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Title: The history of our Navy from its origin to the present day 1775-1897, vol. 4 (of 4)
Author: Spears, John Randolph
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The history of our Navy from its origin to the present day 1775-1897, vol. 4 (of 4)" ***
Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is enclosed in _underscores_. Additional
notes will be found near the end of this eBook.
THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY
[Illustration: FARRAGUT’S FLEET PASSING FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP.
_From a painting by Carlton T. Chapman._]
THE
HISTORY OF OUR NAVY
FROM ITS ORIGIN TO THE PRESENT DAY
1775–1897
BY
JOHN R. SPEARS
AUTHOR OF “THE PORT OF MISSING SHIPS,” “THE GOLD DIGGINGS
OF CAPE HORN,” ETC.
WITH MORE THAN FOUR HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS
MAPS AND DIAGRAMS
_IN FOUR VOLUMES_
_VOLUME IV._
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1897
COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
MANHATTAN PRESS
474 W. BROADWAY
NEW YORK
TO ALL WHO WOULD SEEK PEACE
AND PURSUE IT
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I. THE STATE OF THE NAVY IN 1859 1
A Brief Story of the Development of the Warship that was Propelled
by both Sails and Steam--The Remarkable Floating Battery of 1814--
Barron’s Idea of a Ram--The Stevens Floating Battery--Ericsson’s
Screw Propeller--Stockton and the First Screw Warship--Experiments
with Great Guns--Discoveries of Bomford and Rodman--Practical Work
by Dahlgren--A Comparison of Yankee Frigates with a Class of British
Ships “Avowedly Built to Cope” with them--The Condition of the
_Personnel_.
CHAPTER II. BLOCKADING THE SOUTHERN PORTS 28
Lincoln’s Proclamation--It was Something of a Task to Close 185
Inlets and Patrol 11,953 Miles of Sea-beaches, especially with the
Force of Ships in Hand--One Merchant’s Notion of the Efficiency
of Thirty Sailing Vessels--Gathering and Building Blockaders--
Incentives and Favoring Circumstances for Blockade-runners--When
Perjury Failed and Uncle Sam was Able to Strike without Waiting for
Act of Congress--When Blockade-runners Came to New York and Yankee
Smokeless Coal was in Demand.
CHAPTER III. LOSS OF THE NORFOLK NAVY YARD 66
Effective Work Done by Southern Naval Officers who Continued to Wear
the National Uniform that they might the more Readily Betray the
National Government--The Secretary of the Navy was Deceived and the
Commandant at Norfolk Demoralized--William Mahone’s Tricks Added
to the Demoralization at the Yard, and it was Abandoned at Last in
a Shameful Panic--Property that was Worth Millions of Dollars,
and Guns that Took Thousands of Lives, Fell into the Confederates’
Hands--The First Naval Battle of the War--Three Little Wooden
Vessels with Seven Small Guns Sent against a Well-built Fort Mounting
Thirteen Guns--The Hazardous Work of Patrolling the Potomac.
CHAPTER IV. A STORY OF CONFEDERATE PRIVATEERS 84
They Did Plenty of Damage for a Time, but their Career was Brief--
Capture of the First of the Class, and Trial of her Crew on a Charge
of Piracy--Reasons why they could not be Held as Criminals--Luck of
the _Jefferson Davis_--A Negro who Recaptured a Confederate Prize to
Escape the Terrors of Slavery--A Skipper who Thought a Government
Frigate was a Merchantman--The “Nest” behind Cape Hatteras.
CHAPTER V. THE FORT OF HATTERAS INLET TAKEN 99
An Expedition Planned by the Navy Department that Resulted in the
First Federal Victory of the Civil War--An Awkward Landing Followed
by Ineffectual Fire from Ships under Way--One Fort Taken and
Abandoned--Anchored beyond Range of the Fort and Compelled Surrender
by Means of the Big Pivot Guns--A Wearisome Race from Chicamicomico
to Hatteras Lighthouse Won by the Federals--Capture of Roanoke
Island--Origin of the American Medal of Honor.
CHAPTER VI. ALONG SHORE IN THE GULF OF MEXICO 112
The Shameful Story of Pensacola and Fort Pickens--When Lieutenant
Russell Burned the _Judah_--A British Consul’s Actions when
Confederate Forts were Attacked at Galveston--Extraordinary Panic at
the Head of the Passes in the Mississippi when Four Great Warships,
Carrying Forty-five of the Best Guns Afloat, Fled from a Disabled
Tugboat that was Really Unarmed--Once more in Galveston--Lieutenant
Jouett’s Fierce Fight when he Destroyed the _Royal Yacht_.
CHAPTER VII. STORY OF THE TRENT AFFAIR 140
Capt. Charles Wilkes, of the American Navy, Took Four Confederate
Diplomatic Agents from a British Ship Bound on a Regular Voyage
between Neutral Parts, and without any Judicial Proceeding Cast
them into a Military Prison--A Case that Created Great Excitement
Throughout the Civilized World--A Swift Demand, with a Threat of
War Added, Made by the British--Comparing this Case with another
of Like Nature--The United States once Went to War to Establish
the Principle which Captain Wilkes Ignored--The British Officially
Acknowledge that the Americans were Justified in Declaring War
in 1812.
CHAPTER VIII. THE CAPTURE OF PORT ROYAL 161
A Fleet of Seventeen Ships, Carrying 155 Guns, Sent to Take a
Harbor that would Make a Convenient Naval Station for the Atlantic
Blockaders--There were Two “Exceedingly Well-built Earthworks”
“Rather Heavily Armed” Defending the Channel, but one Part of the
Squadron Attacked them in Front, another Enfiladed them, and in
Less than Five Hours the Confederates Fled for Life--A Heavy Gale
Weathered with Small Loss--Interesting Incidents of the Battle.
CHAPTER IX. THE _MONITOR_ AND THE _MERRIMAC_ 184
Superior Activity of the Confederates in Preparing for Ironclad
Warfare Afloat--Story of the Building and Arming of the _Merrimac_--
She was a Formidable Ship in Spite of Defects in Detail, but her
Design was not the Best Conceivable--Origin and Description of the
Ship that Revolutionized the Navies of the World--A Wondrous Trial
Trip--For One Day the _Merrimac_ was Irresistibly Triumphant--Two
Fine Ships of the Old Style Destroyed while she Herself Suffered but
Little--The Magnificent Fight of the _Cumberland_--A Difference in
Opinions.
CHAPTER X. FIRST BATTLE BETWEEN IRONCLADS 214
A Comparison between the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_ by the
English Standard of 1812--It Astonished the Spectators to See
the Tiny _Monitor’s_ Temerity--After Half a Day’s Firing it was
Plain that the Guns could not Penetrate the Armor--Attempts to
Ram that Failed--The _Merrimac_ A-leak--Captain Worden of the
_Monitor_ Disabled when the _Merrimac’s_ Fire was Concentrated on the
Pilot-house--Where the _Monitor’s_ Gunners Failed--Fair Statement
of the Result of the Battle--Worden’s Faithful Crew--The _Merrimac_
Defied the _Monitor_ in May, but when Norfolk was Evacuated she
had to be Abandoned and was Burned at Craney Island--Loss of the
_Monitor_.
CHAPTER XI. WITH THE MISSISSIPPI GUNBOATS 239
Creating a Fleet for the Opening of the Water Route across the
Confederacy--Ironclads that were not Shot-proof, but Fairly
Efficient nevertheless--Guns that Burst and Boilers that were
Searched by Shot from the Enemy--When Grant Retreated and was
Covered by a Gunboat--First View of Torpedoes--Capture of Fort
Henry--A Disastrous Attack on Fort Donelson--When Walke Braved the
Batteries at Island No. 10--The Confederate Defence Squadron at
Fort Pillow--The First Battle of Steam Rams--Frightful Effects of
Bursted Boilers--In the White River--Farragut Appears.
CHAPTER XII. FARRAGUT AT NEW ORLEANS 311
It was Hard Work Getting the Squadron into the Mississippi--
Preparing the Ships to Run by the Forts Guarding the River--Mortar
Schooners Hidden by Tree Branches--The Forts were Well Planned, but
Poorly Armed--A Barrier Chain that was no Barrier at the Last--The
Heterogeneous Confederate Squadron--The Fire-rafts--Work of the
Coast Survey--Bravery of Caldwell--Foreigners who Interfered--
Work of the Mortar Fleet--When the Squadron Drove past the Forts--
Scattering the Confederate Squadron--Nevertheless, at least Three
Good Captains were Found among them--Sinking the _Varuna_--Fate of
the Ram _Manassas_--Surrender of the Forts--End of the Ironclad
_Louisiana_--The Work of the Mississippi Squadron.
CHAPTER XIII. FARRAGUT AT MOBILE 377
The Forts and the Confederate Squadron the Union Forces were
Compelled to Face--The Confederate Ironclad just Missed being a most
Formidable Ship--Tedious Wait for Monitors--When the Southwest
Wind Favored--There was a Fierce Blast from the Forts at First, but
the Torpedo was Worse than Many Guns--Fate of the _Tecumseh_ and
Captain Craven--The Last Words of the Man for whom “there was no
Afterward”--Torpedoes that Failed beneath the Flagship--Captain
Stevens on the Deck of his Monitor--When Neilds Unfurled the Old
Flag in the midst of the Storm--How Farragut was Lashed to the
Mast--Jouett would not be Intimidated by a Leadsman--Mobbing the
_Tennessee_.
CHAPTER XIV. TALES OF THE CONFEDERATE CRUISERS 407
The most Instructive Chapter in the History of the United States--
Work Accomplished by an Energetic Seaman in a Ship his Brother
Officers Condemned--Brilliant Work of the _Florida_ under John
Newland Maffitt--Bad Marksmanship and a Worse Lookout off Mobile--A
Case of Violated Neutrality--Semmes and the _Alabama_--The Battle
with the _Kearsarge_--What Kind of a Man is it that Fights his Ship
till she Sinks under him?--American Commerce Destroyed--The British
without a Rival on the Sea, at Last, and at Very Small Cost.
CHAPTER XV. THE _ALBEMARLE_ AND CUSHING 452
A Formidable Warship was Built under Remarkable Conditions to Enable
the Confederates to Regain Control of the Inland Waters of North
Carolina--Very Successful at First, but she was Laid up to Await
the Building of another One, and then came Cushing with his Little
Torpedo Boat, and the Confederate Hopes were Destroyed with their
Ship.
CHAPTER XVI. THE NAVY AT CHARLESTON 465
It was a Well-guarded Harbor, and the Channel was Long and Crooked--
The “Stone Fleet” and the Attitude of Foreign Powers--Brief Career
of Two Confederate Ironclads--The Blockade was not Raised--A
Confederate Cruiser Burned--Utter Failure of the Ironclad Attacks on
the Forts--Capture of the Confederate Warship _Atlanta_--“Boarders
Away” at Fort Sumter--Magnificent Bravery of the Men who Manned the
Confederate Torpedo Boats.
CHAPTER XVII. CAPTURE OF FORT FISHER 503
It was One of the Best Works in the South, though not well Located--
Butler’s Powder-boat Scheme, and what he Expected to Accomplish by
it--Throwing 15,000 Shells at the Fort Disabled Eight Great Guns out
of a Total of Thirty-eight--Butler Thought the Fort still too Strong
and would not Try--He did not even Make Intrenchments According to
Orders--Gen. A. H. Terry, with 6,000 Soldiers and 2,000 from the
Ships, Easily Took the Fort Three Weeks Later--The Navy’s Last Fight
in the Civil War.
CHAPTER XVIII. STORY OF THE NEW NAVY 523
The Folly of Allowing other Nations to Experiment for us--In Spite
of what we Learned from their Mistakes, we were Unable, when we First
Began for ourselves, to Build even a First-class Cruiser--The Result
of Ten Years of Earnest Work--Battle-ships whose Power is Conceded
by Foreign Writers--Cruisers that Awakened the Pride of the Nation--
Three “Newfangled Notions”--A Yankee Admiral at Rio Janeiro and a
Yankee Lieutenant on the Coast of Mexico--The One Important Fact
about the New Navy.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
FARRAGUT’S FLEET PASSING FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP. (From a
painting by Carlton T. Chapman), _Frontispiece_
A THIRTY-TWO-POUND CARRONADE FROM THE _CONSTITUTION_. 1
THE _MINNESOTA_ AS A RECEIVING SHIP. (From a photograph by
Rau), 3
A LOOP-PATTERN GUN OF 1836--A TYPE WHICH RUNS BACK OVER 100
YEARS, 4
A THIRTY-TWO-POUNDER FROM THE CAPTURED _MACEDONIAN_--NOW AT THE
BROOKLYN NAVY YARD. (From a photograph), 5
A THIRTY-TWO-POUNDER FROM THE CAPTURED _MACEDONIAN_. 7
OLD CAST-IRON THIRTY-TWO-POUNDER (BELIEVED TO BE SPANISH), 8
JOHN ERICSSON, 10
THE _GREAT WESTERN_--ONE OF THE FIRST STEAMSHIPS TO CROSS THE
ATLANTIC OCEAN. (After an old painting), 13
TWELVE-INCH WROUGHT-IRON GUN--THE MATE TO THE “PEACEMAKER,”
WHICH BURST ON THE _PRINCETON_. (From a photograph of the
original at the Brooklyn Navy Yard), 14
U. S. IRONCLAD STEAMSHIP _ROANOKE_. (From an old lithograph),
15
U. S. FRIGATE _PENSACOLA_ OFF ALEXANDRIA. (From a photograph
taken in 1865), 16
A TWELVE-POUND BRONZE HOWITZER--THE FIRST ONE MADE IN THE
UNITED STATES. (From a photograph of the original at the
Brooklyn Navy Yard), 18
A DAHLGREN GUN, 19
TWO BLAKELY GUNS AT THE BROOKLYN NAVY YARD, 22
THE BLOCKADED COAST. (From “The Navy in the Civil War”), 29
MAP SHOWING POSITION OF UNITED STATES SHIPS OF WAR IN
COMMISSION MARCH 4, 1861, 33
GIDEON WELLES. (From a photograph), 34
GUSTAVUS V. FOX. (From an engraving), 36
GARRETT J. PENDERGRAST, 39
A FOUR-POUND CAST-IRON GUN CAPTURED FROM A BLOCKADE-RUNNER, 49
AN EIGHTEEN-POUND RIFLE CAPTURED FROM A BLOCKADE-RUNNER, 52
A SIX-POUND GUN CAPTURED FROM A BLOCKADE-RUNNER, 53
A NASSAU VIEW--ALONG THE SHORE EAST OF THE TOWN. (From a
photograph by Rau), 54
NASSAU SCHOONERS. (From a photograph by Rau), 55
THE BLOCKADE-RUNNER _TEASER_. (From a photograph made in 1864),
60
WASHINGTON, D. C., AND ITS VICINITY, 67
HIRAM PAULDING. (From an engraving by Hall), 71
A VIEW OF THE NORFOLK NAVY YARD. (From a photograph by Cook),
73
THE OLD _NEW HAMPSHIRE_ AT THE NORFOLK NAVY YARD. (From a
photograph by Cook), 77
BURNING OF THE VESSELS AT THE NORFOLK NAVY YARD, 79
THE CONFEDERATE STATES PRIVATEER _SAVANNAH_, LETTER OF MARQUE
NO. 1, CAPTURED OFF CHARLESTON BY THE U. S. BRIG _PERRY_,
LIEUTENANT PARROTT, 88
DESTRUCTION OF THE PRIVATEER _PETREL_ BY THE _ST. LAWRENCE_.
(From an engraving by Hinshelwood of the painting by
Manzoni), 95
S. H. STRINGHAM. (From an engraving by Buttre), 100
B. F. BUTLER. (From a photograph), 101
BOMBARDMENT AND CAPTURE OF THE FORTS AT HATTERAS INLET, N. C.
(From a lithograph published by Currier & Ives), 103
EIGHT-INCH MORTAR CAPTURED AT HATTERAS, 107
L. M. GOLDSBOROUGH. (From an engraving by Buttre), 108
STEPHEN C. ROWAN. (From a photograph), 109
ATTACK ON ROANOKE ISLAND--LANDING OF THE TROOPS. (From an
engraving of the painting by Chappel), 110
LANDING OF TROOPS ON ROANOKE ISLAND. (From an engraving by
Perine of a drawing by Momberger), 110
SURRENDER OF THE NAVY YARD AT PENSACOLA. (From a painting by
Admiral Walke), 113
HENRY WALKE. (From a photograph), 114
JOHN G. SPROSTON. (From a photograph at the Naval Academy,
Annapolis), 120
GALVESTON HARBOR. (From “The Navy in the Civil War”), 122
PASSES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. (From “The Navy in the Civil War”),
126
JAMES MURRAY MASON AND JOHN SLIDELL. (The two captured
commissioners), 141
CHARLES WILKES. (From an engraving by Dodson of the portrait by
Sully), 143
WILLIAM H. SEWARD. (From a photograph), 155
S. F. DUPONT. (From a photograph), 163
C. R. P. RODGERS. (From a photograph), 164
S. W. GODON. (From a painting at the Naval Academy, Annapolis),
165
JOSIAH TATTNALL. (From an engraving by Hall), 168
PLAN OF FORT WALKER ON HILTON HEAD. (From a drawing by R.
Sturgis, Jr., in 1861), 169
BOMBARDMENT OF PORT ROYAL, S. C. (From an engraving by Ridgeway
of a drawing by Parsons), 175
BOMBARDMENT AND CAPTURE OF FORTS WALKER AND BEAUREGARD,
NOVEMBER 7, 1861. (From an engraving by Perine), 179
FRANKLIN BUCHANAN, 189
THE _NEW IRONSIDES_ IN ACTION. (From a photograph, of a
drawing, owned by Mr. C. B. Hall), 190
THE GIANT AND THE DWARFS; OR, JOHN E. AND THE LITTLE MARINERS.
(From a Swedish caricature, February 10, 1867), 191
THE _MONITOR_, 192
HAMPTON ROADS. (From “The Navy in the Civil War”), 196
FORTRESS MONROE AND ITS VICINITY, 199
THE SINKING OF THE _CUMBERLAND_ BY THE IRONCLAD _MERRIMAC_.
(From a lithograph published by Currier & Ives), 202
THE _MERRIMAC_ RAMMING THE _CUMBERLAND_. (From a drawing by
M. J. Burns), 205
GEORGE U. MORRIS. (From a photograph owned by Mr. C. B. Hall),
207
J. L. WORDEN. (From a photograph), 216
DECK VIEW OF THE _MONITOR_ AND HER CREW. (From a photograph),
219
THE FIGHT BETWEEN THE _MERRIMAC_ AND THE _MONITOR_. (From a
lithograph published by Currier & Ives), 221
IN THE _MONITOR’S_ TURRET, 223
THE ACTION BETWEEN THE _MONITOR_ AND THE _MERRIMAC_. (From an
engraving of the picture by Chappel), 227
GROUP OF OFFICERS ON DECK OF THE _MONITOR_. (From a
photograph), 232
DESTRUCTION OF THE _MERRIMAC_ OFF CRANEY ISLAND. (From a
lithograph published by Currier & Ives), 237
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY--CAIRO TO MEMPHIS. (From “The Navy in the
Civil War”), 242–3
THE _CAIRO_. (From a photograph), 244
THE _PITTSBURG_. (After a photograph), 245
THE MISSISSIPPI FLEET OFF MOUND CITY, ILLINOIS. (From a
photograph owned by Mr. C. B. Hall), 247
A. H. FOOTE. (From a photograph), 250
THE BATTLE OF BELMONT: FIRST ATTACK BY THE _TAYLOR_ AND THE
_LEXINGTON_. (From a painting by Admiral Walke), 253
BATTLE OF BELMONT: U. S. GUNBOATS REPULSING THE ENEMY DURING
THE DEBARKATION. (From a painting by Admiral Walke), 257
INTERIOR OF THE _TAYLOR_ DURING THE BATTLE OF BELMONT. (From a
painting by Admiral Walke), 259
BATTLE OF FORT HENRY. (From a painting by Admiral Walke), 263
BATTLE OF FORT DONELSON. (From a painting by Admiral Walke),
269
EXPLOSION ON BOARD THE _CARONDELET_ AT THE BATTLE OF FORT
DONELSON. (From a painting by Admiral Walke), 273
U. S. FLOTILLA DESCENDING THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. (From a
painting by Admiral Walke), 277
BATTLE WITH FORT NO. 1 ABOVE ISLAND NO. 10. (From a painting by
Admiral Walke), 279
THE _CARONDELET_ RUNNING THE GAUNTLET AT ISLAND NO. 10. (From
a painting by Admiral Walke), 285
THE _CARONDELET_ ATTACKING THE FORTS BELOW ISLAND NO. 10.
(From a painting by Admiral Walke), 287
U. S. GUNBOATS CAPTURING THE CONFEDERATE FORTS BELOW ISLAND NO.
10, APRIL 7TH. (From a painting by Admiral Walke), 291
BATTLE OF FORT PILLOW. (From a painting by Admiral Walke) 295
THE BATTLE OF FORT PILLOW. (From a painting by Admiral Walke),
299
THE BATTLE OF MEMPHIS--FIRST POSITION. (From a painting by
Admiral Walke), 303
AFTER THE BATTLE OF MEMPHIS. (From a painting by Admiral
Walke), 305
BATTLE OF MEMPHIS--THE CONFEDERATES RETREATING. (From a
painting by Admiral Walke), 309
DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT. (From a photograph), 312
THIRTEEN-INCH MORTAR FROM FARRAGUT’S FLEET. (From a photograph
made at the Brooklyn Navy Yard), 316
NEW ORLEANS, LA., AND ITS VICINITY, 319
MORTAR BOATS. (From an engraving), 322
BEGINNING OF THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. (From a painting by
Admiral Walke), 327
BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. (From “The Navy in the Civil War”), 331
THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. (From a painting by Admiral Walke),
335
CONFEDERATE IRONCLAD RAM _STONEWALL JACKSON_. (From a
photograph), 337
THE _ESSEX_ AFTER RUNNING THE BATTERIES AT VICKSBURG AND PORT
HUDSON. (After a photograph), 341
THE _CARONDELET_ AFTER PASSING VICKSBURG. (From a photograph),
342
BATTLE BETWEEN THE _CARONDELET_ AND THE _ARKANSAS_. (From a
painting by Admiral Walke), 346
BATTLE BETWEEN THE _ARKANSAS_ AND THE _CARONDELET_. (From a
painting by Admiral Walke), 347
DESTRUCTION OF THE _ARKANSAS_ NEAR BATON ROUGE, AUGUST 4,
1862. (From a lithograph published by Currier & Ives), 349
DAVID D. PORTER. (From a photograph), 350
ADMIRAL FARRAGUT PASSING PORT HUDSON. (From a painting by
Admiral Walke), 353
THE U. S. FLOTILLA PASSING THE VICKSBURG BATTERIES. (From a
painting by Admiral Walke), 355
BATTLE OF GRAND GULF--FIRST POSITION. (From a painting by
Admiral Walke), 359
BATTLE OF GRAND GULF--SECOND POSITION. (From a painting by
Admiral Walke), 363
BATTLE OF GRAND GULF--THIRD POSITION. (From a painting by
Admiral Walke), 365
ADMIRAL PORTER ON DECK OF FLAGSHIP AT GRAND ÉCORE, LA. (From a
photograph), 368
U. S. RAM _LAFAYETTE_. (From a photograph), 369
U. S. GUNBOAT _FORT HINDMAN_. (From a photograph), 370
JOSEPH BAILEY. (From a photograph), 371
RED RIVER DAM. (From “The Navy in the Civil War”), 373
THE FLEET PASSING THE DAM. (From an engraving), 375
ENTRANCE TO MOBILE BAY. (From “The Navy in the Civil War”), 378
FARRAGUT AND DRAYTON ON BOARD THE _HARTFORD_ AT MOBILE BAY.
(Drawn by I. W. Taber from a photograph), 387
BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY. (From “The Navy in the Civil War”),
390–91
T. A. M. CRAVEN (From a photograph owned by Mr. C. B. Hall),
393
BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY. (From a painting by Admiral Walke), 397
THE CONFEDERATE RAM _TENNESSEE_, CAPTURED AT MOBILE. (From a
photograph), 404
RAPHAEL SEMMES. (From a photograph owned by Mr. C. B. Hall),
408
THE _FLORIDA_ RUNNING THE BLOCKADE AT MOBILE. (After a painting
by R. S. Floyd), 421
“A PRIZE DISPOSED AND ONE PROPOSED.” (After a painting by R. S.
Floyd), 425
RAPHAEL SEMMES AND HIS _ALABAMA_ OFFICERS. (From a photograph
owned by Mr. C. B. Hall), 433
JOHN A. WINSLOW. (From a photograph), 436
ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE U. S. S. _KEARSARGE_ AND THE _ALABAMA_
OFF CHERBOURG, ON SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 1864. (From a French
lithograph), 439
THE _KEARSARGE_ SINKING THE _ALABAMA_. (From an engraving), 443
ACTION BETWEEN THE _KEARSARGE_ AND THE _ALABAMA_. (From an
engraving of the painting by Chappel), 445
WHITWORTH RIFLE CAPTURED FROM THE _SHENANDOAH_, 448
THREE FAMOUS CONFEDERATE CRUISERS. (From a painting by M. J.
Burns), 449
WILLIAM B. CUSHING. (From a photograph), 457
CUSHING BLOWING UP THE _ALBEMARLE_, 462
CHARLESTON HARBOR. (From “The Navy in the Civil War”), 466
BATTERY BROWN: TWENTY-EIGHT-INCH PARROTT RIFLE. (From a
photograph by Haas & Peale), 468
IN THE CHARLESTON BATTERIES: 300-POUNDER PARROTT RIFLE AFTER
BURSTING OF NOZZLE. (From a photograph by Haas & Peale), 469
GENERAL MAP OF CHARLESTON HARBOR, SOUTH CAROLINA, SHOWING
CONFEDERATE DEFENCES AND OBSTRUCTIONS, 476–7
IRONCLADS AND MONITORS BOMBARDING THE DEFENCES AT CHARLESTON.
(From an engraving), 481
CONFEDERATE IRONCLAD _ATLANTA_, CAPTURED AT WASSAW SOUND, JUNE
17, 1863. (From “The Navy in the Civil War”), 487
THE _WEEHAWKEN_ AND THE _ATLANTA_. (From a wood-cut), 488
JOHN A. B. DAHLGREN. (From a photograph), 489
BOMB-PROOF OF FORT WAGNER. (From a photograph by Haas & Peale),
491
BATTERY HAYES: EIGHTEEN-INCH PARROTT RIFLE--DISMOUNTED
BREACHING BATTERY AGAINST SUMTER. (From a photograph by Haas
& Peale), 492
BATTERY KIRBY: TWENTY-EIGHT-INCH SEACOAST MORTARS AGAINST
SUMTER. (From a photograph by Haas & Peale), 493
ADMIRAL DAHLGREN AND STAFF ON THE _PAWNEE_ AT CHARLESTON. (From
a photograph), 496
SKETCH SHOWING TORPEDO BOATS AS CONSTRUCTED AT CHARLESTON,
S. C. (From “The Navy in the Civil War”), 498
THE ENTRANCE TO CAPE FEAR RIVER, SHOWING FORT FISHER. (From
“The Navy in the Civil War”), 504
PLAN AND SECTIONS OF FORT FISHER. (From “The Navy in the Civil
War”), 506
THE BOMBARDMENT OF FORT FISHER. (From a lithograph), 517
T. O. SELFREDGE. (From a photograph owned by Mr. C. B. Hall),
519
SECOND ATTACK UPON FORT FISHER BY THE U. S. NAVY, UNDER
REAR-ADMIRAL D. D. PORTER, JANUARY 13, 14, 15, 1865, 521
THE OLD METHOD OF HANDLING A SHIP’S BOWSPRIT. (From an old
engraving), 524
HAULING A VESSEL INTO PORT A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. (From an old
engraving), 525
THE WHITE SQUADRON IN MID-OCEAN. (From a drawing by R. F.
Zogbaum), 529
U. S. S. _CHARLESTON_, SAN DIEGO HARBOR. (From a photograph),
531
THE _COLUMBIA_ ON HER GOVERNMENT SPEED TRIAL. (From a
photograph by Rau), 534
PLAN OF THE _IOWA_, 536
PLAN OF THE _CONSTITUTION_, 537
THE _VESUVIUS_. (From a photograph by Rau), 541
LAUNCHING OF ONE OF THE HOLLAND BOATS, THE _HOLLAND_, AT
ELIZABETHPORT, N. J., 1897. (From a photograph belonging to
the John P. Holland Co.), 543
ANOTHER OF THE HOLLAND SUBMARINE BOATS: THE _PLUNGER_. (From
a photograph of a drawing belonging to the John P. Holland
Co.), 545
THE HARBOR OF RIO JANEIRO, SHOWING THE FRIGATE _SAVANNAH_
STRUCK BY A SQUALL, JULY 5, 1856. (From a lithograph), 549
THE STERN AND PROPELLER OF THE _NIPSIC_ AFTER THE SAMOAN
HURRICANE. (From a photograph), 551
THE HARBOR AFTER THE SAMOAN HURRICANE. (From a photograph), 553
[Illustration: A Thirty-two-pound Carronade from the _Constitution_.]
THE HISTORY OF OUR NAVY
CHAPTER I
THE STATE OF THE NAVY IN 1859
A BRIEF STORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WARSHIP THAT WAS
PROPELLED BY BOTH SAILS AND STEAM--THE REMARKABLE FLOATING
BATTERY OF 1814--BARRON’S IDEA OF A RAM--THE STEVENS FLOATING
BATTERY--ERICSSON’S SCREW PROPELLER--STOCKTON AND THE FIRST SCREW
WARSHIP--EXPERIMENTS WITH GREAT GUNS--DISCOVERIES OF BOMFORD AND
RODMAN--PRACTICAL WORK BY DAHLGREN--A COMPARISON OF YANKEE FRIGATES
WITH A CLASS OF BRITISH SHIPS “AVOWEDLY BUILT TO COPE” WITH
THEM--THE CONDITION OF THE _PERSONNEL_.
From the point of view of a naval seaman it was a far cry from the
first war in defence of the nation’s life to the last one--so far,
indeed, that all the progress made in the construction of ships of war
from the time when men first went afloat to fight, down to the war of
the Revolution, had not equalled that made in the eighty odd years
that elapsed between, say, the battle of Lake Champlain, which was the
most important battle afloat in the Revolution, and that of Hampton
Roads, which was first in the Civil War.
Consider the forces that Arnold mustered against the whelming odds
under the ambitious Carleton. Though two of the vessels were dignified
with the name of schooner and one was called a sloop, the flagship of
the squadron was a galley managed by means of oars, and the fleet as a
whole, including the _Royal Savage_, was inferior to an equal number of
the galleys with which the Romans, in the days of Carthage, held sway
over the Mediterranean.
And then consider the ships that in 1860 graced the register of the
American navy--ships that with the aid of steam could hold their own
against wind and tide, and that carried guns of so large a calibre
that any but the largest from Arnold’s fleet might have been shoved
down their throats after the trunnions were knocked off. Arnold in his
flagship, the galley _Congress_, had eight guns of which the bore was
about three and a half inches in diameter, and the shot weighed six
pounds. But when the Civil War came, the _Minnesota_ was armed with
forty-two guns of a nine-inch calibre and one of eleven inches, besides
four rifles that threw elongated projectiles weighing 100 pounds and
one rifle with a projectile weighing 150. Arnold’s _Congress_ could
throw at a broadside twenty-four pounds of metal over an effective
range of perhaps 300 yards; the _Minnesota_ could throw 1,861 pounds
over an effective range of 1,600 yards.
And a still more wondrous advance was in the minds of men; it was at
hand--an advance to a point where steel forts were to be sent afloat in
place of the ships that were in 1859 the pride of naval seamen.
[Illustration: The _Minnesota_ as a Receiving Ship.
_From a photograph by Rau._]
Remarkable as it seems to the present-day student of naval history,
the changes in naval ships that produced the _Minnesota_ before the
year 1859--even the changes that gave us the steel fort afloat--were
foreshadowed in 1813 when the immortal Fulton made plans for a ship
of war that should not only be propelled by steam, but should be as
impregnable to the guns of that day as were the ironclads of 1862 to
the guns of their day.
[Illustration: A Loop-pattern Gun of 1836--a Type which Runs back over
100 Years.]
Although this ship was designed in 1813, she was not sent afloat until
October 29, 1814, and even then, although swifter and more convenient
than Fulton had promised that she should be--although she was the
very craft that on a smooth-water day could meet and destroy the
insolent blockading squadron then off Sandy Hook--she was not put into
commission immediately, and the war came to an end before there was
opportunity to show what steam might do for the sea power of a nation.
[Illustration: A Thirty-two-pounder from the Captured _Macedonian_--now
at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
_From a photograph._]
But because this was the first steam warship the world ever saw, and
because, when sent on trial trips, she more than fulfilled every
promise of her designer, it is worth while giving a full description
of her. Her length was 150 feet; breadth, 56 feet; depth, 20 feet;
water-wheel, 16 feet diameter; length of bucket, 14 feet; dip, 4 feet;
engine, 48-inch cylinder, 5-feet stroke; boiler, length, 22 feet;
breadth, 12 feet; and depth, 8 feet; tonnage, 2,475. She was the
largest steamer by many hundreds of tons that had been built at the
date of her launch. The commissioners appointed to examine her, in
their report say:
“She is a structure resting upon two boats, keels separated from end
to end by a canal fifteen feet wide and sixty-six feet long. One boat
contains the caldrons of copper to prepare her steam. The vast cylinder
of iron, with its piston, levers, and wheels, occupies a part of its
fellow; the great water-wheel revolves in the space between them; the
main or gun-deck supporting her armament is protected by a bulwark
four feet ten inches thick, of solid timber. This is pierced by thirty
portholes, to enable as many 32-pounders to fire red-hot balls; her
upper or spar deck, upon which several thousand men might parade, is
encompassed by a bulwark which affords safe quarters. She is rigged
with two short masts, each of which supports a large lateen yard and
sails. She has two bowsprits and jibs and four rudders, two at each
extremity of the boat; so that she can be steered with either end
foremost. Her machinery is calculated for the addition of an engine
which will discharge an immense column of water, which it is intended
to throw upon the decks and all through the ports of an enemy. If, in
addition to all this, we suppose her to be furnished, according to Mr.
Fulton’s intention, with 100-pounder columbiads, two suspended from
each bow, so as to discharge a ball of that size into an enemy’s ship
ten or twelve feet below the water-line, it must be allowed that she
has the appearance at least of being the most formidable engine of
warfare that human ingenuity has contrived.”
[Illustration: A Thirty-two-pounder from the Captured _Macedonian_.]
Formidable she certainly was, but no war came to demonstrate her
powers, and she lay in the Brooklyn Navy Yard as a receiving-ship until
the 4th of June, 1829, when her magazine was fired, presumably by a
drunken member of the crew, and she was blown to pieces.
[Illustration: Old Cast-iron Thirty-two-pounder (Believed to be
Spanish).]
Robert L. Stevens, of Hoboken, in 1832, conceived the idea of
an ironclad ship that was to be 250 feet long and twenty-eight
wide--something lean and eager in pursuit and yet shot-proof. It was an
idea that cost him and his family nearly $2,000,000 before he was done
with it; but nothing came of it, save as it kept the restless inventors
of the world thinking on the subject of swift, impregnable ships of
war. Mr. Clinton Roosevelt, of New York, proposed to build a steamer
that should be sharp at both ends, “plating them with polished iron
armor, with high bulwarks, and a sharp roof plated in like manner, with
the design of glancing the balls. The means of offense are a torpedo,
made to lower on nearing an enemy, and driven by a mortar into the
enemy’s side under water, where, by a fusee, it will explode.” The idea
of polishing the armor to make it slippery seems amusing now; but the
fact is that even as late as 1862 the armor of vessels in the Civil
War was greased to make the projectiles glance off. Of course, the
grease was of no use.
It is worth noting that it was in 1836 that John Ericsson patented
in England his screw propeller. A model boat forty-five feet long,
which he named, for the American consul at Liverpool, the _Francis
B. Ogden_, attained in 1837 a speed of ten miles an hour. The Lords
of the Admiralty took a trip in this boat, and the opinion of Sir
William Symonds, who spoke for the others, is worth giving as showing
how thick-skulled prejudice operates to retard naval progress. He
said: “Even if the propeller had the power of propelling a vessel, it
would be found altogether useless in practice, because the power being
applied in the stern, it would be absolutely impossible to make the
vessel steer.”
[Illustration: John Ericsson.]
However, Capt. Robert F. Stockton made a trip on the _Ogden_, and
fortunately Stockton was at once a man of wealth and of common sense.
Being convinced of the value of the invention, he induced Ericsson to
leave England for the United States in the year 1839, and that was,
in a way, one of the most interesting events in the history of the
American republic.
Meantime, however, a steamer to replace the old _Demologos_, Fulton’s
first war steamer, had been launched in 1837. Practically the _Fulton
2d_, as she was called, was a sloop-of-war--a ship of one deck of guns,
propelled by paddle-wheels. She was broad and shallow in model, being
180 feet long by thirty-five wide and thirteen deep. She had horizontal
engines lying on her upper deck. Her paddle-wheels were twenty-two
feet in diameter, towering high above the deck, and her boilers were
made of copper. However, she carried eight long forty-twos and a long
twenty-four--a right powerful set of guns for that day, and she behaved
so well that Capt. Mathew C. Perry, who was assigned to her, expressed
the opinion that a time would come when sails, as a means of propelling
a man-of-war, would become obsolete. However, it must be said that this
remark made almost every one who heard of it, and especially the other
officers of the navy, think that Perry was a “visionary.”
It was in 1839 that Perry risked his reputation by an expression of
opinion--about the time that Ericsson reached the United States.
Backed by Stockton, Ericsson planned a man-of-war that should be driven
through the water by a submerged screw at the stern. The idea of a ship
being driven by machinery that was placed wholly below the water-line,
and so out of danger from an enemy’s shot, was of a kind to appeal even
to a backwoods congressman, and an appropriation was obtained. In 1843
the ship was launched under the name of _Princeton_, and she was in a
variety of ways vastly superior to anything built before her. She was
164 feet long by thirty wide and twenty-one deep, and with 200 tons of
coal and all supplies on board, she had a draft of nearly twenty feet.
Among other features, it appears that she was the first warship fitted
to burn anthracite coal, thus avoiding the dense volumes of black smoke
which revealed all foreign war-steamers. She was the first to carry
telescopic funnels that could be lowered to the level of the rail out
of the way of sails, and the first to use blowers to force the draft in
the furnaces. She was also the first to couple the screw directly to
the engine instead having cog-wheels intervene.
Her armament was also peculiar, for she was fitted with two long
wrought-iron guns that threw balls about a foot in diameter, weighing
225 pounds--guns that, when fired at a target at a range of 560 yards,
pierced fifty-seven inches of solid oak timber.
[Illustration: The _Great Western_--One of the First Steamships to
Cross the Atlantic Ocean.
_After an old painting._]
And there was one other peculiarity to which Stockton, who commanded
her, called attention with pride: “To economise room, and that the ship
may be better ventilated, curtains of _American manufactured_ linen are
substituted for the usual wooden bulkheads.”
[Illustration: Twelve-inch Wrought-iron Gun--the Mate to the
“Peacemaker,” which Burst on the _Princeton_.
(The carriage is a mortar carriage from Porter’s mortar fleet at New
Orleans.)
_From a photograph of the original at the Brooklyn Navy Yard._]
As a steamship the _Princeton_ was a very great success, but the art of
forging was not then sufficiently advanced to warrant the manufacture
of any but cast-iron guns. On a trial trip made from Washington in
1844, one of the great forged guns burst, killing and wounding a number
of gentlemen, including the Secretary of State and the Secretary of
the Navy, with several ladies who had been invited to go on the trip.
Stockton had boasted that “the numerical force of other navies, so
long boasted, may be set at naught, and the rights of the smallest
as well as the greatest nations may once more be respected.” And the
boast would have been almost justified but for the failure of the
wrought-iron gun.
[Illustration: U. S. Ironclad Steamship _Roanoke_.
(The first turreted frigate in the United States, 1863.)
_From an old lithograph._]
However, the success of the _Princeton_ as a ship was so pronounced
that money was appropriated from time to time for others designed much
as she was until the navy had six screw frigates--the _Niagara_, the
_Roanoke_, the _Colorado_, the _Merrimac_, the _Minnesota_, and the
_Wabash_; six screw sloops of the first class--the _San Jacinto_, the
_Lancaster_, the _Brooklyn_, the _Hartford_, the _Richmond_, and the
_Pensacola_, besides eight screw sloops of the second class, of which
the _Iroquois_ was a type, and five of the third class, of which the
_Mohawk_ was a type. There was also a screw frigate on the stocks at
the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, dock-yard. The guns that these ships
carried, when compared with those of the war of the Revolution, were
quite as interesting as the ships themselves.
[Illustration: U. S. Frigate _Pensacola_ off Alexandria.
_From a photograph taken in 1865._]
The prejudices in the way of improving great guns were not only strong,
but they were founded on experiences that were seemingly convincing
beyond peradventure. For instance, under Charles V a cannon was cast
at Genoa that was fifty-eight calibres long; that is, it was of about
six inches diameter of bore and twenty-nine feet long. When fired,
its ball of thirty-six pounds weight had less range than an ordinary
twelve-pounder. So they cut off four feet of the gun and found that its
range increased. Cutting off three feet more still further increased
the range, as did another cut of six inches--“which shows,” says
Simpson’s text-book on gunnery, printed in 1862, “that there is for
each piece a maximum length which should not be exceeded.” So that
dictum stood in the way of arriving at the design of a gun like the
modern rifle, that would really give the greatest possible range to
a projectile. Then, the distribution of the metal in the cannon with
which Arnold fought on Lake Champlain seems now ridiculous. One must
needs see a picture of the old gun beside one of the guns as developed
just previous to the Civil War to realize the difference; but it
may be said that, with the bell-shaped muzzle and the “rings” and
“reinforces,” the old gun in outline had as many ups and downs as some
step-ladders, while the cast-iron weapon of 1860 was as smooth and
symmetrical as the hull of a Yankee clipper.
[Illustration: A Twelve-pound Bronze Howitzer--the First One Made in
the United States.
_From a photograph of the original at the Brooklyn Navy Yard._]
A curious series of experiments, made by Colonel Bomford of the United
States Ordnance Department, told for the first time where the greatest
strain was exerted on the bore of a gun, and gave some idea of the
relative strain elsewhere along the bore. Taking an old cannon, he
drilled a hole from the side near the muzzle directly into the bore and
inserted a pistol-barrel. Then he put a bullet into the pistol-barrel,
and after loading the cannon in the ordinary way, he fired it. Of
course, as the cannon-ball was driven from the big gun the powder gas
behind it drove the pistol-ball from the pistol-barrel. The colonel
measured the velocity of the pistol-ball and made a note of it. Then he
drilled another hole in the cannon some inches farther from the muzzle,
and repeated the experiment. The force exerted on the pistol-ball
was slightly greater there. By drilling other holes he learned
approximately the pressure all along the bore. It appeared that the
greatest pressure was directly over the shot when it was rammed home
against the powder. From there the pressure decreased rapidly, being
only about half as much when the ball had travelled four times its own
diameter from its original resting place.
[Illustration: A Dahlgren Gun.]
Captain Rodman of the Ordnance Department, put a piston in place of
Bomford’s pistol-barrel and let the piston punch into a piece of
copper, and then determined the pressure on the piston by forcing the
same kind of a piston into the same kind of a piece of copper by a
known weight. “Although not an accurate process,” it was good enough,
and with the figures obtained by it before him, Lieut. John Dahlgren,
of the United States navy, designed the gun of smooth outline that by
its splendid success in the hands of both forces, during the Civil
War, made him famous. The greatest thickness of metal was placed around
the greatest strain, and a proper thickness at every inch of length of
the bore.
It was not alone, however, in putting the metal where it would prove
most serviceable that Dahlgren made his gun efficient. He was a
metallurgist, and was careful to improve the quality of iron used.
Meantime Captain Rodman had proposed to cast cannon hollow and cool
them from the interior, instead of casting a solid log of iron and
boring it out on the old plan. Although the first experiments did not
show any especial improvement in the strength of a gun so cast, the
method was eventually found to be the best.
With Dahlgren’s model a gun of eleven inches of diameter of bore was
cast in 1852. It was fired 500 times with shells and 655 times with
solid shot that weighed 170 pounds, the service charge of powder being
fifteen pounds. The gun was not seriously injured or worn even by the
work. That settled the status of the Dahlgren guns, and from that
time on they were furnished with reasonable rapidity to the new steam
warships of the navy.
Meantime rifled cannon made of cast iron reinforced over the breech by
a wrought-iron jacket that was shrunk on had been introduced into the
American navy. They varied from thirty-pounders up to 100-pounders,
and, except for the smaller calibres, were in many cases more dangerous
for their crews than for the enemy. It must be told also that a
cast-iron rifle known as the Brooke, because designed by Commander John
M. Brooke, of the Confederate navy, was produced in Richmond that was
better than the Parrott. It was strengthened in its early service days
by a series of wrought-iron bands two inches thick and six wide, that
were shrunk on over the breech. Later a second series of bands was
shrunk on over the first, breaking joints with them, of course, and so
a very good 150-pounder was produced.
Meantime one Dahlgren smooth-bore, with a bore fifteen inches in
diameter, had been successfully made, and the shells for all the
Dahlgren guns were provided with fuzes that could be set to explode
just about where and when the gunner wished to have them do so. But
whether the damage to be done by a fifteen-inch round shot smashing
its way through a ship’s side would be greater or less than that of a
rifle projectile boring its way through was a question that had not
been decided. It was granted that the rifle had the longer range--with
a reasonable elevation a rifle would carry three miles, maybe four,
and do some damage when the projectile arrived, while the effective
range of the smooth-bore was, say, 1,500 or 1,600 yards, though gunners
made efforts, when the time came, to run in to a range of 600 yards or
less instead. But, on the whole, it was the belief among American naval
officers before the Civil War that the big Dahlgren smooth-bore was the
best gun afloat.
[Illustration: Two Blakely Guns at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.]
So it came to pass that the newest and best ships of the navy were
armed with the Dahlgren gun. The _Merrimac_, which was not the best of
the frigates, carried twenty-four nine-inch guns on her gun deck, with
fourteen eight-inch and two ten-inch pivots on her spar deck. She could
throw 864 pounds of metal from her gun-deck broadside, 360 pounds from
her broadside of eight-inch guns, and 200 from her ten-inch, both of
which could be fired over either rail.
Mr. Hans Busk, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, was moved to write
on page 104, in his “Navies of the World,” that “the navy of the
United States has a tolerably imposing appearance upon paper,” but he
concludes that a British frigate of the _Diadem_ class, “avowedly built
to cope with those of the description of the _Merrimac_, etc., would
speedily capture her great ungainly enemy.” To fully appreciate this
remarkable statement it must be known that the _Diadem_ could fire at
a broadside ten ten-inch shells, weighing in the aggregate 820 pounds,
five thirty-two-pound solid shot, and two sixty-eight-pound solid
shot--in all 1,116 pounds of shot to 1,424 pounds that the _Merrimac’s_
broadside weighed.
The frigate _Minnesota_ carried, soon after the Civil War broke out,
no less than forty-two nine-inch Dahlgrens, one of eleven inches, four
100-pounder rifles, and one 150-pounder rifle. She could throw 1,861
pounds of metal at a broadside. Moreover, it was not a mere matter of
weight of metal. The diameter of the American projectiles was a matter
for serious consideration by the enemy, and so was the ability of the
gun to stand service. The best English gun could stand a charge of
twelve pounds of powder, and the best American fifteen. There was a
vast difference in the smashing effect of an eleven-inch shell driven
by fifteen pounds of powder and a ten-inch shell driven by twelve.
All this seems worth telling only because it shows that the ideas of
armament which prevailed among the English and the Americans before
the War of 1812 were still held by the two nations in 1859. Indeed,
the disproportion between the _Minnesota’s_ armament and that of the
_Diadem_ was very much greater than that between the _United States_
and the _Macedonian_.
In short, all things considered, the American people had just the fleet
they needed for that day to resist foreign aggression.
But while the patriot holds up his head in pride at the thought of the
ships of 1859, he hesitates and stammers when he comes to tell of the
men--of the _personnel_ of the navy. It was a far cry from the sailing
ships of the old days to the steam frigates of the later, but it was
a farther one, and a cry over the shoulder at that, from the men who
swept the seas under the once-despised gridiron flag to those who
carried the American naval commissions in 1859. It was not that courage
and enterprise were dead, or knowledge and skill were lacking. There
were, of course, men a-plenty who were brave and tactful and energetic
and learned--plenty who were to become during the war men of the widest
fame. But “long years of peace, the unbroken course of seniority
promotion, and the absence of any provision for retirement,” had served
the officers as lying in ordinary served white oak ships. Nearly all
of the captains were more than sixty years old. The commanders at the
head of the list were between fifty-eight and sixty years of age. There
were lieutenants more than fifty years old, and only a few of the
lieutenants had known the responsibility of a separate command.
And then, “as a matter of fact,” as Professor J. R. Soley says in his
work on “The Blockade and the Cruisers,” “it was no uncommon thing, in
1861, to find officers in command of steamers who had never served in
steamers before, and _who were far more anxious about their boilers_
than about their enemy.”
But that was not all nor the worst that can be said of the _personnel_
of that day, for a sentiment--a faith--had developed and spread to
a degree that now seems almost incredible, under which men who had
made oath that they would always defend the Constitution of the United
States came to believe that they were under obligations to draw their
swords against the flag they had sworn to defend--the flag which some
of them had defended with magnificent courage.
That the politicians should have been secessionists is not at all a
matter of wonder. It was entirely natural. But how a Tatnall, the story
of whose bravery at Vera Cruz still thrills the heart; how an Ingraham,
whose quick defence of the rights of a half-fledged American in the
Mediterranean is still an example to all naval officers--how these men
could have placed the call of friends and neighbors and a State above
the obligation of their oath to support the Constitution, is something
that is now incomprehensible.
It must be granted that they were of good conscience. There was not
a sordid thought in their minds--not one. Indeed, most of them felt
that they were making the greatest of sacrifices for the sake of
principle. But, if the writer may express his thoughts without offence,
no patriot can now read of the glorious achievements of the men who in
other days fought afloat for the honor of the nation, without feeling
inexpressibly shocked at the thought that any man of the navy should
have been found willing under any circumstances to strike at the
gridiron flag.
There is not a little interest in considering the actual numbers of the
men who left the navy to take part with the Southern States. Before
South Carolina passed her ordinance of secession there were 1,563
officers, commissioned and warrant, on the naval register. Of these,
677 were from Southern States; but 350 of these Southern-born men
remained true to the flag, while 321 resigned to enter the Confederate
navy. Of thirty-eight Southern captains, sixteen resigned; of
sixty-four Southern commanders, thirty-four resigned; of 151 Southern
lieutenants, seventy-six resigned; of 128 Southern acting midshipmen,
106 resigned.
And that is to say that so demoralized had the navy become under the
influence of quarrelling politicians that more than one-fifth of all
the officers were ready to forsake their allegiance.
CHAPTER II
BLOCKADING THE SOUTHERN PORTS
LINCOLN’S PROCLAMATION--IT WAS SOMETHING OF A TASK TO CLOSE 185
INLETS AND PATROL 11,953 MILES OF SEA-BEACHES, ESPECIALLY
WITH THE FORCE OF SHIPS IN HAND--ONE MERCHANT’S NOTION OF
THE EFFICIENCY OF THIRTY SAILING VESSELS--GATHERING AND
BUILDING BLOCKADERS--INCENTIVES AND FAVORING CIRCUMSTANCES FOR
BLOCKADE-RUNNERS--WHEN PERJURY FAILED AND UNCLE SAM WAS ABLE TO
STRIKE WITHOUT WAITING FOR ACT OF CONGRESS--WHEN BLOCKADE-RUNNERS
CAME TO NEW YORK AND YANKEE SMOKELESS COAL WAS IN DEMAND.
The story of the actual work done by the navy in this last war for the
preservation of the life of the nation begins when a blockade of the
ports of the seceded States was ordered. Two proclamations were issued
to provide for this measure. The first was issued on April 19, 1861,
which, as the reader will remember, was six days after the capture of
Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, by the secessionists. It covered
all the ports of the South except those of Virginia and Texas; but
on the 27th of the same month, these two States having also joined
the Confederacy, their ports were included by a second proclamation.
Because, from a naval point of view, that was the most important
proclamation issued by a President of the United States since the War
of 1812, its words shall be given literally.
[Illustration: The Blockaded Coast.
_From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_]
“Now therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States ...
have further deemed it advisable to set on foot a blockade of the
ports within the States aforesaid, in pursuance of the laws of the
United States and of the Law of Nations in such case provided. For this
purpose a competent force will be posted so as to prevent entrance and
exit of vessels from the ports aforesaid. If, therefore, with a view
to violate such blockade, a vessel shall approach or shall attempt to
leave any of the said ports, she will be duly warned by the commander
of one of the blockading vessels, who will endorse on her register
the fact and date of such warning, and if the same vessel shall again
attempt to enter or leave the blockaded port, she will be captured, and
sent to the nearest convenient port for such proceedings against her,
and her cargo as prize, as may be deemed advisable.”
It is worth while considering in advance some of the facts relating
to the task that was thus set for the navy. The coast line invested
extended from Alexandria, Virginia, to the borders of Mexico on the Rio
Grande. The continental line was 3,549 miles long. The coast or shore
line, including bays and similar openings, was 6,789 miles long; and
if to this be added the shore lines of the islands which were included
in the blockade and which were necessarily watched by the blockading
fleet, the entire length of beaches under guard was exactly 11,953
miles.
The South Carolina islands, as described by Jedidiah Morse, “are
surrounded by navigable creeks, between which and the mainland is
a large extent of salt marsh fronting the whole State, not less on
an average than 4 or 5 miles in breadth, intersected with creeks in
various directions, admitting through the whole an inland navigation
between the islands and mainland from the northeast to the southeast
corners of the State. The east sides of these islands are for the most
part clean, hard, sandy beaches, exposed to the wash of the ocean.
Between these islands are the entrances of the rivers from the interior
country, winding through the low salt marshes and delivering their
waters into the sounds, which form capacious harbours of from 3 to 8
miles over, and which communicate with each other by parallel salt
creeks.” And that will apply to the whole coast.
More than that, in this length of shore line were found 185 harbor and
river openings that might be used for the purposes of commerce with
the Confederate States. It is also an important fact that these harbor
openings were, in almost every instance, too shoal for the ordinary
ocean-going cargo ships of that day. If too shoal for a merchantman,
they were so for a man-o’-war, and the more intricate and variable the
channels the better adapted they were to the purposes of a trade that
was to be carried on in spite of the blockade.
To close these 185 harbor openings the government had, on the day
the proclamation was issued, twenty-six steamers and sixteen sailing
ships in commission. But let not the uninformed reader suppose that
such a great fleet as this was at once started off on that duty. There
were in the home squadron but five sailing ships and seven steamers,
while of these a number were at sea _en route_ from nearby foreign to
American ports, and of those actually in the United States harbors
but three--the _Pawnee_, the _Mohawk_, and the _Crusader_--were in
Northern waters. To close 185 harbor openings the Secretary of the Navy
had for the moment just three steamers, the rest of the commissioned
fleet being either in the ports of the Southern States or scattered
the wide world over. And that is to say, there was for the moment no
force adequate to blockade efficiently even the one Southern port of
Charleston.
The navy register showed, however, in addition to the forty-two ships
in commission, twenty-seven that were lying at the navy yards in
ordinary but fit for service. The government had thirty-nine steamers
and thirty-four sailing ships that might be brought together in the
course of a few months to enforce the blockade of the 185 harbors of
the South and keep contraband trade clear of the eleven thousand and
odd miles of Southern sea-beaches.
[Illustration:
Map Showing Position of
UNITED STATES SHIPS OF WAR
In Commission March 4, 1861.
NOTE:--There is no log book for the John Adams (No. 18) for the
year 1861, but it is known that this ship was at Manilla, January
14, 1861, and at Hong Kong, May 1, 1861.
]
It is worth noting here that when the Navy Department was first
considering its lack of ships for the purpose of enforcing the
blockade, a consultation was had with a number of the most eminent
ship-owners of New York. The leader of these eminent ship-owners, after
considering the subject carefully, said to Secretary Welles that thirty
sailing vessels would have to be purchased before an actual blockade of
the ports could be completed. As a matter of fact, over 600 ships were
employed at the end, and even then some blockaders got through.
[Illustration: Gideon Welles.
_From a photograph._]
But it was not alone in a lack of ships that the government was
embarrassed. It was necessary to find officers and crews for the ships
that were not in commission. Hundreds of men were needed to man even
one of the five screw frigates, and yet to man the whole twenty-seven
ships not in commission there were, on March 4, 1861, “only 207 men
in all the ports and receiving ships on the Atlantic coast.” “It is
a striking illustration of the improvidence of naval legislation and
administration that in a country of thirty millions of people only a
couple of hundred were at the disposal of the Navy Department.”
And as for the officers, as has been already shown, when the need of
the nation was greatest, a fifth of them drew swords against the flag
instead of defending it.
To still further hamper the work of the Navy Department, Congress was
very slow to learn that a vast naval force was needed. The fact that
the South had no navy and no merchant marine of its own, seemed, in
the minds of the Congressmen, to make it wholly unnecessary to spend
money on fighting ships. Indeed, a Navy Department has rarely been in a
more distressful condition than was that under Mr. Gideon Welles in the
first six months or so of the administration of President Lincoln.
However, a beginning was made. Perhaps the first step of importance in
fitting the navy for war was the appointment of Mr. Gustavus V. Fox
as assistant to Mr. Welles, for Fox had been a naval lieutenant and
brought a practical knowledge of naval affairs with him when he was
placed in charge of the actual war operations of the ships.
First of all, of course, was the work of getting men by a call for
volunteers. The call was answered by hosts, but never by as great
numbers as were needed. Captains and mates from the Northern ports and
the Great Lakes were the more valuable part of this volunteer force,
but so great was the need of officers that not a few men who had never
been at sea received appointments. The youngsters at the Naval Academy
who had had one year’s instruction, or more, were taken at once into
the service. They were mere boys, but they had learned something of
warships, and some of them made names that will not be easily forgotten.
[Illustration: Gustavus V. Fox.
_From an engraving._]
The next effort after the call for men was to issue a call for ships.
The department strove to buy “everything afloat that could be made of
service,” and where owners would not sell, to charter the ships. At
first the ships were purchased by the department direct or by naval
officers. Altogether, twelve steamers had been purchased and nine
chartered by July 1, 1861; and it is worth recording that, because
greed was a stronger passion than love of country, the prices charged
were outrageously high. Afterwards a business man was appointed to the
task of buying ships, and somewhat better rates were then obtained,
while a board of naval officers inspected the ships to decide on their
fitness and the alterations needed to make them serviceable.
It was a heterogeneous collection, a nautical curiosity shop, that they
got together--deep-water ships, inland-water steamers, ferryboats,
and harbor tugs. The inspecting officers were compelled by stress of
need to accept about everything that would float and carry a gun.
And, singular as it may seem at first thought to those who in these
days ride on them, the double-ended ferryboats made very successful
naval ships. It was the Fulton ferryboat _Somerset_ that captured
the blockade-runner _Circassian_ off Havana--a prize that yielded
$315,371.39 to her captors. Nor was that her only service. Being
well built to stand the hard knocks of their ordinary service, the
ferryboats were easily fitted with heavy guns and served well in
battering down alongshore forts.
By the 1st of December, 1861, the government had purchased 137 vessels,
of which, however, fifty-eight were sailing vessels; and it may as well
be told here as elsewhere that 418 vessels were purchased during the
war, of which 313 were steamers.
Meantime the department started the work of building ships. Congress
authorized seven sloops-of-war, and the department laid down eight, of
which four were built to the lines of the sloops of 1858 in order to
save time; and it is worth noting that the _Kearsarge_ was among the
four. The eight were begun immediately, and six more were laid down
before the end of the year.
Without waiting for an appropriation, the department contracted with
private shipyards for the building of twenty-three heavily armed screw
gunboats. And this contract is worth more space than the mere statement
of the fact, for it draws attention to the importance of the private
shipbuilder as a factor in the sea power of a nation. Even in the War
of 1812, when wooden sailing ships were the sole evidence of sea power,
the private shipbuilder was of essential importance. It was a private
shipbuilder from New York, Mr. Noah Brown, who sent Perry’s victorious
squadron afloat on Lake Erie, and it was the private shipbuilder who
gave the Americans the supremacy that they enjoyed from time to time on
Lake Ontario. Without private yards amply equipped for the construction
of the best warships afloat, no nation can have a sea power adequate
for the protection of its honor and the preservation of peace.
These twenty-three gunboats mounted from four to five guns each, of
which one was an eleven-inch smooth-bore. They were wooden boats, of
course, and they were known as the ninety-day fleet because some of
them were in commission within three months from the signing of the
contract.
[Illustration: Garrett J. Pendergrast.]
The fact that they were so quickly built is also worth considering
in connection with the fact that ships relatively as efficient as
they were could not now be built in less than a year. The day of a
ninety-day fleet passed when steel was substituted for wood.
The first point actually blockaded was Hampton Roads. Flag Officer
G. J. Pendergrast established the blockade there, and issued the
following proclamation on April 30, 1861:
“_To all whom it may concern_:
“I hereby call attention to the Proclamation of his Excellency
Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, under date of
the 27th April, 1861, for an efficient blockade of the ports of
Virginia and North Carolina, and warn all persons interested that I
have a sufficient naval force there for the purpose of carrying out
that Proclamation.
“All vessels passing the Capes of Virginia, coming from a distance
and ignorant of the Proclamation, will be warned off, and those
passing Fortress Monroe will be required to anchor under the guns
of the fort, and subject themselves to an examination.
“United States’ Flagship _Cumberland_, off
“Fortress Monroe, Virginia, April 30, 1861.
(Signed) “G. J. PENDERGRAST,
“_Commanding Home Squadron_.”
This proclamation is worth careful perusal for two reasons: The first
reason is that it contained an untrue statement. Instead of having
“sufficient naval force” “for an efficient blockade of the ports of
Virginia and North Carolina,” he had barely enough for Virginia alone.
Wilmington was a most important harbor of the South; it eventually
became the favorite with blockade-runners, but there was not a ship
ready to close it for many weeks after this proclamation was issued.
More important still is the second reason for reading the proclamation
carefully--the fact that it was issued at the behest of the Navy
Department, and illustrates clearly the department’s idea of a blockade
at that time. It is necessary to say here that, owing to the excitement
of the times, the government was making a very grave error--it was
trying to establish a “paper blockade.” That is to say, there was a
determined effort made to interdict trade where there was no blockade
_de facto_--not a ship, or a rowboat even, stationed to close the port.
And this was a most remarkable undertaking, because the “free trade”
for which the War of 1812 was waged was the freedom to trade in any
belligerent port not actually closed by the presence of a warship.
The government was sacrificing a great principle for the sake of a
temporary advantage.
This was not due to the mistake of a naval officer. It was the
deliberate action of the administration, and it is not unlikely that it
will come back, some time, to plague us when we are the neutral nation
seeking for trade in a belligerent port.
Proof of the fact that the whole Cabinet was involved is found in the
correspondence of Mr. Seward relating to the blockade off Charleston.
The _Niagara_ had arrived home from Japan on April 24th, and was sent
to blockade Charleston as soon as possible, arriving off the bar on
May 11th. She remained there four days only, and then went away in
search of a ship that was said to be bringing arms from Belgium to a
port further south, and there was no warship off that harbor until May
28th (some accounts say the 29th), when the _Minnesota_ came to take
the _Niagara’s_ place. The _Harriet Lane_, a revenue cutter, used as
a warship, did lie off the harbor on the 19th, but for thirteen days
Charleston was entirely uncovered.
On May 22, 1861, Lord Lyons, the British minister at Washington, in the
interest of British ships at Charleston, called the attention of Mr.
Seward to the fact that the _Niagara_ had left Charleston on the 15th
and that the harbor was thereby opened. Replying to this, Mr. Seward
wrote, along with other things, the following:
“The blockade of the port of Charleston has been neither abandoned,
relinquished, nor remitted, as the letter of Her Britannic Majesty’s
Consul would lead you to infer. We are informed that the _Niagara_
was replaced by the steamer _Harriet Lane_, but that, owing to some
accident, the latter vessel failed to reach the station as ordered
until a day or two after the _Niagara_ had left.
“I hasten, however, to express the dissent of this Government from the
position which seems to be assumed by your note, that that temporary
absence impairs the blockade and renders necessary a new notice of
its existence. This Government holds that the blockade took effect at
Charleston on the 11th day of this month, and that it will continually
be in effect until notice of its relinquishment shall be given by
Proclamation of the President of the United States.”
On May 13th the British ship _Perthshire_ appeared off Pensacola,
having heard nothing of the blockade there, but she was told that
Mobile was open. So she went to Mobile, loaded cotton, and sailed on
the 30th, although the port was closed on the 26th by the _Powhatan_.
She was captured at sea on June 9th, by the _Massachusetts_, but
released by the flagship _Niagara_, whose captain “considered the
capture illegal, as, by order of the Department, no neutral vessel not
having on board contraband of war was to be detained or captured unless
attempting to leave or enter a blockaded port after the notification
of blockade had been indorsed on her register,” The owner made a claim
for £200 compensation on account of the detention of his ship, which
had lost twelve days of her voyage; and the claim was allowed and paid
by the government of the United States.
The United States had now to abide by the law that its navy had in
1812 established. The ship of a neutral had a right to enter any
port left open by the government ships, and for several months after
the President’s proclamation nine-tenths of the 185 Southern harbors
remained open.
This matter is of importance because of the right of neutrals in case
the blockade of a port was actually abandoned or raised even for
an hour. The opening of the port made it legally necessary for the
blockaders to begin over again as if no blockade had existed. The
neutral entering an opened port had a right to remain fifteen days, as
the law was applied, after she was officially notified of the blockade,
while neutrals approaching a re-blockaded port had the right to go away
unmolested if they had not been notified, actually or constructively,
that the new blockade existed.
New Orleans was blockaded on May 26, 1861, by the _Brooklyn_, and
Galveston on June 2d by the _South Carolina_. For celerity of movement
in carrying out orders to blockade the different ports no man exceeded
Lieutenant Woodhull, for within forty-eight hours after receiving
orders to charter a steamer he had left Washington, obtained the
_Keystone State_ in the Delaware, carried her to Hampton Roads, and
reported ready for duty.
On the whole, it may be said that on July 1, 1861, the magnitude of
the work of blockading 185 ports and inlets began to be appreciated
by the Navy Department. Moreover, the hesitation and vacillation that
had characterized the early movements of the government were becoming
submerged. The determination of the people of the North to preserve the
American nation intact was growing, under the shame of early reverses
ashore, into a mighty tide that was to be irresistible at the last. A
blockade was established within the time mentioned, in which even the
critical eye of British men-o’-warsmen, sent especially to examine it
in the interests of British commerce, could find no flaw. When, on the
13th of July, Commodore Pendergrast issued another proclamation saying
Virginia and North Carolina were legally closed, he stated the fact,
and from that time on the whole coast was, at worst, under guard, if
not impassable. It was a blockade that was to starve the hosts fighting
against the flag into abandoning their arms and returning once more to
the ballot-box for a redress of grievances.
This is by no means to say that the blockade was absolutely effectual.
Tales of the blockade-runners are to be told further on, but some
of the difficulties in the way of effecting a blockade, even when
ships a-plenty were on the coast, must be considered here. Mention
has already been made of the physical aspects of the coast. No more
difficult coast for a blockade can be found in the world. With this in
mind, let the reader recall the fact that the South in those days was
about the only producer of cotton in the world, and that the sap of
the long-leaved pine was converted into tar and turpentine, which were
produced there in very great quantities. On the other hand, consider
that the South had scarcely anything in the way of factories. The
people there were dependent on commerce for their supplies of even the
most common necessities of life--for household goods, for clothing, and
even for some kinds of food. And as for the arms and supplies needed
for a war, there was one small powder mill, but nothing more in all
the South, unless, indeed, the existence of the Tredegar iron mills at
Richmond might be called a gun and engine factory.
Here, then, were the conditions for commerce: The South was the chief
source of cotton and naval stores, and it was in desperate need of
manufactured articles in a great variety. The blockade stopped all
lawful traffic between it and the rest of the world. The cotton for
the mills of the world was shut off. The mills of France and England
were shut down for want of raw material, and people starved to death in
England because the mills were shut down, and there was no way in which
the unfortunate operators could get money for food. We can afford to
recall this fact when we feel embittered by the attitude of a certain
part of the English people toward us during our struggle for national
life. In Lancashire, England, no less than ten million dollars had been
given away by relief committees to the starving mill hands _within two
years_ after the war began. Moreover, the English government was not
always one-sided, as will appear further on.
The price of cotton rose to a level that now seems fabulous in the
markets of the world. The prices of the goods that the people of the
South were accustomed to import rose as rapidly there, while munitions
of war commanded any price that might be asked by one who could supply
them. Here was a chance for profit such as the world had not seen since
the wars of Napoleon, and greed is the steam that turns the wheels of
commerce.
Just off the Southern coast lay the Bahama Islands, while the Bermudas
were but a day’s sail farther away. It is 674 miles from Bermuda to
Wilmington, and 515 from Nassau to Charleston--three days’ run, or
less, in either case. Here were neutral ports to serve as a basis for
the contraband trade, and thither the contraband traders flocked as the
pirates of old swarmed about Jamaica.
Nassau was a natural resort for the blockade runners, for its people
had been wreckers--had “thanked God for a good wrack”--for time out of
mind. Besides that, it was not only near by the Southern coast, but it
was surrounded by a host of reefs awash, every one of which was neutral
territory, and was surrounded by its marine league of neutral waters,
where a blockade-runner was safe.
As the reader will remember, the blockade-running traffic was chiefly
in the hands of the British, although Yankees were found not unwilling
to turn a contraband dollar with one hand while they flapped the
old flag in the air with the other and shouted over Union victories
vociferously.
At the beginning of the contraband business the vessels were loaded
in England, cleared for Bermuda or Nassau, and sent thence to the
Southern destination, Charleston being the chief port. Any vessel,
even a condemned sailing schooner, was counted good enough; in fact,
worthless vessels were preferred because the loss would be less in case
of failure.
The touch at the neutral port was, of course, a mere device to deceive
the American government officials; but a change was soon made in
that game, for the courts held to the doctrine of the continuity
of a voyage. If the ultimate destination of the ship and cargo was
Charleston, she might be lawfully captured anywhere _en route_ in spite
of the fact that she was cleared for a neutral port when the voyage
began.
[Illustration: A Four-pound Cast-iron Gun Captured from a
Blockade-runner.]
There being no appeal from this decision, the contraband dealers
resorted to shipping goods from England to the neutral port off the
coast, and there unloading the goods. The papers, of course, were made
out in proper form, under oath, giving the neutral port as the ultimate
destination. They showed, for instance, that a house in Nassau was
buying shoes, woollens, guns, gunpowder, swords, etc., sufficient to
supply an army, and it was called legitimate trade. Perjury was as
common in this contraband business as the drinking of wine. In fact,
one cannot help quoting here the words of the favorite “Naval History
of Great Britain”--the words of James where he is writing of American
traders in the days of the “paper blockades” of 1812. He says:
“Every citizen of every town in the United States, to which a creek
leads that can float a canoe, becomes henceforward ‘a merchant’; and
the grower of wheat or tobacco sends his son to a counting-house,
that he may be initiated in the profitable art of falsifying ship’s
papers, and covering belligerent property. Here the young American
learns to bolt custom-house oaths by the dozen, and to condemn a lie
only when clumsily told, or when timorously or inadequately applied.
After a few years of probation, he is sent on board a vessel as mate,
or supercargo; and, in due time, besides fabricating fraudulent papers,
and swearing to their genuineness, he learns (using a homely phrase) to
humbug British officers, and to decoy and make American citizens of
British seamen.”
What Mr. James says of the American people as a whole, can be
truthfully said in substance of the British blockade-runners. They were
an infamous lot, without exception, and ever ready to sacrifice honor
and risk life so long as the number of pieces of gold was large enough.
But this is not meant to apply to the Confederates engaged in running
supplies through the blockaded lines. Their case was entirely
different, for they were legally belligerents, and to obtain supplies
was, from their point of view, a patriotic duty. So it might--so it
usually did happen that a blockade-runner carried one man (the pilot)
whose courage and firmness excite the heartiest approbation of every
unprejudiced mind, while every other member of the crew was at heart a
coward who dared not fight the blockaders in pursuit, and a sneak who
would sell his soul for gold.
However, even the trick of transferring cargo at Nassau did not serve
them long, for “it was held that the ships carrying on this traffic to
neutral ports were confiscable, provided the ultimate destination of
the cargo to a blockaded port was known to the owner.”
[Illustration: An Eighteen-pound Rifle Captured from a Blockade-runner.]
For this “the United States were accused of sacrificing the rights
of neutrals, which they had hitherto upheld, to the interests of
belligerents, and of disregarding great principles for the sake of
momentary advantage.” In fact, however, Lord Stowell had held where a
neutral, when trading between two ports of a belligerent, had landed
the cargo in a neutral port and re-shipped it on another vessel, the
continuity of the voyage was not broken. Cargoes shipped in due form to
Nassau and taken before reaching that port having been declared lawful
prizes in spite of perjury, the contraband traders then adopted the
bold expedient of shipping their goods by regular lines to New York and
there re-shipping them to Nassau and Bermuda; but the moment this trade
attracted attention the New York customs officials were instructed
to refuse clearances to ships “which, whatever their ostensible
destination, were believed to be intended for Southern ports, or whose
cargoes were in imminent danger of falling into the hands of the enemy.”
[Illustration: A Six-pound Gun Captured from a Blockade-runner.]
The Nassau merchants got the British authorities to inquire into this
refusal to clear ships to their port, the ground taken being that an
unjust discrimination was made against them, but after considerable
correspondence the British decided to let Uncle Sam alone in that
matter. The subject is of special interest for the reason that it shows
how strong the American government is in an emergency, even though the
Executive is very often obliged to wait on Congress before making a
move.
[Illustration: A Nassau View--Along the Shore East of the Town.
_From a photograph by Rau._]
So, at last, the contraband traders were obliged to rely entirely on
their ability as sneaks. The goods were sent to Nassau and Bermuda
as before, though, meantime, Havana, Cuba, and Matamoras, Mexico, on
the Rio Grande, were of considerable importance. Cargoes of Southern
products were safe after reaching these ports, if cargoes of contraband
goods _en route_ to them were not. Moreover, there was a change in
the forms of ships used that made these nearby ports absolutely
necessary to the traffic; for soon after the blockading fleets became
efficient the use of condemned ships as blockade-runners was abandoned
and smaller and swifter vessels were adopted. The transition from
these to vessels built especially to run between the islands and the
Confederate ports was easy and was quickly made. The inventive talent
of the traders was worthy of a better cause. Low and slender hulls,
with the most powerful engines and twin screws or feathering paddles,
were adopted. The paint used was of an obscuring color. There was no
spar save that necessary to support a crow’s nest for the lookout.
The one thing that they could not keep from betraying them, at the
last, was the smoke, but at one time they burned anthracite coal, and
they stopped using it only when the American government prohibited
the export of it. As time passed and the strangulation caused by the
blockade became more severe, the skill and ingenuity of the blockaders
increased, so that the traffic never was stopped. There was, at one
time, talk in Richmond of having the Confederate government take the
traffic into its own hands absolutely, because of the demoralization
caused by the illegitimate traders. They brought what they could sell
at the most profit, of course. They brought liquors where medicines
were needed, and silks and fancy slippers in place of the necessities
of life for which the people suffered. It is a pity that the change was
not made, for then one might have considered the blockade-runners with
other feelings than disgust.
[Illustration: Nassau Schooners.
_From a photograph by Rau._]
But if the traffic never ceased absolutely, the constriction of the
blockade was and is now manifest. It was so efficient that one can
scarcely read of the effects produced by it in the South without tears.
One can believe that the blockade was a merciful as well as a just
measure of war in that it shortened the struggle more than any other
measure, and so saved many lives on both sides; but it is a pitiful
fact that those who suffered most from the effects of the blockade were
the women and the little ones. There are many tiny graves in the South
that were dug because the blockade excluded the medicines needed by the
sick.
Lest the reader think the language used here regarding the foreign
blockade-runners is too strong, a story told by one of them, Thomas E.
Taylor (see p. 110, “Running the Blockade”), shall be given. Taylor was
a leader in the business. He ran the first steel ship (the _Banshee_)
built especially for the purpose. Among other vessels under his control
was the _Will-o’-the-Wisp_. She was a wretched ship, and here is what
he says:
“I found her a constant source of delay and expenditure and I decided
to sell her. After having her cobbled up with plenty of putty and
paint, I was fortunate enough to open negotiations with some Jews with
a view to her purchase. Having settled all preliminaries, we arranged
for a trial trip, and after a very sumptuous lunch I proceeded to run
her over a measured mile for the benefit of the would-be purchasers.
I need scarcely mention that we subjected her machinery to the utmost
strain, bottling up steam to a pressure of which our present Board
of Trade, with its motherly care for our lives, would express strong
disapproval. The log line was whisked merrily over the stern of the
_Will-o’-the-Wisp_, with the satisfactory result that she logged 17½
knots. The Jews were delighted, so was I; and the bargain was clinched.”
As to the legal status of a blockade-runner, Taylor says: “The
blockading force is entitled to treat such a ship in all respects as
an enemy, and to use any means recognized in civilized warfare to
drive off, capture or destroy her. A crew so captured may be treated
as prisoners of war, nor is any resistance to capture permitted, and a
single blow or shot in his own defence turns the blockade-runner into
a pirate.” In the same line is what Wilson’s “Iron Clads in Action”
says regarding the fact that the crews of captured blockade-runners “at
least once or twice rose up on the prize crew and recaptured the ship.
It was a big risk--piracy upon the high seas--with the penalty of death
if blood was shed.”
One of the cases wherein the crew recaptured the ship from the prize
crew is described very well in the _Mercantile Marine Magazine_
(London) for June, 1862, p. 177. The story begins: “On Saturday, May 3,
the rooms of the Liverpool Mercantile Marine Association were crowded
almost to suffocation by the merchants and Mercantile Marine officers
of Liverpool, to witness the presentation of a magnificent testimonial
to Captain William Wilson, of the British ship _Emily St. Pierre_,
for his pluck and gallantry in recapturing his ship which had been
seized by the United States cruiser _James Adger_, off Charleston.”
He had been guilty of “piracy upon the high seas,” but 170 Liverpool
merchants united to give him a silver tea and coffee service, the
association named gave him a gold medal, the owners of the ship gave
him 2,000 guineas, and his crew gave him a sextant. The captain, in his
little speech, said that the “token of your kindness” would remind the
British sailor that “his efforts for the right and true will not be
lost sight of nor go unrewarded.” The story is well worth quoting as
showing how men, naturally inclined to “the right and true,” may be led
by the exigencies of trade to applaud and reward even “piracy upon the
high seas.”
The reader should observe here that for a captured crew of one
belligerent to rise against a prize crew of the other belligerent is a
very different matter from this act of “piracy.”
As already said, the blockade-runners were at first chiefly old
sailing ships of various rigs or old steamers, the idea being to risk
as little capital as possible in this illegitimate trade while making
the utmost profit--not an unknown plan in legitimate trade, and never
a wise one. Small schooners were used all through the wars to run the
numerous shoal-water inlets along the coast, but the real interest in
the blockade-runners begins when the Liverpool merchants began to build
steamers especially designed for that purpose--build them without
hindrance on the part of their government.
[Illustration: The Blockade-runner _Teaser_.
_From a photograph made in 1864._]
Taylor, as said, was the first to carry out one of these swift vessels,
and he describes her as follows:
“The new blockade-runner was a paddle boat, built of steel, on
extraordinarily fine lines, 214 feet long and 20 feet beam, and drew
only 8 feet of water. Her masts were mere poles without yards, and
with the least possible rigging. In order to attain greater speed in a
sea-way she was built with a turtle-back deck forward. She was of 217
tons net register, and had an anticipated sea speed of eleven knots,
with a coal consumption of thirty tons a day. Her crew, which included
three engineers and twelve firemen, consisted of thirty-six hands all
told.” And she was a type of the best sort, although they eventually
reached a speed of seventeen knots.
At Nassau “everything aloft was taken down, till nothing was left
standing but the lower masts, with small cross-trees for a lookout man
on the fore, and the boats were lowered to the level of the rails. The
whole ship was then painted a sort of dull white, the precise shade
of which was so nicely ascertained by experience before the end of
the war that a properly dressed runner on a dark night was absolutely
indiscernible at a cable’s length. So particular were captains on this
point that some of them even insisted on their crews wearing white
at night, holding that one black figure on the bridge or on deck was
enough to betray an otherwise invisible vessel.
“The reckless loading, to which high profits and the perquisites
allowed to officers led, is to a landsman inconceivable. That men
should be found willing to put to sea at all in these frail craft
piled like hay wagons is extraordinary enough, but that they should do
so in the face of a vigilant and active blockading force, and do it
successfully, seems rather an invention of romance than a commonplace
occurrence of our own time.”
