Part 2 (2/2)
Iut went ashore to examine and note the effects of the fire, and especially of the horizontal shell fire; which was then so much a novelty in naval warfare that he speaks of the uish them from the vertically thrown bombs ”Noas seen for the first time that the material of which Ulloa is built (soft coral) was the worst substance in the world for protection against the modern shell The French threw almost entirely shell-shot, which entered the wall twelve or eighteen inches and then exploded, tearing out greatthe wall froe done by these shell-shot was inconceivably greater than that by the shell fro horizontally, while the latter fell vertically upon the boe I aht have bombarded with the boates would in four hours more, with their shell-shot, have reduced the fort to a heap of ruins” This opinion as to the inefficacy of bo to destroy a work anticipated the experience of the Civil War, where the conclusion was that it arrison by constant harassment, but not directly reduce the works themselves It is only just to say that his estimate of the effect of the horizontal fire upon the walls is ineers, who did not consider that the dae done necessarily entailed a capitulation; but seareed in their opinions upon this subject
The saut to this minute inspection of the battered fortress carried him also on board one of the French shi+ps, while she still remained cleared for action, to note matters of detail which differed from those then prevalent in his own service Of these he elories of 1812 and the first re-organization and development procured for it by the popular favor consequent upon its victories, had been allowed to drop into a state of backwardness, as regards the material, similar to that which followed the Civil War, and froe The points which he noted, though most important to that rapidity and order upon which the efficient service of a shi+p's batteries depends, would have now no attraction for the unprofessional reader; nor for the professional, except as matters of antiquarian interest They showed that spirit of system, of scientific calculation, of careful adaptation of uished the French material for naval war, except when the embarrassments of the treasury have prevented the adoption of expensive improvements--a spirit which for over a century made the French shi+ps the models which their usually victorious rivals were fain to copy ”The English and ourselves ut to Barron, ”but depend upon it, sir, they are in science far ahead of us both, and when England next meets France upon the ocean she will find a different enemy from that of the last war Of all this I know you have seen much in theory, but I have seen it tested in practice”
The substance of Farragut's letter to Barron deals withadvances in naval science have now made obsolete; but the spirit which inspired the letter and accumulated the materials for it can never become obsolete It was then, and it is now, the indication of aabreast of his time and awake to its necessities; it held then, as it does now, the promise of one hen occasion arose, would have his faculties in readiness, by constant training, to exert all the pohich nature had gifted him The conditions of 1861 were very different from those of 1838; but the officer as found awake to the first in their day would not be behind the others in theirs The letter concluded with a pregnant observation, which deserves to be quoted as thoroughly characteristic of the writer: ”I have already said too much for a letter to any other person of your rank; but I flatter myself that I know your love of improvement, and that my intentions will be duly appreciated If ander about the world do not keep those at home informed of the daily improvements in other navies, how can we hope to improve, particularly e see ained a victory, they can do it again? So they may, but I can tell them it must be with the means of 1838, and not those of 1812” This transress of other navies, upon which Farragut laid such just stress, is now systematized and perfected under a particular branch of the Navy Departence Upon every shi+p afloat there is an officer whose duty is to observe and report to that office upon such n navies which are open to the examination of outsiders
After the French affair at Vera Cruz the Erie returned to Pensacola, and there on the 12th of January, 1839, Farragut gave up the command to an officer of senior rank and went ho his wife's health to be very precarious, he remained unemployed until her death, which occurred on the 27th of Deceentleness of character,” says his biography by his son, ”is shown than in Farragut's attention to his invalid wife His tenderness in contributing to her every coh sixteen years of suffering, forhtest spots in the history of his domestic life When not at sea, he was constantly by her side, and proved himself a faithful and skillful nurse It was the subject of remark by all ere throith hiut dies, he should have ato the skies,a stone'”
CHAPTER V
COMMANDER AND CAPTAIN
1841-1860
