fort Pulaski,
one of the defences of Savannah, was also captured, and that city closely
blockaded, while several coast cities in Florida were occupied. About the same
time the English mail-steamer Trent was overhauled by Captain Wilkes of the
sloop-of-war San Jacinto, and Mason and Slidell, two Confederate commissioners
to Europe, were forcibly taken from her. This unwarranted affair, which was at
first sustained by the government, caused danger of war between the United
States and England, which was avoided by a somewhat ungracefully performed
acknowledgment of error and surrender of the prisoners. The United States was
clearly in the wrong, but circumstances rendered it difficult to admit it
immediately, in face of the enthusiastic popular indorsement of the action.
In March, 1862, the port of New-Berne, in North Carolina, was captured by the
fleet, and in April Fort Macon, commanding the entrance to Beaufort harbor, was
taken. Roanoke Island was also occupied. These successes gave control of the
whole coast of North Carolina, and aided greatly in making the blockade
effective. The next naval operation was directed against the lower Mississippi,
with the eventual object of the capture of New Orleans. Vigorous efforts had
been made by the Confederates to render this stream impassable, by the erection
of strong forts and batteries, the arming of gunboats, and the building of iron-
clad vessels, which were to be superior in strength to the Merrimack. Two large
steam-ships of this class were being prepared, of about fourteen hundred tons
each, to be strongly plated, and each mounted with twenty of the heaviest guns.
One only of these, the Louisiana, was completed in time to take part in the
subsequent battle. Powerful rams and fire-rafts were also prepared, while the
navigation of the river was obstructed by six heavy chains, carried across the
stream on a line of dismasted schooners. This was placed about a mile below the
forts. The story of the succeeding events, which partly negatived the lesson
taught by the exploits of the Merrimack, and proved that wooden vessels might,
under certain circumstances, successfully encounter iron-plated ones, is told
with much vividness of description in Headley's "Civil War in America."]
The month of April closed gloriously for the national cause in the Valley of the
Mississippi; for it gave us New Orleans, the most important city of the Southern
Confederacy, and thus made certain to us the final possession of the entire
river.
Captain Farragut, with a fleet of gunboats, and Porter, with a mortar-fleet, had
long since left our Northern waters for some unknown point. Much anxiety had
been felt for its success; and when at length news was received that it had left
Ship Island, where it was known to have rendez-voused, for New Orleans,
accompanied by a land-force under Butler, great fears were entertained of its
ability to force the formidable barriers that blocked the river below the city.
Two forts, Jackson and St. Philip, nearly opposite each other, the former very
strong and casemated, the two mounting in all two hundred and twenty-five guns,
commanded the approach. In addition to these, a heavy chain had been stretched
across the channel, buoyed upon schooners, and directly under the fire of the
batteries, so that any vessels attempting to remove it could be sunk. There
were, besides, heavily-mounted iron-clad gunboats, ponderous rams, before whose
onset the strongest ship would go down, and fire-rafts and piles of drift-wood,
ready to be launched on our advancing vessels. It was believed by the rebels
that nothing that ever floated could safely pass all these obstructions; but
should some few by a miracle succeed, bands of young men were organized in New
Orleans to board them at all hazard and capture them.
Such were the obstacles that presented themselves to Farragut and Porter as
they, in the middle of April, slowly steamed up the mighty river.
It was laborious work getting the fleet over the bars at the mouth of the
Mississippi, and up the rapid stream, to the scene of action, for the mortar-
boats were not steamers. Weeks were occupied in it, and the North almost began
to despair of hearing any good report of the expedition, and eventually it was
quite lost sight of in the absorbing news from the upper Mississippi and the
Tennessee. But, though shut out from the world, its gallant commanders were
quietly but energetically preparing for the herculean task assigned them.
Six war-steamers, sixteen gunboats, twenty-one mortar-vessels, with five other
national vessels, among them the Harriet Lane, Porter's flag-ship, making in all
nearly fifty armed vessels, constituted the entire force. It was a formidable
fleet, but it had formidable obstacles to overcome.
On the 18th the bombardment commenced, and the first day nearly two thousand
shells were thrown into the forts. Some burst beyond them, others in mid-air,
and some not at all, while hundreds fell with a thundering crash inside the
works, cracking the strongest casemates in their ponderous descent. On one side
of the river the mortarvessels lay near some trees on the bank, and the men
dressed the masts in green foliage to conceal their position. Decked out as for
a Christmas festival, they could not be distinguished at the distance of the
forts from the trees, so that the enemy had only the smoke that canopied them
for a mark to aim at. On the other side, tall reeds fringed the banks, and the
vessels in position there were covered with rushes and flags and daubed with
Mississippi mud, which sadly confused the artillerists in the forts. The exact
distance from the spot where they lay anchored, to the forts, had been
determined by triangulation, conducted by the Coast Survey party under Captain
Gurdes. The surveys to accomplish this had been performed under the fire of the
enemy, and great coolness and daring were shown by the party. The sailors had
wondered at the presence of a Coast Survey vessel, carrying a crew armed with
nothing more formidable than surveying-instruments, save a few pocket revolvers,
but it was now seen that science must first prepare the way before the heavy
shells could perform their appropriate work.