So prepared, the steamer sneaked away from port, fled from every
sail and every smoke, crossed the Gulf Stream by daylight in order to
determine her position uninfluenced by the current, and struck in on
the coast at night. The light on the blockading flagship was commonly
used to locate the harbor, and when this was seen the runner either ran
away around the end of the squadron and slipped in along the coast or
else plunged boldly through under the guns of the flagship.
The _Banshee_ on her first inward trip received $250 per ton in gold
for freight on war material. She carried out 100 tons of tobacco at
$350 per ton, and 500 bales of cotton, that yielded $250 net per bale.
In January, 1865, Jefferson Davis, “in a message to Congress on
this subject, said that the number of vessels arriving at only two
ports--Charleston and Wilmington--from November the first to December
the sixth, had been forty-three, and that only a very small portion
of those outward bound had been captured; that out of 11,796 bales
of cotton shipped since July the first, 1864, but 1,272 bales had
been lost. And the special report of the Secretary of the Treasury
in relation to the same matter stated that there had been imported
at the ports of Wilmington and Charleston since October 26th, 1864,
8,632,000 pounds of meat, 1,507,000 pounds of lead, 1,933,000 pounds
of saltpetre, 546,000 pairs of shoes, 316,000 pairs of blankets,
520,000 pounds of coffee, 69,000 rifles, 97 packages of revolvers,
2,639 packages of medicines, 43 cannon, with a very large quantity of
other articles. From March 1st, 1864, to January 1st, 1865, the value
of the shipments of cotton on Confederate government account was shown
by the Secretary’s report to have been $5,296,000 in specie, of which
$1,500,000 had been shipped out between July 1st and December 1st, 1864.
“A list of vessels which were running the blockade from Nassau and
other ports, in the period intervening between November, 1861, and
March, 1864, showed that 84 steamers were engaged; of these, 37 were
captured by the enemy, 12 were totally lost, 11 were lost and the
cargoes partially saved, and one foundered at sea.
“They made 363 trips to Nassau and 65 to other parts. Among the highest
number of runs made were those of the _Fanny_, which ran 18 times,
and the _Margaret and Jessie_, which performed the same feat and was
captured. Out of 425 runs from Nassau alone (including 100 schooners),
only 62--about one in seven--were unsuccessful.”
The following estimate of the disbursements and profits of a
blockade-runner is taken from Scharf, as is the quotation above. The
estimate refers to the last part of the war, when the Confederate
government took a half of the cargo space of runners:
One captain, per month $5,000 00
First officer, $600, second do., $250; third do., $170 1,020 00
One boatswain 160 00
One carpenter 160 00
One purser 1,000 00
One steward, $150; three assistants, $80 330 00
One cook, $150; two assistants, $120 270 00
One engineer and three assistants 3,500 00
Twelve firemen and coal-heavers 2,400 00
240 tons of coal at $20 4,800 00
Rations for crew 2,700 00
Oil, tallow, and packing 1,000 00
Stevedores 5,000 00
Pilotage, out and in 3,000 00
Sea insurance 3,500 00
Wear and tear 4,250 00
Incidental expenses 1,000 00
Interest 875 00
Risks, 25 per cent 37,500 00
Provisions for passengers 3,000 00
----------
$80,265 00
Earnings, out and home:
800 bales of cotton for government $40,000 00
800 bales of cotton for owners 40,000 00
Return freight for owners 40,000 00
Return freight for government 40,000 00
Passengers, out and home 12,000 00
----------
$172,000 00
-----------
Leaving a monthly profit of $91,735 00
On the other hand, it should be observed that the Federal ships
captured over 1,000 prizes during the war. One of these, the _Memphis_,
paid $510,914.07 in prize money to her captors, two or three paid over
$400,000, and whole fleets yielded from $100,000 to $300,000. The
_Banshee_, of which Taylor boasts, paid $104,948.48 to the Yankee crews
of the _Fulton_ and _Grand Gulf_. Blockade-running, like privateering
in 1812, paid a few firms handsomely. The Frasers of Charleston
are said to have cleared $20,000,000 in gold, but many others lost
heavily--the Jews who bought the _Will-o’-the-Wisp_, for instance. It
was a thoroughly disreputable business, but so much of the story must
be told, if only to show the character of part of the opposition which
the government faced in the Civil War.
CHAPTER III
LOSS OF THE NORFOLK NAVY YARD
EFFECTIVE WORK DONE BY SOUTHERN NAVAL OFFICERS WHO CONTINUED TO WEAR
THE NATIONAL UNIFORM THAT THEY MIGHT THE MORE READILY BETRAY THE
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT--THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY WAS DECEIVED AND THE
COMMANDANT AT NORFOLK DEMORALIZED--WILLIAM MAHONE’S TRICKS ADDED
TO THE DEMORALIZATION AT THE YARD, AND IT WAS ABANDONED AT LAST
IN A SHAMEFUL PANIC--PROPERTY THAT WAS WORTH MILLIONS OF DOLLARS,
AND GUNS THAT TOOK THOUSANDS OF LIVES, FELL INTO THE CONFEDERATES’
HANDS--THE FIRST NAVAL BATTLE OF THE WAR--THREE LITTLE WOODEN
VESSELS WITH SEVEN SMALL GUNS SENT AGAINST A WELL-BUILT FORT
MOUNTING THIRTEEN GUNS--THE HAZARDOUS WORK OF PATROLLING THE
POTOMAC.
The first actual battle of the war in which the navy took part occurred
on May 20 and 21, 1861, and resulted in the capture of the Confederate
forts that had been erected on the Potomac River at Acquia Creek to
shut off communication between Washington and the sea. As the reader
will remember, there was but one railroad running from the North to
Washington in those days. The authorities of Maryland had decided
that they would keep their State neutral during the impending
strife, acting, of course, on the theory of State sovereignty then
held in the South, and had prohibited the transportation of troops
across their State. The Confederates actually believed that this
prohibition would prevent the Northern troops coming to the defence
of the nation’s capital overland, and that resort to ships would be
had in strengthening the forces at Washington. To head off the ships,
the Confederates swarmed to the bank of the Potomac River, and there
were Confederate fortifications with colors flying, in plain view of
Washington itself. The Confederates, in the few weeks following the
secession of Virginia, were confident of capturing the national capital.
[Illustration: Washington, D. C., and Its Vicinity.
1. Matthias Point. 2. Acquia Creek. 3. Shipping Point. 4.
Fredericksburg. 5. Mt. Vernon. 6. Alexandria. 7. Orange &
Alexandria RR. 8. Loudon & Hampshire RR. 9. Manassas Junction. 10.
Bull Run. 11. Centreville. 12. Fairfax Court House. 13. Vienna. 14
Falls Church. 15. Arlington House. 16. Chain Bridge. 17. Aqueduct
Bridge. 18. Long Bridge. 19. Georgetown. 20. Washington. 21.
President’s House. 22. Smithsonian Institution. 23. Patent Office.
24. General Post Office. 25. Capitol. 26. Navy Yard. 27. Arsenal.
28. Maryland shore. 29. Fort Washington. 30. Indian Head. 31.
Maryland Point. 32. Port Tobacco. 33. Forts Scott, Albany, Runyon,
Richardson, etc.
]
It is easy to show there was really some basis for the Confederate
confidence. While the North groped and discussed, the Confederates
were at work collecting material for war. Officers who, like Semmes,
had left the service of the nation for that of the State, had gone
North--communications being still open--and had purchased arms
and ammunition in considerable quantities. They were very near to
getting good steamers, too; and a patriot now reads with pleasure
the keen words of scorn with which those officers spoke afterwards
of the Northern men who were so ready to sell these goods--of the
stay-at-home-and-make-money patriots. But the South had not stopped
at mere buying. Indeed, all the supplies purchased combined were as a
pistol-shot to a torpedo in comparison with what they obtained when the
Norfolk Navy Yard was abandoned to them.
It is certain that the whole story of this event will never be told;
for it was brought about by officers of the navy, who, after serving
honorably for many years under the flag, were not only willing to turn
on the flag, as many did with satisfied consciences, but were willing
to stoop to the shameful work of pretending to be loyal advisers of
the nation’s naval Secretary when they were secretly plotting the
destruction of the nation. While yet Virginia had not passed the
ordinance of secession these men “lost no opportunity to impress upon
the mind of the Secretary of the Navy the importance of doing nothing
to offend the State of Virginia.” These naval officers, who were
working day and night to overthrow the government, stopped at nothing.
The commandant of the navy yard at Washington was one of them. In the
midst of his plottings his daughter was married to one of the younger
plotters, and the others of the gang were, of course, present at the
wedding. “The house was everywhere festooned with the American flag,
even to the bridal bed.” And down at the Norfolk Navy Yard one of the
Southern officers went to Commodore McCauley, after the Pensacola Navy
Yard had been turned over to the Confederates, and said: “You have no
Pensacola officers here, Commodore; we will never desert you; we will
stand by you to the last, even to the death.” And this was said with
the deliberate intent of keeping the commodore from doing anything that
might save the nation’s property for the use of the government. One
need not search long for words to describe such actions.
[Illustration: Hiram Paulding.
_From an engraving by Hall._]
Secretary Welles called Capt. Hiram Paulding, an officer of known
loyalty, to advise him. Paulding broke up the nest of scoundrels who
wore the uniform that they might the more easily betray the flag, but
it was then too late to prevent the accomplishment of the object for
which they had chiefly labored--the betraying of the Norfolk Navy Yard
into the hands of the enemy. Large bodies of Confederate troops were
already gathering at Norfolk, although Virginia had not passed her
secession ordinances. Commodore McCauley was an old man and no match
for the young scoundrels who at Norfolk, as in Washington, held on to
their commissions and drew their pay up to the last day possible. They
were incessant in their labors to prevent anything being done that
would move a ship or a gun from the yard or add a loyal man to its
forces.
“Early in April”--note that it was not until April--“the Department
began to get very uneasy for the safety of the navy yard.” “The
Department was most anxious to get the _Merrimac_ away, but was
informed by Commodore McCauley that it would take a month to put her
machinery in working order.” No one seemed “to reflect that a few armed
towboats with marines on board” could have taken every ship from the
yard to an anchorage under Fortress Monroe.
However, on March 31st, 250 seamen were ordered from the New York Navy
Yard to Norfolk, and fifty seamen were transferred to the revenue
cutter _Harriet Lane_, which was sent to Norfolk. “On April 11th
Commander James Alden was ordered to take command of the _Merrimac_
and Chief Engineer Isherwood was sent to Norfolk to get the ship’s
engines in working order.” “On the 14th the work was commenced,
and on the 17th the engines were in working order--so much for the
commandant’s assertion that it would take a month to get the ship ready
to move.” These quotations are from Admiral Porter’s “Naval History of
the Civil War.” But he does not say McCauley was disloyal. McCauley had
merely believed the wilful lies of those under him.
[Illustration: A View of the Norfolk Navy Yard.
_From a photograph by Cook._]
It is cheering to read that “the disloyalty did not at that time extend
to the mechanics,” and that “they worked day and night” to get the
ship ready. “Then forty-four firemen and coal heavers volunteered for
the service of taking the _Merrimac_ out.” At this Commodore McCauley,
mindful of his orders to do nothing to excite the suspicions of hostile
intent, said “that next morning would be time enough.” Next morning,
there being a good head of steam on, word was again sent that she was
ready, but he replied that he had decided not to send her out. “He gave
as a reason the obstructions that had been placed in the channel, and
when the anxious Alden told him they could clear away the obstructions
he merely ordered the fires drawn. He had become utterly demoralized,
and his demoralization was infectious.”
At about this time came Captain Paulding in the _Pawnee_ from
Washington with a regiment of Massachusetts volunteers. His
instructions were to “save what he could and act as he thought proper.”
When he arrived the Southern officers had just resigned, and the
mechanics, being citizens of Virginia, had been induced to leave the
yard in a body. It was reported that thousands of Virginia militia
were coming to reinforce the Confederates gathering about the yard.
The report was due to a trick of William Mahone, afterwards a noted
practical politician of the State. He was president of the Norfolk &
Petersburg Railroad, and ran empty cars up the line, loaded on a mob
sent there for the purpose, and brought them back “with every man
yelling with all his might.” This was on April 19, 1861. The next day
Confederate troops did arrive, and the demoralization in the yard was
completed. It was the most disgraceful panic in the history of the
nation, for it was a panic that came on when not a gun had been fired,
and the only overt acts of war were the robbing of a government powder
magazine and the sinking of a few hulks (Mahone did this also), so that
the government officers would think the channel was being obstructed.
“The broadside of the _Germantown_, which was all ready for sea and
only waiting a crew, would have saved the navy yard against attack,
overawed Norfolk and Portsmouth, and prevented the channel from being
obstructed by the Confederates.” So says Porter. Elsewhere he adds,
that the “five heavy guns on a side on board the _Pennsylvania_”
with fifty good seamen on board, “could have bid defiance to 5,000
Confederates in arms and held Norfolk and Portsmouth.”
Nevertheless, “after the arrival of the _Pawnee_ had made the yard
doubly secure, the shells were drawn from the _Pennsylvania’s_
guns, and the guns spiked.” Every other gun in the yard, afloat and
ashore, except 200, was spiked. Men with sledge-hammers ran about the
yard, vainly trying to knock the trunnions from the guns in store.
Others soaked the decks of the ships and the buildings with tar and
turpentine. Others laid a mine in the dry dock--put twenty-six barrels
(2,600 pounds) of powder there. Only the _Pawnee_ and the _Cumberland_,
which were full-manned, escaped the work of the destroyers.
“It was a beautiful starlight night, April 20th, when all the
preparations were completed. The people of Norfolk and Portsmouth were
wrapped in slumber, little dreaming that in a few hours the ships
and public works which were so essential to the prosperity of the
community would be a mass of ruins, and hundreds of people would be
without employment and without food for their families. The _Pawnee_
had towed the _Cumberland_ out of the reach of the fire, and laid at
anchor to receive on board those who were to fire the public property.
Commodore McCauley had gone to bed that night, worn out with excitement
and anxiety, under the impression that the force that had arrived at
Norfolk was for the purpose of holding the yard and relieving him of
responsibility, and when he was called at midnight and informed that
the torch would be applied to everything, he could hardly realize the
situation, and was chagrined and mortified at the idea of abandoning
his post without any attempt to defend it.
“At 2.30 A.M., April 21st, a rocket from the _Pawnee_ gave the signal;
the work of destruction commenced with the _Merrimac_, and in ten
minutes she was one vast sheet of flame. In quick succession the trains
to the other ships and buildings were ignited and the surrounding
country brilliantly illuminated.”
[Illustration: The Old _New Hampshire_ at the Norfolk Navy Yard.
_From a photograph by Cook._]
At the beginning of April, 1861, there were stored at this yard 2,000
cannon, of which 300 were new Dahlgrens; 150 tons of powder, besides
vast quantities of loaded shells, machinery, castings, material
for ship-building, and ordnance and equipment stores--all in great
quantities. It contained a first-class stone dock. The steam frigate
_Merrimac_ was there undergoing repairs, the shops of the yard being
well fitted for such work. The sailing sloops-of-war _Germantown_
and _Plymouth_, of twenty-two guns each, and the brig _Dolphin_, of
four guns, were there, not manned, but fit for sea. Six other sailing
ships, including the famous _United States_, that were not of much
use, but worth something, were also there. On the whole, the material
of this yard was of more value, probably, than that in any two beside
it in the country. The Confederates estimated the value of the
property abandoned to them at $4,810,056.68 in gold. “But the greatest
misfortune to the Union caused by the destruction of the Navy Yard
was the loss of at least twelve hundred fine guns, most of which were
uninjured. A number of them were quickly mounted at Sewell’s Point to
keep our ships from approaching Norfolk; others were sent to Hatteras
Inlet, Ocracoke, Roanoke Island, and other points in the Sounds of
North Carolina. Fifty-three of them were mounted at Port Royal, others
at Fernandina and at the defences of New Orleans. They were met with
at Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Island No. 10, Memphis, Vicksburg, Grand
Gulf, and Port Hudson. We found them up the Red River as far as the
gunboats penetrated, and took possession of some of them on the cars
at Duvall’s Bluff, on White River, bound for Little Rock. They gave us
a three hours’ hard fight at Arkansas Post, but in the end they all
returned to their rightful owners, many of them indented with Union
shot, and not a few permanently disabled.
“Had it not been for the guns captured at Norfolk and Pensacola,
the Confederates would have found it a difficult matter to arm
their fortifications for at least a year after the breaking out of
hostilities, at the expiration of which time they began to manufacture
their own ordnance and import it from abroad. Great as was, therefore,
the loss of our ships, it was much less than the loss of our guns.” So
says Porter.
[Illustration: Burning of the Vessels at the Norfolk Navy Yard.]
Rightly considered, the abandonment of the Norfolk Navy Yard was as
great a misfortune to the South as to the North, for it needlessly
prolonged and intensified a conflict that could have but one end.
No one can estimate the number of lives that these guns cost both
sides--the fortifications that were erected and the battles that were
fought in consequence of their falling into Confederate hands. But if
it took the Confederates a whole year to get at the work of casting
cannon, it is not unreasonable to suppose that one year of the war
would have been saved had the government held its own.
It was with guns that were needlessly abandoned at Norfolk that the
Confederates made their first fight against the Federal navy--the
battle at Acquia Creek. Something like thirty miles below Washington
the Potomac makes a wide sweep to the east. Two creeks enter it there
from the west--one, right on the point of the elbow, being known as
Potomac Creek, and the other, that enters a little way to the north of
the elbow, being called Acquia Creek. There is a considerable bluff on
the point between Acquia Creek and the river, known in those days as
Split Rock Bluff. Because this creek was the terminus of a railroad
leading to Fredericksburg, Virginia, and because it was believed by
the Confederates that the point commanded the Potomac River, three
batteries were erected. The Confederate accounts say that there were
thirteen guns here, of which two were eight-inch Dahlgrens, brought
from Norfolk. The Confederates completed this battery about May 14,
1861. They had decided to abandon Alexandria whenever the Federals
chose to take it, and make Acquia Creek their frontier post on the
river.
Accordingly, when the Federals, under cover of the _Pawnee_, Capt.
S. C. Rowan, crossed over on the 24th, the Confederates moved out, and
there was no bloodshed until the insane hotel-keeper, Jackson, shot
Colonel Ellsworth because the Confederate flag was taken down from
the Marshall House. Then the Potomac flotilla, which was under Fleet
Officer James H. Ward, was ordered to attack the Acquia Creek batteries.
In one respect that order was one of the most remarkable ever issued
in the navy, up to that date, for Ward had under him the _Freeborn_,
a wooden paddle-wheel steamer of 250 tons, carrying three guns, the
largest being a thirty-two-pounder smooth-bore; the _Anacostia_, a
screw steamer of 100 tons, carrying two little howitzers, and the
_Resolute_, a steamer of ninety tons, carrying two howitzers. In all,
three frail wooden vessels, carrying seven small guns, were sent to
attack a well-planned, well-manned fort with not less than thirteen
guns, of which the worst was better than the best afloat before it.
This matter is especially worth considering in connection with what a
Secretary of the Navy is likely to do in future if the nation is ever
again unexpectedly obliged to fight.
However, Ward was a great man. He had already distinguished himself as
a writer on gunnery and naval tactics and as an inventor. He now showed
his pluck by bravely attacking the forts.
It was on Friday, May 31, 1861, at 10.30 o’clock at night, that the
first shot of this war was fired from a naval ship at a fort. In all,
fourteen shots were fired, and the Confederates fired fifty-six at the
ships. The forts were not damaged, and one Confederate soldier lost
a finger. However, the Confederates abandoned the battery they had
erected at the water level and took the guns to the top of the bluff.
Next day, the _Pawnee_ having come to reinforce the fleet, the attack
was renewed, and for five hours the four little steamers hurled their
shot at the forts. The Confederates fired over 1,000 shot in return.
It is instructive to note that no one was hurt on either side by all
that firing. The ships were struck several times, but “there was no
irreparable damage done.” The attack failed absolutely.
Ward was afterwards killed in an attack on the Confederate forts
erected at Matthias Point, fifteen miles or so farther down the river.
This was on June 27, 1861. The Federal forces attempted to land there
and were driven off easily. But for the coolness of Lieut. J. C.
Chaplin, of the _Pawnee_, who rallied his force, in spite of a heavy
fire, the whole landing party would have been captured. Ward was the
only one killed, but four others were wounded.
On the whole, the work of the navy on the Potomac was confined to
patrolling the stream for the purpose of preventing the Confederates
of the two slave-holding States that bordered it from communicating
with each other. The men engaged in it have not received and never
can receive the credit they deserve for what they did, simply because
there was nothing striking about the work. More unfortunate still,
they had steamers that were wholly inadequate to the work, and the
fighting, when any was done, was like that at Acquia Creek--ineffective
necessarily. Instead of an opportunity to win fame, the men found
toil of the most wearisome kind, and as a reward for it they got the
reproaches of ignorant editors at the North and the jeers of exultant
editors at the South. Nevertheless, this much was done: The river was
kept open, so far as was needed, for the transportation of troops and
supplies, to and fro, and when, in 1862, the Confederates found that
their forts could not stop traffic, even though their guns had an
effective range greater than the width of the river, they retired from
the bank of the Potomac altogether.
CHAPTER IV
A STORY OF CONFEDERATE PRIVATEERS
THEY DID PLENTY OF DAMAGE FOR A TIME, BUT THEIR CAREER WAS
BRIEF--CAPTURE OF THE FIRST OF THE CLASS, AND TRIAL OF HER CREW
ON A CHARGE OF PIRACY--REASONS WHY THEY COULD NOT BE HELD AS
CRIMINALS--LUCK OF THE _JEFFERSON DAVIS_--A NEGRO WHO RECAPTURED A
CONFEDERATE PRIZE TO ESCAPE THE TERRORS OF SLAVERY--A SKIPPER WHO
THOUGHT A GOVERNMENT FRIGATE WAS A MERCHANTMAN--THE “NEST” BEHIND
CAPE HATTERAS.
From a blockade of the ports of the Southern States it was a short
and natural step for the navy to land and effectually close some
port to Confederate commerce by occupying it. But before telling the
story of the first expedition organized for this purpose the story of
the Confederate privateers--real privateers, as distinguished from
Confederate cruisers like the _Alabama_--will be told, for the reason
that it was the work of these privateers that in good part led the
government to decide on the first expedition for occupying a Southern
port.
As a matter of fact, the idea of blockading the Southern ports was born
of the determination of the Confederates to commission privateers.
The sequence of events was as follows: The Confederates captured Fort
Sumter on April 13, 1861. On the 15th President Lincoln called for
75,000 troops to protect the government property and enforce the laws
of the nation in the seceding States. On the 17th Jefferson Davis
“published a counter proclamation inviting applications for letters of
marque and reprisal to be granted under the seal of the Confederate
States against ships and property of the United States and their
citizens.” The quotation is from Scharf’s “Confederate States Navy.”
It was on receipt of this that Mr. Lincoln, on the 19th, ordered the
blockade of the Southern ports.
However, Mr. Davis did not issue any commissions to privateers until
after the Confederate Congress had passed, on May 6, 1861, an act
authorizing him to do so. This act provided such safeguards as had
ruled American privateers in the War of 1812. On May 14th another
act supplemented the first by regulating the sale of prizes and the
distribution of the proceeds.
Sufficient time has passed since that war to enable at least the
younger generation of Northern-born men to view its events judicially,
and it is therefore likely that no student of history will now be
found to deny that the letters of marque subsequently issued under
these acts of the Confederate Congress were entirely legal. The
Confederates were entitled to the rights of belligerents--they at
least became entitled to them the moment that President Lincoln issued
his proclamation blockading the Southern ports. There is no point of
international law more firmly established now than that a proclamation
of a blockade carries with it a concession that war exists between the
blockaders and the blockaded. And this is worth remembering, because
Secretary of State Seward was unwilling to admit it for a very long
time after a state of war did actually exist. At the same time it
was entirely natural that Northern shipping men should have called
these privateers pirates. Business operations tend to concentrate
one’s nerves in his pocket and to render them so sensitive that any
diminution of weight in the pocket causes excruciating agony. Naturally
these would not hesitate to ignore the belligerent rights of an enemy,
nor to use harsh and unjust language when they felt this pain.
Availing themselves of the invitation to do so, a number of citizens of
Charleston equipped the pilot boat _Savannah_ with an eighteen-pounder,
mounted on a pivot; procured a crew of thirty men, all told, under
Capt. Thomas H. Baker; supplied them with small arms and ammunition,
and sent them out under a commission which, because it was the first
issued, shall be given in full, as follows:
“_Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, To
all who shall see these Presents, Greeting_:
“Know ye, That by virtue of the power vested in me by law, I have
commissioned, and do hereby commission, have authorized, and do
hereby authorize, the schooner or vessel called the _Savannah_
(more particularly described in the schedule hereunto annexed),
whereof T. Harrison Baker is commander, to act as a private armed
vessel in the service of the Confederate States, on the high seas,
against the United States of America, their ships, vessels, goods,
and effects, and those of their citizens, during the pendency of
the war now existing between the said Confederate States and the
said United States.
“This commission to continue in force until revoked by the
President of the Confederate States for the time being.
“Given under my hand and the seal of the Confederate States, at
Montgomery, this eighteenth day of May, A.D., 1861.
“(Signed) JEFFERSON DAVIS.
“By the President. R. Toombs, Secretary of State.
“SCHEDULE OF DESCRIPTION OF THE VESSEL.
“Name--Schooner _Savannah_. Tonnage--Fifty-three 41/95th tons.
Armament--One large pivot gun and small arms. No. of crew--thirty.”
[Illustration: THE SAVANNAH
THE CONFEDERATE STATES PRIVATEER SAVANNAH, LETTER OF MARQUE No. 1,
CAPTURED OFF CHARLESTON, BY THE U.S. BRIG PERRY, LIEUT. PARROTT.
_Entered according to act of Congress in the Year 1861 by E K
KIMMEL 59 NASSAU ST. N.Y. in the Clerks Office of the District
Court for the Southern District of New York._
]
The _Savannah_ sailed out of Charleston on the night of Sunday, June
2, 1861, and, eluding the Federal frigate _Minnesota_, went cruising
for Northern merchantmen. The schooner was small, and the weather hot.
The crew slept on deck that night, and, as was testified in court later
on, they were not feeling very well next morning. In fact, “being on
a flare-up the night before, not much was said,” even when a sail
was seen, and it became certain that the sail “was a Yankee vessel.”
Eventually the sail was overhauled. It proved to be the brig _Joseph_,
of Rockland, Maine, Capt. Thies N. Meyer, bound, sugar laden, from
Cardenas, Cuba, to Philadelphia. The brig had a crew of six, all told.
She was easily taken, and with a prize crew of six men was sent to
Georgetown, South Carolina, where she was condemned and sold in the
usual form.
Nevertheless, the cruise was not a paying venture, for soon after
sending the prize away the _Savannah_ chased the government man-o’-war
brig _Perry_, thinking her another merchantman, and was, in
consequence, captured. The _Perry_ turned her over to the _Minnesota_;
the _Minnesota_ towed her into Charleston harbor near enough to let her
owners learn of their loss, and then sent her North. At New York the
_Savannah’s_ crew was thrown into prison as pirates, and on July 16,
1861, they were indicted for piracy. The printed report of the trial
that followed makes an interesting book of 385 pages. The accused as a
whole claimed the rights of prisoners of war, but in spite of the plain
evidence that they were entitled to such rights, the jury disagreed.
Perhaps when one considers the state of the public mind in the North at
that time, the wonder is that they were not convicted and hanged.
Having been remanded in irons to prison, the Confederate authorities
took up their case. The victory the Confederates had obtained at
Manassas enabled them to put a number of Federal prisoners into irons
to abide the fate of the _Savannah’s_ crew. The Federal officers
so confined included five colonels, two lieutenant-colonels, three
majors, and three captains. Mr. Davis sent an envoy with a protest to
Washington. Nothing was done about the matter just then.
Meantime, on October 25, 1861, a member of the crew of the privateer
_Jefferson Davis_ was convicted on a charge of piracy, and on the 29th
three others of the crew were convicted. Nevertheless, on February
3, 1862, all of the alleged pirates, with thirty-four men from the
privateer _Petrel_, were sent to Fort Lafayette as prisoners of war,
and the date is of some importance because the change of policy, even
though it were compelled by a threat of retaliation, was another
official acknowledgment that the government had a very great war upon
its hands instead of a local insurrection of no concern to the rest of
the world.
Much more interesting than that of the _Savannah_ are the stories of
some of the other privateers. The _Jefferson Davis_, for instance, had
a career that approached that of some of the American privateers in
1812. She was built by Northern capitalists in 1854 for a slaver, and
was captured on the coast of Africa with many slaves on board, and sent
to Charleston. A fine Baltimore clipper she was, and when the war came
she was seized and armed with three eighteen-pounders and two twelves.
She got out to sea on June 28th, having seventy men before the mast.
On July 6th, off Hatteras, she got the brig _John Welsh_, loaded with
sugar. On the same day the schooner _Enchantress_ was captured, and the
next day, being but 150 miles from Sandy Hook, she took the schooner
_S. J. Waring_, that was bound to Montevideo with a valuable cargo. The
first-named prizes were sent to Southern ports; but William Tillman, a
colored man, recaptured the _Waring_, and one fact connected with the
adventure makes the story worth telling.
The _Davis_ placed a prize crew of five men on the _Waring_, Mr.
Montague Amiel, a Charleston pilot, being the prize master. William
Tillman, who was the _Waring’s_ cook; Brice Mackinnon, a passenger, and
two of the _Waring’s_ seamen were left on board of her, and she was
headed toward the South. The Northern men at once made friends with
their captors. The negro continued to cook perforce, but he made no
objection to the work, and the two Northern seamen volunteered to make
the best of a bad streak of luck by helping to work the ship.
But because Tillman knew that he would become a slave as soon as he
was carried into a Southern port, he determined that he would never go
there, and on the night of July 16, 1861, when fifty miles south of
Charleston, he found opportunity to become master of the schooner.
It was at about midnight. Prize Master Amiel was asleep in the cabin,
with the prize mate in a nearby berth. The second mate was on deck, but
about half-asleep, while one of the _Waring’s_ original crew was at the
wheel, and two of the prize seamen were on duty near the bow. Taking
the hatchet which he used in splitting wood for the galley stove, the
negro killed the prize captain and the two mates, when the Confederate
seamen surrendered and agreed to help work the ship back to New York.
There was no one on board who understood navigation, but the negro knew
enough to lay a course that would bring “the broadside of America in
sight,” and after that he followed the coast until he reached New York.
Meantime the _Davis_ had captured the _Mary Goodell_, from New York to
Buenos Ayres; but she was allowed to go after the prisoners were put on
board, and five of her crew had shipped in the _Davis_. On the same day
(July 9th) the _Mary E. Thompson_, of Searsport, was captured and sent
in, after which the _Davis_ went to the West Indies.
In all, nearly a dozen merchantmen were captured by the energetic
captain, Louis M. Coxetter, of the _Davis_. He then returned, and
while trying to enter St. Augustine, Florida, grounded, and the vessel
was lost. Not all of his prizes ever reached home, and it was from
the recaptured vessels that the men convicted of piracy were taken.
It is said that the prizes sent in, however, netted over $200,000
in gold for the crew. Coxetter himself, like most of his class,
became a blockade-runner after the blockade, and England’s refusal to
permit the sale of Confederate prizes in her ports made privateering
unprofitable--that is, say, after January 1, 1862.
Between July 19 and August 27, 1861, the privateer _Dixie_ sent in
three prizes. The _Freely_, another Charleston privateer, was also a
successful boat. So was the _York_. The revenue cutter _Aiken_, which
was converted into the privateer _Petrel_, at Charleston, was about the
most unlucky of the fleet. She went chasing the frigate _St. Lawrence_
soon after getting safely to sea, thinking the big man-o’-war was a
merchantman. Certainly no men worse fitted for their task than the
_Petrel’s_ crew were ever sent to sea, for even when within short range
they failed to recognize the warship. They fired three guns--the first
two across the bows of the _St. Lawrence_ to heave her to, and the last
one at her. Then the _St. Lawrence_ opened her ports and fired three
guns at the privateer. An eight-inch shell and a thirty-two-pound solid
shot struck her below the water-line, the shell bursting while right in
the planks. The hole made was so large that the _Petrel_ rolled to the
swell and sank instantly, leaving her crew afloat in the water. Four
men were drowned, and the rest were picked up by the _St. Lawrence_.
There were a number of other privateers from Charleston, but they
neither accomplished nor suffered anything worth especial mention.
In addition, there was a fleet of small schooners that had their
headquarters in the Pamlico Sound. It is worth the reader’s time to take
a look at the map of the enclosed waters along the coast south of the
Chesapeake Bay; it is worth any traveller’s time to visit the region.
A series of long, narrow islands, built of the _débris_ of New England
rocks, lie along there, enclosing the waters of Currituck, Albemarle,
and Pamlico sounds. They are but narrow, and, for the most part, but
barren stretches of sand. Here and there a shoal inlet cuts across this
sand-bar--an inlet that is shifted to and fro, and deepened and shoaled
by the wind-driven water of the sea, but always kept open somewhere by
the outflow of the waters from the slope of land east of the Alleghany
ridge. There are a few inlets that are never closed wholly, no matter
how the set of the tide piles the sand into them, and of these the
most important are known as Hatteras and Ocracoke inlets.
[Illustration: Destruction of the Privateer _Petrel_ by the _St.
Lawrence_.
_From an engraving by Hinshelwood of the painting by Manzoni._]
The Hatteras Inlet, which lies thirteen miles southwest of Cape
Hatteras, is the most important. Here the water over the bar is, at
high tide, usually fourteen feet deep; within is a safe anchorage for
any ship that can pass in. But a mile inside the bar lies another,
where the water is ordinarily but seven feet deep. Once across that,
plenty of deep water is found, both north and south, and away inland
to the ports whence came, in those days, the bounties of nature called
naval stores. Hatteras is of small importance in these days, since
railroads have been stretched along the coast, but the time was when
not a small fleet of coasters used it regularly.
It was from among these vessels and their crews that the “Hatteras
pirates” came in the first four or five months of the Civil War.
They were, of course, lawfully commissioned private cruisers, but
the records of their deeds have been lost, save, as it is known,
that one bark, seven brigs, and eight schooners had been carried in
there as prizes previous to August 28, 1861, and condemned and sold.
The _Transit_, of New London; the _Wm. S. Robins_, and the _J. W.
Hewes_ were lying at Newbern alone, on the first of July, awaiting
adjudication.
Then, too, it speedily became a haunt of blockade-runners seeking
cotton as well as naval stores, and to dispose of manufactured goods
from England.
To the Northern merchant Pamlico Sound was a “pirates’ nest” that
needed immediate attention, and the next chapter shall tell what was
done.
CHAPTER V
THE FORT AT HATTERAS INLET TAKEN
AN EXPEDITION PLANNED BY THE NAVY DEPARTMENT THAT RESULTED IN
THE FIRST FEDERAL VICTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR--AN AWKWARD LANDING
FOLLOWED BY INEFFECTUAL FIRE FROM SHIPS UNDER WAY--ONE FORT TAKEN
AND ABANDONED--ANCHORED BEYOND RANGE OF THE FORT AND COMPELLED
SURRENDER BY MEANS OF THE BIG PIVOT GUNS--A WEARISOME RACE FROM
CHICAMICOMICO TO HATTERAS LIGHTHOUSE WON BY THE FEDERALS--CAPTURE
OF ROANOKE ISLAND--ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN MEDAL OF HONOR.
For the work that was to be done in restoring the Federal authority
over Hatteras Island and adjacent inland waters a large force was
prepared, because no accurate estimate of the Confederate force there
was obtainable. To Flag Officer Silas H. Stringham was assigned the
command of the expedition. His squadron consisted of the frigate
_Minnesota_, Capt. G. I. Van Brunt; the frigate _Wabash_, Capt. Samuel
Mercer; the _Monticello_, Capt. John P. Gillis; the _Pawnee_, Capt.
S. C. Rowan, and the _Harriet Lane_ (revenue cutter), Capt. John
Faunce. The tug _Fanny_, under Lieut. Pierce Crosby, went along as a
tender, while the transports _Adelaide_, Capt. H. S. Stellwagen, and
_Peabody_, Capt. R. R. Lowry, carried 860 soldiers under Gen. B. F.
Butler. The troops under Butler had orders to return to Fort Monroe as
soon as the object of the expedition was attained.
[Illustration: S. H. Stringham
_From an engraving by Buttre._]
On the afternoon of August 26, 1861, the squadron rounded Cape Hatteras
and anchored about three miles above the inlet, where it was proposed
to make a landing. Two schooners, with their decks loaded with “heavy
iron surf-boats,” had been brought along, and these surf-boats were
floated before dark. The next morning the debarkation of General
Butler’s force began, and Captain Shuttleworth, of the marines, with
enough of his men to raise the whole landing force to 915 men, went
along. The _Pawnee_, the _Monticello_, and the _Harriet Lane_ steamed
close in and opened the attack on the beach by shelling the live-oak
and other trees that grew in profusion just beyond the reach of the
waves.
When the surf-boats started ashore at 8.45 o’clock in the morning, the
other ships of the squadron made a swoop at the forts that could be
plainly seen guarding the inlet. The sailing frigate _Cumberland_ had
joined the force during the night, and the _Wabash_ took her in tow and
followed in the wake of the flagship _Minnesota_. Meantime the frigate
_Susquehanna_ had happened along, and she joined in the procession,
the plan of attack being to steam in until within range, fire as the
forts were passed, and then steam out to sea and back again over an
elliptical route. It was a plan that was followed in several attacks
of the kind; but it is condemned by Admiral Porter as “not the best
calculated to bring an engagement to a speedy conclusion.” The plan
“bothers the enemy’s gunners”--it is safer for the ships--but it also
“detracts from the accuracy of the fire on board the vessels.”
[Illustration: B. F. Butler.
_From a photograph._]
A small earthwork called Fort Clark was the first one met. It had no
bomb-proof, and it mounted five guns. The ships opened fire on this
fort long before they were within range, and the fort replied. Both
sides sowed the water with shot and shells; but the Confederates soon
ceased to waste their ammunition, and when the ships got within range,
their fire proved so hot that the fort was abandoned.
Meantime the troops had reached the surf in their boats, and for a
pleasant day they found it a right vigorous surf. There was very little
difficulty in getting the boats to the sand; they were so large that
a gale would scarcely have swamped them; but the moment they touched
bottom forward, the waves caught them under the floating stern, slewed
them around broadside on, and hove them up hard and fast. In vain the
soldiers and sailors and marines tugged and pried and swore. In all
420 men, with two howitzers, were placed on the beach, and not another
armed man could they land. And what made matters worse was the fact
that they had neither provisions nor supplies of any kind, and their
ammunition (it was the day of paper cartridges) was in great part wet
by the surf. It was a fortunate thing that the Confederates were kept
busy in Fort Hatteras about that time.
[Illustration: Bombardment and Capture of the Forts at Hatteras Inlet,
N. C.
_From a lithograph published by Currier & Ives._]
However, the Confederates having abandoned Fort Clark, the Federal
troops were marched to it, and at 2 o’clock in the afternoon the Union
flag was hoisted above it.
Meantime the fire of Fort Hatteras had been “smothered by the fire of
the frigates,” and the Confederate flag had disappeared. Seeing this,
the frigates ceased firing at 12.30 o’clock, on the supposition that
the Confederates were willing to surrender. But when, at 4 o’clock in
the afternoon, the _Monticello_ was ordered to go in through the inlet
and take a look at the small fleet of Confederate vessels inside the
inner bar, the Confederate fort opened fire on her. The _Wabash_ was at
this time towing the _Cumberland_ to a safe anchorage off shore, but
the _Minnesota_, _Susquehanna_, _Pawnee_, and _Harriet Lane_ returned
the fire with vigor until sunset. But the fire was, “for the most part,
ineffective, from too great a distance,” as Ammen says. The fact is,
there was nothing reckless in the attack.
At sundown the Union troops abandoned Fort Clark and camped up the
beach, where the smaller steamers could protect them. They had had a
hungry day of it, but food was sent ashore at night. Then, as the night
wore away, the troops threw up a sand battery facing the sound, and
from this threw some shells at the Confederate vessels, “which seems to
have materially disconcerted the enemy,” and prevented the landing of
reinforcements for the fort.
The next morning the _Susquehanna_ led the way in to attack Fort
Hatteras, and the _Minnesota_, the _Wabash_, and the _Cumberland_
followed, and all came to anchor “in excellent position and commenced
firing with effect.” That is to say, the position was excellent because
the ships were entirely beyond the range of the fort, while their
pivot guns, fifteen in number, were throwing every shell fired into
the Confederate works. The fire began at 8 o’clock in the morning. The
bomb-proof in the fort was seriously damaged, and at 11 o’clock it was
set on fire by a shell that dropped through a ventilator. The magazine
being in great peril, the Confederates hoisted a white flag at 11.10
o’clock. This was on August 28, 1861; and that was not only the first
victory that the navy of the nation had gained, but it was the first
victory that any Union force had gained in this war for the defence of
the nation’s life. The Union force did not lose a man. The Confederates
lost two killed and thirteen wounded of which we are certain. It is
asserted that the losses were greater.
Flag Officer Samuel Barron, of the Confederate navy, who had charge of
a small fleet of armed boats on the sound; Major W. S. G. Andrews,
commanding the forts, and 615 men and officers were captured. The two
forts contained together twenty-five guns, every one of which came from
the Norfolk Navy Yard, as did also 1,000 muskets and a quantity of
ordnance stores found in the fort.
[Illustration: Eight-inch Mortar Captured at Hatteras.]
This point was thereafter held by the Union forces throughout the war.
To show the value of this victory, we may quote the report of General
Butler. He said:
“From there the whole coast of Virginia and North Carolina, from
Norfolk to Cape Lookout, is within our reach by light draught vessels,
which cannot possibly live at sea during the winter months. From it
offensive operations may be made upon the whole coast of North Carolina
to Bogue Inlet, extending many miles inland to Washington, Newbern, and
Beaufort. In the language of the chief-engineer of the rebels, Colonel
Thompson, in an official report, ‘it is the key of Albemarle.’ In my
judgment, it is a station second in importance only to Fortress Monroe
on this coast. As a depot for coaling and supplies for the blockading
squadron it is invaluable. As a harbor for our coasting trade, or inlet
from the winter storms or from pirates, it is of the first importance.”
A fort at Ocracoke Inlet was abandoned by the Confederates when those
at Hatteras fell.
[Illustration: L. M. Goldsborough
_From an engraving by Buttre._]
Meantime the Twentieth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, under Colonel
Brown, of the Hatteras Island garrison, got into serious trouble.
The regiment had gone to a small settlement at the north end of the
island--Chicamicomico by name--twenty-five miles north of Cape Hatteras
lighthouse. Just what purpose they were to serve there is not now
apparent; but the Confederates, who had fortified Roanoke Island,
came with a superior force to cut them off from communication with
the forces at the inlet, and there was a most fatiguing race down the
beach. The Union force won, the Confederates being driven off by the
Union steamer _Monticello_, Capt. D. L. Braine.
Following this, in 1862, came the expedition under Flag Officer L. M.
Goldsborough and Gen. A. E. Burnside against Roanoke Island. The force
left Hampton Roads on January 11th. There was a long delay at Hatteras
Inlet bar, but on Friday morning, February 7th, they were facing the
Confederate forts on the north end of Roanoke Island, and a squadron
of Confederate ships, which their commander, Commodore W. F. Lynch,
described as “two old side-wheel steamers, and six propellers--the
former possessing some speed; the latter slow in their movements, and
one of them frequently disabling its shaft.”
[Illustration: Stephen C. Rowan.
_From a photograph._]
The Union steamers were, in fact, no better. Both fleets were wholly
unarmored, but the guns on both sides were good for that day, and
therein lies the one point worth noting. The Union fleet on one side
and the Confederate forts and fleet on the other fought for six hours
at one stretch at easy range. One Union ship reports firing 181 shells,
and probably those that made no report of the matter (there were
nineteen in all) did as well, but only one ship--a Confederate--was
sunk, and she was able to run away to a fort before going down. After
two days the Confederate forts surrendered, and the Confederate ships
fled to Elizabeth City.
Commander S. C. Rowan, with a part of the Union fleet, pursued and
destroyed or captured them all save one that passed through the canal
to Norfolk. The conflict at Elizabeth City is especially notable,
because the deed of a heroic gunner led Congress to pass an act
creating a Union naval medal. Says Lossing:
“An extraordinary example of heroism was exhibited during this
engagement by John Davis, a Finlander, who was a gunner’s mate on board
the _Valley City_. A shell entered that vessel, and, exploding in the
magazine, set fire to some wood-work. Davis was there, and, seeing the
imminent danger to the vessel and all on board, because of an open
barrel of gunpowder from which he had been serving, he seated
himself upon it, and so remained until the flames were extinguished.
For this brave act the Secretary of the Navy rewarded him with the
appointment of acting-gunner in the navy (March 11, 1862), by which his
salary was raised from $300 to $1,000 a year. Admiring citizens of New
York raised and presented to him $1,100. The Secretary of the Navy, by
authority of an act of Congress, approved December 21, 1861, presented
him with a _Medal of Honor_, on which are inscribed the following
words: ‘Personal Valor, John Davis, Gunner’s Mate, U.S.S. _Valley
City_, Albemarle Sound, February 10, 1862.’ Such medals were afterward
presented to a considerable number of gallant men in subordinate
stations, for acts of special bravery ‘before the enemy.’ Davis was the
first recipient.”
[Illustration: Attack on Roanoke Island--Landing of the Troops.
_From an engraving of the painting by Chappel._]
[Illustration: Landing of Troops on Roanoke Island.
_From an engraving by Perine of a drawing by Momberger._]
CHAPTER VI
ALONG SHORE IN THE GULF OF MEXICO
THE SHAMEFUL STORY OF PENSACOLA AND FORT PICKENS--WHEN LIEUTENANT
RUSSELL BURNED THE _JUDAH_--A BRITISH CONSUL’S ACTIONS WHEN
CONFEDERATE FORTS WERE ATTACKED AT GALVESTON--EXTRAORDINARY PANIC
AT THE HEAD OF THE PASSES IN THE MISSISSIPPI WHEN FOUR GREAT
WARSHIPS, CARRYING FORTY-FIVE OF THE BEST GUNS AFLOAT, FLED
FROM A DISABLED TUGBOAT THAT WAS REALLY UNARMED--ONCE MORE IN
GALVESTON--LIEUTENANT JOUETT’S FIERCE FIGHT WHEN HE DESTROYED THE
_ROYAL YACHT_.
There were stirring events in and around the Gulf of Mexico during
the year 1861--some of them stirring the naval sailors in one way and
some in another. The trouble began there very early in the year--on
January 12th, in fact, when Colonel Lomax and Major W. H. Chase,
with some Florida and Alabama troops, surrounded the navy yard at
Pensacola and compelled Commodore James Armstrong to surrender it to
the Confederates. It was very well known that an attack impended a long
time before it actually happened, but no effort was made by any one in
the yard to preserve any of the government property for government
use. Armstrong was not, indeed, disloyal, but he was very properly
suspended from the navy for five years for his failure at Pensacola.
The executive officer under him, Commander Ebenezer Farrand, and
Lieut. Francis B. Renshaw had already decided to join the Confederate
forces, and it should not be forgotten that they were among the men
willing to serve the Confederates while still wearing the uniform of
the government. Renshaw himself, while in national uniform, had the old
flag hauled down and the Confederate flag sent up in its place. Farrand
did still worse. He refused to allow the powder to be removed from the
magazine when a loyal officer, Commander Henry Walke, proposed removing
it. He kept it in the magazine unguarded in order that the Confederates
might get it. When he could do no more for the Confederates by
remaining in the pay of the government, he sent in his resignation.
[Illustration: Surrender of the Navy Yard at Pensacola.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
Meantime the soldiers in charge of the three forts that guarded the
harbor had been concentrated at Fort Pickens on the 10th by Lieut.
Adam J. Slemmer, U. S. A. At that time Commander Henry Walke was in
Pensacola, in command of the transport _Supply_. She was _en route_ to
Vera Cruz with stores for the government ships lying there. On January
9th, Walke was ordered by Commodore Armstrong to assist Slemmer in
concentrating the troops and army supplies at Fort Pickens. Walke at
once started to obey this order; but when about to engage in doing so,
another order came under which he was to merely give some food to the
men already in Fort Pickens and then return to the navy yard, leaving
the army forces scattered among the three forts about the harbor.
Walke, in his “Reminiscences,” says Farrand “hood-winked” the commodore
into issuing that order. Walke showed it to Slemmer, and Slemmer, in
despair, said if that order was obeyed, no further effort to hold the
forts should be made. But Walke at once determined to disobey the order
in so far as he must in order to concentrate the army forces at Fort
Pickens.
Walke’s act was one of the most remarkable of that day. It was almost
without precedent that a naval officer should be independent-minded
enough to do what was right in the interests of the government without
first receiving an unmistakable order to do it. But that a man should
save a fort for the government by actually disobeying the order of
a superior--that was then unheard of, though an officer of a higher
grade saved three fine ships from the _Merrimac_ in like fashion some
time later. By concentrating the army forces at Pickens, contrary to
Armstrong’s orders, Walke saved the fort. Then, when the yard had been
surrendered to the Confederates, he took the paroled officers and men,
with their families, from the yard and carried them to New York. This,
although done in the interest of the government, and as an act of
humanity, was also contrary to his original order which contemplated a
passage to Vera Cruz. So Walke was court-martialled, found guilty, and
sentenced to be censured! This is perhaps the only case on record where
the legal censure of an American naval officer was as a badge of honor.
[Illustration: Henry Walke.
_From a photograph._]
Meantime the Buchanan administration was in some way moved, after
the navy yard was captured, to send the _Brooklyn_ down there with
eighty-six artillery men and 115 marines. But before these could be
landed the administration repented, and the _Brooklyn_ was ordered
to lie off the harbor. And there she lay when Mr. Lincoln came into
office. On March 12th an order was sent to Capt. J. Vodges, commanding
the artillery company on the _Brooklyn_, to land. This order was
received by Vodges on March 31st, and on April 1st he called on Capt.
H. A. Adams, of the _Brooklyn_, for boats, etc., for the landing.
Instead of giving them, Adams declined, and wrote a letter to the
Navy Department, saying that the order to Vodges “may have been given
without a full knowledge of the condition of affairs here.” He was
sure that reinforcing the fort “would be viewed as a hostile act, and
would be resisted to the utmost.” The department was warned that “it
would be a serious thing to bring on, by precipitation, a collision.”
In short, this officer, who was a Union man, had been cajoled into a
state of mind where he ignored the fact that the Confederates were
working day and night to place their defences in the best possible
order and were adding to their forces daily. He had, in truth, been
instructed by Buchanan’s Secretary of the Navy “not to land the company
unless said fort shall be attacked _or preparations be made for its
attack_.” The italics are not in the original document, of course, but
they are inserted to make plain the way in which Adams ignored the
Confederate work of preparing to capture Fort Pickens by increasing
the effectiveness of Fort McRae and Fort Barrancas. To land a man in
Fort Pickens would be “viewed as a hostile act,” and would “bring on,
by precipitation, a collision.” To improve the Confederate Fort McRae
was not to be considered! Certainly the contempt which the Southern
people of that day felt for men of the North was not without some
justification.
These facts seem worth giving because they show the difference between
the state of mind on the Union side and that on the Confederate.
The Confederates knew what they wanted and were reaching after it
ceaselessly: The Union forces at this time were not much short of
mental demoralization, anywhere, and the quick-witted Confederates took
advantage of it.
This letter was carried to Washington by Lieut. Washington Gwathmey,
who afterwards joined the Confederates. It took him five days to cover
the distance, and the reinforcement of Fort Pickens was delayed by that
much.
The department could hardly tell whom to trust, but Lieut. John L.
Worden was chosen to carry an order to Adams for the landing of the
troops; and no mistake was made in his case, for he was the Worden
who afterward commanded the _Monitor_. He reached Pensacola on April
11th, and on telling Gen. Braxton Bragg, of the Confederate forces,
that he had an oral order for the captain of the _Brooklyn_, was
allowed to go off to her on the 12th. He had committed the order to
memory and destroyed the document. That night, April 12, 1861, Fort
Pickens was reinforced. Bragg had planned an attack on Fort Pickens
for the night of the 13th--an attack that must have succeeded, because
the Union force had been only eighty-three men, all told; but when
the artillerymen and the marines were landed the face of matters was
changed and the attack postponed indefinitely. The flag has never
ceased to float over Fort Pickens. The Confederates were greatly
exasperated, and Worden was arrested in Montgomery and held a prisoner
for seven months.
In September the general dulness of affairs about Pensacola was
relieved by a brilliant dash which a force from the blockader
_Colorado_ made into the harbor. The Confederates had been
strengthening their works along shore gradually, and had at last
started fitting out a schooner called the _Judah_ at the navy yard for
use as a privateer. This schooner was guarded by a ten-inch columbiad
(a columbiad being a gun half-way between a carronade and a long gun)
and a field-piece, both being placed to sweep her deck. There was also
a large force of men camped in the yard--some accounts say 1,000--while
the schooner had a full crew on board, with a long pivot gun and two
broadside guns in place. It is a remarkable fact that the yard where
she was fitted and the schooner herself were within easy range and
plain sight of Fort Pickens, and the fact that she intended to sail out
after American merchant ships was obvious. But not a shot was fired
from the fort to disturb her owners or the workmen.
[Illustration: John G. Sproston.
(Who commanded one of the boats in the attack on the _Judah_.)
_From a photograph at the Naval Academy, Annapolis._]
So Commodore William Marvine, commanding the Gulf squadron, sent 100
men in boats under Lieut. J. H. Russell, on the night of September 13,
1861, to destroy her. In spite of the vigilance of the Confederates,
they arrived near the schooner undiscovered, and were entirely
successful in firing her, in spite of a determined opposition.
Meantime a wave of trouble had rolled over Galveston, Texas--a wave
that stirred the foreign consuls living there into an astonishing
state of anger, and through their efforts it was used with some effect
to misrepresent and prejudice the case of the government throughout
Europe. The affair occurred on August 3, 1861. Galveston was first
blockaded by the _South Carolina_, Capt. James Alden, in the latter
part of June. Captain Alden “never had any intention of troubling” the
people of the city further than interrupting their ocean trade, and
this determination was stated to them in an official communication.
Nevertheless, the Confederates erected a number of batteries in a place
where any attack on them by the blockading squadron would necessarily
result in throwing projectiles into the city. A glance at the map will
show that Galveston is built on the northerly point of an island that
forms the harbor. The city faces the bay, and there is a wide stretch
of sand behind the city--that is, between the city and the sea. It was
between the city and the sea that the batteries were placed.
On the morning of August 3d a tender of the blockading ship was
returning north from a cruise to the south end of Galveston Island.
She passed within range of the batteries, and they opened fire on her.
She returned the fire and reported it to Captain Alden, who “waited all
day for some explanation or disavowal on the part of the authorities.”
He could scarcely realize that people “could be so insane as to
initiate hostilities when their town was so completely at our mercy.”
At 4 o’clock no disavowal having come, he took the _South Carolina_
within a mile of the works. The Confederates opened fire on her and
Alden replied with fifteen shots, after which, finding that he could
not prevent the shot going into the city as well as the works, he
withdrew.
[Illustration: Galveston Harbor.
_From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_]
The next day Mr. Arthur Lynn, the British consul, gathered together the
Hanoverian and Oldenburg consul, the Swiss consul, the Mexican consul;
the deputy consul for Bremen, Saxony, Belgium, and Holland; the consul
_pro tem._ for Electoral Hesse, and the consul for Nassau, besides
representatives of some other countries, and wrote and signed the
following:
“The undersigned, consuls and vice-consuls at Galveston, consider it
their duty to enter their solemn protest against your bombardment of
this city on the evening of the 3d instant, without having given any
notice, so that the women and children might have been removed, and
also against your firing a shell in the midst of a large crowd of
unarmed citizens, amongst whom were many women and children, causing
thereby the death of an unoffending Portuguese and wounding boys
and peaceably disposed persons, as acts of inhumanity, unrecognized
in modern warfare, and meriting the condemnation of Christian and
civilized nations.”
A copy of the protest was sent to Alden, another to the reporters, of
course, and then each official sent one under seal to his government
in such fashion that it would appear in the papers there also.
It was a small affair in itself. The Confederate authorities made no
protest about it. So far as the attack on the blockading squadron
and the return of the fire were of interest from a historical point
of view, the matter was not worth mention. But because this was the
first case in which a British consul, acting in his official capacity,
undertook the work of misrepresenting the deeds of the government
officers, it may not be omitted. For the official attitude of the
European governments has a very important part in the naval history of
the Civil War.
The next event of interest that occurred in the Gulf region might very
well be termed the battle of Bull Run afloat, because a squadron of
American naval ships became involved in a panic and fled precipitately
before a force so utterly insignificant that the shame of it was felt
by every man who wore the uniform.
The mouths of the Mississippi were at first blockaded by the
_Brooklyn_, Captain Poor, and the _Powhatan_, Capt. D. D. Porter, but
when the _Powhatan_ was away, one day, the _Brooklyn_ went chasing a
strange sail, and the watchful Semmes carried the _Sumter_, the first
of the noted Confederate cruisers, out to sea. As the Confederates had
before this carried fifteen ships, two barks, and three schooners from
the Gulf to New Orleans as prizes, the government was moved to place a
sufficient force in the river to close it absolutely.
This force included the flagship _Richmond_, a screw steamer of
2,000 tons, carrying twenty large guns, Capt. John Pope; the sailing
sloop-of-war _Vincennes_, ten guns, Capt. Robert Handy; the sailing
sloop-of-war _Preble_, eleven guns, Capt. H. French, and the little
screw steamer _Water Witch_, of four guns (howitzers). In all, there
were forty-five guns in the squadron, of which twenty were nine-inch
Dahlgrens.
As the reader will remember, a chart of the mouth of the Mississippi
is marvellously like a picture of the roots of a crooked tree. The
waters divide into three main channels, with a host of offshoots. To
effectually close all the entrances to the river it was necessary only
to anchor the squadron in the river itself above the point where it
was split up, and this was done. There were no Confederate forts near
the anchorage, and the officers and men, so far as is known, possessed
their souls in peace until the month of October.
Meantime the Confederates had been working against very great
difficulties to prepare a squadron fit to clear the river. They had
incidentally striven to get a steamer called the _McRae_ in commission
for a cruiser, but had failed in making her machinery work well, and
she was relegated to the work of harbor defence.
[Illustration: Passes of the Mississippi.
_From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_]
The work of shipbuilding was done under the eyes of a commission that
included Capt. L. Rousseau, Commander E. Farrand, and Lieut. Robert
J. Chapman, of the Confederate navy, all of whom had been reared in
the government navy. Capt. George N. Hollins, formerly of the American
navy, was assigned to command the fleet when built.
By the first of October, four river steamers had been converted into
the semblance of gunboats by adding timbers so that they could carry
eight or nine guns. They were called the _Polk_, the _Ivy_, the
_Livingston_, and the _Maurepas_. A merchant steamer with a bark rig
became the _McRae_. To this was added a most remarkable vessel--the
first of her class, the ironclad ram _Manassas_.
The _Manassas_ was originally the double-screw tug _Enoch Train_, of
Boston. She was 128 feet long, twenty-six wide, and when loaded she
drew thirteen feet of water. She was, in short, a tug of the first
class in size. Capt. John A. Stevenson, of New Orleans, undertook the
contract of making a ram of this vessel for a company of capitalists
who determined to use her, privateer-fashion, against the government
blockaders immediately after the Confederate Congress enacted a law on
May 21, 1861, binding the Confederate treasury to pay to the destroyers
twenty per cent. of the value of any government ships that might be
destroyed by volunteers.
The tug was cut down almost to the water, first of all, and then
her bow was filled in solid with timbers for a space of twenty feet
abaft the stem. A deck in the shape of half of a long, sharp egg was
built over her, twelve-inch oak timbers being used for the purpose.
Of course, all the woodwork was thoroughly bolted. Then the bow
and the rounded deck were everywhere plated with flat bar-iron one
and a half inches thick. There was one gun-port forward, where a
sixty-eight-pounder was mounted, but for some fault of construction
they were not able to use it at first.
For motive power she had one compound engine and two screws, the
high-pressure cylinder working one shaft and the low-pressure the
other. There was but one hatch, a small one, at that, and through this
everything--coal, supplies, men--must pass. A ship like that, no matter
what her power, could never be popular in any navy in time of peace,
but she was built for an emergency, and there was no trouble in finding
a crew. Lieut. Alexander F. Warley, formerly in the government service,
took command of her for her owners.
From time to time the government officers on the blockaders down at the
head of the passes heard about the work in the New Orleans ship-yards.
They learned some of the details of the ram that was building, as well
as of the gunboat, but they not only did not make any preparations for
meeting or guarding against an attack: they did not even consider what
might be done if the Confederates should come.
At 3.30 o’clock on the morning of October 13, 1861, the government
fleet lay quietly at anchor, save that the schooner _Joseph H. Toone_
was alongside the _Richmond_, and the _Richmond’s_ watch on deck were
taking coal out of her. The _Preble_ was in advance--that is, was
further up the river than any. Below her lay the flagship _Richmond_,
and below her the _Vincennes_, while the _Water Witch_ lay between
the _Richmond_ and the east shore, with a little prize schooner, the
_Frolic_, near by. It was a moonlight night, with some clouds flying,
the worst kind of a night, as all seamen know, for seeing anything
clearly, but there had been no especial care in posting or warning
lookouts. It was with the squadron literally “the careless end of
night.” Within ten minutes after the bell struck the hour of 3.30, a
lookout on the _Preble_ saw a dark object driving down the river, but
without any smoke or steam or other appearance of motive power. At
nearly the same moment the lookout on the prize schooner saw it, and
as the alarm was raised on the _Preble_ the schooner lookout bawled to
_Richmond_: “A rebel steamer is coming down the river.”
In a minute the whole squadron awoke, and with rattle and shout the
crews ran to quarters, but before they could get a gun cast loose, the
dark object afloat, the ram _Manassas_, driving with the aid of the
current at about nine miles an hour, glanced across the coal schooner’s
bow, crashed through a cutter, and struck the _Richmond_ “abreast of
the port forechannels, tearing the schooner from her fasts.” “Three
planks on the ship’s side were stove in, about two feet below the
water-line, making a hole about five inches in _circumference_.” These
quotations are from Pope’s official report, but the report did not use
italics.
Immediately “a red light was shown as a signal of danger,” and then the
whole squadron except the _Water Witch_ slipped their cables and fled.
“I ordered the _Preble_ and _Vincennes_ to proceed down the Southwest
Pass,” says Pope, and “they did.” Meantime, “after the first blow
given to this ship by the ram,” it “remained under our port quarter,
apparently endeavoring to fix herself in a position to give us a
second blow, but the slipping of our chain and the ship ranging ahead
under steam frustrated the object.” That was Pope’s idea. The fact
was that the ram’s machinery had not been properly stayed to sustain
a shock, and the blow had entirely crippled the low-pressure engine,
and left her with barely enough power to stem the current. She lay
there making repairs, with her crew in a state of alarm lest she be
disabled altogether. However, they got the high-pressure engine working
independently, and then, to the great relief of her crew, she went
creeping and coughing up the river, hugging the shoal water lest the
_Richmond_ or _Water Witch_ pursue her after she had passed them. Both
the _Richmond_ and the _Preble_ fired broadsides at her; the _Richmond_
fired three, “with what effect it was impossible to discover owing to
the darkness,” but “some officers are of opinion they heard shot strike
the ram.” As the ram disappeared up the river, the _Richmond’s_ “helm
was put up, and the ship rapidly fell off, presenting her broadside
up and down the river.” In that position they let her drift with the
current to “cover the retreat” of the squadron.
A squadron of four great ships, armed with forty-five first-class guns,
had been driven into a shameful panic by one crippled tug carrying a
gun that couldn’t be fired.
At about this time a rocket was thrown up from the ram, and at once
three lights were seen--“three large fire rafts, stretching across
the river, were rapidly nearing us, while several _large_ steamers
and a bark-rigged propeller were seen astern of them.” In the minds
of the flying officers the peril was frightful. Nevertheless, as the
_Richmond_ “drifted near the Passes ineffectual attempts were made to
get her head upstream.” The attempts did not include the dropping of an
anchor, because that would have stopped her in her flight for the sea.
Pope was willing to head upstream provided he could keep travelling
away from the fearsome ram and fire-rafts “stretching across the
river.” When the “ineffectual attempts” were stopped “I found myself a
mile and a half down the Southwest Pass.” “I then put the helm up, and
continued down the river, hoping to be able to get her head around off
Pilot Town. In doing this she drifted some distance below, grounding
broadside on.”
Meantime the _Vincennes_ and the _Preble_ had been “drifting” also, and
without making any attempts to get their bows pointed upstream. They
were under sail, and the wind was in the north. The _Preble_ outran the
_Richmond_, even. Captain French says that as he passed the _Richmond_
Captain Pope told him to “proceed down the pass.” He obeyed, and
after bumping on the bar two or three times, crossed over into water
unfretted by rams and fire-rafts. So he “anchored near the coal ships
_Kuhn_ and _Nightingale_ to protect them if necessary.”
Meantime the _Vincennes_, like the _Richmond_, had grounded in the
pass, and a little later along came the _Water Witch_. She had found,
as she steamed down the pass, “that the _fire rafts_ were drifting with
the wind steadily over toward the western shore,” so the “_Water Witch_
was now steered to the northward and eastward (upstream) and easily
cleared them.” The river at this “time in the vicinity of the passes
was entirely clear of the enemy.” Nevertheless, a “_general signal_,
‘cross the bar,’” was displayed on the _Richmond_.
The effect of this signal on Captain Handy of the _Vincennes_ is
well-nigh past belief. He read it “abandon the ship,” he says, but he
was not quite sure about the reading, and so sent a boat to the _Water
Witch_ to ask how Captain Winslow read it. Captain Winslow replied
“that it was impossible” an order to abandon the ship had been given.
Captain Handy was of his original opinion still, and at once ordered
the boats away. A slow match was set to the magazine, and then, as
the crew started over the side of the ship, Captain Handy wrapped the
ship’s flag about him in broad folds and climbed down the ladder to his
gig.
Fortunately, a quarter-gunner (whose name has not been preserved,
alas!) slipped down below, and cutting off the burning end of the slow
match, tossed it overboard. Two of the boats went to the _Water Witch_,
but the others, including the gig, to the _Richmond_. Here Handy’s
theatrical air left him. The utter disgust of his crew became manifest
after it was told that the slow match had been cut, and Handy was
sent back crestfallen to his ship. But, though crestfallen, he was as
nerveless as ever.
Of course daylight had come long before the time the two ships had
grounded, and the Confederates, who had followed their fire-rafts
with the bark-rigged _McRae_ and the four converted gunboats and a
river tug, found, to their astonishment, the whole river clear. They
had hoped, at first, to make some disturbance--possibly to sink the
_Richmond_ with the ram--and, at any rate, get the _McRae_ to sea.
But the _McRae’s_ engines had failed, and so had the ram’s, while
the fire-rafts had drifted ashore harmless. And yet there were the
government ships out at sea, or aground inside and sorry they couldn’t
get away. Very naturally the Confederates came down where their
long-range Whitworth rifles would take effect, and opened fire on the
grounded ships. The only damage done was when a shell lodged in the
locker where Captain Pope kept his linen. Fortunately, the shell did
not explode, and the linen was not wholly destroyed. The _Richmond_
replied with a nine-inch gun on her forecastle, and the Confederates,
having boats so frail that one shell could have sunk any one of them,
were obliged to keep at long range. The _Water Witch_ was sent in great
haste to bring the _South Carolina_ from Barrataria, and after she
came to the rescue the transport _McClellan_ also arrived with rifles
for the _Richmond_. “My mind was very much relieved, knowing that the
armament of four rifled guns on board the _McClellan_, together with
the long gun of the _South Carolina_, would keep the enemy at bay,”
says Pope in his report. Imagine the state of mind of this officer!
“Four rifled guns on board the _McClellan_, together with the long gun
of the _South Carolina_, would keep the enemy _at bay_!”
But before the relief ships arrived, Captain Handy, of the _Vincennes_,
had once more become so nervous he couldn’t stand the strain without
doing something. The Confederates were firing at the _Richmond_; but
they might fire at him and he might get hurt. So he wrote a note to
the already overwrought Pope. Because no other case of the kind is
known to the annals of the American navy, because the exhibit forms an
interesting study in mental phenomena, and because the shame of it,
when spread in history, must serve to make a repetition of the story
impossible, the note shall be given in full:
“SIR: We are aground. We have only two guns that will bear in the
direction of the enemy. Shall I remain on board after the moon goes
down, with my crippled ship and worn-out men? Will you send me word
what countersign my boats shall use if we pass near your ship?
While we have moonlight, would it not be better to leave the ship?
Shall I burn her when I leave her?
“Respectfully,
ROBERT HANDY.”
He was not allowed to abandon his ship again, but it is a fact,
incredible as it may seem, that even after the _South Carolina_ had
come--the _South Carolina_ that, single-handed, was of a force to have
destroyed, with one watch in their hammocks, the whole Confederate
squadron--even after she had come, Handy, in his haste to get clear,
threw overboard all of his guns, and it was done by permission of Pope.
So the _Vincennes_ got away in tow of the steamers.
On the 14th they were all at anchor outside, but even here, according
to Captain Pope’s report, Captain French, of the _Preble_, did not feel
safe. He was ordered to blockade Pass à Loutre, but, after starting,
came back and asked permission to go to Ship Island for wood for the
galley fire. Pope told him there was wood a-plenty at the Northeast
Pass, but he “earnestly requested to go to Ship Island,” and Pope
“reluctantly consented.” At Ship Island the _Preble_ would be safe, but
there was no telling what might happen if she were caught all alone by
a Confederate gunboat off Pass à Loutre.
And then, in his report, written on the 17th, Pope makes this
statement: “My retreat down the pass, although painful to me, was to
save the ships by preventing them being sunk and falling into the hands
of the enemy; and it was evident to me they had us in their power.”
This one other quotation will complete the story: “It having been
rumored there was a panic on board this ship at the time she was
engaged with the enemy, I state it to be false; both officers and men
exhibited the utmost coolness and determination to do their duty.”
This chapter shall conclude with the brief story of brave men at
Galveston.
It was in November. The frigate _Santee_ was blockading Galveston, and
a Confederate steamer, the _General Rusk_, was inside, together with
a privateer schooner called the _Royal Yacht_. The Confederates were
fitting the _Rusk_ for a cruiser, but she could not be shelled without
throwing shot into the city. So Lieut. James E. Jouett volunteered to
go in and cut her out.
One has to look at the chart of the harbor to appreciate the danger of
the service, for the boats would have to pull around the north end of
the island, on which the city stands, and then along the water front of
the city itself, to reach the ship. Nevertheless, Jouett, with forty
men in two boats, started at 11.40 o’clock on the night of November 7,
1861. Everything went well while passing the sentinels on the point,
and those on the _Royal Yacht_ that lay near the point, also. But in
keeping well to the off side of the channel when approaching the city
the leading boat grounded, and the second crashed into her. The noise
of the collision and the efforts to get afloat betrayed them, and fire
was opened from the land and the _Rusk_. There was nothing for it but
to retreat. The forty men could do nothing against the forces of the
Confederates, now that they were alarmed. But Jouett was not to be
balked altogether, and turning about, he dashed at the _Royal Yacht_.
The first boat to reach her had a twelve-pound howitzer in its bow,
with Gunner William W. Carter in charge. Aiming at her water-line
Carter fired just as the boat’s bow was within jumping distance of
the schooner, and as the shell crashed through the schooner’s side he
leaped to her deck. Unfortunately, the recoil of the howitzer drove
the boat away from the schooner, leaving Carter, with cutlass in hand,
alone to face the enemy. But Carter was the man for the place, and at
them he went, slash and parry and thrust, while Jouett slewed the boat
up once more to the schooner’s rail and leaped on board. But the moment
he landed there a Confederate thrust a bayonet through his arm and into
his lung. It was a dangerous wound, but Jouett cut the man down and
hewed his way to Carter’s side.
Even then the fight was not won. Twice the Confederates rallied and
drove the Federals back, but Jouett led on again, gained the victory at
last, and destroyed the schooner. The Federals lost three killed and
six wounded. They carried off thirteen prisoners, but the Confederate
loss in killed and wounded is not recorded. And it is worth adding that
Jouett is to be heard from further on.
CHAPTER VII
STORY OF THE TRENT AFFAIR
CAPT. CHARLES WILKES, OF THE AMERICAN NAVY, TOOK FOUR CONFEDERATE
DIPLOMATIC AGENTS FROM A BRITISH SHIP BOUND ON A REGULAR VOYAGE
BETWEEN NEUTRAL PARTS, AND WITHOUT ANY JUDICIAL PROCEEDING CAST
THEM INTO A MILITARY PRISON--A CASE THAT CREATED GREAT EXCITEMENT
THROUGHOUT THE CIVILIZED WORLD--A SWIFT DEMAND, WITH A THREAT OF
WAR ADDED, MADE BY THE BRITISH--COMPARING THIS CASE WITH ANOTHER
OF LIKE NATURE--THE UNITED STATES ONCE WENT TO WAR TO ESTABLISH
THE PRINCIPLE WHICH CAPTAIN WILKES IGNORED--THE BRITISH OFFICIALLY
ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE AMERICANS WERE JUSTIFIED IN DECLARING WAR IN
1812.
This is to tell the story of what is known, in the history of the Civil
War, as the Trent affair. And it is worth saying in advance that few,
if any, events that have occurred on the high seas are of more interest
to the American patriot than this. For not only did it involve the
capture and subsequent release of two very important enemies of the
American government in time of war; it settled forever in our favor
the troublesome question that drove the American people into the War
of 1812. There was, indeed, what may rightly be called an official
declaration, on the part of the Prime Minister of Great Britain, that
the United States was entirely justified in that war.
[Illustration: James Murray Mason. John Slidell.
The two captured commissioners.]
On the 12th of October, 1861, Mr. James Mason, of Virginia, and Mr.
John Slidell, of Louisiana, with two other gentlemen, acting as their
secretaries, sailed from Charleston in the blockade-runner _Theodora_,
and, “unimpeded by the blockading ships,” arrived at Cardenas, Cuba,
whence they proceeded to Havana. Mr. Mason had, in former years, been
chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and American
Minister in Paris. Mr. Slidell had represented the United States at
the capital of Mexico. These two gentlemen had been chosen by the
Confederates to go to Europe as special representatives--Mr. Mason
to England and Mr. Slidell to Paris--to secure, if possible, the
recognition of the Confederate States as a nation. It is important
to note that these special envoys were sent because three others
previously sent had failed. “Lord Russell had received them (the three)
on the footing of private gentlemen and listened to what they had to
say, but had avoided correspondence, and remained immovable in his
refusal to enter into any official communication. At the French court
they had been equally unsuccessful,” and the Confederates hoped that
Messrs. Mason and Slidell would do better.
On the day that these Confederate envoys arrived in Havana the United
States cruiser _San Jacinto_, Capt. Charles Wilkes, was at Cienfuegos,
on the south side of Cuba, looking for the Confederate cruiser
_Sumter_--Wilkes, by the way, being the officer who conducted the
celebrated Wilkes expedition to the southern seas, of which mention is
made elsewhere.
[Illustration: Charles Wilkes.
_From an engraving by Dodson of the portrait by Sully._]
While at Cienfuegos, Wilkes heard of the arrival of the _Theodora_
on the north coast, and made haste ineffectually to reach Havana to
intercept her. But while he failed to catch the _Theodora_ he learned
at Havana that the Confederate envoys were to sail in the Royal mail
line steamer _Trent_ for the island of St. Thomas, where, in the
regular course of the line’s business, they would be transferred to a
steamer bound to England. Having failed to learn when the _Trent_ would
sail--failed because of “the notorious action of her British Majesty’s
subjects in doing everything to aid and abet the escape of these four
persons”--Wilkes went to “where the old Bahama Channel contracts to
the width of fifteen miles, some 240 miles from Havana, and in sight
of the Paredon del Grande lighthouse.” The _Trent_ must pass through
that neck of water, and “at 11.40 on the 8th her smoke was seen.” “We
were all prepared for her, beat to quarters, and orders were given to
Lieut. D. M. Fairfax to have two boats manned and armed to board her
and make Messrs. Slidell, Mason, Eustis, and McFarland prisoners, and
send them on board.” Eustis and McFarland were the secretaries. “The
steamer approached and hoisted English colors, our ensign was hoisted,
and a shot was fired across her bow; she maintained her speed and
showed no disposition to heave to; then a shell was fired across her
bow, which brought her to. I hailed that I intended to send a boat on
board, and Lieutenant Fairfax, with the second cutter of this ship, was
despatched.” The quotations are from official reports.
On arriving beside the _Trent_, Fairfax went on board alone, “leaving
two officers in the boat with orders to wait until it became necessary
to show some force.” He met the captain on the quarter-deck and asked
“to see the passenger list,” but “he declined letting me see it.”
Fairfax then said he had learned that the Confederate envoys were on
board, and should satisfy himself “whether they were on board before
allowing the steamer to proceed.”
“Mr. Slidell, evidently hearing his name mentioned, came up to me and
asked if I wanted to see him. Mr. Mason soon joined us, and then Mr.
Eustis and Mr. McFarland, when I made known the object of my visit.
The captain of the _Trent_ opposed anything like the search of his
vessel, nor would he consent to show papers or passenger list.” This
is from the report of Lieutenant Fairfax, and it adds that “there was
considerable noise among the passengers just about this time.” The
fact is the passengers were, to a man, in ardent sympathy with the
Confederates. “The passengers and ship’s officers were making all kinds
of disagreeable and contemptuous noises and remarks.” “Did you ever
hear of such an outrage?” and “Did you ever hear of such a piratical
act?” were two of the expressions that were heard by the officers
waiting in the boat. “Mr. Fairfax appeared to be having an altercation
with some one,” and at last one waiting officer “heard some one call
out, ‘Shoot him!’”
At this some armed marines were sent on board, and when they “advanced
the passengers fell back.” The most insolent of all on board was a
retired commander of the British navy, who was in charge of the mails.
According to Lieut. James A. Greer, “the mail agent, (a man in the
uniform of a commander in the royal navy, I think,) was very indignant
and talkative, and tried several times to get me into discussion
of the matter. I told him I was not there for that purpose. He was
very bitter; he told me that the English squadron would raise the
blockade in twenty days after his report of this outrage (I think he
said outrage) got home; that the northerners might as well give up
now,” etc., etc. The Confederate envoys, in their letter to Captain
Wilkes, say that “it must be added here, omitted in the course of the
narration, that before the party left the upper deck an officer of the
_Trent_, named Williams, in the naval uniform of Great Britain, and
known to the passengers as having charge of the mails and accompanying
them to England, said to the lieutenant that, as the only person
present directly representing his government, he felt called upon, in
language as strong and as emphatic as he could express, to denounce the
whole proceeding as a piratical act.”
Further than that, “nearly all the officers of the vessel showed
an undisguised hatred for the northern people, and a sympathy for
the Confederates. I will do the captain of the vessel the justice to
say that he acted differently from the rest, being, when I saw him,
very reserved and dignified. The officers and men of our party took
no apparent notice of the remarks that were made, and acted with the
greatest forbearance.”
However, in spite of the bluster and the determination of the envoys
to go only when compelled to do so by force, the four were taken on
board the American warship. The force used was not violence, of course.
“Three officers laid their hands on an envoy, after which the envoy
walked down a ladder to the boat.” It is conceded on all hands that
Lieutenant Fairfax and his men acted in a manner entirely becoming to
gentlemen of the navy.
Having taken the Confederate envoys, Captain Wilkes permitted the
_Trent_ to proceed on her voyage. He says:
“It was my determination to have taken possession of the _Trent_, and
sent her to Key West as a prize, for resisting the search and carrying
these passengers, whose character and objects were well known to the
captain; but the reduced number of my officers and crew, and the large
number of passengers on board, bound to Europe, who would be put to
great inconvenience, decided me to allow them to proceed.”
It is worth noting, as illustrating the character of Wilkes and his
officers, that they were absolutely certain that if they took the ship
to Key West she would be sold as a good prize for a sum that would have
given many thousand dollars to the _San Jacinto’s_ crew. But for the
sake of the convenience of the passengers, they allowed her to go on.
After the _Trent_ started on her way to St. Thomas, the _San Jacinto_
headed for Boston. “Why he did not go into New York or Hampton Roads,
where he could have communicated with the Government, is unexplained,
but the information of the capture was kept from the Department four
days longer than it should have been.”
But when at last he did reach port, and the news of the capture was
given to the reporters, the whole North went wild with joy, and the
rest of the civilized world, and especially Great Britain, was stirred
as rarely, if ever before, by the capture of an envoy. Even Secretary
of the Navy Welles lost his head and officially wrote to Wilkes: “Your
conduct in seizing these public enemies was marked by intelligence,
ability, decision, and firmness, and has the emphatic approval of this
department.” As for the people of Boston, it may be said that not in
all the years since the War of 1812 had they made such demonstrations
over a naval officer. Even Hull, with the _Guerrière_ crew on board the
_Constitution_, did not receive so much banqueting; and Congress passed
enthusiastically a resolution requesting the President to give Wilkes a
gold medal.
