Part 31 (1/2)

Just below the forts there stretched from each bank towards the middle a big boom of logs. The s.p.a.ce in the middle of the river between the ends of the booms was filled with hulks of old s.h.i.+ps, first firmly anch.o.r.ed, then heavily chained to each other, and lashed to the booms with huge cables, making almost a bridge. Above this formidable barrier was a fleet of iron rams and gunboats.

Besides all this, there were a number of fire rafts, loaded with cotton and hay, ready to be set in a blaze and float down on any Union craft that would dare to come up. How was it possible for the Union vessels to force their way up the river in the face of these obstructions?

[Ill.u.s.tration: ADMIRAL FARRAGUT.]

=330. Farragut prepares for the Attack.=--Farragut had about fifty vessels all told: frigates, s.h.i.+ps, sloops, gunboats, and mortar vessels. He anch.o.r.ed the mortar boats around a point of land nearly two miles below the forts, and dressed them with evergreens and foliage of trees disguising their position. Then the great thirteen-inch bombs burst inside and around the forts all day, all night, for six days.

Meanwhile two small gunboats went one night up to the chained hulks to break the barrier; and though detected and fired on, the officers worked calmly and persistently. They contrived to get a gunboat through, then steamed up the river, turned and rushed down on the cable with such force as to break it! Daylight showed a wide opening for the Union fleet.

=331. The Grand Work done by Farragut and his Fleet.=--The next morning at two o'clock, April 24, 1862, the fleet steamed up. The forts fired and the s.h.i.+ps fired, but the fleet kept moving in the darkness. Soon one pa.s.sed through, then another, the swift ones das.h.i.+ng ahead.

But the flags.h.i.+p Hartford, on which was Farragut, having pa.s.sed through, turned aside to avoid a blazing fire raft, when she ran aground! Then the Confederates, seeing the Hartford stuck fast, pushed a fire raft up against it. Instantly the flames flashed along the rigging and the ports, the big guns of the fort meanwhile pounding her. But the gun crews kept working their cannon as steadily as if on practice, and the rest fought the flames, and soon subdued them. The flags.h.i.+p was saved.

Other s.h.i.+ps pa.s.sed up, all fighting, some surviving by hairbreadth escapes; a few were lost.

When the morning sun rose, the astounding work had been done, the gates of fire had been pa.s.sed, and the Union fleet under Farragut was triumphant. New Orleans was captured and the control of the river secured nearly up to Vicksburg.

=332. The Merrimac and the Monitor.=--When the war for the Union began, and just before the Confederates seized the navy yard at Norfolk, the commanding officer there contrived to burn or sink all the s.h.i.+ps; but the best one, the Merrimac, was soon raised and rebuilt as a powerful ironclad.

When the fine old frigate had been remodeled her entire appearance was changed. She had no longer the appearance of a s.h.i.+p, but seemed like a house afloat. The story is told that an old sailor on board the c.u.mberland, who first sighted her, reported gravely to the officer of the deck, ”Quaker meeting-house floating down the bay, sir.”

In antic.i.p.ation of what harm it might do, the government engaged Captain Ericsson, a Swedish inventor in New York, to build as quickly as possible, after his own plans, an ironclad, a new and very odd-shaped kind of wars.h.i.+p--the now famous Monitor. The construction was pushed day and night without an hour of delay.

=333. Attack of the Merrimac on the Union Fleet.=--Before long the dreaded Merrimac was finished, and on March 8, 1862, the ponderous black monster steamed slowly out to attack the Union s.h.i.+ps in Hampton Roads. She made straight for the fine frigate c.u.mberland, the solid shot of whose broadside fell like pebbles into the sea from the slopes of the huge ironclad. On, on came the ponderous monster, and cras.h.i.+ng into the wooden side of the c.u.mberland, opened a hole ”wide as a church door.”

The sinking s.h.i.+p went down with her flag flying and her guns booming to the last!

Next the Merrimac attacked the Congress, whose captain and three-fourths of her crew were killed or wounded. Hot shot were used, which soon set the Congress in a blaze. Then the ironclad, as if she had done enough for one day, went grimly back to Norfolk, intending to continue her destruction the next day.

Everywhere in that region is alarm. The sh.o.r.es are thronged with anxious thousands. The city of Was.h.i.+ngton is almost in a panic. The grim monster may steam up here on the next day, and hurl its exploding sh.e.l.ls into the Capitol or the White House. Philadelphia, Baltimore, and all the seacoast cities of the country are exposed to destruction. What is to be done? Can the danger be averted?

=334. Timely Arrival of the Monitor.=--That very night, as if by a special providence, the Monitor arrived from New York! Early next morning, when the naval Goliath of yesterday came out in his iron armor, victorious and confident, a young David stood up to defy him!

A strange craft indeed was the Monitor. Her rail was but little above the water, and nothing was to be seen on her deck but a kind of round iron box in the middle, a pilot house forward, and a small smokestack aft. At a mile's distance she might be taken for a raft. Indeed, the Confederates well described her when they called her a ”Yankee cheese-box on a raft.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FAMOUS CONTEST BETWEEN THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC.]

=335. Famous Battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac.=--It was a Sunday morning, and the sun rose in a cloudless sky. The batteries on both sides of the bay were crowded with men waiting for the coming contest. At the first sign of life on board the Merrimac, the Monitor began her preparations for the battle.

Slowly the Confederate ram came down the bay. She opened fire on the Minnesota, which was still aground. The frigate responded with a mighty broadside, but the cannon b.a.l.l.s rattled off the iron flanks of the huge ram like so many peas. Clearly everything depended upon the little Monitor.

The battle now began, and the huge sh.e.l.ls and heavy shot crashed like loudest thunder. It was a strange, an awful battle. At times the two vessels were in actual contact. The dense smoke, the deafening roar of explosions, the shouts of officers' orders, the crews often hurled off their feet by the terrific blows smiting the iron armor--all made it beyond description fearfully sublime. The Merrimac's plates were split and torn. One shot, entering her port, did terrible havoc.

Just as Lieutenant Worden of the Monitor was looking through the slit in the turret to take aim, a sh.e.l.l struck outside and filled his face and eyes with powder and iron splinters! He was insensible for some time.

When he came to himself, his first question was, ”Have I saved the Minnesota?”

”Yes,” was the reply, ”and whipped the Merrimac.”

”Then I don't care what becomes of me,” he answered.

After more than three hours of this frightful combat, the humbled Merrimac steamed back to Norfolk, the victorious little Monitor giving a series of farewell shots as she sailed away.