appletone' Ibonte IRcaMng l&oolie EDITED BY WILLIAM T. HARRIS, A.M., LL. D. UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION DIVISION III History i. Rear admiral -special full-dress. 4. Sailor — full-dress. 2. C;apt.ain— full-dress. 5. Captain— marine corps. :i Lieuronant— service uniform. 6. Lieutenant— in overcoat. 7. Private— uiarine corps. APPLBTONS' HOME READING BOOKS OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR (1861-1898) BY FRANKLIN MATTHEWS NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1899 hr 38186 CtJFYKlOHT, 1899, By I). APPLETON AND COMPANY fWOCO'^T'^ «?«C6IVE0. )-U; '^m, ^ ^ s TO AXDEEW E. WATROUS, PATRIOT, STUDENT, AND TRUE JOURNALIST, WHO IN THE NEWSPAPER RELATION OF SUPERIOR TO SUBORDINATE FIRST STIMULATED THE writer's special INTEREST IN NAVAL AFFAIRS, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED BY ONE WHO PLACES HKill AMONG THE RULES OF CONDUCT THE DUTY NOT TO FORGET THOSE THINGS WHICH SHOULD BE REMEMBERED. IKTEODUCTIOK TO THE HOME READING BOOK SEEIES BY THE EDITOR. The new education takes two important direc- tions — one of these is toward original observation, requiring the pupil to test and verify what is taught him at school by his own experiments. The infor- mation that he learns from books or hears from his teacher's lips must be assimilated by incorporating it with his own experience. The other direction pointed out by the new edu- cation is systematic home reading. It forms a part of school extension of all kinds. The so-called " Univer- sity Extension " that originated at Cambridge and Ox- ford has as its chief feature the aid of home reading by lectures and round-table discussions, led or conducted by experts who also lay out the course of reading. The Chautauquan movement in this country prescribes a series of excellent books and furnishes for a goodly number of its readers annual courses of lectures. The teachers' reading circles that exist in many States pre- scribe the books to be read, and publish some analysis, commentary, or catechism to aid the members. Home reading, it seems, furnishes the essential basis of this great movement to extend education vii viii OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. beyond tlie school and to make self -culture a habit of life. Looking more carefully at the difference between the two directions of the new education we can see what each accomplishes. There is first an eiiort to train the oi'iginal powers of the individual and make him self -active, quick at observation, and free in his thinking. Next, the new education endeavors, by the reading of books and the study of tli-e wisdom of the race, to make the child or youth a participator in the results of experience of all mankind. These two movements may be made antagonistic l)y poor teaching. The book knowledge, containing as it does the precious lesson of human experience, may be so taught as to bring with it only dead rules of conduct, only dead scraps of information, and no stimulant to original thinking. Its contents may be memorized without being understood. On the other hand, the self -activity of the child may be stimulated at the expense of his social well-being — his originality may l)e cultivated at the expense of his rationality. If he is taught persistently to have his own way, to trust only his own senses, to cling to his own opinions heedless of the experience of his fellows, he is pre- paring for an unsuccessful, misanthropic career, and is likely enough to end his life in a madhouse. It is admitted that a too exclusive study of the knowledge found in books, the knowledge which is aggregated from the experience and thought of other people, may result in loading the mind of the pupil with material which he can not use to advantage. EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. ix Some minds are so full of luml)er that there is no space left to set np a workshop. The necessity of uniting both of these directions of intellectual activity in the schools is therefore obvious, but we must not, in this place, fall into the error of supposing that it is the oral instruction in school and the personal influ- ence of the teacher alone that excites the pupil to ac- tivity. Book instruction is not always dry and theo- retical. The very persons who declaim against the book, and pr^iise in such strong terms the self -activity of the pupil and original research, are mostly persons who have received tlieir practical impulse from read- ing the writings of educational reformers. Yery few persons have received an impulse from personal con- tact with inspiring teachers compared with the num- ber that have been aroused by reading such books as Herbert Spencer's Treatise on Education, Eousseau's fimile, Pestalozzi's Leonard and Gertrude, Francis W. Parker's Talks about Teaching, G. Stanley Hall's Pedagogical Seminary. Think in this connec- tion, too, of the impulse to observation in natural sci- ence produced by such books as those of Hugh Miller, Faraday, Tyndall, Huxley, Agassiz, and Darwdn. The new scientific book is different from the old. The old style book of science gave dead results where the new one gives not only the results, but a minute account of the method employed in reaching those re- sults. An insight into the method employed in dis- covery trains the reader into a naturalist, an historian, a sociologist. The books of the writers above named have done more to stimulate original research on the X OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. part of their readers than all other influences com- bined. It is therefore much more a matter of importance to get the right kind of book than to get a living teacher. The book which teaches results, and at the same time gives in an intelligible manner the steps of discovery and the methods employed, is a book which will stimulate the student to repeat the ex- periments described and get beyond them into fields of original research himself. Every one remem- bers the published lectures of Faraday on chemistry, which exercised a wide influence in changing the style of books on natural science, causing them to deal with method more than results, and thus train the reader's power of conducting original research. Robinson Crusoe for nearly two hundred years has aroused the spirit of adventure and prompted young men to resort to the border lands of civiHzation. A library of home reading should contain books that in- cite to self- activity and arouse the spirit of inquiry. The books should treat of methods of discovery and evolution. All nature is unifled by the discovery of the law of evolution. Each and every being in the world is now explained by the process of development to which it belongs. Every fact now throws light on all the others by illustrating the process of growth in which each has its end and aim. The Home Reading Books are to be classed as follows : First Division. Natui-al history, including popular scientific treatises on plants and animals, and also de- EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. xi scriptions of geographical localities. The branch of study in the district school Course which corresponds to this is geography. Travels and sojourns in distant lands ; special writings which treat of this or that animal or plant, or family of animals or plants ; any- thing that relates to organic nature or to meteorol- ogy, or descri]3tive astronomy may be placed in this class. Second Dimsion. Whatever relates to physics or natural philosophy, to the statics or dynamics of air or water or light or electricity, or to tlie properties of matter ; whatever relates to chemistry, either organic or inorganic — books on these subjects belong to the class that relates to what is inorganic. Even the so- called organic chemistry relates to tlie analysis of organic bodies into their inorganic compounds. Third Division. History, biography, and ethnol- ogy. Books relating to the lives of individuals ; to the social life of the nation ; to the collisions of na- tions in war, as well as to the aid that one nation gives to another through commerce in times of peace; books on ethnology relating to the modes of life of savage or civilized peoples ; on primitive manners and customs — books on these subjects belong to the third class, relating particularly to the human will, not merely the individual will but the social will, the will of the tribe or nation ; and to this third class belong also books on ethics and morals, and on forms of government and laws, and what is in- cluded under the term civics, or the duties of citi- zenship. xii OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. Fourth Division. The fourth class of books in- cludes more especially literature and works that make known the beautiful in such departments as sculpture, painting, architecture and music. Literature and art show human nature in the form of feelings, emotions, and as2)irations, and they show how these feelings lead over to deeds and to clear thoughts. This de- partment of books is perhaps more important than any other in our home reading, inasmuch as it teaches a knowledge of human nature and enables us to un- derstand the motives that lead our fellow-men to action. Plan for Use as Supplementary Reading. The first work of the child in the school is to learn to recognize in a printed form the words that are familiar to him by ear. These words constitute what is called the colloquial vocabulary. They are words that he has come to know from having heard them used by the members of his family and by his playmates. lie uses these words himself with con- siderable skill, l)ut what he knows by ear he does not yet know by sight. It will require many weeks, many months even, of constant effort at reading the printed page to bring him to the point where the sight of the written word brings up as much to his mind as the sound of the spoken word. But patience and practice will by and by make the printed word far more suggestive than the spoken w^ord, as every scholar may testify. In order to bring about this familiarity with the EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. xiii , printed word it lias been found necessary to re-en- force the reading in the school by supplementary reading at home. Books of the same grade of diffi- culty with the reader used in school are to be pro- vided for the pupil. They must be so interesting to him that he will read them at home, using his time before and after school, and even his holidays, for this purpose. But this matter of familiarizing the child with the printed word is only one half of the object aimed at by the supplementary home reading. He should read that which interests him. He should read that which will increase his power in making deeper studies, and what he reads should tend to correct his habits of observation. Step by step he should be initiated into the scientific method. Too many ele- mentary books fail to teach the scientific method be- cause they point out in an unsystematic way oidy those features of the object which the untutored senses of the pupil would discover at first glance. It is not useful to tell the child to observe a piece of chalk and see that it is white, more or less friable, and that it makes a mark on a fence or a wall. Sci- entific observation goes immediately behind the facts which lie obvious to a superficial investigation. Above all, it directs attention to such features of the object as relate it to its environment. It directs at- tention to the features that have a causal influence in making the object what it is and in extending its effects to other objects. Science discovers the recip- rocal action of objects one upon another. xiv OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. After the child has learned how to observe what is essential in one class of objects he is in a measure fitted to observe for himself all objects that resemble this class. After he has learned how to observe the seeds of the milkweed, he is partially prepared to observe the seeds of the dandelion, the burdock, and the thistle. After he has learned how to study the history of his native country, he has acquired some ability to study the history of England and Scotland or France or Germany. In the same way the daily preparation of his reading lesson at school aids him to read a story of Dickens or Walter Scott. The teacher of a school will know how to obtain a small sum to invest in supplementary reading. In a graded school of four hundred pupils ten books of each number are sufficient, one set of ten books to be loaned the first w^eek to the best pupils in one of the rooms, the next week to the ten pupils next in ability. On Monday afternoon a discussion should be held over the topics of interest to the pupils who have read the book. The j)U2)ils who have not yet read the book will become interested, and await anxiously their turn for the loan of the desired volume. Another set of ten books of a higher grade may be used in tlie same way in a room containing more advanced pupils. The older pupils who have left school, and also the parents, should avail themselves of the opportunity to read the books brought home from school. Thus is begun that continuous education by means of the pub- lic library which is not limited to the school period, but lasts through life. W. T. Harris. Washington, D. C, Nov. 16, 1896. PREFACE. The deeds of the navy of the United States have been ever glorious. That part of them related in these pages, covering the period from 1861 to 1898, has been selected not because there was greater glory in the deeds of the American navy in the civil war and in the war with Spain than in the earlier days of the service, but chiefly because the types of vessels and of guns now in general use throughout the Avorld were begun and developed in part in the American civil war. The armor, the turreted battle ship, the swift cruiser, the rifled guns of to-day were the direct outgrowth of the civil war. The wooden war ship and the smooth-bore guns were doomed as the result of tliat conflict. The battle ship of 1808 is simply the turreted monitor and the armored battle ship of 1863 combined and improved. The men of to-day, though just as brave, are no whit braver than the men of the Ivevolutionary war or the War of 1812. Xot all the details of the work of the navy in the years covered by this book are given here. An at- xvi OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. tempt has been made to tell the story of the chiei events, and to bring out their significance, especially for young readers. The book is intended also to in- terest those who never grow old or feeble in patriotism^ and who are proud of American prowess on the seas, Avhether they be sixteen or three-score and ten, or even older. The terms North and South are used instead of Federal and Confederate because they are simpler, and because they are in common use in speech regard- ing the civil war. The South had almost no navy in that war. So far as it did have one, it was creditable to the zeal and courage of those who fought in its war ships. What greater compliment can be paid to the South than to say that the men in its ships fought with true American bravery to the last? New York, December 1, 1S9S. CONTENTS THE CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER PAGE I. — The famous Monitor 1 II. — First fight between ironclads .... 19 III — Fighting along the Atlantic coast ... 83 IV. — Up the Mississippi — Farragut appears ... 49 V. — Down the Mississippi — helping the army . . 