To the writer hereof it seems that the story of all this excitement is
worth careful consideration, not so much because it was incited by the
capture of two enemies of the flag, but because it was an expression of
feeling against the British. For the capture of Mason and Slidell could
not harm the Confederates greatly. There were other statesmen in the
South to take their place. But they had been taken from a British ship,
and the people at the North then believed that the British government,
while publicly professing friendship for their cause, was secretly
doing everything possible to aid the South. The enthusiasm over Wilkes
appears to have been in good part a protest against what was then
called British hypocrisy and enmity for the North. So great was this
enthusiasm, that for a man to openly express the opinion that a grave
mistake had been made was to incur the most rabid denunciations--to be
called a “copperhead” and a “traitor” and a “toady.”
Meantime the British were, as said, but little less excited than the
Americans, though for quite a different reason. A British packet ship
had been assaulted on the high seas while making her usual voyage
between neutral ports, and the people--especially the seafaring
people--wanted to know what their government was going to do about it.
As a matter of fact, they did not have to wait long to learn.
“Richard Williams, Commander R.N., and Admiralty agent in charge of
mails” on the _Trent_, made his report under date of November 9th, and
this in due time reached Lord Russell, the British Prime Minister. A
Cabinet meeting was called to consider the matter, and on November 30,
1861, Russell sent a despatch to Lord Lyons, the British Minister at
Washington, of which the following are the important paragraphs:
“It thus appears that certain individuals have been forcibly taken
from on board a British vessel, the ship of a neutral Power, while
such vessel was pursuing a lawful and innocent voyage, an act of
violence which was an affront to the British flag, and a violation of
international law.
“Her Majesty’s Government, bearing in mind the friendly relations which
have long subsisted between Great Britain and the United States, are
willing to believe that the United States’ naval officer who committed
this aggression was not acting in compliance with any authority from
his Government, or that, if he conceived himself to be so authorized,
he greatly misunderstood the instructions which he had received.
“For the Government of the United States must be fully aware that the
British Government could not allow such an affront to the national
honour to pass without full reparation, and Her Majesty’s Government
are unwilling to believe that it could be the deliberate intention
of the Government of the United States unnecessarily to force into
discussion between the two Governments a question of so grave a
character, and with regard to which the whole British nation would be
sure to entertain such unanimity of feeling.”
In another letter of the same date Lord Russell added the following,
setting a time limit with instructions in case the British demand was
not allowed:
“In my previous despatch of this date I have instructed you, by command
of Her Majesty, to make certain demands of the Government of the United
States.
“Should Mr. Seward ask for delay in order that this grave and painful
matter should be deliberately considered, you will consent to a delay
not exceeding seven days. If, at the end of that time, no answer is
given, or if any other answer is given except that of a compliance
with the demands of Her Majesty’s Government, your Lordship is
instructed to leave Washington with all the members of your Legation,
bringing with you the archives of the Legation, and to repair
immediately to London.”
These were the public official orders to Lord Lyons; but in order to
set forth accurately the condition of affairs, it is necessary to quote
from a letter of private instructions in which, as it now appears, Lord
Russell, while determined to enforce the British demand for reparation,
was anxious “to mitigate the effect of their peremptory demand.” He
said:
“The despatches which were agreed to at the Cabinet yesterday, and
which I have signed this morning, impose upon you a disagreeable task.
My wish would be that at your first interview with Mr. Seward you
should not take my despatch with you, but should prepare him for it,
and ask him to settle with the President and the Cabinet what course
they would propose.
“The next time you should bring my despatch and read it to him fully.
“If he asks what will be the consequence of his refusing compliance, I
think you should say that you wish to leave him and the President quite
free to take their own course, and that you desire to abstain from
anything like menace.”
Although, as said, the patriotic Americans, as a whole, were greatly
excited and incensed, there were many of them who did not share in
these feelings, and among these were Secretary of State Seward. To
set forth the reasons for this opposition to the opinions of their
countrymen more forcibly, the following incident of the history of the
Revolutionary War shall be told:
It appears that when that war was at its height “the colonial
government despatched as ambassador to Holland, then a neutral power,
Henry Laurens, a former President in the Congress of the country,
vested with power to secure from that Government a recognition of the
United Colonies as an independent nation--to conclude a treaty, and to
negotiate a loan. In 1780 he left Charleston, on board the brigantine
_Adriana_, bound to Martinique. From thence he took passage in a Dutch
packet, the _Mercury_, for Holland, and thus was on board a neutral
vessel, sailing between neutral ports.
“When three days out from Martinique, the _Mercury_ was overhauled by
the British frigate _Vestal_, Mr. Laurens, with his secretary, was
forcibly removed from on board the _Mercury_; his papers were seized;
they were taken in the _Vestal_ to St. Johns, Newfoundland, and
thence, by an order of the British admiralty, he, with his secretary,
was taken to England, and he was committed, as a prisoner, to the Tower
of London, on a charge of high treason. The British reverse at Yorktown
soon changed the character of his confinement to that of a prisoner
of war, and he was, not long thereafter, released, in exchange for
Lieutenant-general Lord Cornwallis.”
The quotation is from Upton’s “Maritime Warfare and Prize.” No one
familiar with this work will accuse Mr. Upton of lack of patriotism.
The fact is that the case of Laurens, from a legal point of view, was
precisely the case of Mason and Slidell. If the British were wrong in
taking the American from a Dutch ship and treating him as a criminal in
1780, the Americans were wrong in taking the Confederate envoys from
the British ship in 1861 and treating them as criminals.
[Illustration: William H. Seward.
_From a photograph._]
But that is by no means the end of the story of the _Trent_ affair. The
demand of Great Britain was officially communicated to Secretary of
State Seward on December 19th. On December 26th Mr. Seward delivered to
Lord Lyons a reply reviewing the entire case. The important points of
this reply are as follows:
The American government did not authorize the act of Captain Wilkes
and knew nothing about it until Captain Wilkes arrived and reported
it. Captain Wilkes believed that what he had done was “a simple legal
and customary belligerent proceeding to arrest and capture a neutral
vessel engaged in carrying contraband of war for the use and benefit
of the insurgents.” The “four persons taken from the _Trent_ by
Captain Wilkes, and their despatches, were contraband of war.” If the
envoys were contraband, Captain Wilkes had a right, under the law of
nations, to capture the _Trent_, but _the contraband_ “_has a right
to a fair trial of the accusation against him_.” “The neutral state
that has taken him under its flag is bound to protect him, if he is
not contraband, and is therefore entitled to be satisfied upon that
important question.” Both the accused and the neutral state have a
right to demand “a tribunal and a trial.” In the _Trent_ case there was
neither tribunal nor trial. Captain Wilkes constituted himself captor,
judge, and executioner. A very great wrong had been done. For this
wrong “the British Government has a right to expect the same reparation
that we, as an independent State, should expect from Great Britain or
any other friendly nation in a similar case.” “The four persons in
question are now held in military custody at Fort Warren in the State
of Massachusetts. They will be cheerfully liberated.”
The comment of Commodore Joseph Smith on Seward’s letter sums it up
admirably. In a letter to Flag Officer Foote he says, “It is ingenious,
_gassy_, too long, but able.”
It is to be observed that the letter of Mr. Seward did not contain the
word regret nor any form of apology. It stated the case and argued it,
and admitted that an error--“simply an inadvertency,” on the part of a
naval officer--had been made, and agreed to deliver up the prisoners.
Whether the Secretary should have expressed regret when he admitted
the wrong, the reader can judge for himself. What Lord Russell thought
about this point is not told in the documents, but what he said was
that “Her Majesty’s Government have arrived at the conclusion that they
(the matters in Mr. Seward’s letter) constitute the reparation which
Her Majesty and the British nation had a right to expect.”
Then, in another letter, he controverted Mr. Seward’s statements that
the Confederate envoys made the _Trent_ a good prize that might have
been lawfully condemned. Of course no settlement of this question
was reached, but whether Lord Russell or Mr. Seward was right, may
be, perhaps, decided by the reader. At this writing there is trouble
between Spain and the people of Cuba. If a Cuban agent escaped from
Cuba to the United States and sailed from New York in an American liner
for England, would the government of the United States permit a Spanish
warship to carry the Yankee liner to Spain and there have her condemned
as a prize? As this question must be answered in the negative, it
is impossible to resist saying that in the _Trent_ case the British
government, instead of showing a spirit hostile toward the American
government, was, in spite of the time limit, forbearing.
No direct reference to the British threat of war has been made so far,
nor has the policy of adding to one’s enemies, when one is already
full of trouble, been mentioned. It was a question of right and wrong.
If, on sober second thought, the whole American people had concluded
that they were right, or if it had been manifest that it was necessary
for the life of the nation to keep those Confederates, no threat of
war and no attack from any nation would have taken them from Fort
Warren. It is an idle speculation; but most writers on this subject
are sure that if Mason and Slidell had not been liberated the British
would have declared war against us and so have set up the Confederate
States as an independent government. But if the writer hereof may be
allowed to express an opinion, he must say that, in spite of the seven
days’ limit, England was not quite ready to declare war. And it is by
no means certain that if she had done so, the combination would have
resulted as predicted. For the people of the United States were not in
their last ditch, nor were they friendless in the world.
If one other point in this controversy be considered, the patriotic
American can look upon the _Trent_ case with unmixed pleasure. From
1783 until 1861--for seventy-eight weary years the American government
had vainly striven with all the arts of diplomacy, and even with the
argument of open war, to get from Great Britain a disavowal of her
assumed right to search a neutral ship in time of war and take from
it any persons whom one of her naval officers might decide to be
British subjects--a renunciation of what the Prince Regent (afterward
George IV) proclaimed at the palace of Westminster, in 1813, as the
“_undoubted_ and _hitherto undisputed_ right of searching merchant
vessels in time of war, and the impressment of British seamen when
found therein.”
It was, indeed, not a very lively strife in the later years of this
period, for Great Britain had abstained from exercising her “undoubted
and hitherto undisputed right” as against American ships. But on
November 8, 1861, an American captain, being not well informed in the
causes of America’s fights for life and liberty, undertook the very act
that, when done by Great Britain, led to the War of 1812. He stopped a
neutral ship on the high seas and took from her men whom he declared
to be American citizens, and without any form of trial haled them away
to a condition that was in law, if not in fact, exactly the condition
of the impressed American seamen before the War of 1812. Great Britain
had often taken advantage of such an act; she had in more than 6,000
cases, of which we have official knowledge, benefited by such doings on
the part of her naval officers. But she had never suffered from such
an aggression as that until November 8, 1861. There is no recorded
act nor official utterance of the government of Great Britain during
the first seventy-eight years of the existence of the United States
that can be construed as a renunciation of the right of taking British
subjects from neutral ships in time of war; but when an American naval
captain took an American subject from a British ship the British Prime
Minister, with swift indignation, declared it “an act of violence which
was an affront to the British flag and _a violation of international
law_.” And that was not all. “The British Government could not
allow such an affront to the national honour to pass without full
reparation.” Indeed, the affront was so great that the British Minister
was to consent, for the purpose of consideration and negotiation, “to a
delay not exceeding seven days.”
The outrages perpetrated on American seamen in the old days have
never been avenged; but because the British were at last willing to
acknowledge in the most emphatic of official documents that the United
States waged a just war in 1812, they may be forgiven.
CHAPTER VIII
THE CAPTURE OF PORT ROYAL
A FLEET OF SEVENTEEN SHIPS, CARRYING 155 GUNS, SENT TO TAKE A HARBOR
THAT WOULD MAKE A CONVENIENT NAVAL STATION FOR THE ATLANTIC
BLOCKADERS--THERE WERE TWO “EXCEEDINGLY WELL-BUILT EARTHWORKS”
“RATHER HEAVILY ARMED” DEFENDING THE CHANNEL, BUT ONE PART OF THE
SQUADRON ATTACKED THEM IN FRONT, ANOTHER ENFILADED THEM, AND IN
LESS THAN FIVE HOURS THE CONFEDERATES FLED FOR LIFE--A HEAVY GALE
WEATHERED WITH SMALL LOSS--INTERESTING INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE.
Within a month after the chief Confederate ports on the Atlantic coast
had been blockaded, the imperative need of a nearby naval station,
where ships could lie in a harbor and make repairs and take on coal,
was manifest. To run away north from Charleston and Savannah to Hampton
Roads, every time coal was needed, was something that could not be
tolerated. For, as the reader will remember, the majority of the
steamers of those days could carry no more coal than would last them
for a week or ten days under steam. And what was worse, the machinery
was always going wrong, even though steam-pressures were so low that
steam-chests were known to burst inward on the creation of a sudden
vacuum. The capture of Hatteras Inlet, in a small measure supplied this
want. Vessels drawing no more than thirteen feet of water could make
a harbor there in any but the worst weather. But because the majority
of the blockading ships drew much more than this, the government was
compelled to provide a deeper port. Fortunately, “a harbor sufficient
to contain the largest fleet in the world” lay right where it was
needed. It was a little-known harbor, in those days, even among
shipping merchants, for no great town overlooked its waters, and it was
visited only by coasters. It lay within the State of South Carolina,
about one-third of the distance from Savannah harbor to Charleston, and
it was called very properly Port Royal. Although neglected entirely by
commerce, it was really the best harbor on the Southern coast. The bar
that guarded it lay well out at sea and had an ample depth of water
over it. The channel between Hilton Head on the south and Bay Point on
the north was a mile wide. Although “the land hereabouts is generally
low, the trees are high,” and “a small grove of trees, which tower
above all the other trees like a high-crowned hat,” marked the entrance
to the harbor unmistakably, so that even a stranger could easily work
his way in unless a gale prevailed.
[Illustration: S. F. Dupont.
_From a photograph._]
Accordingly, the government decided to take possession of Port
Royal, and in October, 1861, began to gather a fleet of warships and
transports at Hampton Roads for that purpose. On October 10th Flag
Officer Samuel Francis Dupont hoisted his flag on the steam frigate
_Wabash_, of which Capt. C. R. P. Rodgers was commander. The squadron
under him included the _Susquehanna_, Capt. J. L. Lardner; _Mohican_,
Capt. S. W. Godon; _Seminole_, Capt. John P. Gillis; _Pocahontas_,
Capt. Percival Drayton; _Pawnee_, Capt. R. W. Wyman; _Unadilla_, Capt.
N. Collins; _Ottawa_, Capt. T. H. Stevens; _Pembina_, Capt. J. P.
Bankhead; _Seneca_, Capt. Daniel Ammen, and the _Vandalia_, Capt. F. L.
Haggerty. All of these were regular warships, and the _Vandalia_ was
the only sailing ship in the squadron. In addition to these, there
were six merchant steamers that had been purchased and armed for use
as warships. The warships proper carried 125 guns, all told, of which
seven were eleven-inch Dahlgrens, and seventy-nine were eight-inch or
better--most of them being nine-inch. The converted merchantmen carried
from two to eight thirty-two-pounders each, save one, the _Isaac
Smith_, which carried a rifled thirty-pounder. A force of soldiers,
12,000 strong, under Gen. Thomas W. Sherman, was detailed to coöperate
with the squadron, and transports were provided to carry them, while
coal-laden schooners were gathered in order to keep the steamers in
fuel.
[Illustration: C. R. P. Rodgers.
_From a photograph._]
The older readers of this will remember very well the excitement
occasioned throughout the nation by the gathering of this vast fleet
at Hampton Roads. For the administration had determined to keep the
destination of the expedition a secret, and it succeeded so well that
the mystery remained until after the fleet was gone.
[Illustration: S. W. Godon.
_From a painting at the Naval Academy, Annapolis._]
On October 28th the _Vandalia_ sailed away from Hampton Roads at
the head of the coal fleet of twenty-five schooners, the schooner
captains having been ordered to go to Tybee Bar, Savannah, in case
they parted company. The next day, October 29, 1861, the squadron, the
most powerful aggregation of fighting ships the United States had ever
brought together, steamed slowly out of the Chesapeake and headed away
to the South “after considerable delay in forming a double echelon line
outside.” All that night and all the next day the squadron was easily
kept in hand, but during the next night the easterly breeze hardened
and the seas began to grow. As the squadron passed Cape Hatteras, on
the 31st of October, two of the transports touched on the Diamond Reef.
No damage was done, but as the squadron continued down the coast the
wind canted to the southeast, and before nightfall of Friday, November
1st, a hurricane was upon them. The flag officer gave orders for each
captain to look out for himself, and at that the fleet slowly scattered
as the ships were headed into the gale.
That was a night never to be forgotten by any landsman afloat in the
fleet. As the seas rose the foam and spoondrift turned into tossing,
phosphorescent flames that swept across the black water, adding terrors
by their weird light to the fears already excited by the laboring of
the ships. The warships were well found and able, of course, but a
sorrier fleet of transports was never sent to sea, for it was composed
in great part of inland water steamers, lighters, and ferryboats, and
here they were trying to live in a Hatteras hurricane.
The first to suffer disaster was the transport _Governor_, a
side-wheeler, carrying a battalion of marines, 700 strong. As night
came on, the big arching timbers known as the hog-braces gave way one
after another. The marines and the crew worked together to repair
the damage, with partial success; but she rolled so heavily that her
smoke-stack was pitched over the rail, and it was then impossible to
keep a full head of steam on, and the pilot could no longer control
her. In swinging off into the trough of the sea, she was strained so
badly that the seams were opened. The leak grew worse and the rudder
chains parted, and there she lay, absolutely helpless and steadily
filling with water, in spite of the labors of hundreds of willing men
at the pumps and with buckets.
At last daylight came, and with it help. The sailing ship _Sabine_,
Captain Ringgold, hove in sight. It was known that the ships were on
soundings, and the _Sabine_ anchored, with the _Governor_ astern of her
also at anchor. Then the _Sabine_ paid out chain until she was near
enough for a transfer of the men. Seven were killed by being caught
between the ships or tumbling into the sea, but the rest were saved,
with their arms. The _Governor_ sank. The transport _Peerless_ was
also lost, but her people, twenty-six in number, were taken off by the
_Mohican_, Captain Godon.
[Illustration: Josiah Tattnall.
_From an engraving by Hall._]
Off Charleston the squadron took the _Susquehanna_ from the blockaders,
and on Monday morning, November 4th, the flagship, with twenty-five
other vessels of the fleet, came to anchor off the bar at Port Royal,
and here they were eventually joined by all the others that survived
the gale.
The storm was widespread, and the people at the North watched the
clouds with an anxiety that was equalled by the hope of the South.
Moreover, it was the first great expedition the nation had undertaken,
and the people were unused to war.
Meantime, some one in the confidence of the government had betrayed
the secret, and on November 1st, two days after the fleet sailed, the
Confederate Secretary of War telegraphed a warning to the forts at Port
Royal and the Confederate fleet at Savannah. The Confederate squadron
was under Commodore Josiah Tattnall, he who braved the fire of the
Mexican works at Vera Cruz. “His flagship consisted of an old passenger
St. John’s steamer, mounting one 32-pound gun forward and one 18-pound
gun aft. Then came two ancient, used-up tug-boats, each mounting one
32-pound gun; the next, a rotten North River cattle-boat, mounting one
18-pound gun; a dwarfish tug-boat from the James River, slightly armed,
bringing up the rear.”
It was a fleet in which machinery and men were wholly unprotected and,
for the purposes of war, was worthless. The Confederate forts were
two in number--one, on Hilton Head, on the south side of the channel,
called Fort Walker, and the other, on Bay Point, opposite, called Fort
Beauregard. These two forts were two and five-eighths miles apart.
As described by Scharf, “they were exceedingly well-built earthworks
and were rather heavily armed, Fort Walker mounting 23 guns and Fort
Beauregard 18, a total of 41; but 22 of these were only 32-pounders or
lighter pieces, so that there were in fact but 19 guns fit to cope with
the at least 100 heavy rifles and shell-guns of the Federal ships. Gen.
Thomas F. Drayton was in command of both posts, with his headquarters
at Hilton Head, and Col. R. M. Dunovant had immediate command at Fort
Beauregard. The defences were garrisoned by about 2,000 men, but this
force was very deficient in trained artillerists, and a small supply of
shot and shell forbade much practice with the larger guns.”
[Illustration: Plan of Fort Walker on Hilton Head.
_From a drawing by R. Sturgis, Jr., in 1861._]
John N. Maffitt, a better authority on the Confederate side, says that
“the construction of these works had been reprehensibly procrastinated
until the ninth hour, when, in haste and confusion, raw troops,
strangers to any ordnance above a 12-pound field piece, were hurried
into the imperfectly-constructed earthworks to battle without drill or
target practice against a masterly array of force.
“The excuse offered by the commanding general for neglecting to
exercise and familiarize his artillerists with target-drill was the
scarcity of ammunition. The commodore replied: ‘Half the allowance
spent in practice will more likely insure good results for the balance
in fighting.’”
Within a few hours after the flagship reached the bar at Port Royal,
all but two or three of the government force was safely anchored
inside. They found that the channel marks had all been removed or
placed to deceive. Capt. Charles H. Davis and Mr. Boutelle of the coast
survey went in the coast survey steamer _Vixen_ to replace the buoys,
being guarded by five of the smaller warships. When this had been done
four of the gunboats--the _Ottawa_, the _Seneca_, the _Pembia_, and the
_Penguin_--anchored within three miles of Fort Walker.
Meantime Commodore Tattnall had brought his river-boat squadron through
the inland waters to help defend Port Royal, and seeing the gunboats
within reach, he made a dash at them, regardless of the character of
his own ships. It was like Tattnall to do that; but he was fighting his
own countrymen now, and not Mexicans or Chinese. Capt. T. H. Stevens,
of the _Seneca_, who was senior officer, without waiting for orders
from the flagship, got up anchor, and with the four gunboats headed in
to meet the Confederates. Of course the encounter could have but one
result, for the government force was much the greater, and after Lieut.
Daniel Ammen had fired an eleven-inch shell into Tattnall’s _Savannah_,
Tattnall turned and ran. And that was the end of the offensive warfare
waged by that Confederate squadron.
The plan of attack chosen by Flag Officer Dupont was to divide his
force into two squadrons. The first included the _Wabash_, the
_Susquehanna_, the _Mohican_, the _Seminole_, the _Pawnee_, the
_Unadilla_, the _Ottawa_, the _Pembina_, and the _Vandalia_ in tow
of the _Isaac Smith_, a steam gunboat that had been obliged to throw
overboard all but one of her guns in the gale, and so was useless for
any other purpose than that of a tug. The smaller squadron included
the _Bienville_, the _Seneca_, the _Curlew_, the _Penguin_, and the
_Augusta_, of which all but the _Seneca_ were converted merchantmen
carrying thirty-two-pounders; the _Seneca_, being armed with one
eleven-inch Dahlgren and a twenty-pounder rifle, besides two howitzers,
was the only one of much consequence for attacking an earthwork.
The larger squadron was to steam in past the fort on Hilton Head (on
the south side of the channel), at a distance, when abreast, of 800
yards, and bombard it while passing in; the small squadron was to keep
at the north side of the larger one and give such attention as it might
at long range to Fort Beauregard over on the north side of the channel.
When the forts had been passed, the larger squadron was to turn back
and steam out past Hilton Head, firing as before, while the little
squadron remained in the harbor to head off any attack from Commodore
Tatnall, and, what was of more importance as the event proved, to
attack the forts from the rear.
For both forts had been planned to face the roadstead and open sea, and
very little had been done to protect the landward faces from an attack
from within the harbor.
An offshore gale of wind prevented an attack on the 6th, but the
morning of the 7th came with scarcely a ripple on the sea, and at 9
o’clock the two squadrons of warships, in the order named, headed with
a flood tide in close order to attack the fort on Hilton Head. They
steamed along at six knots per hour, and at 9.26 o’clock precisely a
puff of white smoke was seen on the parapet of the fort at the south.
Instantly an answering puff was seen on Fort Beauregard at the north,
and a round black ball from each came bounding over the smooth water,
to fall short and sink out of sight. In a minute the _Wabash_ replied
with her two big ten-inch pivots, the _Susquehanna_ followed with an
eight-inch pivot, and in ten minutes more the whole fleet was engaged.
A hundred huge shells were falling upon and around the fort, burying
themselves for a moment in its walls, and then bursting and throwing
great masses of sand in the air--masses of sand that fell upon the
gunners and the guns there.
But, though inexperienced in war, and but slightly trained in the
handling of great guns, the men within the forts were a sturdy host,
and fought back in a way that must excite the admiration of all who
read the story. The ships were drawing nearer steadily, and there was
need for rapid work. To bring one cartridge from the magazine every
time a gun was to be loaded required too much time, and the gun’s crews
in the forts, regardless of the bursting shells that fell thickly
around them, brought cartridges by the armful, and piled them beside
the guns.
Nevertheless, they labored in vain. Fire as swiftly as they might and
as accurately as they could, the majestic column of steamers passed
in with the tide, unimpeded, until well within the harbor, when the
longer column turned slowly around and came back, heading to pass this
time within 600 yards instead of 800 as before. Sweeping out to sea,
they came back again, passing once more at the shorter and more deadly
range, and then a number of them came to anchor at a distance of 1,200
yards from the fort, and began a steady fire at a sure range, while
“the _Vandalia_, in tow of the _Isaac Smith_ by a long hawser, swept
in long, graceful, but inconvenient curves past and among these
vessels. The _Unadilla_, whose machinery was disabled, pursued her
eccentric orbit, her commanding officer hailing and requesting other
vessels to get out of the way, as he ‘could not stop.’ As he swept
by, again and again the droll song of the man with the cork leg that
would not let him tarry was brought to mind.” So says Ammen. But while
the _Unadilla_ amused the government forces she was not amusing the
Confederates, for she kept her batteries working as relentlessly as her
machinery worked.
[Illustration:
Fort Walker.
_Susquehanna._
_Wabash._
_Bienville._
_Ottawa._
_Curlew._
_Seneca._
Fort Beauregard.
Bombardment of Port Royal, S. C.
_From an engraving by Ridgeway of a drawing by Parsons._]
And then came the steamer _Pocahontas_, under Capt. Percival Drayton,
a Southern-born naval officer whose regard for his oath had prevented
his deserting the flag. The _Pocahontas_ had been delayed at sea by
the great gale, but although she arrived too late to join in the
procession, she ran in close to the beach southeast of the fort,
and, stopping there, opened an enfilading fire. There was a single
thirty-two-pounder on this flank of the fort, and Gen. Thomas Drayton,
commanding the fort, had it trained on the _Pocahontas_. General
Drayton on shore and Captain Drayton afloat, brothers, were firing on
each other. But the gun ashore was knocked to pieces by a shot from the
ship, and thereafter the fire of the _Pocahontas_ began to drive the
Confederates from their guns, for there were no traverses between the
guns to protect the men from an enfilading fire.
Meantime the smaller squadron left within opened an enfilading fire on
both the Hilton Head fort and Fort Beauregard on the north side of the
channel. “This enfilading fire on so still a sea annoyed and damaged
us excessively,” says General Drayton in his report. It became more
annoying still as time passed, for the ebb tide began to run, and the
gunboats were swept down until within 400 yards of the forts, and shots
from even the howitzers began to tell with deadly effect. It was a
storm that no force of men could stand. By 1.15 P.M., according to one
account, and by 2 o’clock at the latest, “all but three of the guns
on the water front had been disabled, and only 500 pounds of powder
[remained] in the magazine” of the Hilton Head fort. The work of the
fleet was done. The Confederates began to evacuate the fort on Hilton
Head. Lookouts on the _Ottawa_ were the first to see the men leaving
the fort, and signals were soon flying to announce the fact. In a
moment the _Pembina_ was signalling the same story, while men who ran
aloft on the _Wabash_ hailed the deck to confirm the news.
[Illustration:
Fort Walker.
_Vandalia._
_Susquehanna._
_Seminole._
_Wabash._
_Bienville._
Fort Beauregard.
Bombardment and Capture of Forts Walker and Beauregard, November 7,
1861.
_From an engraving by Perine._]
At this the order to cease firing fluttered in the air. The _Wabash_
and the _Susquehanna_ steamed close in where their huge broadsides
would bear directly on the fort, and Capt. C. R. P. Rodgers was sent in
a boat to make an examination.
“The entire fleet, now resting on its guns, watched the whaleboat
pull out from the wing of the huge frigate and make its way like a
cockleshell toward the grim and silent fort. Thousands of eyes centered
on the little boat with increasing interest as she drew nearer the
shore. Her keel soon grated on the beach, and the officers were seen to
jump out, approach the fort and enter, and for a time they were lost to
view. Then Commander Rodgers was seen scrambling up the highest part
of the ramparts, carrying the American colors with him; and at the
first glimpse of the beautiful ensign the long suspense gave place to
tremendous cheers from every craft in the fleet.” So says Maclay.
Although the main attack had been made on the Hilton Head fort, the
one at the north had received attention at long range from the larger
squadron, and the gunboats within the harbor had enfiladed it. It had
suffered so much, in fact, that the troops abandoned it as soon as
they saw that Hilton Head had surrendered. Vessels that were sent to
reconnoitre found the flag down, and the next morning Capt. Daniel
Ammen of the _Seneca_ hoisted the American flag over the building that
had been used as headquarters there. Of his experience Ammen has
written as follows:
“He went into the house without a suspicion of possible injury, and
found everything had been removed. The earthworks and magazines were
hastily examined, and the encampment under the pine trees half a mile
distant was then visited.
“Returning to the vicinity of the earthworks, where our flag had been
hoisted an hour before, a dull explosion was heard, a cloud of smoke
went up, and when it passed away there was no vestige of the small
frame house upon which our flag had been hoisted. A sailor walking
near had fallen into the snare by his foot striking a wire fastened to
a peg, through which a ‘spur tube’ had exploded a quantity of powder
placed under the floor of the house. The sailor was knocked down and
stunned for a few minutes.”
The government loss in the fight was eight killed, and six seriously
and seventeen slightly wounded. The Confederates lost “eleven killed,
forty-eight wounded and four missing.”
Admiral Porter says that “the victory at Port Royal put new life into
Union hearts.” It “gave the powers of Europe notice that we could and
would win back the forts that had been filched from us.” It “showed
conclusively that the time-honored theory that one gun on shore was
equal to five on shipboard no longer held good.” And of Dupont he says
that “all the qualities of a great commander were possessed in an
eminent degree” by him.
The harbor of Port Royal remained under the flag. The adjoining waters
were patrolled by government gunboats, and Tybee Island and other
approaches to Savannah soon fell into government hands. Later on Port
Royal was used as a base for the operations against Charleston, which
will be described further on.
CHAPTER IX
THE _MONITOR_ AND THE _MERRIMAC_
SUPERIOR ACTIVITY OF THE CONFEDERATES IN PREPARING FOR IRONCLAD
WARFARE AFLOAT--STORY OF THE BUILDING AND ARMING OF THE
_MERRIMAC_--SHE WAS A FORMIDABLE SHIP IN SPITE OF DEFECTS IN
DETAIL, BUT HER DESIGN WAS NOT THE BEST CONCEIVABLE--ORIGIN AND
DESCRIPTION OF THE SHIP THAT REVOLUTIONIZED THE NAVIES OF THE
WORLD--A WONDROUS TRIAL TRIP--FOR ONE DAY THE _MERRIMAC_ WAS
IRRESISTIBLY TRIUMPHANT--TWO FINE SHIPS OF THE OLD STYLE DESTROYED
WHILE SHE HERSELF SUFFERED BUT LITTLE--THE MAGNIFICENT FIGHT OF THE
_CUMBERLAND_--A DIFFERENCE IN OPINIONS.
The story of the most famous ship duel known to the history of the
world, the battle between the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_, begins on
June 10, 1861, when Lieut. John M. Brooke, C.S.N., formerly of the
American navy, was assigned to assist the Confederate Navy Department
in designing an ironclad that should be able to gain control of the
navigable waters in and about the Chesapeake Bay. Brooke “entered
upon this duty at once, and a few days thereafter submitted to the
department, as the results of his investigations, rough drawings of a
casemated vessel, with submerged ends and inclined iron-plated sides.
The ends of the vessel and the eaves of the casemate, according to his
plan, were to be submerged two feet; and a light bulwark or false bow
was designed to divide the water and prevent it from banking up on
the forward part of the shield with the vessel in motion, and also to
serve as a tank to regulate the ship’s draft. His design was approved
by the department,” and Constructor J. L. Porter was brought up from
Norfolk to Richmond to assist in making the working drawings. Porter
had already been considering this subject, and brought with him a model
of a light-draft, screw-driven scow, that was to support a “casemated
battery, with inclined iron-covered sides and ends.” In the opinion
of Brooke this would have been, “for ordinary purposes, a good boat
for harbor defence,” but a blunt-ended hull was, naturally, not to the
liking of a naval man, and he proposed to have the ends of the hull
“prolonged and shaped like those of any fast vessel, and submerged two
feet under water, so that nothing was to be seen afloat but the shield
itself.”
Plans were drawn for such a ship, and, with Chief Engineer W. P.
Williamson, Brooke went looking for engines to drive the proposed
ironclad, but failed to find any. It was in this emergency that
Williamson thought of the hulk of the _Merrimac_, that had been partly
burned and sunk at Norfolk. Her engines were old and in bad order when
she arrived at Norfolk before the trouble began, and new ones were to
have been provided. Moreover, the fire and the soaking in sea-water had
injured them; but Williamson knew that they could be made to work. Both
Porter and Brooke “thought the draft too great, but were nevertheless
of the opinion that it was the best thing that could be done,” and the
order to transform the old frigate into a floating fort was issued.
Williamson “thoroughly overhauled her engines, supplied deficiencies,
and repaired defects, and improved greatly the motive power of the
vessel.” Porter “cut the ship down, submerged her ends, performed
all the duties of constructor, and originated all the interior
arrangements.” The casemate was built according to the plans of his
model.
“Mr. Brooke attended daily to the iron armor, constructed targets,
ascertained by actual tests the resistance offered by inclined planes
of iron to heavy ordnance, and determined interesting and important
facts in connection therewith, and which were of great importance in
the construction of the ship; devised and prepared the models and
drawings of the ship’s heavy ordnance, being guns of a class never
before made, and of extraordinary power and strength.”
Porter having got the hull in the dry dock, cut it down to where the
berth deck had been. Then he laid a heavy timber deck over the entire
hull, and on this, amidships, he erected a casemate, with its walls
inclined in at an angle of “about thirty-six degrees,” according to one
of her officers, and forty-five according to another. This casemate
was two feet thick, and was made of twelve-inch timbers standing on
end, covered with eight-inch timbers laid horizontally, which were in
turn covered with oak plank four inches thick. On these were laid iron
plates two inches thick and eight inches wide, placed horizontally,
with another layer of the same dimensions over them placed vertically.
The side-walls of this casemate projected down and out over the
sides of the hulk, like the eaves of a country house, to protect the
water-line, and the hull itself was plated with one-inch iron for two
feet below the deck, although the design called for three-inch iron.
The inclined sides were carried up high enough to give seven feet head
room inside, and then a heavy flat deck twenty feet wide, with hatches
in it, was laid across. On the bow, two feet below the water-line, was
bolted a cast-iron wedge that projected two feet from the stem, and was
for use as a ram.
[Illustration: Franklin Buchanan.]
The battery of the _Merrimac_ contained six of the nine-inch Dahlgrens
found in the Norfolk Navy Yard, and four rifles designed by Brooke.
Two of these rifles were mounted as pivots at bow and stern, and
two smaller ones were in the broadside. The pivots were cast-iron
muzzle-loading rifles of seven-inch calibre, and they weighed 14,500
pounds each. The reader will appreciate the weight of the gun when
it is told that the best gun in the British navy at that time was
the 68-pounder, having a calibre of eight inches and weighing 9,500
pounds. Moreover, Brooke’s heavy casting was reinforced by wrought-iron
bands shrunk on. The broadside guns were of the same construction, but
weighed 9,000 pounds and were of four-inch calibre. Brooke’s guns were
far and away the best then afloat.
When ready for a trial trip, with all weights on board, the _Merrimac_
drew twenty-two feet six inches of water. Her crew numbered 320. She
was commanded by Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan, and Lieut. Catesby Ap
R. Jones was chief officer. Another lieutenant was John Taylor Wood,
and both of these lieutenants have written accounts of the ship. They
agree in saying that the engines were in wretched order, and that the
great draft of the ship was a serious disadvantage in the waters where
she was to be used is manifest. Nevertheless, for smooth water she was
the most powerful ship afloat. She was named the _Virginia_, and should
have been called so in history, for she was a rebuilt ship; but it is
too late to change history now.
Of course, the government heard about the building of a floating
battery on the _Merrimac_ hull. The spy service of the government was
never as good as that of the Confederates, and the news obtained was
not always appreciated. Porter tells of seeing a mechanic who had
fled from the Norfolk Navy Yard ill-treated when taken on board the
government flagship to tell what he knew. This matter is referred to,
not to make an ill-natured criticism of a government officer, but
to show how important it is in time of war to make a full and just
estimate of the power of the enemy.
[Illustration: The _New Ironsides_ in Action.
_From a photograph, of a drawing, owned by Mr. C. B. Hall._]
The Confederates began the work of converting the _Merrimac_ in June,
1861. There were several frigates in the Union navy that might have
been converted, with Northern resources, into more powerful ironclad
batteries than the _Merrimac_ was, but nothing was done until Congress
met, and on August 3d made an appropriation for ironclads. Then
designs were called for, and three were selected for acceptance after
long consideration. One of these proved a failure as an ironclad. One
proved a great success a year or so later (she was called the _New
Ironsides_), and, fortunately, the third was of a design that might be
built quickly and yet prove efficient. This ship was from the brain of
John Ericsson, who had already revolutionized the navies of the world
by introducing the submerged screw propeller; and the name which he
gave to the marvel he produced, at once became generic.
Although Congress appropriated the money for ironclads on August 3d,
the board appointed to consider plans did not convene until the 8th.
It took them until September 8th to make up their minds, and it was
not until October 4, 1861, that the final contract with Ericsson was
signed. This was a needless delay, and this fact is worth emphasizing
because it is not unlikely that similar delays will be experienced
whenever the nation is again unexpectedly plunged into war.
[Illustration: The Giant and the Dwarfs; or John E. and the Little
Mariners.
[From a Swedish caricature, February 10, 1867.]
_John._--Come here, little boys, and I will show you. What do you
say to this model of a gunboat for our coast defence?
_The Little Boys._--Won’t do ... too small ... too heavy
draught ... too large guns ... too light draught ... too large
... too small guns ... won’t do,--that’s what I say ... and I
also,--because it isn’t our invention.
_John._--Well, little boys, that is at least some reason.
]
But if the authorities were dilatory, the mechanics were not. The
keel was stretched in that part of the Brooklyn water front called
Greenpoint, before the end of the month, although working plans had to
be laid in the mould loft and contracts for materials made. Three gangs
of men were employed, working eight hours each in succession; the iron
was kept hot from the day the work began until January 30, 1862, when
the hull was sent afloat in the waters of the East River, under the
name of _Monitor_.
[Illustration: The Monitor.]
The hull of the _Monitor_, as it stood on the land, was in a way
something like that of the common ferryboat. There was a smooth,
rounded hull, 124 feet long, thirty-four wide, and about six feet
deep, with a superstructure laid flat across the top of this hull and
projecting out like a guard-rail on all sides.
It projected three feet and eight inches on each side, and twenty-five
feet at each end. But this overhanging part was really a super-added
hull; it was a flat-bottomed hull, 172 feet long, forty-one wide, and
five feet deep, laid on top of the lower hull, and secured to it by a
single row of rivets. As a whole, the _Monitor_ was unlike any other
hull ever built. And it is no disparagement of the genius of Ericsson
to say that no sailorman could ever have dreamed of such a thing even
when in a delirium from drink.
This hull was made of boiler-iron riveted to suitable frames, and the
vertical sides of the overhang were protected by five one-inch iron
plates bolted on and backed by heavy oak timbers. A heavy timber deck,
supported on big wooden beams, was protected from a plunging fire by
two layers of half-inch iron plates. On the centre of this hull rose a
round turret, twenty feet in diameter inside and nine feet high, made
of eight one-inch iron plates. It was supported on a pivot, to which
an engine was geared so that it could be readily turned in either
direction. Her deck was one foot above the water-line. She carried two
eleven-inch smooth-bore guns, firing solid shot weighing from 170 to
180 pounds. Her speed was between four and five knots. A novel feature
was the absence of smoke-stacks in action; they were taken apart and
laid flat on deck, which gave an all-round fire abaft. The draught to
the furnaces was maintained by powerful blowers. Forward of the turret
stood a pilot-house made of iron logs, nine inches square, built up
log-cabin fashion by notching and bolting the ends together. Her anchor
was suspended in a well under the bow, the cable passing through a
pipe beneath the deck to a winch further aft. The propeller was, of
course, concealed under the overhang aft. In short, her machinery was
altogether below the water-line, while her guns were placed as near the
centre of gravity as could well be imagined, and were well protected.
It is perhaps as well to say here as elsewhere that with such
modifications as experience has suggested, the _Monitor_ type is, in
the opinion of many of the American captains who have commanded them,
not only the best protected, but the most efficient and the safest
style of coast-defence ships.
As the month of January, 1862, came on, the Confederates learned from
their spies that the _Monitor_ was rapidly nearing completion, and the
number of men at work on the _Merrimac_ was doubled. They had already
been pushing the work as fast as daywork could do it, but with the
added force, the _Merrimac_ rapidly assumed the form where she might
be placed in commission. The collecting of a crew proved a matter of
some trouble, for the people of the South were all soldiers rather
than seamen; but by visiting the various armies, Captain Buchanan was
able to select a thoroughly good crew for the work--men who could fix
the boilers, steer the ship, and work the guns to the best advantage.
The fact that many of them did not know a royal halliard from futtock
shroud was of no importance, for, like the latest of warships, the
_Merrimac_ had neither halliards nor shrouds. With the arrival of the
crew the eagerness of the officers to try their ship increased. She had
never steamed a mile in her new form--she had never steamed at all save
only to turn her shaft at the dock to see whether the engines would
work or not; but this did not matter. The men were fore and fit, and on
Saturday, March 8th, they would show what the ship was good for.
A glance at the map shows that the waters of the James River come down
from the northwest, those of the Nansemond come from the southwest,
and those of the Elizabeth come up from the south to unite in Hampton
Roads, and flow out to the northeast to empty into Chesapeake Bay. Old
Point Comfort, with Fortress Monroe, guarded the north side of the
mouth of Hampton Roads, but away south, on the route to Norfolk, was
Sewell’s Point, where the Confederates had erected strong batteries
that completely commanded the channel running south from Hampton Roads
to Norfolk. Over on the northwest corner, so to speak, of Hampton
Roads lay Newport News Point, which was held by the government; so the
government ships were in the habit of anchoring along the northerly
side of Hampton Roads all the way from Fortress Monroe to Newport News,
a distance of seven miles. They were in plain sight of the Confederate
batteries on Sewell’s Point, but far out of range, for it is a wide
stretch of water.
[Illustration: Hampton Roads.
_From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_]
On the morning of March 8, 1862, the steam frigates _St. Lawrence_,
_Roanoke_, and _Minnesota_ were anchored at wide intervals, in the
order named, in a line southwest from Fortress Monroe toward Newport
News Point, while the sailing frigate _Congress_ lay just east of
Newport News Point, and the sailing sloop-of-war _Cumberland_ lay
just a little to the west of the point. It was a lovely day of the
early spring. The ships swung easily to their cables; the small boats
wabbled over the tiny waves as they tugged at the painters that held
them fast to the wide-spread booms. The wash-clothes, on well-filled
lines stretched in the rigging, fluttered in the gentle breeze. There
was nothing to indicate that any officer had any care or thought of the
ironclad ship that for months past the Confederates had been building
at Norfolk. And as a matter of fact they did not give the ironclad a
serious thought, for they were conservatives. What could a newfangled
notion like this ironclad do, any way? Hadn’t Lord Howard Douglas
and other good English authorities proved to the satisfaction of the
experienced men of the world that a ship plated with iron would really
prove more dangerous to her crew than to an enemy in the oft-approved
frigates of the day? He had.
The morning wore away in peace, but at noon exactly, the crew of the
_Cumberland_ saw the long trail of smoke from steamers that were boldly
coming up the channel from Norfolk. A careful lookout kept watch of
that smoke until it was seen that the steamers were three in number, of
which one, although it made more smoke than both the others, did not
look at all like a ship, but like a low black box instead. There was
no mistaking her character, however. She looked as the escaped colored
people had said the new ironclad looked, and the drums beat the long
call to quarters.
Over on the _Congress_, lying east of Newport News Point, there was a
similar stir while signal flags fluttered aloft to warn the big steam
frigates lying up to the northeast toward Fortress Monroe.
[Illustration: Fortress Monroe and its Vicinity.
1. Old Point Comfort, 2. Fortress Monroe. 3. Water battery. 4.
Hampton Roads. 5. Rip Raps. 6. Chesapeake Bay. 7. Sewell’s Point.
8. Craney Island. 9. Elizabeth River. 10. Norfolk. 11. Portsmouth.
12. Dismal Swamp. 13. Atlantic Ocean. 14. Cape Hatteras, N. C. 15.
Nansemond River. 16 James River. 17. Newport News. 18. Hampton. 19.
Mill Creek. 20. Land approach to Fortress.
]
Capt. John Marston, who was senior officer and commanded the _Roanoke_,
reports that he had already seen the enemy coming. At 12.45 o’clock
they passed Sewell’s Point, over on the south shore, and on getting out
into deep water they headed away to the west toward Newport News.
The _Merrimac_ had left Norfolk for a trial trip, but the crew had
slushed her walls to make the Yankee shells slip off, and their
enthusiasm made them determine to give her such a trial as no new-idea
ship ever had either before or since. Running across to Newport News,
the _Merrimac_ headed for the _Cumberland_, that lay beyond the
point. The government crews were at their quarters, and while yet
the _Merrimac_ was three-quarters of a mile away, the _Cumberland’s_
ten-inch pivot began to talk. Then the frigate _Congress_ opened fire.
The _Merrimac_ passed her broadside to broadside, for the _Congress_
swung head to the east with the young flood-tide. It was an experienced
crew on the _Congress_, and her shot rattled and burst against the
_Merrimac’s_ side--rattled and burst “like peas from a pea-shooter.”
They made the slush there sizzle and smoke, but they did no damage
whatever. As the _Merrimac_ passed the _Congress_, however, and opened
fire with her broadside, the shot struck home, carrying death on every
side.
One broadside only, and then she was gone. She was going to begin
on the _Cumberland_. Lieut. George U. Morris was in command of the
_Cumberland_, for Capt. William Radford was away on other duty. But
Morris was equal to the emergency. As the _Merrimac_ drew near, the
_Cumberland’s_ guns were loaded with solid shot and the heaviest
service charge of powder. The broadside guns were carefully aimed, and
almost every shot struck the moving target--struck it and bounded clear
or burst into harmless fragments. There was nothing they could do to
impede the coming monster. And then, when the _Merrimac_ was within
a few yards, her long bow rifle blazed forth. It was aimed by Lieut.
Charles Simms, and it killed and wounded “most of the crew of the after
pivot gun of the _Cumberland_.”
The _Cumberland_ returned the shot with a broadside, but the _Merrimac_
was now upon her; the long bow, that was just awash, slid through the
water and into the side of the old sloop just under the fore rigging.
The crash of the timbers was heard above the roar of the guns. The
_Cumberland_ shivered and heeled slightly to the blow, while the
_Merrimac_ hung for a moment in the wound she had made, and then backed
off, firing every gun that would bear, while the water went roaring
into the _Cumberland_ through the hole where the ram had struck.
Heading to the west, the _Merrimac_ steamed slowly away astern of the
wounded ship, and then turned to come back again. While the _Merrimac_
turned she raked the _Cumberland_ first with the big stern pivot and
then with the broadside guns, killing and wounding many, and then
ranging up beside her, hailed and demanded that she surrender.
[Illustration: The Sinking of the _Cumberland_ by the Ironclad
_Merrimac_.
_From a lithograph published by Currier & Ives._]
The _Cumberland_ was now settling down forward under the weight of
water there; it was plain that she must sink. It was certain that her
shot could not pierce the side of the ironclad. But Lieutenant Morris
replied:
“Never! I’ll sink alongside.” And then the _Cumberland’s_ “gun’s crews
kicked off their shoes, and stripped to the waist. Tanks of cartridges
were hoisted on the gun-deck and opened, and round after round was
fired at the ironclad. A shell passing through the hatch burst in the
sick-bay, killing four of the wounded. On the berth-deck, the wounded
men were lifted upon racks and mess-chests, to keep them from drowning;
and as the water rose, those who fell on the upper decks were carried
amidships and left there. Already, the boats had been lowered and made
fast in a line on the shore side. At half-past three, the forward
magazine was drowned, and five minutes later the order was given to the
men to leave quarters and save themselves.”
The water had risen at this time to the gun-deck, and the ship was
heeling swiftly to port. There was need of haste if the crew were to
save themselves even by swimming, but with their feet in the rising
flood one crew lingered to fire a last shot. And as its smoke rolled
from the ship’s side she sank out of sight with her flag flying.
“Never did a crew fight a ship with more spirit and hardihood than
these brave fellows of the _Cumberland_ while the vessel was going
down. Nor was it a mere idle display of gallantry, this holding on to
the last; for in these days, in naval battles,” “_c’est le dernier
coup qui peut-être nous rendra victorieux_” (the last shot may give us
the victory). “_Tirez, tirez toujours!_”
Flag and all disappeared as the ship went down, but the water was only
fifty-four feet deep, and when she struck bottom she righted, and the
peaks of her masts appeared once more to flutter the old flag in the
sunlight.
And let it be told to the honor of the _Cumberland’s_ crew, who fought
till their feet were wet by the water above the deck of the sinking
ship, that their shot did more damage than any others fired at the
_Merrimac_, not excepting the _Monitor’s_; for they shot off the
muzzles of two of the Confederate guns and burst a shell in a port
where its fragments killed two and wounded several others.
There were 376 souls on board the _Cumberland_ when she went into
action. Of these, 117 were lost and twenty-three were missing.
[Illustration: The _Merrimac_ Ramming the _Cumberland_.
_From a drawing by M. J. Burns._]
“The gallantry of her officers and crew was the theme of great praise,
and painting and poetry celebrated their heroism. Lieutenant Morris,
who was commanding in the absence of Captain Radford, was the recipient
of special commendations from the Secretary of the Navy in a letter
to him on the 21st March. Just a week later, twelve citizens of
Philadelphia, all personal strangers to him, presented to Lieutenant
Morris, at the house of R. W. Leaming, an elegant sword, saying in
a letter to him, that it could have ‘no worthier recipient than the
brave sailor who fought his ship while a plank floated, fired his last
broadside in sinking, and went down with his flag flying at the peak.’
On the sword was the motto in Latin, ‘I sink, but never surrender.’”
[Illustration: George U. Morris.
_From a photograph owned by Mr. C. B. Hall._]
From the _Cumberland_ the _Merrimac_ turned to the government batteries
on shore, which were silenced for brief intervals, and then she
began on the _Congress_. Lieut. Joseph B. Smith was in command that
day. Seeing the fate of the _Cumberland_, he made sail to fly toward
Fortress Monroe, but unfortunately grounded. Two Confederate gunboats
that had come with the _Merrimac_ got under the stern of the _Congress_
and opened a hot fire where only two guns would bear on them, and then
finally came the _Merrimac_ to take a raking position at a distance of
150 yards. She could not use the ram because the water was shoal, but
her powerful battery knocked the guns of the _Congress_ to pieces and
“searched the ship.” Just before the last stern gun was disabled the
powder cartridges ceased coming to it. The division lieutenant went to
learn why. “After my eyes became a little accustomed to the darkness
and the sharp smoke from burning oak,” he wrote, “I saw that the line
of cooks and wardroom servants stationed to pass full boxes had been
raked by a shell, and every one of them either killed or wounded.”
For an hour the crew of the _Congress_ stood to their guns, and then,
Lieutenant Smith having been killed, and the ship being on fire in
several places, Lieut. Austin Pendergrast hoisted a white flag.
Meantime the flagship _Roanoke_ had sent the _Minnesota_ over toward
Newport News to attack the _Merrimac_, and had herself followed with
the _St. Lawrence_. But only the _Minnesota_ got near enough to fight.
The other two “very prudently ran aground not far from Fortress Monroe.”
“As soon as the _Congress_ surrendered, Commander Buchanan ordered the
gun-boats _Beaufort_ and _Raleigh_ to steam alongside, take off her
crew, and set fire to the ship. Lieutenant Pendergrast surrendered to
Lieutenant Parker, of the _Beaufort_. Delivering his sword and colors,
he was directed by Lieutenant Parker to return to his ship and have the
wounded transferred as rapidly as possible. All this time the shore
batteries and small-arm men were keeping up an incessant fire on our
vessels. Two of the officers of the _Raleigh_, Lieutenant Taylor and
Midshipman Hutter, were killed while assisting the Union wounded out
of the _Congress_. A number of the enemy’s men were killed by the same
fire. Finally it became so hot that the gun-boats were obliged to haul
off with only thirty prisoners, leaving Lieutenant Pendergrast and
most of his crew on board, and they all afterward escaped on shore by
swimming or in small boats. While this was going on, the white flag was
flying at her mainmast-head. Not being able to take possession of his
prize, the commodore ordered hot shot to be used, and in a short time
she was in flames fore and aft. While directing this, both himself and
his flag-lieutenant, Minor, were severely wounded. The command then
devolved upon Lieut. Catesby Jones.
“Our loss in killed and wounded was twenty-one. The armor was hardly
damaged, though at one time our ship was the focus on which were
directed at least one hundred heavy guns afloat and ashore. But nothing
outside escaped. Two guns were disabled by having their muzzles shot
off. The ram was left in the side of the _Cumberland_. One anchor, the
smoke-stack, and the steam-pipes were shot away. Railings, stanchions,
boat-davits, everything was swept clean. The flag-staff was repeatedly
knocked over, and finally a boarding-pike was used. Commodore Buchanan
and the other wounded were sent to the Naval Hospital, and after making
preparations for the next day’s fight, we slept at our guns, dreaming
of other victories in the morning.”
The quotations above are from John Taylor Wood’s story of the action,
as printed in the _Century Magazine_, and Wood was a lieutenant on
the _Merrimac_. There is no dispute as to the facts which he there
relates. The points especially worth observing in this account are
these: The government batteries on shore continued their fire at the
Confederates after the _Congress_ showed the white flag, and this fire
killed friend and foe alike. The commanding officer of the _Congress_
“was _directed_ by Lieutenant Parker to return to his ship and have the
wounded transferred,” and the Confederate “gunboats were obliged to
haul off with only thirty prisoners, leaving Lieutenant Pendergrast” on
the _Congress_. Captain Buchanan’s report of the fight says that the
firing on the Confederate gunboats was “vile treachery”; and Scharf’s
history says that “very great indignation was felt and expressed by
the Confederates,” because the officers of the _Congress_ who had
surrendered did not hasten on board the last Confederate gunboat
leaving the side of the surrendered ship. It says their remaining on
the _Congress_ was “to the discredit of the honor of American sailors.”
Admiral Porter says, regarding Buchanan’s firing red-hot shot at the
_Congress_ when the white flag was flying and many wounded as well as
the unhurt were on board, “this was certainly most inhuman, since the
crew of the _Congress_ were not responsible for the act of the troops
on shore.”
It was a right fierce battle, and the things done were inevitable under
the circumstances--inevitable because of the passions excited by actual
conflict. If another battle of the kind be conceivable, then just such
doings must follow in its wake.
In after years Secretary of the Navy Welles wrote an account of the
effect this first raid of the _Merrimac_ had upon a Cabinet meeting
at Washington. Because it showed a lamentable ignorance of the real
power of the ship, and because the losses of the day were wholly due to
needless delays in preparing to meet the new style of warship, it is
worth while quoting one paragraph from his article:
“‘The _Merrimac_,’ said Stanton, ‘will change the whole character
of the war; she will destroy, _seriatim_, every naval vessel; she
will lay all the cities on the seaboard under contribution. I shall
immediately recall Burnside; Port Royal must be abandoned. I will
notify the governors and municipal authorities in the North to take
instant measures to protect their harbors.’ He had no doubt, he said,
that the monster was at this moment on her way to Washington; and,
looking out of the window, which commanded a view of the Potomac
for many miles, ‘Not unlikely, we shall have a shell or cannon-ball
from one of her guns in the White House before we leave this room.’
Mr. Seward, usually buoyant and self-reliant, overwhelmed with the
intelligence, listened in responsive sympathy to Stanton, and was
greatly depressed, as, indeed, were all the members.”
But that was not all nor the worst of the panic. Assistant Secretary
of War John Tucker wrote to Commodore Vanderbilt of New York to ask
“for what sum you will contract to destroy the _Merrimac_ ... answer by
telegraph, as there is no time to be lost.” Humiliating as such panics
are, they must not be forgotten; they must be remembered because they
are humiliating, in order that they may be avoided in future.
By the time the _Congress_ was ablaze beyond remedy, five o’clock had
come, and the ebb-tide had run so far that the _Merrimac_ could not
go to look after the _Minnesota_, which was grounded some distance
off toward Fortress Monroe. Moreover, another day was coming, and to
the mind of Lieutenant Jones, who now commanded, he would much better
return to Sewell’s Point for the night and take the others on the
first of the flood-tide next day. That he would have destroyed them at
leisure next day, had no new element come into the conflict, is now
unquestioned. But a new and a remarkable element--the _Monitor_--was at
hand.
CHAPTER X
FIRST BATTLE BETWEEN IRONCLADS
A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE _MONITOR_ AND THE _MERRIMAC_ BY THE ENGLISH
STANDARD OF 1812--IT ASTONISHED THE SPECTATORS TO SEE THE TINY
_MONITOR’S_ TEMERITY--AFTER HALF A DAY’S FIRING IT WAS PLAIN THAT
THE GUNS COULD NOT PENETRATE THE ARMOR--ATTEMPTS TO RAM THAT
FAILED--THE _MERRIMAC_ A-LEAK--CAPTAIN WORDEN OF THE _MONITOR_
DISABLED WHEN THE _MERRIMAC’S_ FIRE WAS CONCENTRATED ON THE
PILOT-HOUSE--WHERE THE _MONITOR’S_ GUNNERS FAILED--FAIR STATEMENT
OF THE RESULT OF THE BATTLE--WORDEN’S FAITHFUL CREW--THE _MERRIMAC_
DEFIED THE _MONITOR_ IN MAY, BUT WHEN NORFOLK WAS EVACUATED SHE
HAD TO BE ABANDONED AND WAS BURNED AT CRANEY ISLAND--LOSS OF THE
_MONITOR_.
As it happened, the gunners on the _Merrimac_, when firing red-hot
shot at the _Congress_, aimed high, and the shot were lodged in the
upper part of the hull. The flames quickly spread over the bulwarks
and up the rigging, but were slow in eating down toward the magazine.
For hours the flames illuminated the whole region, while now and
again a gun that had been left loaded was fired by the growing heat.
It was a scene that attracted thousands of eyes ashore and afloat
until, soon after midnight, the fire arrived at the magazine, and
the exploding powder hurled the huge mass of blazing timbers high in
air. A thunderous roar shook all the region round about, and then “the
stillness of death” followed.
But while the men on the _Merrimac_ watched the fruition of their day’s
work, one of them, a pilot, saw “a strange-looking craft brought out
in bold relief by the brilliant light of the burning ship, which he
at once proclaimed to be the _Ericsson_.” The pilot was right. The
_Monitor_ had arrived after a fearsome passage, during which the water
had poured in through the hawse-pipe where the anchor chain led, and
even down the smoke-stack, until the fires were all but extinguished.
The belts on the fans got wet, so that it was not possible to keep up
the draft, and the engineers and firemen were all but suffocated. The
water dashed through the lookout slats of the pilot-house with such
force as to knock the pilot over the wheel. The water gained in the
hold until there was imminent danger of sinking. Nevertheless, it was
an offshore wind, and the tug that went with her got her inshore, where
the water was quiet, and at 4 o’clock on the afternoon of Saturday,
March 8th, she passed in at Cape Henry and headed north for Hampton
Roads. She was commanded by Capt. J. L. Worden, with Lieut. S. D.
Greene as executive officer, and A. C. Stivers and Isaac Newton as
chief and first assistant engineers. The roar of the guns of the
_Merrimac_ as she fired hot shot into the _Congress_ twenty miles
away, fell upon the ears of the _Monitor’s_ crew, and the ship was at
once cleared for action. After a little they “could see the fine old
_Congress_ burning brightly, and soon a pilot came on board to tell
the direful news.” The _Monitor_ was then driven at full speed to
the _Roanoke_, where Flag Officer Marston directed her to go to the
assistance of the _Minnesota_, then aground not far from the scene
of the day’s conflict. In doing this Marston disobeyed orders he had
received from Washington to the effect that the _Monitor_ was to be
sent there, presumably to protect the capital; and this is to be
remembered because it shows that the authorities at Washington were as
loath to trust in aggressive warfare in 1862 as they were in 1812 when
they ordered Hull to keep the _Constitution_ in Boston harbor.
[Illustration: J. L. Worden.
_From a photograph._]
Steaming over to where the _Minnesota_ lay, the _Monitor_ came to
anchor, an officer reported on board the big frigate, “and then all on
board [the _Minnesota_] felt that we had a friend that would stand by
us in our hour of trial.” So wrote Captain Van Brunt of the _Minnesota_.
How far this confidence was justified was proved by the event of the
next day; but when one contrasts the apparent power of the two ships
as they lay that night, the one at Sewell’s Point and the other at
Newport News, the chance of the _Monitor’s_ accomplishing anything
seems very remote. Consider her guns. They were eleven inches in bore,
but ten-inch shot had been fired at the _Merrimac_ for hours that day
without effect. The _Minnesota_ fired seventy-eight solid ten-inch shot
and 169 solid nine-inch shot, with full service charges of powder, at
the _Merrimac_ during the two days’ fighting. Only a few of these were
fired on Saturday, but the _Congress_ and the _Cumberland_ had fired
shot a-plenty of that size at her, and none had hurt her massive walls.
The eleven-inch shot of the _Monitor_ was not so much heavier that
her crew could be confident of piercing the armor where the ten-inch
had failed utterly. The eleven-inch solid shot used weighed from 170
to 180 pounds, the ten-inch about forty pounds less. Moreover, the
_Monitor_ had but two guns to the ten of the _Merrimac_. The weight
of the _Merrimac’s_ broadside of five guns is not given in any of the
authorities known to the writer, but her three Dahlgrens fired 270
pounds, her small rifle at least forty-five more, and, with one pivot
counted in, the whole discharge was 465 pounds, or more than double
that of the _Monitor_. The _Monitor’s_ crew numbered fifty-eight, all
told, while the _Merrimac_ carried 320. Certainly if one may judge by
the standards set up in English literature on the War of 1812, these
differences in numbers of crews and weights of broadsides would make
the result a foregone conclusion. Nor is that all to be said about
the crews, for the men on the _Merrimac_ had had their usual rest and
food, while the crew of the _Monitor_ had had scarcely a wink of sleep
since leaving New York, and it had been impossible to make a fire in
the galley and cook their food. They were served with food that night,
but no one slept. “The dreary night dragged slowly on; the officers and
crew were up and alert, to be ready for any emergency.” At daylight the
Confederate ships were seen at anchor off Sewell’s Point, and at 7.30
o’clock they left their anchorage and headed across toward Newport News
to begin anew their destruction of the Government ships.
[Illustration: Deck View of the _Monitor_ and her Crew.
_From a photograph._]
“At the same time the _Monitor_ got under way, and her officers and
crew took their stations for battle,” Captain Worden going into the
pilot-house with Quartermaster Peter Williams, who was to handle the
wheel, and Pilot Howard to tell the route. These three filled the
little coop, that rose just four feet above the deck. Lieutenant
Greene went to the turret with “sixteen brawny men, eight to each
gun.” Engineer Stivers also entered the turret to assist in handling
the machinery turning it, and Acting Master L. N. Stodder was there
as second in command. Newton had charge of the engines. The most
important man in the ship that day was Greene, for it was his duty to
aim and fire the guns.
Something like an hour passed, after the _Merrimac_ left her anchorage,
before she arrived in range of the government ships, but when yet a
mile away she opened with her big bow rifle on the _Minnesota_. The
_Monitor_ had waited for her, and now, as the first shot was fired,
headed straight at her. It astonished the hosts of spectators to see
the tiny steamer taken directly alongside her huge antagonist. As she
ranged up in place, her engine was stopped, and Worden, stooping over a
speaking-tube that led to the turret, shouted the order:
“Commence firing!”
The crew in the turret triced up the shutter that covered the port, ran
the gun out as far as it would go, and then Lieutenant Greene, taking
deliberate aim at the broad but sloping wall, pulled the lock-string.
The shot struck its target with a resounding crash, split and broke
the iron plates in its path and bounded clear. The _Merrimac_ replied
with a broadside, and every shot struck the revolving turret, but all
without exception bounded away harmless. “A look of confidence passed
over the men’s faces in the turret,” and with good will they fell to
the work of reloading the gun, while Greene ran out the other one and
fired as before.
The most important naval battle in the history of the world was fairly
on. “Never before was anything like it dreamed of by the greatest
enthusiast in maritime war.”
[Illustration: The Fight between the _Merrimac_ and the _Monitor_.
_From a lithograph published by Currier & Ives._]
With deliberation the crews on both sides worked their guns. The
_Monitor_ fired a gun in seven or eight minutes, and the _Merrimac_ for
a time made an average of a gun once in less than three minutes. But
the _Monitor_, having a revolving turret, could easily direct her guns
at the _Merrimac_, while the latter, huge and unwieldy and with narrow
ports, had to trust to the fortunes of the battle for a chance to get
a good aim at her tiny opponent.
Standing in the little pilot-house, Captain Worden peered through
the chinks left for eye-holes between the iron logs of which it was
built. He saw that the shot first fired against the broad wall of the
_Merrimac_ bounded away without doing material harm, so he lessened the
range--laid the _Monitor_ so close beside her that an active man might
have leaped from ship to ship. Still the _Monitor’s_ shot failed to
penetrate, and he then went cruising to and fro, seeking a vulnerable
point, but finding none, although a single well-directed shot would
have sunk the _Merrimac_ out of sight. Failing in this, Worden made
a dash at the stern of the _Merrimac_, hoping to disable her rudder
or screw. He missed the mark, it is said, by the narrow margin of
two feet. Then the speaking-tube leading to the turret broke, and
the purser and the surgeon were stationed to pass the orders of the
captain. The interior of the turret became filled with smoke, and the
walls and deck were covered with the grime of battle. A painted mark
which had been laid to enable the turret’s crew to tell which side was
starboard and which port, was obliterated. The turret’s crew were shut
in and unable to learn, save with great difficulty, the bearing of the
enemy. The machinery that turned the turret was not quite equal to
the work; “it was hard to start and harder to stop when once agoing.”
Greene was obliged to fire from a moving turret, and the intervals
between shots were lengthened.
[Illustration: In the _Monitors_ Turret.]
But over on the _Merrimac_ matters were in quite as bad a condition.
The “ship was working worse and worse. The smoke-stack was carried
away, and the steam went down. Twice she grounded, while the _Monitor_,
having but a little more than half her draft, played around her.” And
even the shot from the big rifles made no impression on the turret of
the _Monitor_. Lieutenant Jones, on going to one part of the gun-deck,
found the men standing idle.
“‘Why are you not firing?’ he said to the lieutenant in charge.
“‘Why, our powder is very precious,’ replied the lieutenant, ‘and after
two hours I find that I can do her about as much damage by snapping
my thumb at her every two and a half minutes.’” So says Wood, already
quoted.
At this, Jones determined to ram the _Monitor_, and for an hour
manœuvred for a position before he was able to order, “Go ahead full
speed!” Even then he failed because the watchful Worden gave the handy
little _Monitor_ a turn, and the _Merrimac_ struck a glancing blow
that did not hurt the _Monitor_, but it opened up her own bow, making
an “alarming leak.” The leak was temporarily plugged, but it had its
effect on the fortunes of the day, later on.
As the _Merrimac_ sheered past the _Monitor_ when trying to ram her,
the _Monitor_ fired while the ships’ sides were touching. The shot
struck at right angles, and not only broke the armor-plates, but bulged
in the wood backing from two to three inches. The concussion made the
men in the immediate vicinity bleed at the nose and ears. It happened
on the _Monitor_ that a shot which struck the turret about that time
disabled Mr. Stodder, but he was thoughtlessly leaning against the
turret wall. These were the most effective shots fired on either side
during about six hours of steady fighting. The crew of the _Merrimac_
were ordered to board the _Monitor_ at this time, but the ships drifted
apart before it could be tried.
Meantime the _Merrimac_ had been making occasional efforts to get at
the vulnerable _Minnesota_. She had fired not a few shots at her from
the off-side battery. One shot exploded the boiler of the tug _Dragon_
alongside, and others made havoc on board the big ship. The _Minnesota_
replied as well as her situation permitted, but without effect.
And then the end came when the commander of the _Merrimac_ so far
appreciated the condition of affairs as to order his gunners to
concentrate their fire on the _Monitor’s_ pilot-house. The result was
paralyzing. A shell fired at a range of ten yards struck and burst
against a lookout slot through which Captain Worden was gazing. Flaming
grains of powder and shreds of iron were driven into his face and eyes.
It knocked him across the pilot-house, and blinded and wholly disabled
him.
The force of the explosion lifted a loose plate that lay on top of the
pilot-house, and let in a flood of light. This “caused Worden, blind
as he was, to believe that the pilot-house was seriously injured, if
not destroyed; he therefore gave orders to put the helm to starboard
and sheer off.” “The _Monitor_ retired temporarily from the action in
order to ascertain the extent of the injuries she had received.” Worden
was helped down from the pilot-house, and Greene was sent for. He found
Worden, “a ghastly sight, with his eyes closed and the blood apparently
pouring from every pore in the upper part of his face.” Greene helped
him to a sofa, where the doctor took charge of him. He believed himself
dangerously hurt, but did not lose his fortitude. Greene then went to
the pilot-house and took command.
[Illustration: The Action between the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_.
_From an engraving of the picture by Chappel._]
During the time that was needed by this change of commanders the
_Monitor_ was heading toward Fortress Monroe. Captain Van Brunt
“thought it probable she had exhausted her supply of ammunition, or
sustained some injury.” Lieutenant Jones and his officers on the
_Merrimac_ very naturally supposed that the _Monitor_ had given up the
contest. Jones says:
“We for some time awaited the return of the _Monitor_ to the Roads.
After consultation it was decided that we should proceed to the
navy-yard in order that the vessel should be brought down in the water
and completed. The pilots said if we did not then leave that we could
not pass the bar until noon of the next day. We therefore at 12 M.
quit the Roads and stood for Norfolk. Had there been any sign of the
_Monitor’s_ willingness to renew the contest we would have remained to
fight her.”
Lieutenant Greene, of the _Monitor_, says of this matter:
“Exactly how much time elapsed from the moment that Worden was wounded
until I had reached the pilot-house and completed the examination of
the injury at that point, and determined what course to pursue in
the damaged condition of the vessel, it is impossible to state; but
it could hardly have exceeded twenty minutes at the utmost. During
this time the _Merrimac_, which was leaking badly, had started in
the direction of the Elizabeth River; and, on taking my station in
the pilot-house and turning the vessel’s head in the direction of
the _Merrimac_, I saw that she was already in retreat. A few shots
were fired at the retiring vessel, and she continued on to Norfolk.
I returned with the _Monitor_ to the side of the _Minnesota_, where
preparations were being made to abandon the ship, which was still
aground. Shortly afterward Worden was transferred to a tug, and that
night he was carried to Washington.”
Undoubtedly fair is the statement made by Lieut. John Taylor Wood:
“Although there is no doubt that the _Monitor_ first retired,--for
Captain Van Brunt, commanding the _Minnesota_, so states in his
official report,--_the battle was a drawn one_, so far as the two
vessels engaged were concerned. But _in its general results the
advantage was with the Monitor_.”
The italics are not in Lieutenant Wood’s statement, but are inserted
here to emphasize the effect of what he says. Greene adds:
“It has never been denied that the object of the _Merrimac_ on the
9th of March was to complete the destruction of the Union fleet in
Hampton Roads, and that in this she was completely foiled and driven
off by the _Monitor_; nor has it been denied that at the close of the
engagement the _Merrimac_ retreated to Norfolk, leaving the _Monitor_
in possession of the field.”
The reader is likely to think that “retreat” is a strong word to
use under the circumstances, especially as the ebb-tide and not the
_Monitor_ made the _Merrimac_ leave. Nevertheless, there was also
the leak in the _Merrimac’s_ bow to be considered. That leak was
“alarming,” according to Jones, and the _Merrimac_ got it in battle by
ramming the _Monitor_.
But while the controversy over the result of the battle is interesting,
it is in no sense practical. It is certain that neither crew was
whipped, whatever happened to the ships. The bravery on both sides must
excite the pride of every American. But the one point of the battle
that is of practical consideration is the gunnery.
Says Lieutenant Wood: “The _Monitor_ was well handled, and saved the
_Minnesota_ and the remainder of the fleet at Fortress Monroe. But her
gunnery was poor. Not a single shot struck us at the water-line, where
the ship was utterly unprotected, and where one would have been fatal.
Or had the fire been concentrated on any one spot, the shield would
have been pierced; or had larger charges been used, the result would
have been the same.” Here are statements of fact that ought never to be
forgotten. The haymakers of the lost _Wasp_ came back from the mists in
which they disappeared to mock at the gunnery displayed in the Civil
War, and especially in this battle, for they, in a battle at night,
laid their guns by the sissing line of foam cast off by the _Avon’s_
bow, and so struck the water-line and sank the ship in spite of the
utmost efforts of three crews to save her.
[Illustration: Group of Officers on Deck of the _Monitor_.
_From a photograph._]
In her battle with the _Monitor_ the _Merrimac_ was floating with
her unarmed bow, seventy feet long, more than a foot out of water,
instead of a-wash, as was originally intended. Had one shot from the
_Monitor_ struck the _Merrimac_ at the water-line’s junction with the
armor, she would have gone down. And yet Greene elevated instead of
depressing his guns. The gunnery of the _Merrimac_ was better than that
of the _Monitor_, for it was concentrated at the last on a vulnerable
point--the pilot-house--and so Worden was disabled (he was the only
one badly hurt in this fight), and the _Monitor_, for the time, was
driven away. The battle between the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_ did
not result in a glorious victory, but it was an unparalleled lesson in
naval warfare.
As a part of the history of the two famous ironclads, and as a
portrayal of the heart of the typical naval seaman of that day, the
following letter, written to Captain Worden while he was under the
surgeon’s care in Washington, must be given:
“TO CAPTAIN WORDEN.
“HAMPTON ROADS, _April_ 24th, 1862.
“U. S. _Monitor_.
“_To our Dear and Honored Captain._
“DEAR SIR: These few lines is from your own crew of the _Monitor_,
with their kindest Love to you their Honored Captain, hoping to
God that they will have the pleasure of welcoming you back to us
again soon, for we are all ready able and willing to meet Death or
anything else, only give us back our Captain again. Dear Captain
we have got your Pilot-house fixed and all ready for you when you
get well again; and we all sincerely hope that soon we will have
the pleasure of welcoming you back to it.... We are waiting very
patiently to engage our Antagonist if we could only get a chance
to do so. The last time she came out we all thought we would have
the Pleasure of sinking her. But we all got disappointed for we
did not fire one shot and the Norfolk papers says we are cowards
in the _Monitor_--and all we want is a chance to show them where
it lies with you for our Captain We can teach them who is cowards.
But there is a great deal that we would like to write to you but
we think you will soon be with us again yourself. But we all join
in with our kindest love to you, hoping that God will restore you
to us again and hoping that your sufferings is at an end now, and
we are all so glad to hear that your eyesight will be spaired to
you again. We would wish to write more to you if we have your kind
Permission to do so but at present we all conclude by tendering to
you our kindest Love and affection, to our Dear and Honored Captain.
“We remain untill Death your Affectionate Crew
“THE MONITOR BOYS.”
The stories of the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_ may soon be completed.
The _Merrimac_ was overhauled at Norfolk. Commodore Josiah Tattnall
relieved Admiral Buchanan in command. On the 11th of April he took the
_Virginia_ (_Merrimac_) down to Hampton Roads, expecting to have a
desperate encounter with the _Monitor_. “Greatly to our surprise, the
_Monitor_ refused to fight us. She closely hugged the shore under the
guns of the fort, with her steam up. Hoping to provoke her to come
out, the _Jamestown_ was sent in, and captured several prizes, but the
_Monitor_ would not budge.” That is from a Confederate account, and it
is truthful. The _Monitor_ was under strict orders from Washington not
to engage the _Merrimac_ unless forced to do so. A great fleet, that
included a number of vessels which were supposed to be able to sink
the _Merrimac_ by ramming, had gathered at Hampton Roads. Commodore
Goldsborough was in command of the fleet. The prizes mentioned, two
brigs and a schooner, were taken from Newport News and in plain sight
of the fleet. Professor Soley’s history says very truly that this
incident was “humiliating.” For about a month after that nothing was
done, but “on the 8th of May a squadron, including the _Monitor_,
bombarded our batteries at Sewell’s Point. We immediately left the
yard for the Roads. As we drew near, the _Monitor_ and her consorts
ceased bombarding, and retreated under the guns of the forts, keeping
beyond the range of our guns. Men-of-war from below the forts, and
vessels expressly fitted for running us down, joined the other vessels
between the forts. It looked as if the fleet was about to make a fierce
onslaught upon us. But we were again to be disappointed. The _Monitor_
and the other vessels did not venture to meet us, although we advanced
until projectiles from the Rip Raps fell more than half a mile beyond
us. Our object, however, was accomplished; we had put an end to the
bombardment, and we returned to our buoy.”
As the reader observes, this is also a Confederate account. Commodore
Goldsborough’s report says, on the contrary, that “the _Merrimac_
was more cautious than ever”; and that the “_Monitor_ was kept well
in advance so that the _Merrimac_ could have engaged her without
difficulty had she been so disposed.” But the unprejudiced reader will
say that a Farragut was needed at the head of the Union force.
The _Merrimac_ remained unmolested until government operations ashore
compelled the Confederates to evacuate Norfolk and the battery at
Sewell’s Point. Tattnall wished to retreat with the _Merrimac_ up the
James River, but his pilots said it could not be done, and accordingly,
on the night of May 10, 1862, he ran her ashore “in the bight of Craney
Island,” not far from where he had, as a midshipman in his teens,
led the sortie from the little fort built there to keep the British
from Norfolk--led the sortie that drove the boastful Pechell’s men
helter-skelter back to their ships. On Craney Island he fired the
_Merrimac_ and retreated ashore, leaving her to blow up on the morning
of the 11th at 5 o’clock.
The _Monitor_ lasted a few months longer. She was ordered to Beaufort,
North Carolina, in tow of the _Rhode Island_, and sailed from Hampton
Roads on the afternoon of December 29, 1862. The _Passaic_, in tow of
the _State of Georgia_, went along. On the morning of January 2d a long
swell set in with a wind that grew to a gale, and just before midnight
she foundered, although not until all but sixteen of her crew were
saved.
[Illustration: Destruction of the _Merrimac_ off Craney Island.
_From a lithograph published by Currier & Ives._]
If the reader would know the effect of this fight on the navies of the
world, let him compare the best ships afloat in 1860--the old-style
ships with lofty masts and swelling canvas--with the latest designs of
battle-ships. For the old frigates all disappeared, one may say, when
the _Cumberland_ went, and the turreted floating fort has followed in
the wake of the _Monitor_.
CHAPTER XI
WITH THE MISSISSIPPI GUNBOATS
CREATING A FLEET FOR THE OPENING OF THE WATER ROUTE ACROSS THE
CONFEDERACY--IRONCLADS THAT WERE NOT SHOT-PROOF, BUT FAIRLY
EFFICIENT NEVERTHELESS--GUNS THAT BURST AND BOILERS THAT WERE
SEARCHED BY SHOT FROM THE ENEMY--WHEN GRANT RETREATED AND WAS
COVERED BY A GUNBOAT--FIRST VIEW OF TORPEDOES--CAPTURE OF FORT
HENRY--A DISASTROUS ATTACK ON FORT DONELSON--WHEN WALKE BRAVED THE
BATTERIES AT ISLAND NO. 10--THE CONFEDERATE DEFENCE SQUADRON AT
FORT PILLOW--THE FIRST BATTLE OF STEAM RAMS--FRIGHTFUL EFFECTS OF
BURSTED BOILERS--IN THE WHITE RIVER--FARRAGUT APPEARS.
In all the naval operations of the Civil War hitherto described in this
history, the object had in view by the government was to strangle and
starve the Confederates. The blockade and the occupation of points on
the Confederate coasts had but one object, and even the capture of the
Confederate agents on the _Trent_ was intended as a part of the same
work. The battle between the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_ was fought on
one side to raise and on the other to maintain the blockade at Hampton
Roads. The _Merrimac_ was not seaworthy and could not have been made
so. The Confederates had no thought of using her beyond the waters
of the Chesapeake. But while the naval forces were carrying on this
alongshore work with practically uninterrupted success, an aggressive
movement that was to have far-reaching consequences was planned and
in time carried out by the naval power. This was the opening of the
Mississippi.
