Part 4 (1/2)

FIRST DIVISION--_Leading under co-Gunboat Lieut-Com Harrison

2 Pensacola, Captain H W Morris

3 Mississippi, Captain M Smith

4 Oneida, Cos

6 Katahdin, Lieut-Com G H Preble

7 Kineo, Lieut-Com Ransom

8 Wissahickon, Lieut-Cout_

9 Hartford, Coht

10 Brooklyn, Captain T T Craven

11 Richmond, Commander J Alden

THIRD DIVISION--_Captain H H Bell_

12 Sciota, Lieut-Com Edward Donaldson

13 Iroquois, Com John De Camp

14 Kennebec, Lieut-Com John H Russell

15 Pinola, Lieut-Com P Crosby

16 Itasca, Lieut-Com C H B Caldwell

17 Winona, Lieut-Com E T Nichols

18 COMMANDER PORTER'S GUNBOATS

19 Sloop Portsmouth, Commander S Sout]

On the 2d of February, 1862, the Hartford sailed from Hampton Roads, and on the 20th reached shi+p Island The following day Farragut took over the co Officer McKean, who up to that tie of both the East and West Gulf None of the other vessels of the expedition were yet there; but they came in one by one and were rapidly assembled at the Southwest Pass, then the principal entrance to the river Much difficulty was encountered in getting the heavier shi+ps over the bar, teeks' work being needed to drag the Pensacola inside; but on the 7th of April she floated in the river, and Farragut found his force complete It then consisted, independently of the steamers attached to the mortar flotilla, of four steam sloops-of-war of about two thousand tons each, three of half that size, one large side-wheel shi+p-of-war, the Mississippi, of seventeen hundred tons, and nine gun-boats of five hundred The latter had been hurriedly built to encies of this war, and were then counboats Each carried one eleven-inch shell-gun and one thirty-pounder rifle The aggregate batteries of the seventeen vessels coht brass pieces, amounted to one hundred and fifty-four cannon, of which one hundred and thirty-five were thirty-two pounders or above

The two forts which constituted the principal defenses of New Orleans against a naval attack from the sea were at Plaquemine Bend, about twenty miles above the Head of the Passes; by which name is known the point where the main stream of the Mississippi divides into several channels, called passes, through which its waters find their way to the Gulf The river, whose general course belo Orleans is southeast, turns at Plaquemine Bend northeast for a mile and three-quarters, and then resumes its previous direction The heavier of the torks, Fort Jackson, is on the right bank, at the lower angle of the Bend It was a case in barbette over the casemates twenty-seven cannon of and above the size of thirty-two pounders, besides eleven twenty-four pounders In the casemates were fourteen of the latter caliber Attached to this fort, but below it, was a water battery carrying half a dozen heavy cannon Fort St Philip was nearly opposite Fort Jackson, but somewhat below it, so as to command not only the strea thus enabled to rake vessels approaching from below before they came abreast It coether uns The sites of these fortifications had been skillfully chosen; but their arreatly superior to those of the fleet--regard being had to the coun ashore is equivalent to four afloat--were not equal to the demands of the situation or to the importance of New Orleans Out of a total of one hundred and nine pieces,[G] of which probably over ninety could be used against a passing fleet, fifty-six, or more than half, were of the very old and obsolete caliber of twenty-four pounders

[Footnote G: There were so howitzers, besides those already enumerated]

This inadequate preparation, a year after the attack upon Fort Sumter and the outbreak of hostilities, is doubtless to be attributed to surprise The Southern authorities, like those of the National Government, were firmly possessed with the idea that the Mississippi, if subdued at all, must be so by an attack fro the border line of the two sections, the steps of the Navy Department were taken so quietly, and followed so closely upon the resolve to act, that the alarm was not quickly taken; and when intih, they had to encounter and dislodge strong contrary preoccupations in the eneral co the military division and his principal subordinates seeer of New Orleans, and their reuns denied them and sent North, but drafts were made on their narrow resources to supply points considered to be in greater danger A striking indication of the prepossessions which controlled the authorities at Richmond was elicited by Coallant veteran was ordered to take to Memphis several of the rams extemporized at New Orleans He entreated the Navy Department to allow him to remain, but the reply was that the main attack upon New Orleans would be from above, not froraphed from Memphis for permission to return, but received the answer that the proposition holly inadmissible Before the Court of Inquiry upon the loss of New Orleans, he testified that the withdrawal of his shi+ps was the chief cause of the disaster[H]