72 VI. — The great fight at Mobile 96 VII. — Failures off Charleston 119 VIII. — Capture of Fort Fisher 138 IX. — Bravery in the navy in the civil war — Cusii- ing's deeds 151 X. — Queer boats used in the civil war . . .173 XI. — Vessels destroyed by torpedoes .... 193 XIT. — The great blockade — Alabama and Kearsarge fight 209 THE WAR WITH SPAIN. XIII.^Dewey's victory at Manila XIV. — The battle of July 3, near Santiago xvii 231 249 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Uniforms of men and ofRcers of the U. S. Navy Frontispiece Fight between the Monitor and the Merrimac . facing 1 Diagram of the battle of Hampton Roads .... 13 Map of Charleston Harbor and vicinity 20 In the Monitor's turret 22 The Chesapeake and tributaries 29 Destruction of the United States man-of-war Cumberland by the Confederate ram Merrimac 32 The Xorth Carolina Sounds 35 Diagram of the battle of Port Royal 39 Dupont's circle of fire 41 Scene of the battle of Roanoke Island 43 The Union navy flotilla co-operating with the land force in the attack on Fort Macon 48 Scene of the naval operations in the Western rivers . . 51 Farragut's fleet going into action 57 Farragut's fleet passing the forts 60 Kennon fires through his own bow 63 Attack on Grand Gulf 71 Scene of the naval operations on the upper Mississippi ... 74 Bombardment of Fort Henry 76 Ironclads attack Fort Donelson 79 xix XX OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. PAGE Island No. 10 and batteries 81 Cominander Walke runs the batteries at Island No. 10 . .83 Turning operation, Vicksburg canij)aign, 18G3 ... 89 Map of Mobile Bay 97 Deck plan of the Tennessee and her appearance after the battle 99 Diagram of the battle of Mobile Bay 104 Battle of Mobile Bay 107 At close quarters in Mobile Bay 113 Diagram showing the different points at which the Tennessee was rammed by Farragut's vessels 115 Sinking of the stone fleet in the port of Charleston, S. C. . 118 Landing troops from transports 131 Ironclads attacking Fort Sumter 128 The Southern ram Atlanta 131 United States monitor towing a disabled gunboat in a storm off Cumming's Point battery 133 Interior of Fort Fisher 141 Military insignia of the United States navy .... IGO Wreck of the Cristobal Colon on the beach at Rio Tarquino, fifty miles west of Santiago de Cuba .... 164 The David, submarine boat used by the South . . .174 Types of United States vessels used during the civil war . 182 Battle ship Oregon 187 Torpedoes used by the South 196 United States cruiser Raleigh, wliich took part in the naval battle at Manila Bay 203 United States cruiser Baltimore 206 Chasing a blockade runner 210 Typical blockade runner 212 Heroes of the War of the Rel)ellion ..... 214 The city of Richmond in flames, seen from the James River 217 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxl PAGE Southern steamer Florida, sunk at Hampton Roads . . 222 Northern merchantman held up by the Southern commerce destroyer Alabama 224 The last of the Alabama . . 226 The old and the new 232 The wreck of the Maine 235 Admiral Dewey's flagship Olympia 237 The cruiser Boston 239 Scene on board the wreck of the Reina Cristina . . . 242 Shoulder straps of the United States navy .... 244 Naval heroes of the war with Spain 247 The Cuban navy — the only vessel owned by the Cubans . 250 Second-class battle ship Texas, which took part in the fight with Admiral Cervera's fleet 254 Admiral Sampson's flagship New York 260 Battle ship Massachusetts 262 Admiral Schley's flagship Brooklyn 264 Spanish cruiser Maria Teresa after the battle off Santiago . 267 Battle ship Iowa 270 Vizcaya at the moment of the explosion of her magazines . 273 mj^i y^i^ 1 '^^^Hk lAi *«:J BMiiiP'' i# IMi^MMi. . ^i^^^B U^JH^ u^i^rarW'l \ ! '1 ^ - -1 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. (1861-^98.) CHAPTER I. THE FAMOUS MONITOR. On tlie niglit of Friday, March 7, 1862, tliere was steaming south, along the Athmtic coast, between the capes of the Delaware and the capes of the Chesa- peake, a vessel such as had never been seen on the seas before. That vessel was a war ship — the famous Monitor. There was a violent storm during the night, and that the boat did not sink was a great wonder. She was a curious vessel. She was simply a floating steam raft, with a round iron box upon it in the cen- ter and a square little hut, built something like a log house, in front of the box. The smokestack stuck up back of the round box, and near that was an- other pipe that looked something like a smokestack; it was used to supply fresh air to the crew down in the raft. The vessel had been built in less than four months. Long before she started from E'ew York harbor, where she was built, many persons declared that she would sink as soon as she got into rough water. 2 OUR NAVY IN TIME OP WAR. The Xortli and the South had been at war for nearly a year, and it was known that the South was preparing an ironclad vessel at ^^orfolk Avhich was expected to destroy the war ships of the North that had been stationed at Fort Monroe, just inside Chesa- peake Bay, and only a few miles from J^orfolk. The use of ironclads in war at that time was new. Eu- ropean nation's were just beginning to build them, but they were of old-fashioned models. When it became known that the South was to have an ironclad, the North decided that it also must have one to save its ships from destruction, and to protect its large cities, such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and its many seaport towns, from being placed at the mercy of a vessel which could not be sunk by any cannon balls of those days. Therefore the Monitor was built. It was feared that the South would send some ships u]) the Potomac to try to capture Washington, and the ^Fonitor, before she was really finished or tried thoroughly, was sent south to go up the Chesa- peake and the Potomac, to protect the national capital. She started out from Sandy Hook, in New York har- bor, at eleven o'clock of the morning of Thursday, March 0, 1802. The weather was pleasant, the sea smooth, and to the surprise of nearly all on board, the new Avar ship got along very well. Slie was towed l)y a tugboat called the Seth Low, and was escorted by two small steamers. Thursday night all went well. THE FAMOUS MONITOR. 3 but on Friday morning the wind became stronger and drove the waves over the flat decks of the Monitor in such quantities as to alarm those inside the boat. The hatches over the openings in the decks leaked, and the water poured down into the vessel in great quantities. The waves broke against the little square house on the deck which was used as a pilot house, and the water ran in through the peep holes and sev- eral times drove the men at the wdieel away from their work of steering. The water also washed against the round box on top of the raft, in which were two guns on which the fate of the nation seemed to depend. The round box turned on a pivot, and was supposed to fit tightly to the deck. Where the deck and the box joined there had been packed a lot of oakum to keep the water from leaking through. This oakum was soon washed away, and the sea poured through the opening and down into the ship. The vessel pitched and rolled, and when night came it seemed as if she would go down. The waves grew higher and higher, and now and then, when they broke on her decks, some of the water dashed down the smokestack, and soon the boiler fires were in danger of being put out. That meant, of course, that the ship would be unable to remain afloat, be- cause she could not be steered and the water could engulf her easily. But there was more trouble and danger in store 4 OUR NAVY IN TIME OP WAR. for the brave men who had volunteered to take the Monitor to sea. The water broke over the pipe through which fresh air was drawn down into the ship, and this disabled the machinery that was used to control the air supply. The water was rising rapidly in the fire room, and there was no fresh air to make the fires burn brightly. Gas from the engines and furnaces was filling up the place so that it was danger- ous to stay there. Two engineers rushed in to try to stop the leaks and they were overcome by gas, and had to be dragged out to save their lives. ^ The steam pumps were started, but the fires were so slow that steam could not be had to use for pumping. Hand pumps were then tried, but the water came in faster than the men could get it out. Then the men tried to bail out the boat, but this was also a failure, because the ship rolled and tossed, and the water from the buckets was spilled out before it could be passed up the ladders and emptied outside. From the forward part of the ship there came dreadful noises throughout this long night. The deck of the Monitor stuck out a long distance froui the hull in front aud back, and under the extended front there was a hole made which was called the anchor well. The anchor was not carried in plain sight, as in these days, but was underneath the deck, and Avlu^n not in use it was ])Tdle(l u]) and fastened in this hole or well. As tlie Monitor fell with the wjives, a large quantity THE FAMOUS MONITOR. 5 of air was caught in this well underneath the deck, and when it was compressed by the water as the Monitor plunged underneath, it made a mournful noise. Some of the crew said that it sounded like aw- ful screams, and one of them said the noises were like " death groans of twenty men." The men on the tugboat Seth Low could be of no help to those on the Monitor. As the noises con- tinued through the night, and the ship plunged and rolled dreadfully, and as the Avater dashed about in- side the hold, almost putting out the fires and making the place dangerous for the crew, it seemed as if those who declared that the strange craft would never stand a rough sea were right, and that the men who were willing to risk their lives in this vessel must surely be drowned. The wind was Avhat is called " off shore," and it was thought that if the tugboat could take the Monitor in toward the coast the water would be smoother and the vessel might live. This was done, and as the tugboat and the Monitor approached the shore it was found that the water was smoother. The wind then began to go down, but toward the morn- ing it became stronger, and once more it seemed as if the ship -must be lost. This time the steering gear got out of order. All hands Avere summoned to fix it, and after working from two to three hours it was repaired, so that once more the ship could be steered properly. e OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. When daylight came on Saturday, March 8, 1862, the sea had gone down, and the Monitor was ^vell along in her journey toward the Chesapeake. That was one of the most fortunate things for the United States that ever happened in its history, for although one can not tell what would have been the result had the Monitor been lost, it is known that she really saved the navy from destruction. About four o'clock in the afternoon, as the tugboat and the Monitor were going south, sounds of heavy cannonading were heard across the waters from the neighborhood of the capes of Chesapeake Bay. Soon a pilot came aboard and said that the South's great ironclad, the Merrimac, had come out that day and had gone up to the neigh- borhood of Fort Monroe, on the stretch of waters where the James River meets the Chesapeake, and which is called Hampton Roads. He said the Merri- mac had destroyed two of the finest ships in the United States navy, had killed many men, and the next day, Sunday, March 9tli, she Avould probably finish up the four other ships of the North lying there. It was not until nine o'clock on Saturday night that tlie ]\fonitor rcachcnl tlie United States vessels in Hampton Roads, and learned the result of that dread- ful day's work. The men on board the Monitor began to ])re]^are at once for l^attle the next day. Tliey had had no slec]) since tliey had left New York, and very little food, and it was not known whether THE FAMOUS MONITOR. 7 tlicir ship could do real fighting. The news of the loss of the Northern ships had spread all over the country. President Lincoln and his cabinet members were very much cast down when they met the next morning. So serious was the situation that Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War, said: " The Merrimac will change the whole course of the war; she will destroy every naval vessel; she will lay all the cities on the seaboard under contribution. I have no doubt that the enemy is this minute on her way to Washington, and it is not unlikely that we sliall have a shell or a cannon ball from one of her guns in the White House before we leave the room." But this was not to be. The Monitor was fight- ing, })robably at that very minute on that Sunday morning, and the South's great ironclad, the Mer- rimac, had met her match. To understand the nature of the battle and what it meant, one should go back fully a year. One of the greatest navy yards in the United States was that at Xorfolk. Before the war started there were at this yard more than two thousand cannon, of which three hundred were splendid big guns, called Dahlgren guns. There were there more than one hundred and fifty tons of powder and a great lot of supplies for ships. The South wanted all these supplies. The State of Virginia had not \ot left the Fnion, al- though other States had. The commandant of the 8 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. N^orfolk Xavy Yard was Commodore McCaiiley. He was old and under tlie influence of Southern officers, who wanted to get control of the cannon and other articles to be used in war. Several United States war shijDS were there, including the steam frigate Merrimac, the sailing sloops of war Cumberland, Germantown, and Plymouth, the brig Dolphin, and six other sailing ships, including the famous United States, all of which were not of much use. ^NTever- theless, the value of the ships and stores was estimated at fully five million dollars. The ;N"avy Department became very anxious over the property there, and it was decided to try to get the frigate Merrimac away from the yard. The machin- ery of the vessel was put in order, steam was raised, and the ship was ready finally to sail away, but Com- modore McCauley decided to hold the vessel until the next morning. This was in the latter part of April, 1861. The next morning he decided to hold the ves- sel a little longer, because he did not want to offend the people of Virginia by sending the ship away. Then there arrived from Washington the steamer Pawnee, under Captain Paulding, with a regiment of Massachusetts soldiers on board. Paulding had orders to take the Merrimac and other ships away from the yard if he could, and if he could not, to destroy the ships and as much of tlie ])rop(M"ty as he could. South- ern troops had been forming about IN'orfolk as if about THE FAMOUS MONITOR. 