In the early days of the war the Confederates having erected a
number of forts along the principal streams of the lower Mississippi
watershed, the government army officers were of the opinion that no
armed vessels would be of any use there. They thought, curiously
enough, that the forts must effectually close navigation on the streams.
However, this hopeless view vanished as the importance of the
navigation of those streams grew upon the minds of all interested in
the conflict in that region. One has now but to glance at the map of
the Mississippi Valley to understand the situation as it was then. For
the Mississippi itself, below Cairo, wound its way through a course
more than 1,000 miles of what was practically Confederate territory.
And, then, there were the Cumberland and the Tennessee Rivers, that
were navigable almost into the heart of the Confederate States, while
other streams like the Red, further south, were to be considered. In
these streams were found the cheapest and most comfortable highways
for the conveyance of armed forces; but more important still was the
fact that if the government controlled the Mississippi, it cut the
Confederacy into two parts and shut off the supplies grown in the
western part from the hungry East. An inland navy was an imperative
necessity, and the War Department undertook the task of providing one.
Commander John Rodgers was ordered to report for duty to Gen. John C.
Frémont, who was then in command in the Mississippi Valley, in order
that he might attend to this work. His first move, like the work of
the Navy Department in establishing the blockade, was to buy and arm
some merchant vessels. Three that were named _Taylor_, _Lexington_,
and _Conestoga_ were obtained at Cincinnati, and converted into
warships by shifting the boilers and steam-pipes into the hold and
building five-inch oak bulwarks around the decks to protect the crews
from musket-shots. These bulwarks were pierced with portholes, and
old guns were mounted in them, navy fashion. The _Taylor_ had seven,
and the others five and three respectively, nearly all the guns being
medium-length sixty-four-pounder shell guns. They had no iron armor of
any kind.
[Illustration: Mississippi Valley--Cairo to Memphis.
_From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_]
In those days James B. Eads, afterwards famous as an engineer, was a
river-boat builder, having his yard at Carondelet, Missouri. When in
July, 1861, the quartermaster-general of the army advertised for bids
for the construction of seven ironclad gunboats for service in the
Mississippi Valley, Eads submitted plans, with estimates of cost and
time, that were at once accepted by the government. The contracts were
signed on August 7th, and it was agreed that the seven should be ready
for crews and guns in sixty-five days, although the birds were teaching
their young to fly among the branches of trees that were to be used in
building the hulls of these vessels, and the shops that were to supply
the iron were and had been idle ever since hostilities had stopped the
business of the country.
[Illustration: The _Cairo_.
_From a photograph._]
As the event showed, Eads was for the Mississippi what Ericsson was on
the coast. He was a man of original ideas. And yet, as Porter says, “it
is strange how slowly even the cleverest of men receive new ideas.” He
built ironclads, it is true, but with the smooth water in which he was
to send them afloat they might have carried a thickness of armor fit to
turn the heaviest shot instead of the boiler plate that was used. As
described by Eads himself, these boats “were to draw six feet of water,
carry thirteen heavy guns each, be plated with two-and-a-half-inch
iron, and have a speed of nine miles an hour. The _De Kalb_ (at first
called the _St. Louis_) was the type of the other six, named the
_Carondelet_, _Cincinnati_, _Louisville_, _Mound City_, _Cairo_, and
_Pittsburg_. They were 175 feet long, 51½ feet beam; the flat sides
sloped at an angle of about thirty-five degrees, and the front and rear
casemates corresponded with the sides, the stern-wheel being entirely
covered by the rear casemate. Each gun-boat was pierced for three
bow guns, eight broadside guns (four on a side), and two stern guns.
Before these seven gun-boats were completed, I engaged to convert the
snag-boat _Benton_ into an armored vessel of still larger dimensions.”
[Illustration: The _Pittsburg_.
_After a photograph._]
Each was propelled by a single paddle-wheel set into the stern, where
it was protected by the fork-shaped hull as well as a casemate. The
boats were expected to fight bow on, and the iron plate across the bow
was backed by two feet of oak. On the sides opposite the boilers the
iron armor was not backed save by a slender supporting frame, while the
stern had neither armor nor oak wall. The pilot-house was of good oak
covered with two and a half inches of iron in front and an inch less
in the rear. The crews had every incentive to keep the bow of the ship
toward the enemy.
“The armament was determined by the exigencies of the time. The army
supplied thirty-five old forty-two-pounders, which were rifled and so
threw a seventy-pound shell. These having lost the metal cut away for
grooves, and not being banded, were called upon to endure the increased
strain of firing rifled projectiles with actually less strength than
had been allowed for the discharge of a round ball of about half the
weight. Such makeshifts are characteristic of nations that do not
prepare for war, and _will doubtless occur again in the experience of
our navy_.” So says Mahan.
[Illustration: The Mississippi Fleet off Mound City, Illinois.
_From a photograph owned by Mr. C. B. Hall._]
The _Benton_ had been a snag-boat--a craft with two hulls so joined
and strengthened that she could get the largest kind of a cottonwood
tree between the hulls, hoist it out of the mud, and drag it clear of
the steamer channel. She had had two wheels, but one between the hulls
was substituted, and the whole was built over into the semblance of an
angular turtle, and armored with plates of iron three and a half inches
thick, well backed with oak. She was a five-knot boat and of deep draft
for the service (nine feet), but she was at that date the most powerful
warship afloat, and “she went by the name of the _Old War Horse_.” She
carried sixteen guns, of which two were nine-inch Dahlgrens.
Another vessel, like the _Benton_, was called the _Essex_, because
commanded by Capt. William Porter, a son of the Porter of _Essex_ fame.
“After bearing a creditable part in the battle of Fort Henry she became
separated by the batteries of Vicksburg from the upper squadron, and is
less identified with its history.” She carried one ten-inch and three
nine-inch guns besides several smaller ones.
Other vessels were added to this upper Mississippi squadron from time
to time, but “they bore no proportionate share in the fighting. The
eight (from the Eads’ yards) may be fairly called the ships of the line
of battle on the Western waters.”
Commander John Rodgers was relieved by Flag Officer Foote on September
6, 1861. He brought a number of younger officers who were to command
the ships of the new fleet while taking orders from the commanding
general of that department. Among these was Commander Henry Walke, who
had saved Fort Pickens at Pensacola, as already told, by disobeying
orders. Walke was sent to the _Taylor_.
These salt-water fighters found strange materials awaiting them--ships
such as they had never dreamed of in connection with war, and men from
the river banks and the corn-fields who knew nothing of great guns
and less, were that possible, of the restraints of naval discipline.
Nevertheless, the effects of naval discipline made first-class tars
out of the raw material, and the gunboats proved good enough for the
occasion.
[Illustration: A. H. Foote.
_From a photograph._]
The first actual conflict between the gun-boats and the Confederates
was on September 10, 1861, when Grant (who was then under Frémont)
determined to dislodge a body of Confederates stationed on the west
side of the Mississippi, eight miles below Cairo, and near Norfolk,
Missouri. The _Conestoga_, Captain Phelps, and the _Lexington_, Captain
Stembel, were sent down. They found the Confederates had sixteen
field-pieces and a considerable body of cavalry. There was a lively
bit of cannonading for a time, and two Confederate gunboats (converted
river steamers) came up to join in. The Confederates’ guns were
silenced, and then the government gunboats returned to Cairo.
A number of equally fruitless skirmishes followed. On November 7th
there was quite a battle at Belmont, on the Missouri side of the
river, opposite Columbus, Kentucky. Grant, with between 3,000 and
4,000 men, went down the river in transports convoyed by the gunboats
_Taylor_, Captain Walke, and _Lexington_, Captain Phelps. They landed
just out of range of the Iron Bluff forts above Columbus, and attacked
the Confederates at Belmont with success, while gunboats under Walke
shelled the works on the Columbus side. Although each boat might have
been penetrated and its boiler exploded by a stray grapeshot, they were
repeatedly carried by Walke, who was senior officer afloat, under the
Confederate batteries. The reader should understand that taking a frail
steamboat under the fire of heavy guns is a much more dangerous affair
than going under fire with an old-fashioned ship with sails; for one
shot could scarcely disable even a thin-walled sailing ship, but one
shot into a steamer’s boiler not only disabled her, but slaughtered her
crew with the steam. Walke and Phelps showed great gallantry on this
occasion.
The Confederate troops were driven to their transports at first, but
they rallied and were reinforced from the Columbus side of the river
until they numbered about 7,000. Grant then retreated, and his troops
were in some disorder, for they were yet undisciplined.
When Grant was compelled to retreat, Walke took the _Taylor_ within a
few yards of the banks where the Union troops embarked and drove off
the victorious Confederates. It is not unlikely that Grant would have
been captured but for Walke’s timely aid, for he was the last man to
board the transports, and the Confederates were at hand in force with
plenty of field-guns to sink the Union transports.
[Illustration: The Battle of Belmont: First Attack by the _Taylor_ and
the _Lexington_.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
The next operation of importance was the capture of Fort Henry on the
Tennessee River, just south of the Kentucky line. It was the first
of the advances into the Confederate territory by way of the rivers
of the West. On February 2, 1862, Flag Officer Foote assembled at
Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee, the ironclad gunboats _Essex_,
Capt. William D. Porter; _Carondelet_, Captain Walke; _St. Louis_,
Captain Paulding; and _Cincinnati_, Captain Stembel; besides the three
wooden gunboats _Conestoga_, _Taylor_, and _Lexington_ to act as a
reserve. Here the troops under Grant were embarked on transports, and
the expedition proceeded cautiously up the river--cautiously because
a boastful woman in a wayside house had told a scouting party that
the ships would be blown out of water by torpedoes before passing an
island just below the fort. On Tuesday, February 3d, the expedition had
arrived within a few miles of Fort Henry, and the troops were landed,
and a combined assault by the ironclads and the troops was ordered.
But before the movement could be made, a tremendous storm came on; the
river rose until the gunboats, with both anchors down, had to keep
their engines going at full speed to hold their own against the tide
and the flotsam.
To the impatient sailors this seemed a misfortune, but after a time
they saw they were enjoying the greatest good luck, for there were
full-sized trees in the flood, and these swept the torpedoes clear of
their moorings and brought them floating down. Small boats were sent
out to gather them in, and very ugly things they were--cylinders of
sheet iron big enough to hold seventy-five pounds of powder, with a
lock and trigger that should catch on a boat’s bottom and explode the
powder.
However, on the 6th the water was low enough to permit an advance. Flag
Officer Foote went to the ships to inspect the crews, and told the
gunners that every shot cost the government eight dollars, so none must
be wasted. They were to aim at the guns of the fort--_aim_, and not
merely point in the direction.
Finally, the soldiers on shore waded away through the mud, and the
gunboats steamed slowly up the river.
The fort they were to attack was a well-planned earthwork mounting
twenty guns, but of these only eleven or twelve (accounts differ)
could be brought to bear on the approaching fleet. The best of these
was a sixty-pounder rifle, but a ten-inch medium-weight shell gun and
two forty-two-pounders supported it, and the rest were thirty-twos.
As the gunboats were to fight bows on, they could bring to bear
twelve guns, of which two were nine-inch Dahlgrens, and the rest
sixty-four-pounders, or better. The weight of metal afloat was
superior, but until the days of armored ships one gun in a fort was
counted equal to from three to five afloat.
[Illustration: Battle of Belmont: U. S. Gunboats Repulsing the Enemy
during the Debarkation.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
[Illustration: Interior of the _Taylor_ during the Battle of Belmont.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
By any reasonable standard here was as fair a fight as one could hope
to find between ships and forts at that day, and at 12.30 o’clock on
Friday, February 6, 1862, the _Cincinnati_ (the flagship) fired her
three bow guns simultaneously at an estimated range of 1,700 yards.
The wily gunners on the other ships, remembering Flag Officer Foote’s
warning about wasting shot, waited to see the effect of these shots,
and saw them all fall short. “So there was $24 worth of ammunition
wasted,” writes an officer of the _Essex_; but the gunners had learned
the range, and “Jack Mathews, an old tar who had seen much service on
men-o’-war, and was always restive under the command of a volunteer
officer,” was the first to get his gun elevated, and the first to fire
when the word came.
A fresh breeze athwart the bows drove the smoke away, and a shout arose
as the shell from Jack’s gun burst in the parapet under one of the
Confederate guns and covered it with the soft earth.
The squadron advanced slowly but steadily, reducing the elevation of
the guns from seven to six and then five degrees, and cutting the
fuses of the shells shorter and shorter. Every shot reached home in
the parapet, and some passed clear through to lodge in and fire the
barracks of the Confederates. The Confederates fought back stubbornly.
“The fort seemed a blaze of fire.” Their shells drove the officers
of the boats down into the casemates, but when the casemates were
struck the projectiles bounded clear, doing little or no harm until
the battle had raged for nearly fifty minutes. Then the gunner in
charge of the Confederate rifle got the range of the _Essex_ and drove
his sixty-pound shell right through her bow armor just above a port.
Continuing its flight, it took off the head of Master’s Mate Brittain
and plunged into the middle boiler located amidships.
In an instant the deck was deluged with steam and scalding water, and
the crew who could reach them went plunging through the ports, while
the ship herself began drifting with the current out of the fight.
When the steam had exhausted itself the men from aft hastened forward.
The deck was covered with men dead or writhing in their last agony.
“Marshall Ford, who was steering, was found at the wheel, standing
erect, his left hand holding the spoke and his right hand grasping the
signal-bell rope,” dead at his post.
[Illustration: Battle of Fort Henry.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
The men who had been working the bow guns from the first had just been
relieved and sent aft to rest, but Jack Mathews had his blood up and
had obtained permission to stay at his gun. He was among those who
crawled through the port and was picked up by the boats, but he died
that night. In all, twenty-nine men were scalded, and more than half of
them died. Captain Porter was one of the severely scalded.
But while one ship was disabled by a well-directed shot, the other
three steadily advanced, and their shot told with increasing effect.
The Confederate rifle burst a few minutes later, and the ten-inch shell
gun was spiked with its own priming wire. Five other guns were disabled
by the fire of the gunboats, and this fire was rapidly becoming more
deadly, for they were soon less than 500 yards away. Gen. Lloyd
Tilghman, the Confederate commander, had “done all that could be done
to defend his charge, and saying, ‘It is vain to fight longer--our
gunners are disabled, our guns dismounted--we can’t hold out five
minutes longer,’ he ordered a white flag hoisted.”
As the firing ceased the _Carondelet_ grounded, and the steam on the
flagship _Cincinnati_ having been shut off, she began drifting with
the current. To Flag Officer Foote it seemed that the _Carondelet_
was steaming ahead of the flagship, and Foote ordered her to fall
back. Of course she could not do so. Foote became excited at the
seeming insolence of Captain Walke, and, running forward, he shouted
himself hoarse, and then a junior officer tried it also. Finally
the _Carondelet_ got free, and the matter was explained; but it is
apparent, from the published memoirs of the two men, that ill-feeling
prevailed between them thereafter.
Tilghman went on board the _Cincinnati_ and surrendered to Foote, for
the army under Grant was detained by the muddy roads, and did not
arrive until an hour after the fort had been silenced. It was a victory
for the gunboats exclusively.
The importance of taking the fort appears when it is recalled that
it was a main point in the frontier chain of Confederate posts that
extended from Columbus, Kentucky, on the Mississippi, east to the
Cumberland Mountains. The way to the interior of Tennessee was open,
and the Confederate positions at Bowling Green and Columbus, Kentucky,
were becoming untenable because the Union forces were in their rear.
Foote returned to Cairo immediately with three ironclads, leaving the
_Carondelet_ at Fort Henry, while the three unarmored gunboats were
sent up the river to destroy the bridge of the main line of railroad
from Memphis to the East, thus cutting off rail communication between
the Confederate capital and all the western parts of Kentucky and
Tennessee. Lieutenant Phelps was in charge of these boats, and after
reaching the bridge, he left the _Taylor_ to destroy both bridge and
trestle-work while he pushed on with the other two. Three Confederate
steamers, two of which were loaded with military stores, were grounded
and fired above the bridge when Phelps appeared, and there was a
tremendous explosion when they blew up.
Continuing on to Cerro Gordo, near the Mississippi State line, he
captured a river steamer called the _Eastport_, that was already partly
converted into a gunboat. Further up two more steamers were captured,
and three others were fired by the Confederates. The raid extended to
Florence, and was one of the notably brave deeds on Western waters.
The _Eastport_ was taken into the government service, and Phelps
commanded her until she ran on a torpedo in the Red River two years
later and was destroyed.
From Fort Henry the gunboats turned to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland
River. This fort, although on another river, was but twelve miles from
Fort Henry. It was a much stronger position. As described by Mahan,
“the main work was on a bluff about a hundred feet high, at a bend
commanding the river below. On the slope of the ridge, looking down
stream, were two water batteries, with which alone the fleet had to
do. The lower and principal one mounted eight 32-pounders and a X-inch
columbiad; in the upper there were two 32-pounder carronades and one
gun of the size of a X-inch smooth-bore, but rifled with the bore of
a 32-pounder and said to throw a shot of one hundred and twenty-eight
pounds. Both batteries were excavated in the hillside, and the lower
had traverses between the guns to protect them from an enfilading fire,
in case the boats should pass their front and attack them from above.
At the time of the fight these batteries were thirty-two feet above the
level of the river.”
Foote thought the position too strong for the gunboats because the
forts could deliver a plunging fire that would strike on top, where the
gunboats were not armored, but he consented to join the expedition.
Meantime Grant had sent the _Carondelet_, Captain Walke, around in
advance of the others, and she arrived within range of Fort Donelson at
11 o’clock A.M. on February 12, 1862. Grant arrived overland an hour
later.
[Illustration:
Upper Battery.
Water Battery.
Grant’s army attacking, in distance.
U. S. Gunboats.
Battle of Fort Donelson.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
To announce her arrival to General Grant the _Carondelet_ threw a few
shells at the enemy and then dropped down out of range. Next day,
by order of Grant, the _Carondelet_ took a partly sheltered position
behind a point, and at a range of a mile and a quarter fired 184 shells
into the fort to divert the attention of the Confederates as much as
possible from General Grant. She was twice hit by the return fire, and
one shot penetrated, wounding a few men with splinters.
On the night of the 13th Foote, with the _St. Louis_, _Louisville_, and
_Pittsburg_, arrived, and at 3 P.M. on the 14th the squadron advanced
in line abreast to the attack. Opening fire at a range of a mile, they
steadily lessened the range until at last within 400 yards of the
lower Confederate battery. The Confederates were rapidly abandoning
their guns at this moment (4.30 P.M.), when a shot passed through the
pilot-house of the flagship _St. Louis_, wounding Foote seriously, the
pilot also, and smashing the wheel; and at the same moment a shell
cut the tiller ropes of the _Louisville_. The preventer tackles that
had been provided proved utterly inadequate in both cases--a most
serious fault that should have been foreseen--and both vessels drifted
helplessly out of the fight.
Seeing this, the Confederates rallied to their guns and renewed the
fight. The _Carondelet_ and _Pittsburg_ were soon seriously damaged,
and followed the disabled boats down stream.
Mahan says of this fight: “Notwithstanding its failure, the tenacity
and fighting qualities of the fleet were more markedly proved in this
action than in the victory at Henry. The vessels were struck more
frequently (the flagship fifty-nine times, and none less than twenty),
and though the power of the enemy’s guns was about the same in each
case, the height and character of the soil at Donelson placed the
fleet at a great disadvantage. The fire from above, reaching their
sloping armor nearly at right angles, searched every weak point. Upon
the _Carondelet_ a rifled gun burst. The pilot-houses were beaten in,
and three of the four pilots received mortal wounds. Despite these
injuries, and the loss of fifty-four killed and wounded, the fleet was
only shaken from its hold by accidents to the steering apparatus, after
which their batteries could not be brought to bear.
“Among the injured on this occasion was the flag-officer, who was
standing by the pilot when the latter was killed. Two splinters struck
him in the arm and foot, inflicting wounds apparently slight; but the
latter, amid the exposure and anxiety of the succeeding operations, did
not heal, and finally compelled him, three months later, to give up the
command.”
[Illustration: Explosion on Board the _Carondelet_ at the Battle of
Fort Donelson.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
The Confederates surrendered to Grant on the 16th. It was an army
victory. Nashville fell on the 25th, and on March 1st the Confederates
began to evacuate Columbus, on the Mississippi. No attempt was made by
the Confederates to hold Hickman, the next town down the Mississippi,
but they fortified Island No. 10, that lay in the river opposite the
dividing line between Kentucky and Tennessee, and both banks of the
river. The position there was particularly strong. The river, for some
distance, flowed south until the island was reached, and then turned to
the northwest, and sweeping around a horseshoe bend, came back again
to its old line and continued on south. The island lay right in the
pocket of the sharp bend where the river turned to the northwest. The
current was strong and full of eddies, and the channel lay right under
the muzzles of the guns that were placed to defend it. “On the island
itself were four batteries mounting twenty-three guns, on the Tennessee
shore six batteries mounting thirty-two guns. There was also a floating
battery, which, at the beginning of operations, was moored abreast the
middle of the island, and is variously reported as carrying nine or ten
IX-inch guns.” So says Mahan.
Nevertheless, the Union forces were sweeping down, and this stronghold
had to yield, and the most interesting fact in connection with its
capture was the brave dash of an American sailor, Captain Walke of the
_Carondelet_.
Pope captured New Madrid, on the Missouri side of the river, on March
3d, and began fortifying the river below that town. A glance at the map
will show this necessarily cut off river communications between Island
No. 10 and the Confederates down stream. But the Confederates could
come to Tiptonville, and from that place a good road led across the
neck of land three miles to the shore opposite Island No. 10, and that
was but a small overland journey for supplies. However, supplies could
come by no other route, because the region east of the island was one
vast swamp. Accordingly Pope determined to cross over to Tiptonville
and so shut the Confederates in.
Meantime Foote’s flotilla had arrived in the river just above Island
No. 10, bringing along a number of mortar boats--mere floating
platforms carrying a thirteen-inch mortar each. Pope soon sent to
Foote, asking that a couple of the gunboats be sent down the river, on
the first favorable night, past the Confederate batteries to New Madrid
to serve as ferryboats for the troops and to cover the landing. To this
request Foote sent a positive refusal, although Capt. Henry Walke, of
the _Carondelet_, was urgent in asking permission to make the run.
Foote said that the risk was too great, and he could not afford
to lose even one ship from his present command. But he added that when
“the object of running the blockade becomes adequate to the risk,” he
would consent.
[Illustration:
Iron Bluffs.
Chalk Bluffs.
U. S. Flotilla Descending the Mississippi River.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
[Illustration: Battle with Fort No. 1 above Island No. 10.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
This unexpected attitude of Foote delayed the capture of the island
about two weeks. At the suggestion of Schuyler Hamilton, a channel was
cut through the trees of the swamp from the Mississippi to New Madrid.
There was water enough there to float shoal transports and barges,
and when this work was done and the transports for ferry use were
lying in the bayou behind New Madrid, Foote gave Captain Walke, of the
_Carondelet_, permission to try running the batteries.
Captain Walke got his orders on March 30th. To prepare his ship for the
iron deluge he put extra planking over her deck, and then ranged her
chain cables across it to serve as additional armor--a use of chain
cables that became famous in the one great naval duel of the Civil War,
as will appear further on. Lumber and cord wood were piled where they
would protect the boiler and engines, and the pilot-house was wrapped
with ropes to a thickness of eighteen inches, while the escape-pipes
were changed so as to exhaust in the wheel-box, that thus the puffing
or coughing noise of the high-pressure engines then in use should be
drowned. To still further protect her, a barge loaded with baled hay
was lashed on the left side, which was the one that must receive the
Confederate fire. The resourcefulness of Captain Walke was well shown
in these preparations.
The night of April 10, 1862, was selected for the dash. The moon set
at 10 o’clock that night and, as fortune favored, a heavy thunderstorm
came on. Lifting her anchors as the first breath of the squall arrived,
the _Carondelet_ swung around and headed down the stream. The crew were
at quarters, and every man but two was under cover. One, a seaman,
Charles Wilson, stood at the rail heaving the lead, while Theodore
Gilmore stood half-way between him and the pilot-house to pass the
whispered call of the leadsman. By the time they were heading their
course the rain began to fall in sheets, and the monotonous words “no
bottom” from the leadsman were drowned, as was the puffing of the
engine. Not a lamp was burning anywhere about the ship. The pilot,
William R. Hall, was a man who could feel his way. But just before the
batteries were reached, the boat met the one contingency for which no
provision was made. Wood was used as fuel in the furnaces, and the soot
in the chimney caught fire and went blazing up from the top of the
smoke-stack. The lightning, too, was streaming across the sky, and
“the gallant little ship floated like a phantom” before the eyes of the
Confederates, who ran to their guns, and in a moment set the batteries
flaming. The roar of the cannon echoed to the boom and rumble of the
thunder. But the lightning that revealed the “phantom ship” blinded the
eyes of the gunners, and they strove in vain to aim their guns with
accuracy. The _Carondelet_ passed unharmed, and the fate of Island No.
10 was sealed.
The hardy spirit of the brave Walke has never been sufficiently
appreciated. This was because other batteries were run safely later
on. But Walke was not only the pioneer. He alone of all the captains
in Foote’s command favored the project from the first. The others
“believed that it would result in the almost certain destruction of
the boat, passing six forts under the fire of fifty guns.” He was
willing to face the danger when all previous experience made even the
most daring of his associates believe the task impossible. Nor was the
danger from the batteries the only one, for it must not be forgotten
that the Confederates had a half dozen well-armed gunboats at New
Orleans, besides the ram _Manassas_, that created so great a panic
at the mouth of the Mississippi. The _Carondelet_, when below the
Confederate batteries, was for the time cut off from all support. The
power of the Confederate fleet was exaggerated at the time, as we now
know, but the officers of Foote’s flotilla had no means of learning
the real facts. Moreover, it would have been rank folly for them to
underestimate the power of the enemy.
It is worth telling that Island No. 10 has disappeared under the
action of the current, and the main channel lies where the Confederate
batteries stood.
On April 6th Pope crossed over to Tiptonville under cover of Walke’s
guns. On that day, also, Grant fought the Confederates at Pittsburg
Landing on the Tennessee. The _Taylor_, under Lieutenant Gwin, and the
_Lexington_, Lieutenant Shirk, had part in that battle. During the
afternoon the Confederates made a desperate attempt to turn Grant’s
left and capture the landing place and transports. Gwin opened fire and
silenced their batteries. At 4 o’clock the _Lexington_ arrived, and
the two gunboats silenced the Confederate batteries three-quarters of
a mile above the landing. Again at 5.30 the Confederates came in such
force against Grant’s left that they arrived within an eighth of a mile
of the landing, but the boats then drove them back in confusion. It
is not unlikely that Grant would have been entirely overwhelmed
by the superior force of the Confederates but for the support of the
gunboats. They enabled him to hold out until reinforcements came. And
that night, to quote a Confederate account, “the enemy broke the men’s
rest by a discharge, at measured intervals, of heavy shells thrown from
the gunboats.” The Confederates could not sleep because a great shell
was dropped somewhere in their camp, bringing death and disaster every
fifteen minutes. Imagine those soldiers lying there all night counting
the time as they waited for the next shell.
[Illustration: The _Carondelet_ Running the Gauntlet at Island No. 10.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
[Illustration: The _Carondelet_ Attacking the Forts below Island No. 10.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
The next matter of interest in the story of the Mississippi flotilla
was what may be called an irregular squadron battle. Island No. 10
surrendered on May 7, 1862, and the government fleet advanced until
near Fort Pillow, which the Confederates had erected on the First
Chickasaw Bluffs, not far above the Hatchie River. Here a stand was
made awaiting the coöperation of the army. Foote, suffering from his
wound, had to be relieved. Capt. Charles H. Davis took his place on May
9th. The fleet at this time numbered seven gunboats, four of which were
stationed on the Arkansas (westerly) shore and three on the Tennessee
side. They were the _Mound City_, Capt. A. H. Kilty; _Cincinnati_,
Capt. R. N. Stembel; _St. Louis_, Capt. Henry Erben; _Cairo_, Capt.
N. C. Bryant; _Benton_ (flagship), Capt. S. L. Phelps; _Carondelet_,
Capt. Henry Walke; and _Pittsburg_, Capt. Egbert Thompson.
It was the custom while lying there to send one of the gunboats every
day to tow a mortar boat to a mooring under Craighead’s Point, where
it could throw shells into Fort Pillow, the gunboat lying handy by
meantime to protect the mortar boat from Confederate boats known to be
in the river below the fort.
The Confederate gunboats were the ordinary river boats converted into
warships by putting cotton bales and pine timber about the boilers,
and by casing the bows with iron, and in other ways adding to their
strength forward so that they became, after a fashion, rams. Each
carried at least one gun. This work was done by the pilots themselves
at New Orleans, and the old line navy officers there were not allowed
to interfere. When ready, eight of these boats had been sent up to Fort
Pillow, nominally under Capt. J. E. Montgomery, one of the pilots, but,
as a matter of fact, each captain did as he pleased, and the wonder is
that anything worth mention should have been accomplished.
[Illustration:
Confederate Batteries.
_Carondelet._
_Pittsburg._
U. S. Gunboats Capturing the Confederate Forts below Island No. 10,
April 7th.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
Early on May 10th the government gunboat _Cincinnati_ towed a mortar
boat to its post, and then tied herself to a snag near by. At
5 o’clock the mortar hurled its first shell into Fort Pillow, and
thereafter continued its work until 6 o’clock, when a dense smoke
was seen rising in the air below Fort Pillow. The Confederate rams
were leaving their landing for a dash at the mortar boat and the
_Cincinnati_. The _Cincinnati_ quickly slipped her moorings, and
running out into the river, faced the Confederates--faced them
alone, although the whole Confederate flotilla was in plain sight of
the government flotilla long before they reached the _Cincinnati_.
Apparently Flag Officer Davis overslept that morning.
As the Confederates came in range the _Cincinnati_ opened fire and
stood her ground. The Confederates scattered at once, but continued
advancing. The leading Confederate boat, the _General Bragg_, hugged
the Arkansas shore, passed above the _Cincinnati_, and then turning
around, drove her bow into the unprotected quarter of the lone
government boat. The two boats were alongside each other in a moment,
and the _Cincinnati_ gave the Confederate boat a broadside that sent
her skurrying down the stream and out of the battle.
Behind the _Bragg_ came two more Confederates, the _Price_ and
the _Sumter_, firing with guns and muskets at the ports of the
_Cincinnati_, while one of them rammed her again in the place where the
_Bragg_ had struck her, and at the same moment Captain Stembel fell
with a ball through his throat that well-nigh proved mortal, and the
executive officer was mortally hurt.
Meantime Flag Officer Davis woke up, while Captain Kilty, of the _Mound
City_, without waiting for orders, started to the aid of the mobbed
_Cincinnati_. Captain Walke, with the _Carondelet_, was not far behind
him, but both were three miles away from the scene of conflict when
they started. The _Carondelet_ was the first to open fire, and the
first shot raked the fleeing _Bragg_. Another shell struck the _Price_
at the water-line, cutting a water-supply pipe and causing her to leak
so badly that she was thrown out of the fight.
[Illustration:
_Mound City._
_Carondelet._
Mortar.
_Cincinnati._
_Van Dorn._
_General Price._
_Bragg._
_Sumter._
_Little Rebel._
Battle of Fort Pillow.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
But while aid was coming the _Cincinnati_ was run into shoal water,
and there she sank. The _Mound City_ had meantime been firing at the
Confederates, and the _Van Dorn_ turned to ram her. She avoided the
full strength of the blow by a skilful use of the helm, but she was
cut into, nevertheless, and had to be run ashore on the Arkansas side
to keep her from sinking. The _Pittsburg_ had been obliged to go to
the assistance of the _Cincinnati_ to get her into shoal water, and
the _Cairo_ rendered the same service to the _Mound City_. This left
only the flagship _Benton_, the _Carondelet_, and the _St. Louis_ to
continue the battle with the six remaining Confederate gunboats,
though it must be said that the guns of both the _Pittsburg_ and the
_Cairo_ were still firing at the Confederates. But the Confederates
retreated as soon as the belated _Benton_ and _St. Louis_ got fairly
into the fight. Flag Officer Montgomery said he retreated because the
government boats all went into water too shoal for his rams, while
their guns were far heavier as well as much more numerous than his. As
to the guns, he had only thirty-two-pounders, but it is certain that
neither the _Benton_, the _Carondelet_, or the _St. Louis_ went into
shoal water. In fact, the _Benton_ drew more water than any of the
Confederate “River Defence Squadron,” as it was called, and the other
two government boats quite as much as any.
The fact is, Montgomery’s force was a lot of militia afloat. They made
a most brilliant dash at the government forces, sank two gunboats, and
then, militia fashion, got out of it when they were really just ready
to begin to fight. Not one of their boats was seriously hurt. The
_Bragg_ had lost her tiller ropes, and the _Price_ was aleak, but both
might have continued the fight after a few minutes devoted to repairs.
The whole force was, so far as hurts were concerned, “ready for action
at Memphis a month later.” As to the government force, it may be said
that Stembel, on the _Cincinnati_, made a brilliant defence, and
Walke and Kilty, of the _Carondelet_ and _Mound City_, seemed to fully
appreciate what was required under the circumstances. The unprotected
mortar boat, Acting Master Gregory, kept up a steady fire on the
Confederates throughout the conflict, and Gregory was promoted for his
bravery.
Soon after this fight the government flotilla was reinforced by seven
river steamers that had been converted into rams along the Ohio River
by Col. Charles Ellet, Jr. Part of them were stern-wheelers and part
side-wheelers. They were strengthened with fore-and-aft bulkheads, and
the boilers were protected with two feet of oak. Ellet had independent
charge of them, with instructions to coöperate with the gunboats under
Flag Officer Davis.
Meantime the advance of the government army in Tennessee had made
it impossible for the Confederates to hold Fort Pillow, and it was
evacuated on June 4, 1862. On the evening of the 5th the government
flotilla came to anchor just above Memphis, that was yet in Confederate
control. The Confederate fleet was seen at the levee next morning, but
they soon cast off and took a position where the Union fleet could not
fire on them without danger of throwing shells into the city. It was to
be the last battle between the two flotillas, and a great throng of
citizens gathered on the bluffs.
[Illustration:
_Lovell._
_Bragg._
_Sumter._
_Carondelet._
_Mound City._
_Benton._
_St. Louis._
_Pittsburg._
The Battle of Fort Pillow.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
The government gunboats started at 4.20 o’clock and dropped slowly
down, stern first, until the Confederates opened fire, when they turned
about and returned the fire with vigor. The Union rams under Ellet
had, until this time, kept in the rear, but when the firing began two
of them--the _Queen of the West_ and the _Monarch_, swift vessels for
their day--took advantage of the smoke, dashed through the government
line, and boldly headed for the Confederate boats.
This attack was wholly unexpected, and the crowds of Memphis citizens
on the heights groaned aloud. The officers of the Confederate ships
were startled, too. Some of their vessels swerved about under the
nervous handling of their tiller wheels, and that gave the gallant
Ellet the opportunity he hoped for. With the _Queen of the West_ he
crashed fairly into the broadside of the Confederate ship _Lovell_,
and she sank out of sight immediately. But as the _Queen of the
West_ hauled clear, the quick-witted pilot of the Confederate ram
_Beauregard_ rammed her, and she was headed for the Arkansas shore,
where she grounded. The government ram _Monarch_ was close behind the
_Queen of the West_, and the Confederate rams _Beauregard_ and _Price_
made a dash at her from opposite sides. She cleverly eluded them, and
they crashed together, the _Beauregard_ making a hole in the _Price_
that sent her to the Arkansas shore.
That mishap very naturally confused the pilot of the _Beauregard_,
and while he was recovering his wits the _Monarch_ turned on him and
rammed. Just then a shot from the _Benton_ pierced the _Beauregard’s_
boiler, and with the steam and scalding water pouring over her crew,
she surrendered. The _Monarch_ took charge of her and towed her over
toward the Arkansas shore, where she sank and quelled the agonies of
the dying by burying them under the river.
And then, to add to the disasters of the Confederates, a shot pierced
the steam-chest of the _Little Rebel_, sending her also to the morgue
on the Arkansas shore.
The remainder of the Confederate squadron now turned and fled for
safety, but the shells from the government flotilla were too swift
for them. The _Thompson_ was sunk, and the _Bragg_ and _Sumter_
surrendered. Only the _Van Dorn_ escaped.
On the whole, this was the most interesting day in the history of the
flotilla. The fight was soon over (Memphis was in the hands of the
flotilla at 11 o’clock), but the Confederates fought with the greatest
gallantry until four of their ships were destroyed. The chief
feature of the fight, from a naval point of view, was the destructive
work of the rams, for therein one may find a foreshadowing of what
shall come to pass if ever two modern squadrons are arrayed in battle.
Three ships were rammed out of the conflict within fifteen or twenty
minutes; the actual time does not appear. It was the first fight of
steam rams in the history of the world.
[Illustration:
_Carondelet._
_Benton._
_St. Louis._
_Lovell._
_Cairo._
_Bragg._
_Louisville._
_Van Dorn._
The Battle of Memphis--First Position.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
[Illustration:
_Sumter._
_Beauregard._
_Louisville._
_Benton._
_St. Louis._
_Carondelet._
_Cairo._
After the Battle of Memphis.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
While the flagship remained at Memphis until June 29th, the river was
practically opened as far as Vicksburg by this fight. An expedition
to coöperate with the army was sent up the White River in Arkansas,
where, at Charles City, a combined attack was made by the gunboats and
an Indiana regiment under Colonel Fitch, on the Confederate works. The
_Mound City_ was leading the gunboats, and had arrived within 600 yards
of the Confederate fort, when a shell entered her casemate, killing
three men and bursting her boiler. Of 175 officers and men on board,
but three officers and twenty-two men escaped unhurt from the frightful
blast. Eighty-two died of wounds and the scalding, and forty-three were
drowned or shot in the water when they jumped overboard to escape the
steam, for the Confederates continued firing at her crew when they were
swimming away from her.
The other gunboats continued battle until Fitch was ready to make an
assault from the rear, when they ceased firing, and Fitch carried the
works by storm. The Confederate commander was Capt. Joseph Fry, who was
captured and executed by the Spaniards in the _Virginius_ expedition,
of which he was the leader.
On June 29th Flag Officer Davis steamed down the river from Memphis,
and early on the morning of July 1, 1862, came upon a government fleet
lying just above Vicksburg, under the command of Admiral Farragut.
The story of Farragut’s journey from the Gulf of Mexico to this point
will be told in the next chapter.
[Illustration:
_Van Dorn._
_Jeff. Thompson._
_Bragg._
_Sumter._
_Louisville._
_Cairo._
_Carondelet._
Battle of Memphis--The Confederates Retreating.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
CHAPTER XII
FARRAGUT AT NEW ORLEANS
IT WAS HARD WORK GETTING THE SQUADRON INTO THE MISSISSIPPI--PREPARING
THE SHIPS TO RUN BY THE FORTS GUARDING THE RIVER--MORTAR
SCHOONERS HIDDEN BY TREE BRANCHES--THE FORTS WERE WELL PLANNED,
BUT POORLY ARMED--A BARRIER CHAIN THAT WAS NO BARRIER AT THE
LAST--THE HETEROGENEOUS CONFEDERATE SQUADRON--THE FIRE-RAFTS--WORK
OF THE COAST SURVEY--BRAVERY OF CALDWELL--FOREIGNERS WHO
INTERFERED--WORK OF THE MORTAR FLEET--WHEN THE SQUADRON DROVE PAST
THE FORTS--SCATTERING THE CONFEDERATE SQUADRON--NEVERTHELESS,
AT LEAST THREE GOOD CAPTAINS WERE FOUND AMONG THEM--SINKING THE
_VARUNA_--FATE OF THE RAM _MANASSAS_--SURRENDER OF THE FORTS--END
OF THE IRONCLAD _LOUISIANA_--THE WORK OF THE MISSISSIPPI SQUADRON.
In the story of the capture of New Orleans, early in the year 1862, the
name of David Glasgow Farragut first appears in the annals of the Civil
War. When the war began Farragut was a captain, and was awaiting orders
at his home in Norfolk, Virginia. He was a Southern man by birth, and
his family were of the South. A most determined effort was made by
the Southern leaders to enlist him on their side; but Farragut was a
man who could not forget his oath to support the Constitution of the
United States. His only recorded reply to them was, “Mind what I tell
you: You fellows will catch the devil before you get through with this
business.”
[Illustration: David Glasgow Farragut.
_From a photograph._]
Removing his family to a home on the Hudson River, he reported himself
“ready for duty,” and felt some relief when he was made a member of
the naval retiring board, created by a new law passed to get rid
of superannuated officers. This appointment was at least a show of
confidence in his loyalty. And there he was trying his official peers
on a charge of old age when the expedition against New Orleans was
planned.
The idea of attacking New Orleans originated with Commander David D.
Porter, when in charge of the blockading steamer _Powhatan_, that,
during the summer of 1861, was lying off the Southwest Pass of the
Mississippi. Porter made it a point to collect all the information
possible about the river and the defences, and he found the fishermen
from New Orleans very good spies. Returning North, Porter went to
the Secretary of the Navy. He had a knack of getting the ears of the
leaders in those days, as well as some luck, as one may say, and the
expedition was decided on. Of course, Porter’s rank was too low for
the command of such a force, but he was permitted to suggest the name
of a suitable captain, and Farragut was promptly named. As the reader
will remember, Farragut was reared in the old _Essex_ under Commodore
David Porter, and David Porter was the father of David D. Porter. It
was, perhaps, what may be called log-rolling for one of the family,
but David D. Porter never did the nation a better service than when he
spoke for Farragut.
The offer of the leadership of this expedition was eagerly accepted,
and David Glasgow Farragut, whose form and features are more familiar
to the eyes of the American people than those of any other naval hero,
had the first opportunity of his life.
Making the _Hartford_ his flagship, he sailed from Hampton Roads on
February 2, 1862, and on the 20th arrived at Ship Island, near the
mouth of the Mississippi. Here he gathered the following squadron:
Screw sloops: _Hartford_, twenty-four guns, Flag Officer David G.
Farragut, Fleet Captain Henry H. Bell, Commander Richard Wainwright;
_Pensacola_, twenty-three guns, Capt. Henry W. Morris; _Brooklyn_,
twenty-two guns, Capt. Thomas T. Craven; _Richmond_, twenty-four guns,
Commander James Alden.
Side-wheel steamer: _Mississippi_, seventeen guns, Commander Melancthon
Smith.
Screw corvettes: _Oneida_, nine guns, Commander S. Phillips Lee;
_Varuna_, ten guns, Commander Charles S. Boggs; _Iroquois_, seven guns,
Commander John De Camp.
Screw gunboats: _Cayuga_, two guns, Lieut. Napoleon B. Harrison;
_Itasca_, two guns, Lieut. C. H. B. Caldwell; _Katahdin_, two guns,
Lieut. George H. Preble; _Kennebec_, two guns, Lieut. John H. Russell;
_Kineo_, two guns, Lieut. George M. Ransom; _Pinola_, two guns, Lieut.
Pierce Crosby; _Sciota_, two guns, Lieut. Edward Donaldson; _Winona_,
two guns, Lieut. Edward T. Nichols; _Wissahickon_, two guns, Lieutenant
Albert N. Smith.
Of the guns on this squadron ninety-three could be fired in broadside,
but none could be fired directly ahead; the pivots, however, could
be fired within a point or two of the line of the keel, and were
practically bow guns. More than half these guns were nine-inch
smooth-bores or better.
In addition to these ships, there were twenty schooners carrying
one thirteen-inch mortar each, and six gunboats (among them three
ferryboats), carrying heavy guns, were assigned to handle and protect
them. The mortar flotilla was placed under Porter.
It was an easy matter to get the gunboats up the river, but the big
ships stuck on the bar. The _Pensacola_ had to unload all of her guns
as well as other weights before she could pass, and even then her
bottom cut the channel a foot deeper when she was dragged through on
April 7th, and the _Mississippi_ had a like experience. An attempt made
to drag the _Colorado_ over failed altogether; but the attempt had to
be made in order to please the officials at Washington, even though two
weeks of precious time were wasted.
However, Capt. Theodorus Bailey and nearly all of the crew of the
_Colorado_ were taken along if the ship was left behind, and on
reaching the head of the Passes the work of preparing the ships for the
task before them began.
[Illustration: Thirteen-inch Mortar from Farragut’s Fleet.
_From a photograph made at the Brooklyn Navy Yard._]
Howitzers were placed in the tops (_i.e._, on platforms at the tops
of the lower masts), and there protected by boiler iron from musket
fire. Each ship was made to draw more water forward than aft so that
she would have a better chance to get off in case of grounding. As
the ships were to fight at point-blank range care was taken to secure
the guns so their elevation should not increase under the shock of
firing. The rigging was stripped down to the topmasts, and the spars,
etc., sent ashore, while some of the gunboats took their masts out
altogether. Chain cables were secured up and down the sides of the
ship to ward off shot, and “bags of coal or sand or ashes, or whatever
else came to hand,” were piled to keep the shot from the boilers
and engines. Nets were hung inside to stop the flying splinters in
case of shot piercing the wooden walls. Decks and gun carriages were
whitewashed to help the light for the night battle, and the outsides of
the ships were smeared with mud to make them less easily visible.
The mortar schooners were disguised by lashing tree limbs to the masts
in such fashion that they could not be distinguished from the trees
along the banks. In short, no precaution was omitted.
As for the Confederates, they rested in perfect confidence behind
the forts that had been erected to defend the river. As a glance at
the map will show, there was some reason in the location, if not in
the armament of these forts, for the confidence they felt. As will
be seen, the river comes down in a southerly direction until within
twenty miles of the head of the Passes. There it suddenly turns to
the northeast for nearly two miles, when it makes a sharp bend to the
south once more. It was right on this sharp, knee-like bend that the
forts were built. Fort St. Philip stood on top of the knee-bend, so to
speak, and from its walls a fair view was had for a long way down the
river. On the under side of the knee lay Fort Jackson. By the compass
it was about due south of Fort St. Philip and but 800 yards away. Its
guns pointed all over the bend of the river and away to the south, the
timber on the west side of the river having been cut away to allow an
unobstructed view of the stream almost to the uttermost range of the
guns.
But when the guns of these forts are considered, one must say they were
very poor. The Confederates made a mistake there. In all there were 109
cannon that might be used on passing ships at one point or another, but
of these, fifty-six were twenty-four-pounders--excellent guns in 1812,
but very small fifty years later. More than half of the others were
thirty-twos and forty-twos--in fact, but fifteen of them were really
guns of the day, and but two--the seven-inch rifles--could be called
first-class.
[Illustration: New Orleans, La., and its Vicinity.
1. Mississippi River. 2. Levee. 3. St. Charles Hotel. 4. Lake
Pontchartrain. 5. Fort Pike. 6. Rigolets. 7. Lake Borgne. 8.
Mississippi Sound. 9. Ship Island. 10. Chandeleur Islands. 11. Gulf
of Mexico. 12. Proctorsville. 13. Fort Dupré. 14. Fort St. Philip.
15. Fort Jackson. 16. Balize. 17. South Pass. 18. Southwest Pass.
19. McDonoughville. 20. Algiers.
]
Doubtless the Confederates depended too much on what nature had done
for the defence, but they tried to add to the forces of nature by
stretching a barrier from Fort Jackson to the east across the river.
Barriers appeal to the unlearned mind, but they have never obstructed a
fleet that was commanded by a determined man. Rafts of big cypress logs
were built and anchored in line, and then chain cables taken from the
Pensacola Navy Yard were stretched from trees on the Fort Jackson side
over these supporting rafts to heavy anchors buried on the east side.
Before Farragut arrived the floods of spring and the accumulation of
driftwood had broken the barrier, but it was renewed by substituting
schooners in place of the rafts where the current was heaviest.
In addition to the forts and barrier chain, the Confederates had the
support of eleven steamers and a floating battery. This battery was
built as an ironclad steamer to carry sixteen heavy guns behind plenty
of armor, but there were so many strikes in the shipyard where she
was built that she barely got afloat, and she was towed to a place
at the forts. Her engines were never used. Had Farragut been delayed
ten days more, she would have been a formidable ship, and she would
have had a still more formidable consort in another and larger ship
of her class that never got afloat. She was called the _Louisiana_,
and was commanded by Capt. John K. Mitchell. Another of this squadron
was the ram _Manassas_, that under Lieutenant Warley had created a
_Manassas_-like panic in the blockading squadron some months before.
Two of the squadron belonged to the State of Louisiana. They were
called the _Moore_, Capt. Beverly Kennon, and the _McRae_, Capt. Thomas
B. Huger. These were cotton-clads--ocean-going steamers protected
with cotton bales--very inferior as fighting ships, and yet the able
Kennon made a name for himself with the _Moore_. Of the remainder
of the squadron it may be said that six were of the “River Defence
Squadron”--the guerrillas afloat--and that one of the captains said
just before the battle that they were there “to show the naval officers
how to fight.”
There were also a number of unarmed vessels present, whose duty it
was to handle the fireboats that had been prepared--huge coal barges
loaded with fat pine knots that might have made serious trouble had
they all been turned loose together at the right time. And one of these
unarmed boats was the _Mosher_, with a crew of six men under Captain
Sherman--the bravest man in the Confederate squadron; but because he
was only a tug captain no record was made of his first name, nor is
anything said in history of his antecedents. Of the armament of the
Confederate squadron little need be said. The _Louisiana_ was well
armed, and the rest poorly. The _Moore_, under Beverly Kennon, had two
thirty-two-pounders, and she was about as well off as any.
While Farragut prepared his fleet a coast survey party under F. H.
Gerdes triangulated the river, under fire at times, and set flags on
the banks where the mortar schooners were to be moored. One division
of these was placed on the west bank, under shelter of forest trees,
and at an average distance of about 3,500 yards from the fort. The
other division was on the east bank. The exact range was given to each
schooner captain, and at ten o’clock in the morning on April 18, 1862,
the bombardment of Fort Jackson began. The mortars were fired once in
ten minutes, and the fire was continued for six days.
[Illustration: Mortar Boats.
_From an engraving._]
Meantime Lieut. C. H. B. Caldwell had requested permission to break
the chain barrier, and on the night of the 20th he was sent with his
boat, the _Itasca_, and the _Pinola_, Lieut. Pierce Crosby commanding,
to do so. While the mortar schooners dropped their shells in a shower
on Fort Jackson to keep down the fire as much as possible, two of the
barrier hulks were boarded, and on one of them it was found possible
to slip her anchor chain. This was done, and she drifted away, leaving
the barrier chain to sag down under water. Then Caldwell got above the
barrier with his shoal-draft _Itasca_, passing through a narrow space
between the hulks and what remained of the old raft barrier. Running
up far enough for good headway, he turned back at full speed with the
current to aid him, and headed for the place where the released hulk
had been. As the _Itasca_ struck the sagging chain with her curved bow,
she rose more than three feet out of water, and then the chain snapped
under her weight, and away she went. The barrier was effectually
broken, and the route to New Orleans was open. All this was done under
heavy fire, but there was no picket boat guarding the chain.
At this time the British frigate _Mersey_, Captain Preedy, and a
Frenchman were lying with Farragut’s fleet. These two foreigners
steamed up the river to examine the barrier, and on coming back were at
great pains to inform the Union forces that the forts were in perfect
order and the barrier absolutely impassable. The French were at that
time planning to establish an emperor on a throne in Mexico.
As said, for six days the mortar flotilla hurled shells high in air
to drop in and around Fort Jackson. By day each mortar threw a shell
every ten minutes--the flotilla of twenty threw 120 per hour--and at
night they threw one every half-hour each. On the 19th one of the
schooners was sunk by a shot from the fort, and another was thrown
out of the fight later on; but on an average about 1,900 shells were
thrown each day. The effect of these shells was to destroy all the
buildings in the fort, and, by cutting the levee, to flood the floors
of the bomb-proofs. They kept the men under cover, and rendered them
so uncomfortable that in the end they became desperate. What they did
then will be told further on. The garrison lost fourteen killed and
thirty-nine wounded in the course of the fighting.
Having the way clear, Farragut, on the 23d of April, 1862, issued his
orders for an advance that night. The squadron was divided into two
divisions, and Capt. Theodorus Bailey had the honor of commanding the
first division. His division flag was hoisted on the _Cayuga_, that was
to lead the line in what was supposed to be the post of real danger.
A ship’s cutter under Caldwell rowed up to the break in the barrier
and found it still open. The Confederates had a big wood-fire burning,
and the cutter crossed its light, but was not attacked. It was a dark,
still night--not the best for the work--but at 2 o’clock in the morning
of the 24th two red lanterns were hoisted at the peak of the flagship
_Hartford_, and a moment later the shrill piping of the boatswain’s
whistle was heard throughout the squadron with the call “All hands up
anchor!”
The merry click of the pawls as the men walked around the great
capstans soon rose on the still air--rose so high that it reached up to
the sentinels on Fort Jackson and roused the garrison to a knowledge
that an important action impended. It was a long task to get the
anchors of the largest ships, for they were breasting a three-knot
current, but soon after 3 o’clock they all got under way, and Porter’s
mortars, firing as fast as the men could tong the shells into them,
began drawing an almost unbroken arch of fiery bombs from the schooners
to Fort Jackson. The nation had never seen such a display of fireworks
as that. At 3.30 o’clock precisely the division leader _Cayuga_ passed
in silence through the barrier, followed by the huge _Pensacola_,
and then a flaming storm broke loose from the forts. Huge piles of
wood were lighted on the shore to illuminate the river, and away
upstream the blaze of fire-rafts opened the murk of night to reveal
the Confederate ships, weird and indistinct of outline, scattered
along the shores. The Union gunboats dashed ahead at full speed, but
the _Pensacola_ and _Mississippi_ steamed slowly, their black hulls
at regular intervals sheeting the air with lurid fire as they replied
to the forts. Abreast of St. Philip, where the Confederate fire was
hottest, they drew in so close that the gunners afloat and those ashore
heartily cursed each other as they worked. With fierce energy the men
ashore drove shot and shell into the wooden ships, while those afloat
dusted the rampart with hurtling showers of grape and canister. And
these were showers that no man could face, and the garrison fled to
cover for a moment, but they returned again as the blasts ceased with
the passing of each ship.
For the first division it was at first but a simple journey. They were
through the barrier and away before the Confederates fully realized
what was upon them. But for Farragut, at the head of the second
division, it was another matter. The clouds of smoke from the batteries
settled low upon the water to blind the pilots, and then came the
blazing fire-rafts to add to the confusion and the danger. As it
happened, it was the _Hartford_ that caught the first of these rafts.
She had grounded in the smoke and was trying to back off, when the
Confederate tug _Mosher_ shoved the flaming barge against her. In an
instant the paint on the whole side of the ship was flaming up almost
to the lower yards.
[Illustration:
Porter’s Mortar Fleet.
Farragut’s Fleet Passing the Forts.
Beginning of the Battle of New Orleans.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
As the flames rose, the men at the guns on that side drew back, but
they faced the danger again as Farragut shouted:
“Don’t flinch from that fire, boys; there’s a hotter fire than that for
those who don’t do their duty.”
But in a moment the case seemed desperate even to Farragut’s courageous
soul, for he raised his hands above his head and exclaimed, “My God, is
it to end in this way?” Just then Master’s Mate Allen, in charge of the
ship’s fire-brigade, climbed into the mizzen rigging with the nozzle of
a hose in his hand, and a moment later the spurting water of the hose
had drowned the soaring flames.
Meantime the tug _Mosher_ had held the raft faithfully against the
_Hartford_, although under the very muzzles of the ship’s big guns and
in the brilliant light of the blazing fire. But a half dozen shells
were fired at her, and drifting away, she sank in the black water,
carrying down every one of the heroic men upon her. And that was
not the last case where men were found to face certain death in this
fashion.
The accounts of what was done by other vessels of the fleets are as
confused as were their movements as seen by the various spectators.
It appears, however, that while the last division of the squadron
struggled through the pass in the barrier the _Cayuga_, at the head
of the first, suddenly found herself among the Confederate gunboats
and the guerrillas that were going to show the naval officers how to
fight. She had passed, perhaps without seeing her, the dread ironclad
_Louisiana_, moored above Fort St. Philip, but the rest of the
Confederate ships were lively enough. The guerrillas were lively in
their haste to escape, those that had steam up flying for life, and
the crews of those without steam setting them on fire and scrambling
ashore in haste, while the _Cayuga_ fired right and left at everything
in sight. The _Moore_ was close beside the _Cayuga_ on one side, and
the _McRae_ on the other. Both received a severe pounding as the
_Cayuga_ passed on. The _Oneida_ was not far in the wake, and she, too,
gave broadsides to the Confederates. The _Varuna_, swiftest of the
government squadron, ran past everything and continued up the river,
followed by the Confederate steamer _Moore_ with the Union signals
aloft. Captain Kennon, seeing that the Confederates were being
whelmed by the Union forces, determined to escape up the river.
[Illustration:
B. Brooklyn.
C. Cayuga.
D. River Defence Fleet.
F. Steamers or Mortar Flotilla.
G. Governor Moore.
H. Hartford.
H1. Hartford aground and on fire.
I. Iroquois.
L. Louisiana.
M. Mississippi.
Mc. McRae.
Ms. Manassas.
m. Mosher.
O. Oneida.
P. Pensacola.
Q. General Quitman.
R. Richmond.
S. Sciota.
U. Advance Vessels during bombardment.
V. Varuna.
W. Water Batteries
X. Head of Fleet daring bombardment.
Y. Bailey’s Division, April 23d.
Z. Second Division of Mortars, 1st day’s bombardment.
1. Katahdin.
2. Kineo.
3. Wissahickon.
4. Pinola.
5. Kennebec.
6. Itasca.
7. Winona.
Battle of New Orleans.
_From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_]
As the _Varuna_ and the _Moore_ disappeared the _McRae_ turned down
toward Fort St. Philip. On the way she ran aground, and then the Union
steamer _Iroquois_ came along. The _McRae_ fired a broadside of grape
and copper slugs at her, and the _Iroquois_ returned it with grape
and canister. The slaughter was great on the _McRae_, her commander,
Thomas B. Huger, being among the mortally hurt. Huger, but a few months
before, had been executive officer of the _Iroquois_, and most of her
crew were the men who had served under him. The _McRae_ afterward got
under Fort St. Philip.
The _Manassas_ during this time had not been idle. She had, indeed,
plunged into the thick of the Union force. The _Brooklyn_, in coming
through the barrier, almost ran down the _Kineo_. The collision changed
her course, and a minute later the _Manassas_ butted her. Her chain
cable saved her from a fatal wound.
As the _Manassas_ glanced clear, a man climbed out of her hatch and
stood by her smoke-stack a moment to see what damage she had done,
and then he suddenly tumbled over into the water and disappeared. An
officer of the _Brooklyn_ afterwards asked the quartermaster, who was
heaving the lead in the chains of the _Brooklyn_ on that side, if he
saw the man fall off the _Manassas_. “Why, yes, sir,” he replied; “I
saw him fall overboard--in fact, I helped him; for I hit him alongside
the head with my hand-lead.”
As the _Brooklyn_ passed on, the _Manassas_ turned upstream after the
Union ships, watching for an opportunity to strike. She was seen, and
the _Mississippi_ and _Kineo_ turned back to crush her, but she eluded
them and ran ashore. At that her crew fled to the river bank, and the
_Mississippi_ gave her a broadside that knocked her clear of the mud,
and she floated down the river. Opposite Fort St. Philip, Lieutenant
Read, of the _McRae_, boarded her. He reported that she was then sound
save for a cut pipe, but he must have been mistaken, for when she was
passing Porter’s mortar flotilla she was seen to be on fire, and she
soon “exploded faintly” and sank.
About the time the _Manassas_ was abandoned, the _Moore_, under Beverly
Kennon, was overtaking the _Varuna_ not far from the quarantine
station. The _Varuna’s_ captain was deceived by the _Moore’s_ false
lights. So was one of the Confederate fleet--a swift vessel called the
_Jackson_. The _Jackson_ fired with her one gun at both steamers, and
then fled to New Orleans, where her captain set her afire and abandoned
her. Then one of the guerrilla fleet, the _Stonewall Jackson_, came
up near the two, and Kennon, on seeing her, opened fire on the
_Varuna_. He expected the _Stonewall Jackson_ to come to his help,
for the _Moore_, with only two thirty-two-pounders, was no match for
the _Varuna_. Nevertheless, Kennon had to fight it out alone until
victory was won. He was now close on the _Varuna’s_ quarter, where
her broadside would not bear on him, but because of the height of his
own ship’s bow he could not bring his gun to bear, so he depressed
the muzzle of his gun and shot a hole through his own bow to make way
for shot to be aimed at the _Varuna_. The next shot from the _Moore_
raked the _Varuna_, and to bring his broadside to bear, Captain Boggs,
of the _Varuna_, put her helm over, and turned her across the course
of the _Moore_. And that was a fatal error, for Kennon, instead of
turning away, turned toward the _Varuna_ and drove the sharp bow of
the _Moore_, crashing through her side. The _Varuna_ got in a raking
broadside that was very destructive, but was herself cut through. The
_Moore_ hauled off and kept on upstream, and then came the _Stonewall
Jackson_ and rammed the _Varuna_ on the other side. The _Varuna_ was
then headed to the easterly bank, where she sank, leaving her bow out
of water.
But neither the _Moore_ nor the _Stonewall Jackson_ escaped, for the
_Oneida_ and _Cayuga_ came on and drove them both ashore. The
_Moore_ was fired, but her crew surrendered when the _Pensacola_ came
along.
[Illustration:
Forts.
_Brooklyn._
_Hartford._
_Mississippi._
_Richmond._
Forts.
The Battle of New Orleans.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
Of the whole Confederate squadron only the _Louisiana_, the _McRae_,
and the guerrilla _Defiance_ remained, and they were under the guns of
Fort St. Philip. The _Defiance_ had been abandoned, but men from the
_McRae_ took possession of her. The _Louisiana_, even as a floating
battery, did nothing but fire a broadside or two at the passing
squadron.
[Illustration: Confederate Ironclad Ram _Stonewall Jackson_.
_From a photograph._]
The river was clear, save for two batteries of no account, as far as
New Orleans, and at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, on April 25, 1862, the
triumphant government squadron was before the Crescent City. It had
lost only thirty-five killed and 128 wounded.
But two or three incidents of the occupation of the city need be
mentioned. Captain Bailey and Lieut. George H. Perkins were sent ashore
to demand that the mayor haul down the Confederate flags. A howling
mob surrounded and insulted and even threw filth upon the two lone
officers, who were simply obeying orders. The letter of Farragut was
delivered to Mayor Monroe in the presence of Pierre Soulé, who had
been a senator and a minister to Spain. Primed by Soulé, the mayor
wrote a letter filled with such expressions as “you have a gallant
people to administer”; “sensitive to all that can affect its dignity
and self-respect”; “order and peace may be preserved without resort to
measures which could not fail to wound their susceptibilities and fire
up their passions”; “you may trust their honor, though you might not
count on their submission to unmerited wrong.” As to the Confederate
flags, “nor could I find in my entire constituency so wretched and
desperate a renegade as would dare to profane with his hand the sacred
emblem of our aspirations.”
The flags came down, however, and the old flag was raised over the
Mint. A gambler named Mumford, with three associates, hauled it down,
dragged it in the streets, and tore it to pieces. It was a wild town
until May 1st, and even for a few days later; but on May 1st came
Benjamin F. Butler with his troops from the transports that had
accompanied the Union warships, and Butler was the man for the place.
If any reader wants to learn how to tame a mob with superabundant
“sensibilities” and “passions” and “aspirations” and “honor” mixed in
the jumble exhibited by Pierre Soulé and Mayor Monroe, let him read
“Butler’s Book.”
To return to Forts St. Philip and Jackson, it must be said that with
the government forces above and below them, they were in such a
desperate strait that when Porter threatened to renew the bombardment,
more than half the garrison mutinied. Most of them were foreigners,
anyway. The forts were surrendered to Porter on April 28, 1862. While
Porter was opposite Fort Jackson negotiating for the surrender, under a
flag of truce hoisted on the fort and on his flagship, Commander John
K. Mitchell, of the ironclad _Louisiana_, set her on fire, and she came
drifting down upon the Union squadron lying under the flag of truce.
Fortunately, she blew up just before she arrived where she could do any
damage. Some Confederate writers like Scharf assert that Mitchell had
a perfect right to destroy her, because she was not included in the
surrender. This is correct. But when they say Mitchell “took caution
that no injury should fall to the enemy’s fleet while under the flag
of truce,” they assert somewhat more than the facts warrant, for
Mitchell left the ship moored by ropes that he knew would burn off
before the fire reached the magazine, and they admit that he did not
draw the charges from her heavy guns. They say that he tried to “drown
the magazine” and failed, and that he then sent an officer to warn
Porter. The officer was sent, but he was sent so long after the fire
was started that she blew up before he reached Porter’s ship. Moreover,
before the passing of the fleet the _Louisiana_ was moored far up
the stream, against the protest of the military authorities, instead
of down below, where she could have driven off Porter’s mortars. The
Confederate heroes of the fight were Sherman, Kennon, and Huger. Every
American thinks of their bravery and skill with pleasure, but Mitchell
was another kind of a man.
The capture of New Orleans was of the greatest moment, as the reader
will remember. Baton Rouge and Natchez surrendered to Captain Craven,
of the _Brooklyn_, a few days later. Pensacola was evacuated, and the
Union forces took possession on May 10th. And because of these gains
the French Emperor, who was looking on Texas as well as on Mexico as a
good prize, was led to change his mind.
It was Porter’s belief that had Farragut been sent to Mobile
immediately, it would have fallen with small resistance, if any, and
the great battle later on would have been saved. But the Administration
wanted the Mississippi opened immediately, and Farragut went up to try
it. He succeeded in passing all the fortifications, including those
at Vicksburg, where he met Flag Officer Davis. But at Vicksburg the
forts were from 150 to 264 feet above the water, and the ships of that
day could not successfully attack such works. And even had Farragut
captured the forts, there were not enough soldiers at hand to hold the
town.
[Illustration: The _Essex_ after Running the Batteries at Vicksburg and
Port Hudson.
_After a photograph._]
In fact, Farragut’s bold cruise up the river was practically fruitless
because the Administration did not follow it up. This is not said to
criticise the Administration. It is the common belief of the American
people that no man in the nation could have done better than Abraham
Lincoln. But after the batteries were passed at Vicksburg, the Union
forces made what Mahan calls a recoil. Vicksburg was more strongly
fortified than ever, and so was Port Hudson, while Grand Gulf became a
point of no small importance to the Confederates.
[Illustration: The _Carondelet_ after Passing Vicksburg.
_From a photograph._]
While the combined squadrons of Farragut and Davis lay above Vicksburg
a Confederate ram called the _Arkansas_, Capt. Isaac N. Brown, was
reported as about ready for action at a shipyard up the Yazoo River.
“Little apprehension was felt in the Union fleet,” but Captain Walke,
with the _Carondelet_, the _Taylor_, and Ellet’s ram, _Queen of the
West_, went up for a look at her on July 15, 1862. Very unexpectedly
they met her coming down for a look at the Union forces. The _Taylor_
was in the lead, and she immediately turned back for the support of
the _Carondelet_. The _Carondelet_ turned back for the support of the
ram, and the ram turned back for the support of the squadron in the
Mississippi. Being very swift, the ram ran soon out of sight. The
gunboats now had their unarmored sterns toward the Confederate ship,
and for an hour she spanked them soundly, as they richly deserved.
The _Carondelet_ at this time actually threw 150 pounds of metal from
rifled guns in her bow ports to the 106 that the _Arkansas_ threw from
her bow ports, while her broadside fire was 170 pounds to 165 on the
_Arkansas_. And yet, although supposably supported by the _Taylor_, she
ran away, hugging the left bank, where the _Arkansas_, of thirteen feet
draft, could not ram her, and there she eventually grounded, leaving
the triumphant _Arkansas_ to chase the _Taylor_ and surprise the
government squadrons.
Fortunate it was that the Confederates at the Yazoo shipyards were
poor mechanics. When the _Arkansas_ reached the Union squadrons her
machinery was in such bad order that she was making barely one knot an
hour. The captured ram _General Bragg_ had steam up, but her captain
waited for orders, and so missed the chance of a lifetime, as Farragut
remarked at the time.
Boldly steering through the unprepared squadron, the _Arkansas_ fired
right and left and took a position under the Vicksburg batteries. Her
crew numbered forty-one. The two Union flag officers were greatly
mortified because they were caught napping, and Farragut, to retrieve
himself, took his squadron down past the batteries that night, hoping
to destroy the _Arkansas_ as he passed, but he failed because she was
safely moored. Two days later Farragut and part of his ships went to
New Orleans, and the handful of Union troops that had been on the point
opposite Vicksburg went to Baton Rouge.
On October 5th Breckenridge attacked the Union forces at Baton Rouge,
and the _Arkansas_ went there to help. The Union ironclad _Essex_,
Capt. William Porter, with four other gunboats, were below Vicksburg at
the time, three of the others being of Farragut’s fleet. The _Katahdin_
and _Kineo_ were able to give the Union army a good support in a fight
against superior numbers. The _Arkansas_, while trying to come to the
aid of Breckenridge, broke down and ran ashore. While she lay in the
mud the _Essex_ came up looking for her, and as she could not be moved
her crew set her on fire and escaped. She was of the usual form of
the river ironclads, and was armored with railroad iron. The design and
the material were good for that day, but she was doomed to defeat by
her builders before she was launched.
[Illustration:
_Queen of the West._
_Taylor._
_Carondelet._
_Arkansas._
Battle between the _Carondelet_ and the _Arkansas_.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
[Illustration:
_Arkansas._
_Carondelet._
Battle between the _Arkansas_ and the _Carondelet_.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
On October 1, 1862, the Mississippi squadron was transferred to the
Navy Department, and David D. Porter was promoted and placed in charge.
A lot of light-draft steamers clad with half-inch or better iron were
added to the squadron and were armed with howitzers. They were called
tin-clads, and were of service in carrying transports, and for light
work generally.
[Illustration: Destruction of the _Arkansas_ near Baton Rouge, August
4, 1862.
_From a lithograph published by Currier & Ives._]
Another addition to the squadron was a class of heavy boats with their
wheels well aft and rectangular casemates forward. They carried some
eleven-inch Dahlgrens, and were plated with two and three-inch iron,
one carrying as much as six inches on the casemate. But they were built
in actual war-time, so the builders took advantage of the haste to
rob the nation by scamping the work, and the engines were constantly
breaking down.
In November the first of a series of moves against Vicksburg was made
by the way of the Yazoo River country. The swamps of the Yazoo had
served to keep the Federal forces from turning the north end of the
Confederate defences along the Vicksburg side of the river, and an
expedition was sent across through the bayous, leaving the Mississippi
near Helena, and entering the head-waters of the Yazoo. It failed
utterly, and the gunboat _Cairo_ was destroyed by torpedoes made of
whiskey demijohns.
[Illustration: David D. Porter.
_From a photograph._]
Then, in January, 1863, a naval force was sent to help the army
capture Arkansas Post, fifty miles up the Arkansas River. The _De Kalb_
(former _St. Louis_), the _Louisville_, and the _Cincinnati_, and all
the tin-clads were in the expedition, and on January 9th and 10th they
shot the forts to pieces, and disabled all the guns, seventeen in
number, including two nine-inch Dahlgrens that had come all the way
from the Norfolk Navy Yard. The white flag was raised before the army
could make an assault.
General Grant arrived opposite Vicksburg on January 30, 1863, and the
plan of attacking Vicksburg by turning the river line on the south was
adopted, and that succeeded some months later. Meantime Porter, to
control the river between Vicksburg and Port Hudson, sent Col. Charles
R. Ellet, with his ram, _Queen of the West_, down past the Vicksburg
batteries. Owing to trouble with her steering gear, she did not get off
till daylight on February 2d; but the Ellets were the most recklessly
brave family known to the Mississippi. The colonel started in the face
of fire, rammed and set fire to a Confederate steamer at the Vicksburg
wharf, and passed on without losing a man.
A small ferryboat, called the _De Soto_, was added to Ellet’s command
when below Vicksburg, and then Porter sent down the _Indianola_, one
of the newest armored boats. That seemed to give the Union forces full
sway as far as Port Hudson; but within a week Ellet attacked a fort
near Gordon’s Landing, on the Red River, got his ship aground, and had
to abandon her. He retreated in the _De Soto_ until a prize they had
captured was reached, when the _De Soto_ was burned, and in the prize
(a steamer called the _Era_) they reached the _Indianola_. But the
Confederates were still after them, using the abandoned _Queen of the
West_ and one of the original Confederate rams, called the _Webb_, with
a couple of ordinary river steamers, the whole fleet being protected
with cotton. The _Indianola_ tried to escape up the river, but the rams
being swifter, chose their own time, and rammed her to death on the
night of the 24th. The Confederates once more held the river.
A curious thing then happened. The _Indianola_ was sunk on the easterly
bank, not far below Vicksburg. A Confederate force set to work to raise
and repair her. They were getting on well, when, early on the morning
of the 26th, a Federal gunboat was reported coming down the river.
There was a most furious cannonading at the Vicksburg batteries, and
the four steamers that had so gallantly captured the _Indianola_ at
once fled militia-fashion. A lieutenant with a hundred men was left
on the wreck (she was awash and near shore); but when he saw what a
fearsome aspect the coming monster had, he set the _Indianola’s_
two big guns muzzle to muzzle, fired them to destroy them, and then
fled. The story of these doings made the government forces laugh and
the Confederates curse for many a day after that, for the so-called
gunboat was a dummy in the form of a monitor, sent adrift for a lark by
Porter’s men.
[Illustration: Admiral Farragut Passing Port Hudson.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
[Illustration: The U. S. Flotilla Passing the Vicksburg Batteries.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
On the whole, however, the Confederates were plainly having the best of
the contest, and Farragut came up from the Gulf to see about matters.
He had himself had both good and bad fortune in the Gulf. A number of
Texas ports, including Galveston and Corpus Christi, were captured,
but Galveston was retaken by the Confederates, who attacked it with a
combined land and marine force, the ships being cotton-clads. The Union
navy had the _Westfield_ destroyed, and the _Harriet Lane_ captured,
after both her captain and executive officer were killed. And a little
later the famous _Alabama_ appeared at night off Galveston. An armed
merchant steamer was sent to inspect her, and the _Alabama_ opened fire
and sank her, escaping before the other blockading steamer could come
out to assist.
So Farragut was in a state of mind to take risks, and he ran his
squadron past the works at Port Hudson on the 14th of March, 1863,
where nineteen heavy guns were mounted. It was a dangerous place
naturally on account of the currents in the stream and the shoals.
Seven vessels, including the _Hartford_, tried the passage. The
_Hartford_, with the gunboat _Albatross_ alongside, led the procession.
The _Monongahela_, with the _Kineo_ alongside, were next, with the
_Richmond_ and _Genesee_ following, and the _Mississippi_ alone in the
rear.
The _Hartford_ with her consort got past the batteries after some
little trouble. The _Richmond_ was disabled by a shot, and with her
consort’s aid turned back. The _Monongahela_ and consort both grounded,
but the _Monongahela_ passed on, while the _Mississippi_ grounded so
hard that she was fired and abandoned. It was a pretty serious affair
for the government force, but the Red River was blockaded, and it was
not opened for traffic until the end of the war. When two of the Ellet
rams were sent down past Vicksburg to increase Farragut’s force above
Port Hudson, one, the _Lancaster_, was sunk, and the other got through.
Both were commanded by the indomitable Ellet boys.
[Illustration:
Confederate Forts.
_Benton._
_Tuscumbia._
_Pittsburg._
_Lafayette._
_Louisville._
_St. Louis._
_Carondelet._
Battle of Grand Gulf--First Position.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
Near the end of February, while Farragut held the river between Port
Hudson and Vicksburg, Porter tried to get in behind Vicksburg by the
way of the Yazoo swamps once more. He took a different route from that
of the first expedition, but he could not drive the tin-clads over
the willows, and the Confederates cut trees across the bayous both
in front of and behind his steamers until he was well-nigh lost. And
at the last he found his way blocked by the hulk of the _Star of the
West_, the steamer at which the first shot of the war was fired--the
shot that turned her back when she was carrying supplies to Fort
Sumter. After the Sumter event she had gone to New Orleans, was there
taken forcibly by the Confederates, and ended her existence as a
barrier hulk in a Yazoo bayou.
This expedition having failed, Grant determined to go down the westerly
bank of the Mississippi to New Carthage, and then cross and surround
Vicksburg. On the night of April 16, 1863, Porter took the following
vessels down past Vicksburg to cover Grant when crossing: The flagship
_Benton_, sixteen guns, Lieut.-commander James A. Greer, leading, and
the other vessels in the following order: _Lafayette_, eight guns,
Capt. Henry Walke; _Louisville_, twelve guns, Lieut.-commander Elias K.
Owen; _Mound City_, fourteen guns, Lieut. Byron Wilson; _Pittsburg_,
thirteen guns, Lieut. W. R. Hoel; _Carondelet_, eleven guns, Lieut.
J. McLeod Murphy; _Tuscumbia_, five guns, Lieut.-commander James W.
Shirk. The _Lafayette_ carried with her, lashed to the other side of
her coal barge, the ram _General Price_, Lieut. S. E. Woodworth, which
had continued in the service after being taken from the Confederates
at Memphis. After the _Carondelet_, between her and the _Tuscumbia_,
came three army transports, the _Silver Wave_, _Henry Clay_, and
_Forest Queen_, unprotected except by bales of hay and cotton round the
boilers. They carried stores, but no troops.
The armed vessels were repeatedly hulled, but were in no way disabled.
One transport, the _Henry Clay_, caught fire and sank. On the 22d of
April a number of transports ran the batteries, and on the 29th, the
plans having been changed somewhat, the squadron attacked the works
at Grand Gulf. Here there were four of the best rifled cannon of the
day, two eight-inch smooth-bores, two old thirty-twos, and some light
guns--a battery of not a fourth of the power of the fleet, but it was
seventy-five feet above the water, and the fleet pounded it all day and
accomplished nothing. They lost eighteen killed and fifty-six wounded
at that.
However, the work of carrying the army across the river at Bruinsburg,
below Grand Gulf, began next day. This was on April 30th. On that day
the gunboats left above Vicksburg made such a determined attack on
the works there that no reinforcements were sent down to Grand Gulf.
Having carried the Union army over at Bruinsburg, Porter, on
May 3d, attacked the works at Grand Gulf and found them evacuated.
Then Grant made Grand Gulf his base of supplies, and the surrounding
of Vicksburg was accomplished by May 21, 1863. From that time on a
steady advance was made by the army, and the flotilla supported every
movement by shelling the river batteries. There was no great conflict
on the part of the navy, but the help of the ships in keeping open the
water route for supplies and in covering the movements of the army was
fully appreciated by General Grant and by the whole nation. The writer
hereof, who was a lad in the backwoods of Ohio at the time, remembers
that when, on the afternoon of the 4th day of July, the people of the
village where he lived, half crazy with joy over the news, were piling
up dry rails fifty feet high for a bonfire to celebrate the fall of
Vicksburg, the name of Porter was frequently mentioned by the shouting
crowd, with that of Grant, although the people there didn’t know a
warship from a coal barge.
[Illustration:
_Benton._
Fort.
_Tuscumbia._
_Carondelet._
_Mound City._
_Lafayette._
Lower Forts.
Battle of Grand Gulf--Second Position.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
[Illustration:
Confederate Batteries.
_Pittsburg._
_Louisville._
_Lafayette._
_Mound City._
_Carondelet._
Battle of Grand Gulf--Third Position.
_From a painting by Admiral Walke._]
[Illustration: Admiral Porter on Deck of Flagship at Grand Écore, La.
_From a photograph._]
Meantime, while Grant was before Vicksburg the French troops were in
Mexico, and on June 10, 1863, they entered Mexico City, the capital.
The French Emperor, Napoleon III, had shown an unfriendly disposition
toward the United States, and, as already intimated, had been trying,
through his diplomatic agents, to get Texas to secede from the
Confederacy and establish an independent government. The operations
of the French led the Administration at Washington to send General
Banks on an expedition that had Shreveport, on the Red River, near the
boundary between Louisiana and Texas, and about 400 miles from the
Mississippi River, for its destination. It may be briefly said that the
expedition won some battles and accomplished nothing. Admiral Porter,
with the following vessels, accompanied the expedition:
_Essex_, Commander Robert Townsend; _Eastport_, Lieut.-commander S. L.
Phelps; _Black Hawk_, Lieut-commander K. R. Breese; _Lafayette_,
Lieut.-commander J. P. Foster; _Benton_, Lieut.-commander J. A.
Greer; _Louisville_, Lieut.-commander E. K. Owen; _Carondelet_,
Lieut.-commander J. G. Mitchell; _Osage_, Lieut.-commander T. O.
Selfredge; _Ouachita_, Lieut.-commander Byron Wilson; _Lexington_,
Lieut. G. M. Bache; _Chillicothe_, Lieut. S. P. Couthouy; _Pittsburg_,
Lieut. W. R. Hoel; _Mound City_, Lieut A. R. Langthorne; _Neosho_,
Lieut. Samuel Howard; _Ozark_, Lieut. G. W. Browne; _Fort Hindman_,
Lieut. John Pearce; _Cricket_, Master H. H. Gorringe; _Gazelle_, Master
Charles Thatcher.
[Illustration: U. S. Ram _Lafayette_.
