Part 5 (1/2)
”The flag-officer, having heard all the opinions expressed by the different commanders, is of the opinion that whatever is to be done will have to be done quickly, or we shall be again reduced to a blockading squadron, without theon the bombardment, as we have nearly expended all the shells and fuses and es He has always entertained the same opinions which are expressed by Commander Porter--that is, there are three modes of attack,[O] and the question is, which is the one to be adopted? His own opinion is that a combination of two should be made, viz, _the forts should be run, and when a force is once above the forts to protect the troops they should be landed at Quarantine froh the bayou_, and then our forces shouldeach other as it can be done to advantage
”When in the opinion of the flag-officer the propitious tih and advance to the conflict If, in his opinion, at the ti at the respective positions of the different divisions of the fleet we have the advantage, he will nal for close action, No
8, and abide the result--conquer or be conquered--drop anchor or keep under way, as in his opinion is best
”_Unless the signal above mentioned iswill be for Fort St Philip, and ill proceed up the river _in accordance with the original opinion expressed_
”The prograeneral order, and the commanders will hold themselves in readiness for the service as indicated
D G FARRAGUT, _Flag-officer Western Gulf Blockading Squadron_”
[Footnote O: Those three were: First, a direct naval attack upon the works; second, running by the works; third, a co can be clearer than that the opinion expressed andwas the one carried out, resulting in a complete success
The boer, at the end of which ti exhausted Enough, however, re the period of the passage, and as the cover of darkness was desired the delay was not without its advantages, for the waningnight On the 23d notice was given to the shi+ps that the atteht, and that, as half-past three was the hour of hts, would be hoisted at 2 A M
During that afternoon Farragut personally visited each shi+p, in order to know positively that each commander understood his orders for the attack, and to see that all was in readiness
The original intention of the flag-officer was to attack in two parallel colu one, less liable to straggling, and in which the heavy batteries of the larger shi+ps woulddown the fire of the eneement, which remained unaltered until the 23d, the second in co was flying in the gunboat Cayuga, would have had the right colu-officer himself the left in the Hartford The latter was to be followed by the Brooklyn and Richmond, and upon these three heavy shi+ps would fall the brunt of the engagement with Fort Jackson, the ht column also had its heaviest shi+ps in the lead; the exceptional station of the Cayuga being due to so officers to receive on board, as divisional commander and their own superior, an officer whose position in the fleet was sia led, not in virtue of her armament, but because she bore on board the commander of one column
[Footnote P: Captain Bailey coate, which drew too ht, he obtained fro-officer the divisional appoint the narrowness of the opening in the obstructions through which the fleet must pass, decided that the risk of collision with the hulks on either side, or between the colureat if he adhered to his written prograht coluh first, and be followed closely by the other under his own guidance To facilitate the departure and avoid confusion, the shi+ps of the right shi+fted their berth after dark to the east side of the river, anchoring in the order prescribed to them
As some doubts had been expressed as to the actual rupture of the chains between the hulks on either side the breach, although they had evidently been dragged froht of the 20th, Lieutenant Caldas again chosen, at his own request, to make an examination of the actual conditions This he did in the early part of the night, before the shi+ps got under way; and it is a singular confired against the water service of the Confederates that he effected this duty thoroughly and without molestation Twice he pulled above the hulks and thence allowed his boat to drift down between the fro it was clear that within the narrow lie of a vessel existed By 11 P M Caldas on his return with this decisive and encouraging report
At 2 A M the appointed signal was made, and at once was heard in every direction the clank-clank of the chains as the seath of the current and the tenacity of the bottoer than had been expected, and not till half-past three did the leading vessel reach the line of hulks, followed closely by the rest of her division There is soht of these etting under way and preceding the furious strife, for whose first outburst every heart on board aiting; and the impression is increased by the petty size of the little vessel in the lead, which thus advanced with steady beating of the engines to bear the first blast of the storence of those aht with the nua passed the hulks and ell on her way up river before she was seen ”Although it was a starlight night,” wrote Lieutenant Perkins, who by her co the shi+p, ”ere not discovered until well under the forts; then they opened upon us a trey and grandeur, for the Confederates in the forts were fully on their guard, and had anticipated with unshaken courage, but with glooht ”There will be no to-morrow for New Orleans,” had said the undaunted commander of Fort Jackson the day before, ”if the navy does not at once ned to her,” close to the obstructions