9 to attack, and there was notliiug to be done except to destroy the ships and property. The Pawnee did man- age to tow the Cumberhmd away from the yard. One evening was spent in preparations to destroy the ships and buiklings. Commodore McCauley went to bed ignorant of the attempt that was to be made. He thought the Pawnee had come there to protect the place. A little after fonr o'clock in the morning the signal was fired, and in a few minutes the ships and other property were in flames. The dry dock was not destroyed, because the fuse did not light the pow- der that had been placed in it. The magazine Avith its shells and powder had already been seized by the Southern men, and in the hurry of setting fire to the }'ard and of getting away there was little burned be- yond the ships and several buildings. The vast stores passed into the hands of the South. The Merrimac and other vessels burned to the water's edge and sunk. It was found afterward that the en- gines of the Merrimac were not damaged seriously, and it was because of that fact that the South and Xorth met in the first battle between ironclads with the Monitor on one side and the Merrimac on the other, on March 9, 1862, nearly a year later. The South had a very able naval oflicer, named John M. Brooke, Avho was formerly a lieutenant in the United States navy. He was ordered to prepare plans for an ironclad. The South had verv little iron and few 10 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. factories, and it was a hard task to build sucli a vessel. The wreck of the Merrimac was raised, and it was found that the engines were uninjured. That was a piece of good fortune for the South. Its men built on the hull of the ship a sort of house, with sloping sides of pine and oak, two feet thick. Iron plating, four inches thick, covered the outside. There was a plat- ing of iron one inch thick along the hull, on which this deck house rested. This iron plating extended two feet below the surface of the water. There Avere windows in the deck house through which the vessel's ten guns could fire. Six of these guns were nine- inch Dahlgrens, and four were rifles designed by Lieutenant Brooke, which were said to be the best guns known at that time. The Merrimac drew twenty-two feet of water, had a crew of three hundred and twenty men, and was very hard to steer. The Southerners called her the Virginia, but the name Merrimac always clung to her. The work of making her into an ironclad be- gan in June, 18(31. At this time the Xorth had done nothing about l)uil(ling an iron war ship. In August Congress set aside fifteen hundred thousand dollars for this work. It was not until September 8th that a decision was made as to what to do with this money. A board of naval officers decided that three shi])s should be built, and one of them should be an iron- clad with a revolving turret, according to a design THE FAMOUS MONITOR. H suggested by John Ericsson, a noted Swedish inven- tor, who had come to this country to live. It was not until October 4, 1861, that the contract for the Moni- tor was made. She was to be called the Monitor to warn the South that she was to be dreaded, and also to give notice to England that her navy was really out of date, and that a great change was about to take place in war ships. Three gangs of men worked eight hours a day each on the ship, and she was launched on January 30, 1862. The hull was one hundred and twenty-four feet long, thirty-six feet wide, and twelve feet deep, and over the hull was laid a superstructure which ex- tended beyond and made a vessel one hundred and seventy-two feet long and forty-one and a half feet wide. The deck stuck out over the hull as the deck of a ferryboat does in these days. The deck was to be only one foot above the water line. In the center of the ship rose the turret. It was nine feet high, twen- ty feet in diameter, and eight inches thick. The thickness was made up of eight one-inch iron plates. Inside were two eleven-inch smooth-bore guns. There were iron shutters for the portholes to keep out shot while the guns were being loaded. There was a thick- ness of five inches of iron along the sides of the low deck. The smokestack was arranged to be taken down while the vessel was in action. In the front of the ship was the square pilot house, with scarcely 3 12 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. room enough for three men to stand in it. The guns could not be shot in the direction of the pilot house, because the shells would kill those inside and sweep it away. There was only a speaking-tube connection between the pilot house and the turret. "Word reached the Xorth that the Merrimac was nearly done, and on February 19th the Monitor was sent hurriedly from the place in Greenpoint where she was built to the Brooklyn I^avy Yard; a week later she was put into commission and tried in the East Kiver. Her steering gear was out of order, how- ever, and it was not known whether she would be a success. After another week the vessel went as far as Sandy Hook under her own steam. Then came orders to hurry her South, and on Thursday, March 6th, as has been told, she started on her perilous jour- ney. The Monitor was under command of Lieuten- ant John Worden, who had done some notable work at Pensacola earlier in the war, and had been im- prisoned at Montgomery, Ala., because of it. He was really sick when he volunteered and was selected to command the Monitor. Lieutenant S. Dana Greene volunteered to go with him as executive officer. Assistant-Engineer Isaac Newton w^as at the head of the four engineers, and Chief-Engineer A. C. Stimers was sent along to watch the machinery and to make a report about it. The crew consisted of fifty- eight men. THE FAMOUS MONITOR. 13 Meanwhile the Southern men at Norfolk were hur- rying up the Merrimac. When she started out from ^N'orfolk on the morning of March 8, 1862, the work- men were still busy on her, and some of them were put ashore after the vessel had got in motion. She was under the command of Captain Franklin Buchanan, formerly of the United States navy, and a very brave man. She had a green crew on her, and had never 14 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. stGaincd a mile after being fixed over, and few of the officers had ever met one another. She could go only about four knots an hour, and when she started down the river from Norfolk to Hampton Roads on that Saturday morning to destroy the Northern fleet, there was very little fear on those ships that anything serious Avould happen. At anchor in Hampton Roads near each other and off Newport News Avere the frig- ate Congress, which carried fifty guns, and the sloop of war Cumberland, carrying twenty-four guns, which the Pawnee had saved from the Norfolk Navy Yard nearly a year before. Farther down Ham})ton Roads, toward Fort Monroe on the Chesapeake Bay, were the old frigate St. Lawrence and the two mod- ern steam frigates, Roanoke and Minnesota, former sister ships to the Merrimac. The Northern officers had begun to think the Merrimac Avas a failure, and when some one saAV the smoke coming doAvn the river, he cried out: " Here comes that thing! " It Avas a beautiful morning, and as the Merrimac, escorted by several small gunboats, came out in Hampton Roads, all the Northern ships cleared for action and made preparations for a fight. The Con- gress and Cumberland were sailing ships and re- mained anchored. The Merrimac came on sloAAdy and steadily, and about one o'clock in the afternoon the Congress and the Cumberland began to shoot at her THE FAMOUS MONITOR. 15 at long range. The ^Northern batteries on shore also took partj but it was seen that the shells did no dam- age whatever, and sinij)ly glanced off the sides of this new monster of war. AYlien the Merrimac was very close to the two ships, the bow port of the Merrimac was opened and she fired at the Cumberland. The shot killed or wounded most of the crew at one of the Cumberland's guns near the stern. Then the Merrimac started for the Congress. Captain Buch- anan, of the Merrimac, had a brother who was pay- master on the Congress, but that made no difference in the captain's desire to sink the Congress. He fired a broadside into her which did great damage, killing a large number of men. Then the Merrimac made for the Cumberland, so as to sink her by rannning. The men on the Congress, thinking that the Merrimac had been afraid to attack them further, sprang into the rigging and cheered as the ironclad seemed to run away ; but it was the wrong time to cheer. The Cum- berland shot at the Merrimac in vain. The Merrimac struck the Cumberland a terrific blow in the forward part of the ship, after which the Merrimac backed off, leaving part of her prow sticking in the Cumberland. The Cumberland tipped far over and then righted herself, but the blow was mortal. Water rushed in the open sides of the ship and she was doomed. The brave crew kept fighting desperately. Every time the ^lerrimac fired into her a dozen or more of the men 10 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. at the guns would be killed. The Merrmiac steamed up close beside her again, and her officers called upon Lieutenant George W. Morris, who was in command of the Cumberland on that day, in the absence of Captain Eadford, to surrender and save a great loss of life. Morris replied: "Xever! Til sink alongside.'' Ammunition was brought up to the dry places on deck, the wounded were brought up also, and as the ship sank slowly the men kicked off their shoes, threw away their extra clothing, and fired the cannon until the water fairly engulfed them all. Xot until it was seen that the ship would go down within five min- utes did some of those who had survived in the fight take to the boats, dragging the wounded with them. There were three hundred and seventy-six men on board of the Cumberland when that fight began, and of those one hundred and seventeen were lost and twenty-three were missing. After the vessel went down her masts stuck above the water, and the old flag floated in plain sight. Buchanan then turned again toward the Congress. Lieutenant Joseph B. Smitli Avas in command of that vessel. lie saw the fate of the Cumberland, and he ran his boat aground so that the Merrimac could not ram her. The Merrimac came within two hundred yards of the stern of the Congress, where broadside after broadside was poured into her, to vvdiich the THE FAMOUS MONITOR. 17 stranded ship could reply witli only two small guns. Soon Lieutenant Smith was killed. Every time a shot from the Merrimac struck the vessel there was awful slaughter. After keeping up the fight for more than an hour, Lieutenant Pendergrast, who was then in command, hoisted a white flag and surrendered. Some of the batteries on the shore fired on the South- ern men wlio were taking charge of the vessel after the surrender. It was a violation of the rules of war, but it was done through a mistake. The Merrimac replied by recalling her men and by firing hot shot into the Congress, setting her on fire. Captain Buchanan, of the Merrimac, was wounded by a rifie ball from shore just before this occurred. While the fights between the Merrimac and the Cumberland and the Congress were going on, the other Xorthern vessels, the Minnesota, Roanoke, and St. Lawrence, had tried to go to the aid of the two Northern ships, but they all ran aground. It was five o'clock in the afternoon when the Congress was set afire, the tide was running low, and it was seen that it would be impossible for the Merrimac to do much more work that day. She turned away and went to the mouth. of the river leading to Norfolk, satisfied with the day's work, and willing to leave the task of finish- ing u]) the other vessels at her leisure the next day. Two of her men had been killed by a shot that had en- tered a porthole, and eight had been wounded. The 18 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. Congress had had one hundred and thirty killed out of her erew of four hundred and thirty-four men. Alto- gether the loss of the North was two hundred and fifty men killed and drowned, in addition to the two ships, Cumberland and Congress. The Congress burned far into the night, and the flames lit up the harbor as the little Monitor, which was called " a cheese box on a raft," steamed in. AYorden, the commander of the Monitor, went to the Roanoke to ask what he should do the next day — ■ whether to go to Washington, according to orders, or to stay and fight the Merrimac. Flag-Offlcer Mar- ston told him to stay and fight, and disobey his orders. It was most fortunate that he did stay. That night was probably the darkest night for the North of the entire civil war. The next day, when the Secretary of the Xavy, Mr. Gideon Welles, went to church, he met Captain Joseph Smith, the father of Lieutenant Smith, who had been killed on the Congress. Mr. AVelles told Captain Smith that the Congress had been lost. Captain Smith replied: " Then Joe is dead." 'Hie Secretary of the Navy said that no list of the killed and wounded had arrived, and he hoped that Lieutenant Smith was safe. Captain Smith replied: " Oh no, you don't know Joe as I know him; he never would surrender his ship." CHAPTER II. FIRST FIGHT BETWEEN IRONCLADS. Bright and early on Sunday morning, March 9, 1862, tlie Merrimac was ready to finish np the work of destroying the l^orthern fleet. Lieutenant Catesby Jones was now in command of the vesseL The night before he and his men had seen the Monitor steam np beside the Minnesota and anchor. They were not ahirmed at the appearance of the E^orth's ironclad, for snch they knew it to be. At half past seven o'clock in the morning the Merrimac started out on her day's work. Her commander intended to ignore the Monitor, and he fired his first shot at the Minne- sota, doing some damage to her. The Monitor began to move as soon as the Merrimac was seen coming out to renew the fight. Lieutenant Worden was in the pilot house, and Greene and Stimers with sixteen men were in the turret. The Monitor ran straight in front of the Merrimac, and the Merrimac fired one of her seven-inch guns, but the Monitor was so low in the water and the turret and pilot house were so small that the Monitor was not hit. The Monitor kept going 19 Map of Churleston harbor and vicinity. FIRST FIGHT BETWEEN IRONCLADS. 21 closer, and when very near the Merrimac fired her two eleven-inch guns. The cannon balls struck the Merri- mac on the sloping deck house and glanced off, doing no harm. Then the Merrimac turned her side to the Monitor and fired a broadside against her. This time some of the cannon balls struck the turret. Right there occurred the great test of the Monitor. The men inside the turret heard the balls smash against it, and to their great relief found that no dam- age was done. At once their spirits rose. There was not a spare man in the crew. When they saw that the turret would turn, they felt not only safe, but believed they would win the fight. The Merrimac poured shot after shot at the Monitor, most of which passed over her, but many of which struck her. Near- ly every shot that the Monitor fired seemed to hit the Merrimac, but they did little damage. The Monitor fired solid shot, and the Merrimac fired shells. It is agreed now^ that had the Merrimac fired solid shot, or had the Monitor used more powder in her guns, each of the vessels might have been damaged a great deal. The Monitor could fire about once in seven minutes; the Merrimac could fire only once in about fifteen minutes. So these two strange ships of war went on shoot- ing at each other and turning and twisting about in the waters of Hampton Roads. The Monitor could go nearly twice as fast as the Merrimac, and thus had FIRST FIGHT BETWEEN IRONCLADS. 