_From a photograph._]
[Illustration: U. S. Gunboat _Fort Hindman_.
_From a photograph._]
It was on March 12, 1863, that Porter’s command started up Red River.
The advanced vessels of the fleet reached Alexandria on the 15th, and
all the fleet was there on the 16th. It was an easy voyage so far, but
above Alexandria were (and are) two rapids not to be passed during low
water, and in the spring of 1863 the water was exceptionally low.
However, the _Eastport_, _Mound City_, _Carondelet_, _Pittsburg_,
_Louisville_, _Chillicothe_, _Ozark_, _Neosho_, _Lexington_, and
_Hindman_ were dragged over with some thirty transports. These went
up the river and rendered considerable aid to the army, but the real
interest in the expedition lies in the backwoods scheme by which the
whole squadron above the falls was saved from destruction.
[Illustration: Joseph Bailey.
_From a photograph._]
Instead of finding high water at the season when it was naturally
expected, the river fell, and ten gunboats and two tugs were left
helpless above the falls. Nevertheless, help came when Lieut.-col.
Joseph Bailey, of the Fourth Wisconsin Volunteers, saw the situation.
Bailey was a log-driver, and knew how to lift a jam over any kind of
rifts or obstructions. Nearly everybody who heard of his plan, doubted
and many jeered at the idea; “but Bailey had the faith that moves
mountains.” Moreover, there were right at hand two regiments of men
from Maine--nearly 2,000 men, of whom Jeremiah O’Brien, who captured
the _Margaretta_, would have been proud.
The rifts were a mile long, and at a point below them the high banks
were 758 feet apart. The water between the high banks was deep enough
to float any gunboat, but not too deep for building a dam. Bailey said
he would build a dam there that would flood the rifts to navigating
depth, and he did it. The men from Maine swung their axes in the forest
near by, and the teamsters hauled the cut trees, branches and all, and
dumped them into the water. Here other Maine men piled the trees up
with their butts down-stream, cross-tied with logs and their branches
interlacing above. Similar dams can be seen in any of the logging
regions of the United States in these days. This dam extended from the
north bank, a little more than half-way across the stream. From the
south bank, for lack of trees, a crib dam--cribs of logs filled with
stone--was built. When the opening between the ends of these dams was
small enough--when it was but 150 feet wide--it was filled with four
coal barges that were loaded with brick and sunk there.
[Illustration: Red River Dam.
_From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_]
Astonishing as it seems to one who has seen such dams built, Bailey
and his men from Maine had completed the dam in eight days, deepening
the water on the rifts by more than six feet--the water was deep enough
on the rifts for the _Osage_, the _Neosho_, and _Hindman_ to pass down
and anchor in the still water between the foot of the rifts and the dam.
But just as this success had been attained two of the sunken coal
barges in the centre of the dam were shoved out of line by the weight
of water, and in an instant the backwater above the dam began to pour
through the opening in a mighty torrent.
At that moment the gunboat _Lexington_, with steam up, was at the
head of the rifts, ready to follow the gunboats that had passed down
to safety, while Admiral Porter stood on the bank, overseeing the
operation. One glance at the broken dam showed that the level of the
water must quickly fall, and Porter shouted to the _Lexington_ to go
ahead over the rifts and through the break in the dam to the still
water below. Instantly her pilot rang the bell to start the engines.
Up to this moment the thousands of soldiers who lined the banks had
been shouting and talking to each other, and making a most confused
noise; but when the _Lexington_ entered the growing current on the
rifts a hush fell upon the great throng, until no sound was heard save
the beating of her paddles and the rush of the current as the pilot
drove her straight at the opening. There the current took her from his
hands, lifted her up on the leaping waves, and, rolling her heavily
from side to side, dashed her down into the pool below.
[Illustration: The Fleet Passing the Dam.
_From an engraving._]
The mighty cheer that the great host of spectators raised seems to echo
in the ear to this day as one reads the story of the incident, for the
ship was safe.
The _Neosho_, _Hindman_, and _Osage_ passed through the dam after the
_Lexington_, but there were others still above the rifts, and these
could not pass. But after a while it was found that, even with the
break unrepaired, the dam still raised the water more than five feet,
and so, instead of repairing the break, Bailey built two wing dams on
the rifts above, and these gave the needed depth, and the remainder
of the squadron passed down in safety. Bailey received the thanks of
Congress, and was made a brigadier-general.
And to conclude the story of the Mississippi squadron, we may quote the
words of Mahan in his admirable “Gulf and Inland Waters”: “After the
Red River expedition little is left to say of the operations of the
Mississippi squadron during the rest of the war.”
CHAPTER XIII
FARRAGUT AT MOBILE
THE FORTS AND THE CONFEDERATE SQUADRON THE UNION FORCES WERE
COMPELLED TO FACE--THE CONFEDERATE IRONCLAD JUST MISSED BEING A
MOST FORMIDABLE SHIP--TEDIOUS WAIT FOR MONITORS--WHEN THE SOUTHWEST
WIND FAVORED--THERE WAS A FIERCE BLAST FROM THE FORTS AT FIRST,
BUT THE TORPEDO WAS WORSE THAN MANY GUNS--FATE OF THE _TECUMSEH_
AND CAPTAIN CRAVEN--THE LAST WORDS OF THE MAN FOR WHOM “THERE WAS
NO AFTERWARD”--TORPEDOES THAT FAILED BENEATH THE FLAGSHIP--CAPTAIN
STEVENS ON THE DECK OF HIS MONITOR--WHEN NEILDS UNFURLED THE OLD
FLAG IN THE MIDST OF THE STORM--HOW FARRAGUT WAS LASHED TO THE
MAST--JOUETT WOULD NOT BE INTIMIDATED BY A LEADSMAN--MOBBING THE
_TENNESSEE_.
[Illustration: Entrance to Mobile Bay.
_From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_]
Mobile Bay lies like a great bell open to the south--a bell that is
thirty miles long, fifteen wide at the mouth, and six at the head. It
is a shoal-water bay, save for a rather deep hole (twenty-one feet)
just within; the two sandy islands that stretch out from either side
across its mouth almost meet. That is to say, they reach within 2,000
yards of each other, and between them lies the entrance to the channel.
In these days a wide ditch carries twenty-three feet of water from the
deep hole inside the islands clear to the town of Mobile; but at the
time of the Civil War that had not been dredged, and the water shelved
gradually from the ripples at the beach to twelve feet at the centre
line above the hole. There was a bar outside; but ships drawing twenty
feet of water could pass. The main point of land at the entrance to
Mobile Bay lay on the east, and was called Mobile Point. On the west
lay Dauphin Island, and the water between this island and the mainland
was and is called Mississippi Sound--a stretch of shoal water that
gives inland navigation to New Orleans. The Confederate defences,
ashore and afloat in 1864, are described by Mahan as follows:
“The entrance from the Gulf was guarded by two works, Fort Morgan
on Mobile Point, and Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island. The approach by
Mississippi Sound was covered by Fort Powell, a small earthwork on
Tower Island, commanding the channel which gave the most water, known
as Grant’s Pass. Gaines was too far distant from the main ship channel
to count for much in the plans of the fleet. It was a pentagonal work
mounting in barbette three X-inch columbiads, five 32-, two 24-,
and two 18-pounder smooth-bore guns, and four rifled 32-pounders;
besides these it had eleven 24-pounder howitzers for siege and for
flank defence. In Fort Powell there were one X-inch, two VIII-inch
and one 32-pounder smooth-bore and two VII-inch Brooke rifles; these
bore on the sound and channels, but the rear of the fort toward the
bay was yet unfinished and nearly unarmed. The third and principal
work, Fort Morgan, was much more formidable. It was five-sided, and
built to carry guns both in barbette and casemates; but when seized
by the Confederates the embrasures of the curtains facing the channel
were masked and a heavy exterior water battery was thrown up before
the northwest curtain. The armament at this time cannot be given with
absolute certainty. The official reports of the United States engineer
and ordnance officers, made after the surrender, differ materially,
but from a comparison between them and other statements the following
estimate has been made: Main fort, seven X-inch, three VIII-inch and
twenty-two 32-pounder smooth-bore guns, and two VIII-inch, two 6.5-inch
and four 5.82-inch rifles. In the water battery there were four X-inch
and one VIII-inch columbiads and two 6.5-inch rifles. Of the above, ten
X-inch, three VIII-inch, sixteen 32-pounders and all the rifles, except
one of 5.82 calibre, bore upon the channel.
“In the waters of the bay there was a little Confederate squadron under
Admiral Franklin Buchanan, made up of the ram _Tennessee_ and three
small paddle-wheel gunboats, the _Morgan_, _Gaines_, and _Selma_.
They were unarmored, excepting around the boilers. The _Selma_ was an
open-deck river steamer with heavy hog frames; the two others had been
built for the Confederate Government, but were poorly put together.
The batteries were: _Morgan_, two VII-inch rifles and four 32-pounders;
_Gaines_, one VIII-inch rifle and five 32-pounders; _Selma_, one
VI-inch rifle, two IX-inch, and one VIII-inch smooth-bore shell-guns.
Though these lightly built vessels played a very important part for
some minutes, and from a favorable position did much harm to the Union
fleet in the subsequent engagement, they counted for nothing in the
calculations of Farragut.
“The _Tennessee_ was the most powerful ironclad built, from the keel
up, by the Confederacy, and both the energy showed in overcoming
difficulties and the workmanship put upon her were most creditable to
her builders. The work was begun at Selma, on the Alabama River, one
hundred and fifty miles from Mobile, in the spring of 1863, when the
timber was yet standing in the forests, and much of what was to be her
plating was still ore in the mines. The hull was launched the following
winter and towed to Mobile, where the plating had already been sent
from the rolling mills of Atlanta.
“Her length on deck was 209 feet, beam 48 feet, and when loaded, with
her guns on board, she drew 14 feet. The battery was carried in a
casemate, equidistant from the bow and stern, whose inside dimensions
were 79 feet in length by 29 feet in width. The framing was of yellow
pine beams, 13 inches thick, placed close together vertically and
planked on the outside, first with 5½ inches of yellow pine, laid
horizontally, and then 4 inches of oak laid up and down. Both sides
and ends were inclined at an angle of forty-five degrees, and over the
outside planking was placed the armor, 6 inches thick, in thin plates
of 2 inches each, on the forward end, and elsewhere 5 inches thick.
Within, the yellow pine frames were sheathed with 2½ inches of oak.
The plating throughout was fastened with bolts 1¼ inches in diameter,
going entirely through and set up with nuts and washers inside. Her
gunners were thus sheltered by a thickness of five or six inches of
iron, backed by twenty-five inches of wood. The outside deck was plated
with two-inch iron. The sides of the casemate, or, as the Confederates
called it, the shield, were carried down to two feet below the water
line and then reversed at the same angle, so as to meet the hull again
six to seven feet below water. The knuckle thus formed, projecting ten
feet beyond the base of the casement, and apparently filled in solid,
afforded a substantial protection from an enemy’s prow to the hull,
which was not less than eight feet within it. It was covered with four
inches of iron, and being continued round the bows, became there a
beak or ram. The vessel carried, however, only six guns; one VIII-inch
rifle at each end and two VI-inch rifles on each broadside. These were
Brooke guns, made in the Confederacy; they threw 110-pound and 90-pound
solid shot. The ports were closed with iron sliding shutters, five
inches thick; a bad arrangement, as it turned out.
“Though thus powerfully built, armored, and armed, she had two
grave defects. Her engines were not built for her, but taken from
a high-pressure river steamboat, and though on her trial trip she
realized about eight knots, six seems to be all that could usually be
got from her. She was driven by a screw, the shaft being connected
by gearing with the engines. The other defect was an oversight, her
steering chains, instead of being led under her armored deck, were over
it, exposed to an enemy’s fire. She was therefore a ram that could only
by a favorable chance overtake her prey, and was likely at any moment
to lose the power of directing her thrust.”
While Banks was on the useless Red River expedition Farragut had
been anxious to attack Mobile, but had been unable to do so because
no troops could be spared for use against the forts and to hold the
place when it should be taken. For six months, in fact, the admiral
had to lie idle while the Confederates strengthened their works--even
watching them while they brought the _Tennessee_ down the river on
which she had been built, and then carried her over the shoal waters of
the upper part of the bay, just as Perry carried his two brigs out of
Erie harbor on Lake Erie when he went out to win his great victory. It
was in March, 1864, that the Confederates began this slow task under
Farragut’s eyes (figuratively speaking; Farragut was not with the fleet
constantly), and it was not until May 18th that they had her anchored
in the deep water within the forts guarding the channel.
As a matter of fact, Buchanan, the Confederate admiral, intended to
go out and attack Farragut’s fleet that night, as the _Merrimac_
had attacked the wooden fleet in Hampton Roads. What he would have
accomplished may not now be guessed; but Farragut had wooden ships
only to meet the _Tennessee_, although he had done everything he could
to get ironclads. However, the _Tennessee_ grounded, and when she was
floated Buchanan, for some reason unknown, changed his mind.
Meantime the Confederate had anchored forty-six beer-keg torpedoes and
134 torpedoes made of tin, all fitted with percussion fuses, across the
channel, leaving a pass, marked by a red buoy, near Fort Morgan (on the
east side) for the blockade-runners. The pass was about 100 yards wide
and at the most deadly range from the fort.
After six months of tedious delay four monitors came with the assurance
that a sufficient number of troops would coöperate. Two of these
monitors had single turrets, armored with ten inches of iron and
carrying two fifteen-inch Dahlgren guns--guns that used sixty pounds of
powder (and might have used a hundred) behind solid-steel shot weighing
440 pounds. The others had eleven-inch Dahlgrens.
Eventually a day for landing the troops on Dauphin Island was
fixed--August 4, 1864--and Farragut was to pass the forts and anchor in
the bay before daylight. The troops were landed, but Farragut had to
wait for some of his squadron that had failed to arrive. But during the
day they were all there. The wooden ships were prepared much as they
had been at the battle of New Orleans, and then all that was wanting
was a flood-tide to help sweep the ships, and a southwest wind to blow
the smoke of battle into the eyes of Fort Morgan’s gunners. As fortune
turned, Farragut got both early on the morning of August 5, 1864. It
had been raining the night before, and it is recorded that Farragut
could not sleep well. At 3 o’clock in the morning he sent a man on
deck to ask how the wind was, and the man brought word that it was
southwest.
“Then we will go in this morning,” said Farragut, and a few minutes
later the boatswains were turning out all hands on every ship of
the fighting squadron. It was not a long task to get the men to
quarters, but the ships had to be lashed together two and two,--the
little _Octorara_ on the off side of the _Brooklyn_, and the little
_Metacomet_ on the off side of the flagship _Hartford_, and so on, to
protect the little ones from the fire of Fort Morgan.
[Illustration: Farragut and Drayton on Board the _Hartford_ at Mobile
Bay.
_Drawn by I. W. Taber from a photograph._]
When this was done the line was formed in two columns, the monitors on
the right, next to the fort, in the following order of battle:
Monitors--starboard column: _Tecumseh_, 1,034 tons, two guns, Commander
T. A. M. Craven; _Manhattan_, 1,034 tons, two guns, Commander J. W. A.
Nicholson; _Winnebago_, 970 tons, four guns, Commander Thomas H.
Stevens; _Chickasaw_, 970 tons, four guns, Lieut.-commander George H.
Perkins.
Wooden ships--port column: _Brooklyn_, twenty-four guns, Capt. James
Alden; _Octorara_, six guns, Lieut.-commander Charles H. Greene;
_Hartford_, twenty-one guns, Rear-admiral David G. Farragut, Capt.
Percival Drayton; _Metacomet_, six guns, Lieut.-commander James E.
Jouett; _Richmond_, twenty guns, Capt. Thornton A. Jenkins; _Port
Royal_, six guns, Commander Bancroft Gherardi; _Lackawanna_, eight
guns, Capt. John B. Marchand; _Seminole_, eight guns, Commander
Edward Donaldson; _Monongahela_, eight guns, Commander James H.
Strong; _Kennebec_, five guns, Lieut.-commander William P. McCann;
_Ossipee_, eleven guns, Commander William E. Le Roy; _Itasca_, five
guns, Lieut.-commander George Brown; _Oneida_, nine guns, Commander
J. R. M. Mullany; _Galena_, ten guns, Lieut.-commander Clark H.
Wells. The _Octorara_, _Metacomet_, and _Port Royal_ were side-wheel
double-enders; the others were screw ships. All had been built for the
naval service.
The signal to move rose to the _Hartford’s_ masthead at 5.30 o’clock,
and by 6.10 the leaders were crossing the bar, heading for the narrow
passway marked by the red buoy just under the heaviest guns of Fort
Morgan.
[Illustration:
B. Brooklyn.
B1. Brooklyn backlog.
C. Chickasaw.
H. Hartford.
L. Lackawanna.
M. Monongahela.
Mh. Manhattan.
O. Ossipee.
On. Oneida.
R. Richmond.
R1 Richmond backing
T. Tecumseh.
T1. Tecumseh, Position of Wreck.
Ts. Tennessee (Confederate.)
W. Winnebago.
I. Position of vessel when Tecumseh struck the Torpedo.
II. Position of vessels when Tennessee passed down the Union line.
III. Conflict of Tennessee with the fleet.
IV. Selma surrenders.
Figures not attached to vessels give the soundings. Within the
channel they indicate depth in fathoms; beyond the dotted lines,
feet.
1. Octorara.
2. Metacomet.
3. Port Royal.
4. Seminola.
5. Kennebec.
6. Itasca.
7. Galena.
b. Buoy marking torpedo line.
g. Gaines (Confederate.)
m. Morgan. (Confederate.)
s. Selma. (Confederate.)
w. Water Battery.
? Anchorage before Tennessee was seen coming up to attack.
? Torpedoes.
* Light House.
Battle of Mobile Bay.
_From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_]
“It was a glorious sight to see those brave fellows wearing a smile of
joy upon their faces in view of such odds against them, and not knowing
how soon they and their comrades would be lying at the bottom of the
bay. All could not hope to escape this trying ordeal, when several of
the coolest officers calculated that at least six of the ships would be
blown up. They never stopped to consider whose fate this would be; all
they desired was to grapple with the enemy, and see the Union flag
floating over the forts that had been taken from their lawful owners.”
Slowly--too slowly, the squadron steamed in, the American flag
fluttering at every peak until within easy range, when the _Tecumseh_,
the leading monitor, hurled two fifteen-inch shot at the fort. There
was no reply, and the squadron continued slowly on with the monitors
blazing away.
The silence of the fort was ominous, for its garrison were waiting for
the shortest range; but at 7.7 o’clock, as the head of the squadron
drew in to make the turn at the red buoy, the time had come, and a
roaring blast of iron hail struck the leading ships. But ominous as
the silence of the fort had seemed, the result of their best aim was
insignificant, for only one shot did any damage worth mention, and that
one killed nearly all of a gun’s crew on the _Hartford_.
All the guns of the fleet that would bear were now opened on the fort,
grape and canister being chiefly used in order to drive the men from
the guns, and so steady was the rain of the small projectiles through
the fort’s portholes that the fire there was instantly slackened.
[Illustration: T. A. M. Craven.
_From a photograph owned by Mr. C. B. Hall._]
And then came the Confederate squadron from behind the fort to take
a position above the line of torpedoes to help repel the fleet. As
the _Tennessee_ opened fire the monitor _Tecumseh_, at the head of
the Union line, had her turret turned with portholes from the fort
while the guns were loaded. Captain Craven, intent on reaching the
_Tennessee_ as quickly as possible, saw that if he had to pass between
the red buoy and the fort, his route would be a crooked one, and
turning to the pilot at his side in the pilot-house, he said:
“It is impossible that the Admiral means us to go inside the buoy;
I cannot turn my ship.” He knew that outside the red buoy lay the
torpedoes, but saying “starboard” to the man at the wheel, he headed
the _Tecumseh_ straight for the Confederate ram. For a few minutes she
held her course undisturbed, but as the red buoy was brought abeam,
her bow was suddenly lifted out of water, she lurched heavily from side
to side, and then down she went bow first, her screw lifted up to view,
and with a minute or two of time between the shock and the sinking.
A torpedo had ripped open her hull. A few men in the turret climbed
out. Craven and Pilot John Collins both started for the opening in the
pilot-house, and then Craven drew back and said:
“After you, pilot.” But there was no afterward for Tunis Augustus
Craven. There was a chance for one, but not for two. “When I reached
the uppermost round of the ladder,” said Collins, “the ship dropped
from under me.” In all, ninety-two good men went down with their
immortal captain.
Farragut, who had climbed into the port main rigging of the _Hartford_,
where he could see over the smoke of battle, saw the _Tecumseh_ sink,
and turning to Capt. J. Jouett, of the little _Metacomet_ alongside,
asked him to send a boat to rescue some of the _Tecumseh’s_ crew. But
Jouett had already ordered the boat away, and it carried another hero
of that battle--Ensign H. C. Neilds. Neilds was only a lad, but he
sat unmoved in the stern of the frail craft as it passed out from the
shelter of his ship into the hurtling storm that ripped the water into
a misty spray. A moment later he remembered that his flag was not
flying, and standing up, as a Perry might have done, he unfurled the
flag, set it to its staff in the face of friend and foe, and then sat
down quietly to guide the boat on her mission.
Over on the monitors was still another hero--Commander Stevens, of the
_Winnebago_. He was of the old school of seamen, who believed that the
captain’s place was on the quarter-deck. The double-turreted monitor
had no quarter-deck, but Stevens, restive in the iron box, got out
on the deck between the turrets, and pacing to and fro alone in the
storm, gave his orders now to one turret and then another. And what
was more, the monitors were all driving ahead in the wake of the lost
_Tecumseh_--driving toward the torpedoes.
But just then the captain of the _Brooklyn_, being in the lead of all,
saw some little floats that marked the location of a nest of torpedoes,
and first stopped and then backed his engines. It was not the right
move for a ship in Farragut’s squadron to make, and it threw the line
into confusion, and held the ships under the hottest fire of the
fort--held the _Hartford_ in particular where the shot from the enemy
turned her gun-deck into a slaughter pen so that blood ran in streams
from her scuppers, and the splinters of her walls and bits of flesh and
clothing from the dead were scattered in a shower over the deck of the
gunboat lashed alongside.
As the _Hartford_ ranged up near the _Brooklyn_, Farragut, from his
perch in the rigging, asked what was the trouble, and the one word
“torpedoes” came back to him.
“D----n the torpedoes! Follow me,” said the admiral, and as the
_Hartford_ took the lead of her column, he signalled for “close order.”
A moment more, and the _Hartford_ had reached the torpedo nest. The
torpedo cases were distinctly heard striking against her bottom, and
their primers were heard snapping, but not one exploded.
It was at this time that Captain Drayton, of the _Hartford_, seeing
Farragut clinging to the shrouds just under the maintop, sent a sailor
up to make fast a slender rope from one shroud to another in such a way
that the admiral could not fall in case he was struck. It is so far
literally true that Farragut was “lashed to the mast.”
[Illustration:
Fort Gaines.
U. S. Fleet.
_Hartford._
Monitors.
_Tennessee._
Fort Morgan.
Battle of Mobile Bay.
_Front a painting by Admiral Walke._]
And then came the _Richmond_ with her consort to narrowly escape a
collision with the _Brooklyn_, but as she turned away, her broadside
was brought to bear fairly on the fort, and she opened such a rapid
fire that she was wholly hid from view. Admiral Buchanan, who had
watched her with more than ordinary interest because of a personal
friendship for Captain Jenkins, was led to say:
“What became of Jenkins? I saw his vessel go handsomely into action,
and then lost sight of her entirely.”
Nevertheless, Jenkins was there, and in a most active condition of
health. With the other larger ships, she helped to silence the forts so
far that the last ships of the line passed in with but slight damage.
But once inside the line of torpedoes--torpedoes that had failed
because made of tin that rusted away or because of other defects
in make--the Union squadron had to face the Confederate ships. The
Confederate gunboats had seemed of no moment at first, but as the
_Hartford_ advanced they retreated slowly, keeping within about 700
yards, and delivering an effective fire. Farragut sent the _Metacomet_
after them, and she disabled the _Gaines_, drove another flying back to
the fort, while the third, the _Selma_, kept on, with Jouett eager in
the chase. The two were soon in shoal water, and the man at the lead
on the _Metacomet_ called out a foot less water than she drew. It was
reported instantly to Jouett.
“Call the man in,” said Jouett. “He is only intimidating me with his
soundings.”
Fortunately, it was a soft mud bottom. The _Metacomet_ kept on. A
squall came to hide the _Selma_, but when it passed, Jouett was upon
her, and her flag came down.
Meantime the _Tennessee_ had run amuck among the Union squadron.
Her first attempt to ram was on the _Hartford_, but the _Hartford_
was swifter and handier, and so escaped. Then she passed the
_Brooklyn_, the _Richmond_, and the _Lackawanna_, and turned toward
the _Monongahela_. Captain Strong of this ship strove in turn to ram
the _Tennessee_, and each glanced from the other. Thereafter the
_Tennessee_ passed clear through the fleet, doing and receiving but
little damage. Then she turned near the fort to follow up the Union
squadron.
At about this time (8.35 o’clock) Farragut ordered the men on the
_Hartford_ sent to breakfast. Captain Drayton said:
“What we have done has been well done, sir, but it all counts for
nothing so long as the _Tennessee_ is there under the guns of Morgan.”
“I know it,” said Farragut, “and as soon as the people have had their
breakfasts I’m going for her.”
The mess kits were on the deck when word came down that the
_Tennessee_, instead of staying near Fort Morgan, as Farragut
had supposed she would do, was coming. In a jiffy the scouse and
coffee were sent back to the galley, and the men ran to their guns.
The anchor was slipped, and with signals flying to direct the
_Monongahela_, _Lackawanna_, and _Ossipee_ to ram the Confederate ship,
and the monitors to attack her, the _Hartford_ headed at full speed to
lead the ramming gunboats. In this the spirit of Farragut was shown
even more faithfully than when he braved the fire of the forts, for
the _Tennessee_ was a much more powerful ship than the _Merrimac_, and
the _Hartford_ was not so powerful as any of the steamers that lay in
Hampton Roads when the _Merrimac_ made her first raid. Indeed, one
involuntarily compares the action of Farragut on this day with that of
Goldsborough on the day that the _Merrimac_ ran down within range of
the Rip Raps, and defied a squadron gathered especially to ram her.
There was no hesitation at Mobile. The _Monongahela_ was the first to
reach the Confederate ship. Two raking shots were received, but at full
speed the _Monongahela_ struck her amidships on the starboard side, and
a minute later, as the two swung side by side, the _Monongahela_ gave
her a broadside.
And then came the _Lackawanna_ to ram the _Tennessee_ on the port
side. A good blow it was too; but as the _Hartford_ approached to give
a third blow, the _Tennessee_ turned so that she and the _Hartford_
struck bow to bow, but both glanced clear.
A broadside from the _Hartford_ also proved harmless, but the
_Tennessee_, that had been unable to return the fire for some time
on account of defective primers, managed to discharge one shell that
entered the _Hartford_, though it did no material damage. And then
the danger of mobbing a ship, as the _Tennessee_ was mobbed, became
apparent, for the _Lackawanna_, in coming around to ram again, struck
the _Hartford_ instead of the _Tennessee_, and narrowly missed sinking
her, while Farragut, by an equally narrow margin, escaped death, for he
was standing near where the _Lackawanna_ struck.
Meantime the three monitors were coming with all speed, the _Chickasaw_
burning tallow and tar to get up steam faster. Passing along the
_Tennessee’s_ port side, the _Chickasaw_ got under the stern of the
Confederate, and there she hung, working her four eleven-inch guns with
deadly accuracy. The monitors _Manhattan_ and _Winnebago_ both attacked
the _Tennessee_, but one of the former’s guns was accidentally spiked,
and the latter’s turret machinery failed, and it was the _Chickasaw_
that did the work.
“D----n him!” said the _Tennessee’s_ pilot afterward. “He stuck to us
like a leach; we could not get away from him. It was he who cut away
the steering gear, jammed the stern port shutters and wounded Admiral
Buchanan.”
And that was true. Both the bow and the stern port shutters were jammed
so that the guns of the _Tennessee_ could not be worked at the ends of
the ship. Her smoke-stack was shot away, and the smoke from the stump
poured down through the upper-deck gratings to fill the casemate, where
the temperature had risen to 120 degrees. Buchanan, to clear one of
the port shutters, sent for a machinist and personally superintended
his work for a few moments, when one of the _Chickasaw’s_ projectiles
struck the iron plating just outside where the machinist was at work,
and the concussion, although the shot did not enter, reduced the man to
a pulp, so that his remains were shovelled into buckets to be carried
away. Worse yet for the ship, an iron splinter was driven through the
admiral’s leg, breaking the bone.
It was near this time that the tiller chains were carried away, and
that completed the needed work of destruction. Capt. J. D. Johnson
took command of her when Buchanan fell, and for twenty minutes longer
endured the hammering while wholly unable to return the fire or steer
the ship. But to hold out longer under such circumstances was useless,
and the flag was hauled down.
As it happened, the flag had been shot down before, and it was flying
from a boat hook thrust up through a deck grating. The Union forces,
supposing the flag had been shot away again, continued firing, and to
end the matter Johnson went on the upper deck and waved a white flag.
Just then the _Ossipee_ came slicing through the water at top speed to
ram the _Tennessee_. Captain Le Roy was out on deck, and recognized
Johnson instantly as an old friend. Sheering the _Ossipee_ to one side,
he shouted cheerfully:
“Hello, Johnson, old fellow! How are you? This is the United States
steamer _Ossipee_. I’ll send a boat alongside for you. I’m Le Roy;
don’t you know me?”
The boat was sent. The American flag was hoisted on the _Tennessee_.
The battle was ended.
Farragut, in his report, gave special praise to the following men:
Capts. Percival Drayton and Thornton A. Jenkins; Commanders Mullany,
Nicholson, and Stevens; Lieut.-commanders Jouett and Perkins;
Lieutenants Watson and Yates; Acting-Ensigns Henry C. Nields, Bogart,
and Heginbotham; Ensign Henry Howard Brownell, Secretary McKinley, the
pilot Martin Freeman, Acting Volunteer Lieuts. William Hamilton and P.
Giraud. Of his crew he said: “I have never seen a crew come up like
ours. They are ahead of the old set in small arms, and fully equal
to them at the great guns. They arrived here a mere lot of boys and
young men, and have now fattened up and knocked the 9-inch guns about
like 24-pounders, to the astonishment of everybody. There was but one
man who showed fear, and he was allowed to resign. This was the most
desperate battle I ever fought since the days of the old _Essex_.”
[Illustration: The Confederate Ram _Tennessee_, Captured at Mobile.
_From a photograph._]
A consideration of this fight shows that the Union forces had their
blood up, and that nothing but an impregnable ship could have withstood
this onslaught. The _Tennessee_ was not that kind of a ship. The
defects in the shutters and the steering gear, and the inability to
keep up the fires after the smoke-stack fell, ruined her chances. These
matters must be emphasized because such defects are inevitable in ships
built during actual war. The Confederacy lacked ships just as the
United States would lack them in case a war with a first-class nation
were suddenly precipitated upon us, and the ships we should then build
would very likely fail, as the _Tennessee_ failed. It is worth noting
that not one shot penetrated the _Tennessee’s_ casemate, but one from
the _Manhattan_ bulged the wood backing of the armor into a mass of
splinters.
The _Tennessee_ lost two killed and ten wounded. The Union forces lost
fifty-two killed by shots, 120 drowned in the _Tecumseh_, and 170
wounded.
The _Chickasaw_ shelled Fort Gaines on the 6th, and it surrendered next
day. The fort on the other point was invested by the troops as well as
the ships, the shelling beginning on the 22d of August, and the next
day it surrendered. This effectually closed Mobile harbor as a port
for blockade-runners, but the city was not taken until the middle of
the next spring. The naval forces helped in bombarding the defences
about the city, but the only incidents of real importance to history
of this kind were the various losses from torpedoes. The bay was
swept for torpedoes thoroughly, and yet the _Milwaukee_ ran on one on
returning from a trip up to shell a fort near the city, and was sunk.
The _Osage_, in shifting her anchorage in a fresh breeze, was sunk in
like fashion. The wrecking steamer _Rodolph_, while going to raise the
_Milwaukee_, struck another and went down. Even after the Confederate
troops withdrew and 150 torpedoes had been removed from the Tombigbee
channel, two tugs and a launch struck torpedoes and were destroyed.
The danger from such obstructions had never been so well shown as at
Mobile.
CHAPTER XIV
TALES OF THE CONFEDERATE CRUISERS
THE MOST INSTRUCTIVE CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED
STATES--WORK ACCOMPLISHED BY AN ENERGETIC SEAMAN IN A SHIP HIS
BROTHER OFFICERS CONDEMNED--BRILLIANT WORK OF THE _FLORIDA_
UNDER JOHN NEWLAND MAFFIT--BAD MARKSMANSHIP AND A WORSE LOOKOUT
OFF MOBILE--A CASE OF VIOLATED NEUTRALITY--SEMMES AND THE
_ALABAMA_--THE BATTLE WITH THE _KEARSARGE_--WHAT KIND OF A MAN
IS IT THAT FIGHTS HIS SHIP TILL SHE SINKS UNDER HIM?--AMERICAN
COMMERCE DESTROYED--THE BRITISH WITHOUT A RIVAL ON THE SEA, AT
LAST, AND AT VERY SMALL COST.
The most instructive chapter in the history of the United States is
that relating to the deeds of the cruisers in the Confederate navy;
for, though few in number, they proved to the world that the over-sea
commerce of a nation at war could be swept away entirely by means so
inexpensive and of such little power as to be absolutely insignificant.
Consider the first Confederate cruiser worth mention--the _Sumter_. She
was a small coaster lying at New Orleans. Her cabins for passengers
were on deck, and her coal-carrying capacity was equal to but five
days at sea, and her hull was so frail that she was condemned by
a board of able Confederate officers who examined her. But Raphael
Semmes eagerly took hold of her. He cleared away the cabin hamper on
deck, overhauled her sails and rigging, mounted an eight-inch pivot
and some thirty-two-pounders from the Norfolk Navy Yard, and then did
one other thing to her worth especial mention: “The engine which was
partly above the water line was protected by a system of woodwork and
iron bars.” So says Semmes’ “Memoirs”; and that is important because
he said the captain of the _Kearsarge_, having used chains for armor,
was unchivalrous. He began work on April 22, 1861. On June 3d he put
her in commission under the name of _Sumter_. Thereafter some time was
spent in drilling the crew, and then he dropped down to the head of
the Passes to wait opportunity to get to sea. Very naturally he was
astonished to find that the _Brooklyn_, the only blockading steamer,
was lying out at sea instead of anchoring at the head of the Passes. He
was also astonished that he was not attacked by the _Brooklyn_ during
the nine days that he lay there, and the reader is likely to share his
feeling. And then came Sunday, June 30th. While the men on the _Sumter_
prepared themselves for the usual man-o’-war inspection, a report that
the _Brooklyn_ was off on a chase was received.
[Illustration: Raphael Semmes.
_From a photograph owned by Mr. C. B. Hall._]
Instantly preparations began for a run to sea. It was a hopeless
attempt in the eyes of one of her lieutenants, for he had been on the
_Brooklyn_, and thought her the faster ship; but Semmes was a daredevil
who would “make a spoon or spoil a horn.” As they approached the bar
the _Brooklyn_ was seen coming, and she was but four miles away when
the _Sumter_ crossed the bar. But she did not overhaul the _Sumter_.
There was a fresh breeze, and both ships made sail. The _Sumter_ had
large fore and aft sails, which enabled her, when they were set, to
lie closer to the wind than the _Brooklyn_ could do, and the _Sumter_
fairly ran her out of sight.
As the pilot left the _Sumter_ at the bar he said to Semmes: “Now,
Captain, you are all clear; give her h-ll and let her go,” and that
is just what Semmes did after “this bold and dashing adventure,” as
Porter calls it. Going to the south coast of Cuba, he fell in with
his first prize, a ship called the _Golden Rocket_, “from the Black
Republican State of Maine.” A gun--the first fired by any Confederate
naval officer afloat--brought her to, with the American flag flying.
She was found to be in ballast, and was, of course, burned. Her flag
was marked with her name and the date of capture, and stowed in a bag,
where many others came to keep it company, for Semmes saved all the
flags he captured, and when the _Alabama_ was at last shot from under
his feet he says: “I committed to the keeping of the guardian spirits
of that famous battle ground a great many bags full of ‘old flags,’ to
be stowed away in the caves of the sea as mementoes that a nation once
lived whose naval officers loved liberty more than the false memorial
of it, and who were capable, when it became ‘Hate’s polluted rag,’ of
tearing it down.”
Within three days Semmes captured five American vessels, three of
which he determined to carry into a Cuban port. On the fourth day,
being then off Cienfuegos, he saw three more come out, and by hoisting
false colors he disguised his ship so that they all proceeded on their
courses until a marine league or more from the coast, when they were
captured, and all taken into port. Semmes hoped that he should be
able to sell them as prizes, but the Cuban authorities, after proper
consideration, refused to allow this to be done.
In explanation of the refusal it should be said that when England
declared in favor of granting the South belligerent rights, orders
were issued that “required every ship-of-war or privateer of either
belligerent which should enter British waters to depart within
twenty-four hours afterwards, except in case of stress of weather, or
of her requiring provisions, or things necessary for the subsistence
of her crew, or repairs. In either of these cases she was to put to
sea as soon after the expiration of the twenty-four hours as possible,
taking in no supplies beyond what might be necessary for immediate use,
and no more coal than would carry her to the nearest port of her own
country, or some nearer destination. Nor, after coaling once in British
waters, was she to be suffered to coal again within three months unless
by special permission.” These orders were very annoying to the North,
because when made, the Confederates had not a single ship of any kind
afloat. It was simply excluding United States warships from what had
once been friendly ports. On the other hand, the determination that no
prizes should be sold in British ports was a hardship upon the South,
because it prevented the Southern cruisers, that were eventually sent
afloat, disposing of their prizes. Because of it the South did not
sell a single prize, for the other nations followed England’s lead in
this matter. But, on the whole, it must be said that while England’s
attitude toward the cruisers of the two belligerents was, by the letter
of the law, that of strict neutrality, the operation of this neutrality
was a much greater hardship to the North than to the South, considered
as national governments. The crews of the Confederate cruisers failed
to get any prize money, but they could “sink, burn, and destroy _ad
lib_.” They were about as great a menace to American commerce as if
they had been getting prize money. There is now no disputing the
oft-repeated assertion that England managed to maintain a neutrality
that should help the South and hurt the North as much as was possible
without causing open war with the United States.
Having failed to get his prizes sold in Cuba, because Spain had
followed England in refusing to allow such sales in her ports, Semmes
took another prize, the _Abby Bradford_, to Puerto Cabello, Venezuela,
hoping to find a market there. He says of this attempt:
“All these small South American towns are, more or less, dependent
upon American trade. The New England States and New York supply them
with their domestic cottons, flour, bacon, and notions; sell them all
their worthless old muskets, and damaged ammunition, and now and then,
smuggle out a small craft to them, for naval purposes. The American
Consul, who is also a merchant, represents not only those ‘grand moral
ideas,’ that characterize our Northern people, but Sand’s sarsaparilla,
and Smith’s wooden clocks. He is, _par excellence_, the big dog of
the village. The big dog was present on the present occasion, looking
portentous and savage, and when he ope’d his mouth, all the little dogs
were silent. Of course, the poor _Sumter_, anchored away off in the
bay, could have no chance before so august an assemblage.”
The _Abby Bradford_ was ordered to New Orleans, but the _Powhatan_,
Capt. D. D. Porter, captured her.
The _Sumter_ was at Puerto Cabello on July 26th. She had taken nine
prizes cruising in the island region of the Caribbean Sea. To follow
her in all the details of her voyage would be monotonous. The reader
can find the story in full, even to the number of ladies who showered
their favors upon the Confederate captain, for Semmes was so proud of
all of his conquests as to omit none. She was usually under sail, but
used coal in chasing, and was able to renew her supply at Trinidad as
well as other ports.
Meantime Semmes had been carrying a considerable number of merchant
seamen to abide the fate of the crew of the _Savannah_ (privateer) who
were held for trial in New York on a charge of piracy. Semmes informed
these merchant seamen that he should hang them if the _Savannah’s_ crew
were executed, and he says himself he should have done so, but does not
tell by what process of reasoning he concluded it would be right to
retaliate on men not engaged in warring against the Confederacy.
From Trinidad the _Sumter_ went down the Brazil coast to Maranham, and
thence to a point near the equator, where homeward-bound American ships
from South America crossed, and then back to the Caribbean Sea islands,
where, eventually, at St. Pierre, she was blockaded by the _Iroquois_.
The _Iroquois_’ captain made a mistake. He arranged with an American
shipmaster in the harbor to hoist signals, in case the _Sumter_ sailed
at night, to tell what course she was steering from the open roadstead.
The signals were duly hoisted as Semmes started away south, but Semmes
saw and understood them, and after running a mile or two with the
_Iroquois_ making all steam to head him off, he turned around and ran
away to the north and escaped.
The _Sumter_ now went to Spain, stopping at Cadiz, where she was not
cordially received, and from there went to Gibraltar, where, as Semmes
says, “the army and navy of Great Britain were with us almost to a
man,” while “the Yankee officers of the several Federal ships of war,
which by this time had arrived, were kept at arm’s length. No other
than the customary official courtesies were extended to them. We
certainly did not meet any of them at the club.”
However, if the _Sumter’s_ officers had a good time ashore, they were
unable to have one afloat, for the “several Federal ships” that had
arrived effectually blockaded her. The work she did and the fate of the
ship are thus summed up by Semmes:
“She cruised six months, leaving out the time during which she was
blockaded in Gibraltar. She captured eighteen ships, as follows: the
_Golden Rocket_, _Cuba_, _Machias_, _Ben. Dunning_, _Albert Adams_,
_Naiad_, _Louisa Kilham_, _West Wind_, _Abby Bradford_, _Joseph
Maxwell_, _Joseph Parke_, _D. Trowbridge_, _Montmorency_, _Arcade_,
_Vigilant_, _Eben Dodge_, _Neapolitan_, and _Investigator_. It is
impossible to estimate the damage done to the enemy’s commerce. The
property actually destroyed formed a very small proportion of it. The
fact alone of the _Sumter_ being upon the seas, during these six
months, gave such an alarm to neutral and belligerent shippers, that
the enemy’s carrying-trade began to be paralyzed, and already his ships
were being laid up, or sold under neutral flags--some of these sales
being _bona fide_, and others fraudulent. In addition to this, the
enemy kept five or six of his best ships of war constantly in pursuit
of her, which necessarily weakened his blockade, for which, at this
time, he was much pressed for ships. The expense to my Government of
running the ship was next to nothing, being only $28,000, or about the
price of one of the least valuable of her prizes. The _Sumter_ was sold
in the course of a month or two after being laid up, and being put
under the English flag as a merchant-ship, made one voyage to the coast
of the Confederate States, as a blockade-runner, entering the port of
Charleston. Her new owner changed her name to that of _Gibraltar_. She
was lost afterward in the North Sea.”
The next cruiser to be considered was named the _Florida_. She was
built at Liverpool under the name of _Oreto_. The American officials
learned, while she was building, that she was of the same model and
scantling as the best British gunboats of that day. She had ports for
four guns. On February 18, 1862, complaint was made to the British
government by the American representative charging that she was
building for use as a Confederate cruiser, whereat “orders were given
that she be vigilantly watched.” On March 3d she was registered in the
name of a member of a Sicilian firm, then in Liverpool, and cleared
for “Palermo, the Mediterranean and Jamaica” in ballast. She sailed on
March 22d with a crew of fifty men, but she went directly to Nassau, in
the Bahamas. When there she appeared as a merchant ship consigned by
Fraser, Trenholm & Co., of Liverpool, notorious as Confederate agents,
to their Nassau house. Here, on complaint of the United States consul,
she was libelled, and there was a farce of a trial in the Nassau
court. Of course she was released. It was proved that she had taken on
munitions of war, but these had been sent ashore again, and to the mind
of the court she was a genuine British merchantman. Meantime her crew
asked the British authorities to discharge them, alleging as a reason
for the request that they had been deceived when they shipped in her.
She had been represented as a merchantman, they said, but it was plain
she was a man-o’-war, and they did not want to fight. On this plea they
were at once discharged.
On August 2d she cleared for Havana, shipped twenty-two men of the
blockade-running class, went to a desolate island called Green Key,
and met a vessel that had brought out a first-class English armament of
two seven-inch rifles and six six-inch guns. Her new commander was John
Newland Maffitt, formerly of the American navy, and one who, because
of his good qualities, did not lose his friends there when he forsook
the flag. Maffitt was so pressed for men that he worked as a common
sailor himself to transfer the arms. In fact, every man on board worked
so hard that when one man came down with yellow fever the others took
it. The ship reached Cardenas, in spite of losses from the fever. While
still ill with the fever, Maffitt was compelled by the authorities to
go to Havana.
Finding he should never get a crew there, he decided on the desperate
expedient of running over to Mobile and braving the blockade, although
he had barely enough men to man the stoke-hole.
The blockaders were sighted on September 4, 1862, and Maffitt, with
just one man on deck to steer, hoisted the British flag, and headed
directly for the blockaders.
At that time Commander George H. Preble was in charge of the station,
and he had the _Oneida_ and _Winona_ under him. Seeing a boat exactly
like a British gunboat, and under British colors, and knowing that
British gun-boats were frequently sent alongshore to see whether the
ports were really blockaded, Preble was deceived. He called his men to
quarters and approached the stranger, but did not seem to have been
suspicious when he saw that she was running at full speed and had no
men on deck. He hailed her when near enough, and got no reply. Then
he fired, in rather slow succession, three shots across her bow. As
she still kept on he opened on her with a broadside, and the _Winona_
joined in.
The _Florida_ was but 300 yards away, and yet so wretched was the
American marksmanship, that the broadsides cut the rigging and tore
away the upper part of her bulwarks. One shell did, indeed, pass
through and through the _Florida_ near the water-line, to explode
beyond her, but it did her no material damage. She passed in clear.
The remarks which all the writers on the subject make about the narrow
margin of luck in the time fuse of that one shell are not adapted to
increase one’s respect for the ability of the gunners. It is a fact,
as already noted, that the gunners of the war of 1861 were not to be
compared in skill with those of 1812. And this is a subject that cannot
be impressed deeply enough on the minds of American readers. For we may
shout “Tirez! Tirez toujour!” as the Frenchman did, till we are blind,
and still suffer defeat unless we can hit the target when we fire.
As between John N. Maffitt, sitting alone on deck because unable to
stand--alone save for the man at the wheel--while his ship made that
desperate dash for home, and the Union forces wasting their ammunition
on the salt-sea air, one cannot hesitate long in bestowing his sympathy
even if Maffitt was an enemy of the flag. It was a most heroic deed
on one side and a sorry exhibit of incompetence on the other. On the
other hand, when Preble was dismissed the punishment was unjust, for
he had done his duty as he saw it. He had given his men all the target
practice that the regulations provided. The fault was not in the man,
but in the naval regulations that are careful to provide that every man
blacks his shoes daily and limit the target practice of the gunners to,
say, ten shots a year.
When Maffitt had recruited his health and a good crew, he found the
blockading squadron increased, among other ships, by the _Cuyler_,
Capt. Francis Winslow, that, because of her speed, was sent there
especially to take him should he run out. But little that worried
Maffitt. At 2 o’clock on the morning of January 16, 1863, he was ready,
and out he went.
[Illustration: The _Florida_ Running the Blockade at Mobile.
_After a painting by R. S. Floyd._]
The lookout on the _Cuyler_ saw him coming when he was a long way
from the bar, and notified the officer of the deck. Now, there was
a regulation on the _Cuyler_ which forbade the officer of the deck
slipping the cable until Captain Winslow was on deck to order it done.
By this regulation just a half hour’s time was lost. So the _Florida_
was away, passing between the _Susquehanna_ and the _Cuyler_ at a
distance of 300 yards while the _Cuyler_ was still at anchor. The
_Cuyler_ did get under way at last, and chased the _Florida_ until the
next night, when the _Florida_ changed her course and escaped.
The _Oneida’s_ crew saw the signal announcing the coming of the
_Florida_, and beat to quarters, but remained at anchor, although she
was one of the swifter vessels present. And she remained at anchor
until 3.50 o’clock, when, to quote her log, “having seen no vessel run
out, beat the retreat.” Porter calls this affair “the greatest example
of blundering committed throughout the war.” Certainly the captains of
the _Cuyler_ and the _Oneida_ were not fit for their commands.
Maffitt went to Nassau, where the British population went delirious
with joy over his success, and sold him coal to last three months,
instead of enough to last to the nearest Confederate port, as the
government orders had provided. Then Maffitt went cruising between
New York and Brazil. In the course of five months he took seventeen
prizes, and then went to Brest, France, where the ship was thoroughly
overhauled.
Meantime Maffitt fitted one of his prizes, the _Clarence_, with light
guns, and sent her cruising under Lieut. Charles W. Read. Read was as
brave and dashing as Maffitt. Between the 6th and 10th of May, 1863,
he took five prizes, shifting his flag to the fifth, the _Tacony_,
and burning the _Clarence_. Then he took ten prizes, including the
_Archer_, to which he made another shift. With the _Archer_ he came
to off Portland, Maine, and with small boats rowed in and cut out the
revenue cutter _Caleb Cushing_. The _Archer_ was a sailing ship. Read
burned the _Cushing_, but steamers overhauled him next day and he was
captured.
At Brest, Maffitt was relieved by Capt. Charles M. Morris, who took the
_Florida_ to Bahia, where Capt. Napoleon Collins, in the _Wachusett_,
found her. Morris thought he was safe, and with half his crew went
ashore. Collins rammed the _Florida_, fired a few shots into her, and
took her to the United States. That carrying her home was a very grave
mistake will soon appear; for a more open violation of a neutral port
was never recorded, and if a naval officer feels justified in such an
act he should not try to get prize money out of it, but make an end
of his capture as soon as possible.
[Illustration: “A Prize Disposed and one Proposed.”
(The _Florida_ in chase, having burnt the _Star of Peace_.)
_After a painting by R. S. Floyd._]
In considering violations of neutral ports, one may say that in
practice the neutral port of a weak power has always been violated
whenever there was any occasion for it. Moreover, since respect for a
neutral port is a matter of courtesy only, we may be sure that whenever
wars shall occur in future, weak neutral ports will be violated as they
have been in the past. It is a question of policy in each case, and
the captain of the aggressive ship must decide for himself whether the
circumstances warrant the insult to the weak power.
As to this particular case, it is the sentiment of the people of
the United States, if the writer knows that sentiment, that Captain
Collins was entirely justified in capturing the _Florida_, especially
as the Brazil authorities had permitted Semmes, of the _Alabama_, to
use Fernando de Noronha as headquarters, so to speak, while cruising
against American commerce. Indeed, Semmes took an American ship, the
_Louisa Hatch_, into the port at that island, coaled his ship from her,
and then towed her outside and burned her. While lying there, too, he
saw two American vessels in the offing, went out and burned them, and
came back again within a few hours to hobnob with the Governor. The
mouth of Brazil was stopped. If Collins had sunk the _Florida_ in
port or burned her outside, it would have been proper for the United
States government to set off the _Alabama’s_ case against that of the
_Wachusett_, and leave it to arbitration to decide which government
should pay damages. But the most interesting feature of this case is
found in the attitude of the British writers on the subject. When one
recalls how the _Essex_ was captured at Valparaiso after Porter’s too
generous treatment of Hillyar, and how the _Armstrong_ was attacked in
the Azores, and how the _Levant_ was taken at Porto Praya, one might
suppose that the British would be rather lenient with their cousins
across the sea, especially as blood is thicker than water; but we find
in a work printed in 1896, called “Ironclads in Action,” by H. W.
Wilson, a work that deals with ironclads as late as 1895, the capture
of the _Florida_ is denounced (page 151, vol. 1) as “disgraceful.”
The writer really goes out of his way to do this, for neither the
_Wachusett_ nor the _Florida_ was an ironclad in any sense. Moreover,
he asserts that “the _Florida’s_ officers were very badly treated,”
which is simply a false statement.
Nevertheless, there was one disgraceful feature of the _Florida_
affair. When Brazil demanded the restoration of the ship with her crew
on board in the harbor of Bahia, the United States agreed to give her
up, and Collins, who had captured her, was ordered to take her back as
a punishment for his violation of international law. But the _Florida_
never left the waters of the United States as a warship. She was lying
at Hampton Roads when the order was issued--lying “just at the spot
where the _Cumberland_ was sunk in very deep water. An engineer was
placed on board in charge with two men to assist him in looking after
the water cocks; but, strangely enough, although the _Florida_ was to
all appearances water tight when she reached Newport News, she sank
that night at 2 o’clock in ten fathoms.” “When the sinking of the
vessel was reported to Admiral Porter (he was there fitting for the
Fort Fisher expedition) he merely said ‘Better so’; while the Secretary
of State and Secretary of the Navy never asked any questions.”
Those quotations are from Admiral Porter’s “Naval History of the Civil
War,” and they are not unlikely to give the reader a choking sensation,
for they show that the sinking of the _Florida_ was the work of a
sneak--that the “two men,” when “looking after the water cocks,” opened
them under orders. The humiliating story is inserted here because the
shame of it should serve to prevent the necessity of ever writing
another of the kind.
The story of the _Alabama_ is longer but not more interesting than
that of the _Florida_. She was built by the Lairds and was known as
_No. 290_, because she was the 290th ship the firm had built. The
British government had full information that she was building for a
Confederate cruiser under the supervision of Commander James D. Bullock
of the Confederate navy, and, later, that Bullock was shipping men
(British subjects) for her, promising petty offices to this and that
capable man. The reader who wants to go into the details of this matter
will find plenty of them in an Englishman’s work on the “Neutrality of
Great Britain during the American Civil War,” by Mountague Bernard, of
Oxford University. It furnishes, curiously enough, abundant proof that
England escaped with a light penalty when in court in the matter of the
“_Alabama_ claims.”
The _Alabama_ was a perfect cruiser for her day--long, lean, and shoal
of draft. She was 230 feet long, only thirty-two wide, and she drew
but fifteen feet of water. She had the rig of a barkentine, with long
lower masts to give her plenty of fore and aft sail so that she could
lie closer to the wind than any ordinary square-rigged ship. She had
also a steam power able to drive her ten knots an hour, and her screw
propeller could be detached and hoisted out of water whenever it was
desirable to work with sails only. She carried eight guns, of which
one was a hundred-pounder Blakely rifle, mounted on a pivot forward;
one an eight-inch smooth-bore on a pivot aft, and six were thirty-twos
in broadside.
Semmes, for his activity in the _Sumter_, was ordered to the new
cruiser. He gathered his officers and crew at Liverpool, and shipping
the outfit of all kinds in the merchant ship _Bahama_, he, with all
hands, took passage in her. The cruiser, that was still known only
as _No. 290_, was allowed to go on a trial trip. Although the ship
was plainly a cruiser, and although men had testified under oath that
they had shipped in her as a Confederate cruiser, the law officer of
the customs authority decided that the evidence was insufficient,
and she did not return from that trial trip. She met the _Bahama_ at
Terceira, a Portuguese island, and there, a marine league from land,
on Sunday, August 24, 1862, _No. 290_ became the _Alabama_, and Semmes
her captain, in the usual form. She was without any doubt a Confederate
man-of-war. The people who still persist in calling her a pirate craft
are probably unaware that if she had really been a pirate the United
States would never have presented any claims against Great Britain for
the damages she did to American commerce. And as for Semmes, he is
entitled, in his official capacity as her captain, to as courteous
treatment at the hands of historians as any captains that ever went
afloat. Of his personal character it need only be said that he has
written it into his “Memoirs.”
To his “Memoirs,” also, the reader may be referred for details of
the burning of the hosts of American merchantmen that he captured.
From Terceira the _Alabama_ made a cruise against the whalers off the
Azores, and thence went to Martinique, where the American warship
_San Jacinto_ found her. But Semmes escaped on the night of October
20, 1862. His first prize of consequence after this adventure was the
_Ariel_ of the Panama line. She was expected to bring a million or so
in gold, but in this Semmes was disappointed.
From the place where the _Ariel_ was captured Semmes went to Galveston
to intercept the transports of the Banks expedition, of which he had
read in captured papers. As he approached Galveston, on the afternoon
of January 11, 1863, the _Hatteras_, a merchant steamer fitted with
guns, was sent off to inspect him. Semmes pretended to run, and so
drew the _Hatteras_ away from the other blockaders, and then at 7 P.M.
(it was dark of course) lay to for her. When the _Hatteras_ ranged up
and hailed, Semmes said his ship was “Her Britannic Majesty’s ship
_Vixen_.” Capt. H. C. Blake, of the _Hatteras_, said he would send
a boat, but when the boat had been lowered Semmes shouted, “We are
the Confederate steamer _Alabama_,” and fired a broadside. Semmes
was not at any time more than 100 yards away, and the _Hatteras_, a
paddle-wheel steamer, was soon riddled. Blake tried to get alongside
the _Alabama_ to board, but could not do it, of course, and the
_Hatteras_ was soon rapidly sinking. A lee gun was fired and help
called for. The living were all taken off by the _Alabama’s_ crew, save
the boat’s crew that had started to board the _Alabama_.
[Illustration: Raphael Semmes and his _Alabama_ Officers.
_From a photograph owned by C. B. Hall._]
The _Hatteras_ carried two short thirty-twos and two small rifles--a
twenty-pounder and a thirty-pounder--that she was able to bring to
bear. The prisoners were landed at Jamaica.
From this point Semmes went to the coast of Brazil, and then off to
the point near the equator where homeward-bound American Indiamen
cross the line. It was on the Brazil coast, in April, 1863, that he
gave the Americans good excuse, by his violations of neutral waters,
for the taking of the _Florida_. In July he went to the Cape of Good
Hope, and at Cape Town was even more heartily welcomed than he had been
at Gibraltar when in the _Sumter_. Here is the way he describes his
reception:
“During my entire stay, my table was loaded with flowers, and the most
luscious grapes, and other fruits, sent off to me every morning, by
the ladies of the Cape, sometimes with, and sometimes without, a name.
Something has been said before about the capacity of the heart of a
sailor. My own was carried by storm on the present occasion. I simply
surrendered at discretion, and whilst Kell was explaining the virtues
of his guns to his male visitors, and answering the many questions that
were put to him about our cruisers and captures, I found it as much as
I could do, to write autographs, and answer the pretty little perfumed
billets that came off to me. Dear ladies of the Cape of Good Hope!”
Perhaps while we are about it, it may be worth while to make one more
quotation to show the full extent of the gallantry of which Semmes
makes boast in every chapter. It will be found on page 620 of the
“Memoirs,” where he describes the Brazilian people, but no part of the
original is italicized:
“The effete Portuguese race has been ingrafted upon a stupid, stolid,
Indian stock, in that country. The freed negro is, besides, the equal
of the white man, and as there seems to be no repugnance, on the part
of the white race--so called--to mix with the black race, and with the
Indian, amalgamation will go on in that country, until a mongrel set of
curs will cover the whole land. This might be _a suitable field enough
for the New England school-ma’am_, and carpet-bagger, but no Southern
gentleman should think of mixing his blood or casting his lot with such
a race of people.”
At Cape Town Semmes was troubled a little by “the stereotyped American
consul; half diplomat, half demagogue.” The American consuls were in
chase wherever he entered a port, but the truth is that they were
rarely able to do more than accumulate facts that were eventually
handed in along with the bill for damages when the _Alabama_ claims
got into court in 1871.
Before reaching Cape Town a prize was turned into a cruiser, and she
was of some little consequence in the Cape waters, but did nothing as
compared with what the dashing Read accomplished on the American coast.
From the Cape of Good Hope Semmes went to the East Indies, where he
found a harvest of prizes, came back to the Cape, and eventually went
to Europe; and late at night, on the 10th of June, 1864, the _Alabama_
reached Cherbourg, France, which was her last port, for there the
_Kearsarge_, Capt. John A. Winslow, caught her.
[Illustration: John A. Winslow.
_From a photograph._]
It is to the credit of Captain Semmes that he had no wish to escape the
Federal ship, though he says that had he known that the _Kearsarge_
had been armored by placing iron cables on her sides opposite her
machinery he should not have done so. Ship for ship and crew for crew,
the _Alabama_ was inferior to the _Kearsarge_ by a greater extent than
has usually been told in history. In size they were practically the
same--1,031 tons for the _Kearsarge_ and 1,016 for the _Alabama_, but
the _Kearsarge_ was the swifter ship of the two. The _Alabama_ carried
eight guns, and she fired 328 pounds of metal at a broadside. The
_Kearsarge_ carried seven guns, and fired 366 pounds at a broadside;
but these figures do not fully tell the superiority of the guns of the
_Kearsarge_, for her two pivots were eleven-inch Dahlgrens, a style of
gun that, at the range of this battle, and in a fight between unarmored
ships, were far superior to the 100-pounder Blakely and the eight-inch
(sixty-four-pounder) smooth-bore on the _Alabama_. And, then, in the
crews the _Kearsarge_ carried 163 men, chiefly Americans, to the
_Alabama’s_ 149, almost exclusively Europeans. The officers of the
_Alabama_ were about the only ones who had any sentiment in the fight;
the men before the mast were at best filibusters--as ragged a crew
(mentally) as that of the _Bonhomme Richard_. That they should have
made any fight at all was due to the training received from men who had
been reared under the old flag. Another great difference was in the
powder, for that on the _Alabama_ was very old and bad.
The _Alabama_ remained in Cherbourg until Sunday, June 19, 1864, when
soon after 9 o’clock Semmes headed her out of the harbor. The French
ironclad _Couronne_ went along to see that the fight took place three
sea miles from shore, and a steam yacht, the _Deerhound_, followed to
give her owner and his family a chance to see a sea battle. The shores
were soon covered with equally eager if less fortunate spectators,
trains being run from Paris to bring people to the fight. And the
sympathy of nearly all the spectators was with the Confederate ship.
Captain Winslow steamed off shore until seven miles from land, and
then at 10.50 o’clock turned and drove the _Kearsarge_ straight at the
Confederate cruiser. At 10.57, when the ships were yet 1,800 yards
apart, the _Alabama_ yawed enough to open fire with a broadside. It
was aimed rather worse, perhaps, than that which the _Oneida_ fired
into the _Florida_ off Mobile, for the shot flew over the _Kearsarge_.
Two more broadsides were fired from the _Alabama_ as the _Kearsarge_
approached head on, but when the _Kearsarge_, at a range of 900 yards,
was seen to be heading to run across the _Alabama’s_ stern, the
_Alabama_ started off in a way that set the two ships running “in a
circle against the sun”--starboard side to starboard side, gradually
approaching nearer and nearer, while the current swept them slowly down
the coast.
[Illustration: Engagement between the U. S. S. _Kearsarge_ and the
_Alabama_ off Cherbourg, on Sunday, June 19, 1864.
_From a French lithograph._]
As this circling was started the _Kearsarge_ opened fire. Word was
sent to every gunner to “make every shot count,” and they obeyed. The
gunnery of the _Kearsarge_ was the best shown during the Civil War. The
_Alabama_ fired rapidly--she hurled 370 shot in sixty-five minutes,
of which only twenty-eight struck the _Kearsarge_. Of these, two were
turned by the chain armor, but had they penetrated they would have had
no serious effect. One shell penetrated the stern post, but failed to
explode. Had it exploded, the _Kearsarge_ would have had difficulty in
steering--perhaps she would have been made helpless; but the battle was
then so far done that the _Alabama_ would, at best, have been able to
escape.
The _Kearsarge_ fired only 173 shot, but so many of these struck home
that before the end of an hour the _Alabama_ was sinking.
Hoisting trysail and jib, Semmes headed for the shore, hoping to escape
with the aid of his sails, but it was too late. The _Kearsarge_ ran
across her bow to deliver a raking broadside, and then the _Alabama_
hauled down her flag. A little later a white flag was displayed, and
then it was seen that the _Alabama_ was rapidly settling in the water.
A boat put off from her to ask for assistance. The _Kearsarge_ sent
two boats to rescue the crew, and the steam yacht _Deerhound_ came up
to help also. Semmes seeing at last that she must sink, threw his
sword into the sea and leaped overboard, and while he swam for life the
_Alabama’s_ stern sank under the sea, the bow was lifted high out of
water, and down she went, with her bowsprit disappearing last of all.
There was some diplomatic trouble over the escape of a lot of the
_Alabama’s_ crew, including Semmes, on the _Deerhound_. The reader
will, perhaps, be able to determine the rights of the _Deerhound_ in
this case by putting himself mentally in her owner’s place. Suppose
Ireland should secede from Great Britain and an Irish cruiser should be
sunk in the presence of a Yankee yacht. Would the Yankee yacht-owner
deliver up the Irishmen’s crew to the triumphant British warship?
Certainly, if the Yankee yacht-owner was a politician, he would not do
so.
[Illustration: The _Kearsarge_ Sinking the _Alabama_.
_From an engraving._]
And, then, there were the virulent attacks on Semmes for swimming to
the _Deerhound_ instead of swimming to the _Kearsarge_. What would the
reader have done? What would that other “pirate,” John Paul Jones, have
done in a case like that?
It is now thirty-seven years since the _Alabama_ sank in the green
waves off Cherbourg. Those of us who were old enough to read the
newspaper extras that were issued when the account of it was
telegraphed home are old enough to know better than to call Semmes
a pirate.
[Illustration: Action between the _Kearsarge_ and the _Alabama_.
(Rescue of the crew of the _Alabama_ by the _Deerhound_.)
_From an engraving of the painting by Chappel._]
Semmes having escaped to England, was counted a hero there, and a
fine sword was given to him to replace the one he threw into the sea.
Let the prejudiced shipowner who lost money through the work of this
sea rover candidly ask himself what kind of a sea captain it is who,
knowing his force is inferior, sails boldly out to meet a watchful
enemy, and then fights till his ship is shot from under his feet.
Raphael Semmes earned the right off Cherbourg to have his name
inscribed in the list of the sea heroes of America.
The total number of prizes made by the _Alabama_ was sixty-nine, of
which fifty-three were destroyed, two had their cargoes only destroyed,
and eleven were bonded. The _Florida_ took thirty-seven, of which
twenty-eight were destroyed. While the number taken was but a small
percentage of the American merchant fleet, the effect of the captures
was to raise insurance rates, frighten shippers as well as shipowners,
and so prevent the employment of the ships at sea. The carrying trade
utterly abandoned American ships.
[Illustration: Whitworth Rifle Captured from the _Shenandoah_.]
There were a few other Confederate cruisers, the _Shenandoah_ being
the most important, although she did nothing but destroy the American
whaling and sealing fleet on the northwest coast. Her total number
of captures was thirty-six. What the cruisers did altogether might be
told in a list of the American ships destroyed, but it is better to
express the facts by saying that they literally swept the American
flag from the sea. England was obliged to pay $15,000,000 for the aid
she gave the Confederates in this work. As has been said, “she got off
cheap.” What she failed to do when she sent shiploads of war material
to help the Barbary pirates who were attacking American commerce, she
accomplished entirely when she allowed the Confederate warships to fit
out in her ports. She destroyed the only competitor on the high seas of
whom she had any fear. Does any one doubt that she did it deliberately?
From 1864 until this day in 1897 the maritime supremacy of Great
Britain has been undisputed. She paid $15,000,000 in damages, and every
year has collected in profits on the American carrying trade which she
then secured--who shall say how many times $15,000,000 her profits
on the American carrying trade are? Perhaps if the reader will learn
the answer to this question, he may make up his mind what the American
people ought to do about it.
[Illustration:
_Florida._
_Shenandoah._
_Alabama._
Three Famous Confederate Cruisers.
_From a painting by M. J. Burns._]
CHAPTER XV
THE _ALBEMARLE_ AND CUSHING
A FORMIDABLE WARSHIP WAS BUILT UNDER REMARKABLE CONDITIONS TO ENABLE
THE CONFEDERATES TO REGAIN CONTROL OF THE INLAND WATERS OF NORTH
CAROLINA--VERY SUCCESSFUL AT FIRST, BUT SHE WAS LAID UP TO AWAIT
THE BUILDING OF ANOTHER ONE, AND THEN CAME CUSHING WITH HIS LITTLE
TORPEDO BOAT, AND THE CONFEDERATE HOPES WERE DESTROYED WITH THEIR
SHIP.
THE loss of the control of the North Carolina sounds, as already told,
proved more damaging to the Confederate forces than they realized at
first, but they very soon began making efforts to establish themselves
there once more, and the oftener they were defeated in their hopes
the more determined they became. To tell the complete story of the
skirmishes that took place between the Dismal Swamp and Newbern
would be to give a hundred instances of the courage, enterprise, and
persistence of the men on both sides. There was the case of John Taylor
Wood, who, with a party of Confederates, boarded and destroyed the
Union gunboat _Underwriter_ under the eyes of the Union forces afloat
and ashore. As another instance, there is also the story of Cushing’s
trip up the New River Inlet with the _Ellis_, where he got into the
wrong channel and had to destroy her, and then row in an open boat for
a mile and a half under fire of the Confederates to escape. They were
all brilliant, but none of them was decisive in any way.
Eventually it became apparent that no dashing exploit could restore
Confederate supremacy there, and their hope was dying, when two
flatboat-builders living at Edward’s Ferry, on the Roanoke River,
offered to build an ironclad, somewhat on the plan of the _Merrimac_,
that should be able to navigate the shoal waters of the Sound and yet
be invulnerable to the shot of the Union gunboats. Because the water at
Hatteras Inlet was too shoal for any of the Union ironclads to pass,
it was reasonable to suppose a well-built craft could clear the Union
wooden gunboats from the waters of North Carolina.
The chief contractor for the boat that was, in accordance with these
ideas, laid down at Edward’s Ferry, was Mr. Gilbert Elliott. Naval
Constructor John L. Porter, who had rebuilt the _Merrimac_, was sent to
work out the plans, and Commander J. W. Cooke was appointed to gather
the outfit and supervise the construction.
Work began on her in January, 1863. Her keels (she was flat-bottomed)
were laid in a cornfield. A common country blacksmith shop was the only
“machine shop.” Her engines were put together from the scrap heaps of
the iron works at Richmond and Wilmington. The timbers were from good
pine logs, and her armor was like that of the _Merrimac_, but the ship,
as a whole, excited the amusement even of many of the Confederates
until she was afloat.
At this time the gunboats _Miami_, Capt. C. W. Flusser, and the
_Southfield_, Captain French, were stationed at the west end of
Albemarle Sound, rather in the mouth of Roanoke River, near Plymouth.
Flusser, as early as June 8, 1863, sent to Rear-admiral S. P. Lee,
then commanding the station, a very accurate description of the new
ironclad. An expedition was sent up the river to destroy her on the
ways, but it could not pass--at least it did not pass--the Confederate
forts. Then an appeal was made to Gen. John G. Foster, commanding
the Federal troops, to send a cavalry regiment to burn the ship, but
“General Foster expressed his unconcern about the rebel ram.” Sorrowful
to relate, the vigilant Flusser, and not the self-satisfied Foster,
suffered the penalty of this unconcern.
The _Albemarle_ was “122 feet over all, had forty-five feet beam and
drew eight feet of water. The casemate, built of massive pine timbers,
covered with four-inch planking, was sixty feet long, and was covered
with two layers of two-inch iron. The vessel was propelled by twin
screws, operated by engines of 200 horse power each. She was armed with
an Armstrong 100-pounder in the bow and one in the stern, while the
casemate was so pierced that they could be used as broadside or quarter
guns.”
She was not ready for action, however, until April, 1864. On the 17th
of that month the Confederate General Hoke advanced on Plymouth.
Captain Cooke, of the _Albemarle_, had promised to coöperate in order
to deprive the Union soldiers of the help of the Union gun-boats. The
_Albemarle_ was not quite ready, but she left her moorings with the
mechanics still at work screwing on her armor plates. While the foreman
shouted orders to the mechanics, naval officers alongside were drilling
the crew at great guns; and John N. Maffitt tells an amusing story of
how the orders were mingled: “Drive in spike No. 10! Serve vent and
sponge! On nut below and screw up! Load with cartridge!” And the fact
that all this was done is especially interesting when we remember that
the men equal to such an occasion were the kind to win, and they did
win in their first onslaught.
The Union forces had driven piles to keep her up the river, but, aided
by high water, the _Albemarle_ passed them with no delay whatever,
and just before midnight, on April 19th, the Union gunboats found her
upon them. The _Miami_ and the _Southfield_ had been yoked together
with long booms and chains in such fashion that the _Albemarle_ was
expected to strike in between them and there get caught at such short
range that their nine-inch Dahlgren projectiles would easily penetrate
her armor. But instead of going between them, the _Albemarle_ crossed
the _Miami’s_ bow and rammed and sunk the _Southfield_. Flusser bravely
worked his guns, but one shell that he himself fired against the
_Albemarle’s_ side broke into pieces, which, rebounding back, killed
him where he stood. Then the _Miami_ fled and Plymouth surrendered.
On May 5th the _Albemarle_ had another fight with a squadron gathered
to disable her. She was rammed by the _Sassacus_. The blow hurt
the _Sassacus_ more than the ironclad, and a few shot from the
_Albemarle’s_ guns sent the Union ship adrift and almost unmanageable.
She would have been entirely so but for a heroic engineer who kept
her engine going in spite of escaping steam in the engine-room.
The _Whitehead_, the _Mattabesett_, and the _Wyalusing_ also took
part, firing as rapidly as possible. The action is described in one
history as a “desperate battle.” The casualties on the Union side
in this desperate affair amounted to four killed, twelve wounded by
projectiles, and fourteen scalded by steam from a cut pipe. The hero
of the battle was Engineer J. M. Hobby, who stood at his post on the
_Sassacus_ in spite of the scalding steam when every other man fled,
and so saved the ship.
[Illustration: William B. Cushing.
_From a photograph._]
Thereafter the _Albemarle_ was tied up at the Plymouth wharf to await
the completion of another ship like her that was building on Tar River,
and this needless delay was fatal, for Lieut. William B. Cushing asked
for, and obtained, the task of destroying her, and he was of the kind
that succeed.
Cushing, after serving as a cadet nearly four years at the Naval
Academy, resigned on March 21, 1861--just why has never been told. In
May he entered the navy once more. He was made a master’s mate, and by
July, 1862, had obtained a lieutenant’s commission through repeated
“acts of successful daring.” He was with Rowan at Elizabeth City, and
obtained command of the _Ellis_, captured there. His courage, combined
with good judgment, continued to keep him in the eyes of his superior
officers. He was constantly looking for something to do, and when he
offered to destroy the _Albemarle_ he was allowed to try.
At about this time Engineer John L. Lay, U. S. N., had devised a
torpedo boat that consisted of a light steam launch rigged to carry
a torpedo at the end of a long spar--a torpedo that might be placed
against a ship’s side and fired by means of a string that led from the
trigger of the torpedo to the launch’s bow. It would be considered a
crude affair now, for the man operating the torpedo had to stand erect
in the bow of the launch, wholly unprotected even from musketry. Two
of these little boats were built in New York, and Cushing carried one
of them through inland waters to Albemarle Sound, Norfolk being then
in Federal hands. Admiral Ammen, in his history, complains that “the
newspapers had gratuitously furnished the enemy with information”
about all the movements of Cushing, “as well as the avowed object of
destroying the _Albemarle_.” The writer hereof was not a reporter in
those days, but he imagines that some naval officer told the reporters
where Cushing was going before the destination was announced in any
newspaper; though the matter is important only as a warning to naval
officers not to tell vital secrets to reporters. As to the effect of
this publicity, the Confederates put double lines of pickets along the
river below Plymouth, stationed 1,000 soldiers about the wharf, built
a boom of cypress logs around the _Albemarle_ at such a distance that
no torpedo spar could reach over it to the hull, and kept the sentries
on board, pacing to and fro at night, constantly on the lookout, while
an outpost was established in the river on the wreck of the sunken
_Southfield_, one mile down-stream.
It was in the month of October, 1864, that Cushing brought his boat to
the waters below Plymouth, and on the night of the 26th the gunboat
_Otsego_ towed the launch to the mouth of the river, where Cushing
cast off, and with a ship’s cutter loaded with armed men in tow of his
launch, he started up the river. The cutter’s men were to land at the
outpost, on the old wreck, if necessary, and care for the Confederates
there, while the steam launch was to be driven at full speed to the
_Albemarle_, a mile away. But luck was against the expedition. The
launch grounded, and before she could be gotten afloat day was at hand,
and Cushing returned to the _Otsego_.
And then came the night of the 27th. There were thirteen officers and
men in the launch with Cushing, besides the cutter load in tow. It
was a dark night, and with no light and with his machinery working in
perfect silence, Cushing steamed up the river. Cushing himself stood in
the bow, steering-wheel in hand, with a loaded howitzer on one side
ready for firing, and with the gear for working the torpedo on the
other. There were two schooners beside the old wreck; but the sentinels
failed to see Cushing, and wholly unobserved, he arrived opposite the
well-guarded ironclad, and then for the first time learned that the
boom was so far out from the ship that the torpedo could not reach her.
For a moment Cushing thought to land, walk boldly on board, and strive
to carry her out into the stream. But even as the thought came to him
he was discovered by the sentinels on shore, and a hail was heard.
“Boat ahoy!” followed almost instantly by a musket-shot, and then by
a rattling fire from an uncounted line of sentinels up and down the
shore and on the ship. A huge bonfire of fat pine knots blazed up to
illuminate the shore, and the call of the ship’s crew to quarters
arose on the air.
To the mind of any other man than a Cushing the expedition was a
failure, but casting off the cutter with orders to pull for life,
Cushing turned his launch out into the stream, swung her around in a
wide circle to give her full speed, and then headed straight at the
log-boom abreast of the fated ram. A host of Confederates gathered on
the ram’s deck to beat him off. Two howitzers loaded with canister,
and a score of muskets, were fired at him, and a man by his side
fell, but Cushing with his own well-aimed howitzer scattered the
Confederate host. And then the sled-runner bow of the launch struck
the half-submerged boom, rose with the impetus, and over she went
with her bow half under water, but inside the boom. The muzzle of a
hundred-pounder was shoved out through the _Albemarle’s_ broadside
port, directly in front of the launch, but Cushing drove the torpedo
under the hull of the ironclad, raised it up until he felt it strike
her bottom, and then, as the Confederates fired their big gun, he
pulled the trigger. A dull roar from beneath the ship answered to the
crash of the broadside gun. The charge of the gun flew over the heads
of the launch’s crew, but the torpedo opened wide the hull of the
_Albemarle_, and down she went.
[Illustration: Cushing Blowing up the _Albemarle_.]
The huge wave thrown up by the torpedo swept over the bow of the little
launch, and she, too, sank. Even then the fortitude and resourcefulness
of Cushing preserved him. Plunging into the river, he swam away unhurt
and reached the swampy shore below, utterly exhausted. There he lay in
the water until day was breaking, when he crawled into the woods and
hid himself. While lying there he heard two men talking as they walked
in an alongshore path, and learned how complete had been his work.
During the day he found one of the enemy’s picket-boats, and that night
he paddled his way off to the _Valley City_, where he arrived at 11
o’clock at night.
He was only a boy--he was but twenty-one years old--but no man, old or
young, has ever surpassed him. He was officially complimented by the
Secretary of the Navy, and this was the fifth time that the department
had “had the gratification of expressing its approbation” of his
conduct. He had said when leaving the _Otsego_, “another stripe or a
coffin,” and he got the stripe. But no gold medal was voted to him.
Gold was at a premium in those days--so high a premium, apparently,
that Congress could not afford it. The writer does not mean to carp,
but to deplore the fact that men who during the Civil War showed the
most magnificent qualities of mind did not receive every recognition
possible. For it is the men who write rank with a capital R that make
and save the nation.
It is comforting to note that of the launch’s crew but two were killed,
though all the rest were captured except Cushing and one other. The
following is a list of the crew:
“William B. Cushing, Lieutenant, commanding expedition, escaped;
William L. Howarth, Acting-Master’s Mate, picket-boat; William
Stotesbury, Acting-Third-Assistant Engineer, picket-boat; John Woodman,
Acting-Master’s Mate, U. S. S. _Commodore Hull_, drowned; Thomas S.
Gay, Acting-Master’s Mate, U. S. S. _Otsego_; Charles S. Heener,
Acting-Third-Assistant Engineer, U. S. S. _Otsego_; Francis H. Swan,
Acting-Assistant Paymaster, U. S. S. _Otsego_; Edward T. Horton,
ordinary seaman, U. S. S. _Chicopee_, escaped; Bernard Harley, ordinary
seaman, U. S. S. _Chicopee_; William Smith, ordinary seaman, U. S. S.
_Chicopee_; Richard Hamilton, coalheaver, U. S. S. _Shamrock_; R. H.
King, landsman, picket-boat; ---- Wilkes, landsman, picket-boat; ----
Demming, landsman, picket-boat; Samuel Higgins, first-class fireman,
picket-boat, drowned.”
Cushing became a commander in 1872, and he was then the youngest man
of the rank. He died of brain fever at Washington in 1874. He was
tall (six feet) and slender, and, as his portrait shows, looked more
like a poet than a warrior. And the student of history who reads his
dispatches will say that he was both.
With the destruction of the _Albemarle_ the hope of the Confederates
fled. But two seaports remained to them--Charleston and Wilmington.