The Louisiana was a powerful ironclad battery, not quite cout entered the river She had been hurried down to the forts four days before the passage of the fleet, but her engines could not drive her, and the naval commander refused to take up the position, asked of him by the military authorities, below St Philip, where he would have a cross fire with the forts, a close co the gantlet of fire through which the fleetthe fire and harassing the gunners of the enemy, Commander Porter e of the water battery under Fort Jackson, which he engaged; while the uns showed that the head of the colu two shells constantly in the air Except for the annoyance of the bounners of the forts had it much their oay until the broadsides of the Pensacola, which showed eleven heavy guns on either side, drew up abreast of thea received the first fire,” writes Perkins, ”and the air was filled with shells and explosives which al to see my way, for I had never been up the river before I soon saw that the guns of the forts were all aimed for midstream, so I steered close under the walls of Fort St
Philip; and although our h our hull was but little daed” Small as she was--five hundred tons--and with the scanty top haa was struck forty-two ti the last battery,” continues Perkins, ”and thinking ere clear, I looked back for some of our vessels, and my heart jule one I thought they alldesertion was due to the fact that the heavy shi+ps--the Pensacola, Mississippi, and Oneida--had been detained by the resolute e Fort St Philip Stopping to fire, then ain, the reiterated broadsides of this big shi+p, delivered at such close range that the coed oaths and jeers of defiance, beat down the fire of the exposed barbette batteries, and gave an adht vessels, which brought up the rear of the column and holly unfit to contend with the forts The Mississippi and Oneida keeping close behind the Pensacola and refusing to pass her, the Cayuga was thus separated froa was therefore caused by her anomalous position at the head of the column, a post proper only to a heavy shi+p
It was iuns to pause before the numerous pieces of the enemy; it was equally i her to hasten on, leaving to the unboats of the saa was thus exposed arose froratify Bailey's laudable wish to share in the battle, without corade, and junior only in number, to accept a superior on his own quarter-deck in the day of battle, when the harvest of distinction is expected to repay the patient sowing of preparation The coa, as only a lieutenant, had reconciled these conflicting clai As there is no reason to suppose that Farragut deliberately intended to offer the gunboat up as a forlorn hope by drawing the first fire of the ene the more important vessels, the disposition of her constitutes the only serious fault in his tactical arranges which circumstances at times extort from all men His first intention, an advance in two colu the forts with grape and canister, while the two-gun vessels slipped through between the columns, met the tactical demands of the proposed operation The decision to abandon this order in favor of one long, thin line, because of the narrowness of the opening, can not be challenged This for, but nothing could be so bad as backing, collision, or stoppage at the obstructions In such an attack, however, as in all of Farragut's battles, it see that the commander of the colue and example; and inasmuch as the divisional commander can not control, except by example, any shi+p besides the one on board which he himself is, that shi+p should be the most powerful in his command These conclusions may hereafter be h even under thee into a harbor the van shi+p should carry the flag of the officer co division; but under the circuut's day theyhis own convictions, first forenius for war, and afterward continually confir experience
Left thus unsupported by the logical results of her false position, the Cayuga found herself exposed to an even greater danger than she had already run fro ahead,” says Perkins's letter, already quoted, ”I saw eleven of the ene down upon us, and it seeone' sure” The vessels thus dieneous, disorganized body, concerning which, however, very ierated particulars had reached the United States fleet They were freely spoken of as ironclad gunboats and ironclad rams, and the Confederates had done all in their power to increase the moral effect which was attendant upon these names, then new to maritime warfare None of theoing, with the light scantling appropriate to their calling as vessels for freight and passenger traffic Another had been a large twin-screw tugboat that began her career in Boston, and thence, shortly before the war, had been sent to the Mississippi After the outbreak of hostilities she had been covered with an arched roof and three-quarter-inch iron; a nine-inch gun, capable only of firing directly ahead, had been mounted in her bows, and, thus equipped, she passed into notoriety as the ram Manassas With the miserable speed of six knots, to which, however, the current of the river gave a very ier than the buckrae, the Manassas, by her uncanny appearance and by the persistent tru of the enemy, had obtained a very formidable reputation with the United States officers, who could get no reliable information about her
The remainder of the force were river steamboats, whose machinery was protected with cotton, and their stems shod with one-inch iron, cla a few feet aft Thus strengthened, it was hoped that with the sharpness of their bows and the swiftness of the current they could, notwithstanding the exceeding lightness of their structure, penetrate the hulls of the United States shi+ps Resolutely and vigorously handled, there can be little doubt that they ht have sunk one or two of their assailants; but there is no probability that they could under all the circuht, the swiftness of the strea played between the two banks of the Mississippi, would have introduced into the always delicate fencing of the ram extraordinary difficulties, hich the inexperience of their coenerally steady approach, bows on, of the United States shi+ps, presented the save to the threatened vessel the ut it into a glancing blohile, as for rounding-to, to ra the current, the assailant, even if he displayed the rement required, was not likely to find the necessary room