23 the advantage iu moving about. Soon tlie Monitor began to have difficulty in firing her guns. Chalk marks on the floor which showed the direction of the bow and stern were soon wiped out, and the place was tiHed with smoke and gases. The speaking tube be- tw(»en the pilot house and turret was shot away, and orders had to be passed by word of mouth. A lands- man mixed them up in repeating them, and this made more confusion. The turret machinery did not work properly. It was hard to start the turret in motion, and harder still to stop it. So the men inside just loaded up the guns, opened the portholes, started the turret going, and Avlien the Merrimac came in sight through the smoke they fired the guns as the turret was turning. The Monitor did so little damage in her shooting, that Lieutenant Worden decided to ram the Merri- mac. He wanted to strike her rudder and disable her. He missed the rudder by about two feet. The Merri- mac got tired of useless shooting also, and started to go to fight the Minnesota. She ran aground, however, but after awhile got off again. The Monitor could go where the Merrimac could not, because she drew less water, and while the Merrimac was fast in the mud, the Monitor kept moving around her, shooting at her and worrying her officers. When the Merrimac got off the mud bank her commander. Lieutenant Jones, thought he would try to sink the Monitor by ramming 24 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. her. Lieutenant AVorden saw what he w^as trying to do and shifted the Monitor so that only a glancing blow was struck. Jones called for men to board the Monitor to try to capture her, but before they could get ready the Monitor slid off, and, as one of the Merrimac's officers said afterward, " was as safe as if she had gone to the top of the Blue Ridge Moun- tains." The ammunition in the turret of the Monitor was now so low that she went off into shoal water to re- new her supply. She was such a crude affair that she could not be fought when the men w^ere renewing the ammunition. The turret had to remain stationary at such a time, while powder and shot were being brought through a narrow hatchway in the floor. It required fifteen minutes to do this work. The Mer- rimac's officers thought the Monitor had given up the fight, but they were so interested in watching her that they did not attempt to go after the other ships during this time. To their surprise, at about 11.30 o'clock the Monitor came toward them again. It was soon after this that a serious accident oc- curred to Lieutenant Worden in the Monitor's pilot house. One of the Merrimac's shells struck the shut- ter of the peephole through which AYorden w^as look- ing. Tlic shell burst, and powder and shreds of iron filled Word en's eyes and made him nearly uncon- scious. It also injured the other men in the pilot FIRST FIGHT BETWEEN IRONCLADS. 25 house. For fifteen minutes Greene, in tlie turret, re- ceived no orders from AVorden, and the Monitor was drifting about helplessly. Greene went to the pilot house to see what was the trouble, and found Worden blinded and bleeding terribly. He took Worden be- low, and placed him on a sofa. Worden asked how the fight was going, and when he was told said: ^' Then I die happy.'' But he did not die, although it was a long time before he recovered. Greene then went into the pilot house and took charge of the Monitor. But the fight was nearly over. Lieutenant Jones of the Merrimac noticed that his men did not fire as often as they could, and he asked why they did not shoot more. They said that ammunition was getting scarce, and they might as well snap their fingers at the Monitor as shoot at her, and so they decided to save their powder and shot. The Merrimac was leaking a little in the place where the Monitor had' struck her, and as it was evident that the Monitor was a match for her, she gradually drew off and finally went back to Norfolk, leaving the Monitor in control of the scene of battle. The Monitor had fired forty-one shots, had been hit twenty-two times, nine of which were on the turret and two on the pilot house. In the two days' fight the Merrimac had been hit ninety- seven times. One of the shots of the Monitor had nearly passed through her side, and had a second one 26 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. struck in tlie same place it probably would liave gone througli. The wooden backing to her armor was broken in several places, but no serious damage had been done. It was a drawn battle, but really the Monitor had won, because she saved the other ships of the North- ern side, and the Merrimac had withdrawn from the field. Not a man had been killed on either boat dur- ing the fight, and neither boat Avas damaged so that she could not have continued fighting. Nevertheless, it was the most important naval battle fought in modern times. It proved that modern war ships must have turrets for their big guns, and also that they must have as thick armor as they can carry. From that very day war ships have been developed along these lines all over the world. The United States, therefore, had led the way once more in naval fight- ing. Twice after this were the Monitor and Merrimac close enough to each other to fight, but no shots were exchanged. On April lltli, the Merrimac, with six gunboats, came out to fight, but the Monitor declined battle. Her commander had orders to take no chances, and after the gunboats which were with the Merrimac liad captured three Nortliern supply boats that were lying near tlie Northern fleet, the Merrimac and her escorts and prizes went back to Norfolk. On May 8th the Merrimac came down the river again, FIRST FIGHT BETWEEN IRONCLADS. 27 and tliis time tlie Monitor was ready for lier, but slie declined battle and went back. It was soon seen that Norfolk would be captured by the Northern troops. The Southern men took as many of the guns and as much of stores out of the Merrimac as they could, so as to lighten her and get her over the bar at the mouth of the James River. They wanted to use the vessel in protecting Rich- mond, the Southern capital. It was found, however, that it would be impossible to get her up the river, and so on May lltli they blew her up, destroying her completely. The Xorthern men, therefore, did not get possession of her. But the crew of the Merrimac Avere still to have another fight with the crew of the Monitor. Four days later, on May 15th, the Monitor, with the Ga- lena, Port Royal, and Naugatuck, went up the James River, and had a fight with the Southern batteries which were established at Drewry's Bluff. The battle lasted four hours, and thirteen men were killed and fourteen wounded on the E'orthern ships, but none of the crew on the Monitor was injured. The crew of the ^Merrimac fought on land behind some of the guns that had been used on their vessel. The fighting days of the Monitor were now over. She remained at Hampton Roads until December 29, 1802, when, in tow of the steamer Rhode Island, she started south for Beaufort, N. C, to help in the 28 OUR NAVY IN TIME OP WAR. operations near Hatteras Island. She encountered a violent gale off Cape Hatteras, and on the night of December 30th it was seen that she must sink. The Ehode Island's men rescued nearly all the crew at great risk to their own lives. Sixteen of the Monitor's crew, who, it is said, were " dazed and terrified," re- fused to leave the turret, and went down with the ship. Thus ended the career of a noble vessel and the careers of some of her noble crew. Besides saving the ^N^orthern shi2)s the Monitor had done another great work; she had preserved the control of the Chesapeake to the Xortli, and had also kept the Potomac open, so that Washington should not be attacked by any vessel that the South might build. That was one of the first and important things that the navy had to do in the long fight with the South. Washington must be protected, and the ap- proaches to it by water must be kept in the control of the ^N^ortli. It was a long and hard task to make the South abandon the Potomac Piver as the north- ern frontier of its operations. It was on May 31, 1861, nearly a year before the Monitor arrived south, that the first fight occurred along the Potomac in the effort to drive the Southern forces away from Wash- ington. It might also be called the first naval bat- tle of the war. The Southern men had built a land battery at Acquia Creek^ almost within sight of Washington, FIRST FIGHT BETWEEN IRONCLADS. 29 and Flag-OfScer James H. Ward was ordered to go down and destroy the works. He had three small vessels, the Freeborn, Anacostia, and Resolnte. The Norfolk I The Chesapeake and tributaries. 30 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. firing began at 10.30 o'clock at niglit. The E^orthern boats bad seven small guns on tbem, and the South- ern men had thirteen guns, somewhat larger than those on the boats, in the land battery. The firing was kept up for a large part of the night and was renewed the next day, lasting five hours. No one was killed. One Southern man lost a finger, and Captain S. C. Rowan, who with the Pawnee had joined Flag-Oificer Ward, received a scratch on the face from a splinter. Neither side won a victory. On June 27, 1861, Ward, with the Freeborn, Ee- liance, and Pawnee, went down to Matthias Point to attack some earthworks there. The firing began about nine o'clock in the morning, and Flag-Officer Ward was killed. He was the first officer of high rank in the navy to lose his life in the civil war. All during that summer and the next fall the Northern ships patrolled the Potomac. They had frequent engagements with Soutliern forces along the banks. Northern men were killed and wounded sev- eral times, but little by little the Southern men were driven away, and when the Monitor had opened the Chesapeake and the Potomac to Northern ships, the Southern forces had to fall back and no longer threaten the national capital by water. It was the Monitor, therefore, that helped to make Washington safe, and as we take final leave of her and her brave crew, it should be a pleasure to read this FIRST FIGHT BETWEEN IRONCLADS. 31 letter, wliicli the crew sent to Worden in Washington, where he had gone to restore his health, and which, with all its bad grammar, shows better than anything else the kind of men who served their country so well on that vessel : Dear and Hoxoeed Captain. Dear Sir: These few lines is from the 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 cow- ards 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 wdio is cowards. But there is a great deal that we would like to write 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 32 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. you again. We Avould wisli to write more to you if we have your kind Permission to do so but at pres- ent we all conclude by tendering to you our kindest Loye and atfection, to our Dear and Honored Cap- tain. We remain untill Death your Affectionate Crew The Monitor Boys. Destruction of the United States man-of-war Cumberland by the Confederate ram Merrinuic. CHAPTER III. FIGHTING ALONG THE ATLANTIC COAST. When the civil war began, the United States had sixty-nine ships fit for service. The home squadron, however, was made up of only five sailing ships and seven steamers; of these twelve vessels only three were available for instant service. The other war ships were scattered in various parts of the world. It took months and months to get the ships back home. Exactly three hundred and twenty-two officers re- signed from the navy and went into the service of the South, but the South had no navy. During the war it got together a lot of queer boats, but in the main the Xorth, with its navy, which finally grew to about five hundred boats of all sorts, had to fight the forts of the South along the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi and other rivers flow- ing into it. That was the great work of the navy in the conflict. In addition, the navy blockaded the en- tire coast of the South, a task the like of which was never known before. The South had no manufac- tures, and V)V shutting up its ports and preventing it 33 34 OUll NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. from sending cotton to Europe and from receiving sup2)lies, even medicines for the sick being cut off, the Xorth dealt it a hard blow. By opening the Missis- sippi Itiver and keejiing it open, the armies of the South were cut off from many supplies. It was not until late in the summer of 18G1 that the ]^ortli began naval work in real earnest. Two very large expeditions were sent out from Norfolk that year; one was known as the Ilatteras expedition, and the other as the Port Royal expedition. The Hat- teras expedition was to seize the coasts and inland sounds along the State of I^orth Carolina. It sailed from IIam23ton Roads on August 26, ISGl, under Commodore Stringham. He had seven ships, on which were one hundred and fifty-eight guns. There were three transports with the fleet, carrying nine hundred soldiers under Major-General B. F. Butler. This fleet arrived at Ilatteras Inlet, just below Cape Hatteras, the next day, and on August 28th the work of landing troops began on the ocean front of the long strip of sand from which Cape Ilatteras juts out. There were two forts covering Hatteras Inlet, Forts Clark and Ilatteras. Fort Clark guarded the ap- proach from the ocean, and was a small earthwork. Fort Ilatteras protected the inlet. The surf was so high that the iron boats in which the Northern men landed were tossed on tlic l)ea('h and only tliree hun- dred soldiers got ashore. I'hey had to stay there all Chicamacomico o The North Carolina Sounds. 3t) OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. day and all iiiglit in the rain without food or protec- tion. The war ships fired at Fort Clark until the men there abandoned it. The next morning the men in Fort Hatteras fled into what they called a bombproof , a place covered by earth, where ammunition was stored, and where men could be safe from big cannon balls. The bombardment by the ships had made them leave their guns. One of the shells from the fleet en tered a ventilator to the bombproof, and caused a ter- rible panic among the men there. They thought that they would all be killed, and they rushed out and soon the fort surrendered. The ^N^orth captured six hundred and fifteen prisoners. This was really the first victory of the ^orth in the civil war. The Northern forces did not lose a man. It was soon decided to send a regiment to the upper end of Hatteras Island to keep the Southern men from landing there and marching down on the North- ern soldiers. A little boat called the Fannie went along up the sound with supplies for the troops. When the soldiers reached the upper end of the island some Southern vessels captured the Fannie, the boat having been cut off from the land forces by shoal water, and a large number of Southern troops tried to capture the Indiana regiment which had marched up to the end of the island. The Southern men tried to land soldiers Ix'liiiid the Xorthern troops as well as in front of them. I'he Northern men saw the trap, and FIGHTING ALONG THE ATLANTIC COAST. 