Author . Title Imprint. 10 — (737?-! OOO I ^ ACHIEVEMENTS OT THE WEST ERNJTAVAL^^L OyiLLA. REMARKS OK / HON. JAMES W. GRIMES, OF IOWA. DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, MARCH 18, 1862. ^:^ The Senate having under consideration, as in Committee of the Whole, the joint reso- *^ lution (S. No. 04) expreerfve of the thanks of Congress to Captain A. H. Foote, of the Uaittd SUtes Navy, and to the officers and men under his command in the westera flotilla, Mr. GRIMES said : Mr. President : I conceive it U) be my duty, and it ccrtaiuly is a great plea- sure 10 me, to call the special attention of the Senau, to the ach.evemeats of the newly-created naval flotilla on our western waters, and to the gallant part borne ♦ b,. L officers and men against armed rebefs iu Kentucky and Tennessee Surely no onrf could more properly be proud of the deeds of our Army m that quarter than a Senator from Iowa.' Yet, I know that wha ever adds to the ^lorv of our Navy in the recent inflicts in the West, adds also to the glory of the \rmv and that the two branches of the service have been and are so con- joine'd that no rivalry ought to exist between them, except a virtuous emulaUon in the performance of patriotic duty. No examples can be foutjd m the history of anv country of more i.nporlant results, attained in an equal time, in an un- tried "tield of naval enieipri.se, than those we have lately witnessed on the Ohio, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Cumberland rivers; and 1 leel assured that the suc- cesses wl^^h have thus far been achieved, will be surpassed by the same forces whenever they can find an enemy with whom to cope between Cairo and New ^'orthe 16th day of May last, Commander John Rodgers was ordered by the Secretary of the Navy to proceed to Cincinnati, and to purchase or commence the construction of several guuboats for service on the western rivers. Under his auspices the three boats, Taylor, Lexington, and Conestoga, were purchased and fitted up for war purposes. They were put in commission and reached Cairo, af.er Lme delay arising from the low stage of water m the Ohio river, on the 12tb of August, Commander Rodgers taking charge of the Taylor, and assiening Commander Slembel to the Lexington, and Lieutcuant Phelps to the Conestola. The Taylor carried seven guns, of large calibre, the Lexington ^x and the Conestoga four. Here was the beginning of the western flotilla. We all remember tht unfavorable criticisms indulged in when these three stern- wheel steamers, with oak casings, arrived at that mihiary post. Some said they would be shaken to pieces by the recoil of their own guns ; others that they would be speedily sunk by the shore guns of the rebels ; while not a few were alarmed by visions of HuIUds'b ram buttiug them to pieces with impunity. From the day they reached their destination to the present no rebel cralt has shown itself ten miles above Columbus, auv the want of seameTi, or by a neglect in some quartir to have lliose traasferred from the roilitury service who had been selected for that purpose. After reducing Fort Heury and sweeping the Tennessee river as far up as Florence, Alabama, Conimodore Fcoie returued to Cairo to prepare the niortar boats for operations agaiuft Fori D^melson. He tt'as aware of the formidable character of the rebel works at Donelson, and he desired a delay of a few days to complete the mortar boats, by which he believed the garrison, however ex- tensive, could be shelled out without much loss of life on our side. General Halleck believed an immediate attack to be a military necessity. In this, I doubt not, he was right, ?nd I only refer to it to show that the crippled condi- tion of the fleet and the he^vy loss of life on our side ai« not to be attributed to rashness or bad management on the part of the flas; officer. Of the gallant attack on Fort DonelsoB uo one need be reminded. Subjected, as our vessels were, to a long-continued and hot fire from ihtee rebel batteries at four hundred yards' distance, they continued the fight for«ne hour and thirty minutes, and not until the wheel of one and the tiller ropes of another of his boats were shot away did the well-managed guns of the Commodore cease to scatter death and consternation among the foes of his country. Although wounded hiipself, and his gunboats crippled, yet with the glory of the gallant combat on his brow, he indulged in no repinings for his personal misfortunes or laudation of his suc- cesses; but, like a true Christian hero, he thought only of his men. In a letter written the morning after the battle to a friend, he said : " Wliile I hope ever to rely on Him wlio controls all things, and to say fVoni the heart, 'Not unto us, bnt unto Thee, Lord, belongs the glory,' yet I feel badly at the result of our attack on F( one boat and the tiller ropes of another been shot away, in fifteen minutes more the batteries would have been flanked and the entire rebel army exposed to the broadsides of the fleet. He would have mowed them down like grass." *•»•*»* " As it was, he made the work of the army in the fight of Saturday ravich easier than It otherwise would liave been. Several of the Mississippi otficers (prisoners) informed me that the shells of the gunboats had a demoralizing efl'ect upon tlieir men. The Mentphis Appeal says It dispirited them." • « • « " I have had a fair opportunity to observe the operations of bititi army and navy, and I can say with em- -phaeis that there are no more self-denying, patctotic. hard- working, faithful men than the flag ofiicer and his captains, Stembel, Pennock, Phel[>s, and others." * • • . * "I make these statements from my own sense of justice and honor, and not from any man's prooipting or request." The next movement of