Early in the morning of the day on which the bombardment commenced, the rebels
set adrift a huge flat-boat piled with pitch-pine cord-wood in a blaze. As it
came down the stream, the flames roared and crackled like a burning forest,
while huge columns of black smoke rose in swift, spiral columns skyward. As it
drifted near, two of our advanced vessels hastily slipped their cables and moved
down stream. At first it was feared the blazing structure might contain
torpedoes or explosive machines of some kind, and rifled shot were thrown into
it. But it floated harmless by, lighting up the muddy stream as it receded. In
order to be prepared for another, Captain Porter ordered all the row-boats of
the flotilla to be prepared with grapnels, ropes, buckets, and axes. At sunset
this fleet of a hundred and fifty boats was reviewed, passing in single line
under the Harriet Lane, each answering to the hail of the commander, "Fire-
buckets, axes, and ropes?"
"Ay, ay, sir."
About an hour afterwards, just as night had set in, a huge column of black smoke
was seen to rise from the river in the vicinity of the forts. Signal-lights were
immediately hoisted on all the vessels, and the next moment a hundred boats shot
out in the darkness, ready for action. A fire-raft was on its fearful way,
lighting up the broad bosom of the Mississippi with its pyramid of flame, and
sending the sparks in showers into the surrounding darkness. It made a fearful
sight, and seemed well calculated to accomplish its mission of destruction. On
it came, slowly and majestically, swinging easily to the mighty current, when
suddenly the Westfield opened her steamvalves and dashed fearlessly into the
burning pile. Burying herself amid the crashing timbers and flying sparks, her
captain turned a hose upon it, and a stream of water as from a fire-engine
played upon the lurid mass. The next moment the crowd of boats approached -- the
bronzed faces of the sailors, with buckets and ropes, standing out in bold
relief in the broad glare -- and fastened to the horrid phantom. Then, pulling
with a will, they slowly towed it ashore, where they left it to consume ignobly
away. It was bravely done, and as the boats returned they were cheered by the
entire fleet.
For a whole week the bombardment was kept up, while shot and shell from the
enemy fell in a constant shower amid the squadron.
The gunners on the mortar-boats were getting worn out, and, when released from
the guns, would drop down exhausted on deck. They began at last to grumble at
the inactivity of the larger vessels.
At length Farragut determined to run the rebel batteries, engage the gunboats
and rams beyond, and then steam up to New Orleans, cost what it would. The chain
had been cut a few nights before, and the schooners that sustained it were
trailing along the river bank. On the 23d of April, everything being ready, at
two o'clock signal lanterns were hoisted from the Hartford's mizzen peak, and
soon the boatswain's call, "Up all hammocks," rang over the water. It was known
the evening before that the desperate conflict would come off in the morning,
and there was but little sleep in the fleet that night. The scene, the hour, and
the momentous issues at stake made every man thoughtful. Not a breeze ruffled
the surface of the river; the forts were silent above; the stars looked serenely
down, while the deep tranquillity that rested on shore and stream was broken
only by the heavy boom, every ten minutes, of a gun from the boats on watch. But
the moment those two signal lanterns were run up on the flag-ship, all this was
changed. The rattling of chains, the heaving of anchors, and commands of
officers transformed the scene of quietness into one of bustle and stern
preparation. In an hour and a half everything was ready, and the flag-ship,
followed by the Richmond and Brooklyn and six gunboats, turned their prows up
the river, steering straight for Fort Jackson. The Pensacola, Mississippi,
Oneida, and Varuna, under Captain Bailey, with four gunboats, came next, and
were to engage Fort Philip. The Harriet Lane, Westfield, Owasco, Miami, Clifton,
and Jackson, under Porter, came last, and were to take position where they could
pour an enfilading fire of grape and shrapnel into Fort Jackson while Farragut
hurled his heavy broadsides into it in front. As soon as the fleet started on
its terrible mission, all the mortar-boats opened their fire, and, canopied by
the blazing shells, that, crossing and recrossing in every direction, wove their
fiery net-work over the sky and dropped with a thunderous sound into the doomed
works, the flag-ship, accompanied by her consorts, steamed swiftly forward
through the gloom. As soon as they came within range, signal rockets darted up
from the low fortifications, and the next instant the volcano opened. Taking the
awful storm in perfect silence, Farragut kept steadily on till he was close
abreast, when his broadsides opened. As each ship came up, it delivered its
broadside, and on both sides of the river it was one continuous stream of fire,
and thunder-peal that shook the shores like an earthquake. For half an hour it
seemed as if all the explosive elements of earth and air were collected there.