37 then there began a race along the sandy shore of forty miles between the Northern troops and the Sonthern steamers on the sound inside the Hatteras strip of sand. The steamers were delayed and the Northern troops won the race, after being chased all the way by the Sonthern troops who had been landed above them. AVlien the racing forces reached Cape Hatteras, the Northern vessel Monticello, out in the ocean, saw what was going on and began to shell the Southern sol- diers. The Southern men tried to get on board their ships on the inside of the island, but before they suc- ceeded in doing that many of them were killed. Two sloop loads of them were sunk b}^ shells which struck the little vessels, and nearly every one on board the vessels was killed or drowned. That ended the fight- ing on the Hatteras sand strip. The time had now come for the Port Royal ex- pedition. It started out from Hampton Roads on October 29, 1861, and consisted of more than fifty vessels. It was a curious collection. It was made up mostly of tugboats and ferryboats, with several large war ships and army transports thrown in. This description has been given of its start: " High plumes of smoke, looking almost like black battle flags, rose and waved over the steamers. The rigging of the sailing ships was full of busy sailors. Soon the waters were dashed into foam by the wheels and ' brazen fins ' of the steamers. Fifty ships 38 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. stretcliing seaward in one squadron, bearing tlie American flag, had not been seen before, and it was a sight to warm an American heart." On the way to Port Royal, which was to be cap- tured so that the Xorth might have a port where its ships conhl be coaled and repaired, a terrible storm arose. The ships were all scattered, and one of them, the Governor, went down; but, fortunately, all those on board, except seven, were rescued by the war ship Sabine. Many of the men on the Governor, however, had to jump into the ocean, from which they were rescued by small boats. It was not until November 4th that the ships l)egan to straggle in. There were twelve thousand troops on the transports with the ex- pedition. The bar off Port Royal was ten miles out to sea, and Anally all the ships got over it. The entrance to Port Royal harbor is two and one half miles wide. On the southern side of the en- trance was Fort AValker; on tlu^ northern side was Fort Beauregard. Both forts wc^rc under command of General Thomas Drayton. Captain Percival Dray- ton, (Jeucral I )i'aytoirs bi'othcr, was in command of the Xorthcrn war slii}) l^ocahontas, and so, as at ihv Monitor and j\lerrimac fight, two brothers Avere fight- ing against each other. Flag-Ollicer l)ii])ont, who had charge of the naval forces, formed Ins lighting slups into two s(piadi'ons. They moved inside tlie hai'hor liring on the forts as FIGHTING ALONG THE ATLANTIC COAST. 39 thej went. One squadron was composed of small boats, and after it passed into tlie bay it remained there watching for Commodore Tatnall, of the Southern \r- W v,;\i^ i'-^"^ vV^' Diagram of the battle of Port Royal. navy, who had three or four small boats hidden in tliose waters. The main fleet, with the Wabash in the lead, turned after it had gone inside and began to pass out again. The forts were not built to shoot up 40 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. the harbor, and the Xortheni ships did great damage to them while passing out to sea. Again the procession moved inside the bay and again it passed out. Finally only three guns on Fort Walker were fit for use, and it was abandoned. Later in the day Fort Beauregard on the northern side of the inlet was also abandoned. The total number of killed on the war ships was eight; the killed in Fort Walker numbered ten. One of the humorous things about the fight had to do with the Unadilla, one of the Northern war ships. Her ma- chinery got out of order and the engineers could not stop her. She signaled to the other vessels to move out of the way, and Admiral Ammen, in writing about it afterward, said it reminded him of " the droll song of the man with the cork leg that would not let him tarry." This fight, like that at Fort Hatteras, was a most important victory for the North, and it was won much in the same way, by keeping the ships in motion while they were attacking the forts. But the hardest part of the struggle along those dreary and lonely shores of the Atlantic was yet to come. It was necessary in all sorts of w^eather to go up the hundreds of bays and rivers, through swamps and marshes, in order to destroy numerous forts and earthworks, and to cut off that part of the South from receiving supplies by the ocean or from recapturing the forts that were taken. More than a year was occupied in various tt-inn f 1 42 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. expeditions of this kind witli Ilatteras Island or Port Royal as a base. It was dreary work, and was largely a fight of weeks and months between forces on ships and forces on land; it was navy against army. Many acts of bravery were performed by individuals, and the heroism shown was of the kind that consists large- ly in using pure grit without having any chance to reveal its real quality. The most important of these secondary expedi- tions was the one to Roanoke Island, just north of Hat- teras Island, and inside the strip of sand that runs along the ocean. Admiral Goldsborough was in charge of the navy in this affair and with him Avas General A. E. Burnside, who had twelve thousand soldiers on transports. This expedition started from Norfolk in January, 1862. There were one hundred and twenty vessels in it of all sorts. Practically none was fit for ocean service. They had to be of light draught, so as to get over the bars. All had tre- mendous guns on them, really too large for the boats. As in the case of the Port Royal expedition, a big- storm arose, but all the boats reached shelter inside the Ilatteras sand strip with the exception of two small ones, of which one was the Pocahontas, carrying a lot of horses. This vessel was lost. On February 5, 18G2, the expedition started from ITatteras Island \l]^ the Paudico Sound to capture Roanoke Island. There were six forts on the island and the lower end FIGHTING ALONG THE ATLANTIC COAST. 43 of it was a iiiarsli. At tlic upper end of the island the Southern forces had assembled a fleet of half a dozen small gunboats, which were hidden behind a lot of Scene of the battle of lloanoke J!>laii(l. sunken vessels and piles. Admiral Goldsborough's ships shelled the forts while the troops landed halfway 44 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. up the island. Tlic figliting lasted two davs. Ten thousand Xorthern troops who had been figliting over- came five thousand Southern troops, and the North- ern vessels broke through the l)arrier, across the sound from Roanoke Island to the mainland, and put the Southern vessels to flight. The navy itself had six men killed, and the army had forty-one killed. The Northern forces took twenty-six hundred and seventy- five Southern men prisoners. The Southern ships, in the effort to escape, ran up the Pasquotank River to Elizabeth City in North Carolina, where the Dismal Swamp Canal to Nor- folk had an outlet. The Northern ships were almost out of powder and shot. It was necessary to sink the Southern ships, wdiich were drawn up in line across the river behind Cobb's Point, by collision. The Southern ships began to shoot at the Northern ships when the latter approached, a day or two after tlie Roanoke Island fight, but the Northern vessels re- served their ammunition and came up slowly. AYhen within a few hundred yards of the Southern boats Commander Rowan, of the Northern flotilla, set this signal : " Make dash at the enemy." The dozen Northern ships did dash at the seven Southern vessels. There Avere collisions and hand- todiaiid fighting; in fifteen minutes four of the Southern steamers were destroyed, one was cap- FIGHTING ALONG THE ATLANTIC COAST. 45 tured, and two put to flight up the Dismal Swamp Canal. The fleeing Southern soldiers and sailors in the town set fire to many of the houses, but the Northern Iroops and sailors landing, soon put out the fires and saved much property. Another very important expedition grew out of the efl'ort to keep the inland waters of J^orth Carolina in possession of the North. It was an expedition up the Neuse River to Newbern. A force of thirteen vessels, with transports conveying part of General Burnside's army, went up the river on March 12, 1862. The following morning the troops were landed at a place called Slocum's Creek. The city of New- born Avas well defended. There were six forts along the river, and beloAV them two lines of obstructions against war ships. The first of these obstructions con- sisted of double piling. Part of the piles were ver- tical, and part were pointed down stream and had iron caps on them. All were under water. In front of this double row of piles there were fastened thirty t(n-pedoes. Farther up the river there was an- other row of obstructions, consisting of twenty-four vessels which had been sunk, forming a complete bar- rier across the river. It did not seem possible for any boats to break through. The fighting to capture Xewbern occupied two days, March 13th and llth. The Northern war ships 46 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. below tlie barriers in tlie river shelled the forts, and the marching Xorthern troops on land stormed them one by one. The Sonthern soldiers fled from fort after fort, and finally, on the second day, the Avar ships broke throngh the barriers. This was not accom- plished, however, nntil Connnander Rowan, in charge of the ships, showed great bravery. He set this sig- nal: " Follow me.'' The ships did follow him. Swiftly over the tor- pedoes the vessels went. Xone of the tor})edoes ex- ploded. Sharp against the iron-tipped piles the vessels dashed. Three of the ships were damaged severely, bnt all were able to stay afloat and pass throngh the barrier. AVhile the troops Avere carrying everything before them, the fleet SAvept np the river against the second barrier and carried that away. Soon both army and naA\v Avere in possession of the toAvn. In this fight only two men Avere kilhnl and eleven Avonnded on the ships. An ex})edition folloAved to Fort Macon in Beanfort harbor, near Cape Lookont. The ships bombarded this Avhile the army ca})tured it. There Avere small expeditions to Hamilton, AVashington, Franklin, OnsloAV, Jacksonville, and other toAvns, in Avhich great braA^ry Avas shoAvn l)y the men avIio Avent on them, and in one of AAdiich, that to OnsloAv, Lien- tenant William B. (Wishing, of Avhom Ave shall hear something later, distinguished himself by his bravery FIGHTING ALONG THE ATLANTIC COAST. 47 in escaping with a few companions in an open boat down the Kiver Onslow, nncler a heavy fire from shore, after his own boat, tlie Ellis, had been lost throui;li a mistake of the pilot in running her into slioal water. Ijv the fall of 186:^, however, the Xorth Carolina sounds and adjacent waters were in complete possession of the Xortli. From the Port Iloval base many expeditions were sent into nearby sounds, rivers, creeks, and swamps. Many lives were lost in these ventures, which might be called rowboat expeditions. X(^ braver or hardc>r work was done in the entire war than was done by the men who went on these tri})s. The forts and forces in upper Florida, Avitli Fernandina as a base, were destroyed, and little l)y little the earth- works and fortifications on the many inlets in the en- tire swampy region that could be reached from Port Tvoyal Avere battered down. All this ended in the ca])ture of Fort Pulaski on Tybee Island at the mouth of the Savannah River, in April, ISHI^ The ships had surrounded the fort, but could not Q:Qi near it, and it was necessary to drag cannon through the swamps on wooden supports that were half rafts and half rail- r(^ads, so that the forts might be shelled. Eleven bat- teries were placed around the fort, and after two days' shelling it surrendered. This was the first time that rilled guns were used against a modern fort, and the fight showed that the day of stone forts was over, just 48 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. as the fight between the Monitor and Merrimac had showed that the day of wooden war ships had passed. The Xorth, through the navy, had made a great advance hy this time. On the Athmtic coast only the important ports of AVihnington, Charleston, and Sa- vannah remained in possession of the South. Key West always remained in possession of the Xorth, as did Fort Pickens, in Pensacola harbor. ]\[obile Bay and the Mississippi were still in the South's possession, and it was against the ports along the Atlantic and in the Gulf and up the Mississippi and its tributaries that the heaviest work of the navy was yet to be done. The Union navy flotilla eo-opcrating with the land force in the attack on Fort Macon, CHAPTER IV. UP THE ]\[ISSISSIPPI FARRAGUT APPEARS. The Gulf of Mexico early became the scene of war. Southern forces had seized the navy yard at Pensacohi, and the three forts in that harbor, Pickens, McRae, and l^arrancas, were in danger of being cap- tured. The sh^ip of war Brooklyn was sent to the aid of the forts with an artillery company, and on March 31, 1861, tried to land the soldiers. The authorities in the navy yard forbade it, despite the orders of the Gov- ernment at AVai^hington, and it became necessary to send orders there again. Lieutenant Worden, who fought later in the INFonitor, was selected to take these orders. He tore up the written orders, having com- mitted them to memory, and got through the Southern lines, sayiug that he had a mere verbal message for the connnander of the Brooklyn. At once, after his ar- rival, all the !N"orthern troops available in the station were sent to Fort Pickens, which remained in pos- session of the Xortli for the rest of the war. Worden was captured in Alabama on his way back and held a prisoner for seven months before he was released. The 49 50 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. war ship Colorado blockaded the harbor of Pensacola after that, and on September 13, 1801, nearly one hundred of her men in small boats did a brave thing in invading the navy yard, and in destroying a vessel, called the Jndah, which was being made ready, in plain sight of Fort Pickens, to destroy or capture the commerce of the Xorth. Such vessels when owned and operated by private persons are called privateers. Farther along on the Gulf there had been some fighting at Galveston; the blockading vessel, South Carolina, had fired on a battery near the city in an- swer to some shots from the battery. That was on August 31, 1861. A few weeks later Lieutenant Jouett entered the harbor of Galveston with a party in small boats, and although three men were killed and six wounded out of the forty men with him, the vessel Royal Yacht, which was also being fitted out to prey on Northern commerce, was destroyed. Just before this brave act by Jouett and his men there occurred what has been called the " Bull Pun of the navy." It was an occasion which did not re- flect credit upon the ofiicers of the United States navy. Such events are so rare that the story should be told, because it brings out all the clearer the true spirit of the naval ofiicers. The Mississijipi River had been blockaded by four vessels which were sta- tioued u]) llie river nt the ])hice where it branches and forms a delta, ilowiiig into the (Julf through several 52 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. mouths. The phan was to prevent ships from getting in or out of the river. There were four ships of war on Avatch. Thev were the flagship Richmond, the shiop Yineennes, tlie sh^op Preble, and the little screw steamer AVater AVitcli. Altogether they had forty-five guns, nearly one half of which were of very high gTade. There had been rumors that the South was building some war shii)s up the river, and a watch was kept for them also. One of these Avas a, ram — the South built a good many A^essels of this kind-^called the Manassas. She AA^as simply a big ocean-going tug that once belonged in Boston. The ui)])(n- Avorks had been cut doAvn and an oA^al deck or roof of thicdv oak had been built on her. She had one sixty-eight- })ounder gun. There Avas only one little hatcliAvay through Avhicli the crcAV could pass in or out. Her engines Avould scarcely go, her gun Avouldn't shoot, and altogether she Avas the crudest engine of Avar yet seen afloat in the Avar. But tln^ ofiicers on tlu^ AA'atch- ing ^N^orthern boats Avcre frightened about her. An aAvful bogie man could not liaA^e scared a lot of chil- dren Avorse. It Avas 3.P)0 A. M. on Octol)er 13, 1801, that the lookout on the Preble called out: " Here comes the rebel ram ! " Sure enough she Avas coming. She Avas swinging down stream Avitli the tide, and she struck tlie Tiich- nioiid a iilanciuii' blow and made a small liolc in her UP THE MISSISSIPPI— FARRAGUT APPEARS. 