[Footnote H: _Official Records of the War of the Rebellion_, Series I, vol vi, p 610]

While the heavy shi+ps were being dragged over the bar at the Southwest Pass, the mortar flotilla had entered the river under the coh there were inevitable delays due to the nitude of the preparations that in every quarter taxed the energies of the Government On the 16th of April, less than ten days after the Pensacola got safely inside, the fleet was anchored just out of range of the forts On the 18th the mortar vessels were in position, and at 10 A M the bo days till the passage of the fleet, and being chiefly directed upon Fort Jackson Froht to dark a shell a reat proportion of these fell within the fort As Farragut had predicted, they did not in the course of six days' boh to compel a surrender or disable the work; but they undoubtedly harassed the garrison to an extent that exercised an appreciable effect upon the fire of Jackson during the passage

While the bohter vessels of the squadron were continuously engaged by detach up above it and drawing upon themselves the fire of the forts A more important duty was the removal of the obstructions that the enemy had thrown across the river, below the works, but under their fire Opinions differed, both in the United States squadron and in the counsels of the enemy, as to the power of the shi+ps to pass the forts; but it was realized on both sides that any barrier to their passage which should force them to stop under fire, or should throw confusion into their order, would ainst thelect of the Confederate Government, the Confederate officers of the department had not been re barrier had early engaged their attention, and, despite the difficulties presented by so rapid a current, a formidable raft had been placed early in the winter It consisted of cypress logs forty feet long and four or five feet in diathwise in the river, with an interval of three feet between thes were connected by two and a half inch iron cables, stretching underneath from one side of the streaainst the current by so as it stood, this constituted a very grave difficulty for an attacking fleet; but the water was deep and the holding ground poor, so that even under average conditions there was reason to fear its giving way The fleet arrived in the early spring, the season when the current, swollen by thesnows about the head waters of the Mississippi and its tributaries, is at its strongest; and in 1862 the spring rise was greater than for ns of yielding under the pressure of the drift wood accu on it from above, and on the 10th of March the cables had parted, the sections on either side being swept against the banks and leaving about a third of the river open The gap was filled by anchoring in it eight heavy schooners of about two hundred tons burden They were joined together as the cypress logs had been, but with lighter chains, probably because no heavy ones were at hand; and, as a further embarrassment to the assailants, their ing attached, in the hopes that by fouling the screws the ascending vessels ht be crippled

This central barrier of schooners was not intrinsically strong, but it was not to be despised, considering the very th of the current which they had to steh with so little loss of way as to produce no detention; and the ht and under the added gloom of the battle's smoke was liable to increase a confusion which could redound only to the advantage of the defense It became necessary, therefore, to remove the schooners in whole or in part This was effected in a very daring unboats, the Itasca and Pinola, Captains Caldwell and Crosby; the fleet captain, Henry H Bell, an officer in who placed in coe of the hostile batteries, which, through soence, failed to molest it The Pinola carried an electrician with a petard, by which it was hoped to shatter the chains This atte to the wires of the electrical battery parting before the charge could be exploded The Itasca, on the other hand, ran alongside one of the schooners and slipped the chains; but, unfortunately, as the hulk was set adrift without Captain Caldwell being notified, and the engines of the gunboat were going ahead with the helround under fire of the forts In this critical position the Itasca remained for some time, until the Pinola could be recalled to her assistance; and then several attempts had to be made before she finally floated Caldwell then did an exceedingly gallant thing, the importance of which alone justified, but a at once to the squadron, satisfied with the measure of success already attained, he deliberately headed up the river; and then, having gained sufficient ground in that direction to insure a full developed full upon the line of hulks As she met the chains, the little vessel rose bodily three or four feet fro the hulks doith her The chains stood the strain for an instant, then snapped, and the Itasca, having wrought a practicable breach, sped down to the fleet