CHAPTER XVI
THE NAVY AT CHARLESTON
IT WAS A WELL-GUARDED HARBOR, AND THE CHANNEL WAS LONG AND
CROOKED--THE “STONE FLEET” AND THE ATTITUDE OF FOREIGN
POWERS--BRIEF CAREER OF TWO CONFEDERATE IRONCLADS--THE BLOCKADE
WAS NOT RAISED--A CONFEDERATE CRUISER BURNED--UTTER FAILURE OF THE
IRONCLAD ATTACKS ON THE FORTS--CAPTURE OF THE CONFEDERATE WARSHIP
_ATLANTA_--“BOARDERS AWAY” AT FORT SUMTER--MAGNIFICENT BRAVERY OF
THE MEN WHO MANNED THE CONFEDERATE TORPEDO BOATS.
When the student of American history turns from the stories of the
battles of New Orleans and Mobile to that of the naval efforts to
reduce Charleston, he is driven to a conclusion that may be expressed
by saying there was only one Farragut in the Civil War. He may easily
believe that both Dupont and Dahlgren were great men, but their
absolute failures before Charleston simply emphasize the fact that
Farragut earned the place he has held in the hearts of his countrymen.
[Illustration: Charleston Harbor.
_From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_]
The chart of Charleston harbor in these days is somewhat misleading to
a careless reader of history, because the channel now used by shipping
runs straight out to sea, while the channel used in the days of the
war is comparatively shoal, and is used by coasters only. In the time
of the war a ship bound into Charleston must needs sail in toward the
coast several miles south of the harbor, the exact point to be steered
for being marked by a tall lighthouse. Arriving within half a mile or
so of the beach, the ship turned to the north and followed along the
shore of Morris Island, which terminates in a long sandy point called
Cumming’s Point, very much like Sandy Hook of New York harbor. Above
Cumming’s Point the channel swept away to the northwest until Fort
Sumter was reached, when it turned still further to the west, passing
Forts Ripley and Pinckney, and then the piers were reached.
The Union warships had to face earthworks from the moment they arrived
within range of the tall lighthouse. There were, early in the war, guns
at intervals all the way from Light House Inlet to Cumming’s Point,
guns laid with muzzles out to sea and commanding the channel along
the shore of Morris Island. The chief of these batteries was called
Fort Wagner, and it stood on the beach about three miles north of the
lighthouse, or say a mile south of Cumming’s Point; but there was
another good work (Fort Gregg) on Cumming’s Point, and even before that
was passed a ship came in range of Fort Beauregard and Fort Moultrie
over on the north side of the harbor (Sullivan’s Island), and, later,
of Fort Sumter, on an island midway between the north and south
shores of the harbor, and of Fort Johnson, lying on the south side
of the harbor. There were other earthworks about the harbor, and the
two little island forts of Ripley and Pinckney ought, perhaps, to be
considered, although they did nothing of consequence in the fighting.
[Illustration: Battery Brown: Twenty-eight-inch Parrott Rifle.
_From a photograph by Haas & Peale._]
These forts were armed during the attack made upon them on April 7,
1863, with the following guns that could bear upon the ships: Ten
ten-inch smooth-bores, three nine-inch smooth-bores, two eight-inch
rifles, nineteen eight-inch smooth-bores, eight thirty-two-pounder
rifles, eighteen thirty-two-pounder smooth-bores, and ten ten-inch
mortars. No detailed account is given of the landward bearing guns of
these forts, but it may be said that the forts on Morris Island and
James Island were well fitted to repel troops, while the harbor forts
Moultrie and Sumter had nothing of account bearing toward the inner
part of the harbor.
[Illustration: In the Charleston Batteries: 300-pounder Parrott Rifle
after Bursting of Nozzle.
_From a photograph by Haas & Peale._]
In addition to the forts, there were a lot of torpedoes, beginning in
the channel off Fort Wagner and continuing around to a line of logs
and chains stretched from Fort Sumter across the channel to Sullivan’s
Island. It makes the gray-haired men of Charleston smile, in these
days, when these channel obstructions are mentioned; for, as Bishop
John Johnson--he who wrote “The Defence of Charleston Harbor,” a work
that is entirely fair and most interesting--said to the writer: “The
_moral_ effect of these obstructions was excellent--excellent.” And so
it was.
The first thing of importance done in Charleston harbor after
establishing the blockade was in the line of strengthening the
blockade, and not an attempt to reduce the city. This was the sinking
of the “Stone Fleet.” On December 20, 1861, twenty old hulks of ships,
well loaded with stone, were sunk in the channels. The importance of
this work is found only in the fact that it brought out conspicuously
the exact attitude of the British government toward that of the United
States.
Let the reader observe, first of all, that the hulks were “so disposed
as to obstruct navigation without impeding the flow of water.” They
were “intended to establish at Charleston a combination of artificial
interruptions resembling on a small scale those of Hell Gate or
Holmes Hole, and producing, like them, eddies, whirlpools and counter
currents, such as to render the navigation of an otherwise difficult
channel hazardous and uncertain.” The last quotation is from a letter
from Lord Lyons at Washington to the British Prime Minister.
Whether a nation has a right to close permanently a channel of commerce
wholly within its own borders is a question that has never been decided
by any international court, or any writer on international law, for
that matter. At any rate, it is quite certain that if England chose
to dam permanently a harbor as a war measure, she would not receive
in kindly spirit any interference from a foreign power. But the fact
is that the “Stone Fleet” was not sunk in Charleston’s channels with
any idea that the hulks would “permanently injure” the harbor. It was
well known to engineers in England, as well as in the United States,
that when tidal currents over such sands as those at Charleston were
interrupted in one place, they would cut new channels. It was further
well known that these obstructions could be removed readily whenever
there was need of doing so. With these facts in mind, the following
extract from a letter of instructions written by Lord Russell to Lord
Lyons about the “permanent” closing of Charleston harbor is of interest:
“Such a cruel plan would seem to imply despair of the restoration of
the Union, the professed object of the war; for it never could be the
wish of the United States government to destroy cities from which
their own country was to derive a portion of its riches and prosperity.
Such a plan could only be adopted as a measure of revenge and of
irremediable injury against an enemy. Lord Lyons was further told
that even as a scheme of embittered and sanguinary war such a measure
would not be justifiable. It would be a plot against the commerce of
all maritime nations, and against the free intercourse of the Southern
States of America with the civilized world.”
The protest of France was of the same tenor, and when the French
Chambers and the British Parliament met in January and February, 1862,
the subject was vehemently discussed.
This was one of the first of a series of attempts made by the British
government to aid in the destruction of the Union--a series that did
not end until the United States laid the keels of a fleet of ships
of which the _Wampanoag_ was the type--ships that could carry a few
one-hundred-pounder rifles and steam at the then unequalled rate of
seventeen knots per hour. That the British government became friendly
after the trial trip of the _Wampanoag_ had been described in print is
one of the most instructive incidents in the history of the American
navy. If it be coupled with the facts that before the building of the
modern Yankee White Squadron the British government refused even to
consider a proposition for a general arbitration treaty between the
two English-speaking nations, and that since the efficiency of the
Yankee ships has been demonstrated the British were particularly in
favor of such a treaty, the incident proves--but let the candid reader
consider this matter in all its bearings for himself. The hull of the
_Wampanoag_ was designed by Constructor Delano, and the machinery by
Engineer Isherwood. And it is written, “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
For a year after the sinking of the Stone Fleet the Union squadron off
Charleston did nothing but the tedious work of interrupting commerce.
During this time the Confederates, although Charleston had had nothing
in the semblance of a shipyard, had been building two ironclads
there, called the _Palmetto State_ and the _Chicora_. Commodore D. N.
Ingraham supervised the work. They were from plans by John L. Porter,
the enterprising constructor of the _Merrimac_, and they were somewhat
like her, though but 150 feet long by thirty-five broad, with a draft
of twelve feet. They had the same kind of iron armor, backed by
twenty-two inches of wood, and their guns included sixty-pounder and
eighty-pounder rifles and some larger shell guns. The plating covered
the ram-shaped bows, and was continued five feet below the water-line.
On the morning of January 31, 1863, the warships _Housatonic_,
_Ottawa_, and _Unadilla_, with the armed merchantmen _Mercedita_,
_Keystone State_, _Quaker City_, _Memphis_, _Augusta_, _Stettin_,
and _Flag_ were lying at wide intervals off Charleston harbor. There
was a heavy fog lying low on the water. At 4.30 o’clock a ship
suddenly appeared in the mists abeam of the _Mercedita_, Capt. Henry
S. Stellwagen. The officer of the deck on the Union ship, manifestly
believing the stranger was one of the blockading force, shouted:
“What steamer is that? Drop your anchor or you will be into us!” The
reply that came was startling. It was made by Commodore Ingraham, and
he said:
“The Confederate States steamer _Palmetto State_,” and he emphasized
the answer with a shell that killed one man, cut through the condenser
and the steam-drum above one of the _Mercedita’s_ boilers, and then
exploded just short of the further side of the steamer, tearing a
great hole in her side near the water-line. The shot and escaping
steam killed four, and as many more were scalded. They were at the
mercy of the ironclad, and they believed the ship was sinking. When
the Confederates demanded that the _Mercedita_ surrender, Lieut. T.
Abbott was sent in a small boat to the _Palmetto State_, where he gave
a parole for all the members of his crew.
This done, Commodore Ingraham left the _Mercedita_ alone, and went
hunting other blockaders. Meantime the _Chicora_ found the _Keystone
State_, Capt. William E. LeRoy. A shell was fired at the _Chicora_,
Capt. J. R. Tucker, and the Confederates returned it with a shot that
set the _Keystone State_ on fire, and she steered away in the fog to
escape until she had extinguished the fire, when she turned toward a
black smoke, intending to ram the vessel making it. It proved to be a
Confederate ship cruising in the fog for blockaders, but the _Keystone
State_ failed to ram her. Worse yet, the Confederate projectiles
cut the _Keystone State’s_ steam-pipes and pierced her below the
water-line. It was an ironclad against a frail merchant ship, and there
could be but one result. The merchant ship surrendered. She had lost
twenty killed and as many wounded before she did so.
[Illustration:
GENERAL MAP
OF
CHARLESTON HARBOR,
SOUTH CAROLINA.
Showing Confederate Defences and Obstructions.
ARMAMENT OF REBEL FORTS.
FEBRUARY 18, 1865.]
Meantime the _Palmetto_, Commodore Ingraham, had been cruising about
and exchanging shots with some other ships of the blockading squadron,
but they being of superior speed, easily avoided her, according to
the Confederate accounts. The Union reports say that the _Unadilla_
and _Housatonic_ came to attack her instead of running. In any
event, the two Confederates had accomplished everything possible in
compelling the surrender of the two Union ships. They could not even
take the surrendered ships into port. “I knew that our only opportunity
was to take the enemy unawares, as the moment he was under way, from
his superior speed, we could not close with him,” says Ingraham in
his report. He therefore “led the way to the beach channel.” He did
not make any attempt to carry either of the surrendered vessels with
him. The two Confederate ships started for home at 7.30, according to
Tucker’s official report, “leaving the partially crippled and fleeing
enemy about _seven miles clear of the bar_, standing to the southward
and eastward.”
However, when the _Cossack_, with the 176th Pennsylvania militia on
board, reached the bar at 8.30 o’clock, it found all but two or three
of the blockading squadron in the usual places, as her officers and
the officers of the regiment testified. Neither the _Unadilla_ nor
the _Housatonic_ had passed beyond the usual line of blockade. No
blockade-runner passed in or out during the fight, and, according to
Tucker’s report, the retreating rams anchored under the shore batteries
at 8 o’clock. And that was the only service rendered by these rams.
All this is important only because Robert Bunce, the British consular
agent; Baron de St. Andre, consul for France, and Señor Francisco
Moncada, consul for Spain, “at a joint conference concurred in the
opinion that the blockade had been legally raised.” Wilson, the
British author of “Ironclads in Action,” says of the surrender of the
_Mercedita_:
“The ram, without stopping to take possession, ran north, and
the _Mercedita’s_ captain promptly rehoisted his flag. This very
questionable proceeding he could scarcely justify on any grounds.”
There is nothing in any report on either side to show that the flag was
“promptly” rehoisted. There is nothing to show that Ingraham had any
idea of taking possession of the _Mercedita_. In fact, he had no such
idea. Scharf’s “Confederate States Navy” says (and, fortunately for
this occasion, Scharf is a violent partisan rather than a historian)
that “other vessels of the fleet assisted her to Port Royal for
repairs.”
The Confederates followed this success by capturing the gunboat _Isaac
Smith_ in the Stono River, where, when scouting, she got among the
Confederate batteries. Then the Union forces had a turn of good luck.
The Confederate cruiser _Nashville_ had been lying blockaded for a
long time in the Great Ogeechee River. Fort McAllister guarded the
river, and a line of piles prevented a dash past the fort, but Capt.
John L. Worden, who commanded the _Monitor_, took a new monitor, the
_Montauk_, to the line of piles, on February 28th, and while four other
Union vessels fired on the fort, Worden shelled the _Nashville_ at a
range of 1,200 yards. The fort gunners kept up a furious but wild fire
on Worden’s boat, but he got the range and burned the cruiser. Worden
was always at least as proud of this event as he was of his fight with
the _Merrimac_, and he had a right to be, for the marksmanship of his
gunners was very much better on this occasion.
[Illustration: Ironclads and Monitors Bombarding the Defences at
Charleston.
_From an engraving._]
After all this preliminary work came the first serious attack on the
Charleston defences.
“The order of battle was as follows: The _Weehawken_, Capt. John
Rodgers, with a raft on the bows to explode torpedoes, led the line;
the _Passaic_, Capt. Percival Drayton; the _Montauk_, Capt. John L.
Worden; the _Patapsco_, Commander Daniel Ammen; the _New Ironsides_,
Commodore Thomas Turner (as flagship), followed by the _Catskill_,
Commander George W. Rodgers; the _Nantucket_, Commander D. M. Fairfax;
the _Nahant_, Commander John Downes, and the _Keokuk_, Commander A. C.
Rhind.
“The vessels were ordered to pass without returning the fire from
batteries on Morris Island; when within easy range of Fort Sumter
they were to open upon it, and take position to the north and west, at
a distance of 800 yards, firing low, and at the centre embrasure. The
necessity for precision of fire was enjoined.”
Of these nine ships the _New Ironsides_ was a big broadside steamer
with heavy iron plating, and she carried two 150-pounder rifles and
fourteen eleven-inch Dahlgrens. The _Keokuk_ was a sort of monitor
with two fixed turrets, and the others were new monitors carrying one
fifteen-inch Dahlgren, the solid shot of which weighed 440 pounds,
and one eleven-inch Dahlgren, save only that the _Patapsco_ carried a
150-pounder rifle in place of the smaller Dahlgren.
On April 7th this formidable squadron steamed up the channel. They did
not get started until 1.15 P.M. because of the fouling of the big raft
that was expected to serve as a torpedo-catcher in front of the leading
monitor (_Weehawken_), but at 2.50 o’clock the squadron was within
range of Fort Moultrie, and the Confederates opened fire. It was a
battle in enclosed water--the Confederate gunners had the range marked
to a yard with colored buoys, and the fire was hot from the first gun.
But the squadron steamed slowly on until within about 1,000 yards of
Fort Sumter. There is a clash of authorities as to the exact distance,
but the point is of no consequence because it is certain that the
distance of the ships was in no case less than 800 yards from Sumter.
At 3.05 the ship at the head of the line opened fire. “A fifteen-inch
shell fired at Sumter was watched until it struck on the northeast
face; the fort was covered with a mass of dust from the bursting
shell.” So says Ammen, and that tells the whole story of the effect of
the attack. It kicked up a mighty dust. Some of the ships, including
the flagship, became unmanageable. “Disregard motions of flagship” was
signalled by Admiral Dupont, commanding. The ships were in a turmoil
because of the tidal currents and the difficulty of seeing through the
peep-holes and through the smoke. But they did not try to pass into the
harbor and attack the forts in the rear. Capt. John Rodgers, of the
_Weehawken_, in his report, tells why for himself and all the squadron:
“We approached very close to the obstructions extending from Fort
Sumter to Fort Moultrie--as near, indeed, as I could get without
running upon them. They were marked by rows of casks very near
together. To the eye they appeared almost to touch one another, and
there was more than one line of them.
“The _appearance was so formidable_ that, upon deliberate judgment, I
thought it right not to entangle the vessel in obstructions which I did
not think we could have passed through.”
The obstructions were really of no account, and there was, moreover, an
opening through them.
“After braving the fire of sixty-nine guns for about an hour, the
ironclads retired, some of them seriously injured. The _Keokuk_ had
drifted much nearer than she intended to do. She was struck ninety
times in thirty minutes, and nineteen shots pierced her armor.” “In
short, the vessel was completely riddled.” She went down next day.
The _Nahant_ was disabled for one day, and was not in good order for
a month. The _New Ironsides_ was for a long time over an electrical
torpedo containing 3,000 pounds of powder, but the firing apparatus had
been improperly adjusted, and she escaped. The Confederates thought
she escaped through treachery, and it is said they executed the man in
charge. The Confederate ironclads had no part in this battle. And the
Confederates had fewer guns than at Mobile.
Dupont wrote regarding this attack: “During the few minutes that we
were under the heaviest fire of the batteries, half of our turret-ships
were in part, or wholly, disabled. We have only encountered the outer
line of defence, and if we force our way into the harbor, we have not
men to occupy any fort we may take, and we can have no communication
with our force outside except by running the gauntlet.... We have met
with a sad repulse; I shall not turn it into a great disaster.”
Chief Engineer A. C. Stimers, who had been in the original _Monitor_,
was so disgusted with the result of the battle that he could not
help expressing his opinion forcibly in Dupont’s presence. He was
court-martialled and acquitted. There was no Caldwell to break the
chain running from Sumter to Moultrie, and there was no Farragut to
plan to go in, as at Mobile, where he believed that six of his squadron
must be sacrificed to make the passage, or to say “Damn the torpedoes!”
when once the start was made.
[Illustration: Confederate Ironclad _Atlanta_, Captured at Wassaw
Sound, June 17, 1863.
_From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_]
In June a couple of Dupont’s monitors had a successful fight with
another Confederate ironclad. She was originally a thirteen-knot iron
steamer called the _Fingal_, a Scotch boat. Having run the blockade at
Savannah, she was cut down and decked over, and a casemate was erected
in the favorite fashion of John L. Porter. But she was broadened out
with solid timbers bolted outside the hull until she had sides seven
feet thick at the water-line. Her armor-plates were the same as the
_Merrimac_ carried except that they were not of such good metal, and
the wood backing of the armor was but eighteen inches thick, although
the power of the fifteen-inch guns she would have to face was well
known. She carried four of the excellent Brooke guns so mounted that
they could fire ahead or in broadside. The speed of the ship was
reduced by the weight to eight knots. She was named the _Atlanta_, and
was commanded by Lieut. William A. Webb.
[Illustration: The _Weehawken_ and the _Atlanta_.
_From a wood-cut._]
On June 17, 1863, she came down the Wilmington River, where the
_Weehawken_ and the _Nahant_ were waiting for her. Several excursion
steamers brought big loads of people to see her whip the monitors.
She opened fire on the _Weehawken_ at a range of a mile and a half,
and fired, in all, eight shots, of which not one hit the monitor. The
_Weehawken_ replied when at a range of 300 yards. The shot pierced the
_Atlanta’s_ casemate, and wounded sixteen men with splinters. The next
shot from the monitor struck the _Atlanta’s_ pilot-house, wounding
both pilots and both wheelsmen. Three more shots were fired with less
effect, but it was seen that the two monitors could shoot her to
pieces, and Webb hauled down his flag. The action had lasted fifteen
minutes.
[Illustration: John A. B. Dahlgren.
_From a photograph._]
Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren, whose name is familiar as a designer of
great guns, relieved Dupont on July 6, 1863. The Union forces under
General Gillmore were landed on the lower end of Morris Island, and
Gillmore and Dahlgren planned a combined attack on Fort Wagner. It was
made on the 10th. “At 9.30 the monitors opened on the work. The Admiral
desired to get within grape-shot range, but was not able to get closer
than about 1,200 yards, by reason of shoal water. The fire was promptly
and vigorously returned till noon, when the monitors dropped down
to allow the men to have dinner, after which they re-occupied their
position and continued firing until 6 P.M., and then withdrew, the men
having been fourteen hours employed. The weather was excessively hot.
Five hundred and thirty-four shell and shrapnel were fired during the
day.”
There were then ten or twelve guns on the seaward side of Wagner; but
as Ammen says of Dupont’s attack on Sumter, “the effect of the fire
of the vessels on the fort was not so observable as that of the enemy
on the vessels.” The troops were also repulsed. On August 17, 1863,
Gillmore was able to open on Sumter from land batteries, and Dahlgren,
with four monitors and the _New Ironsides_, attacked Wagner, while
seven gunboats used their pivots on the fort at long range. Late in
the day Dahlgren, with the _Passaic_ and _Patapsco_ (monitors), went
within 2,000 yards of Sumter. Wagner was silenced, but Fort Gregg kept
up a steady fire. Commander George W. Rodgers, a favorite in the navy,
was killed on the _Catskill_ in this fight. The walls of Sumter were
damaged somewhat by the monitor fire.
[Illustration: Bomb-proof of Fort Wagner.
_From a photograph by Haas & Peale._]
On August 23d five monitors opened on Sumter at a range of 800 yards.
Dahlgren wrote to the department that morning: “I propose passing
Sumter into the harbor, if the obstructions are not of such a nature as
to prevent it,” and adds that “the gorge of Sumter has been completely
ruined” by Union batteries on shore, of which one of four guns was
worked by naval men. But he did not make the attempt to pass the fort,
and never did.
[Illustration: Battery Hayes: Eighteen-inch Parrott Rifle--Dismounted
Breaching Battery against Sumter.
_From a photograph by Haas & Peale._]
Meantime Gillmore had been pushing forward the parallels--rolling waves
of sand toward Fort Wagner, and the Confederates were hard pressed, but
a truce for an exchange of prisoners (the Union forces did not know
how badly the Confederates were pressed) gave the garrison a chance
to rebuild their defences. On September 2d Dahlgren reports that the
monitors were within 500 yards of Sumter during the night before. “The
firing was steadily maintained.” Sumter returned two shots only. “Our
fire was also directed at the floating obstructions that had been
reported from day to day.” “The vessels were engaged five hours.” Of
night attacks Beauregard, the Confederate general, said:
“This plan of attack could have been repeated every night until the
walls of the fort should have crumbled under the enormous missiles
which made holes two and a half feet deep in the walls, and shattered
the latter in an alarming manner. I could not then have repaired during
the day the damages of the night, and I am confident now, as I was
then, that Fort Sumter, if thus attacked, must have been disabled.”
[Illustration: Battery Kirby: Twenty-eight-inch Seacoast Mortars
against Sumter.
_From a photograph by Haas & Peale._]
No attempt to pass the silenced Sumter was made. In fact, Sumter was,
at the last, reduced to a wreck. It became a mere infantry post. On the
night of September 6th Fort Wagner was evacuated by the Confederates.
The Union soldiers were gaining ground. The navy planned an expedition
to carry Sumter by storm. Commander Thomas Holdup Stevens was placed
in charge. In all, 400 men, sailors and marines, were put into small
boats. But a lookout on the Confederate side was able to read the
“wigwag” signals by which the orders were transmitted between the
ships. So says Johnson. Of course the Confederates were ready when
the force came. All who landed on the fort, including ten officers
and 104 men, were taken prisoners, and three men were killed. These
were the men who led. The men in the rear were able to get off. It was
the most courageous deed on the Union side before Charleston. It was
worthy of Farragut, who planned to take the castle at Vera Cruz, during
the Mexican War, by laying the ships alongside, tricing up ladders
and calling away boarders. So the Confederates were allowed to hold
the wreck of the famous fort in comparative peace until Sherman, in
his famous march through the Confederate States, got into the rear of
Charleston, when the city and all the forts were abandoned.
Wilson’s “Ironclads in Action” has this to say of the Union naval
operations against Charleston:
“Never before had ships so invulnerable been in action, and probably
never again will so many hits be inflicted with such trivial damage
and such slight loss of life. If the impenetrable monitor could do
nothing against forts garrisoned by resolute men and efficiently armed,
what hope of success could our _Royal Sovereigns_ or _Majesties_
have? Artillery has progressed so much that cannon can be mounted
on land which can pierce armour thicker than any ship can hope to
carry. Considerations of weight and displacement limit the protection
which can be given to the ship, whilst they have no such determining
influence on the fort. The ironclad’s armour and ordnance then are
limited; the fort’s unlimited. How can the two fight on an equal
footing? There are these further considerations, too, to be taken into
account. The guns must be crowded into a limited space on board ship,
where several may be silenced by a single lucky shot. In the fort a
wide space can intervene between each weapon, and if properly mounted,
each gun must be actually struck before it is put out of action. Then,
too, the fort’s fire can be directed upon the ship’s water-line; hits
here will be every whit as efficacious as upon her battery, and she can
be driven off without a single one of her guns being struck. Thus a
close attack by ships upon forts has become almost impossible, though
it is beyond doubt perfectly feasible for war vessels to run through
an unobstructed channel, commanded by forts however numerous.”
[Illustration: Admiral Dahlgren and Staff on the _Pawnee_ at Charleston.
_From a photograph._]
However, the story of naval affairs before Charleston by no means ended
with the failure of the attacks on the forts; for what the Union forces
suffered at the hands of the daring Confederate torpedo-men is quite as
interesting and as instructive as anything done afloat during the war.
The Confederates had organized a submarine torpedo corps, and the
leading man of the corps at Charleston was Capt. F. D. Lee of the
engineers. A part of the work done under his supervision was the
building of a number of small torpedo boats now known to the world as
“Davids.” Johnson, previously quoted, says of one of them:
“This boat, the first of the class known as ‘Davids,’ was built at his
own expense by a citizen of Charleston, Mr. Theodore D. Stoney. He
was aided in fitting it out by the counsel of Capt. F. D. Lee and Dr.
St. Julien Ravenel. Having a length of about thirty feet, a diameter
of five and a half feet at its middle, and ballasted so as to float
deeply in the water, it was painted above the line a bluish-gray color.
The torpedo, carried at its bow by a hollow iron shaft about fourteen
feet ahead of the boat, was a copper cylinder charged with about 100
pounds of rifle powder, and provided with four sensitive tubes of lead
containing an explosive mixture.”
Lieut. W. T. Glassell, with three men, went out on the night of October
5, 1863, and ran the torpedo against the side of the _New Ironsides_.
It was exploded three feet under water, where the ship’s armor was
three inches thick and the wood backing sufficient. No material harm
was done, but the water thrown up partly submerged the tiny boat, and
she was abandoned by all but one man, who could not swim. He held on
to her, and, as she did not sink, another of her crew came to her as
she drifted with the tide, and the two took her back to Charleston.
Glassell and the other man were taken prisoners.
The boat was called _David_ because, although small, she was supposed
to be a match for any nautical Goliath afloat.
The partial success of this boat encouraged the Confederates to
construct others. The most famous of these was built at Mobile, in
1863, by Hundley & McClintock, according to Scharf, and while there she
sank, and drowned her crew. She was raised and taken to Charleston,
where Beauregard put her in service. As described by the Confederate
General Maury:
“She was built of boiler iron, about thirty-five feet long, and was
manned by a crew of nine men, eight of whom worked the propeller by
hand; the ninth steered the boat and regulated her movements below the
surface of the water; she could be submerged at pleasure to any desired
depth, or could be propelled on the surface. In smooth still water she
could be exactly controlled, and her speed was about four knots. It
was intended that she should approach any vessel lying at anchor, pass
under her keel, and drag a floating torpedo, which would explode
on striking the side or bottom of the ship attacked. She could remain
submerged for half an hour without inconvenience to her crew.”
[Illustration: Sketch Showing Torpedo Boats as Constructed at
Charleston, S. C.
_From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_]
The story of her career in Charleston, as told by Scharf, is one of
the most striking in naval warfare, for it shows the quality of the
American when fully in earnest:
“Lieut. Payne, C. S. N., and a crew of eight men were preparing to take
her out for action one night when she was swamped by the wash of a
passing steamer and all hands except Payne were drowned. Again she was
raised, and once more sunk--this time at Fort Sumter wharf, when six
men were drowned, Payne and two others escaping. When she was brought
to the surface, Hundley took her into the Stono River, where, after
making several successful dives, she stuck her nose into the mud, and
every soul on board perished by suffocation. For the fourth time she
was raised, and experiments were made with her in Charleston harbor.
She worked beautifully until she attempted to dive under the receiving
ship _Indian Chief_, when she fouled a cable, and once more she proved
a coffin for every man within her. Divers brought her up a week later,
and Lieut. George E. Dixon, of Capt. Cothran’s Co. of the 21st Ala.
Inf’y, asked permission of Gen. Beauregard to try her against the
_Housatonic_, a splendid new ship-of-war, which lay in the North
Channel off Beach Inlet.
“Beauregard consented, but only on the condition that she should not be
used as a submarine machine, but operating on the surface of the water,
and with a spar torpedo in the same manner as the _David_. All the
thirty or more men who had met death in the ‘fish’ were volunteers, but
Dixon had no difficulty in finding another volunteer crew ready to take
the same risks. They were Arnold Becker, C. Simpkins, James A. Wicks,
F. Collins, and ---- Ridgway, all of the Confederate navy, and Capt.
J. F. Carlson, of Captain Wagoner’s company of artillery.
“It was a little before nine o’clock, on the evening of February
17, 1864, when Master J. K. Crosby, officer of the deck of the
_Housatonic_, detected the torpedo-boat, a scant hundred yards away
from the ship. It looked to him, he said, ‘like a plank moving along
the water,’ and before he decided to give the alarm, he had lost the
seconds in which he might have saved his vessel. When he did pass the
word, her cable was slipped, her engine backed and all hands called
to quarters; but Dixon had closed on her and fired his torpedo on the
starboard side, just forward of her mainmast. A hole was knocked in her
side extending below her water line and she went down in four minutes.
Five of the _Housatonic’s_ people were killed by the shock or drowned;
the remainder took refuge in the rigging, from which they were rescued
by other vessels of the fleet. But the victory of the ‘fish’ was fatal
to herself and her crew. Whether she was swamped by the column of water
thrown up by the explosion, or was carried down by the suction of the
sinking _Housatonic_, will never be known; but she went under never to
rise again, and the lives of all on board were sacrificed.”
All the current histories of the war say that this _David_ was found
after the war on the bottom, within a hundred yards of the wreck of the
_Housatonic_, but Johnson says the story is not confirmed. But that the
men gave their lives to accomplish the work is certain.
This chapter may very well close with the story of a brave colored man,
a Charleston harbor pilot, named Robert Small, at that time a slave.
He was employed on the Confederate transport steamer _Planter_. On the
morning of May 13, 1862, Small made one of the most remarkable dashes
for liberty known to history. The _Planter_ was lying at the pier,
near army headquarters. The captain having gone on shore, Small, from
the pilot-house, directed the lines holding her to the pier cast off,
and it was done. He then headed out to sea, with the Confederate flag
flying above her taffrail. As he passed Sumter and the other forts,
he saluted them with three long blasts of the whistle in the usual
fashion, and they dipped their flags in return. His boldness saved him
from suspicion, and when beyond the line of fire he hauled down the
Confederate flag, sent up a white one, and gave the ship to the Union
forces.
CHAPTER XVII
CAPTURE OF FORT FISHER
IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST WORKS IN THE SOUTH, THOUGH NOT WELL
LOCATED--BUTLER’S POWDER-BOAT SCHEME, AND WHAT HE EXPECTED TO
ACCOMPLISH BY IT--THROWING 15,000 SHELLS AT THE FORT DISABLED
EIGHT GREAT GUNS OUT OF A TOTAL OF THIRTY-EIGHT--BUTLER THOUGHT
THE FORT STILL TOO STRONG AND WOULD NOT TRY--HE DID NOT EVEN MAKE
INTRENCHMENTS ACCORDING TO ORDERS--GEN. A. H. TERRY, WITH 6,000
SOLDIERS AND 2,000 FROM THE SHIPS, EASILY TOOK THE FORT THREE WEEKS
LATER--THE NAVY’S LAST FIGHT IN THE CIVIL WAR.
The last of the expeditions of the navy in the Civil War, and the
greatest in the number and force of the ships and men, was that sent
to capture Fort Fisher, guarding the entrance to Cape Fear River, on
which Wilmington, North Carolina, stands. The preparations for this
expedition began in the fall of 1864, and one cannot help wondering
that no determined effort was made to capture the port early in the
war, for, because of its situation and the peculiar nature of the
entrances to the mouth of the river, it was the favorite resort of
the blockade-runners, and therefore the chief source from which the
Confederates drew their foreign supplies. “From it Lee’s army in front
of Richmond was kept supplied, and the great Confederate commander had
plainly informed Colonel Lamb, the officer in charge of Fort Fisher,
that the Confederates must fall back from before Richmond, through
inability to procure food, if the port was lost.”
[Illustration: The Entrance to Cape Fear River, Showing Fort Fisher.
_From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_]
Fort Fisher was planned early in the war, and no fort built by the
Confederates received greater care. A look at the chart will show that
a long arm of land comes down from the north between the river and the
sea--an arm that at last is split like the claw of a lobster into two
fingers. One, very fat, and extending in toward the channel of the
river, is called Federal Point, and the other, very slender, continues
the coast line to what is called New Inlet. A shoal body of water
called the basin lies between the two fingers. Fort Fisher was erected
right where the two fingers split apart--right on the wrist.
Beginning a few yards back from the beach and north of the split of the
fingers, the Confederates erected a mound of sand eighty feet high.
On this they mounted an eight-inch (150-pounder) rifle and a ten-inch
medium-length (columbiad) shell gun. From this mound a series of
connected batteries or earthworks, of the most approved form, extended
away to the north for about 1,400 yards. In this stretch were mounted
seventeen great guns, including rifles from four and a half inches up
to seven inches, with a number of ten-inch smooth-bore shell guns. In
height and thickness these batteries were all that could be wished
in that day, and there were immense traverses (big mounds of sand)
between the guns to protect the gun crews from an enfilading fire and
from shells bursting on either side of them. At the north end of the
north-and-south line so far described, the wall of the fort turned at
a right angle toward the west. This part of the wall extending to the
west was about 500 yards long, and it crossed the arm of dry land to
the swamps of the river. Looking from the north, the whole fort was a
very good L. The east-and-west arm mounted twenty-one great guns, and
these were, for the most part, placed to defend the garrison from a
land attack.
[Illustration:
PLAN AND SECTIONS
OF
FORT FISHER
CARRIED BY ASSAULT
BY THE
U.S. FORCES
MAJ. GEN. A. H. TERRY
Commanding.
January 15th, 1865.
After three days’ bombardment by
U. S. Fleet
REAR ADMIRAL D. D. PORTER,
Commanding.
_From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_]
It was plain that the Confederates erected this huge structure to keep
the Federal forces from entering Cape Fear River by the way of New
Inlet. As a matter of fact, it was, in the judgment of engineers, built
too near to the sea. The inlet was shoal at best. Only the lightest of
vessels could enter it. Had Fort Fisher been erected back from the sea,
where it would have been out of range of the deep-draft Union ships, a
different story would have been told of it in history. As it was, Col.
William Lamb, commanding it, gave a right good account of himself.
When an attack was at last planned by the Union forces, a very grave
error was made in placing Benjamin F. Butler at the head of the army
forces after Admiral David D. Porter had been assigned to command the
naval part of the expedition. This is not to disparage the talents of
either man. It is said because the two leaders heartily disliked each
other. It was therefore utterly impossible for them to coöperate.
Ships and transports were assembled at Hampton Roads in September,
but the publicity given to the destination of the expedition caused a
postponement until December. In the meantime Butler had conceived an
idea, and in order not to be unfair his exact words, from page 775 of
“Butler’s Book,” are given. He says:
“In that time, after hearing of the great destruction for many miles
around made by an explosion of gunpowder at Erith, England, I made an
examination into the various instances of the explosive effect of large
quantities of powder; and I believed that possibly, by bringing within
four or five hundred yards of Fort Fisher a large mass of explosives,
and firing the whole in every part at the same moment--for it was the
essence of the experiment to have the powder all exploded at the same
instant--the garrison would at least be so far paralyzed as to enable,
by a prompt landing of men, a seizure of the fort.”
The reader is requested to note that he says “within _four or five
hundred yards_ of Fort Fisher.” His idea was submitted to the
Administration and approved, although Mr. Lincoln accepted it “with
more caution” than the others. Admiral Porter accepted it because “it
was considered advisable to try almost any expedient.” When it came to
details, Butler says on page 800 of his book: “My proposition to the
Navy Department contemplated using but one hundred tons of powder ...
that this one hundred tons of powder should be put into a light-draught
steamer, and arranged and packed in such a way that either by
electrical or other apparatus fire could be communicated all through
the vessel into every part of the mass of powder at one and nearly the
same instant; that that vessel should be run ashore; that time fuses or
other means of calculating the time necessary for the explosion should
be put in operation, and that with the vessel hard and fast on shore
so that none of the powder substantially could go down into the water
until it had time to take fire, the whole mass should explode. The
effect that I expected from that was that the gases from the burning
powder would so disturb the air as to render it impossible for men to
breathe within two hundred yards; that the magazines of the fort would
be burst in and possibly the magazines themselves be exploded; that by
the enormous missiles that would be set in motion and by the concussion
many men would be killed, and if the explosion were to be followed
immediately by an attack of even a small number of effective men, the
fort could be captured.”
Accordingly, an old and worthless steamer, the _Louisiana_, was fitted
for the purpose. Instead of 100 tons, 215 tons of powder were put
on board. Part of it was not of full power, but nearly 200 tons of
the best was stowed in the ship. The work of preparing her delayed
the expedition some days, and it was valuable time. However, the
expedition finally arrived on the coast, Butler, with his transports,
at Masonboro’ Inlet, twenty-five miles up the beach from Fort Fisher,
and Porter out at sea, twenty-five miles from the fort. The transports
had water and coal for but ten days, but there were delays due partly
to weather and partly to the ill feeling between the commanders, and
eventually Butler, with most of his transports, went away to Beaufort
to take on water for the troops.
Favorable (smooth-water) weather was had on the night of December 23,
1864, and the powder-boat _Louisiana_ was sent in. She was in charge
of Commander A. C. Rhind, who had with him Lieut. S. W. Preston,
Engineer A. T. E. Mullen, Master’s Mate Boyden, and seven men. The
tug _Wilderness_ towed the _Louisiana_ in toward the fort near the
north end of the sea-front until the water was fifteen feet deep, when
the _Louisiana_ cast off the line and proceeded under her own steam
until she was in nine feet of water, when she was anchored. She was
then 300 yards or less from the fort. Butler says she should have been
beached, although he also says (see ante) 400 or 500 yards was near
enough. Captain Rhind says he did not beach her because she would have
been strained on the sand, and was likely to open a seam and let in
the water and spoil the experiment. Clocks had been arranged to drop
weights on explosive mixtures, and these were now set. Then a fire was
built in the shaft tunnel in the stern to make sure that she exploded
if the clocks failed, after which Rhind and his men returned to the
tug. It was then exactly midnight. The tug ran twelve miles out to sea
and stopped to watch the explosion. It took place at 1.40 o’clock, and
amounted to absolutely nothing.
An army engineer found the wreck of a blockade-runner, called the
_Condor_, 800 or 900 yards from the fort, assumed that it was the wreck
of the _Louisiana_, and so reported. This report was used to discredit
Commander Rhind. It seems, on the face of it, to have been a fraud,
for the army officer should have known that nothing would remain of the
_Louisiana_ after such an explosion. But if so much had remained, what
became of Butler’s theory?
The idea that exploding any possible mass of gunpowder in the open
air outside of such a fort could hurt any one or anything inside was
simply childish. But Butler never ceased to argue that it ought to
have been a tremendous success. And it is a most sorrowful fact that,
because of Butler’s political influence, the magnificent bravery of the
powder-boat’s crew was never in any public manner recognized.
The next day, December 24, 1864, the warships steamed in and anchored
at fair range, with the ironclads in one line and the wooden ships some
distance outside. They bombarded the fort from 11.30 A.M. until sunset.
At night Butler, with a part of his transports, came from Beaufort, and
next morning the others arrived. It was arranged to land the troops,
undercover of the gunboats, at a point two miles up the beach from the
fort. Butler’s orders were to make an assault, if that were deemed
feasible, but if not, he was to throw up intrenchments and lay siege to
the fort in the usual fashion. Soundings were made in the morning, a
more effective line of fire was planned, and, late in the forenoon, the
fleet steamed in and once more opened fire. This was on December 25,
1864.
Nearly 3,000 troops were landed, with General Weitzel in command. They
captured a couple of little outworks three miles north of the landing
place, and then advanced with skirmishers. One of the skirmishers
captured a flag from one point on the parapet, and another passed
through the sally-port, bayoneted a man on a horse inside, and captured
the horse. Weitzel says (see “Butler’s Book”) that he was within 600
yards of the fort, and from a sand-dune examined the work carefully.
Butler ran down the beach in a shoal-draft transport, and at a range of
500 yards, as he says, looked at the fort for himself. He continues: “I
there met General Weitzel returning from a reconnoissance. He stated to
me that he had been out to the front line, and had seen Fort Fisher.
As a defensive work the fort was uninjured.” He continues: “I said
to Colonel Comstock, who was on board with me [Butler did not land],
‘jump into a boat with General Weitzel, pull ashore and examine with
him and report to me if an assault is feasible; _to me it does not look
so_, but I am unwilling to give it up.’” This is from “Butler’s Book,”
page 794. Being so primed by Butler, Comstock reported an assault not
feasible, and Butler wrote to Admiral Porter that night as follows:
“Upon landing the troops and making a thorough reconnoissance of Fort
Fisher, both General Weitzel and myself are fully of the opinion that
the place could not be carried by assault, as it was left substantially
uninjured as a defensive work by the navy fire. We found seventeen guns
protected by traverses, two only of which were dismounted, bearing up
the beach, and covering a strip of land, the only practicable route,
not more than wide enough for a thousand men in line of battle.... I
shall therefore sail for Hampton Roads as soon as the transport fleet
can be got in order.”
By Confederate reports it appears that the fort was garrisoned by “900
veterans, sixty C. S. N. sailors and marines and 450 junior reserves
between sixteen and eighteen years of age.” On December 24th three
guns had been disabled in the fort, and on the 25th five others were
disabled. Two more had exploded. Including howitzers, the fort had
left thirty-four guns, of which twenty pointed up the beach toward
an assaulting column. There were also some torpedoes planted in the
sand, and a very good line of palisades “made of heavy timber pointed
on top.” But for the delay due to the wild powder-boat scheme, the
Confederates would have been caught with only 667 men in the fort,
according to General Whiting, who commanded the Confederate forces of
the Wilmington district. Whiting wrote that he believed an assault on
Christmas day would have failed. In his official report he said of the
fort: “The delay due to the heavy weather of Wednesday and Thursday
after the arrival of the fleet was its salvation.”
With these facts in mind, a student of history may find the following
words in Admiral Porter’s report of December 27, 1864 (see Report Sec.
Navy, 1865, p. 51): “My despatch of yesterday will scarcely give you an
idea of my disappointment at the conduct of the army authorities in not
attempting to take possession of the forts which had been so completely
silenced by our guns; they were so blown up, burst up and torn up that
the people inside had no intention of fighting any longer.”
Certainly this is not true. Porter guessed at the facts. The
Confederate officers (see Scharf) had to use the flat of their swords
to get some of the reserves out to man the parapet, but they had a
force of nearly 1,000 that would have made a fight. But if Butler
had been as anxious to carry the fort by assault as he was to report
a failure on the part of Admiral Porter, he would have carried the
fort inside of an hour with even the partial force he had landed.
Moreover, when he said the beach was “the only practicable route”
for an assaulting party, he was mistaken, for General Terry, three
weeks later, found a much safer route “under the river bank.” It is
an interesting fact that Butler in his book does not attempt any
explanation of his lack of knowledge, when before the fort, of the
river-bank route.
Thomas E. Taylor, a noted blockade-runner, who has printed a book on
his experiences, was in Richmond in consultation with the Confederate
chiefs at the time of this assault, and wrote the following in a letter
to his employers regarding the matter: “They nearly had Fort Fisher;
they were within sixty yards of it--and had they pushed on as they
ought to have done, could have taken it. It was a terrific bombardment.”
Anyway, Butler did not even throw up intrenchments. He abandoned the
enterprise altogether.
However, the operations against the fort were only suspended. Admiral
Porter filled up his ships with ammunition. On January 13, 1865,
Gen. Alfred H. Terry landed with 6,000 men. The ships anchored with
the monitors at a range of half a mile, and the others outside at
three-quarters of a mile (in some cases further), and a storm of
bursting shells poured over the fort. It lasted all that day, was
continued at intervals during the night and all the next day. The
fort replied slowly, partly because ammunition was scarce and partly
because of the effect of the Union fire.
[Illustration: The Bombardment of Fort Fisher.
_From a lithograph._]
That night an assault was planned, and 1,600 sailors and 400 marines
were landed to help the soldiers. At 9 o’clock on the morning of
January 15, 1865, the fleet once more opened fire. The soldiers,
who had been lying at the river side of the arm of land, charged
up to attack the extreme west end of the fort. The sea force, in
three divisions, led by Cushing (he who destroyed the _Albemarle_),
Lieut.-commander James Parker, and Lieut.-commander T. O. Selfredge,
Jr., charged up the barren beach, where Butler did not dare to go, to
attack the sea front. They had the post of greatest danger, for they
were wholly uncovered.
[Illustration: T. O. Selfredge.
_From a photograph owned by Mr. C. B. Hall._]
“The attacking column of the army was hid and protected by the river
bank as it approached the left flank of the work, but the naval column
came up the open beach upon our center. As its success would have been
disastrous, I concentrated all available guns upon this column, and
met its assault with the larger portion of my men, posting them upon
the ramparts so as to fire down upon the sailors and marines.” The
quotation is from a letter by Colonel Lamb, commanding the fort.
Some of the sea force reached the row of palisades, and there found
shelter, but when eighty-two had been killed and 269 wounded, the
others broke and fled out of range. They were armed (except the
marines) with cutlasses and revolvers only. It was not a good place for
boarders. Nevertheless, this assault was not in vain, as W. R. Mayo,
one of the Confederate officers in the fort, testifies in Scharf’s
work. He says:
“Though proving a great failure in itself, this assault occupied the
nearly worn-out and depleted garrison, and had the direct result of
admitting the army to the ramparts of the disabled land face of the
fort before attention could be given to the assaulting column in that
direction.”
There were forty-two ships in the line bombarding Fort Fisher on
January 15, 1865, of which six were ironclads--five monitors and the
_New Ironsides_. The total number killed afloat during the three days
of fighting was seventy-four, and 289 were wounded. Ammen estimates
from the reports in the department that 21,716 shells were thrown at
the fort. In the first attack 15,000 were thrown.
[Illustration:
Second Attack upon Fort Fisher by the U. S. Navy, under
Rear-admiral D. D. Porter, January 13, 14, 15, 1865.
]
Scharf has this to say of the capture of Fort Fisher:
“The fall of Wilmington was the severest blow to the Confederate
cause which it could receive from the loss of any port. It was far
more injurious than the capture of Charleston, and, but for the moral
effect, even more hurtful than the evacuation of Richmond. With
Wilmington and the Cape Fear River open, the supplies that reached
the Confederate armies would have enabled them to have maintained
an unequal contest for years, but with the fall of Fort Fisher the
constant stream of supplies was effectually cut off and the blockade
made truly effective--not by the navy fleet, but by its captures on
land.”
The other forts about the river soon fell into government hands. The
Civil War was already drawing to a close before the assault was made.
It was a question only of how many days the able and determined men of
the South would struggle against overwhelming numbers. The fall of Fort
Fisher was therefore fortunate for both sides. It the sooner brought a
hopeless fight to an end.
CHAPTER XVIII
STORY OF THE NEW NAVY
THE FOLLY OF ALLOWING OTHER NATIONS TO EXPERIMENT FOR US--IN SPITE
OF WHAT WE LEARNED FROM THEIR MISTAKES, WE WERE UNABLE, WHEN WE
FIRST BEGAN FOR OURSELVES, TO BUILD EVEN A FIRST-CLASS CRUISER--THE
RESULT OF TEN YEARS OF EARNEST WORK--BATTLE-SHIPS WHOSE POWER IS
CONCEDED BY FOREIGN WRITERS--CRUISERS THAT AWAKENED THE PRIDE OF
THE NATION--THREE “NEWFANGLED NOTIONS”--A YANKEE ADMIRAL AT RIO
JANEIRO AND A YANKEE LIEUTENANT ON THE COAST OF MEXICO--THE ONE
IMPORTANT FACT ABOUT THE NEW NAVY.
The naval history of the United States during the period since the
Civil War has been not a little like that of the period following the
War of the Revolution. When the Civil War was ended and the acute
complication with our over-sea neighbors during 1865 was past, we
sold off our ships as a merchant disposes of his shelf-worn goods. It
is true we did not sell every ship as we did in 1785, but in 1885 we
were relatively in as helpless a condition as, and actually in a more
shameful condition than, we were when we had not a ship that belonged
to the nation; for the wooden hulks on the naval list in 1885
and their smooth-bore Dahlgren shell guns were, for the purpose of
carrying the flag in the face of an enemy having ironclads and rifles,
absolutely useless. And as to the shame of it, we know that in 1785
the nation was poor, and even the few dollars needed to keep a frigate
or two in commission seemed a large sum, while the nation in the later
years, when the navy was neglected, was spending enough money in
dredging out commerceless channels to have built squadrons of several
times the needed force. It is the usual thing for writers who refer
to that period to say, because we slipped through it without a more
serious foreign complication than the murder of a few American citizens
by the Spanish government at Santiago de Cuba, in 1873, it was really
to our advantage that we built no ships. The European governments were
experimenting at great cost, and we were saved all of that. We got the
benefit of their experience and saved the dollars. But the fact is we
could not and did not benefit by their experience to any degree worth
serious consideration. Neither the individual man nor the aggregation
of men called a nation can take advantage of the apprenticeship which
another man or nation has served. I do not hope to have this statement
believed by people to whom the only fruition of labor and life is a
dollar. But there are some who understand that national character,
like individual character, is of more importance than dollars; that
the very chuckling over the dollars we saved “while other nations were
experimenting for us” is contemptible; that, to take another and more
material point of view, what we lost in the development of the brains
of our mechanics and inventors by letting the other nations do the
“experimenting for us” was of infinitely greater value than the whole
revenue of the nation. It is not the loss of a product of ships that is
to be deplored, but the loss of a product of men.
[Illustration: The Old Method of Handling a Ship’s Bowsprit.
_From an old engraving._]
The building of the new navy actually began, one may say, when
Secretary of the Navy William H. Hunt appointed a board of naval
officers, with Rear-admiral John Rodgers at its head, “to determine
the requirements of a new navy.” These officers considered the matter
jointly for a proper time, and then reported that the United States
should have twenty-one battle-ships--ships fit to meet the best
floating forts of the world; seventy unarmored cruisers of various
sizes, twenty torpedo boats, five torpedo gunboats, and five rams.
[Illustration: Hauling a Vessel into Port a Hundred Years Ago.
_From an old engraving._]
It was not an extravagant estimate, and it was approved, in a way,
by the nation. Did we build them, or any considerable part of them,
straightway? Not at all. We could not build even one of the armored
ships. We had saved the expense of experimenting; we had allowed
other nations to do our experimenting for us. “Right smart” economists
we were. When European experiments had fairly shown what European
practice was likely to be, we started in to adopt the European ideas,
and suddenly learned, what had never occurred to us as a nation, that
the foundation of all sea power is a shipyard. We had been able in
the old days to set afloat efficient wooden fighting machines in four
months, but when we started in to build an ironclad navy of the modern
style, we found that we could not roll even the thinnest of modern
armor-plates, and that we could not make a gun that would pierce even
the cheap armor carried by the old-fashioned monitors we had lying
up in ordinary. The opportunity for showing how easy it was to take
advantage of the experiments of other nations was at hand. We had a
book knowledge of everything that had been done abroad, but instead
of starting in with a ship that should excel, or even equal, say, the
_Téméraire_ of the British navy, not to mention the contemporary (in
design) _Edinburgh_, we found we must do a little experimenting and
gain a little experience for ourselves.
[Illustration: The White Squadron in Mid-ocean.
_From a drawing by R. F. Zogbaum._]
We had some shipyards that were supported by the coastwise trade,
and to them we went. The _Chicago_, the _Atlanta_, the _Boston_, and
the _Dolphin_ were the result. Instead of building battle-ships, we
built, for lack of experience, third-rate cruisers. We also concluded
to complete an old monitor or two that for long years had been lying
on the stocks. To do this Rome went to Carthage to buy shields for its
legions--we bought our armor-plate in a foreign market. We had to do it
or go without. The writer remembers the day when we even imported the
bunting of which we made the “gridiron flag”!
[Illustration: U. S. S. _Charleston_, San Diego Harbor.
_From a photograph._]
It was humiliating to go abroad for what we could not make ourselves.
But another statement of the kind must be made, and then the record of
shame ends; for which let us all be sincerely and devoutly thankful.
We went abroad for the plans of one of our largest cruisers--the
_Charleston_.
Let the reader have no misunderstanding about this matter. If war had
been impending it would have been right, and even an imperative duty,
to buy warships fully equipped wherever they could be found. But we
were building a navy in time of peace, and a ship that “could not
get out of her own way,” from our own designers, was better than the
best afloat bought from a foreign land. In the building of the new
navy--in the building of the White Squadron, of which we make boast
in our periodicals--the product was nothing; the building of men was
everything.
It was not without labor and pain that we got the first modern ships
afloat. It was not so much that short-sighted economists interfered,
for a surplus of money was found in the treasury, but the politicians
were numerous and the patriots few. The politician in power must needs
use the new ships to perpetuate his power; he who was out of power
must use them as ferries to get into power. They were extravagantly
praised and extravagantly decried. Time has shown the extravagance in
both directions; but it is the tendency of man to admire his own, and
when the truth is told, these ships are not “the best of their class
afloat,” unless we add the modifying and saving clause “considering
the circumstances under which they were built.” As the product of
apprentices in the art of building modern warships, they are marvels of
excellence. But since they were designed we have learned something.
The _Atlanta_ and _Boston_ were good fourteen-knot cruisers, but there
were faster boats, armed with guns as good as theirs, in Europe.
American policy could not permit such a state of affairs to exist,
and we designed larger and better ones than anything afloat. We laid
down the _New York_. She cost “a whole lot of money,” it is true, but
as we recall the thrill that stirred the nation when the story of her
trial trip was told--when it was told that we had the swiftest and
most powerful cruiser in the world, we are bound to say that twice the
sum invested in any other way by the government could not have given
the nation so great a benefit. It was not that any one was incited to
a point where he wished the nation to go to war. On the contrary, the
_New York_ was an assurance that in our dealings with other peoples we
would “not be influenced, or even be suspected of being influenced, by
a consciousness of weakness on the sea.” Nations are like dogs in this,
that the weaker must needs put his tail between his legs and sneak away
when trouble brews. But, if any one doubts that nations are bullies,
let him consider the names that are given to ships in Europe. With the
_New York_ afloat, the American patriot was so far assured that his
country would not be bullied, and so we should have peace.
[Illustration: The _Columbia_ on her Government Speed Trial.
_From a photograph by Rau._]
The swifter cruisers like the twenty-two-knot _Columbia_ and the
twenty-three-knot _Minneapolis_, and the little cruisers and gunboats
for shoal water, followed the _New York_. In the meantime we were
at work on battle-ships, beginning with the _Maine_ and ending with
the _Iowa_, the _Indiana_, the new _Kearsarge_, and the _Illinois_.
The English author of “Ironclads in Action” compares the _Iowa_ with
the British _Majestic_. It is a most instructive comparison--the
most instructive pages, for an American reader, in the whole of this
valuable work are those devoted to this comparison. For, although
the _Majestic_ is set down with a tonnage of 15,000 and the _Iowa_
with but 11,500, the Yankee ship throws at a broadside 4,532 pounds of
metal (in guns above a twenty-pounder) to the other’s 4,000; she has
an armor belt of fourteen inches to the other’s nine; the armor “upon
the heavy gun positions” is “15-inch in the _Iowa_” to “14-inch in the
_Majestic_”; and she could keep the sea five weeks to the Britisher’s
four. On the other hand, the _Majestic_ has more freeboard, and could
fight in a rougher sea, and she has the hull beneath her quick-firing
guns protected in better fashion. But when it is all summed up, it is
conceded by this English writer that the _Iowa_ is at least a good
match for the bigger _Majestic_.
As was said before, let no mistake be made about this. It is a matter
of the greatest moment when our ship of 11,500 tons is conceded to be a
match for one of 15,000 tons in the best navy of the world--not because
we have the ship, but because we have developed the men who can do that
kind of work and the tools for their use.
[Illustration: Plan of the _Iowa_.]
As many of the readers are aware, the _Iowa_ is by no means the best
battle-ship in the American navy. For instance, in her main battery
she carries four twelve-inch and eight eight-inch breech-loading
rifles, and six four-inch rifles, known as rapid-fire guns, because
they use cartridges on the plan of a revolver or rifle cartridge, and
can therefore be fired in service five or six times a minute. The
new _Kearsarge_ will carry four thirteen-inch and four eight-inch
breech-loading rifles and fourteen five-inch rapid-fire guns. The new
_Illinois_ class will carry four thirteen-inch rifles and fourteen
six-inch rapid-fire guns. The difference in the striking power of the
batteries of the _Iowa_ and the newer ships must be manifest to every
reader. Nevertheless, it is important to remember that the weight of
metal landed, and not the weight of metal thrown, wins the battle.
[Illustration: Plan of the _Constitution_.]
While we were developing shipbuilders we were also developing
gunmakers. For a long time after the war we were contented with
making steel tubes which could be shoved into Dahlgren smooth-bores,
and so convert them into rifles of eight-inch calibre. Such makeshift
work, needless it is to say, served only to drag down the standard
of the American gunmakers. But in 1886 the sum of $2,128,000 was
appropriated for guns--that is, modern rifles. To go into the details
of other modern shipbuilding or modern rifle-making in a history of
this kind is obviously impossible; but we may recall the fact that
the _Monitor’s_ turret was composed of eight layers of one-inch iron
plates, placed so as to break joints, and that the best rifle of that
day, a seven-inch Brooke, firing a solid projectile weighing 150
pounds, was unable to do any material damage to the turret. The first
contracts for gun-forgings and armor-plates of modern construction
were signed in May, 1887--ten years ago. Since that time we have made
the plant for the work, and have turned out armor-plates of steel
eighteen inches thick that are hardened and toughened to a point where
a drill cannot penetrate, and the best projectile, an armor-piercing
projectile, weighing 1,100 pounds and “striking with a force sufficient
to lift 1,000 tons twenty-five feet, crushed in the backing of oak,
but only dented the plate.” The mere statement that our modern rifles
throw projectiles weighing 1,100 pounds, which strike with sufficient
force to lift 1,000 tons twenty-five feet high, tells the story of
the development of the gun. Another exhibit of the progress made is
found in the fact that an eight-inch smooth-bore in the old days threw
a cast-iron projectile, weighing sixty-eight pounds, with a velocity
of 1,579 feet per second at the muzzle of the gun. The energy of the
projectile was estimated at 452 foot-tons. The modern eight-inch rifle
throws a steel bolt weighing 250 pounds, at a muzzle velocity of 2,500
feet per second, with a striking power of 10,830 foot-tons. The old
eight-inch iron shot could not penetrate four inches of iron plates,
while the modern steel bolt penetrates twenty-six inches of wrought
iron. The best thirteen-inch modern rifles have a striking power of
about 35,000 foot-tons and penetrate thirty-four inches of wrought iron.
After an apprenticeship of ten years, the gunmakers and shipbuilders of
the United States have done well enough to entirely satisfy the people
whom they have served. And yet the American navy, in the matter of
ships and guns, is at best the fifth in the world. It is not considered
necessary to the interest of this history to enter into any argument to
show that the American navy should have a higher standing in point of
numbers. But, if the story of the American navy has been written here
as the writer understood it, then it is apparent that the American’s
hope of peace has always rested on the efficiency of a modest number of
ships. We have had peace with the aggressive nations of the earth while
we have had an efficient force afloat, and we have suffered humiliation
when we have neglected our navy. To make the appeal that is likely
to be effective, history shows that it does not pay to try to get on
without a navy. It need not be either the first or even the third in
point of numbers, but it must be first in point of efficiency. To keep
our hands in practice and our tools from rusting and our inventors from
stagnation, we must lay down at least one new ship of the first class
every year. We must not forget that Europe has steadily built new ships
to improve on those with which we have led the way.
While building ships that in general construction were like those
of Europe, the United States has followed its ancient policy of
encouraging inventors by trying what the conservatives call “newfangled
notions.” The success that followed the adoption of “newfangled
notions” like steam power, the screw propeller, and the Ericsson
_Monitor_, has been fully appreciated by the world at large. The
“newfangled Yankee notions,” in fact, kept up the quality of the old
American navy. Since the navy began its rejuvenating career, ten years
ago, three “newfangled” ideas have been tried. One was a steam ram,
pure and simple. It was a ship designed to steam at seventeen knots
per hour, with a ram for its sole weapon of offence, and it was built
solely for harbor defence. Because, in its way, it is a revival of the
porcupine policy, nothing more need be said about it.
[Illustration: The _Vesuvius_.
_From a photograph by Rau._]
Another novelty was what is called the dynamite cruiser _Vesuvius_.
Here is a sea-going torpedo boat armed with three fifteen-inch air-guns
that can throw 400 or 500 pounds of high explosive to a range of a mile
or more with reasonable accuracy. It is not a popular style of warship
with naval officers, and so far as its purpose is for harbor defence,
these officers are entirely right. It is the business of the army,
with its forts and submarine torpedoes, to defend the harbors. For
forts and submarine torpedoes are entirely sufficient for the purpose,
and much more economical than ships adapted only for harbor defence.
Nevertheless, the idea of a dynamite cruiser has not had a fair trial.
The _Vesuvius_ is a very small ship. Her popguns are of a fixed
elevation, the range being determined by varying the pressure of the
air. It is reasonably sure that the defects that have been developed in
trials of her guns and aerial torpedoes might be corrected were she in
the hands of some one thoroughly in earnest in the matter, and that a
cruiser, to fire high explosives accurately and efficiently and safely
by means of compressed air, might be designed. It is also reasonably
certain that, because of the dislike of naval officers generally for
the present craft, no more of the kind will be designed until Uncle Sam
is compelled to “hustle,” if one may be allowed the expression, by the
pressure of actual war. Because coastwise steamers may be readily cut
down, and adapted for the use of this kind of a torpedo in a very few
months, no one is likely to worry about the present failure to build
more dynamite cruisers.
[Illustration: Launching of One of the Holland Boats, the _Holland_, at
Elizabethport, N. J., 1897.
_From a photograph belonging to the John P. Holland Co._]
The third of the “newfangled ideas” is really a very old idea, as
the reader will observe. It is a submarine boat designed to travel
in ordinary circumstances with its back out of water, and yet be
able, when occasion requires, to go underneath altogether. It is the
invention of Mr. John P. Holland, who for many years has been at work
on the cigar-shaped diving-ship idea. The one now building (1897) is
only eighty-five feet long by eleven in diameter--a mere model of what
a ship ought to be, if the idea were to be thoroughly tested. It might,
indeed, be of some use for raising a blockade of the port of New York,
just as smaller vessels were used to damage Union ships off Charleston
in the Civil War. But, as already said over and again, the navy that
the American nation needs is one that will prevent any nation on earth
contemplating a blockade of any American port. However, this is not
to condemn the building of this submarine boat. It was well worth
building, just as the tiny ship in which Ericsson proved his screw
propeller was worth building. Considerable space was given in Volume I
to the doings of the submarine boats in the Revolutionary War because
the building of ships which might be entirely submerged has never been
attempted on a scale that would warrant a fair trial of the idea. There
are many difficulties to be overcome, the chief of which is due to the
fact that the ordinary compass goes wrong altogether when placed in
a diver. It is nevertheless reasonable to suppose that every defect
may be overcome. It is certain that the defects will not be overcome
until a fair trial of the ship is had. Because of certain manifest
advantages in having a ship that can live entirely submerged as well as
when awash, or floating high out of water, there are men who believe
that such ships will eventually become veritable peace-makers. We who
are conservatives call them visionaries, and they reply that men of
our class called Capt. M. C. Perry a visionary in 1839 because he said
he believed that steamships would eventually supersede the gloriously
beautiful frigate of the olden day.
[Illustration: Another One of the Holland Submarine Boats: the
_Plunger_.
(Submerged, with camera lucida tube in position.)
_From a photograph of a drawing belonging to the John P. Holland Co._]
Of the doings of the navy since the Civil War little need be said. We
have had no war with any people, although on two or three occasions
American commanders have been obliged to strip their ships for action
to enforce a decent respect for the American flag. The most notable
instance of this kind was in 1894. The Brazilian navy was then in
revolt against the Brazilian government, and the bay of Rio Janeiro was
held by the rebel squadron. The purpose of the revolt, so far as it
had a purpose outside of the personal feelings of the leaders, was to
restore the monarchy. The insurgents would have been driven into making
peace very quickly but for the fact that the British, in the interests
of trade and politics, were very anxious to have the monarchy restored.
British residents of Rio Janeiro contributed considerable sums of
money to the support of the rebels and served actively as spies on the
government. The senior officer of the British navy present, under the
plea of neutrality, was able to see that the rebel leaders received
all the rights of belligerents, although no nation had accorded these
rights to them. For a time all the foreign warships in port, except the
Germans, sided with the British in this matter. It is a curious fact
that the senior American officer present refused to give protection to
American merchantmen in port when they wished to go to the piers to
discharge their cargoes. The rebel leader, Saldanha de Gama, said he
should fire on any ship going to the piers, and American ships had to
lie out in the bay and wait for the end of the war. Meantime yellow
fever was raging there and many good men lost their lives.
Finally Admiral A. E. K. Benham came to the port. He at once told the
American captains to go to the piers, and he would see that they were
not fired upon--at least that trouble for the rebel fleet should follow
any such move on their part.
Accordingly, on Sunday, January 29, 1894, Captain Blackford, of the
American bark _Amy_, and two other captains, gave notice that they
should haul into the piers with their ships on Monday morning. Admiral
Saldanha de Gama, hearing of this, said officially that he should fire
on the merchantmen if they did so. The rebel squadron was, as a whole,
a worthless collection of old wooden hulks and new coasters armed with
fairly good guns; but there was one good monitor, the _Aquidaban_,
so there was no predicting what the desperate rebel would do. It was
necessary to take de Gama at his word, and so, soon after daylight on
the morning of the 30th, the Yankee squadron cleared for action, while
the little cruiser _Detroit_, Capt. Willard H. Brownson, was sent in
to take a station where she could command the two rebel warships,
_Guanabara_ and _Trajano_, that lay where they could, if so disposed,
riddle the merchant ship _Amy_.
[Illustration: The Harbor of Rio Janeiro, Showing the Frigate
_Savannah_ Struck by a Squall, July 5, 1856.
_From a lithograph._]
When Brownson arrived the _Amy_ began to warp in toward the pier. A
musket was fired from the _Guanabara_, presumably toward one of the
American ships. The _Detroit_ replied with a shot first across the bow
of the offending _Guanabara_, and then with another that struck her. It
was a mere matter of form so far; it was notifying the Brazilians that
the Americans were thoroughly in earnest. But, seeing a couple of tugs
controlled by the rebels getting into position where they might ram the
_Detroit_, Brownson took her in between the big warships where he could
have raked and sunk them, and sunk the tugs at the same time. That
ended the matter.
[Illustration: The Stern and Propeller of the _Nipsic_ after the Samoan
Hurricane.
_From a photograph._]
Saldanha de Gama concluded not to fire on the American flag. Before
night the British, as well as all other foreign merchantmen, were
tumbling over each other, so to speak, in their haste to follow the
Yankee ships to the piers.
Captain Brownson, when a lieutenant on the _Mohican_ in 1870, was
placed in command of a boat’s crew and sent to cut out the steamer
_Forward_, a filibusters’ craft operating on the coast of Mexico. She
was found in a lagoon near San Blas, and her crew made a fight. She
was carried by boarding after a loss of two men killed (including
Master J. M. Wainwright) and six wounded.
Of great contemporary interest were the polar expeditions since the
Civil War, but with the exception of the discoveries on the north coast
of Greenland made by Lieutenant Peary, nothing of historical interest
was accomplished. And mention must also be made of the great gale at
Samoa, when the _Vandalia_ sank and the _Trenton_ and the _Nipsic_
were thrown ashore, for nothing has stirred the hearts of the American
people in recent years as the story of the fortitude of the men who,
with death staring them in the face, sang and played “The Star Spangled
Banner.”
But when all has been told and written about the history of the
American navy since the Civil War, the one significant fact of all is
this: we have from our own resources, mental and material, sent afloat
a White Squadron that, though small in number, is fit to keep the sea
in spite of foul weather or any other foul force.
[Illustration:
The _Eber_.
The _Trenton_.
The Harbor after the Samoan Hurricane.
_From a photograph._]
INDEX
_Abby Bradford_, merchant-ship, capture of, by the _Sumter_, iv. 412;
captured by the frigate _Powhatan_, 413.
_Abellino_, Yankee privateer, captures prizes in the Mediterranean,
iii. 343.
_Acasta_, British gun-boat, attacks the _Constitution_, iii. 260.
Acquia Creek, Potomac River, capture of Confederate forts at, iv. 66,
81–83.
_Active_, British brig, captured by the _Hazard_, i. 206.
_Adams_, American frigate, changed to a corvette, iii. 54;
Captain Charles Morris in command of, 57;
on the coast of Africa, 58;
chased by the _Tigris_, 59;
scurvy on board, 60;
runs on a rock, 61;
attacked on the Penobscot, 62;
burned, _ib._
Adams, Captain H. A., disloyal conduct of, iv. 117.
Adams, John, member of first Marine Committee, i. 36.
Adams, Samuel, and the Boston tea-party, i. 12.
_Adelaide_, Federal transport, iv. 100.
_Adeline_, American brig, recaptured from the British, ii. 74.
_Admiral Duff_, British privateer, blown up by the _Protector_, i.
207.
_Adriana_, American brigantine, Ambassador to Holland sails on, iv.
153.
_Adventure_, British ship, burned by Paul Jones, i. 78.
_Africa_, British ship-of-the-line, ii. 55.
Africa, making the coast of, safe for American traders, iii. 340–358.
_Aiken_, Southern revenue cutter, converted into the Confederate
privateer _Petrel_, iv. 93.
_Alabama_, Confederate privateer, off Galveston, iv. 357;
known as _No. 290_, 430;
Captain Semmes appointed to command, 431;
cruises off the Azores, Martinique, Galveston, Cape Town, and the
East Indies, 432–436;
encounters the _Kearsarge_ at Cherbourg, 436;
comparison of their armaments, 437;
the fight, 438–441;
prizes taken by, 447.
_Alabama_ claims, iv. 430.
_Albatross_, Federal gun-boat, passes the batteries of Port Hudson,
iv. 358.
_Albemarle_, Confederate ironclad ram, iv. 456;
laid up at Plymouth, N.C., 457;
blown up by Lieutenant Cushing, 461.
Albemarle Sound, N.C., a Confederate privateer resort, iv. 94.
_Albert Adams_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by the _Sumter_, iv.
415.
Alden, Captain James, iv. 386.
Alden, Commander James, iv. 314.
_Alert_, British corvette, surrenders to the _Essex_, ii. 42;
attempt to rescue from Porter, 43, 44.
_Alert_, British cutter, captures the _Lexington_, i. 119, 120.
Alexander, Captain Charles, i. 66.
_Alexandria_, British frigate, ii. 359.
Alexandria, Red River, Admiral Porter’s squadrons arrive at, iv. 370.
_Alfred_, American flagship, sent to France, i. 130;
captured, 132, 133.
Algerian fleet sent after Yankee merchantmen, iii. 341.
Algerian Navy, strength of the, iii. 344.
Algerian pirates encouraged by England, i. 308, 309.
Algiers, Africa, tribute paid to by the United States, iii. 339;
by England, 340.
Algiers, Dey of, ransom paid to, i. 309, 310;
treatment of Americans by, iii. 340, 341.
Algiers, harbor defences of, iii. 345.
_Allen_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.
Allen, Captain William Henry, ii. 360;
carries the American Minister to France, 361;
sails into the English Channel, _ib._;
captures a wine ship from Portugal, 362, 363;
encounters the _Pelican_, 362–364;
his ship surrendered, 367;
dies in Mill Prison Hospital, 371.
Allen, Lieutenant William Howard, takes charge of the ship, ii. 364;
continues the fight, 367;
killed in an engagement with pirates, iii. 333.
_Alliance_, American frigate, detailed to carry Lafayette home, i.
232;
fouls the _Bonhomme Richard_, 234;
takes a valuable prize, 236;
fires into the _Bonhomme Richard_, 254;
flight of Paul Jones on the, 275;
cruises on the French coast, 297;
narrow escape of, 298;
sails from Havana with specie, _ib._;
attacked by the _Sybille_, 299;
sold, 303.
_Alligator_, American tender, surrendered to the British, iii. 235.
_Alligator_, American schooner, defeats an attack at Cole’s Island,
ii. 419.
Alvarado, Mexican port, Commodore Conner attempts to take, iii. 410;
captured by Lieutenant Charles G. Hunter, 428.
Alwyn, John C., Lieutenant in the _Java_ fight, mortally wounded, ii.
166, 171, 172.
American citizens in foreign countries, iii. 385, 386.
American commerce, English policy toward, i. 306, 307, 384;
protected by Portugal, 307;
menace to, iv. 412.
American cruisers in British waters, i. 112–133.
American flag, first salute given to, i. 69;
designed, 134;
first hoisted, 135;
first saluted by a foreign power, 138;
protected by Portugal, 307;
a shield for an infamous traffic, iii. 361;
a Chinese assault on, 380.
American frontier in 1812, ii. 262.
American Navy, first existence of, i. 1;
founders of, 37;
first ships of, in commission, 39–43;
resolutions of Congress founding it, 41;
first officers and first ships of, 39–43;
origin of the, 1–47;
first cruise of the, 48–62;
first squadron poorly manned and inefficient, 49–53;
along shore in 1776, 63–83;
mismanagement in, 159;
at the time of the Declaration of Independence, 300;
building a new navy, 303;
strength of, at commencement of hostilities with France, 315;
almost extinct, 396;
reduced to a peace footing, 398;
discreditable lack of, ii. 26;
increase of, 356;
development of, from 1815 to 1859, iv. 1–9;
personnel of the, in 1859, 24–26;
number of men who took part with the Southern States, 27;
value of men from Northern ports and the Great Lakes, 36;
a nautical curiosity shop, 37;
ferryboats as naval ships, _ib._;
first great naval expedition of the War of the Rebellion, 168;
modern, sketch of, 523–554;
in 1885, condition of, 523.
American prisoners in England, i. 122;
in Tripoli, 345, 358.
American seamen, impressment of, ii. 18;
courage and skill of, 357.
American sea-power in 1812, ii. 21.
American shipping and French cruisers, i. 314.
American squadron, career of the first, i. 60.
Ammen, Captain Daniel, at Port Royal, iv. 163;
Commander of the _Patapsco_, 480.
_Amphitrite_, American pilot-boat, attacks a French privateer, ii. 34.
_Amy_, American bark, Blackford, at Rio Janeiro, iv. 548.
_Anacostia_, Federal screw steamer, at Acquia Creek, iv. 81.
Anarchy in the West Indies and along the Spanish Main, iii. 325.
_Andrea Doria_, brig of first American Navy, i. 39;
in the first naval battle of the Revolution, 58;
ordered to sea, 64;
fight with brig _Racehorse_, 68, 69;
burned, 70.
Andrews, Major W. S. G., Commander of Fort Hatteras, iv. 107.
Anglo-Saxon aggressiveness, iii. 391.
Anglo-Saxon cheer, the, ii. 308.
Angostura, Venezuela, Commodore Perry arrives at, iii. 329.
Anthracite coal used by blockade-runners, iv. 55.
Antonio, Cape, Captain Kearny of the _Enterprise_ captures pirates
near, iii. 331.
_Aquidaban_, Brazilian rebel monitor, iv. 548.
Arbuthnot, Captain James, captured by the _Wasp_, iii. 93–96.
_Arcade_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate cruiser
_Sumter_, iv. 415.
_Archer_, captured by Captain Read of the _Tacony_, iv. 424.
_Argus_, American sloop, ii. 360;
carries the American Minister to France, 361;
cruises in the English Channel, _ib._;
too successful for her safety, 362;
encounters _Pelican_, 362, 363;
her sails become unmanageable, 364;
surrenders, 367;
contemporary view of the battle, 369;
taken by a prize crew to Plymouth, 371.
_Argus_, American frigate, captures six prizes, ii. 151.
_Argus_, American cruiser, in the attack on Tripoli, i. 374.
_Ariadne_, British man-of-war, captures the _Alfred_, i. 132, 133.
_Ariel_, American schooner, ii. 292.
_Arkansas_, Confederate ram, skirmish in the Yazoo River, iv. 342,
343;
machinery gets out of order, 343;
attacks Farragut’s squadron, 344.
Arkansas Post, naval force sent to help capture, iv. 351.
_Armada_, British liner, chases the _Wasp_, iii. 92.
Armament and construction of gun-boats, iv. 246.
Armament of battle-ships from 1812 to 1859, iv. 24.
Armor-plated ships, first use of, iv. 9, 10.
Armstrong, Commodore James, surrenders Pensacola Navy Yard to
Confederates, iv. 112;
suspended for five years, 113.
Arnold, Benedict, invades Canada, i. 84;
builds a fleet, 89;
fight on Lake Champlain, 92–94;
character of, as a fighter, 105.
Arsenals established in New York State, ii. 264.
_Asp_, American ship, ii. 352.
_Atalanta_, British brig, surrenders to the _Alliance_, i. 298.
_Atalanta_, British ship, captured by the _Wasp_, iii. 100.
_Atalanta_, British frigate, ii. 16.
_Atlanta_, formerly the _Fingal_, Confederate ironclad, iv. 488;
surrenders to the _Weehawken_, 489.
_Atlanta_, United States cruiser, iv. 533.
_Atlantic_, British letter-of-marque whaler, captured by Porter, iii.
9.
See _Essex, Jr._
Audience, an intensely interested, iii. 152.
_Augusta_, Federal ship, in Port Royal squadron, iv. 172.
_Augusta_, armed merchantman, attacked by the Confederate ironclad
_Palmetto State_, iv. 474.
Aulick, Captain James, sent to Japan in 1851, iii. 443;
recalled on false charges, _ib._
_Avon_, British brig-sloop, captured by the _Wasp_ (3), iii. 93–96.
_Aylwin_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.
Bache, Lieutenant G. M., iv. 369.
Badajos, rapacity of English veterans in the streets of, iii. 134.
_Bahama_, British merchant-ship, officers and crew of the _Alabama_
taken in the, to Terceira, iv. 431.
Bahama Islands, a resort for contraband traders in the Civil War, iv.
48.
Bahia, Brazil, Captain Bainbridge paroles his prisoners at, ii. 167,
175.
Bailey, Lieutenant-colonel Joseph, saves Admiral Porter’s squadron,
iv. 371–376;
receives thanks of Congress, 376.
Bailey, Captain Theodorus, at New Orleans, iv. 316;
commands first division of Farragut’s squadron, 324;
sent ashore to deliver Farragut’s letter, 338.
Bainbridge, Captain William, i. 316;
surrenders to the French frigate _Insurgent_, _ib._;
Captain of the _Voluntaire_ refuses to accept his sword, _ib._;
deceives the French officer, 317;
sent to Tripoli in charge of the _Essex_, 335;
chases a Tripolitan corsair, 341;
loses his ship on a reef, 343;
court-martialed, 344;
a prisoner in Tripoli, 345;
communicates with American fleet, 346;
a shot penetrates his prison, 368;
remonstrates with the Navy Department of Madison’s administration,
ii. 26;
cruising in Brazil, 152;
fight with the British frigate _Java_, 153–173;
wounded, 155;
conducts his ship while his wounds are being dressed, 156;
paroles 378 of the _Java’s_ crew, 167;
blows up the _Java_, 173;
his dream realized, 172, 173;
his character illustrated, 177;
insulted at Barcelona, iii. 311–313.
Bainbridge, Midshipman Joseph, his duel with the Secretary of Sir
Alexander Ball, iii. 307–311;
captures a Carthaginian privateer, iii. 65;
attacked and captured by the _Orpheus_ and _Shelburne_, 65, 66.
Baker, Captain Thomas H., iv. 89.
Baldwin, Lieutenant, i. 66.
Ball, Sir Alexander, iii. 307.
_Ballard_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.
Ballard, Midshipman Edward J., ii. 206.
_Baltimore_, American frigate, five men of the, impressed in the
British service, 401.
Bankhead, Captain J. P., at Port Royal, iv. 163.
Banks, General Nathaniel Prentiss, sent on expedition to Shreveport,
La., iv. 368.
_Banshee_, the first steel blockade-runner, iv. 57.