53 side. That was all the damage she did. The North- ern squadron had a terrible fright. The Richmond and Preble each fired broadsides at the awfnl mon- ster, and then all the Northern boats tried to rnn away. Jnst then three fire rafts were seen coming down the river. The Richmond and Yincennes ran agronnd. The fire rafts ran ashore and did no damage, bnt (/a}>tain Pope, of the Richmond, was not going to take any chances, and he set the sig- nal " Cross the .bar." Captain Handy, of the Yin- cennes, was so anxions to get ont of harm's way that he read the signal " Abandon ship," which he started to do at once. He laid a mine to blow up his vessel, and then in a pompous way, as though he were playing a part in a play in a cheap theater, lie wrapped himself in the flag and left the ship. A sailor, brave man that he was, ]nit Handy to shame by destroying the burning fuse that was to blow u]^ the ship, and Handy had to go back to his vessel. Later in the day he asked permission to abandon the Yin- cennes again, but Pope would not permit it. They had a hard time to get the ships over the bar and out to sea, where they felt safer, but they did not feel comfortable until they had sent the Preble to Barra- taria to get the South Carolina to come and help them. The transport ]\EcClennan also arrived, but the teeth of the conunander of the Preble still chat- tered, and filially he asked permission to go to Ship 54 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. Island to get " wood for the sliip's galley.". The men on the Manassas, after the collision with the Rich- mond, found that the craft's engines were put out of order, and they were afraid they would be at- tacked Avhile they were helpless. At last they got the engines to Avorking and slowly crept up the river, while the Xorthern vessels were running away to sea. Surely it was time for a strong man to appear in that region. That man did appear soon. His name was David Glasgow Farragut, one of the greatest names in the history of the United States navy. He was born in the South, l)ut refused to leave the coun- try's service when the war came. He had fought on the Essex under Commodore Porter in the AVar of 1 812, and had served steadily since in the navy. Com- modore Porter's son, David D. Porter, a commander in the navy, recomnuMKh'd that Farragut be app(unted to command a fleet to open the Mississippi, and Far- ragut left Washington, where he had been engaged in minor duty, and appeared off the mouths of the Mississipi)i in his flagshi]) Hartford, on February 20, 1802, having sailed from Hampton Poads on Feb- ruary 2(1. By the middle of A]U'il Farragut had gathered a squadron of seventeen shij^s, which mounted ninety- three guns that coidd he fii'('Cerr6 Gordo ShilolK Corinth • V^Chiclcasaw Eastport */^x^^ .^r-<:?^''. Kloreuce J^ SCENE OF THE NAVAL OPERATrONS ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. the flotilla. He arrived on Septemher H, ISOl, and four days later came the first fight in which those DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI— HELPING THE ARMY. 75 river boats were engaged. It took place at Nor- folk, Mo., eight miles below Cairo, where General Grant had gone to drive ont a Sonthern force. Two of Foote's ships shelled the Southern artillery and cavalry, and made them flee. The next figlit in which they took part was at Belmont, Mo., opposite Colmnbus, Ky. Grant had gone to Belmont with four thousand soldiers, but the South had seven thou- sand men there before the battle ended, help hav- ing arrived from Kentucky, and Grant Avas forced to retreat. The gunboats shelled the Southern troops and drove them oif while Grant's forces were be- ing taken on some transports. Had it not been for the two Xorthern vessels, Tyler and Lexington, which supported him. Grant . would probably have been beaten badly, and might have been captured. It was not until February, 1862, that what might be called the first real fight of the river flotilla occurred. Up the Tennessee Kiver, just south of the Kentucky line, the South had erected Fort Henry. Twelve miles across the country, on the Cumberland Kiver, it had erected Fort Donelson. On February 2d Foote started up the Tennessee Kiver with seven war ships, escorting the transports carrying Grant's troops. Foote had four ironclads — the St. Louis, which was the first ironclad the LTnited States had, the Essex, Carondelet, and Cincinnati — and three small gunboats — the Conestoga, Tyler, DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI— HELPING THE ARMY. 77 and Lexington. The troops were landed at Paducah, below Fort Henry. On the next day a flood came down the river and swept away some torpedoes that had been placed there to blow np the Xorthern boats. The time for the advance came on February 6th. Foote told the captains of his boats that every shot tliey fired cost the Government eight dollars, and therefore tliey must be careful not to waste Government prop- erty. Fach of the four large boats could fire only three guns from its bow, twelve guns in all, while the fort could fire twenty guns. The large boats ranged them- selves in a line across the river, and the Cincinnati fired three shells so as to measure the distance to the fort. "• There goes twenty-four dollars wasted," said a man who had heard Foote tell his captains to be care- ful about the use of powder and shot. The little boats laj^ down the river behind the ironclads. The fight lasted about fifty minutes. It was furious from the start. A shot from the fort struck the Essex and pierced the boiler. At once the ship was filled with scalding steam. Twenty-nine men were scalded terribly, and nearly one half of them died. Most of the other war ships were struck many times, but only two men were killed and nine wounded on these vessels. As the Essex was drift- ing out of action, one of her seamen, who had been scalded and was dying, heard some one say that the 78 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. fort Lad surrendered, lie leaped to his feet and ex- claimed : " Surrender! I must see that with my own eyes before I die." Then the poor fellow rushed on deck and sank to his knees shouting "Glory to God! " lie died in a few hours. General Tilghman, wdio commanded Fort Henry, surrendered, but more than twenty-five hundred of his men escaped across the country to Fort Donelson. Grant and his forces did not arrive until after the sur- render, and so it was a naval victory entirely. Some of the smaller boats of Foote's flotilla then went up the Tennessee and destroyed some Southern steamers and other property. Grant's next move was against Fort Donelson. This was a very strong earthwork. Foote and his fleet went around by the Ohio and came up the Cum- berland to help Grant. The (^irondelet, under com- mand of Captain Walke, one of the bravest naval oflicers in the war, arrived on February 12th below Fort Donelson, and on that day and the next shelled the earthworks while Grant Avas coming up on land. Foote arrived on February 13th, Avitli the St. Louis, Louisville, and Pittsburg, and the next afternoon the shi])s advanced to attack tlie fort. They went up to within four hundred yards. A shot struck the pilot house of the St. Louis, and the flying splinters 80 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. wounded Foote in the arm and foot. Another shot cut the tiller ropes of the Louisville, and soon the St. Louis and Louisville drifted out of action. The Pitts- burg and Carondolet Avere also so badly damaged that the}^ had to retire. It was a naval defeat. Fifty-four men had been killed or wounded, and three out of the four pilots on the ironclads were wounded mortally. Grant captured the fort on February IGtli, and the fall of Fort Donelson was an army victory. The Ohio and the rivers flowing into it from the south were now in control of the Xorth, and the time had come for an advance down the Mississippi. Directly opposite the dividing line between Kentucky and Tennessee, and in a bend of the river, was an ishiiid ciilk'd Island No. 10. Tlic Southern forces had fallen back as far as this and had fortified it. A bar- rier of sunken vessels stretched from the island to the shore on the north side of tlie bend. On the south side of the island were four batteries with twentv- three guns, and on tlu^ Tennessee shore wvvo six bat- teries with thirty-two guns. Foote and his fleet arrived above the island early in ^larcli, 1Sr>2. Gen- eral Po])e, of the Northern army, had (Mit off the re- treat of the Sontliern forces below Island Xo. 10, ex- cept in one ])lae(% and he wantcnl to have troo])s sent down the river to aid him in shutting off the retreat eom])letely. A canal was dug across the swamps above tlie island to cut otf the bend in tlie river, so that the DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI-HELPING THE ARMY. SI transports niiglit be taken through that way, but the plan was not successful. Foote held back for a long time, but finally, after Island No. 10 and P)atteries the guns in the l»att(n'v on the Tennessee shore had been s])iked and ]>ut out of order T)y some of the Xorthern sailors who had stolen down there in small boats in the night, and after the floating battery had been cut loose from its moorings, he told "Walke, commanding the Carondelet, to go ahead. AValke 82 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. put extra planks on the deck of liis ship, ran chains along its sides, placed eighteen-inch ropes abont the pilot house, and also used bales of hay for further protection against the shells of the Southern batteries. He started on the night of April 10th, in a violent thunderstorm. It was as black as ink on the river. The lightning flashes helped to show the way. Walke had placed the exhaust steam pipe in the wheelhouse instead of in the smokestack, as was the custom, so that the noise from the exhaust should not attract attention. The soot in the smoke- stack became dry and hot as a result, and when the Carondolet was o])})osite tlie first battery on the island the soot took fii-e and Idazed up and became a flaming torch. It made the boat a splendid target for the Southern gunners. The cannon roared. The flashes of the guns mingled with the flashes of lightning. The booming of the guns was added to the peals of thunder. Walke did not reply to the shots, and final- ly slipped 2)ast the island in safety. At one time during the journey a flash of lightning showed to the pilot and the leadsman, the only two men Avho stood out in the o])en, that the shi]^ was about to rnn ashore. Had it not been for this lightning flash, the Caron- dolet would have been aground in a few seconds, directly under the guns of a battery. Island No. 10 surrendered in a few days with five thousand nuMi. The next fortification <»n the Mississippi was at 84 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. Fort Pillow, halfway between Island Xo. 10 and Memphis, but before an attack w^as made on it two of the small vessels of Foote's flotilla, the Tvler and the Lexington, went np the Tennessee River far be- yond Fort Henry to Pittsburg Landing, where they helped (Jrant out of a tight place on April 6tli. Grant was outnumbered, and his troops were being swept back in confusion from their base on the river. Tlie advancing Southern forces had to go through a ravine, and the Tyler and Lexington hurled their shells into this ravine furiously and checked the Southern soldiers. Hundreds of men Avere killed. Tlie two boats kei)t throwing shells into the camp of the Southern men all night long. The battle was re- newed the next day, and the Southern troops retreated. It was on A]ml 14, 1802, that Foote's flotilla an- choi'cd six miles above Fort Pillow. Fvery day Foote sent a mortar l)oat down the rivci', with a Avar ship to guard it, to shell Fort Pillow. On May 9tli Foote's wound had become so serious that he had to give up his command, and Ca]^tain Charles 11. Davis took his place. The next day the (Cincinnati went down the river witli niorlar boat No. 10 for the usual bond)ar(lment. luirly in the year the Southern leaders had con- strnctcd what they called a river defense fleet, con- sisting of fourteen small boats ])late(l in front with iron. Thcii' boilcis nnd ninchinci'v were ])rot(^ctcd by cotton bales. I'licrc were ciiilit of these snudl vessels DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI— HELPING THE AllMY. 85 below Fort Pillow on the morning of May lOtli, when the Cincinnati went down with the mortar boat. Little attention had been paid to these Southern boats, because they had never attacked the ^N^orthern vessels. Xo sooner had the mortar boat fired its first shell into Fort Pillow than the Southern boats were seen com- ing up the river. The Cincinnati ran out into mid- stream to meet them all alone. The Southern vessel General Bragg ran up close along the Arkansas shore, turned, and ran her bow into the Cincinnati. The Cincinnati threw a broadside into the Bragg, and she drifted out of action. Two other Southern boats, the Price and Sumter, also ran into the Cincinnati, and by that time the vessels of the Northern fleet, three miles away, came hurrying to the scene. The Cin- cinnati was so badly damaged that she ran into shoal water and sank. Ilie Carondelet put the Southern vessel Price out of action, and the Northern vessel Mound City sent the Southern vessel Van Dorn hur- rying out of the fight. The Mound City was so badly damaged in collision with the Van Dorn that she had to be run ashore to save her. There were five more Southern vessels in fighting condition against three Northern vessels at this time, but the Southern vessels Avithdrew down the river just when they had a chance to gain a victory. The Northern fleet was strengthened soon after this bv seven river steamers which had been made 86 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. into rams on the Ohio River. The Xorthcrn army had made sneh advances that the Southern forces left Fort PiHoWj and another step was then taken in opening the Mississippi from the north. The Southern vessels had retired to Memphis, and on June 5, 1862, the Northern" fleet anchored above the citv. The people of the city thronged the water front the next morning to see the fight between the Xorthern and Southern fleets. It was to be a rare show for them. While the two lines of vessels were shooting at eacli other, two of the Northern rams, which had just joined the fleet, the (Jueen of the West and the Mon- arch, dashed through the smoke and into the line of the Southern ships. Colonel Ellet, in command of the Queen of the West, struck the Southern vessel Lovell and sank her. The Southern ram Beauregard struck the (}ueen of the West, and that vessel had to be run ashore to save her. The Southern rams Price and Beauregard then tried to strike the Xorthern ram Monai'cli, but she sli])])e(l away from them and they ran into each other. The I^rice had to go to shore to keep from sinking. Th(^ AFonarcli turned and struck the I>eauregar(l, just as a sliot from tlie Xortliern A^es- sel Jjcnton pierced the Px-anregard's boiler. The Southern vessel surrendered at once, and said< while she was Ix'ing towed ashor(\, many of her scahh^l crcAV being di-o\vned. A shot so injured the Sonthern vessel J^ittle Rebel that she also had to I'lin to sliore. DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI— HELPING THE ARMY. 87 Another sliot sunk the Southern ship Thomson also, and the Southern boats Bragg and Sumter then sur- rendered. The Van Dorn was the only one of the Southern ships that escaped. The 'Northern vessels had only four men wounded. The loss on the South- ern vessels was never known. It was the first naval battle in which the ram was used extensively, and it is worth noting that three vessels were practically destroyed by rannning within fifteen minutes after the fight began in earnest. With the victory at Memphis, the Mississippi River itself was open as far as Yicksburg from the north. On July 1, 186:2, Flag-Officer Davis with his river war ships arrived above Yicksburg, and there met Farra- gut, who had come up the river with his fleet. But the river Avas by no means open to the sea. In a few days Farragut was to run down the river again, in pursuit of the ram Arkansas, while the Southern forces were to continue the work of building forts ak:)ng the stream, and the task of opening the river finally occupied more than a year. Many trips were made up the various rivers that flow into the Mississippi between Memphis and ^ew Orleans about this time, which called for great brav- ery from the Northern sailors, and some of which were not entirely successful. One of these trips was \\]) the White Biver, in Arkansas, where at Charles City an attack was made on Southern earthworks. 