Iut applied for sea service; and on the 22d of February, 1841, he was ordered to the Delaware, a shi+p-of-the-line, which was fitting for sea in Norfolk and destined to take hi the senior lieutenants of the navy; but as it was in accordance with custom that a commander should be the executive officer of a shi+p-of-the-line, his expected promotion would not, when it arrived, cause him to leave his position Some time passed before the Delaas fully ready for sea Before sailing, she was sent up the Chesapeake to the mouth of the Severn River, where she was visited by nu city of Annapolis, as well as by large parties of congress who off Annapolis, on the 27th of Septeut received his commission as commander in the navy His seniority as such was from September 8, 1841 A few days later the Delaware returned to Hampton Roads, and thence sailed for her station on the 1st of November On the 12th of January she anchored in Rio Janeiro After a stay of six weeks there, the whole squadron sailed for the Rio de la Plata, the usual resort of the shi+ps on that station during the summer months of the southern hemisphere, when the yellow fever is apt to be prevalent in Rio Janeiro On the 1st of June, 1842, Farragut was ordered to co Coden; who as a midshi+pman of the Essex had been his messmate nearly thirty years before, and was now compelled to leave his shi+p by an illness which never allowed him to resume the active pursuit of his profession The transfer of the command appears to have beenhis connection with the Delaware, with his new rank, Farragut felt that he had parted finally with the subordinate duties of his calling; and, as rarely happens, he passed directly froher His journal records the fact with a characteristic comment: ”Thus closed my service on board the Delaware as executive officer; to which I shall always look back with gratification, as it was the last step in the ladder of subordinate duties, and I feel proud to think I performed it with the same zeal as the first” He was then nearly forty-one years old
On the 2d of July the Decatur sailed for the La Plata in co Montevideo, Commodore Morris embarked on board the former, and went in her to Buenos Ayres; shi+ps of the size of the Delaware not being able to approach that city on account of the great distance to which very shoal water extends fro the usual official civilities and transacting some business with Rosas, who then embodied in his own person all the powers of the state, the commodore returned to Montevideo; but the Decatur was soon sent back, and Farragut spent most of the latter half of 1842 at Buenos Ayres, in constant intercourse, both official and social, with Rosas and his family Of the latter he, in common with most American naval officers who visited the La Plata at that tireeable i officer, his duties were less exacting and his tiave free play to the social disposition which was pro his stay is taken up with the accounts of social and official entertain the month of September,” he writes, ”I overnor's” (Rosas) ”On the 5th of November I was invited to a ball at the Victoria Theatre, where, as on all similar occasions, I danced the first quadrille with the charhter of Rosas The pleasant and familiar relations thus established enabled him to do many kind acts for the Unitarios, whose lives were in constant danger by political accusations, if not from actual offenses
Rosas himself was then in the full exercise of the dictatorial pohich he had been invested soovernor of Buenos Ayres His rule, which lasted under successive renewals of his office until 1852, was arbitrary and bloody; but in the disorganized condition of the provinces at that period a man of his force of character seereater horrors of constant intestine strife ”We concluded frout in his journal, ”that he was a , reasonable; but on the subject of secret societies he was a e from his furious denunciation of them” They constituted, indeed, the one resource of the cowed Unitarios, and were the chief danger then threatening him ”We had an excellent opportunity to form an idea of his character, as he appeared to throw off all restraint while with us But the commodore informed us that, as soon as he laid business matters before him, Rosas was a different person; he was cale” The ladies of the faent and hospitable; but, like all the women of Buenos Ayres at that time, were perforce ardent Federalists and detesters of the ”savage Unitarios” Farragutat an official festivity in honor of Rosas, which shows the savagery that lay close under the surface of the Argentine character at that ti expression in the constant civil strife and in the uncontrolled rule of the dictator ”In the ball-rooraced even barbarian society It was a full-sized figure representing a Federal soldier, with a Unitarian lying on the ground, the Federal pressing his knees between the victim's shoulders, whose head was pulled back with the left hand, and the throat cut froly held aloft a bloody knife and see the applause of the spectators I a that every one of our party felt an involuntary shudder come over him when his eye fell upon this tableau; nor did we afterward recover our spirits, everything in the way of gayety on our part during the night was forced and unnatural”