Barbary pirates encouraged by England, i. 307;
war with, 333, 334.
_Barclay_, British whaler, captured by Porter, iii. 8.
Barclay, Captain Robert H., appears off Erie, ii. 289;
fond of festivities, 291;
misses the American fleet, 292;
opposes Perry, 296;
superiority of his ships, 298;
determines to meet Perry, 302;
awaits the American squadron, 306;
fires the first gun, 308;
surrenders, 324, 326;
loses a second arm in the battle, 330.
Barnard, Captain Tim, iii. 187;
captures nineteen prizes, _ib._
Barney, Captain Joshua, sketch of, i. 209–215;
has command of the clipper-schooner _Rossie_, ii. 245;
captures by, 246–248;
commands a fleet in Chesapeake Bay in 1813, 403;
attacked by the British on the Patuxent River, 403–409;
Captain Samuel Miller and Colonel Wadsworth sent to his assistance,
409, 410;
moves up the Patuxent River, 413;
burns his fleet, 414;
wounded, 416.
Barney, Major William B., acts as aid to his father, ii. 406;
in command of cutter _Scorpion_, 408.
_Barossa_, British frigate, ii. 395.
Barreaut, Captain, chases American ships, i. 316;
recalled by Captain St. Laurent, 317–319.
Barriers on the Mississippi to prevent Farragut’s advance, iv. 320;
broken down by the _Itasca_, 323.
Barron, Captain James, sent to Tripoli in charge of the _President_,
i. 335;
with Stephen Decatur, iii. 318–322;
restored to active service, 323.
Barron, Captain Samuel, sent to Tripoli in charge of the
_Philadelphia_, i. 335.
Barron, Flag Officer Samuel, captured at Fort Hatteras, iv. 106.
Barry, Captain John, i. 39;
commands American brig _Lexington_, 63;
cruises off Virginia capes, 64;
encounters British tender _Edward_, 64;
sinks the _Effingham_, 188;
captures and destroys the schooner _Alert_, 189, 190;
appointed to the _Raleigh_, _ib._;
chases the Unicorn, 191;
loses the _Raleigh_, 194.
Bashaw of Tripoli, treachery of, i. 335, 336;
refuses to make a treaty, 340;
agrees to give up prisoners, 378.
Bassett, Lieutenant F. S., opinion of Commodore Hopkins, i. 61.
Batteaux, travelling in, ii. 263.
Battle of Bunker Hill, i. 26;
Champlain, 92–111;
of Fort Pillow, iv. 298;
of Grand Gulf, 367;
of Lake Erie, ii. 309–325;
of Lexington, i. 14;
of Memphis, iv. 298–307;
of New Orleans (in the Civil War), 326–340;
of Pittsburg Landing, 284.
Baton Rouge surrenders to Captain Craven of the _Brooklyn_, iv. 340.
_Baudara de Sangare_, a private vessel, captured by the _Shark_, iii.
332.
Baury, Lieutenant Frederick, iii. 81.
Bay Point. See _Fort Beauregard_.
Bazely, Lieutenant John, captures the _Lexington_, i. 119, 120.
_Beagle_, American ship, captures Cape Cruz, iii. 334.
_Beaufort_, Confederate gun-boat, takes crew off the _Congress_ after
she surrenders to the _Merrimac_, iv. 208.
_Beauregard_, Confederate ram, attacks the _Queen of the West_ at
Fort Pillow, iv. 301;
rammed and sunk by the _Monarch_, 302.
Bell, Henry H., iv. 314.
Belligerent ships, rules and orders regarding, issued by British
Government, iv. 411.
Belligerents, rights of, iv. 86.
Belmont, on the Mississippi, battle at, iv. 251;
the Confederates compel Grant to retreat, 252.
_Belvidera_, British frigate, encounters the _President_, ii. 29;
escapes, 32.
_Ben. Dunning_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate
cruiser _Sumter_, iv. 415.
Benham, Admiral A. E. K.,
prompt action of, at Rio Janeiro, iv. 548.
Bentham, Commander George, attacks the _General Armstrong_ in the
harbor of Fayal, iii. 187–199;
sets fire to the _Armstrong_, 200.
_Benton_ snag-boat, converted by Eads into an armored vessel, iv.
246–249.
_Benton_, Porter’s flagship before Vicksburg, iv. 363.
_Benton_, Federal gun-boat, Lieutenant-commander J. A. Greer, iv. 369.
_Berceau_, French frigate, fights with the _Boston_, i. 328;
returned to France, 330.
Beresford, Captain John Poer, recaptures the _Frolic_ from the
_Wasp_, ii. 118.
Berkeley, British minister at Washington, recalled and promoted, ii.
2.
Bermudas a basis for contraband trade during the Civil War, iv. 48.
_Betsey_, British bark, captured by Captain Alexander, i. 66.
Biddle, Captain Nicholas, i. 64;
commands the _Randolph_, 160;
attacks the _Yarmouth_, 162.
Biddle, James, Lieutenant on the _Wasp_ (No. 2), ii. 111;
leads the boarders, _ib._;
hauls down the flag of the _Frolic_, 112;
appointed to command the _Hornet_, iii. 272;
commands the _Macedonian_, 331;
sent to the Pacific Coast, 401;
sent to Japan to negotiate a treaty of peace, 440.
_Bienville_, Federal ship, in Port Royal squadron, iv. 172.
_Black Hawk_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 369.
_Black Prince_, purchased by Naval Committee, i. 39.
Black Rock, near Buffalo, Lieutenant Elliott establishes a navy yard
at, ii. 273.
_Black Snake_, British gun-boat, iii. 126.
Blake, Captain H. C., iv. 432.
Blakely, Master-commandant Johnston, ii. 375;
fights with the _Reindeer_ and the _Avon_, iii. 85–96;
captures the _Atalanta_, 100;
lost with his ship, 103.
Blockade-runner, legal status of, iv. 57, 58.
Blockade-runners, chiefly in the hands of the British, iv. 48;
reckless loading of, 61;
profits of, 63, 64.
Blockading the Southern ports, iv. 28–30;
no force available to blockade at the beginning of the war, 32;
lack of ships and men, 34;
Congress slow to appreciate the need of a navy, 35.
“Blood is thicker than water,” iii. 381, 382.
Blythe, Captain Samuel, attacks the _Enterprise_, ii. 375;
killed, 379;
buried at Portland, 385.
Board of Admiralty, i. 158.
Boggs, Commander Charles S., iv. 314.
_Bolton_, American bomb-brig, i. 56.
_Bonhomme Richard_, American ship, i. 227;
origin of the name, 228;
fitted out by Jones, 229;
mixed crew of, 230;
Richard Dale as master’s mate on, _ib._;
the _Alliance_ runs foul of, 234;
accident to, 235;
meets the _Serapis_, 243;
fight with the _Serapis_, 245–259;
comparative strength of the two ships, 265;
after the surrender, 269–272;
sinking of the ship, 272.
_Bonita_, American schooner, in attack on Alvarado, iii. 410.
_Bonne Citoyenne_, British war-ship, blockaded in the harbor of
Bahia, ii. 179;
cowardice of Captain Greene, 180.
_Borer_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.
_Boston_, American frigate, i. 286, 287.
_Boston_, American ship, fights the _Berceau_, Captain Senez, i. 328,
329.
Boston Port Bill, i. 13.
Boston, tea destroyed in harbor of, i. 13;
press-gang riots in, 395.
_Boston_, United States cruiser, iv. 533.
Boutelle, Mr., of the Federal Coast Survey, replaces the buoys at
Port Royal, iv. 171.
Bowling Green, Kentucky, Confederate position at, untenable after
surrender of Fort Henry, iv. 266.
_Boxer_, British brig, attacks the _Enterprise_, ii. 375;
surrenders, 379;
crew of, 382;
decision of the British court on the loss of the, 384.
_Bragg_, Confederate ship, captured at Fort Pillow, iv. 302.
Breckenridge, General, attacks the Federal forces at Baton Rouge, iv.
344.
Breese, Lieutenant-commander K. R., iv. 369.
Breeze, Chaplain, on the _Lawrence_ in the battle of Lake Erie, ii.
317.
British Government, attitude of the, toward African pirates, iii. 340.
British grab at the Valley of the Mississippi, iii. 229, 230.
British merchants and the American war, i. 112.
British Navy in American waters, i. 195.
British waters, rights of belligerents in, iv. 411.
Brock, Sir Isaac, his view of the English possession of America, ii.
279.
_Broke_, British gun-boat, iii. 143.
Broke, Captain Philip Vere, Commodore British squadron, ii. 55;
challenges Lawrence of the _Chesapeake_ to fight, “ship to ship,”
ii. 203, 204;
boards the _Chesapeake_, 214;
is wounded, 217;
becomes delirious, 221, 225;
made a baronet, 226;
death of, 229.
Brooke, Lieutenant John M., assigned to assist in designing an
ironclad, iv. 184.
_Brooklyn_, screw sloop, iv. 314.
_Brooklyn_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 386.
Brown, Lieutenant George, iv. 389.
Brown, Captain Isaac N., iv. 342;
skirmish with the Federal fleet in the Yazoo River, _ib._;
attacks Farragut’s squadron, 344;
supports Breckenridge at Baton Rouge, _ib._
Brown, Lieutenant James, ii. 217.
Browne, Lieutenant G. W., iv. 370.
Brownson, Captain Willard H., at Rio Janeiro, iv. 548;
on the coast of Mexico, 553.
Bruinsburg, Federal army crosses from, to Grand Gulf, iv. 364.
Bryant, Captain N. C., before Fort Pillow, iv. 290.
Buchanan, Flag Officer Franklin, iv. 188;
his difficulty in finding a crew, 195;
wounded, 210;
his report of the fight, _ib._;
Confederate fleet of, at Mobile, 380;
sends the _Tennessee_ into action, 399;
wounded, 402.
Budd, Lieutenant George, ii. 206, 218.
Bullock, Commander James D., supervises construction of the
_Alabama_, iv. 430.
Bunker Hill, battle of, i. 26.
_Bunker Hill_, American privateer, ii. 394.
Burleton, Admiral Sir George, chases the _Hornet_, iii. 282.
Burnside, General A. E., sent to capture Roanoke Island, iv. 109.
_Burrows_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.
Burrows, Lieutenant William, appointed to command the _Enterprise_,
ii. 375;
encounters the _Boxer_, 375–377;
is mortally wounded, 377;
receives the surrender of the _Boxer_, 379.
Bushnell, David, invents first American submarine torpedo boat, i.
164;
sketch of his life, 180–184.
Butler, General Benjamin F., sent to attack the forts on Hatteras
Islands, iv. 100;
his report at, 107;
occupies New Orleans, 338, 339;
his plan for blowing up Fort Fisher, 508–510.
_Byron_, Captain of, chased by the _President_, ii. 29–32.
_Cabot_, brig of first American Navy, i. 39;
commanded by Captain Elisha Hinman, i. 66;
fired by her captain, 163.
_Cairo_, armor-plated Federal gun-boat, built by Eads, iv. 245;
Captain N. C. Bryant commands, 290;
runs by torpedoes in the Yazoo River expedition, iv. 350.
Calbreth, Peter, one of the capturers of the _Margaretta_, i. 17.
Caldwell, Lieutenant C. H. B., iv. 314;
breaks barriers across the Mississippi, 323.
_Caleb Cushing_, Federal revenue cutter, cut out and burnt by the
_Archer_, iv. 424.
_Caledonia_, British brig, captured by Lieutenant Elliott, ii. 279.
California, a bone of contention between Americans and English, in
1842, iii. 387, 388;
operations that insured the acquisition of, iii. 387, 388.
Canada invaded by American troops, i. 84;
annexation of, agitated in 1812, ii. 20;
invasions of, for resenting British aggressions, ii. 263.
Canning, British prime minister, diplomacy of, in regard to the
_Chesapeake_ affair, ii. 1.
Canton, China, American fleet sent to, to protect American interests,
iii. 380.
Cape Cruz, South America, a pirate resort captured by the
_Greyhound_ and _Beagle_, iii. 334.
Carden, Captain John Surnam, i. 389;
cruel treatment of sailors, _ib._;
cruises in the Azores, ii. 121;
falls in with the _United States_, 122;
fight with, 125–134;
Decatur refuses to receive his sword, 139.
Caribbean Sea a nest for pirates, iii. 326.
Carleton, Sir Guy, his supplies captured by Paul Jones, i. 79;
confidence of, 85;
his fleet at St. John’s, 87;
fight on Lake Champlain, 92–94.
_Carleton_, British schooner, ii. 100.
_Carnation_, British brig, attacks the _General Armstrong_ in the
neutral port of Fayal, Azores, iii. 187–200.
Caroband Bank, South America, fight between the _Hornet_ and
_Peacock_ near, ii. 181.
_Caroline_, American schooner, attacks the British camp at Villeré’s
Plantation on the Mississippi, iii. 239;
is fired and abandoned, 240.
Carondelet, James B. Eads’s shipyard at, iv. 243.
_Carondelet_, armor-plated Federal gun-boat, built by Eads, iv. 245,
369;
goes aground outside Fort Henry, 265;
gets free, 266;
shells Fort Donelson, 268, 271;
disabled before Fort Donelson, 271;
gun bursts on, 272;
in Porter’s fleet before Vicksburg, 363.
Carronades, description and value of, ii. 36–38.
Carronades (short guns) out of use, iii. 141.
Carrying trade of the Mediterranean, England’s tribute to the Dey of
Algiers for, iii. 340;
after the War of 1812, _ib._
Cassin, Lieutenant Stephen, iii. 139.
_Castilian_, English brig-sloop, iii. 93.
_Catherine_, British ship, captured by Lieutenant Downes, iii. 10.
Cat-o’-ninetails used to enforce orders on British ships, i. 389.
_Catskill_, Federal ironclad, iv. 480.
_Cayuga_, Federal screw gun-boat, iv. 314.
_Centipede_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.
_Centipede_, British launch, ii. 398;
sunk, 400.
Ceremonies connected with first American fleet, i. 44–46.
_Ceres_, British man-of-war, captures the _Alfred_, i. 132, 133.
Chads, Lieutenant, in the fight with the _Constitution_, takes
command when Captain Lambert is mortally wounded, ii. 165.
Champlain, Lake, naval battle on, i. 92–100;
reflections on the battle, 105–111.
Champlin, Stephen, in the battle of Lake Erie, ii. 326;
fires the last shot of the battle, 327.
Chandeleur Islands, the British forces arrive at, to attack New
Orleans, iii. 230.
Chaplin, Lieutenant J. C., attacks the forts at Acquia Creek, iv. 82.
Charles City, Ark., attack on, by Federal gun-boats and an Indiana
regiment, iv. 307.
_Charleston_, United States cruiser, plans of, imported, iv. 531.
Charleston, S. C., defences of, iv. 467;
bombardment of, iv. 480–502.
_Charlton_, British whaler, captured by Porter, iii. 14.
_Charwell_, British brig, iii. 110.
Chase, Major W. H., and Colonel Lomax, capture the Pensacola Navy
Yard, iv. 112.
_Chasseur_, Baltimore clipper, attacks the _St. Lawrence_, British
war-schooner, iii. 204.
_Chatsworth_, American brigantine, slave-ship captured by Lieutenant
Foote, iii. 366.
Chauncey, Commodore Isaac, appointed to command the forces on the
Great Lakes, ii. 270;
attacks Kingston, _ib._;
attacks Toronto, 341;
attacks Fort George, 342;
returns to Sackett’s Harbor, 348;
makes another assault on Toronto, 349;
Sir James Yeo’s squadron appears, _ib._;
jockeying for position, 350;
Chauncey opens fire, 351;
returns to the attack, 352;
misses the great opportunity of his life, 353;
operations of, on Lake Ontario, iii. 113–129.
_Cherub_, British war-ship, accompanies the _Phœbe_ in the attack on
the _Essex_, iii. 25.
_Chesapeake_, American frigate, built, i. 312.
_Chesapeake_, Lawrence appointed to command of, ii. 197;
her crew, 198;
the ship reputed to be unlucky, 199;
is fitted out for a voyage to intercept British ships, 200;
is blockaded by the _Shannon_ in Boston Harbor, 203;
goes out to meet the _Shannon_, 1813, 204;
crew mutinous, 205;
closes down on the _Shannon_, 206;
the battle, 209;
the _Chesapeake_ is boarded, 214;
hand-to-hand fight, 217;
the ship is captured, 221;
taken to Halifax, 222;
comparison of the two ships, 229.
_Chickasaw_, Federal monitor, iv. 386.
_Chickasaw_, Federal gun-boat, shells Fort Gaines, and compels it to
surrender, iv. 405.
_Chicora_, Confederate ironclad, built at Charleston, iv. 473;
fires on the _Keystone State_ and captures her, 475.
_Chillicothe_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 369.
Chinese assault on the American flag, a, iii. 380.
Chinese war of 1856, American interests involved in, and fleet sent
to protect them, iii. 379–382.
_Chippeway_, British schooner, in battle of Lake Erie, ii. 297.
_Chubb_, British ship, disabled and surrenders to Macdonough, iii.
156.
_Chubb_, British gun-boat, iii. 143.
_Cincinnati_, armor-plated Federal gun-boat, built by Eads, iv. 245;
flagship of Commodore Foote before Fort Henry, 261;
Captain R. N. Stembel commands, 289;
throws the first shell into Fort Pillow, 293;
attacked by Confederate rains, _ib._;
the _Mound City_ goes to the rescue of, 294;
sinks, _ib._
_Circassian_, blockade-runner, captured off Havana by the Fulton
ferryboat _Somerset_, iv. 37.
Civilization promoted by Anglo-Saxon aggressiveness, iii. 391.
_Clarence_, merchant-ship, captured by Captain Maffitt, of the
cruiser _Florida_, iv. 424;
placed under command of Lieutenant Read, _ib._;
burnt, _ib._
Coaling stations, need of, by Federal war-ships in Southern waters,
iv. 161.
Cocke, Captain W. H., iii. 333;
fired on and killed by a Porto Rican fort, _ib._
Collier, Sir Ralph, K. C. B., iii. 260.
Collins, Captain Napoleon, at Port Royal, iv. 163;
commanding the _Wachusett_, captures the _Florida_ in Bahia Harbor,
iv. 424.
“Colonial Navy,” distinguished from temporary cruisers, i. 28, 29.
_Colorado_, United States screw frigate, launched, iv. 15.
_Columbia_, American frigate, attacks and bombards the Malay town of
Quallah Battoo, iii. 375–379.
_Columbia_, United States cruiser, iv. 534.
Columbiad, description of, iv. 119.
_Columbus_, successful cruise of Captain Whipple in the, i. 66.
_Columbus_, American ship-of-the-line, sent to Japan, iii. 440.
Columbus, Ky., Confederate position at, becomes untenable after
surrender of Fort Henry, iv. 266.
Columbus, on the Mississippi, Confederates evacuate, iv. 275.
_Comet_, American privateer, ii. 252.
Commander-in-chief of the Navy, title held by Commodore Hopkins only,
i. 62.
_Condor_, blockade-runner, wreck of, at Fort Fisher, iv. 511.
_Conestoga_, merchant-vessel, purchased by Commander Rodgers, iv. 241;
Captain Phelps appointed to command, 251.
_Confederacy_, American frigate, i. 287.
_Confederacy_, American packet, captured by the English, i. 298.
_Confiance_, British frigate, iii. 142;
flagship of Captain Downie in the battle of Lake Champlain, 153;
disabled and surrendered to the _Saratoga_, 165.
_Congress_, American galley, i. 89;
Arnold’s, flagship, 99;
covers retreat at Crown Point, 104;
burned by Arnold, 105.
_Congress_, American frigate, built, i. 312;
opens fire on the ironclad _Merrimac_ in Hampton Roads, iv. 200;
grounded, 207;
two Confederate gun-boats open fire on her, _ib._;
Lieutenant Pendergrast surrendered her to the _Merrimac_, 208;
hot shot fired at her by the _Merrimac_, 209;
her magazine explodes, 215.
Connecticut troops desert, i. 30.
Conner, Commodore David, lands a force at Point Isabel, iii. 409;
his fleet not fitted for shallow waters, 410;
his conduct of the seige of Vera Cruz, 418.
Connyngham, Captain Gustavus, i. 123;
captures prizes on the French coast, 124;
commission taken from him, 125;
takes command of the _Revenge_, 126;
his ship injured, 127;
refits in English port, 128;
gets provisions in an Irish port, _ib._;
sails for America, _ib._;
denounced as a pirate, 129;
cruel treatment of, in English prison, _ib._
_Constellation_, American frigate, built, i. 312;
Captain Thomas Truxton commands, 316, 319;
battle with French frigate _Insurgent_, 320;
discipline on board of, 322, 323;
battle with French frigate _Vengeance_, 323–325;
Captain Charles Gordon appointed to command in Decatur’s fleet,
iii. 343.
_Constitution_, United States frigate, built, i. 312;
flagship in the attack on Tripoli, 367;
called a “pine box” by Englishmen, 380;
Captain Isaac Hull disputes with the Captain of the British warship
_Havana_, ii. 13, 14;
is chased by two frigates, _ib._;
ship prepares for action, _ib._;
frigates retreat, 16;
her escape from a British squadron, 53–69;
“a bunch of pine boards,” 73;
fight with _Guerrière_, 76–95;
comparative strength of the two ships, 96;
return to Boston, 101;
cruising off Brazil, 152;
falls in with the _Java_, 153, 155–173;
attempt of the _Java_ to board, 158;
the London _Times_ on the victory, 176;
Lawrence applies for the command of, 197;
laid up at Boston, iii. 241;
goes to sea again, 242;
captures the war-schooner _Picton_, _ib._;
falls in with the British frigate _La Pique_, _ib._;
the British ship runs away, 243;
is chased by the _Junon_ and _Tenedos_, 244;
returns to Boston, 245;
captures the _Lord Nelson_, _ib._;
chases the _Elizabeth_ and captures the _Susan_, _ib._;
is chased by the _Elizabeth_ and _Tiber_, 246;
fight with the _Cyane_ and _Levant_, 247–256;
sails to Porto Praya, 260;
attacked by three British frigates, 261;
her fighting days over, 268;
plan of, iv. 537.
Continental Congress, effect on the, of the British vengeance on
Portland, i. 26.
Continental Naval Board, i. 158.
Contraband trade in the Civil War, iv. 48–52.
Cooke, Captain. See _Albemarle_.
_Coquette_, American merchant schooner, plundered by the Porto Rico
privateer _Palmira_, iii. 332.
Cornwallis, Lieutenant-general Lord, released from imprisonment in
exchange for Henry Laurens, iv. 154.
Corpus Christi, Texas, captured by Farragut, iv. 357.
_Cossack_, Federal transport, iv. 478.
Cottineau, Captain Denis Nicholas, i. 232.
Cotton-mills of the world shut down during the War of the Rebellion,
iv. 47.
_Countess of Scarborough_ attacks Paul Jones’s fleet off Flamborough
Head, i. 243;
surrender to the _Pallas_, 267.
_Couronne_, French ironclad, witnesses the _Alabama-Kearsarge_ fight,
iv. 438.
Couthouy, Lieutenant S. P., iv. 369.
Cox, William, midshipman on the _Chesapeake_, ii. 206.
Coxetter, Captain Louis M., iv. 91–93.
Craighead’s Point, shells thrown into Fort Pillow from, iv. 290.
Craney Island, Captain Tattnall fires and blows up the _Merrimac_ on,
iv. 236–237.
Craven, Captain Thomas Tunis, iv. 314;
sinks with his ship, 394.
Craven, Commander T. A. M., iv. 386.
Crawford, William H., American minister to France, ii. 361.
_Cricket_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 370.
Crosby, Lieutenant Pierce, iv. 315.
Crown Point, retreat of Benedict Arnold to, i. 103;
account of the roads and distances to, from New York, 109.
Crowninshield, George, Jr., privateersman, brings home the bodies of
Captain Lawrence and Lieutenant Ludlow, ii. 225.
_Croyable_, French gun-ship, captured off the Delaware, and renamed
the _Retaliation_, i. 316, 400.
Cruisers, Confederate, tales of the, iv. 407–451.
_Cuba_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate cruiser
_Sumter_, iv. 415.
_Cumberland_, Federal sailing sloop-of-war, opens fire on the
ironclad _Merrimac_, iv. 200;
is rammed by the _Merrimac_, 201;
in a sinking condition, 202;
continues firing as she goes down, 203.
Cumberland Head, Plattsburg Bay, Macdonough’s squadron at, iii. 149.
Dabney, John B., American consul at Fayal, iii. 187;
his report on the fight between the _Carnation_ and the _General
Armstrong_, 195, 196, 198–201.
Dacres, Captain James Richard, ii. 55;
surrenders to Captain Hull, 94.
Dahlgren, Rear-admiral John Adolph, his smooth-bore gun introduced,
iv. 489.
Dahlgren, Admiral John A. B., relieves Dupont of his command, iv. 489.
Dale, Commodore Richard, master’s mate on _Lexington_, i. 68;
escape of, from English prison, 123;
joins Paul Jones’s fleet, 230;
resourceful conduct of, 256, 260–262;
wounded, 266;
gallant conduct on the _Trumbull_, 295–297;
placed in command of squadron in the Mediterranean, 334.
Dartmoor Prison, Rev. Joseph Bates imprisoned in, iii. 294.
_Dartmouth_, merchant-ship, tea thrown from, in Boston Harbor, i. 13.
_Dash_, privateer of Baltimore, captures schooner _Whiting_ in
Chesapeake Bay, ii. 241.
_Dauphin_, American ship, captured by Algerian pirates, i. 309.
Dauphin Island, Mobile, iv. 379;
Federal troops landed on, 385.
“Davids,” torpedo boats, first used at Charleston, iv. 497;
derivation of name, 498.
Davis, Captain Charles, relieves Commodore Foote, iv. 289;
his inactivity, 293.
Davis, Captain Charles H., replaces the buoys at Port Royal, iv. 171.
Davis, Jefferson, proclamation inviting applications for letters of
marque, iv. 85.
Davis, Gunner’s Mate John, heroism of, iv. 110;
promoted and honored, 111.
Davyson, Captain Thomas, surrenders to the _Providence_, i. 282, 283.
Dead Sea, exploration of the, iii. 464.
_Deane_, American frigate, with the _Boston_, captures six prizes, i.
284, 287.
Deane, Silas, member of first Marine Committee, i. 36;
American commissioner to France with Franklin, i. 117.
De Camp, Commander John, iv. 314.
_Decatur_, American privateer, throws her guns overboard, ii. 75.
Decatur, Lieutenant James, in the attack on the city of Tripoli, i.
361;
killed by the Tripolitans, 362.
Decatur, Lieutenant Stephen, Jr., i. 346;
captures the _Mastico_, _ib._;
sails on the _Mastico_ to set fire to the _Philadelphia_, 348–361;
made a captain, 358;
in the attack on the city of Tripoli, 361;
his encounter with a Tripolitan captain, 363, 364;
falls in with the British ships _Eurydice_ and _Atalanta_, ii. 16;
cruises in the Azores in the _United States_, 121;
encounters the _Macedonian_, 122;
fights the second frigate battle of the War of 1812, 125–134;
his personal direction of the guns, 128;
surrender of the British frigate, 133;
ball given to Decatur and his officers in New York, 149;
gold medal given by Congress to, 150;
transferred to the _President_, iii. 212;
ordered to cruise in the East Indies, 215;
chased by the British fleet, 216;
lightens his ship, 217;
addresses his crew, 218;
attempts to retreat, 221;
ordered to cruise in the South Atlantic, 271;
his duelling experiences, 307–315;
his fatal duel with Commodore Barron, 318–321;
his death, 322;
a squadron under his command sent to Africa, 343;
his treaty with the Dey, 347–355;
compels the Dey to pay indemnity, 355;
goes to Tripoli and compels the Bashaw to settle, 357.
_Deerhound_, English yacht, witnesses the _Alabama-Kearsarge_ fight
off Cherbourg, France, iv. 438;
assists in picking up the crew of the _Alabama_, 441.
_Defence_, Connecticut cruiser, captures two transports, i. 203, 204.
_Defiance_, Confederate ironclad, abandoned by her crew at New
Orleans, iv. 337.
De Gama, Saldanha, Brazilian rebel admiral, iv. 548.
_De Kalb_, armor-plated Federal gun-boat, built by Eads, first
called the _St. Louis_, iv. 245;
takes part in capture of Arkansas Post, iv. 351.
_Delaware_, United States frigate, i. 316.
_Demologos_, Fulton’s first steam war-ship, iv. 4, 11.
Desertions from British ships, i. 394.
_De Soto_, Federal boat, added to Ellet’s command, iv. 351;
burned, 352.
_Detroit_, American brig, captured by the British, ii. 274;
recaptured by Lieutenant Elliott, 276;
runs aground on Squaw Island, 278;
British again capture her, _ib._;
the Americans destroy her, 279.
_Detroit_, United States cruiser, at Rio Janeiro, iv. 548;
fires on the _Guanabara_, 553.
_Diadem_, British frigate, strength and armament of, iv. 23.
Diamond Reef, near Cape Hatteras, iv. 165.
Dickenson, Captain James, attacks the _Hornet_, iii. 273;
is killed in the fight, 276.
_Diligence_, British schooner, sent to capture Captain Jeremiah
O’Brien, i. 23.
_Diligent_, English brig, surrenders to the _Providence_, i. 282, 283.
Discipline on board American frigate _Constellation_, i. 322.
Discord fomented by England between the States of the Union, i. 384.
_Divided We Fall_, American privateer, ii. 253.
_Dixie_, Confederate privateer, iv. 93.
_Dolphin_, American cutter, purchased by Franklin and other
commissioners, i. 117.
_Dolphin_, American privateer, ii. 242.
_Dolphin_, United States cruiser, iv. 531.
Donaldson, Commander Edward, iv. 389;
of the _Sciota_, 315.
“Don’t tread on me,” the significant motto, i. 2, 46.
Douglas, Hon. Captain George, iii. 247;
surrenders, 255.
Douglas, Lord Howard, his views on armor-clad ships, iv. 198.
Downes, Lieutenant John, sent on a cruise in the _Georgiana_, iii. 10;
captures by, 10, 11;
in the _Essex-Phœbe_ fight, 28;
is appointed to command the _Epervier_, 1815, 343;
attacks and overpowers the Malays at Quallah Battoo, 373, 374.
Downes, Commander John, iv. 480.
Downie, Captain George, iii. 144, 145;
at the battle of Lake Champlain, 153, 154;
killed, 165.
Drayton, Captain Percival, at Port Royal, iv. 163;
Captain of the _Hartford_, 386;
of the _Passaic_, 480.
Drayton, General Thomas F., at Port Royal, iv. 170.
_Druid_, British brig, attacked by the _Raleigh_, i. 131, 132.
_Drummond_, British gun-boat, iii. 143.
_Drummond_, British schooner, captured by Chauncey at Lake George,
ii. 353.
Drunkenness and debauchery promoted by gun-boats, ii. 394.
_D. Trowbridge_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by the _Sumter_,
iv. 415.
_Dublin_, British frigate, cruises off Callas, iii. 389.
_Duc de Lauzan_, American frigate, i. 287, 299.
Duckworth, Admiral Sir John T., on the cartel of the _Alert_, ii. 47.
Duddingstone, Lieutenant William, i. 4;
shot, 10.
Duelling in the American Navy, iii. 305–323;
at Gibraltar, 313, 314.
_Duke of Gloucester_, British ship captured by Americans at Toronto,
burned at the attack on Fort George, ii. 346.
Dummy monitor sent adrift by Porter’s men, iv. 357.
Dunmore, Lord, in Chesapeake Bay, i. 35.
Dunovant, Colonel R. M., at Fort Beauregard, iv. 170.
Dupont, Commander Samuel Francis, spikes the guns of San Blas, iii.
402;
takes command of a fleet to take possession of Port Royal, iv. 163.
Dynamite cruisers, construction of, iv. 542.
Eads, James B., ship-builder, takes a contract to build seven
ironclad gun-boats, iv. 242–244;
construction of, described, 245, 246;
Eads and Ericsson, 244.
_Eagle_, American sloop, in Macdonough’s squadron, ii. 354;
sunk by the British in the Sorel River, 355.
_Eagle_, American sloop, iii. 136, 138.
Earle, Commodore, attempts to capture the _Oneida_ and destroy
Sackett’s Harbor, ii. 266, 268.
_Eastport_, Confederate river steamer, captured by Lieutenant Phelps,
iv. 267.
_Eastport_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 369.
_Eben Dodge_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate cruiser
_Sumter_, iv. 415.
_Eclipse_, American merchant-ship, attacked and looted by Malays,
iii. 374–376.
_Edinburgh Review_ on the treatment of America by Great Britain, i.
384.
_Edwin_, American merchant-brig, captured by the Dey of Algiers, iii.
341, 351.
_Effingham_, American frigate, sunk, i. 188.
_Eliza_, merchant-schooner, David Porter’s first ship, ii. 33.
_Elizabeth_, British schooner, captured by Porter, iii. 4.
Ellet, Colonel Charles, Jr., converts seven river steamers into rams
on the Ohio River, iv. 298;
his part in the attack on Fort Pillow, 301.
Ellet, Colonel Charles R., sent by Porter to control the Mississippi
between Vicksburg and Port Hudson, iv. 351.
Elliott, Lieutenant Jesse D., sent to Buffalo to purchase vessels,
ii. 273;
capture of the _Detroit_, 276, 278, 279;
in command of the _Niagara_, 292;
brings up the gun-boats, 322;
criticized for inactivity, 335, 336;
acts as second to Commodore Barron in his duel with Decatur, iii.
319;
commands the _Ontario_ in an expedition against the Dey of Algiers
in 1815, 343.
Elliptical route plan condemned by Admiral Porter, iv. 101.
_Emily St. Pierre_, British merchant-ship, seized by United States
cruiser _James Adger_, iv. 58;
recaptured by her captain, _ib._
_Enchantress_, merchant-schooner, captured by Confederate privateer
_Jefferson Davis_, iv. 91.
_Endymion_, British frigate, attacks the _Prince de Neufchâtel_,
American privateer, iii. 202;
is defeated, 203;
assists in the capture of the _President_, 222.
England, greed of, in dealings with her colonies, i. 4;
tries to crush the new republic, 314.
English Navy of 1812 in American waters, ii. 25.
English officers offended by names given to Yankee ships, iii. 313.
English seaman in 1812, ii. 25.
Ensign, naval, first American, i. 46.
_Enterprise_, American brig, sent to South America to put down
piracy, iii. 331.
_Enterprise_, American schooner, captures the French privateer
_Seine_, i. 330;
sent to Tripoli in charge of Lieutenant Andrew Sterrett, 335;
battle with the war polacre _Tripoli_, 335;
the luckiest, naval ship of the War of 1812, ii. 372;
captures eight privateers, 373;
cruises in the Mediterranean, _ib._;
captures the _Tripoli_ and the ketch _Mastico_, _ib._;
changed to a brig and overloaded with guns, 374;
drives off English privateers under command of Master-commandant
Johnston Blakely, 375;
Lieutenant William Burrows takes charge of her, _ib._;
cruises for privateers, _ib._;
encounters the _Boxer_, _ib._;
her commander wounded, and Lieutenant McCall takes his place, 377,
378;
the _Boxer_ surrenders, 379;
after the battle Master-commandant James Renshaw appointed to
command, 386;
cruises off the southern coast, _ib._;
escapes from a British frigate, _ib._;
employed as harbor guard, 387.
_Enterprise_, American sloop, i. 89.
_Epervier_, British brig-sloop, captured by the _Peacock_, iii. 66–71;
taken into Savannah by Lieutenant John B. Nicholson, 76–78.
_Epervier_, American ship, lost at sea, iii. 354.
_Era_, Confederate steamer, captured by Federal fleet, iv. 352.
Erben, Captain Henry, at Fort Pillow, iv. 289.
_Ericsson_, a name given to the first monitor, iv. 215.
Ericsson, John, Swedish engineer, his screw propeller, iv. 10;
his boat the _Francis B. Ogden_, _ib._;
induced to come to America, 11;
plans the first screw steamship, 12;
Naval Board makes a contract with, for the _Monitor_, 191.
Erie, Pa., chosen as base of operations for gaining control of Lake
Erie, ii. 282;
ship-building at, 286.
_Espiègle_, British war-brig, chased by Captain Lawrence of the
_Hornet_, ii. 181;
again chased after sinking the _Peacock_, 190.
_Essex_, American frigate, sent to Tripoli, i. 335.
_Essex_, American frigate, ii. 33;
first cruise in War of 1812, 34–50;
British frigate _Minerva_ refuses to fight with, 39–41;
captures the _Alert_, 41–43;
crew of _Alert_ plan a rescue, 44;
chased by the _Shannon_, 47;
Farragut’s account of the crew, 49;
begins her second cruise, Oct. 8, 1812, iii. 1;
cruises off Port Praya, 2;
captures the brig _Nocton_, 2, 3;
dysentery among the crew, 4;
panic on board, 6;
painted and disguised, 8;
captures British whalers, _ib._;
refitted from the captured ships, 9;
captures the _Atlantic_ and the _Greenwich_, _ib._;
captures the _Charlton_, 13;
goes into the harbor of Nukahiva to refit, 18–21;
an incipient mutiny on, 21;
attacked by the _Phœbe_ and _Cherub_, 24–43;
losses of, 44;
sent to England to be added to the British Navy, 48;
her captures, 52;
amount of damage done to the enemy, _ib._
_Essex_, Federal armor-plated gun-boat, iv. 249;
in the battle of Port Henry, _ib._;
disabled, 262;
Flag Officer Foote’s warning to his crews about wasting shot, 261;
Commander Robert Townsend, 369.
_Essex Junior_, formerly the British whaler _Atlantic_, iii. 12;
in the fight between the _Phœbe_ and _Cherub_ against the _Essex_,
33–43;
is disarmed and sent to New York, 49.
_Estido_, Algerian brig, captured near Cape Palos by the American
Navy, iii. 348.
_Eurydice_, British frigate, ii. 16.
Evans, Surgeon Amos E., ii. 168.
_Experiment_, British frigate, captures the _Raleigh_, i. 194.
_Experiment_, American schooner, i. 330.
Exploring expeditions of the American Navy, iii. 464.
“Export powder,” an inferior quality of gunpowder, ii. 368.
_Fair American_, British brig, driven ashore by the _Hyder Ali_, i.
215.
Fairfax, Lieutenant D. M., takes Mason and Slidell off the _Trent_,
iv. 144–146.
Fairfax, Commander D. M., iv. 480.
Falcon, Captain Thomas Gordon, chased by the _Constitution_, iii. 247;
surrenders, 252.
Falmouth (now called Portland), Maine, attacked by British, i. 24–26,
32.
_Fame_, privateer of Salem, ii. 241.
_Fanny_, successful blockade-runner, iv. 63.
Farragut, Commodore David Glasgow, midshipman on the _Essex_, ii. 40;
his wit saves a rescue of the _Alert_ by her crew, 44;
his account of the crew of the _Essex_, 49;
as captain when only twelve years old, iii. 12, 13;
resumes his studies at Nukahiva, 19–21;
his account of the fight of the _Essex_ with the _Phœbe_ and
_Cherub_, 40–42;
in his home at Norfolk, Va., 1862, awaiting orders, iv. 311;
a member of the Naval Retiring Board, 313;
suggested by Porter as a suitable commander of the New Orleans
expedition, 313;
accepts the position, 314;
ships in his squadron, 314, 315;
disguises his ships, 317;
advances past the barriers, 324–330;
demands surrender of New Orleans from Mayor Monroe, 338;
pressed by the Administration to open up the Mississippi, 341;
his bold cruise practically fruitless, 342;
his fortune in the Gulf of Mexico, 357;
runs his squadron past the works of Port Hudson, _ib._;
captures Galveston and Corpus Christi, _ib._;
losses in his fleet, 358;
watches Confederates strengthen their works at Mobile, 384;
moves his fleet up to Fort Morgan, 389;
commences the battle, 392;
disregards the torpedoes, 396;
lashed to the mast, _ib._;
wins the battle when the _Tennessee_ surrenders, 403;
in his report gives special praise to members of his fleet, _ib._;
his place in history, 465.
Faunce, Captain John, iv. 99.
Federal Government, its great aim to strangle and starve the
Confederates, iv. 239.
Fernando de Noronha, Brazil, Porter visits and communicates with
Bainbridge at, iii. 3;
Captain Semmes allowed to make his headquarters there, iv. 527.
Ferryboats as successful naval ships, iv. 37.
_Finch_, British gun-boat, iii. 143;
disabled in the battle of Lake Champlain, 161.
_Fingal_, Scotch iron steamer, erected into a Confederate ironclad,
iv. 486;
renamed the _Atlanta_, 488.
Fitch, Colonel, attacks Charles City, Ark., iv. 307;
storms and captures it, 308.
Flag. See _American Flag_.
_Flag_, armed merchantman, attacked by the Confederate ironclad
_Palmetto State_, iv. 474.
_Flambeau_, French privateer, captured by the _Enterprise_, ii. 373.
Flamborough Head, naval fight between the _Serapis_ and _Bonhomme
Richard_ near, i: 243.
Flannen Islands, the _Alliance_, of Paul Jones’s fleet, captures a
valuable prize off the coast of, i. 236.
Flores, General José Maria, paroled by Commodore Stockton, iii. 397;
breaks his parole, _ib._
_Florida_, Confederate cruiser built at Liverpool, iv. 416;
her first voyages, 417;
Captain John Newland Maffitt appointed to command of, 418;
is fired at by Captain Preble of the _Winona_, 419;
escapes, _ib._;
blockaded by the _Cuyler_, 420;
runs the blockade, 423;
Captain Charles M. Morris appointed to command of, 424;
rammed by the _Wachusett_ and taken to the United States, _ib._;
scuttled at Newport News, 429.
_Fly_, schooner of first American Navy, i. 40.
Foote, Admiral Andrew Hull, Lieutenant on the American brig _Perry_,
sent to Africa to assist in putting down the slave traffic,
iii. 363;
his sincere desire to stop the traffic, 364;
captures the slave-ships _Martha_ and _Chatsworth_, 364–366;
the “original prohibitionist of the navy,” 367;
is sent to Canton to protect American interests, 380;
is fired on by the Chinese forts, _ib._;
bombards and captures the forts, 380, 381;
relieves Commander John Rodgers of his command on the Mississippi,
iv. 250;
assembles a fleet at Paducah, 255;
inspects the crews, 256;
seeming insolence of Captain Walke to, 266;
joins the expedition to Fort Donelson, 268;
is seriously wounded, 271;
again, 272;
is relieved by Captain Charles H. Davis, 289.
_Forest Queen_, Federal army transport, in Porter’s fleet before
Vicksburg, iv. 364.
Fort Beauregard, on Bay Point, Charleston, S. C., Confederate fort
at Port Royal, iv. 169, 467.
Fort Donelson, strength of, iv. 268;
arrival of the _Carondelet_, _ib._;
the _St. Louis_, _Louisville_, and _Pittsburg_ arrive before, 271;
all three ships disabled, _ib._;
the fleet at a disadvantage, 272;
surrendered to General Grant, _ib._
Fort Erie, the Coney Island of Buffalo, ii. 273.
Fort Fisher, N. C., capture of, iv. 503–518;
fortifications of, 505;
General Butler’s plan of capture, 508–514;
garrison of, 514.
Fort Gaines shelled by Federal gun-boat _Chickasaw_, iv. 405.
Fort George attacked by the Americans under Winfield Scott, ii.
342–344;
Scott hauls down the British flag, 344.
Fort Gregg, Charleston, S. C., iv. 467.
Fort Henry, Tennessee River, Foote assembles a fleet at Paducah to
attack, iv. 255;
troops under Grant proceed up the river, _ib._;
storm clears the river of torpedoes, 256;
attacked by Foote’s fleet, 261–266;
a victory for the gun-boats, 266;
its importance to both armies, _ib._
_Fort Hindman_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 370.
Fort Jackson, Confederate fortification on the Mississippi, iv. 318;
bombardment of, 322–324;
surrendered to Porter, 339.
Fort Johnson, Charleston, S. C., iv. 467.
Fort Morgan, iv. 385, 386, 389.
Fort Moultrie, Charleston, S. C., iv. 467.
Fort Pillow, Federal fleet advances to, iv. 289;
evacuated by Confederates, 298.
Fort Pinckney, Charleston, S. C., iv. 467.
Fort Ripley, Charleston, S. C., iv. 467.
Fort Sumter, five monitors open fire on, iv. 491;
bombarded and reduced to a wreck, 493.
Fort Wagner, Charleston, S. C., iv. 467, 469, 490.
Fort Walker, on Hilton Head, Confederate fort at Port Royal, iv. 169.
Fortress Monroe, the _Monitor_ retires to, after the fight with the
_Merrimac_, iv. 226.
_Forward_, American schooner, in attack on Alvarado, iii. 410.
_Forward_, filibuster craft, cut out by Lieutenant Brownson of the
United States frigate _Mohican_, iv. 553.
Foster, Lieutenant-commander J. P., iv. 369.
Foster, General John G., Captain Flusser appeals to him to go and
burn the Confederate ironclad _Albemarle_, iv. 454.
Fox, Augustus V., appointed assistant to Gideon Welles, Secretary of
the Navy, iv. 35.
_Fox_, Captain W. H. Cocke, iii. 333.
Foxardo affair, the unfortunate, iii. 337, 338.
France, United States Government abrogates all treaties with, July 7,
1798, i. 314.
_Francis B. Ogden_, Ericsson’s model boat, attains speed of ten miles
an hour, iv. 10;
Captain Stockton makes a trip on, _ib._
Franklin sails for France on the _Reprisal_, i. 114.
Franklin, Sir John, American expedition sent to search for the
remains of, iii. 464.
_Franklin_, American schooner, captures ten vessels and Governor
Wright of St. John’s, i. 203;
captures a quantity of war supplies, _ib._
_Freeborn_, Federal steamer, at Acquia Creek, iv. 81.
“Free trade” before “sailors’ rights,” the motto of Washington
politicians in 1812, ii. 18.
_Freely_, Confederate privateer, iv. 93.
Frémont, John C. (“the Pathfinder”), takes possession of San Diego,
iii. 394;
commands in the Mississippi Valley, iv. 241.
French cruisers destroy American shipping, i. 314.
French troops enter Mexico, iv. 367.
_Friendship_, American ship, attacked and looted by natives of
Sumatra, iii. 368.
_Frolic_, American sloop, built at Portsmouth, N. H., in 1814, iii.
64;
Master-commandant Joseph Bainbridge appointed to, 65:
sinks a Carthagenian privateer, _ib._;
encounters the British frigate _Orpheus_ and schooner _Shelburne_,
_ib._;
surrenders, 66.
_Frolic_, British brig, encountered by the _Wasp_, ii. 106;
captured by the _Wasp_, 107–112;
comparison between the ships, 116;
recaptured by the _Poictiers_, 118.
Frontier posts retained by England contrary to treaty, i. 383;
posts used as Indian headquarters, _ib._
Fry, Captain Joseph, capture of, iv. 308;
captured and executed by the Spaniards in the _Virginius_
expedition, _ib._
Fulton ferryboat _Somerset_ captures the blockade-runner _Circassian_
off Havana, iv. 37.
Fulton, naval plans of, iv. 3, 4;
his first steam war-ship, the _Demologos_, 4;
report of commissioners appointed to examine her, 7, 8;
blown to pieces, 9.
_Fulton 2d_, launched in 1887, iv. 11.
Gadsden, Christopher, member of first Marine Committee, i. 36.
_Gaines_, Confederate gun-boat, iv. 380.
_Galatea_, British frigate, chased by the _Congress_ and _President_,
ii. 151.
_Galena_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 389.
_Gallinipper_, American barge, captures a pirate schooner, iii. 335.
Galveston, Texas, blockaded by the _South Carolina_, iv. 44;
bombarded by Captain James Alden of the Federal frigate _South
Carolina_, 121;
the foreign consuls protest against the bombardment, 123;
captured by Farragut, 357;
is retaken by the Confederates, _ib._
Gamble, Lieutenant Peter, killed in the battle of Lake Champlain,
iii. 157.
_Gaspé_, captured by men armed with paving-stones, i. 9.
_Gazelle_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 370.
Geisinger, Midshipman David, placed in charge of the captured ship
_Atlanta_, iii. 100.
_General Armstrong_, American privateer schooner, iii. 186;
owned by New York men, _ib._;
under Captain Tim Barnard captures nineteen prizes, 187;
sails from New York under command of Captain Samuel C. Reid, _ib._;
arrives at Fayal and encounters the _Carnation_, _Plantagenet_, and
_Rota_, _ib._;
is attacked by boats from the three ships, but beats them off, 189;
scuttled and abandoned by her crew, 200.
_General Bragg_, Confederate gun-boat, rams the _Cincinnati_ at Fort
Pillow, iv. 293;
raked by the _Carondelet_, 294;
surrenders, 302.
_General Monk_, British ship, attacked and captured by the _Hyder
Ali_, i. 209–215.
_General Pike_, American ship, burned at the attack on Fort George,
ii. 346.
_General Price_, Federal ram, in Porter’s fleet before Vicksburg, iv.
364.
_General Rusk_, Confederate steamer, blockaded in Galveston by the
Federal frigate _Santee_, iv. 137.
_Georgiana_, British whaler, captured by Porter, iii. 8.
Gerdes, F. H., Federal coast surveyor at New Orleans, iv. 322.
German troops hired by England to fight in America, i. 32.
Ghent, terms and conditions of the treaty of, iii. 209.
Gherardi, Commander Bancroft, iv. 389.
_Gibraltar_, formerly the _Sumter_. See _Sumter_.
Gibraltar, duels between American and English officers at, iii.
311–313.
Gillis, Captain John P., iv. 99;
of the _Seminole_ at Port Royal, 163.
_Glasgow_, British sloop-of-war, fight with Commodore Hopkins’s
American squadron, i. 59.
_Globe_, American privateer, ii. 250.
“God Save the King,” American sailors on British ships compelled to
bare their heads when played, i. 394, iii. 291.
Godon, Captain S. W., at Port Royal, iv. 163.
_Golden Rocket_, captured by the _Sumter_, iv. 410.
Goldsborough, Flag Officer L. M., in charge of expedition sent
against Roanoke Island, iv. 109;
in charge of a large fleet sent to ram the _Merrimac_, 235.
Gordon’s Landing, Red River, fort at, attacked by Ellet, iv. 352.
Gorringe, Master H. H., iv. 370.
_Governor_, Federal transport, sinks off Cape Hatteras, iv. 166.
_Governor Tompkins_, American privateer, ii. 253.
_Governor Tryon_, British sloop, attacked by and strikes to the
American privateer _Thorn_, i. 209.
_Grampus_, American schooner, in fleet sent to punish pirates in
South America, iii. 331;
captures the _Pandrita_, 332.
Grand Gulf, Porter attacks fortifications of, and finds them
evacuated, iv. 367;
Grant makes it his base of supplies, _ib._
Grant, General Ulysses Simpson, attempts to dislodge Confederates
below Cairo, iv. 251;
attacks the Confederates at Belmont, 251, 252;
proceeds up the Tennessee, to attack Fort Henry, 255;
muddy roads prevents his taking part in the capture of the fort,
266;
at Fort Donelson, 268;
Captain Walker diverts the Confederates’ attention from him, 271;
Confederates surrender to him, 272;
fight with Confederates at Pittsburg Landing, 284;
arrives before Vicksburg, 351;
goes to New Carthage to surround Vicksburg, 363;
makes Grand Gulf his base of supplies, 367.
_Granville_, French privateer, in the fleet of Paul Jones, i. 234.
Graves, Admiral, destroys Portland, Maine, i. 24–26.
Grease as a protection on armor-plated ships, iv. 10.
Great Britain, sea-power of, in 1812, ii. 22;
European nations dread the power of, 23.
Greene, Lieutenant Charles H., iv. 386.
Greene, Captain P. B., blockaded in Bahia Harbor, ii. 179;
refuses Lawrence’s challenge, _ib._;
cowardice of, 180;
rescued by the _Montagu_, _ib._
Greene, Lieutenant S. D., executive officer of the _Monitor_, iv. 216;
takes charge of the guns in the turret, 219, 220;
takes command after Worden is disabled, 226;
his statement, 229, 230;
orders regarding the _Merrimac_, 235.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn, N. Y., the _Monitor_ constructed at, iv. 192.
_Greenwich_, British letter-of-marque whaler, captured by Porter,
iii. 9.
Greer, Lieutenant-commander James A., before Vicksburg, iv. 363, 369.
_Greyhound_, Captain John Porter, iii. 333.
_Growler_, American schooner, captured by the British, ii. 351;
recaptured by the Americans, 351.
_Growler_, American sloop, in Macdonough’s squadron, ii. 354;
grounded in the Sorel River, 355.
_Growler_, American sloop, iii. 135, 138.
_Guanabara_, Brazilian rebel warship at Rio Janeiro, iv. 548;
fired on by the United States cruiser _Detroit_, 553.
_Guerrière_, American frigate, built in 1814, iii. 64;
Decatur’s flagship in expedition sent against the Dey of Algiers,
346, 347.
_Guerrière_, British frigate, picking sailors from American ships,
ii. 6;
flees from an inferior force, 7;
stops the _Spitfire_, and takes off John Deguyo, an American
citizen, _ib._;
race with the _Constitution_, 55;
Captain Dacres in charge of, 55–60;
fight with the _Constitution_, 76–95;
surrendered and blown up, 95.
Gun-boats, the ideal navy, ii. 388;
description and build of, 389;
arguments in favor of, 390;
cheapness of, 392;
points against, _ib._;
cost of, 393;
difficulty of getting unanimity of captains in battle, 394;
lack of discipline on gun-boats, _ib._;
use of, in Long Island Sound, 395;
first encounter with gun-boats, _ib._;
uselessness again shown, 416.
Gunners of 1812 and 1861 compared, iv. 419.
Gunpowder, expedients for getting, by the United Colonies, i. 28.
Guns, penetrating power of long and short, iii. 142;
improvements made in, iv. 18–23.
Gwin, Lieutenant, supports Grant at Pittsburg Landing, iv. 284.
Hacker, Captain Hoysted, i. 79, 282, 283.
Haggerty, Captain F. L., at Port Royal, iv. 163.
_Halifax_, British war-ship, i. 406, 407.
Hallock, Captain William, i. 66.
Hambleton, Purser on the _Lawrence_ in the battle of Lake Erie, ii.
317.
_Hamilton_, American schooner, ii. 350.
Hamilton, Schuyler, suggests cutting through the trees of swamp from
the Mississippi to New Madrid, iv. 281.
Hampton Roads, the first point blockaded in the Civil War, iv. 40;
_Keystone State_ blockades, 45.
Hanchett, Captain, ii. 398.
Handy, Captain Robert, misunderstands signals, iv. 133, 134;
letter to Captain Pope, showing his fear of the _Manassas_, 136.
_Hannah_, a Providence packet, chased by the _Gaspé_, i. 5.
Harding, Captain Seth, surrenders to the _Orpheus_ and _Roebuck_, i.
298.
_Harriet Lane_, American revenue cutter, used as a war-ship, iv. 42;
Captain John Faunce, 99.
_Harriet Lane_, Federal frigate, captured in the Gulf of Mexico, iv.
357.
Harrison, Lieutenant Napoleon B., iv. 314.
_Hartford_, United States screw sloop, built, iv. 16;
flagship of Captain Farragut, 314;
set on fire by Confederate fire-raft, 329;
passes the batteries at Port Hudson, 358;
flagship of Rear-admiral Farragut, 386.
Hatteras, Cape, battle between the _Wasp_ and the _Frolic_ in the
tail of a gale off, ii. 107.
Hatteras, Fort, captured by Federal forces, iv. 106;
the first Union victory in the War of Secession, _ib._
Hatteras hurricane, a fleet of transports in a, iv. 166.
Hatteras Inlet, N. C., resort of the “Hatteras Pirates,” iv. 97.
_Hatteras_, merchant-steamer, captured and sunk by the _Alabama_ at
Galveston, iv. 432.
_Hawke_, American tender, captured by British off Long Island, i. 56.
Hawkins, Captain Richard, refuses to fight the _Essex_, ii. 39–41;
branded as a coward, 40.
Haymakers, Machias, attack of the, on the _Margaretta_, i. 21.
Haymakers and wood-choppers as Yankee seamen, iii. 82, 83, 86, 90, 95.
_Hazard_, American privateer, captured the British brig _Active_, i.
206.
Hazard, Captain, in the first naval battle of the Revolution, i. 57.
_Hebrus_, British frigate, ii. 420.
_Hector_, British letter-of-marque ship, captured by Lieutenant
Downes, iii. 10.
Heddart, Captain Francis, extracts from his account of the
_Serapis_-_Bonhomme Richard_ battle, i. 245, 257.
Henley, Midshipman John D., assists in the attack on the city of
Tripoli, i. 366.
_Henry Clay_, Federal army transport, in Porter’s fleet before
Vicksburg, iv. 364;
catches fire and sinks, _ib._
Hewes, Joseph, member of first Marine Committee, i. 36.
_Hibernia_, British transport, captured by Captain Hopkins, i. 281.
Hickman, on the Mississippi, evacuated by the Confederates, iv. 275.
_Highflyer_, British schooner, Captain Rodgers succeeds in getting
private signals from, ii. 23, 358.
Hillyar, Captain James, in the harbor of Valparaiso, iii. 25;
attempts to attack the _Essex_, but is scared off, 26;
attacks the _Essex_ in company with the _Cherub_, 30–43;
criticism on handling his ship, 46.
Hilton Head. See _Fort Walker_.
Hinman, Captain Elisha, i. 66;
sent to France for army supplies, 130;
his ship captured by the British, 133.
Hislop, Lieutenant-general, Governor of Bombay, on board the _Java_
in her fight with the _Constitution_, ii. 168;
Captain Bainbridge’s curious dream of, 172, 173.
Hoel, Lieutenant W. R., iv. 363, 370.
Hoffman, Lieutenant B. V., sent to take charge of the _Cyane_ when
she surrendered, iii. 252.
Hoke, General, advances on Plymouth, N. C., and captures it, iv. 455,
456.
Holdup, Thomas, in the battle of Lake Erie, chases and captures the
_Chippewa_ and _Little Belt_, ii. 326.
_Holland_, torpedo boat, launching of, iv. 543.
Holland, John P., inventor of submarine torpedo boats, iv. 542.
Honor, American Medal of, origin of, iv. 111.
Hope, Lieutenant David, horrible cruelty of, to sailors, i. 389;
wounded on the _Macedonian_, ii. 140;
his report on gunnery practice, 143.
Hopkins, Esek, Commander-in-chief of first American fleet, i. 42;
career of, 48;
dismissed from the service, 61;
dies near Providence, R. I., _ib._
Hopkins, Captain John Burrows, in command of the _Cabot_, i. 57.
Hopkins, Commodore Robert, receives his appointment through influence
of John Adams, i. 49;
sent to Chesapeake Bay in search of Lord Dunmore, 53;
goes to the Bahamas instead and attacks the British there, _ib._
Hopkins, Stephen, member of first Marine Committee, i. 36.
_Hornet_, sloop of first American Navy, i. 40.
_Hornet_, American sloop-of-war, blockades the British warship _Bonne
Citoyenne_ in Bahia Harbor, ii. 179;
raises the blockade on the approach of the _Montagu_, 180;
captures the _Resolution_, 181;
falls in with the _Peacock_, _ib._;
fight with the _Peacock_, 182–184;
encounters the _Penguin_, iii. 273;
the _Penguin_ surrenders, 274–280;
the _Hornet_ chased by the _Cornwallis_, but escapes, 282–284;
Captain Robert Henley appointed to command, 330;
detailed to South America to destroy pirates, 331.
Horses, wild, as weapons of offence, iii. 401.
_Housatonic_, Federal war-ship, attacked by the Confederate ironclad
_Palmetto State_, iv. 474.
Howard, Lieutenant Samuel, iv. 370.
Howe, Captain Tyringham, i. 59.
Huger, Captain Thomas B., at New Orleans, iv. 321;
mortally wounded, 332.
Hull, Lieutenant Isaac, cuts the privateer _Sandwich_ out of Puerto
Plata, i. 329;
tricky conduct of the officers of two British frigates to, ii. 15;
the frigates turn and retreat, 16;
his opinion of the crew of the _Constitution_, 52;
his escape from a British squadron, after standing at his post for
two days, 53–69;
race with the _Guerrière_, 55;
fight with and capture of the _Guerrière_, 76–95;
reception on returning to Boston, 101;
Congress votes a gold medal to, 103.
Humphreys, Joshua, American ship-builder, statement of, in regard to
new ships, i. 311;
his theories accepted, 312.
Hunt, William H., Secretary of the Navy, appoints a board of naval
officers, with Rear-admiral Rodgers at its head, iv. 527.
_Hunter_, American ship, captured by the _Peacock_, ii. 191;
taken in charge by the _Hornet_, _ib._
_Hunter_, British ship, attacked by privateers, i. 200.
_Hunter_, British brig, in battle of Lake Erie, ii. 296.
_Hussar_, Austrian war-ship, Martin Koszta, an American citizen taken
and detained on, iii. 385;
on demand of Captain Ingraham of the _St. Louis_ is given up, _ib._
Hutter, Midshipman, killed while assisting the Union wounded out of
the _Congress_, iv. 209.
_Hyder Ali_, American privateer, Captain Joshua Barney, attacks and
captures the _General Monk_, i. 212–215.
_Illinois_, United States battle-ship, iv. 534, 536.
Impressment, feeling of American seamen regarding the practice of,
ii. 18.
_Independence_, American privateer, Commander Thomas Truxton, cuts
out three big ships from the British fleet, i. 205.
_Indian Chief_, Confederate ship, iv. 499.
_Indiana_, United States battle-ship, iv. 534.
_Indianola_, Federal armored gun-boat, in attack on Port Hudson, iv.
352;
captured and sunk by the Confederates, _ib._
Indians, friendship of, cultivated by England to injure United
States, i. 383;
incited by British to attack pioneers, _ib._
Ingraham, Captain Duncan Nathaniel, demands the surrender of Martin
Koszta, an American citizen detained on the Austrian war-ship
_Hussar_, iii. 385;
medal presented to him by Congress, 386.
Inland navy an imperative necessity to reach the heart of the
Confederacy, iv. 241.
Inman, Lieutenant William, chases and captures a pirate schooner,
iii. 335.
_Insurgent_, French frigate, Captain Barreaut, captures the American
ship _Retaliation_, i. 316;
battle with the _Constellation_, 320–322;
surrenders, 321;
lost at sea, 330.
International law, a question of violation of, iv. 160.
_Intrepid_, formerly the _Mastico_, used as a fire-ship at the attack
on Tripoli, i. 371;
explodes, 378.
_Investigator_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate
cruiser _Sumter_, iv. 415.
_Iowa_, United States battle-ship, iv. 534, 536.
Ironclad warfare, superior activity of the Confederates in preparing
for, iv. 184.
Ironclads, the Confederate Government the first to construct, iv. 185;
the _Merrimac_ launched, 188;
Congress makes appropriation for construction of, 190;
dilatory action of Naval Board in making contracts for, 191;
first battle between, 220.
_Iroquois_, United States screw sloop, built, iv. 16.
_Iroquois_, Federal screw corvette, iv. 314.
Irving, Washington, on Perry’s victory on Lake Erie, ii. 338.
_Isaac Smith_, Federal war-ship, in the Port Royal fleet, iv. 164.
Island No. 10, strongly fortified by the Confederates, iv. 275;
Foote’s flotilla arrives in front of, 276;
capture of, delayed two weeks by Foote, 281;
Captain Walke successfully runs the gauntlet of batteries on, 282,
283;
the island captured, 283, 289;
has disappeared under action of the current, 284.
Isle-aux-Noix, British fort at, iii. 136, 139.
Isle St. Mary, Paul Jones lands on and surrounds the house of the
Earl of Selkirk, i. 147, 148.
_Itasca_, Federal screw gun-boat, iv. 314;
breaks down barriers placed across the Mississippi, 323;
Lieutenant-commander George Brown, 389.
_Ivy_, Confederate gun-boat, iv. 127.
James, Reuben, seaman, saves Decatur’s life, i. 364.
_James Adger_, American cruiser, captures the _Emily St. Pierre_, iv.
58;
the latter recaptured, _ib._
_Jamestown_, Confederate warship, captures several prizes in sight of
the _Monitor_, iv. 235.
Japan, condition of, in the sixteenth century, iii. 438;
experience with Christianity, _ib._;
Dutch trading at Nagasaki, _ib._;
introduction of Western civilization by the American fleet, 439;
Commodore M. C. Perry’s work in opening the ports of Japan, _ib._;
appointed to the Japan mission, 443;
Commodore Perry’s exhibition of power and dignity wins the respect
of, 444.
_Jason_, British transport, captured by Captain Hopkins, i. 281.
_Java_, British frigate, fight with the _Constitution_ off the coast
of Brazil, 155–173;
poor gunnery of, 157;
a complete wreck in sixty-five minutes, 162;
losses of, 169.
_Jefferson_, American brig, iii. 113.
_Jefferson Davis_, Confederate privateer, captures the _John Welsh_,
_Enchantress_, _S. J. Waring_, iv. 91;
_Mary Goodell_ and _Mary E. Thompson_, 92;
runs aground at St. Augustine and is lost, 93.
Jenkins, Captain Thornton A., iv. 386.
_Jersey_, the notorious prison-ship, sketch of, i. 221–226.
_John Adams_, Perry’s flagship on his cruise to South America, iii.
327.
_John Welsh_, merchant-brig, captured by Confederate privateer
_Jefferson Davis_, iv. 91.
Johnson, Captain Henry, in charge of brig _Lexington_, sent to
Europe, i. 117.
Johnson, Captain J. D., succeeds Admiral Buchanan on the _Tennessee_,
iv. 402;
surrenders his ship to Captain Le Roy, of the Federal steamer
_Ossipee_, 403.
Jones, Captain Jacob, encounters the _Frolic_ in a gale, ii. 106;
captures the _Frolic_, 107–117;
surrenders the _Wasp_ and the _Frolic_ to the frigate _Poictiers_,
118, 119;
rewarded with a gold medal from Congress, 119;
given command of the frigate _Macedonian_, 119, 143.
_Jones_, American brig, iii. 113.
Jones, John Paul, first independent command of, i. 64;
promoted to rank of captain, 73;
fight with the _Solebay_, 73–76;
outsails the British frigate _Milford_, 77;
sails into Canso Harbor, _ib._;
in Newport Harbor, 78;
in command of flagship _Alfred_, 79;
passes through British squadron off Block Island, _ib._;
captures brig _Mellish_, _ib._;
encounters and captures coal fleet in Canso Harbor, 80;
captures a British privateer, _ib._;
chased by the _Milford_, _ib._;
arrives in Boston, 82;
ordered back to the brig _Providence_, 83;
bad treatment of, by Congress, _ib._;
appointed to the gun-ship _Ranger_, 134;
sails to Nantes, 135;
reaches Quiberon Bay, 137;
sails from Brest to England, 138;
scuttles a merchant-brig, _ib._;
seizes the _Lord Chatham_, _ib._;
sails to Whitehaven, _ib._;
attempts to capture the _Drake_, 140;
descends on Whitehaven, 141;
his crew takes an earl’s silver, 142;
attacks the house of the Earl of Selkirk, 147;
returns the silver taken by his crew, 151, 152;
second and successful attempt to capture the _Drake_, 152;
generosity of, 155;
fought for honor, 158;
inactivity of, in France, 228;
fits out the _Bonhomme Richard_, 229;
Congress arranges to give him a fleet, 232;
the _Alliance_, _Pallas_, and _Vengeance_ put under his command,
232;
trouble with Captain Landais of the _Alliance_, 234;
his fleet sails from L’Orient augmented by the _Monsieur_ and
_Granville_, _ib._;
captures a brigantine, 235;
Landais refuses to attend a council of officers, 237;
proposes to attack Leith, _ib._;
delay and a windstorm prevent his landing, 240;
meets a fleet of merchantmen off Flamborough Head, 243;
the _Serapis_ bears down to meet him, _ib._;
attacks the _Serapis_, 245;
fight with the _Serapis_, 247–259;
character of, 265;
his account of events after the surrender, 269–272;
arrives at Texel, followed by a British squadron, 273;
flight of, 275;
made a hero of, at Paris, _ib._;
sails to America in the _Ariel_, 277;
honors on his arrival, _ib._;
denounced as a pirate by the British Government, _ib._;
misrepresented by English writers, _ib._;
his pride in being an American, 278.
Jones, Lieutenant Thomas ap Catesby, with a small flotilla, opposes
the British fleet at New Orleans, iii. 232–238;
he is cut down and his small force eventually surrenders, 236, 237;
sent in command of a squadron to the Pacific coast, 388;
strikes the first blow in the Mexican War, 390;
lands at and takes possession of Monterey, _ib._;
surrenders the town, _ib._;
appointed chief officer on the Confederate ironclad _Merrimac_, iv.
188;
takes command after Captain Buchanan is wounded, 209;
returns with the _Merrimac_ to Sewell’s Point, 213.
_Joseph_, British ship, captured by the _Surprise_, i. 124.
_Joseph H. Toone_, Federal schooner, iv. 129.
_Joseph Maxwell_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate
cruiser _Sumter_, iv. 415.
_Joseph Parke_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate
cruiser _Sumter_, iv. 415.
Jouett, Lieutenant James E., cuts out the _Royal Yacht_ from
Galveston Harbor, iv. 138, 139;
Lieutenant-commander of the _Metacomet_, 386.
_Judah_, Confederate privateer schooner, destroyed at Fort Pickens,
iv. 120.
_Julia_, American schooner, ii. 268;
captured by the British, 351.
_Junon_, British frigate, becalmed in Hampton Roads, attacked by
gun-boats, ii. 395;
chases the _Constitution_ off Cape Ann, iii. 244.
_J. W. Hewes_, merchant-ship, captured by Confederate privateers, iv.
97.
_Katahdin_, Federal screw gun-boat, iv. 315.
Kearny, Sailing-master Lawrence, attacks a party from the frigate
_Hebrus_, ii. 420;
captures the tender of the frigate _Severn_, 421.
Kearny, Brigadier-general Stephen W., goes to the assistance of
Commodore Stockton in Mexico, iii. 398;
is repulsed and wounded, _ib._;
marches to San Diego, _ib._
_Kearsarge_, American sloop-of-war, built, iv. 38.
_Kearsarge_, Federal armored frigate, meets the _Alabama_ in
Cherbourg Harbor, France, iv. 436;
comparison of their armament, 437;
description of the fight, 438–441;
the best gunnery of the Civil War, 441.
_Kearsarge_ (new), United States battle-ship, iv. 534, 536.
Kedge anchor, use of, on the _Essex_, ii. 49.
Kedging, method of, described, ii. 58.
_Kennebec_, Federal screw gun-boat, iv. 314;
Lieutenant-commander William P. McCann, 389.
Kennon, Captain Beverley, at New Orleans, iv. 321;
attacks the _Varuna_, 334;
surrenders, 335.
Kentucky, western, railroad communication with the East cut off from,
iv. 267.
_Keokuk_, Federal monitor, at Charleston, iv. 483, 485.
Kerr, Captain Robert, attacks the _Constitution_ at Porto Prayo, iii.
260.
_Keystone State_, armed merchantman, attacked by the Confederate
ironclad _Palmetto State_, iv. 474.
Kidnapped sailors ill-fed and poorly paid on British ships, i. 387.
Kilty, Captain A. H., before Fort Pillow, iv. 289;
aids the _Cincinnati_, 294.
_Kines_, Federal screw gun-boat, iv. 315, 358.
Kingston, Canada, chief naval and military post in 1812, ii. 265;
Commodore Chauncey attacks, 270.
Kirkcaldy, Scotland, anecdote of the parson of, on the approach of
Paul Jones’s squadron, i. 238.
Koszta, Martin, an American citizen, taken by the Austrian
authorities on board the war-ship _Hussar_, iii. 385.
_Lackawanna_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 389.
_Lady Gore_, British schooner, captured by Chauncey at Lake George,
ii. 353.
_Lady Prevost_, British war-vessel, fired and destroyed by the
Americans, ii. 279.
Lafayette, carried back to France in the _Alliance_, i. 232;
narrowly escapes capture, _ib._
_Lafayette_, Federal gun-boat, in Porter’s fleet surrounding
Vicksburg, iv. 363;
Lieutenant-commander J. P. Foster, 369.
Lake Erie, the battle of, ii. 309–325.
Lamb, Colonel William, commander of Fort Fisher, iv. 507.
Lambert, Captain Henry, surrenders to Captain Bainbridge of the
_Constitution_, ii. 155–173;
his attempt to board the _Constitution_, 158;
mortally wounded, 165;
Captain Bainbridge returns his sword, 172.
Lambert, Jonathan, proprietor of the island of Tristan d’Acunha, a
breeding resort for seals in the South Atlantic, iii. 270.
_Lancaster_, United States screw sloop, built, iv. 16.
_Lancaster_, Federal ram, sunk below Port Hudson, iv. 358.
Landais, Captain Pierre, placed in command of the _Alliance_ by
Congress, i. 232;
mutinous conduct of, 234;
fouls the _Alliance_ with the _Bonhomme Richard_, _ib._;
insolence of, 235;
captures a valuable prize, 236;
refuses to attend a council of officers, 237;
jealousy of, 241;
further insubordination of, 244;
fires into the _Bonhomme Richard_, 254;
treachery of, 267;
dismissed and settles in New York City, _ib._
Langdon, John, member of first Marine Committee, i. 36.
Langthorne, Lieutenant A. R., iv. 370.
_La Pique_, British frigate, encounters the _Constitution_ off
Porto Rico, iii. 242.
Lardner, Captain J. L., commands the _Susquehanna_ at Port Royal,
iv. 163.
Laugharne, Captain Thomas L. P., surrenders to Porter, ii. 42.
Laurens, Henry, American Ambassador to Holland, is removed from the
_Mercury_ by the Captain of the British ship _Vestal_, and
taken to St. Johns, Newfoundland, iv. 153;
taken to England and imprisoned in the Tower of London, 154;
exchanged for Lord Cornwallis, _ib._;
his case parallel to the _Trent_ affair, _ib._
_Lurestinus_, British frigate, ii. 395.
Law, Lieutenant of British marines, fires at Lawrence and wounds
him, ii. 213.
_Lawrence_, American brig, flagship of Commodore Perry, ii. 290;
in the battle of Lake Erie, 317;
Perry shifts his flag to the _Niagara_, 321;
sunk in Little Bay, 337.
Lawrence, Captain James, Midshipman on the _Constitution_, i. 348;
Captain of the _Hornet_, 403;
blockades the British warship _Bonne Citoyenne_ in Bahia Harbor,
ii. 179;
challenges Captain Greene, _ib._;
compelled to raise the blockade, 180;
recaptures the _William_, 181;
captures the _Resolution_, _ib._;
is chased by the _Peacock_, 182;
the _Peacock_ is beaten, 183;
Lawrence fits his ship for another fight, 190;
chases the _Espiègle_, _ib._;
put all hands on half rations and squares away for home, 191;
promoted to command the _Chesapeake_, 192;
sails out of Boston to meet the _Shannon_, 197;
has difficulty in getting a crew, 199;
is challenged by Captain Broke of the _Shannon_, 203;
sails out to meet the enemy, 204;
addresses his crew, 205;
mutinous spirit of his men, 206;
displays great skill in handling his ship, _ib._;
the _Chesapeake_ is damaged and begins to drift, 213;
Lawrence shot, _ib._;
dies, 221;
interred in Trinity Churchyard, 225.
Lay, John L., devises a torpedo boat, iv. 458;
used by Lieutenant Cushing to destroy the _Albemarle_, 459–461.
_Leander_ affair, the, i. 403, 404;
Captain Whitby court-martialed, 405.
Lear, Tobias, American Consul-general at Algiers 1812, iii. 340.
_Lee_, American galley, i. 89.
_Lee_, American schooner, i. 30, 197;
assists in capturing a British troop-ship, 203.
Lee, Captain F. D., Chief of Confederate torpedo corps, iv. 497.
Lee, Richard Henry, member of first Marine Committee, i. 36.
Lee, Rear-admiral S. Phillips, iv. 314;
in command of the Albemarle Station, 454.
_Leopard_ and _Chesapeake_, affair of the, i. 40.
Le Roy, Commander William E., iv. 389.
Letter of marque and a privateer, difference between, iii. 242.
_Levant_, British sloop-of-war, chased by the _Constitution_, iii.
247;
surrenders, 255.
Lewis, Captain Jacob, made Commodore of the American fleet in New
York Harbor, ii. 394.
_Lexington_, American brig, i. 63;
captured by British frigate _Pearl_, 66;
escapes, 68;
sent to Europe under Captain Johnson, 117;
captured by the cutter _Alert_, 119, 120;
fate of the crew of, 121, 122.
_Lexington_, merchant-vessel, purchased by Commander Rodgers for use
in Federal Navy, iv. 241;
Captain Stembel appointed to command, 251.
_Lexington_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 369.
Lexington, battle of, i. 14.
Lincoln’s proclamation blockading the Southern ports, iv. 28–30.
_Linnet_, British brig, at the battle of Lake Champlain, iii. 138,
142, 166;
surrenders, _ib._
Linzee, Captain, chased by the _Gaspé_, i. 5.
Little, Captain John, fights and captures the _Berceau_, i. 328.
_Little Belt_, British corvette, fires on the American frigate
_President_, ii. 10;
in battle of Lake Erie, 297.
Little Falls, N. Y., Indian and Dutch traders at, ii. 263.
_Little Rebel_, sunk by the Federals at Fort Pillow, iv. 302.
Livermore, Parson Samuel, ii. 214.
_Livingston_, Confederate gun-boat, iv. 127.
Lloyd, Captain Robert, assists in the attack on the _General
Armstrong_, iii. 194.
Lockyer, Captain, attacks Lieutenant Catesby Jones at New Orleans,
iii. 235.
Lomax, Colonel, captures the Pensacola Navy Yard, iv. 112.
_Lord Nelson_, British merchantman, captured by the _Oneida_, ii. 265.
Los Angeles, Cal., captured from the Mexicans by Commodore
Stockton, iii. 397;
recaptured, _ib._;
retaken by the Americans, 401.
_Lottery_, American ship, captured, iii. 204.
_Louisa Beaton_, American brigantine, engaged in the African slave
traffic, iii. 364.
_Louisa Hatch_, captured by the _Alabama_, iv. 427.
_Louisa Kilham_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate
cruiser _Sumter_, iv. 415.
_Louisiana_, American schooner, in the attack on New Orleans, iii.
240;
used as a powder-boat to blow up Fort Fisher, iv. 510.
_Louisville_, armor-plated Federal gun-boat, built by Eads, iv. 245;
disabled, 271;
in Porter’s fleet before Vicksburg, 363, 369.
_Lowell_, Confederate ship, sunk at Fort Pillow, iv. 301.
Lowry, Captain R. R., iv. 100.
_Loyal Convert_, British vessel, i. 90.
Ludlow, Lieutenant Augustus C., strives to get the crew in place, ii.
206;
mortally wounded, 210;
interred in Trinity Churchyard, 225.
_Ludlow_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.
Lynch, Confederate Commodore W. F., at Roanoke Island, iv. 109.
Lyons, Lord, British Minister to Washington, his instructions
relative to the _Trent_ affair, iv. 150–153.
McCall, Lieutenant Edward Rutley, in the _Boxer_ fight, ii. 376;
takes command after Captain Burrows is disabled, 378;
the _Boxer_ surrenders to him, 379.
McCann, Lieutenant William P., iv. 389.
McCauley, Commodore, disloyal conduct of, at the Norfolk Navy Yard,
iv. 72–74.
_McClellan_, Federal transport, iv. 135.
McDonald, Lieutenant James, succeeds Captain Dickenson in command,
iii. 276;
surrenders to Captain Biddle, 276–278.
Macdonough, Captain Thomas, i. 348;
in the attack on the city of Tripoli, 361;
sends the _Growler_ and _Eagle_ in pursuit of British gun-boats,
iii. 136;
repairs to Vergennes, Vt., _ib._;
in command of a squadron, 144, 145;
his careful preparations, 147–150;
his squadron assembled, 152;
an interested audience, _ib._;
the battle opened with a prayer, 154;
a sporting rooster, 155;
Macdonough is knocked senseless, 161;
he cleverly winds his ship, 164;
wins the battle of Lake Champlain, 166;
casualties and losses of, in the battle, 174;
anecdote of, 179–181;
the Legislature of New York donates him land, 182;
the Legislature of Vermont presents him with a farm, _ib._;
he is promoted, 183;
his victory served to bring the war to a close, 184.
_Macedonian_, British frigate, cruelty and flogging of sailors on, i.
389;
encounters the frigate _United States_, ii. 124;
battle with, 125–134;
a horrible scene of carnage, 134;
the crew breaks into the spirits-room, 136, 137;
American seamen found on board, 137, 138;
losses among the crew, 139;
the forces of the two ships, 140;
taken to New York, 148;
fitted for sea in the American service, 150.
_Machias_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate cruiser
_Sumter_, iv. 415.
Machias haymakers, attack of the, on the _Margaretta_, i. 21.
_McLane_, American steamer, grounded before Alvarado, Mexico, iii.
410.
Macomb, Major-general Alexander, opposed to Sir George Prevost at
Plattsburg, iii. 147, 169.