Commodore Foote, with his flotilla, was to take pos- session of Clarksvillc, where he arrived on the 19th day of February, and issued his proclamation to the inhabitants three days before the arrival of the land forces, though that fact for some unexplained cause, nowhere appears in the oflS- cial reports of the military commander of the department. ^ On the 21st of February, 18G2, Commodore Foote telegraphed to General Cullum, the chief of General Halleck's etaflF, then at, Cairo as follows: Paddcah, /"e^rifary SI, 1S62. General Ctn-LUM, Cairo: General Grant and myself consider this a good time to move on Nashville ; six mortar boats and two iron-clad steamers can precede the troops arTd shell the fbrts. We were about moving for this purpose when General Grant, to my astonishment, received a telegram from General Halleck, '' not to let the gunboats go higher than Clarksville ; " no telegram sent to mo. The Cumberland is in « (rood stage of water, and General Grant and ' believe tliat we can take Nart- ville. Please a»l< General Uallecli ilwc shall do lu We will talk per lek-griiph— Captain Phi-lps r.-pre- aeDting me iu the offlie, as 1 am allll on crutches. A. U. FOOTK, Flag (rficer. It may be that there was some great military reason why General Grant was directed "not to let the £ruiibuntrv is assured that whatever can be accomplished by gallantry and nautical experience will be performed by Commodore Foote and the brave oBBcers and men under bis com- mand. We await the announcement of new victories. I have thought H proper, Mr. President, as a western Senator, in some degree charged with the examiuatioa of naval aS'airs by this body, to bear this testi- 6 mony to tlie worth of that bratinh of the public service in the western compaign, and to the noble deeds of the flag offictf in that coinmand. No one can over- estiraate their seivices to the country, and to the Northwest in particular; and iu the name of tliat great section and of the whole couutry I thauk them one and all, officers and men. But I would avail myself of this occasion to accomplish another purpose. I am anxious that the people of this entire country may feel that the exploits of the Navy wherever performed are (heir exploits, that its glory is their glory, anu that while they are taxing themselves to support it, they are supporting the Tight arm of the national defence. I desire the citizen of the most remote frontier to feel that he is equally protected and equally honored by the brave deeds of our naval officers with the citizen of the Atlantic coast. I wish the men of Iowa and Minnesota to know that they are as effectually defended in thein liberties at home and in their honor abroad, by the achievements of Du Pont and GoMshorbugh and Stringhain and Foote on the water, as they can be b}' any victories «von by our armies on the land. Mr. President, ours must be a great maritime nation. Heaven has ordained that it should be such, and we citiild not make it otherwise if we would. We have a coast, both on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which, with its numerous indentations, is many thousand miles in extent, occupied by a hardy, nautical population, and flanked on either side by soils and climates that furnish the most valuable productions of the globe, and which must be sujiplied to other nations. On the north we have a suci-ession of great lakes already bearing' upon their bosoms a registerid commercial tonnage of nearly half a million, and navigated by a race of daring, indu-trious, northern seamen. Unlike any other maritime nation, ours is traversed liy navigable rivers, thousands of miles in length, floating an inland commerce unequaled by that of any country in the world, except, possibly, that of China, and capable of navigation by armed ves- sels of great capacity, \\ith a country of such extent, a soil and climate fur- nishing such productions, and a population along our ocean, gulf, bay, lake, and river coasts, accustomed to navigation, who does not see that ours must, from the very necessities of our geographical position, and the conformation of our continent, become a great commercial people? Our products must be borne to remote nations in our own ships, navigated by our own seamen, and protected wherever they go by our own vessels of war. I know not with whom originated the phrase " the Navy is the right arm of the public defence;" but I know that a truer sentiment was never uttered. In my opinion it will always be in this country the most efBcient and far the least dangerous arm of the public service by which to maintain the national integ- rity and defend the national honor. Histoiy teaches us that every nation that has depended upon a navy for protection has been comparatively free by the side of those which placed their reljance upon armies. I need not go back to antiquity to prove this. I point to Holland and England in modern times. The former, while she continued to be the greatest naval Power on earth, was the freest Government on earth, and only began to be shorn of her liberties and of her territory when she neglected to msintain her tleets. Eng- land, the most lilieral of all Governments save our own, is in no small degree indebted for her preseiit position to the fact that she maintains onlv a small military force in the British islands, and relies upon her wooden walls as a means of attack and defence. She puts no faith in laige standing armies, and will not until her people shall be prepared to surrender their freedom. With her garri- soned possessions encircling the globe, hnr entire military establishment does not exceed one hundred and twenty thousand men. France, Austria, Russia, Prus.sia maintain large standing armies on their soil ; and in those countries the liberty of