88 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. Three of the river fleet, with a transport carrying an Indiana regiment, appeared there on June 29th, two days before Davis reached Vicksburg. A shell from the earthworks entered the boiler of the Mound City, the leading boat of the expedition, and only three officers and twenty-two men of the one hundred and seventy-five on board escaped unhurt. More than forty men were drowned or shot when they jumped into the water, and thirty-two died of their wounds or the scalds from the steam. The regiment, however, which had been landed, "carried the earthworks by storm, and the gunboats that were uninjured went sixty-three miles farther up the river and opened it. Davis was then made a rear admiral. Early in January, 18G3, a force was sent up the Arkansas River to capture a fort called Arkansas Post. Xearly five thousand troops were taken along, but l)e- fore they were landed the vessels of the expedition, on January Dth and 10th, shot the earthworks to pieces and they surrendered. General (J rant had arrived opposite Yicksburg on January 30, 1863, and he and Porter formed a plan to get control of the Mississippi between Vicksburg and P(>rt Hudson, which had by this time been well fortified. Porter sent Colonel Charles P. Ellet with the ram Queen of the West down past Yicksburg on the morning of February 2d. On the way down, and under a heavy fire, Ellet stopped and ranmied the TURNING OPERATION TICKS13U11G CAMPAIGN 1863 90 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. steamer Yieksburg, which was moored to the bank directly under the forts, and then passed on without losing a man. A few days later Porter then sent the Northern vessel Indianola down. Ellet about this time took the Queen of the West up the Red River, and had to al)andon his vessel while attacking a fort near Gordon's Landing. lie escaped in a prize he had captured. The Southerners fixed up the (Jueen of the West, which had been abandoned because a shot had burst its steam pipe, and with two or three of their rams went after the Indianola, which was trying to escape up the Mississippi to Porter's fleet. A fight oc- curred between the Indianola on one side and the Queen of the West and the Wel)b on the other, and the Indianola was run ashore to keep her from sink- ing. T\w Southern forces took })ossession of the In- dianola and were repairing her when Porter played an amusing trick on them, lie took a coal barge and placed some pork barrels on her to resemble smoke- stacks, built a hre in the barge, and sent her drifting down the ri\'cr. She looked like a terrible monster. The Southern workmen on the Indianola thought that they and the Indianola were about to be wiped out of existence. The Southern officer in charge of the ram set the two big guns of that vessel muzzle to muzzle and fired them, and two days later, while the dummy war shi]) was fast agronnd, they blew up DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI— HELPING THE ARMY. 91 the Indianola in their fright, destroying her coni- 2:>letely. Late in Febrnary, 1863, Porter tried to get con- trol of that conntry east of the Mississippi through which the Yazoo River flows from north to south, and which was filled with many small branching streams. He really tried to send some of his war ships overland in this task. He had the levee in the Mississippi River cut a few miles below Helena, Ark., on the Mississippi side, and let the water flow across country into Moon Lake, from which he ordered part of his ships to go by the Coldwater and Tallahatchie Rivers to capture Fort Pemberton above the town of Yazoo. It was nearly a month after the levee was cut before the ten war ships and six thousand troops who went with them were fairly started.. For four days they struggled against overhanging trees, driftwood, and the great number of trees which the Southern troops felled across the streams. Some of the vessels lost their smokestacks, one of them lost her wheel, and all were damaged by striking the roots in the water and the trees overhead. After a week's hard work the boats reached Fort Pemberton, but they were obliged to retreat, having lost between twenty and thirty men killed and wounded. The journey back to the Mississippi was even more difiicult than that to Fort Pemberton, biit finally, on March 18th, the vessels got back. It was at this time, on March 14, 92 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. 1863, that Farragiit had run past the works at Port Hudson on his second trip up the river. Two days later, on March IGth, Porter thought that lie would try an overland trip himself into the Yazoo country with his vessels, so as to reach Yazoo from the south. With thirteen vessels he entered the swampy country through a bayou, and foot by foot tried to force his way through the shallow water and among the thick growth of trees. He actually had to dig a channel through the swamps for his boats, and cut a pathway above the water through the trees by Avhich he could pass. The Southern forces cut down trees in front of him and behind him, and kept shoot- ing at him in small parties, and he was four days in going a few miles. Then he tried to back out. This was eA^en harder work than trying to go ahead, aud he would probably liave lost all his vessels liad not General Sherman, who was in that region with his forces, come to his rescue, driving the Southern land forces away. Porter I'ctunu'd to liis station above Yicksburg, jukI iiiiiiicdiatcly began to i)re])are to run by the bat- teries there, following Farragut's example, so that he might work with (Jeneral Grant, who was below Yicksburg trying to capture the city. He lashed coal barges to his vessels, and under a furious fire ran by the forts in safety on the night of A])ril IH, 1863. The vessels were struck bv about one in ten of the five DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI— HELPING THE ARMY. 93 Iniiidi't'd shots that were fired at them, but there was no loss of life. A week later the army transports ran down the river and most of Porter's vessels by this time were below Yieksburg. A short distance below A'icksburg the Southerners had fortified Grand Gulf. The forts were at a bend in the river and were on blnifs seventy-five feet high. It w^as necessary to cap- ture this place before Grant could take Yieksburg. It had become one of the strongest positions of the South on the river. On April 29th Porter attacked the forts. The battle lasted five and one half hours, and Porter retired with a loss of eighteen killed and fifty-six wounded. Being unable to destroy the forts, Porter tried Farragut's tactics again, and on that night ran by the place, losing only one man. Grant and Porter now worked together, and on May 3d Grand Gulf was given up by the Southern forces. Grant and Porter at once advanced toward Yieksburg, and began a series of attacks on the place, which finally fell on July -tth. Five days later Port Hudson fell, and then the Missis- sii)pi Avas really open from the Ohio to the Gidf, after a campaign that had lasted more than a year. There was more or less fighting for a year and a half afterward up the various streams that flow into the Mississippi, especially on the west side, but ex- cept in one case they were small contests. The one exception was what is known as the Red River ex- 94 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. pedition. The Frencli had taken the city of Mexico, and were trying to get Texas to secede from the South. The Xorth decided to send General Banks up the Eed Itiver, and in March, 18G4, Porter, with his fleets and the transports carrying the army, started to take pos- session of the country in and around Shreveport, near the boundary between Texas and Louisiana. The exi)edition reached Alexandria on March 15th, and estal)lislied a garrison. Passing on, there was some sharp flghting, but the Southern forces were repulsed along the banks, and the boats finally came to a place wdiere there were two rapids. The water w^as very low, but after much hard work ten of the gunboats and tliirty of the transports passed up the river. On account of the dry season the river fell rapidly, and in a few days it was seen that it would be impos- sible to go up the stream at^w much farther. There Avas so very little water above the rai)ids by this time that the boats could not come down again, and it seemed as if the entire force was caught in a very bad traj). There Avas one man on the expedition, hoAvever, who soh'ed the i)ro])lem of rescuing the boats. He Avas Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey, of a AYiscon- sin regiment. He had been a lumberman, and knew hoAv to get large rafts oA^er shalloAv places in streams. He took two tliousaiid Elaine soldiers wlio kncAV some- thing about linnbering, and l)iiilt dams across the DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI— HELPING THE ARMY. 95 river, using branches of trees and logs, wliicli lie placed in cribs. lie left an opening one hundred and fifty feet wide in the middle of the river, which at the place of these rapids was seven hundred and fifty feet across. lie intended to sink some coal barges in the opening. The water had backed up to a depth of more than six feet in the eight days he had been at work, and just as the coal barges were being sunk the pressure swept them away. The gunboat Lex- ington was only a short distance above the opening in the dam through which the water was now sweeping in a great fiood, and Admiral Porter shouted to the captain of the vessel to go through. The Lexington started at once; a great hush fell upon the thousands of soldiers upon the banks, but after much tossing and swaying the vessel passed through in safety. Cheer after cheer greeted the boat and her crew. Three of the other vessels followed the Lexington. Bailey built two small dams above the rapids and finally suc- ceeded in raising the water over the rapids five feet, and all the flotilla passed down out of the trap. This ]u-actically ended the warfare on a large scale on the ^lississij)])! and its branches. CHAPTEE YI. TUE GREAT FIGHT AT IMOBILE. After Farragut had loft tlie jMississippi, liis chief work was to get control of the various harbors in the Gnlf of Mexico, still in possession of the South. He made a short visit to the North, also, for a rest. On October 15, 18G2, having returned to his work, he reported to Washington that Galveston, Corpus Christi, and Sabine Pass had been occupied by his forces without bloodshed. At the end of ^N'ovember he wrote: " We shall spoil unless we have a fight occasion- ally." The fight did come very soon, and it resulted in a victory for the South. Two small river steamers, assisted by a land force, attacked four steamers of the l^orth and a garrison of N^orthern soldiers at Galves- ton, early on the morning of January 1, 1803. The garrison Avas captured, and one of the ^Northern ves- sels, the Westfield, was blown u]) by her officers, and another, th(^ Uan-ict Lan(\ was surrendered after her captain and executive officers had been killed. A DO J Blakely i^'"' ^ '^;' A^-^^ «; Fort Powell \ i) ^ \^. MAP OF MOBILE BAY Line showmy 22 ft. of Water — ~.^. ^O'THS HAMMO^'^ V ° o j^ ^ \dK F X I o o 98 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. short time afterward Sabine Pass was also captured from tlie I^ortli. The Xortliern forces along the coast of Texas had been checked. Farragut then at once decided to strike the South its hardest blow in the waters of the Gulf. That task was to capture Mobile. It resulted in a victory for him. It was one of the greatest naval battles ever fought. No naval commander in history up to that time had ever had so powerful a fleet under him. It is upon the battle of Mobile Bay and his w^ork in the Mississippi below I^ew Orleans that the great fame of Farragut rests. Mobile is at the head of a great pear-shaped and shallow bay. The entrance to the bay is thirty miles below the city. The channel at the entrance is two thousand feet wide. The distance from one point of land to the other at the entrance is about three miles. The channel runs close to the eastern side of the en- trance, and there the South had a very strong fort and earthworks, called Fort Morgan. On the western entrance to the harbor was Fort Gaines, on Dauphin Island, and not far from it was a small fort called Fort Powell, on Tower Island. Fort Morgan was five-sided, and had forty guns in its nuiin battery. It was also fortified with sand bags, and it was one of the strongest forts that the !N'orthern vessels had to attack in the entire war. The other forts at the entrance to the harbor ])lay('(l only n small ])art in this fighting. The South had long ('XjX'cted an attack on Mobile, 100 OUR NAVY IN TIME OP WAR. and it began to build, late in 18G3, another of tlie rams like the Merrimac. She was called the Ten- nessee. She was the strongest of the vessels of this kind, and did more fighting than any of them. She was two hundred and nine feet long, forty-eight feet wide, and drew fourteen feet of water. On the hull was built a structure with sloping sides. This was seventy-nine feet long and twenty-nine feet wide. It was called a casemate. The sides of this structure were made of twenty-five inches of wood, on which were placed iron armor plates six inches thick at the bow and five inches thick else- where. The hull of the vessel was armored for six feet under water, and a ridge or a knuckle stuck out from the vessel two feet under the water around its four sides. She carried six rifled guns. One fired from the l)ow and another from the stern, and there were two on each side. The shutters over the portholes for the guns were of iron five inches thick. She was a very strong vessel, but she had two great faults. One was that the chains which controlled the rudder were on the outside of the boat where they could be shot away, and the otlicr was the poor engine that was in the boat. 