These difficulties received illustration by the career of the Manassas that night Her commander, Lieutenant Warley, was a former officer of the United States Navy, and he handled her with judg nearly bows on upon the Pensacola, the thrust holly avoided by the quickof the latter's helm, which Warley characterized as beautiful; while the attempt made immediately afterward upon the Mississippi resulted in aout of the enee Not till a much later period of the action did the Manassas find an opportunity to charge squarely upon the bea therefore only with her own speed of six knots But little shock was felt on board the rae was experienced; but it was afterward found that the enemy's stem had entered between two fra A few moments earlier the Brooklyn had been thrown across the current by the chances of the night Had the ra the four knots additional velocity of the current, it is entirely possible that the mortification of the Confederate defeat would have derived sout's best shi+ps Such were the results obtained by a ular and resolute character, who drove his tiny vessel through the powerful broadsides of the hostile fleet, and dared afterward to follow its triu another chance fro and iven that saht by Kennon, also an ex-officer of the United States Navy; but the other ra and habits of thought the constancy and pride, which could carry their frail vessels into the midst of shi+ps that had thus victoriously broken their way through the bulwarks of the Mississippi
The River-Defense Fleet, as it was called, was a separate organization, which owned no allegiance and would receive no orders frouarded by a government whose essential principle was the independence of local rights from all central authority Captains of Mississippi River steamboats, their commanders held to the full the common American opinion that the profession of arms differs fro, involves no special habits of thought, is characterized by no moral tone which only early education or years of custo all preparation, they cherished the most inordinate confidence in the raw native valor which they were persuaded would inspire them at the critical moment; and, incredible as it would seem, some of the men who in the battle could find no other use for their boats but to run theht before that their ht They did not lack courage, but that ut had so acutely re in 1820 froular naval officers,” said Kennon bitterly, ”instead of being kept in the inia, and in the woods of Carolina cutting timbers to build ironclads, been sent to command these vessels, even at the eleventh hour, they would have proved very for into the h, was less than it seemed; but she had to do at once with Warley's Manassas and with the Governor Moore, the vessel that Kennon commanded, and which afterward sunk the Varuna ”Three reeing therein with the official reports of Captain Bailey and of his own coe froun settled the Governor Moore, which was one of the to butt us just missed our stern, and we soon settled the third fellow's 'hash' Just then sounboats which had passed the forts cas happened” This last expression is probably as terse and graphic a summary of a _melee_, which to so many is the ideal of a naval conflict, as ever was penned ”There was the wildest excitement all round The Varuna fired a broadside into us instead of into the enea's prizes; I shouted out, 'Don't fire into that shi+p, she has surrendered' Three of the enemy's shi+ps had surrendered to us before any of our vessels appeared; but when they did come up we all pitched in, and settled the eleven rebel vessels in about twenty minutes” Besides the eleven armed boats known to have been above, there were several unars and other steamers, some of which probably shared in this wild confusion
One at least came into conflict with the Hartford
The second colu-shi+p, was pro, indeed, so closely that the head of the one lapped the rear of the other The Brooklyn and Richmond, close behind the Hartford, for French expression for the center of a fleet Though called sloops-of-war, the tonnage and batteries of these shi+ps were superior to those of theof this century, hich Nelson fought his celebrated battles As the flag-shi+p reached the hulks the night, which, though very dark, was fairly clear, had become obscured by the dense clouds of smoke that an almost breathless atmosphere suffered to settle down upon the water Only twenty a, when Farragut's flag entered the battle Soon after passing the obstructions, and when about to sheer in toward Fort Jackson, upon which was to be concentrated her own battery and that of her two for down the river in such a way as toacross the river, and edged gradually over by the raft continuing to work toward her, the shi+p took the ground a little above Fort St Philip, but still under its batteries While in this dangerous position, the raft, whose movements proved to be controlled not by the current but by a sainst her port quarter The fla it, leaped into the rigging and blazed up toward the tops The danger was imminent, and appeared even reat, was scarcely sufficient to account for such a rapid spread of the flahly organized fire departration, its source being reh destroyed the co received a shot in her boilers and sunk The Hartford backed clear, but in so doing fell off broadside to the strea another chance to the hostile rams, had there been one prepared to dare the hazard Watson, the flag-lieutenant, re this critical period giving his orders and watching the shi+p slowly turn, referring occasionally to a little cothe conflict
The Brooklyn and Richmond, with the Sciota and the Iroquois, which followed ih with more or less of adventure, but successfully reached the river above the forts