the people is measured by the will of the sovereiga. The freedom they en- joy is lhe"ratuily of emperors and kings ; the servitude they endure is enforced by llie presence of slaiidiua; armies. I do iiot believe thut anyliody but thf public enemy has h»d anything to fenr from ihe numerous and well appointed aimies we jjave rai-ed ; yet no one of US is prepared lo say ihat, witb an arinv much longer isolated fmni home scenes and liotne ideas, concentrated in large bodies, and laugbt the duty of im|)lii'it obed lence to their supeiiorf, danger to our tree iiisiitutious niigln not arise. No . such danger can aiise I'roin tlic existence of a navy, however large, or however coininandcd. Seamen are cosmopolitans. Alw'iys employeil, and generally afloar, they never become, as armie-t sometimes do, as dangerous to fiieuds iu lime of peace as to enemies in time of war. I might go on and show that, situated as all of our large cities are, upon arms of the sea or upon navigable rivers, the Navy might be ma le mote efli- cieut in suppressing domestic insurrections, as well as in repel ing foreign inva- sion, than the Auiiy. I might show, t >o, that, notwithstanding njuch that has been said by prof>ssed statisticians, the support of a navy is less expensive, in compari^on with the service it renders to a maritime nation, than that of an army. But I shall not detain the Senate by at'.eropting to enter upon such an exposition at this time. As I said at the outset, Mr. Presideirf, my purpose in rising to address the Senate at this lime was to call the attention of the c luntry to the sui-ces operations of the western flotilla ; but I i annot refraiu from alluding, for one mo- ment, before I close, to the successes of our Navy elsewhere in this war. The whole southeastern Atlantic coast has been swept by the fleet of the gallant Dupont, and is now effectually held by both an in>i'le and an outside block- ade. The enemy have been driven from the waters of North Carolina by Golds- borough, their whole navy in that quarter destroyed, and their coast towns occu- pied. Such progress has been made in the Gulf of Mexico, that I venture to predict that, in a few days at furthest, intelligence will reach us thnt the forts at the mouth of the Mississippi river have been captured, and that Fariagut •Bud Porter are now, or soon will be, in posse-sion of New Orleans. But the startling events that have recently occurred in Hampton Roads attract, as they ought, the attention of all. It would be well lor us to reflect upon what those events have clearly demonstrated. They are : • • First, that in modern naval warfaie, wooden sailing vessels are perfectly harmless and helpless. Second, that the ttrongest slone fortifications can be no obstruction to the entrance of iron-clad vessels-of-war into our harbors; and that one or two such vessels, utJoppo-ed by vessels of a similar character, can hold any commercial city on the continent at their mercy. Third, that we can now commence the creation of a proper navy, upon a footing of comparative equality with all the naval powers of the world. Mr. President, no man sympalhifes with the relatives and friends of the gal- lant dead who perished on the Congress and Cumberland more deeply than I do. Perhaps, however, their loss was necessary to tench us our true path of duty to the country. •Let us not suffer more valuable lives to be periled upon such worthless vessels; and while we deplore the K>ss of so many brave men, let us rejoi( e that so many more are left to the service who are willing to do and die for their country. Especially let us give thanks for the brilliant ex- ample of courage, seamanship, and pat: iotism furnished to ihe country and to the world by that malchlet-s otficer Lieutenant John L. Worden, and the officers and men under his command on board the Monitor. In that unexamjile I en- gagenrent of Sunday last, after a terribly suffiicaling and dangerous passage trom New York, without having s'e|)l, with an undrilled crew, and handling an untried experiment, Lieutenant Worden and his crew performed prodigies of t 8, skill and valor that will render all on boarr] the Monitor immortal. ^Tliny will be immortal not for their valor alone. Who shall undertake to estimnte the influence that bittle will exert upon all of the maritime Powers of the earth ? Wlio shall undertake to tell the number of homes to wliioh the news of its suc- cessful result carried ([uiet on that eventful evening, which bad been for hours disturbed by the most distracting; feais* Is it too much to say that it rescued our commerce and our coramcrcial cities from ravage, and in one liour com- pletely levolutionized all systems of uaval architecture and naval warfare? Captain Eiicsson, too, may well be proud of the place his name will henceforth occupy in the history of nautical fcience, and we may well be proud that the country of our birth is the country of his adoption. But, Mr. PresidfDt, while I would thus honor the gallant living, I would bear my tribute of afl'ectionate respect for the memory of the heroic dead who fell in the engHijemcnt in Hampton Roads. Let the remembrance of that brave young officer, whose obsequies are now being perfwmed in another part of this city, who, when his vessel was sinking beneath his feet, replied to a summons to surrender, that he would never give up the flag entrusted to his keeping, and the next moment met death with composure, be cherished by his cuuntrynien. The name of Smith, already illustrious in the annals of the American Navy, will be added to the bright galaxy of. those who have fjeely laid down their live* at the call of their country. Mr. President, the nation has cause to be proud of the Navy ; let it be hon- ored and maintained. Printed by L. Towers