It is a ut has occasion at this tiing The Italian patriot, whose na the celebrity it has since attained, had for soed on the popular side in revolutionary struggles in the southern provinces of Brazil Thence he had passed into Uruguay, and become a teacher ofinto the Argentine confederation all the provinces which once foruay was one; and, finding a pretext in the civil dissensions of the latter, had opened hostilities as the ally of one party in the State Garibaldi, who began life as a seauayan naval forces, and in that capacity undertook to carry stores to Corrientes, an important point far up the river Parana ”As he ut, ”the Argentine admiral, Broas enabled to overtake him
Garibaldi ran his vessel into a creek and ht until he had expended everything in the way of ammunition, then landed his crew and set his vessel on fire” On the 17th of October a grand ball was given in honor of this success, which Coayeties during his stay in Buenos Ayres
The Decatur had already been long on the station when Farragut assumed command, and the ti Buenos Ayres she made short stops at Montevideo, Rio Janeiro, Maranha the seaport of the Amazon River On the 18th of February, 1843, she arrived in Norfolk, and Farragut was relieved His health being delicate at this tiinia
From the mountains he returned in the autumn to Norfolk; and there on the 26th of Decehter of Mr William Loyall, a well-known and respected citizen of Norfolk
In April, 1844, Cout was ordered as executive officer to the receiving shi+p at Norfolk, the Pennsylvania, of one hundred and twenty guns; which, in the days of sailing shi+ps, was by far the largest vessel the United States ever had, and one of the largest in the world
Some time later he was transferred to the navy yard at the same place, on which duty he was employed when the ith Mexico arose
As soon as the already existing difficulties with that country began to wear an o for service in the Gulf In his application he stated the qualifications he thought he possessed, froround, and froe He instanced particularly the occasions on which he had been ehborhood, and the close study he had been privileged to h the Secretary of the Navy at that tie Bancroft, this letter received no reply; and a second, sent after the beginning of the as barely acknowledged without any action being taken After Mr Bancroft left the Depart a decided opinion that the castle of San Juan de Ulloa could be taken either by artillery attack or by escalade; offering to undertake the task with the Pennsylvania and two sloops-of-war If not thought to have rank enough for such a coo back to the position of executive officer of the Pennsylvania, in order, in that capacity, to organize the crew for the attack The opinion thus expressed ran counter to the routine prejudices of the day, and, co from an officer who had as yet had no opportunity to establish his particular claim to be heard, rather hurt than improved his chances for employment It was not till February, 1847, nearly a year after the war began, and then with ”much difficulty,” that he obtained coa; but when he reached Vera Cruz in her, the castle had already passed into the hands of the United States, having surrendered to the forces under General Scott on the 26th of March That this capture should have been made by the army rather than by the navy was a severe disappoint cherished the hope that its fall should have been the brilliant achievement of his own service In his ht of his own subsequent career, seems a twofold prophecy ”The navy would stand on a different footing to-day if our shi+ps had made the attack It was all we could do, and should have been done at all hazards
Coht differently, however, and the old officers at home backed his opinion; but they all paid the penalty--_not one of theht have done if that castle had been taken by the navy, which must have been the result of an attack” It was to such enterprise at the hands of thewhom he was foremost, that the navy at a later day did obtain the ad in vain desired
The frustration of this high a out of the Mexican war He contracted the yellow fever on the station, nearly losing his life; and subsequently became involved in a controversy with the conment of duty, treated him and his shi+p with unfair discrimination, due to personal ill-will toward himself The correspondence had no results; but such quarrels are rarely other than hurtful to the junior officer engaged It is not singular, therefore, that he speaks of this cruise as thethe navy ”I have little,” he said again, ”to look back to with satisfaction or pleasure at this ti under the belief that he was being i of injustice, and asking that either he himself should be relieved or the shi+p sent home He candidly admits that his letters were considered ia was ordered to return to the United States, and was paid off at New York in February, 1848 In her short cruise there had been one hundred cases of yellow fever in her crew of one hundred and fifty, and her coed, to use his own expression, ”to rid the service” of five of her junior officers, and on the last day to bring the first lieutenant to trial for drunkenness Altogether, the Mexican war and the cruise of the Saratoga seem to have marked the lowest point of disappointut was called upon to encounter during his naval career