The vessels did not stop to engage the forts, but, delivering their broadsides,
swept on towards the gunboats beyond. Fire-rafts now came drifting down the
tide, lighting up the pandemonium with a fiercer glare, and making that early
morning wild and awful as the last day of time. The shot and shell from nearly
five hundred cannon filled all the air, and it seemed as if nothing made with
human hands could survive such a storm. The Ithaca, with a shot through her, was
compelled to drop out of the fight, in doing which she came under the close fire
of the fort, and was completely riddled, yet, strange to say, only two of her
crew were struck. Exploding shells filled the air, hot shot crashed through the
hulls, yet the gallant fleet, wrapped in the smoke of its own broadsides, moved
on in its pathway of flame, while the river ahead was filled with fire-rafts and
iron-clad gun-boats, whose terrible fire, crossing that of the fort, swept the
whole bosom of the stream. Sharp-shooters crowded the rigging, dropping their
bullets incessantly upon our decks, yet still the commander's signal for close
action streamed in the morning breeze, and still that fleet kept on its
determined way. An immense iron-clad vessel, the Louisiana, lay moored near Fort
Jackson, armed with heavy rifled guns, which sent the shot through and through
our vessels, while ours rattled like peas on her mailed sides. The famous ram
Manassas came down on the flag-ship, pushing a fire-raft before her. In
attempting to avoid the collision, Farragut got aground, when the raft came
plump alongside. The flames instantly leaped through the rigging, and ran along
the sides of his vessel, and for a moment he thought it was all up with him.
But, ordering the hose to turn a stream of water upon the fire, he succeeded in
extinguishing it, and, backing off, again poured in his broadsides.
The Varuna, Captain Boggs, attacked the rebel gunboats with such fury that he
sunk five in succession, their dark hulls disappearing with awful rapidity under
the turbid waters. Even then his work was not done, for a ram came driving full
upon him. He saw at once he could not avoid the collision, and knew that his
fate was sealed. But, instead of hauling down his flag, he resolved, since he
could not save his ship, to carry his adversary down with him, and, bidding the
pilot throw the vessel so that her broadsides would bear on the vulnerable part
of the rebel, he sternly received the blow. The sides of the Varuna were crushed
by it as though made of egg-shells. As the ram backed off, the water poured in
like a torrent, and he ordered the pilot to run her, with all steam on, ashore.
In the mean time his broadsides, fired at such close range, made fearful
openings in the enemy's hull, and she too began to settle in the water, and
attempted to haul off. But those terrible broadsides were too swift for her, and
they were poured in till the gun-carriages were under the water. The last shot
just skimmed the surface as the hissing guns became submerged, and the gallant
vessel went down with her flag flying, carrying her dead with her. A more
fitting tomb for them could not be found than the full of that immortal boat.
A boy, named Oscar, only thirteen years old, was on board, and during the
hottest of the fire was busily engaged in passing ammunition to the gunners, and
narrowly escaped death when one of the terrific broadsides of the enemy was
poured in. Covered with dirt and begrimed with powder, he was met by Captain
Boggs, who asked where he was going in such a hurry: "To get a passing-box, sir;
the other was smashed by a ball." When the Varuna went down, Boggs missed the
boy, and thought he was among the killed. But a few minutes after he saw the lad
gallantly swimming towards the wreck. Clambering on board, he threw his hand up
to his forehead, in the usual salute, and with the simple, "All right, sir: I
report myself on board," coolly took up his old station. Though a boy, he had an
old head on his shoulders, and, if he lives and is given an opportunity, will be
heard from in the future.
The Kineo was accidently run into by the Brooklyn, and badly stove, yet she
fought her way steadily forward, though receiving twelve shots in her hull, and,
with twelve others, passed the terrible ordeal. The description of the conduct
of one boat is a description of all. Though riddled with shot from the forts,
they closed in with the rebel gunboats so fiercely that in an hour and a half
eleven went to the bottom of the Mississippi.
The victory was won, and the combat ended, yet the maddened enemy could not
wholly surrender, and the ram Manassas came down on the Richmond. The
Mississippi, seeing her intentions, instantly steamed towards her, when the
affrighted crew ran her ashore. Even after the surrender was made, and while
terms of capitulation were being agreed on, the rebels cut adrift the Louisiana,
which had cost nearly two millions of dollars, and sent her down past the fort
amid our mortar-fleet. She failed, however, to do any damage, and soon went
ashore.
The forts being passed, New Orleans was ours; yet still the former, though
completely cut off, refused to surrender.
Farragut sent Captain Boggs in an open boat through a bayou, inland, to Porter,
to report his success. One would have thought from his letter that he had
encountered scarcely more than pretty stormy weather. "We have had a rough time
of it, as Boggs will tell you," he says, and then proceeds to tell him that as
soon as he goes to New Orleans he will come back and finish the forts.
The next morning he steamed up towards the astonished city. The inhabitants had
deemed it unapproachable by any naval armament whatever, and in their fancied
security were building vessels of offensive warfare that soon would have given
us far more trouble than the Merrimack. Lovell, in command of the troops in the
city, immediately left, for it lay completely at the mercy of our vessels. The
mayor undertook to avoid the humiliation of a formal capitulation, and wrote a
ridiculous letter to the commander; but it mattered little how it was done, --
the great commercial port of the Confederate States surrendered, and the most
difficult part of opening the navigation of the Mississippi was accomplished.