'Jlie highest speed the Tennessee could make was six knots an hour. Iliis vessel was finished in May, 1804, and had l"o 1)0 fairly lifted over a mud bank on the way from the river where she was built to the bay, a short dis- THE GREAT FIGHT AT MOBILE. IQl taiice below. In addition to tlie Tennessee tlie South had three small gunboats in Mobile Bay. They were the Morgan, Gaines, and Selma. Farragut had ar- rived finally in front of Mobile on January 18, 18 04-. He had to wait six months before he had secured all the vessels that he wanted and before the army was ready to assist him in the Avork around Mobile. On the night of May 18th the Tennessee had come down the harbor to attack his fleet, but she ran on a mud bank, and when she got off was towed near Fort Mor- gan, where she waited for Farragut to make the attack. The South took otlier measures to keep Farragut out of the bay. Three rows of torpedoes were planted across the channel. Forty-six of the torpedoes were made of beer kegs, and one hundred and thirty-four were made of tin. These torpedoes were supposed to explode when any vessel struck them. An open space, only one hundred yards wide and less than three hundred yards from the water battery at Fort ]\[organ, was left open for blockade runners and other friendly vessels to reach Mobile, and through this nar- row space, directly under the guns of the large fort, Farragut had to pass. Some of the officers of the fleet had secured one of the torpedoes and had brought it to Farragut. lie had disliked the use of torpedoes in war. The one that was brought him was placed on his cabin table and rolled off. It ex2)lo(led as it struck 102 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. the floor, l)iit did no damage. Farragiit jumped up and said to the oflieer who brought it in : " Young man, don't send any more of those in- fernal machines to me; I thought I was shot." Late in Juh^ four monitors, for which Farragut had been waiting, arrived, and he at once decided to prepare for his attack. He ordered all the wooden ves- sels of his fleet to be protected with chains and bags of sand so far as possible. All the small l)oats were lowered on the side away from Fort Morgan, and nets were stretched to keep splinters from flying. Alto- gether Farragut had twenty-seven vessels. He placed his four monitors in the first division of the fleet. The second division consisted of fourteen wooden ves- sels. The remaining vessels of the fleet were left in a squadron by themselves outside the bay to bombard Fort ^forgan, and did not attempt to enter with Farra- gut. Farragut wanted to place his flagshij), the Hart- ford, immediately behind the line of monitors, but his oflicers persuadi'd him to allow the Brooklyn to take that position, because she had an attachment to the bow Avitli which to catch the tor])edoes. Farragut coiiseuted at last and went second in the di\'isiou. l^ach of the large wooden vessels had a suialler one lashed to the sid(^ away from Fort IMorgau, for ]iro- tection to the suialler vessel and also to assist the larger vessel in case of accident to iiiaclilncrv. On August -llh r'aiTaiiut decided to make the THE GREAT FIGHT AT MOBILE. I03 start early the next morning if the weather condi- tions were favorable. He wanted a sonthwest wind, so that the smoke wonld be blown from his ships against Fort Morgan. Before he went to bed on the night of August 4th he wrote to his wife: " I am going into Mobile in the morning, if God is my leader, as I hope he is, and in him I place my trust. If he thinks it is the j^lace for me to die, I am ready to submit to his will. God l)less and pre- serve you if anything should happen to me.'' Farragut did not sleep well, and when the orderly came in his room during the night he asked the direc- tion of the wind. The orderly said it was southwest, and Farragut replied: " Very well, then we will go in in the morning." At 5.30 A. M. he and Drayton, the captain of his ship, had finished their breakfast, and Farragut quiet- ly remarked: " Well, Drayton, we might as well get under way." Signals were hoisted immediately. The men in Fort Morgan and on the Southern ships saw them, and knew that the time' had come for the great fight. The ram Tennessee was in command of Admiral Buchanan, who had commanded the Merrimac in the first day's fight of that vessel at Hampton Koads. Buchanan called his men together and said to them: THE GREAT FIGHT AT MOBILE. 105 " Kow, men, the enemy is coming, and I want you to do yonr duty. If I fall, lay me on one side and go on witli the fight and never mind me, but whip and sink the Yankees or fight until you sink yourselves, but do not surrender." It was 0.47 o'clock when the first vessel of the J^orthern fleet, the monitor Tecumseh, fired at Fort Morgan. Slowly the Northern vessels approached the narrow opening off Fort Morgan, but it was not until 7.07 o'clock that the fort fired its first shot in reply. It struck the Hartford and killed nearly all of the crew at a gun. Almost instantly every gun in the fleet that could be brought to bear upon the fort was in action. There was a terrific fire. By this time the Tecumseh had approached the opening in the channel. There was a bend in the channel, and Captain Craven, of the Tecumseh, saw that he could not turn his un- wieldy vessel if he went through the opening, which was marked l)y a buoy. The ram Tennessee had come out from behind Fort ^lorgan, and was headed for the Tecumseh. Craven paid little attention to the fort, and start(Ml to meet the ram. He said to his pilot: ^' It is impossible that the admiral means us to go inside the buoy; I can not turn my ship." Craven knew no fear and did not hesitate, but started straight for the Tennessee across the line of torpedoes. Had he gone in the channel and stuck fast the day would have been a failure, because the liH] OUR XAVY IN TIME OF WAR. other skips could not have gone by. The rest of the fleet saw the Tecumseh going straight across the tor- pedo nest. For a time he seemed to be safe, and it was hoped that he might get through some opening, but suddeidy there was a mighty roar and the bow of the Tecumseh was seen to be lifted in the air. Then it i)luiiged into the water, and the stern of the vessel showed above the surface. The ship took a sharp dive and disappeared. Craven and his pilot John Col- lins started for the small opening in the deck from the pilot house. They reached there at the same time, and the brave man Craven showed how noble he was when he drew back and told the pilot to go first. There was only time for one of them to be saved and Craven said: " After you, pilot." Collins had scarcely reached the deck before the shi]) went down and Craven was droAvned with ninety- two of his men. Some of the men on the other vessels of the fleet thought it was the Tennessee that had been sunk. They shouted that the Ten- nessee had gone down, and clu^er after cheer went up fi'om the ^Northern ships; but the cheers were soon silenced when word was passed that it was the Te- cumseh. Farragut at once ordered a boat cleared away to rescue some of the men in the water, hut a l)oat had already hvon sent. General Richard L. Page, who was in command of Fort Morgan, splen- liiiiiite :jiiiiaiii:i!::ii!iii!:'iii!!iiiiiiiiii(iiiii^^^ 9 108 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. did man tliat lie was, saw tlie small boat and ordered his men not to fire upon it because it was engaged in saving drowning men. After the Tecnmseh had gone down the other monitors passed over the place where it had sunk and went past the torpedoes. They were ready then to fight the Tennessee or to help the rest of the fleet. The Brooklyn now approached the narrow opening in the channel. Her captain saw some floats that looked like torpedoes, and he at once stopped his en- gines and hesitated about going in. Farragut was close behind on the Hartford, and it seemed as if there would be a collision. The Richmond was close behind the Hartford, and Farragut feared that it too would come up and get into the tangle. In his desire to see all that was going on, Farragut had climl)ed far up into the shrouds, and Captain Dray- ton, fearing that if he were wounded or killed he would be lost by falling overboard, sent Signal-Quar- termaster Knowles up to lash Farragut to the shrouds. Farragut said to never mind liini, ])ut Knowles went ahead and tied him to the rigging. AVhen tlie Brooklyn hesitated she swung round, and Farragut shouted to her captain: " What's the matter? " " Torpedoes," was the answer. Farragut said not to uiiud th(^ tor])edoes, but to follow him, and then he showed what a great fighter THE GEEAT FIGHT AT MOBILE. 109 and sailor lie was. He took his ship out of the line so as to avoid a collision with the Brooklyn, and headed straight for the torpedoes. Knowing the fate of the Tecumseh, every man on the fleet who saw Farragut making this dash expected to see his vessel blown to pieces. Fortunately the tin torpedoes across which Farragut drove his vessel had become rusted and the caps did not explode. The Hartford passed over the line in safety, and the Richmond, which had been following, avoided a collision with the Brooklyn by backing and then taking the path through which the Hartford had gone. The scene at this time was ter- rible. All the guns on ships and on shore were being fired as fast as possible, great clouds of smoke were drifting from the vessels to land, the noise was like a hundred thunderstorms put together, the men were stripped to their waists as they fought, and all the while officers were going among them saying, " Steady, boys, take your time." Men were being killed or wounded by the dozen, but no one faltered, from admiral to messenger boy. The monitors, which had passed the torpedoes safely, ran close to the fort to try to silence the guns which were making sad havoc on the Hartford and Brooklyn. Every shot from the fort seemed to result in the death of some of the brave men on the large ships. At last Fort Morgan was passed. It required about an hour to accomplish this task. The Tennessee 110 OUR NAVY IN TIME OP WAR. was still up the hay, its fearless coniniander waiting to fight the entire IN'orthern fleet. The Southern gunboats had begun to annoy the Hartford, which was now in the lead, and Farragut ordered the little vessel Metacomet, which had been lashed to the Hart- ford, to cut loose and destroy the small Southern ships. The Metaconiet soon disabled the Gaines and drove the Morgan under the protection of the fort. The Metacomet then pursued the Selma into shoal water. The bottom was very soft, however, and the Metacomet, under a heavy pressure of steam, pushed through it and overtook the Selma. A leadsman had been stationed on the deck of the Metacomet to test the depth of water, and he kept calling out that the w^ater was too shallow for the Metaconiet to go far- ther. Lieutenant Jouett, who was in command of the Metacomet, was annoyed at this and he turned to one of his assistants and said: "Call that man in; he makes me nervous.'' The Metacomet went on and made the Selma sur- r(^nd(>r. The Selma was commanded l)y Captain P. U. Murphy, who in the former days of the United States navy had been a shipmate of Jouett, and as a superior oflicer had been very kind to him. Before the fight began Jouett said that he intended to cap- ture ]\rurphy if he could. He reniend)ered that Miii'pliy was very fond of eating crabs, and he resolved to give Murphy a treat. So while the fighting was go- THE GREAT FIGHT AT MOBILE. m ing on, Jouett had his cook fixing up a nice breakfast for ^liiri)hy. After the Sehna surrendered, Murphy came on board the lletacomet to surrender his sword. Jouett had seen him coming and had sent away most of the officers and men from the quarter-deck, so that very few should actually see Murphy surrender. He wanted to spare Murphy's feelings as much as pos- sible. As ^lurphy reached the deck he drew himself up to his full height, and with great dignity held out his sword and began to make a speech saying that he had yielded. Jouett swept the sword aside, took ^[urphy's hand cordially, put his arm around Mur- phy's shoulders, and said: " Why, ^lurphy, I am glad to see you. Come on ; your breakfast has been waiting for you for some time." They went into the cabin and as ^Furphy saw the table already set for him, he turned to Jouett and said : " AVhy didn't you let me know that you had all this? I would have surrendered sooner." The Hartford was now sweeping up the bay, and the Tennessee tried to ram her. The Hartford was quicker, and avoided the vessel and passed on, having given the ram a broadside. The Tennessee then fought each Xorthern vessel as it passed. The Mo- nongahela, of the Xorthern fleet, was in collision with the Tennessee, but little damage resulted. The 112 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. Nortliern vessel which suffered, most in passing the Tennessee was the Oneida. Her boiler was pierced by a shot, and the Galena, to which she had been lashed, was unable to escape the Tennessee. The Winnebago, one of the monitors, saw the plight of the Oneida, and Captain Stevens, of the Winnebago, who had given up the command of the Oneida so that his friend (Vnnmander Mullaney might take the Oneida, ran down with the Winnebago and came between the Tennessee and the Oneida, saving the latter vessel from destruction. Stevens performed a remarkable l)art during all the fighting. He would not remain under cover, and kept walking back and forth in the open between the turrets of the Winnebago. When he saved the Oneida, the crew of that vessel gave him three rousing cheers. He stepped to the side of his boat, took off his hat and bowc^d, as if he was acknowl- edging a cheer in a parade. All the vessels had now passed the fort and the 1'ennessee, and they came to anchor four miles up the bay for a rest and to clean ii]) tlie ships, as well as to take v'AYv of tlu^ wounded and the dead. Farragut ordered most of the men to go to breakfast so as to prepare for tlie final struggle of the morning. Cap- tain Drayton said to him that all the work of the moi-niiig counted for nothing so long as the Tennessee was not destroyed. Farragut said ]\v knew that, and that as soon as the men were tlirongii with breakfast 'W\\W\^Vx\ V\\\\\i«!"ik(|f WM \i I I II 1 ■ 11 111 I 1 iiniiiiiii 114 OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR. lie was going after the Tennessee. Suddenly a ery was heard : ""The ram is eoming! " Farragnt watehed the Tennessee intently. He thought she might go outside the bay after the small vessels he had left there. To his relief he saw her turn toward the fleet. '" Xo, Buck is coming here/' he said. Then he gave orders for the ]\[onongahela, the Lackawanna, and Ossipee to ram the Tennessee with him. The jNIonongahela struck the Tennessee on the starboard side and then swung off and gave her a broadside of shells. Then the Lackawanna struck her on the port side. The Hartford came swinging down, and it looked as if they would meet bow to bow. They sheered off, hoAvever, and a glancing blow re- sulted. At this time Midshipman John C. Watson lashed Farragnt to the rigging once more. The Lackawanna, in trying to hit the Tennessee a second l)low, struck the Hartford instead. This annoyed Farragnt, and he told his signal oihcer to order the Lackawanna to keep out of the way. The Tennessee had been doing great damage with her guns to the wooden ships, but the three monitors, Chickasaw, Winnebago, and ]\raidiattan, now came rushing to \]\v attack. The ^Lmhattan and Winne- bago were soon disabled, but the Chi(d