Iain ordered to duty in his former position at the Norfolk navy yard Two years later he was called to Washi+ngton to draw up, in connection with soulations for the navy This occupied hihteen months As when in New Haven, twenty-five years before, he had ie, so at this later period he attended regularly those of the Sle one ”You will rarely co soe ht come into play he could not, indeed, foresee, but he acted always on the principle that any knowledge ht at soh he did not at the time look forward to a ith Mexico, he closely examined every point of interest, for ”I have s with a view to the possible future”
When the Ordnance Regulations were finished, in the spring of 1852, Farragut was again assigned to the Norfolk navy yard, and directed to utilize the experience he had gained in counnery to the officers on the station In prosecution of the same line of professional work, he was soon after ordered to conduct a series of experiments at Old Point Comfort, near Norfolk, to determine certain questions connected with the endurance of iron cannon; the discharges being continued with one or two of each class of service guns until they burst Some very important results were obtained; but the circumstance connected with this duty which has now ut was associated with Lieutenant Percival Drayton, as afterward his flag-captain and chief-of-staff at the battle of Mobile Bay The inti this year of experihout their lives
Soon after this the Criut's desire for his own professional iress of the service led him to make application to the Navy Department to be sent to the seat of war, ”to visit the fleets of England and France, and ascertain whether in the outfits and preparation for war they possess any advantages over our own shi+ps-of-war, and, if so, in what they consist” The utility of such a mission can not be doubted, and his occupations of the past few years particularly prepared him for such an inquiry Had the Navy Department then had any systematic record of the aptitude shown by individual officers, and of the work done by theut's peculiar fitness for duties of this kind; which have since his tiiven a ence Office of the Navy Department As it was, his application received no other reply than a polite acknowledgineer Corps of the army, was sent by the War Department to visit Europe and the seat of war, and upon its return made an elaborate report; but at this critical period of naval progress, when sail wasplace to stea es in arh as yet dimly, indicated, it did not appear to the Government of the United States a matter of sufficient i of the new instruh doubtless not so intended, the Navy Departut to the East by assigning him to duty as far west as the naval interests of the United States, within its own borders, then allowed In August, 1854, four months after his application for the former employment, he was ordered to California as first commandant of the navy yard at Mare Island The site had been selected in the year 1852 by a commission of three officers, but as yet no navy yard existed It was to be Farragut's particular duty to plan and build it up under the general instructions of the Department His selection for this difficult and onerous, but at the sa the first evident results of the diligent, painstaking effort which had marked his professional career
By that, and by that only, had he as yet had any opportunity ofhih in the esteem of Commodore Joseph Smith, then and for many years both before and after, the chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, under whose charge the ement and development of navy yards more particularly came At the critical period when the selection of an officer to command in the attack upon New Orleans had to be made, Smith, who had close confidential relations with the Secretary of the Navy, always held that Farragut was the man above all others for the place
The site of the new yard was in the extensive sheet of inland waters connected with the bay of San Francisco, and so no accout, with his family, for some seven months lived on board an old sloop-of-war anchored near by He reress was h most ith of time required by correspondence to pass to and froton, was not fruitful of incident These were the troublous early tiilance Committee and the Law and Order Party With these intestine troubles of a State the military officers of the United States had no proper concern; but there was continually a possibility that they ht be forced to take a stand by the interference of one side or the other with civil officials of the United States Governht be induced, by a request froround that there was no titon for instructions It is unnecessary to enter into any exah the affairs hich he had to deal became at times both critical and delicate It will be sufficient to say that the Navy Depart his reports, approved his conduct as having been prudent and yet marked by a proper spirit