_McRae_, Confederate gun-boat, iv. 17.
_McRae_, Confederate cotton-clad steamer, iv. 321;
fight with the Federal steamer _Iroquois_, 332.
Madame Island, Paul Jones captured British vessels at, i. 78.
_Madison_, American privateer, ii. 245.
_Madison_, the flagship of Commodore Chauncey, ii. 341.
Madison, President, lack of an American Navy discreditable to the
Administration of, ii. 26.
Maffitt, Captain John Newland, authority on construction of
fortifications, iv. 170;
appointed to command of Confederate cruiser _Florida_, 418;
goes to Havana and Mobile to get a crew, _ib._;
his ship fired at by Captain Preble, of the _Winona_, 419;
is blockaded, but escapes, 423;
goes to Nassau, _ib._;
cruises between New York and Brazil, 424;
overhauls his ship, _ib._;
he is relieved by Captain Morris, _ib._
_Magnet_, British brig, iii. 128.
Mahan, Captain A. T., fortifications of Mobile described by, iv.
379–383.
Mahone, William, Southern politician, trickery of, iv. 74, 75.
_Maine_, United States cruiser, iv. 534.
Maitland, Captain, falls in with the _Constitution_, iii. 243;
afraid to engage the _Constitution_, _ib._
_Majestic_, British cruiser, iv. 534, 535.
_Majestic_, British razee, assists in the capture of the _President_
off Long Island, iii. 216.
Malayans, teaching, to fear the American flag, iii. 373–379.
Malden, Captain Barclay, his rendezvous before the battle of Lake
Erie, ii. 294.
Maley, Lieutenant William, i. 330.
_Manassas_, Confederate ram, formerly the _Enoch Train_, iv. 127;
remodelled and put in charge of Lieutenant Alexander F. Warley, 128;
strikes the _Richmond_ and causes a panic, 129–131; 321;
attacks the _Brooklyn_, 332;
sinks, 333.
_Manhattan_, Federal monitor, iv. 386.
Manly, Captain John, i. 30, 197;
surrenders the _Hancock_, 185.
Manners, Captain William, fights the _Wasp_, iii. 85;
severely wounded, 87;
killed, 88.
Maples, Captain John F., goes in search of the sloop _Argus_, ii. 362;
finds her by the light of the flames on a wine ship, 363;
captures the sloop, 363–367;
sends it by a prize crew to Plymouth, 371.
Marchand, Captain John B., iv. 389.
_Margaret and Jessie_, successful blockade-runner, iv. 63.
_Margaretta_, attack on the, by the Machias haymakers, i. 21.
_Maria_, British transport, captured by Captain Hopkins, i. 281.
_Maria_, Boston schooner, captured by Algerian pirates, i. 309.
Marine Committee of Congress, i. 158.
Marine Committee of United Colonies appointed, i. 36.
_Marquis de la Fayette_, French privateer, i. 297.
_Mars_, American privateer, fitted out by Captain Thomas Truxton,
cruises in English Channel, and captures numerous prizes, i.
205.
_Mars_, English privateer, captured by the _Alliance_, i. 297.
Marston, Captain John, iv. 200.
_Martha_, American slave-ship, captured by Lieutenant Foote, iii. 364.
_Martin_, British sloop, grounds on Crow’s Shoal, ii. 401.
_Mary_, British schooner, captured by Chauncey at Lake George, ii.
353.
_Mary_, British brig, cut out and fired by the _Wasp_, iii. 92.
_Mary E. Thompson_, merchantman, captured by Confederate privateer
_Jefferson Davis_, iv. 92.
_Mary Goodell_, merchantman, captured by Confederate privateer
_Jefferson Davis_, iv. 92.
_Mashonda_, frigate of Rais Hammida, Algerian Admiral, iii. 345–347;
captured by Captain Downes of the _Epervier_, 347.
Mason, James Murray, Confederate Commissioner to England, in company
with John Slidell, sails in the blockade-runner _Theodora_, iv.
141;
arrives at Cardenas, Cuba, and proceeds to Havana, _ib._;
sails in the _Trent_ for St. Thomas, 143;
is taken off the _Trent_ and carried into Boston, 147–149;
he and Slidell are released, 156.
_Mastico_, Tripolitan ketch, captured by Decatur, i. 346;
he sails in it to fire the _Philadelphia_, 348–356;
its name changed to the _Intrepid_, 358.
See _Intrepid_.
Mathews, Jack, an old man-of-war tar, on the ironclad _Essex_,
gallant conduct of, iv. 261;
death of, 265.
_Mattabesett_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 457.
Matterface, Lieutenant William, in the attack on the American ship
_General Armstrong_, iii. 194.
_Maurepas_, Confederate gun-boat, iv. 127.
Mayo, W. R., his report of the assault on Fort Fisher, iv. 520.
Medicines excluded by blockade of Southern ports, iv. 56.
Mediterranean, second war with African pirates in the, iii. 339–358.
_Medway_, British liner, captures the _Siren_, iii. 79.
_Medway_, British frigate, with Farragut’s fleet at New Orleans, iv.
323.
_Melampus_, British war-ship, i. 406, 407.
_Mellish_, British brig, captured by Paul Jones, i. 79.
Memphis, battle of, iv. 298–307;
railroad communication with, cut off, 266, 267.
_Memphis_, armed merchantman, attacked by the Confederate ironclad
_Palmetto State_, iv. 474.
_Mercedita_, armed merchantman, attacked by the Confederate ironclad
_Palmetto State_, iv. 474.
Mercer, Captain Samuel, iv. 99.
Merchants, British, sufferings by the American Revolution, i. 112,
113, 127.
_Mercury_, Dutch packet, Henry Laurens, Ambassador to Holland, sails
on, iv. 153;
the British frigate _Vestal_ overhauls her and takes Mr. Laurens
from, _ib._
_Merrimac_, United States screw frigate, launched, iv. 15;
the old frigate transformed into a floating fort, 186;
reconstructed, 186–188;
particulars of building, 187;
the best and heaviest guns placed on her, 188;
her engines in bad condition, _ib._;
named the _Virginia_, but not known in history by that name, 189;
starts on a trial trip, 197;
the _Congress_ and _Cumberland_ harmlessly open fire on her, 200;
she rams the _Cumberland_, 202;
opens fire on and silences the Federal batteries, 207;
attacks the _Congress_, which surrenders, _ib._;
comparison of her guns and armament with the _Monitor_, 217, 218;
Captain Worden tries to find a vulnerable spot, 222;
she runs aground twice, 223;
tries to ram the _Monitor_, 224;
attempts made to board the _Monitor_, 225;
fires at the _Minnesota_, _ib._;
steams back to Norfolk, 229;
leak discovered, 230;
the gunnery better than the _Monitor’s_, 232;
the _Merrimac_ overhauled at Norfolk, 234;
Commodore Tattnall relieves Buchanan in command, _ib._;
Tattnall takes the _Merrimac_ down to Hampton Roads, _ib._;
the _Monitor_ retreats from, 235;
blown up on Craney Island, 237.
Mervine, Captain, attempts to march on Los Angeles, but is driven
back, iii. 398.
_Metacomet_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 386.
Metsko Devantigers, Japanese reporters, iii. 455.
Mexican War, the navy’s part in the, iii. 424, 428, 429.
Mexico, Gulf of, naval operations in the, iii. 402–428;
Farragut’s operations in the, iv. 357.
Mexico, French troops enter, iv. 367.
_Miami_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 454.
_Milford_, British frigate, encounter with Paul Jones, i. 77.
Miller, Captain Samuel, assists Commodore Barney with his marines,
ii. 409, 410.
_Milwaukee_, Federal gun-boat, sunk by a torpedo, iv. 406.
_Minerva_, British frigate, Captain of, refuses to fight the _Essex_,
and is branded as a coward, ii. 39–41.
_Minerva_, English privateer, captured by the _Alliance_, i. 297.
_Minneapolis_, United States cruiser, iv. 534.
_Minnesota_, United States frigate, compared with Arnold’s
_Congress_, iv. 3.
_Minnesota_, American frigate, iv. 99.
Mississippi, the British grab at the Valley of the, iii. 229, 230.
_Mississippi_, Federal side-wheel steamer, iv. 314.
_Mississippi_, Federal gun-boat, goes aground in front of Port
Hudson, is fired and abandoned, iv. 358.
Mississippi squadron transferred to the Navy Department, iv. 349;
ships composing the, 245–249.
Mississippi River, blockade of the entrance to, iv. 124–126;
opening of the, by Federal Navy, 240.
Mississippi, Valley of, the British plan to get possession of, iii.
229, 230.
Mississippi Valley, practically all Confederate territory till opened
by the Federal Navy, iv. 240.
Mitchell, Lieutenant-commander J. G., iv. 369.
Mobile, Ala., Porter’s views on attack on, iv. 341.
Mobile, fortifications of, described by Mahan, iv. 379–383.
Mobile Bay, description of, iv. 377;
Confederate defences of, ashore and afloat, 379.
_Mohawk_, United States screw sloop, built, iv. 16;
Captain S. W. Godon, 163;
rescues the crew of the _Peerless_, 167.
_Mohican_, United States frigate, cuts out the steamer _Forward_ on
the coast of Mexico, iv. 553.
_Monarch_, Federal ram, in attack on Fort Pillow, iv. 301;
attacks and sinks the _Beauregard_, 302.
_Monitor_, Federal ironclad, iv. 191;
rapid work in constructing, 192;
particulars of building, 192–194;
her passage to Hampton Roads, 215;
commanded by Captain J. L. Worden, _ib._;
comparison of armament with that of the _Merrimac_, 217, 218;
the fight with the _Merrimac_, 220;
superiority of the _Monitor’s_ revolving turret, 221;
the _Merrimac_ tries to ram, 224, 225;
her pilot-house struck and her captain disabled, 225;
retires to Fortress Monroe, 226;
her gunnery was poor, 231;
the battle an unparalleled lesson in naval warfare, 233;
letter from the crew to Captain Worden, 233, 234;
bombards the batteries at Sewell’s Point, 235;
ordered to Beaufort, N. C., 237;
founders at sea in a gale, _ib._
Monitors, most efficient and safest style of coast-defence ships, iv.
194.
_Monongahela_, Federal gun-boat, passes the batteries of Port Hudson,
iv. 358;
Commander James H. Strong, 389.
Monroe, ----, Mayor of New Orleans, objects to surrendering the city
to Farragut, iv. 338.
_Monsieur_, French privateer, in the fleet of Paul Jones, i. 234;
captures a Holland ship, 235.
_Montagu_, British frigate, rescues the _Bonne Citoyenne_ from the
_Hornet_, ii. 180.
_Montauk_, Federal monitor, shells and burns the Confederate ironclad
_Nashville_, iv. 480.
Monterey, Cal., Captain Catesby Jones takes possession of, iii. 390;
the American fleet under Captain Sloat take possession of, 392.
_Montezuma_, American ship, i. 316.
_Montezuma_, British whaler, captured by Porter, iii. 8.
_Montgomery_, American brig, fight with the _Surinam_, ii. 254.
Montgomery, Captain J. E., at Fort Pillow, iv. 290;
retreats, 297.
Montgomery, John B., takes possession of settlement on San Francisco
Bay, iii. 392.
_Monticello_, Federal frigate, iv. 99.
_Montmorency_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate cruiser
_Sumter_, iv. 415.
Moore, Captain, i. 15;
killed on the _Margaretta_, i. 22.
_Moore_, Confederate cotton-clad steamer, iv. 321;
rams and sinks the _Varuna_, 334;
fired by the _Cayuga_ and _Oneida_, _ib._
_Morgan_, Confederate gun-boat, iv. 380.
Morris, Captain Charles, wit of, in an emergency, ii. 58;
shot through the body in the _Guerrière_ fight, 88;
placed in command of the _Adams_, iii. 57;
runs the blockade in the Chesapeake, 57, 58;
he cruises on the coast of Africa, 58;
goes in search of the Jamaica fleet, _ib._;
sails to Newfoundland, thence to Ireland, and after taking a few
prizes is chased by the _Tigris_, 59;
again chased for forty hours, 59, 60;
his crew attacked by scurvy, 60;
his ship is driven on a rock, _ib._;
attacked by a British fleet and compelled to burn his ship, 62;
appointed to command of the _Florida_, iv. 424;
during his absence on shore Captain Collins of the _Wachusett_
captures her and takes her to the United States, _ib._
Morris, Lieutenant George U., iv. 201;
attacks the _Merrimac_, _ib._;
his ship is rammed, 201, 202;
refuses to surrender, 202–204;
his gallantry commended, 204, 205.
Morris, Captain Henry W., iv. 314.
Morris Island, Charleston, iv. 467.
Morse, Jedidiah, his description of the South Carolina islands, iv.
31.
_Mosher_, unarmored Confederate boat, Captain Sherman commanding, iv.
321, 329;
fired at and sunk by the _Hartford_, _ib._
_Mosquito_, American ship, chases and captures a pirate brig, iii.
335.
Mottoes, naval, on men-of-war, iii. 30.
_Mound City_, armor-plated Federal gun-boat, built by Eads, iv. 245;
Captain A. H. Kilty commands, 289;
rammed by the _Van Dorn_, 294;
Confederate shell bursts her boiler, 307;
in Porter’s fleet before Vicksburg, 363;
Lieutenant A. R. Langthorne commands, 370.
Mowatt, Captain, attack of, on Portland, Maine, i. 24–26.
_Muckie_, bombarded and burned by the American frigate _Columbia_,
iii. 376–378.
Mugford, Captain James, captures a transport with 1,500 barrels of
powder, i. 203.
Mullany, Commander J. R. M., iv. 389.
Murphy, Lieutenant J. McLeod, iv. 363.
_Murray_, British gun-boat, iii. 143.
Murray, Captain Alexander, beats off two British gun-ships, i. 207.
Murray, Colonel J., with 1,000 British troops assaults Plattsburg and
Saranac, ii. 355;
burns the public stores at both places and then retreats, _ib._
_Nahant_, Federal ironclad, Commander John Downes, iv. 480;
at Charleston, 485.
_Naiad_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate cruiser
_Sumter_, 415.
_Nancy_, English merchantman, captured by the _Raleigh_ and _Alfred_,
i. 130.
_Nancy_, British brigantine, captured by the _Lee_, i. 197–199.
_Nantucket_, Federal ironclad, iv. 480.
Napier on the character of the veterans sent to America, iii. 134.
Napoleon III., Emperor of France, his views in regard to Texas and
Mexico modified by the surrender of New Orleans, iv. 340;
tries to persuade Texas to secede from the Confederacy, 368.
_Narcissus_, British frigate, attacks the American schooner
_Surveyor_, ii. 417.
Narragansett Indian impressed by the British, a, iii. 293.
_Nashville_, Confederate cruiser, blockaded in the Great Ogeechee
River, iv. 479;
attacked and burned by Captain Worden of the monitor _Montauk_, 480.
Natchez, Tenn., surrenders to Captain Craven of the _Brooklyn_, iv.
340.
National sea-power, curious chain of events that led to creation of,
i. 1, 2.
_Nautilus_, American cruiser, in the attack on Tripoli, i. 374.
_Nautilus_, East India Company’s cruiser, surrenders to the
_Peacock_, iii. 285.
Naval architecture, a point on, iii. 227.
Naval armament, means for furnishing United Colonies with, i. 35.
Naval calls, iii. 471.
Naval discipline, effect of, on raw recruits, iv. 250.
Naval forces of the United States compared with those of Great
Britain in 1812, ii. 21–23.
Naval officers, old-time, life led by, iii. 305–307;
American, work that they have had to do in out-of-the-way parts of
the world in times of peace, 359–386;
disloyalty of, at commencement of the Civil War, iv. 70.
Naval operations in the Gulf of Mexico, iii. 402–428.
Naval terms applied to war-ships, iii. 54.
Navy, British, in American waters, i. 195.
Navy, colonial, creation of a, i. 30.
Navy of the United Colonies, regulations of, i. 34.
Navy, the American, at the battle of New Orleans, iii. 229.
_Neapolitan_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate cruiser
_Sumter_, iv. 415.
Neilds, Ensign H. C., heroic conduct of, iv. 394.
_Neosho_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 370.
_Nereyda_, Peruvian cruiser, captured the American whalers _Walker_
and _Barclay_, iii. 7;
is dismantled by the _Essex_ and sent to the Viceroy of Peru, _ib._
_Netley_, British brig, iii. 111.
Neutral ports, violations of, iv. 427.
Neutrality laws observed by American naval officers, iii. 28, 29.
Neutrality, the law of, in open ports, iv. 44.
New Carthage, Grant crosses from, to surround Vicksburg, iv. 363.
_New Castle_, British frigate, attacks the _Constitution_, iii. 260.
_New Ironsides_, successful Federal ironclad, iv. 190, 480.
New Madrid, on Missouri River, captured by Pope, iv. 276.
New Orleans, British attack on, iii. 230;
blockaded by the _Brooklyn_, iv. 44;
attacked by Farragut’s squadron, 314–337;
Farragut demands the surrender of the city, 338;
General Butler takes possession of, 339.
New Providence taken by Commodore Hopkins, i. 56.
Newton, Isaac, first Assistant Engineer of the _Monitor_, iv. 216.
_New York_, United States cruiser, iv. 533.
_New Zealander_, British ship, captured by Porter, iii. 14.
_Niagara_, British merchantman, captured, ii. 265;
Elliott’s ship in battle of Lake Erie, 292.
_Niagara_, American ship, Perry shifts his flag from the _Lawrence_
to, ii. 321;
after the war is sunk in Little Bay, 337.
_Niagara_, United States screw frigate, launched, iv. 15.
Nichols, Lieutenant Edward T., iv. 315.
Nichols, Captain Samuel, first Captain of marines in American Navy,
i. 53.
Nicholson, Captain James, i. 187.
Nicholson, Lieutenant John B., sent by Decatur to take charge of the
_Macedonian_ when she surrendered, ii. 134;
carries the _Epervier_ into Savannah after her fight with the
_Peacock_, iii. 77;
transferred to the _Siren_, _ib._;
a story of sailors’ superstitions, 78, 79.
Nicholson, Commander J. W. A., iv. 386.
Nicholson, Captain Samuel, appointed to the American frigate
_Constitution_, i. 312.
“Ninety-day fleet, the,” iv. 39.
_Nipsic_, United States cruiser, thrown ashore at Samoa, iv. 554.
Noah, Mordecai M., American Consul at Tunis, demands indemnity for
seizure of the _Abellino_ prizes, iii. 355.
_Nocton_, British brig, captured by Porter, iii. 2;
recaptured by the _Belvidera_, 3.
_Nonita_, American schooner, in attack on Alvarado, iii. 410.
_Nonsuch_, American frigate, in Perry’s cruise to South America, iii.
327;
Perry makes it his flagship, _ib._;
the crew infected with yellow fever, 329.
Norderling, Mr., Swedish Consul at Algiers in 1815, iii. 348.
_Norfolk_, American ship, i. 316.
Norfolk Navy Yard, loss of the, iv. 66–83.
North, Lord, despair of, on hearing of the surrender of Lord
Cornwallis, i. 299.
Nukahiva, Marquesas Islands, Porter brings the _Essex_ and his fleet
of captured whalers here to refit, iii. 16;
a sailor’s paradise, 19;
an incipient mutiny at, 21–23.
_Nymphe_, British frigate, chased by the _President_ and _Congress_,
ii. 151.
Ocracoke Inlet, fort at, iv. 108.
_Octorara_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 386.
Ogdensburg, N. Y., British attack on, ii. 268.
“Old Glory” first hoisted, i. 135.
“Old Ironsides” (the _Constitution_), i. 312.
“Old Sow, The,” ii. 267.
Old-time naval officers, iii. 305–307.
_Old War Horse_, another name for the _Benton_, iv. 249.
Olney, Captain Joseph, i. 163.
“On to Canada,” the war-cry of 1812, ii. 20.
_Oneida_, American war-brig, ii. 264;
captures the _Lord Nelson_, 265;
Commodore Earle attempts to capture, 266.
_Oneida_, Federal screw corvette, iv. 314.
_Oneida_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 389.
_Ontario_, American sloop-of-war, sent against the Dey of Algiers in
1815, iii. 343.
Ontario, Lake, operations on, iii. 113–129.
Ordronaux, Captain J., attacked by the British frigate _Endymion_,
iii. 202–207.
_Oreto_, Confederate cruiser. See _Florida_.
_Orpheus_, British frigate, captures the _Confederacy_, i. 298.
_Orpheus_, British frigate, with the _Sherburne_, attacks and
captures the _Frolic_, iii. 65, 66.
_Osage_, Federal gun-boat, iv, 369;
sunk by a torpedo, 406.
_Ossipee_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 389.
_Ottawa_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 163.
_Ottawa_, Federal war-ship, attacked ironclad _Palmetto State_, iv.
474.
Otter Creek, Vt., Macdonough fortifies, iii. 137.
_Ouachita_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 369.
Owen, Lieutenant-commander E. K., iv. 363, 369.
_Ozark_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 370.
Pacific coast, naval operations on the, in 1842, iii. 389–428.
Pakenham, Sir Edward Michael, in command of the British forces to
attack New Orleans, reaches the Chandeleur Islands, iii. 230.
_Pallas_, American ship, i. 232;
_Countess of Scarborough_ surrenders to, 267.
_Palmetto State_, Confederate ironclad, iv. 473;
armament of, _ib._;
attacks the _Mercedita_, 474;
paroles her crew, 475.
_Palmira_, Porto Rico privateer, plunders American schooner
_Coquette_, and is captured by the _Grampus_, iii. 332.
Pamlico Sound, N. C., a rendezvous for Confederate privateers, iv. 94.
_Pandrita_, pirate ship, captured by the _Grampus_, iii. 332.
Paper blockade, Navy Department tries to establish, iv. 41.
Parker, Captain John, at Lexington, i. 14.
Parker, Lieutenant, in the _Java_ fight, ii. 165.
Parker, Lieutenant George, dies at sea, iii. 78;
a story of sailors’ superstition in connection with his death,
78, 79.
Parker, Lieutenant, the _Congress_ surrenders to, iv. 208.
Parsons, P. Usher, fleet surgeon in the battle of Lake Erie, ii. 294.
Pass à Loutre, Federal fleet retreat down the, iv. 137.
_Passaic_, Federal monitor, iv. 237, 480, 490.
_Patapsco_, Federal ironclad, iv. 480, 490.
Patterson, Master-commandant William T., attacks the British camp,
iii. 239;
sets fire to and abandons his ships, 240.
_Paul Jones_, American privateer, ii. 251.
Paulding, Captain Hiram, breaks up the nest of plotters against the
Federal Government, iv. 71.
Paving-stones used as missiles to capture the _Gaspé_, i. 9.
_Pawnee_, Federal frigate, iv. 99, 163.
_Peabody_, Federal transport, iv. 100.
_Peacock_, American corvette, meets the brig-sloop _Epervier_, iii.
66;
captures the sloop, 67–71;
cruises, 78;
attached to Decatur’s fleet, 271;
captures prizes and the cruiser _Nautilus_, 285.
_Peacock_, British brig, encounters the American sloop _Hornet_, ii.
181;
the battle, 183;
her captain killed, _ib._;
sinks, 184;
good treatment of the officers and men by the Americans, 187;
comparison of the ships, 190.
Peake, Captain William, attacks the _Hornet_, ii. 181;
is killed, 183;
proud of his ship, 190.
Pearce, Lieutenant John, iv. 370.
_Pearl_, British frigate, captures the _Lexington_, i. 68;
the latter escapes, _ib._
Pearson, Captain Richard, encounters the _Bonhomme Richard_, i. 243,
245;
surrenders, 259;
anecdote of, 262–264;
conduct of, 274;
treated as if he had won a victory, 275.
Pechell, Captain Samuel John, in charge of expedition sent against
Craney’s Island, ii. 398.
_Peerless_, Federal transport, lost near Cape Hatteras, iv. 167.
Peiho River, attack on Chinese forts in the, iii. 382.
_Pelican_, British frigate, goes in search of the American sloop
_Argus_, ii. 362;
attacks the _Argus_, 363, 364;
captures the sloop, 364–367;
takes her into Plymouth, 371.
_Pembina_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 163.
Pendergrast, American Flag Officer G. J., his proclamation, iv. 40.
Pendergrast, Lieutenant Austin, takes command of the _Congress_, iv.
208;
surrenders to Lieutenant Parker of the _Beaufort_, _ib._;
assists in transferring the wounded, 209;
escapes by swimming, _ib._
_Penguin_, British brig-sloop, is beaten by the _Hornet_, iii.
273–281.
_Penguin_, Federal gun-boat, at Port Royal, iv. 171.
_Pensacola_, United States screw sloop, iv. 16;
Captain Henry W. Morris, 314.
Pensacola Navy Yard surrendered to Confederates, iv. 112.
Perkins, Lieutenant-commander George H., iv. 386.
_Perry_, Federal brig, captures the _Savannah_, iv. 89.
Perry, Christopher Raymond, gallant conduct of, i. 296.
Perry, Commodore Matthew Calbraith, brother of Oliver H. Perry, sent
against the Mexican port of Frontera, iii. 410;
captures the Mexican fleet, _ib._;
captures Tabasco, 413;
conducts the operations during the siege of Vera Cruz, 424;
his early services, 435;
a Japanese poem dedicated to him, 437;
his work in opening the ports of Japan, 439;
appointed to the Japan mission, 443;
anchors off Uraga, _ib._;
reception by the Japanese, 444–447;
difficulty in opening negotiations, 449, 450;
the Japanese Governor accompanied by three reporters, 455;
permission from the Emperor to receive the President’s message,
_ib._;
the Emperor grants all that is asked, 457–463;
amusing features of the expedition, 463;
assigned to the _Fulton 2d_, iv. 11;
his opinion of her, _ib._
Perry, Oliver Hazard, in command of a fleet of gun-boats at Newport,
R. I., in 1812, ii. 280;
ordered to join Commodore Chauncey, 282;
inspects the navy yard at Black Rock, 283;
finds five ships being constructed at Erie, Pa., _ib._;
hastens to Pittsburg for cannon-balls, 285;
returns to Erie, 286;
starts for Buffalo in a row-boat, _ib._;
compels the British to abandon the Niagara River, 287;
stricken with fever through overwork, 288;
ordered to co-operate with General Harrison, _ib._;
his appeal for men, 289;
starts on an expedition with an inadequate force, _ib._;
chooses the _Lawrence_ as his flagship, 290;
gets his fleet in deep water, 291;
cruises on Lake Erie, 292;
is joined by officers and men from the _Constitution_, _ib._;
sails up the lake to join General Harrison, 292;
arrives at Put-in-Bay, 293;
confers with General Harrison, 294;
sickness, _ib._;
his fleet anchors in Put-in-Bay, _ib._;
sketch of Perry’s fleet, 295;
sketch of Barclay’s fleet, 296;
comparison of the commanders, 300;
his thoughtfulness for his men, 305;
the battle of Lake Erie commences, 309;
closes in on the British, 311;
loads and fires his own guns, 315;
his flagship a wreck, 317;
shifts his flag to the _Niagara_, 321;
the decisive movement, 322;
the British surrender, 324;
“We have met the enemy and they are ours!”, 325;
receives the swords of the British officers on the _Lawrence_, 328;
his letter to the Secretary of the Navy, 332;
results of his victory, 333;
promoted from rank of master-commandant to captain, 334;
his praise of Lieutenant Elliott, 336;
value of ships captured in the battle, 337;
his squadron at Erie, _ib._;
Washington Irving’s opinion of the victory, 338;
his duel with Captain Heath, iii. 317;
detailed to cruise in South American waters, 327;
sails up the Orinoco, _ib._;
demands compensation for American vessels, 329;
contracts yellow fever, _ib._;
dies while entering the Port of Spain, Trinidad Island, 330;
buried at Newport, R. I., _ib._
_Pert_, American schooner, ii. 270.
_Perthshire_, British merchantman, captured off Mobile, iv. 43;
released by the _Niagara_, _ib._;
claims compensation, 44.
_Petrel_, American schooner, in attack on Alvarado, iii. 410.
_Petrel_, Confederate privateer, iv. 93;
chases the _St. Lawrence_, which fires into and sinks her, 94.
Phelps, Captain S. S., appointed to command of the _Conestoga_, iv.
251;
convoys General Grant down the Mississippi, _ib._;
captures the Confederate steamer _Eastport_, 267;
takes command of her, _ib._;
before Fort Pillow, 290;
Lieutenant-commander of the _Eastport_, 369.
_Philadelphia_, American gondola, i. 90;
on Lake Champlain, 100.
_Philadelphia_, American frigate, sent to Tripoli, i. 335;
sunk on a reef, 343;
raised by the Tripolitans, 344;
boarded and fired by Decatur, 349–358.
_Phœbe_, British frigate, attempts to attack the _Essex_, iii. 25,
26;
is scared off, _ib._;
with the _Cherub_ makes another attack on the _Essex_, 30–43.
Pico Andres, Mexican Governor of Los Angeles, iii. 397;
breaks his parole, _ib._
_Picton_, British war-schooner, captured by the _Constitution_, iii.
242.
Pike, Zebulon M., explorer, at storming of Toronto, ii. 341;
killed by the explosion of a magazine, 342.
_Pinola_, Federal screw gun-boat, iv. 316.
Piracy discoveries at Cape Cruz, South America, iii. 335.
Pirate caves with the bones of dead in them, iii. 324, 325.
Piratical assaults on Yankee traders, iii. 366.
Pitcairn, Major, at Lexington, i. 14.
Pitchforks used by haymakers in their attack on the _Margaretta_, i.
21.
_Pittsburg_, armor-plated Federal gun-boat, built by Eads, iv. 245;
Captain Egbert Thompson commands, 290;
before Vicksburg, 363, 370.
Pittsburg Landing, fight at, iv. 284.
_Plantagenet_, British liner, assists in the attack on the _General
Armstrong_, iii. 188, 194, 196–198.
_Planter_, Confederate transport, turned over to the Federals by
Robert Small, a negro slave, iv. 501, 502.
Plattsburg Bay, operations of Macdonough in, iii. 145, 150.
“Playing ball with the red coats,” ii. 268.
_Plunger_, Holland submarine boat, iv. 545.
Po Adam, Malay chief, rescues Captain Endicott, iii. 370;
aids Captain Downes in his attack on Quallah Battoo, 374.
_Pocahontas_, Federal frigate, iv. 163.
_Poictiers_, British frigate, recaptures the _Frolic_ from the
_Wasp_, ii. 118.
_Policy_, British whaler, captured by Porter, iii. 8.
_Polk_, Confederate gun-boat, iv. 127.
_Polly_, American privateer, attacks the English sloop-of-war
_Indian_, ii. 242.
_Pomone_, British frigate, assists in the capture of the _President_,
iii. 222.
Pope, Captain John, his report on the retreat of the Federal fleet,
iv. 137;
captured New Madrid, 276;
fortifies the river, _ib._;
shuts Confederates in, _ib._
_Porcupine_, American schooner, in battle of Lake Erie, ii. 295.
_Porpoise_, American schooner, in fleet sent to South America to
punish pirates, iii. 331.
Port Hudson, Farragut runs his squadron past, iv. 357;
the _Albatross_, _Monongahela_, and _Kineo_ successfully pass the
batteries of, 358;
the _Mississippi_ and the _Lancaster_ fired and sunk below, _ib._
Porter, Midshipman David, assists Lieutenant Rodgers in charge of
captured French frigate _Insurgent_, i. 323;
sent to Tripoli, 335;
sent from the _Enterprise_ to take possession of the _Tripoli_,
335, 336;
lands and fires gun-boats in the port of Tripoli, 340;
surrenders to the Tripolitans, 343;
his experience and training, ii. 33, 34;
captures the corvette _Alert_, 42;
crew of, plan a rescue, 44;
receives an insulting challenge from Sir James Yeo, 348;
starts on a second cruise in the _Essex_, iii. 1;
cruises off Port Praya, 2;
captures the British brig _Nocton_, _ib._;
reaches Fernando de Noronha, 3;
Bainbridge directs him to pose as Sir James Yeo, _ib._;
captures the schooner _Elizabeth_, 4;
left free to choose his own course, _ib._;
rounds Cape Horn, _ib._;
dysentery among his crew, 5, 6;
encounters fearful storms, 6;
a panic on board, _ib._;
sails for Valparaiso, 7;
overhauls the _Nereyda_, throws her guns and arms overboard, _ib._;
disguises his ship, 8;
captures the British whalers _Barclay_, _Montezuma_, _Georgiana_,
and _Policy_, _ib._;
captures the whalers _Atlantic_ and _Greenwich_, _ib._;
forms a squadron, 10;
captures the whaler _Charlton_, the ships _Seringapatam_ and _New
Zealander_, 14;
captures the _Sir Andrew Hammond_, 16;
refits his ship at Nukahiva, _ib._;
the prisoners plan to capture the Yankee force, 21;
an incipient mutiny, _ib._;
he sails from Nukahiva, 23;
waits for the British frigate, the _Phœbe_, 24;
gives a reception to the officials of the city, 25;
the _Phœbe_ arrives and attempts to attack him, 25–28;
he challenges the _Phœbe_, 29;
a heavy squall interferes, 31;
the _Essex_ disabled and the enemy gives chase, _ib._;
Porter retires into neutral waters, 32;
Porter’s running gear disabled, 36;
he surrenders his ship, 43;
is sent to New York on the _Essex, Junior_, 49;
escapes in a fog, _ib._;
aids the defence of Baltimore, 53;
services, death, and burial, _ib._;
operating against the pirates of South America, iii. 333;
endeavors to get support of the local governments, _ib._;
compels a Porto Rico alcalde to show respect to American officers,
336;
court-martialed, _ib._;
is suspended and resigns his commission, _ib._
Porter, Commander David D., his idea of attacking New Orleans, iv.
313;
finds New Orleans fishermen good spies, _ib._;
arranges the expedition, _ib._;
commands the mortar fleet up the Mississippi River, 325;
placed in charge of the Mississippi squadron, 349;
tin-clads added to his squadron, _ib._;
tries to get in behind Vicksburg, 358;
is unsuccessful, 363;
attacks the fortifications of Grand Gulf, 367;
sent with General Banks’s expedition to Shreveport, La., 369;
arrives at Alexandria, 370;
captures the _Abby Bradford_ from the _Sumter_, 413;
disagreement with General Butler at Fort Fisher, 508.
Porter, Captain John, in command of the _Greyhound_ in South America,
iii. 333.
Porter, Confederate Navy Constructor J. L., assists in making the
working drawings for the _Merrimac_, iv. 185.
Porter, Captain William D., iv. 249;
in Commodore Foote’s fleet, 255;
severely scalded, 265.
Portland, Maine, atrocities of the British at, i. 24–26, 32;
influence of atrocities, 196.
_Port Royal_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 389;
capture of, 162–182.
_Portsmouth_, American frigate, in the bombardment of Chinese forts,
iii. 380–382.
_Potomac_, American frigate, attacks and punishes the Malays at
Quallah Battoo, iii. 373–375.
_Powhatan_, Federal frigate, captures the _Abby Bradford_ from the
_Sumter_, iv. 413.
_Preble_, American sloop. See _Rising Sun_.
Preble, Captain Edward, i. 26;
in command of the _Constitution_, 346;
attacks the city of Tripoli, 359;
Congress gives him a gold medal, 378.
Preble, Lieutenant George H., iv. 315.
_President_, American frigate, built, i. 312;
sent to Tripoli, 335;
encounters and is fired on by the corvette _Little Belt_, ii. 7;
Captain John Rodgers sent to look for the _Guerrière_, 8;
chases the British frigate _Belvidera_, 29–32;
the frigate escapes, 32;
mentioned, 121;
chases the _Nymphe_, 151;
chases the _Curlew_, 358;
a lieutenant of the _President_ boards the _Highflyer_, _ib._;
special efforts ordered to capture the _President_, 359;
termed “The Waggon” by the British, 360;
Decatur transferred to, iii. 212;
attacked by the British fleet, 216;
surrenders, 222;
is carried to the Bermudas, 226;
her dimensions, 227.
Press-gang riots in Boston, i. 395, 397.
Press-gangs, raised in England, i. 156;
methods of the, 386, 387;
number of Americans enslaved by the, ii. 2–4.
Prevost, Sir George, attacks Sackett’s Harbor, ii. 345;
mistakes trees for troops, 346;
in command of “Wellington’s Invincibles” at Plattsburg, iii. 147;
defeated, 169, 170;
dies of chagrin, 183.
_Price_, Confederate gun-boat, rams the _Cincinnati_, iv. 293;
disabled by the _Carondelet_, 294.
_Prince de Neufchâtel_, American privateer, ii. 253;
attacked by the British frigate _Endymion_, iii. 202–207.
_Prince of Orange_, British brig, captured by the _Surprise_, i. 124,
125.
_Prince Regent_, British ship, iii. 129.
_Princeton_, Ericsson’s first screw steamship, iv. 12;
Captain Stockton assigned to her, 14;
the “Peacemaker,” one of her guns, bursts, _ib._;
her success pronounced, _ib._
Pring, Captain, in the battle of Lake Champlain, iii. 166;
surrenders, _ib._
Prisoners, American, in England, bad treatment of, i. 122.
Prisons, British, iii. 288–304.
Privateer and a letter of marque, difference between, iii. 242.
Privateers, commissioned by Congress, i. 33;
authorized by General Court of Massachusetts, 196;
by Connecticut and Rhode Island, 197;
by General Washington, _ib._;
work accomplished by them up to 1777, 217;
another account of them, 220, 221;
captured prisoners from privateers on prison-ship _Jersey_, 221–226;
result of licensing of, iii. 324.
Privateers, American, capture sixteen English cruisers during the
Revolutionary War, i. 302.
Privateers in the War of 1812, only a few made money, ii. 233–258;
two hundred and fifty commissioned during the war, 240.
Proctor, General, his incursion into Ohio prevented by the result of
the battle of Lake Erie, ii. 333.
_Protector_, American gun-ship, blows up the British privateer
_Admiral Duff_, i. 207;
beats off the frigate _Thames_, _ib._
_Providence_, brig of first American Navy, i. 39, 57;
commanded by Captain John P. Rathburne, descends on New Providence,
Bahamas, 186.
_Quaker City_, armed merchantman, attacked by the Confederate
ironclad _Palmetto State_, iv. 474.
Quallah Battoo, Malays of, attacked by the American frigate
_Potomac_, iii. 373, 374;
bombarded by the _Columbia_, 376.
_Queen Charlotte_, British ship, in battle of Lake Erie, ii. 296;
sunk in Little Bay, 337.
_Queen of France_, American ship, i. 280, 281.
_Queen of the West_, Federal ram, at Fort Pillow, iv. 301;
sinks the _Lowell_, _ib._;
rammed by the _Beauregard_, _ib._;
sent to attack Port Hudson, 351;
abandoned by the Federals, 352.
_Racehorse_, British brig, captured by the _Andrea Doria_, i. 69.
Radford, Captain William, absent from duty, iv. 201.
_Rainbow_, British gun-ship, captures the _Hancock_, i. 185.
Rais Hammida, the terror of the Mediterranean, iii. 344, 346;
killed, 347.
_Raleigh_, American man-of-war, sent to France, i. 130;
attacks the _Druid_, 131;
loads her supplies, 132;
returns to America, 133;
captured, 194.
_Raleigh_, Confederate gun-boat, assists in taking crew off the
_Congress_, iv. 208.
_Randolph_, American frigate, i. 160;
blown up, 162.
Ransom paid to the Dey of Algiers, i. 309, 310.
Ransom, Lieutenant George M., iv. 315.
Rathbone, Captain John P., i. 186;
releases American prisoners, _ib._;
commands the _Queen of France_, 281.
_Rattlesnake_, American ship, captured by the _Leander_, ii. 387.
Ravenel, Dr. St. Julien, aids in fitting out torpedo boats, iv. 497.
_Razee_, a line-of-battle ship, ii. 403, iii. 56.
Read, Lieutenant Charles W., appointed to command the _Clarence_, iv.
424;
captures the _Tacony_ and burns the _Clarence_, _ib._;
captures the _Archer_ and cuts out the _Caleb Cushing_, _ib._;
captured, _ib._
Red River, Texas, blockaded, iv. 358.
Red River dam, iv. 372–374.
_Reefer_, American schooner, iii. 410.
Reid, Commodore George C., bombards and burns Malay towns, iii.
375–379.
Reid, Captain Samuel C., sails from New York Harbor, iii. 187;
arrives at Fayal, _ib._;
the brig _Carnation_, accompanied by the _Plantagenet_ and the
frigate _Rota_; enter the harbor, 188;
attacked in a neutral port, 189;
heavy loss of the enemy, _ib._;
the population gather to watch the issue, 190;
the _Carnation_ attacks with a fleet of boats, _ib._;
a fierce hand-to-hand fight, 192;
he scuttles and abandons his ship, 200;
returns home, 201;
is enthusiastically received and honored, _ib._;
his pedigree, _ib._;
originated the arrangement of the stars and stripes in the American
flag, _ib._;
dies in New York City, _ib._
Reilly, Lieutenant James, iii. 81.
_Reindeer_, British brig-sloop, captured by the _Wasp_ (No. 3), iii.
88;
armament of, 91;
the wounded of, sent to Plymouth, _ib._
Renshaw, Master-commandant James, on the _Enterprise_ after the
_Boxer-Enterprise_ battle, ii. 386.
_Reprisal_, American brig, captures a number of prizes, i. 70;
fight with the _Shark_, 71;
Franklin sails for France on the, 114;
close call of, 118;
ordered to leave France, 119;
founders, _ib._
_Resolute_, Federal steamer, at Acquia Creek, iv. 81.
_Resolution_, British brig, captured by the _Hornet_, ii. 181, 191.
_Retaliation_, American gun-ship, formerly the French ship
_Croyable_, i. 316, 330, 400.
_Revenge_, American sloop, i. 89.
_Revenge_, American man-of-war, i. 126;
takes numerous prizes, _ib._
Rhind, Commander A. C., iv. 480;
Commander of the _Louisiana_, 510.
Rhode Island, first naval fight in waters of, i. 2.
_Richmond_, United States screw sloop, iv. 16;
Captain Thornton A. Jenkins, 386.
Richmond, Va., railroad communication cut off from, iv. 267.
Ricot, Captain, in Paul Jones’s fleet, i. 232.
Rifled cannon introduced into the American Navy, iv. 20, 21.
_Rising Sun_, American sloop, renamed the _Preble_, iii. 136, 138,
140.
“River Defence Squadron,” Confederate, iv. 297.
_Roanoke_, United States screw frigate, launched, iv. 15.
Roanoke Island, expedition to, iv. 109.
Robertson, Lieutenant John Downie, in the battle of Lake Champlain,
iii. 165.
Robinson, Captain Isaiah, i. 69;
captures the _Racehorse_, _ib._
Rodgers, Rear-admiral John, with Midshipman David Porter and others,
sail the captured frigate _Insurgent_ with 173 French on her,
i. 323;
brings the ship safely into St. Kitts, _ib._;
ready to move his fleet in one hour, ii. 28;
starts to intercept a big fleet of merchantmen, 29;
chases the _Belvidera_, _ib._;
fires the first shot of the War of 1812, 30;
his leg broken, 31;
the frigate escapes him, 32;
cruises and captures merchantmen and recaptures an American ship,
_ib._;
challenged by the _Guerrière_, 72;
sails from Boston, 121;
chases the British frigate _Nymphe_, 151;
chases the _Curlew_, 358;
falls in with the British schooner _Highflyer_, and secures her
book of private signals and instructions, _ib._;
value and usefulness of the book, 359;
ordered to report to General Frémont, iv. 241;
buys and fits out merchant-vessels, _ib._;
relieved of his command, 250;
appointed head of Board of Naval Officers, 527.
Rodgers, Captain John, iv. 480.
Rodgers, Commander George W., killed on the _Catskill_, iv. 480, 491.
Rodgers, Captain R. C. P., at Port Royal, iv. 163.
Rodman, Captain United States Ordnance Department, his experience
with heavy guns, iv. 18, 20.
_Rodolph_, Federal wrecking steamer, sunk by a torpedo, iv. 406.
_Roebuck_, British frigate, captures the _Confederacy_, i. 298.
Roosevelt, Clinton, proposed steel-plated ship, iv. 9.
Rooster, a sporting, iii. 155.
_Rose_, British ship, captured by Lieutenant Downes, iii. 10;
sent to St. Helena as a cartel, 12.
_Rota_, British frigate, in the attack on the _General Armstrong_,
iii. 188–200.
Rowan, Captain Stephen C., iv. 99;
destroys the Confederate fleet at Roanoke Island, 110.
_Royal Savage_, American schooner, i. 89.
_Royal Yacht_, Confederate privateer, blockaded by the _Santee_ in
Galveston, iv. 138.
Russell, Lieutenant John H., iv. 314.
Russell, Lord, correspondence about the _Trent_ affair, iv. 150–152;
letter of, on the closing of Charleston Harbor, 471, 472.
_S. J. Waring_, merchantman, captured by Confederate privateer
_Jefferson Davis_, iv. 91.
_Sabine_, Federal sailing ship, rescues the crew of the _Governor_,
iv. 167.
Sackett’s Harbor, N. Y., chosen as a naval station, ii. 264;
attacked by the British, 345.
Sailors, kidnapped, cruelty to, on British ships, i. 387.
Sailor’s rights ignored by politicians, ii. 18.
St. Eustatius, Governor of, gives first salute to the American
flag, i. 69.
_St. James_, American privateer, beats off a British frigate, i. 206.
St. John’s, British fleet built at, i. 87.
St. Laurent, Captain, deceived by Captain Bainbridge, i. 317.
_St. Lawrence_, British liner, iii. 129.
_St. Louis_, Commodore Foote’s flagship, disabled, iv. 271;
Captain Henry Erben commands, 289.
_Sally_, purchased by first Marine Committee, i. 39.
Saltonstall, Captain Dudley, i. 46;
commands the _Trumbull_, 164;
captain of the _Warren_, 283.
Samoa, hurricane at, iv. 554.
Sand-bar, lifting vessels over a, ii. 289, 290.
San Diego, Cal., John C. Frémont takes possession of, iii. 394.
_Sandwich_, American privateer, cut out of Puerto Plata by Lieutenant
Isaac Hull, i. 329.
_San Jacinto_, American frigate, iii. 380.
_San Jacinto_, United States screw sloop, iv. 15;
Mason and Slidell, Confederate Commissioners, taken to Boston in,
148.
See _Mason, James Murray_.
San Juan de Ulloa, a castle on Gallega Reef, Vera Cruz,
fortification of, iii. 418.
Santa Anna, Mexican General, landed from the American fleet at Vera
Cruz, iii. 424;
the American Government negotiates with him to return to Mexico,
427;
escorted up the streets of Vera Cruz, _ib._;
is recognized by a squad of soldiers and saluted, _ib._;
again master of Mexican affairs, _ib._
_Santee_, Federal frigate, blockades Galveston, iv. 137.
Saranac River, the British retire from, iii. 136.
_Saratoga_, American frigate, i. 287;
captures the _Charming Molly_ and two other ships, 292;
lost in a hurricane, 293.
_Saratoga_, American privateer, ii. 253.
_Saratoga_, American corvette, iii. 137, 138;
Macdonough’s flagship in the battle of Lake Champlain, 155.
_Sassacus_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 456.
_Savannah_, American frigate, iii. 392.
_Savannah_, Confederate privateer, captures brig _Joseph_, iv. 88;
captured by Federal brig _Perry_, 89.
_Sciota_, Federal screw gun-boat, iv. 315.
_Scorpion_, American gun-boat, ii. 292.
_Scorpion_, American cutter, ii. 408.
_Scorpion_, American schooner, captured by the British, iii. 110.
Scott, Lieutenant-colonel Winfield, at Black Rock, ii. 275;
takes possession of Squaw Island, 278;
hauls down the British flag, 344.
_Scourge_, American privateer, ii. 253.
_Scourge_, American schooner, ii. 350.
_Seahorse_, American tender, makes a gallant fight against the
British fleet, iii. 233–235.
Sea-power, American, in 1812, ii. 21;
of Great Britain, 22.
Search, the right of, on the high seas, i. 387;
reaffirmed, ii. 19.
_Seine_, French privateer, captured by the American schooner
_Enterprise_, i. 330.
Selfredge, Lieutenant-commander T. O., iv. 369.
Selfredge, Lieutenant-commander T. O., Jr., at Fort Fisher, iv. 519.
Self-restraint of Americans, iii. 303.
Selkirk, Earl of, house of, surrounded by Paul Jones, i. 147, 148.
_Selma_, Confederate gun-boat, iv. 380.
Selman, Captain John, captures ten British vessels and Governor
Wright of St. John’s, i. 203.
_Seminole_, Federal frigate, iv. 163.
_Seminole_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 389.
Semmes, Commander Raphael, his ship capsizes and he loses half the
crew, iii. 417;
takes command of Confederate cruiser _Sumter_, iv. 408;
chases the _Brooklyn_, 409;
captures the _Golden Rocket_, 410;
takes five prizes into Cuba, 411;
takes the _Abby Bradford_ to Venezuela, 412;
the _Powhatan_ captures her, 413;
some of his captures, 415;
his ship sold to English blockade-runners, _ib._;
Brazil authorities allow him to use Fernando de Noronha as
headquarters, 427;
appointed to command of _Alabama_, 431;
ships his officers and men at Terceira, _ib._;
encounters the _San Jacinto_, 432;
captures the _Ariel_, _ib._;
goes to Galveston to intercept transports, _ib._;
captures the _Hatteras_, _ib._;
his reception at Cape Town, 434;
his gallantry, 435;
cruises in the East Indies, 436;
fight with the _Kearsarge_, 438–441;
rescued by the yacht _Deerhound_, 442;
his reception in England, 447.
_Seneca_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 163.
Senez, Captain Andre, surrenders to Captain Little of the _Boston_,
i. 328, 329.
Sentiment, a touching tale of, iii. 243, 244.
_Serapis_, British frigate, encounters the _Bonhomme Richard_, i. 243;
fight with the latter, 245–259;
surrenders, 259;
comparative strength of the two ships, 265.
_Seringapatam_, British ship, captured by Porter, iii. 14.
_Severn_, British ship, ii. 421.
Seward, William H., his reply to the despatch of the British
Government relative to the _Trent_ affair, iv. 154–156.
Sewell’s Point, Confederate batteries erected at, iv. 195.
Shajackuda Creek, Niagara River, expedition starts from, ii. 275;
route opened up by Perry, 287.
_Shannon_, British frigate, ii. 55;
blockades Boston, 200;
challenges the _Chesapeake_, 203;
captures her, 209–221;
arrives at Halifax, 222;
comparison of the two ships, 229.
_Shark_, American brig, captures five pirate vessels, iii. 331.
_Shark_, British sloop, fight of, with American brig _Reprisal_, i.
71.
Shaw, Lieutenant, captures the French privateer _Seine_, i. 330.
Sheed, William W., Sailing-master, attacks the British, ii. 402.
_Shelburne_, British schooner, assists in capturing the _Frolic_,
iii. 65.
_Shenandoah_, Confederate cruiser, destroys American whaling and
sealing fleets, iv. 447.
Sherman, Captain, “bravest man in the Confederate squadrons,” iv.
321, 329, 340.
Sherman, General Thomas W., commands a force against Port Royal, iv.
164.
Shipbuilder, the private, a factor in the sea power of a nation, iv.
38.
Shipbuilding after the Revolution, i. 304.
Ship-masts retained for use of the crown, i. 15.
Shirk, Lieutenant, supports Grant at Pittsburg Landing, iv. 284;
commander of Federal gun-boat _Tuscumbia_, iv. 363.
Shreveport, La., General Banks sent on expedition to, to frustrate
designs of Napoleon III., iv. 368.
Shubrick, Lieutenant J. T., boards the _Peacock_ and endeavors to
save the ship from sinking, ii. 184.
Shubrick, Commodore William Bradford, in command of the Pacific Coast
Squadron, iii. 401.
“Siege of Plattsburg,” a popular song, iii. 184.
_Silver Wave_, Federal Army transport, before Vicksburg, iv. 364.
_Simcoe_, British gun-boat, iii. 143.
_Simes_, British schooner, sunk, ii. 271.
Sinclair, Captain Arthur, sent to take charge of the American fleet
west of the Niagara, iii. 106;
sails into Lake Huron, 107;
destroys St. Joseph, _ib._;
destroys a block-house, 108;
returns to Detroit, 109.
_Sir Andrew Hammond_, British whaler, captured by Porter, iii. 16;
recaptured by the _Cherub_, 50.
_Sir George Prevost_, British gun-boat, iii. 143.
_Sir James Yeo_, British gun-boat, iii. 143.
_Sir Sidney Beckwith_, British gun-boat, iii. 143.
_Sir William Erskine_, British sloop, attacked and captured by the
American privateer _Thorn_, i. 209.
_Siren_, American brig, accompanies Decatur on his expedition to fire
the _Philadelphia_, i. 348–350;
John B. Nicholson placed in command of, iii. 78;
cruises on the coast of Africa, _ib._;
is captured, 79.
Slave traffic on the coast of Africa, iii. 360;
Admiral Foote’s efforts to stamp it out, 363–367.
Slavers, chasing, on the African coast, iii. 360–361.
Slavery, kidnapped sailors subjected to a state of, i. 387.
Slidell, John, Confederate commissioner to France. See _Mason, James
Murray_.
Sloat, Captain John Drake, takes possession of Monterey, California,
iii. 392;
gives up command of the squadron, 394.
Smith, Lieutenant Albert N., iv. 315.
Smith, Lieutenant Joseph B., attacked by the _Merrimac_, iv. 207;
stands by his ship until killed, 208.
Smith, Commander Melancthon, iv. 314.
Smith, Lieutenant Sydney, indiscreet zeal of, iii. 136.
_Solebay_, British frigate, fights with American brig _Providence_,
under Paul Jones, i. 74.
_Somers_, American brig, enters Vera Cruz harbor and fires the
_Creole_, iii. 417;
capsizes and drowns half her crew, _ib._
_Somers_, American schooner, captured by the British, iii. 111.
_Somers_, American schooner, in battle of Lake Erie, ii. 295.
_Somers_, overturned while chasing a blockade-runner, iii. 417.
Somers, Commandant Richard, assists in attack on the city of Tripoli,
i. 359–367;
blown up on the _Intrepid_, 378.
Somers, Captain, fights five duels in succession, iii. 315–317.
_Somerset_, Fulton ferryboat, captures the blockade-runner
_Circassian_, iv. 37.
Somerville, Captain Philip, assists in the attack on the _General
Armstrong_, iii. 194.
Sorel River, invaded by “Wellington’s Invincibles,” iii. 135.
Soulé, Pierre, Senator and Minister to Spain, iv. 338.
South Carolina islands, as described by Jedidiah Morse, iv. 31.
_Southampton_, British frigate, flagship of Sir James L. Yeo, ii. 348.
Southcombe, Captain, fights off nine British barges, iii. 204.
Southern States dependent on commerce for necessaries of life, iv. 46;
their lack of factories and mills before the Civil War, _ib._
_Southfield_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 454.
_Sparlin_, British sloop, captured by the _Thorn_, i. 209.
_Spitfire_, American merchantman, stopped by the _Guerrière_, ii. 7.
_Spitfire_, British sloop, ii. 359.
Spies, New Orleans fishermen as, iv. 313.
Sproats, David, inhuman conduct of, i. 224.
Spy service of Federal government not as good as the Confederate,
iv. 189.
Squaw Island, N. Y., the _Detroit_ grounds on, ii. 278.
Stanton, Edward, Secretary of War, his views of the victory of the
_Merrimac_, iv. 211–212.
_Star of the West_, Federal steamer, first shot of the Civil War
fired at, iii. 363;
taken by the Confederates, _ib._
Stars and Stripes first saluted by a foreign power, i. 138.
_State of Georgia_, Federal warship, iv. 237.
Steamboats under fire of heavy guns, iv. 252.
Steam-rams, first fight of, in history, iv. 307.
Stembel, Captain R. N., before Fort Pillow, iv. 289;
badly wounded, 294.
Sterrett, Lieutenant Andrew, sent to Tripoli, i. 335;
appointed to command the _Enterprise_, ii. 373;
captures the _Tripoli_, _ib._
_Stettin_, armed merchantman, attacked by the Confederate ironclad
_Palmetto State_, iv. 474.
Stevens, Captain T. H., at Port Royal, iv. 163.
Stevens, Robert L., invents first ironclad, iv. 9.
Stevens, Commander Thomas Holdup, iv. 386;
in charge of Federal fleet to carry Fort Sumter by storm, 494.
Stewart, Lord George, commander in the attack on the _Constitution_
at Porto Praya, iii. 260.
Stewart, Captain Charles, sails from Boston, iii. 242;
overhauls and captures the British war-schooner _Picton_, _ib._;
falls in with the British frigate _La Pique_, 243;
finds the British frigates _Junon_ and _Tenedos_ lying in wait for
him, 244;
escapes to Marblehead, _ib._;
returns to Boston, 245;
sails out of Boston while blockade squadron is off port, _ib._;
captures British merchant ship, _Lord Nelson_, _ib._;
chases the _Elizabeth_, but captures the _Susan_, 245;
chased by the frigates _Tiber_ and _Elizabeth_, 246;
escapes, _ib._;
encounters the frigate _Cyane_ and sloop-of-war _Levant_, 247;
opens fire on both ships, 249;
the _Cyane_ surrenders to, 252;
the _Levant_ surrenders to, 255;
sails to Porto Praya with his captures, 260;
the _Newcastle_, _Leander_, and _Acasta_ surprise him, 260;
the _Newcastle_ opens fire, 265;
the _Constitution_ sails away free, _ib._;
her last fight, 268.
Stivers, A. C., Chief Engineer of the _Monitor_, iv. 216.
Stockton, Captain Robert Field, succeeds Captain Sloat in command of
the Pacific Squadron, iii. 394;
lands and attacks Los Angeles, _ib._;
novel trick to deceive the enemy, _ib._;
organizes a state government, 397;
is succeeded by Commodore Shubrick, 401;
his trip on Ericsson’s _Francis B. Ogden_, iv. 10;
he induces Ericsson to come to America, 11;
assigned to the _Princeton_, 14.
Stoddert, Benjamin, Secretary of Navy, i. 334.
“Stone Fleet,” sinking of the, iv. 470.
_Stonewall Jackson_, Confederate ironclad, iv. 333;
rams the _Varuna_ and sinks her, 334;
is driven ashore by the _Oneida_ and _Cayuga_, _ib._
Stoney, Theodore D., Charleston citizen, builds, at his own expense,
a number of “Davids,” iv. 497.
Stringham, Flag Officer Silas H., assigned to command of Hatteras
Island expedition, iv. 99.
Strong, Commander James H., iv. 389.
Submarine torpedo vessel, principles and construction of a, i.
165–170;
experiments made to prove the nature and use of a, 172.
Sullivan’s Island, Charleston, S. C., iv. 469.
Sumatra, attack of natives of, on American ship _Friendship_, iii.
368.
_Sumter_, Confederate gun-boat, rams the _Cincinnati_ at Fort Pillow,
iv. 293;
surrenders, 302.
_Sumter_, Confederate ship, captured at Fort Pillow, iv. 302.
_Sumter_, Confederate cruiser, iv. 407;
Captain Semmes takes command of, 408;
captures the _Abby Bradford_, 412;
cruises in the Caribbean Sea, 413;
on the Brazil coast, 414;
is chased by _Iroquois_, _ib._;
goes to Spain and Gibraltar, 415;
expense of, to the Confederate Government, 416;
sold and converted into an English merchant-ship, _ib._;
runs the blockade of Charleston, _ib._;
name changed to the _Gibraltar_, _ib._;
lost in the North Sea, _ib._
_Superior_, American frigate, iii. 113.
Superiority of British naval crews, i. 60.
Superstition, sailors’, iii. 78, 79.
_Surprise_, American brig, renamed the _Eagle_, iii. 139.
_Surprise_, American cutter, i. 123;
captures the ship _Joseph_ and the brig _Prince of Orange_, 124;
detained in France by the British ambassador, 125.
_Surveyor_, American schooner, attacked and overpowered by the
British frigate _Narcissus_, ii. 417.
_Susquehanna_, American ship, sent to Japan in 1851, iii. 443.
_Susquehanna_, Federal frigate, iv. 163.
_Sylph_, American schooner, ii. 349.
Symonds, Sir William, his opinion of Ericsson’s _Francis B. Ogden_,
iv. 10.
Tabasco, Mexico, captured by Commodore M. C. Perry, iii. 414.
_Tacony_, captured by Captain Read of the _Clarence_, iv. 424.
_Tapanagouche_, British schooner sent to capture Captain Jeremiah
O’Brien, i. 23.
Tarbell, Captain, unsuccessfully attacks the becalmed British fleet
in Hampton Roads, ii. 395.
_Tartarus_, English brig-sloop, iii. 93.
Tattnall, Commodore Josiah, takes part in the English attack on
Chinese forts, iii. 382;
attacks the Castle of San Juan de Ulloa in the siege of Vera Cruz,
420–423;
commands a squadron of four vessels sent in to divert the attention
of the Mexicans, 424;
exchanges places with a brother officer on the _Constellation_, and
so saves his life, 354;
commands the Confederate fleet at Savannah, iv. 168;
his worthless flotilla, _ib._;
attacked by the Federal fleet and retires, 171;
destroys the _Merrimac_, 236, 237.
Tayloe, Lieutenant, killed while assisting the Union wounded out of
the _Congress_, iv. 209.
Taylor, Captain John, chased by Captain Lawrence of the _Hornet_, ii.
181.
Taylor, Thomas E., leading blockade-runner, iv. 57.
Tea destroyed in Boston Harbor, i. 13.
_Teaser_, privateer of New York, ii. 245.
_Teaser_, American blockade-runner, iv. 60.
_Tecumseh_, British gun-boat, iii. 145.
_Tecumseh_, Federal monitor, iv. 386;
sunk by a torpedo, 394.
_Tenedos_, British frigate, captures the American frigate
_President_, iii. 222;
goes in chase of the _Constitution_, 244.
_Tennessee_, Confederate ram, iv. 380.
Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, how far navigable, iv. 240.
Tennessee opened up by the capture of Fort Henry, iv. 266;
railroad communication cut off from, 267.
Terceira, a Portuguese island, officers and crew of the _Alabama_
shipped from, iv. 431.
Terry, General Alfred H., at Fort Fisher, iv. 516.
Texas, Napoleon III. tries to persuade, to secede from the
Confederacy, iv. 367–368.
_Thalia_, British frigate, ii. 29.
_Thames_, British frigate, attacks American gun-ship _Protector_, i.
207.
Thatcher, Master Charles, iv. 370.
_Theodora_, Confederate blockade-runner, carries Mason and Slidell to
Cuba, iv. 141.
_Thetis_, British frigate, chased by Porter and escapes, ii. 38.
_Thomas_, American privateer, ii. 252.
_Thompson_, Confederate ram, sunk at Fort Pillow, iv. 302.
Thompson, Captain Egbert, before Fort Pillow, iv. 290.
Thompson, Captain Thomas, i. 130; sent to France for supplies, _ib._;
returns to America, 132–133.
_Thorn_, American privateer, attacks and strikes the _Governor Tryon_
and _Sir William Erskine_, i. 209;
captures the _Sparlin_, _ib._;
captured by the _Deane_, 284, 287.
_Ticonderoga_, American schooner, iii. 137–139.
_Tigress_, American schooner, in battle of Lake Erie, ii. 295;
captured by the British, iii. 109.
Tilghman, General Lloyd, surrenders Fort Henry to Commodore Foote,
iv. 265–266.
Tillinghast, Lieutenant T. G., iii. 81.
Tin-clads, light-draft steamers in Admiral Porter’s squadron, iv. 349.
Tiptonville, Pope shuts Confederates in by occupying, iv. 276.
_Toey-wan_, steamer chartered by Captain Tattnall in the attack on
Chinese forts, iii. 382–384.
Tombigbee Channel, Mobile, lined with torpedoes, iv. 406.
_Tom Bowline_, store-ship for Decatur’s fleet, iii. 271.
_Tompkins_, American ship, ii. 352.
Toronto, Canada, Americans plan to attack, ii. 339;
a force under General Dearborn sent to attack, 340;
stores and prisoners taken, 342.
Torpedo boat, the first one built, i. 164;
general principles and construction of a submarine vessel, 165.
Torpedoes made of whiskey demijohns, iv. 350.
Townsend, Commander Robert, iv. 369.
Trabangan, Malay settlement, natives of, capture the American
merchant-ship _Eclipse_ and kill Captain Wilkins, iii. 374–379.
“Tracking” up a river, ii. 287.
_Trajano_, Brazilian rebel warship, iv. 548.
_Transit_, New London merchant-ship, captured by Confederate
privateers, iv. 97.
Treaty of Ghent, terms and conditions of, iii. 209;
the real cause of the war ignored in the treaty, 210.
Tredegar Iron Mills, Richmond, Va., the only gun and engine factory
possessed by the South at the outbreak of the Civil War, iv. 46.
Trenchard, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, wounded in a fight with
Chinese, iii. 382.
_Trent_, British mail steamer, Confederate Commissioners Mason and
Slidell taken from, iv. 148;
attitude of the British Government in regard to the seizure,
150–152;
instructions to Lord Lyons, 152, 153;
reply of Mr. Seward to the despatch of the British Government, iv.
154;
review of Mr. Seward’s reply, 154–158;
Commodore Smith’s comment on the reply, 156.
_Trenton_, United States cruiser, ashore at Samoa, iv. 554.
_Trepassy_, British brig, surrenders to the _Alliance_, i. 298.
Tribute, paid to Algerian pirates by America, iii. 339;
by England, 340.
Tripoli declares war against America, i. 333;
pays indemnity to United States, iii. 357.
_Tripoli_, war polacre, is beaten by the American schooner
_Enterprise_, i. 335.
Tripolitans, treachery of, i. 335, 336.
_Trippe_, American sloop, in battle of Lake Erie, ii. 295.
Trippe, Sailing-master John, at attack on city of Tripoli, i. 366.
Tristan d’Acunha, Island of, in the South Atlantic, Jonathan Lambert
pre-empts, iii. 270, 271;
a breeding resort for seals, _ib._;
Decatur makes it a rendezvous, _ib._
_True Briton_, captured by the _Randolph_, i. 160.
_Trumbull_, American galley, i. 89, 164.
_Trumbull_, American ship, captures two British transports, i. 164;
cruises along American coast with a crew of landsmen, 290;
is nearly disabled, 291;
attacked by three British ships and surrenders, 295–297.
Truxton, Captain Thomas, captures prizes in the Azores, i. 205;
cuts out three ships from the British fleet, _ib._;
fits out the _Mars_ and cruises in the English Channel, _ib._;
involves France in war with England, 206;
successfully beats off a British frigate, _ib._;
Captain of the _Constellation_, compels the French frigate
_Vengeance_ to fight, 323;
loses her in the night, 328.
_Truxton_, American brig, grounded before Tuspan, Mexico, and is
captured, iii. 410.
Tucker, John, Assistant Secretary of War, asks Commodore Vanderbilt
his terms for destroying the _Merrimac_, iv. 212.
Tucker, Captain Samuel, captures thirty British vessels, i. 203.
Tunis, brought to terms by the American fleet, i. 378, 379;
pays indemnity to United States for seizing the _Abellino_ prizes,
iii. 353.
_Tuscumbia_, Federal gun-boat in Porter’s fleet before Vicksburg, iv.
363.
Tybee Bar, Savannah, coal-ships ordered to go to, iv. 165.
_Unadilla_, Federal frigate, iv. 163;
attacked by the Confederate ironclad _Palmetto State_, 474.
_Underwriter_, Federal gun-boat, boarded and destroyed by John Taylor
Wood, iv. 452.
_Unicorn_, British frigate, captures the _Raleigh_, i. 194.
_United States_, American frigate, built, i. 312.
United States Astronomical Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere,
members of, iii. 464.
_United States_, frigate, falls in with the _Eurydice_ and
_Atalanta_, ii. 16;
cruises between the Azores and the Canary Islands, 121;
encounters the _Macedonian_, 122;
battle with, 125–134;
losses after the battle, 139;
comparison of the forces of the two ships, 140;
blockaded in New London, 150.
United States Government abrogates all treaties with France, i. 314.
_United We Stand_, American privateer, ii. 253.
Valcour Island, Lake Champlain, fight between Benedict Arnold and Sir
Guy Carleton at, i. 92–99.
Van Brunt, Captain G. I., iv. 99.
_Vandalia_, United States warship, sank at Samoa in a hurricane, iv.
554.
_Vandalia_, Federal sailing-ship, iv. 163;
sails from Hampton Roads with a fleet of coal schooners in charge,
165;
encounters a hurricane, 166.
Vanderbilt, Commodore Cornelius, asked for what sum he would destroy
the _Merrimac_, iv. 212.
_Van Dorn_, Confederate gun-boat, rams the _Mound City_ and disables
her, iv. 294.
_Varuna_, Federal screw corvette, iv. 314.
Vaughan, Captain William, at Sackett’s Harbor, ii. 267;
drives off the British, 268.
_Vengeance_, American brig, in Paul Jones’s fleet, i. 232.
_Vengeance_, French frigate, fight with the _Constellation_, i. 323;
surrenders, 327;
slips away in the night to Curaçao, 328;
returned to France, 330.
Vera Cruz, Mexico, siege and blockade of, by Americans, iii. 417–424;
the city captured, 424–427;
the navy’s part in the capture, 424.
Vergennes, Vt., Macdonough builds the _Saratoga_ there, iii. 137.
_Vesuvius_, United States dynamite cruiser, iv. 540.
Veterans of the Peninsular War sent to subjugate America, iii. 135.
Vicksburg, Admiral Farragut’s fleet arrives at, iv. 341;
moves made against, by way of the Yazoo River country, 350;
they failed, _ib._;
General Grant arrives before, 351;
Admiral Porter tries to get in behind, 358–363;
Grant surrounds, 363.
_Victor_, British gun-boat, captures the _Hancock_, i. 185.
_Vigilant_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate cruiser
_Sumter_, iv. 415.
_Vincennes_, American ship, sent to Japan in 1845, iii. 440.
_Vincennes_, Federal war-ship, iv. 129;
misunderstands signals, 133, 134.
_Viper_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.
_Virginia_, American frigate, grounded in Chesapeake Bay, i. 186.
_Virginia_, English frigate, i. 284.
_Virginia_, a name given to the reconstructed _Merrimac_, but not
used, iv. 189.
_Vixen_, American cruiser, in the attack on Tripoli, i. 374.
_Vixen_, American brig, captured by British frigate _Southampton_,
ii. 348.
_Vixen_, American steamer, in attack on Alvarado, iii. 410.
_Voluntaire_, French frigate, i. 316.
_Wabash_, United States screw frigate, iv. 15;
commanded by Captain Samuel Mercer, 99;
Captain C. R. P. Rodgers, commander, 163.
_Wachusett_, Federal frigate, captures the _Florida_, iv. 424.
Wadsworth, Captain Alexander Scammel, appointed to the
_Constellation_, iii. 327.
“Waggon, The,” a contemptuous term applied to the frigate _President_
by the British, ii. 360.
Wales, Captain R. W., fights a battle with the _Peacock_, iii. 68–71;
surrenders, 71;
his ship is carried into Savannah, 77.
Walke, Commander Henry, in charge of transport _Supply_, iv. 115;
disobeys orders, _ib._;
is court-martialed, 116;
appointed to command the _Taylor_, 250;
convoys General Grant down the Mississippi, 251;
in command of gun-boat _Taylor_, 251;
gallant conduct of, 252;
his timely aid, _ib._;
commands the _Carondelet_ in Commodore Foote’s fleet, 255;
his seeming insolence to Commodore Foote, 266;
commences the attack on Fort Donelson, 268;
diverts the Confederates’ attention from Grant, 271;
successfully runs the _Carondelet_ past the batteries of Island No.
10, 281;
resourcefulness of, 282;
passes six forts, under fire of fifty guns, 283;
aids the _Cincinnati_, 294.
_Walker_, American whaler, captured by the Peruvian cruiser
_Nereyda_, iii. 7.
“Wall-piece,” a gun used in capturing the _Margaretta_, i. 17.
_Wampanoag_, Federal ironclad, iv. 472, 473.
War of 1812, events which led up to, i. 383;
Great Britain fomented discord between the States of the Union, 384;
used every means to harass American commerce, _ib._;
impressed men by force to serve on English ships, 386;
used the press-gang in foreign ports, 387;
demanded right of search on the high seas, _ib._;
used nothing to enforce an order but the cat-o’-ninetails, 389;
American ships stripped of their crews, 397;
five men off the _Baltimore_ impressed in the British service, 401;
the affair of the _Leopard_ and _Chesapeake_, 402–413;
case of the _Spitfire_ and _Guerrière_, ii. 7;
tricky conduct of the officers of two British frigates, 15;
war declared, 28;
justified by the _Trent_ affair, iv. 140.
War-ship, the first submarine, i. 157;
the first Yankee, on fresh waters, ii. 264;
development of the, from 1815–1859, iv. 1–9.
Ward, Fleet Officer James H., his attack on the Acquia Creek
batteries, iv. 81;
killed, 82.
Ward, Samuel, Rhode Island delegate to Continental Congress, i. 31.
Warren, Fort, Mass., Mason and Slidell confined there, iv. 156.
_Warren_, American frigate, i. 280, 283.
Warrington, Master-commandant Lewis, iii. 66;
attacks and captures the _Epervier_, 66–71;
succeeds Porter in clearing the South American coast of pirates,
338.
_Washington_, American galley, i. 89; on Lake Champlain, 99.
Washington, George, and the Congress of the United Colonies, i. 27.
Washington, D. C., conduct of the British sailors at capture of, ii.
418, 419.
_Wasp_, schooner, of first American Navy, i. 40.
_Wasp_ (No. 2), American sloop-of-war, fight with the _Frolic_, ii.
107–117;
both the _Wasp_ and the _Frolic_ captured by the British frigate
_Poictiers_, 118, 119;
taken into the British navy and lost at sea, 119.
_Wasp_ (No. 3), American sloop-of-war, cuts her way through British
blockaders, iii. 81;
fights and captures the _Reindeer_, 86–88;
comparison of the two ships, 91;
cuts out the _Mary_ under the convoy of the _Armada_, and is chased
by the _Armada_, 92;
encounters the _Avon_, 93;
fights and disables her, 97;
the _Castilian_ and _Tartarus_ appear and chase the _Wasp_ off, 97;
captures two merchantmen and the _Atalanta_, 100;
mysterious end of, 102–104.
Waters, Captain Daniel, assists in capturing a British troop-ship, i.
203;
desperate fight with two British sloops-of-war, 209.
_Water Witch_, carries an exploring expedition to Parana, iii. 464.
_Water Witch_, Federal war-ship, iv. 129–133.
Watson, William H., Lieutenant, ii. 364;
is cut down and carried off unconscious, _ib._;
captures a pirate schooner off South America, iii. 335.
_Watt_, British privateer, fights with the _Trumbull_, i. 291.
_Webb_, Confederate ram, iv. 352.
_Weehawken_, Federal ironclad, iv. 480.
Weitzel, General, in command of troops at Fort Fisher, iv. 513.
Welles, Gideon, Secretary of the Navy, his account of the effect
that the raid of the _Merrimac_ had upon a cabinet meeting at
Washington, iv. 211.
Wellington, Duke of, on the character of the veterans sent to
America, iii. 134.
“Wellington’s Invincibles” invade the Sorel River, iii. 135;
sent to New Orleans under Sir Edward Packenham, iii. 230.
_Wellington_, British gun-boat, iii. 143.
Wells, Clark H., Lieutenant-Commander, iv. 389.
West India pirates, iii. 324.
Western waters, ships of the line of battle on, iv. 249.
_Westfield_, Federal ship, destroyed by the Confederates, iv. 357.
_West Wind_, Federal merchant-ship, captured by Confederate cruiser
_Sumter_, iv. 415.
Whaler, an armed British, transformed into a Yankee cruiser, iii. 9,
10.
Whaling fleet, British, taken by surprise, iii. 8–10.
Wheaton, Joseph, one of the capturers of the _Margaretta_, i. 16.
Whinyates, Captain Thomas, ii. 106;
encounters the _Wasp_ in a gale, _ib._;
gives battle to the _Wasp_, 107;
wounded, 112;
surrenders, 116;
his ship recaptured by the _Poictiers_, 118.
Whipple, Abraham, in command of boats attacking the _Gaspé_, i. 9;
commands American ship _Columbus_, 66;
in charge of the _Providence_, 281.
Whiskey demijohns for torpedoes, iv. 350.
White River, Ark., Federal operations on, iv. 307.
White Squadron, formation of, iv. 531–554.
_Whitehead_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 457.
Wickes, Captain Lambert, in the fight with the _Shark_, i. 71;
carries Franklin to France, 114;
captures prizes, _ib._;
goes on a cruise in the Bay of Biscay, _ib._;
captures fifteen prizes, 118.
Wilderness, building war-ships and gun-boats in the, ii. 286.
Wilkes, Captain Charles, stops the British steamer _Trent_ and takes
off Mason and Slidell, iv. 144–160;
sails into Boston, with his prisoners, 148, 149;
his conduct commended by Secretary of the Navy Welles, _ib._
Wilkinson, General, attempts to attack Montreal, ii. 271;
expedition fails, 272;
builds winter quarters on Salmon River, _ib._
_William_, American merchant-ship, captured by the _Java_, ii. 153;
recaptured by Captain Lawrence, of the _Hornet_, 181.
_William S. Robins_, merchant-ship, captured by Confederate
privateers, iv. 97.
Williams, Richard, reports to the British Government on the _Trent_
affair, iv. 150.
Williams, Captain John Foster, captures the British brig _Active_, i.
206;
fights and blows up the British privateer _Admiral Duff_, 207;
compels the frigate _Thames_ to haul off, _ib._
Williamson, Chief Engineer W. P., assists in the reconstruction of
the frigate _Merrimac_ into an ironclad, iv. 185–186.
_Will-o’-the-Wisp_, blockade runner, iv. 57;
description of, _ib._
_Wilmer_, American gun-boat, iii. 141.
Wilmington, N. C., a favorite resort of blockade-runners, iv. 41.
Wilson, Lieutenant-commander Byron, iv. 363–369.
_Winnebago_, Federal monitor, iv. 386.
_Winona_, Federal screw gun-boat, iv. 315.
_Wissahickon_, Federal screw gun-boat, iv. 315.
_Wolfe_, British sloop-of-war, ii. 348.
Wood, Lieutenant John Taylor, iv. 189;
boards and destroys the Federal gun-boat _Underwriter_, 452;
his statement on the retiring of the _Monitor_ from the fight, 230,
231.
Woodworth, Lieutenant S. E., iv. 364.
Woolsey, Lieutenant Melancthon, ii. 264.
Worden, Lieutenant John L., causes Fort Pickens to be reinforced, iv.
119;
arrested and held prisoner for seven months, _ib._;
Captain of the _Monitor_, 205;
begins the battle with the _Merrimac_, 219;
gets to close quarters, 222;
has his ship under good control, 212;
disabled, 225;
Lieutenant Greene succeeds him in command, 229;
transferred to a tug and taken to Washington, 230;
letter to him from his crew, 233;
Captain of the _Montauk_, 480.
Wright, Governor, of St. John’s, captured by Captain Selman, i. 203;
released, _ib._
_Wyalusing_, Federal gun-boat, iv. 457.
Wyer, Captain, captures four prizes in the Mediterranean, iii. 343.
Wyman, Captain R. W., at Port Royal, iv. 163.
Yankee squadron, first cruise of the, i. 48.
_Yarmouth_, British ship, attacked by the _Randolph_, i. 162.
Yarnall, Lieutenant, in the battle of Lake Erie, ii. 313;
Perry leaves him in charge, 318.
Yellow fever decimates the crews of the American ships before Vera
Cruz, iii. 418.
Yeo, Sir James L., placed in command of the British naval forces on
Lake Ontario, ii. 348;
captures the American brig _Vixen_ in the West Indies, _ib._;
sends an insulting challenge to Captain Porter of the _Essex_,
_ib._;
captures two schooners and supplies, _ib._;
meets Commodore Chauncey’s squadron, 349;
has some brushes with the enemy, 350–353;
operations on Lake Ontario, iii. 114–126.
_York_, Confederate privateer, iv. 93.
Yucatan, Mexico, governed by the Americans during the Mexican War,
iii. 414.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation
marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
unbalanced.
Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs
and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support
hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to
the corresponding illustrations.
The illustration near page 199 includes a numbered key, but some of the
numbers in the illustration are hard to find or read. The Transcriber
has included two versions of this illustration: the original and an
annotated one, in which those numbers appear in red (or gray, depending
on the reading device). Two of those numbers, 1 and 18, may be in the
wrong places.
The key numbers in the illustration near page 319 are the original
ones. They are in ascending sequence clockwise, with the exception of
12 and 11.
The map following page 520 did not have a caption. As it was the only
illustration in the book without a caption, Transcriber copied its
description from the List of Illustrations and used it as the caption.
The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page
references. Most of the references are to pages in the other three
volumes of this series; all four volumes are available at no charge
at LibraryBlog:
In the original book, the index entries for "Biddle, Captain Nicholas"
referring to Volume II. actually refer to his nephew, "Biddle, James",
and some of those are in Volume III. In this ebook, those entries have
been corrected, but the index may contain other errors.
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