THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS

UNCLE SAM'S WEB FEET-FARRAGUT TO THE FRONT - THE ENGAGEMENT-CANISTER AND GRAPE-THE OLD NAVY WINS

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A. D. 1862

T the outbreak of the war the Mississippi from Cairo to New Orleans had passed into the hands of the Confederates. The possession of this great stream which sundered the Confederacy into two unequal parts, which drains the rich and fertile central plains of North America, and which also gives ready access to the heart of the Continent, was-as is stated by Mr. H. W. Wilson, to whom we are indebted for the following account -naturally of immense value. While they held it they could draw corn stuffs and bacon from the slave States to the west of it-Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, and the greater part of Louisiana. In these States, where every man carried his life in his hands, and where blood-feuds linger on to this day, they could recruit admirable soldiers, men who could use the rifle and who did not value life. The Mississippi lost, the great centers of population in its basin must pass to the North, the Confederacy must lie open, exposed to the attack of Northern armies using the river and its tributaries as their base, the resources and food supply of the West would be no longer at the command of the Southerners, and the single land frontier which did not face the North could not be utilized for the importation of war material. "Uncle Sam's webfeet," as Lincoln called the Union fleet, could come and go as they chose, if this river could be wrested from the South.

Every nerve was strained by the North, after the first months of hurried preparations, to reconquer the Mississippi. Foote, with

the Northern river craft, set to work from the north-from Cairo and from Cincinnati. Meantime the works which closed the mouth of the river, south of New Orleans, were reconnoitered; and, encouraged by the reports of spies, who asserted that the Southern defenses in this direction had been comparatively neglected, Mr. Fox, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, decided that an attempt should be made to force a way past the forts to New Orleans.

It was a bold undertaking. Duckworth indeed had made his way up the Dardanelles in 1807, with wooden ships, in the teeth of powerful batteries, and Washington years before had urged De Grasse to force a passage under the English works on the York River. These instances Lincoln's advisers may have had in mind. They selected as the Union commander a man who, himself a Southerner, was by the irony of fate to deal the deadliest blow to the South, a sailor almost the equal of Nelson in audacity and promptitude, who, like his English prototype, at once fired his crews with zeal and earned their warmest affection, David Glasgow Farragut. The ablest admiral since Nelson's day deserves a word of notice. A Tennesseean by birth, he had served on board the "Essex" in her bloody engagements with the English "Phœbe" and "Cherub." In 1833 he had been on board the warship sent by President Jackson to South Carolina, with the curt sentence, "The Union must and shall be preserved." Solicited by his kinsfolk at Norfolk to join the Secessionists at the outbreak of war, he had pointed to the flag he had served so well, with the words, "I would see every man of you damned before I would raise my hand against that flag." And he had warned his friends that "they would catch the devil before they got through with the business." He was in his sixtieth year, but the energy and vigor of youth had not gone from him.

On February 20, 1862, he arrived off the mouth of the Mississippi in his flagship, the screw-sloop "Hartford." Up to that date the Northern squadron had been content to blockade the entrances to the river, a tedious business amid constant fogs and occasional attacks of Confederate rams. Henceforward there were preparations for action and action. The crews were exercised at target practice. The ships were stripped of their upper rigging, and

chain cables placed outside their timbers in the way of the engines. These cables were threaded at each end on rods of iron, and hung vertically, giving a measure of protection to the ships. Each length of chain overlapped the next length, and was bound to it with cord. The total weight of iron thus employed was very considerable. Bags of sand and ashes were further piled up inside the ships, forming great bulwarks round the vulnerable portions of the machinery; and strong nettings were disposed inboard on some of the vessels to stop splinters. The hulls were daubed with the yellow mud of the river to render them similar in color to the river banks, and thus make the task of the Confederate gunners harder. Before the attack was delivered, the decks and guns were, in some instances, whitewashed, to enable the gunners, fighting by night without lights, to see where the various implements in use in the battle lay. This precaution was found to be of the greatest service.

On the 16th of April, Farragut led his fleet up the Mississippi to a point three miles below Fort Jackson, the southernmost of the Confederate defenses. It was only with the utmost difficulty that the heavier vessels had been taken across the bar which hinders access to the waters of the river. The sands shift continually, and the depth was found to be but fifteen feet instead of nineteen feet as had been anticipated. Though lightened of everything, sheer force alone hauled the "Pensacola," the deepest in draught of the Northern ships which fought in the battle, over the banks. The "Mississippi" was fast for eight days, but at last was brought across. And now the ships were face to face with the Southern defenses and could see what had to be done.

Two forts interdicted approach to New Orleans. On the right of the river, ascending, was Fort St. Philip, an old-fashioned work supplemented by two water batteries, one on either side of it. On the left was Fort Jackson, built of stone with casemates and a battery of guns en barbette. Round it ran a moat, and inside the work was a second moat encompassing a citadel. A water battery commanded the reach of the river below this fort. In all, in these works were mounted one 13-inch, five 10-inch, and two 8-inch mortars; three 10-inch, nine 8-inch, twelve 42-pounder, twenty

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four 32-pounder, and forty-six 24-pounder smooth-bores; two 7-inch and two 32-pounder rifled guns (firing a shot of sixty to eighty pounds); and ten 24-pounder howitzers. There were thus very few large guns, only twenty-eight, excluding mortars, being of heavier caliber than the 32-pounder.

The Confederate commander was conscious of the utter weakness of his artillery. What guns he had were for the most part of antiquated pattern, and those which were recent were cast from improperly tested metal, and were distrusted by their gunners. Application had been made to the Confederate War Department for a supply of heavier and more trustworthy cannon. But partly because of the inadequacy of the Confederate supply of artillery, partly because no one at Richmond could believe that the Northerners would dare to attack New Orleans from below, no guns had been sent; and the Confederate commander, General Duncan, had to do what he could with the guns on the spot. Afloat, or completing, the Confederates had a flotilla which would have been capable of rendering great services if it had possessed trained officers or experienced seamen.

There were four ironclads, not one of which was ready as yet. All were of the "Merrimac" type, having submerged hulls and casemate - batteries amidships. The "New Orleans" mounted twenty guns, the "Memphis" eighteen, the "Mississippi" sixteen. The latter was to steam eleven knots, carried 5 and 6-inch armor, and was 270 feet long. Her cost was $2,000,000, and she was being pushed forward with the utmost expedition, the men working on her night and day. The "Louisiana," too, was nearing completion. She had a submerged hull and a casemate-battery. Its sides sloped at an angle of forty-five degrees, and were plated with five inches of iron. She was fitted with screw propellers, and also with two paddle wheels, placed one in front of the other in a well amidships. They worked very badly, forcing the water through the seams of her planking, when started, and flooding the battery deck. Her engines, taken from an old river steamer, were far too weak for her, and would not move her up stream, or keep her under control when descending. She mounted seven 6-inch rifles, two 7-inch rifles, four 8-inch, and three 9-inch smooth-bores

Her gun-ports were much too small, and only admitted of five degrees of training.

A smaller and stranger craft was the little "Manassas," designed expressly for ramming; a tugboat, cut down to the waterline, and protected by railroad iron three-quarters to one-inch thick, upon five inches of timber, so curved that her upper works resembled the shell of a tortoise, and would thus, it was hoped, deflect shot. She could only steam five miles an hour, and had a timber prow for ramming: one 32-pounder was mounted forward, projecting through a port-hole which was closed by a spring shutter. These vessels belonged to the Confederate States Navy, and were under the orders of Commander Mitchell. He had also the gunboats "Governor Moore" and "General Quitman," small wooden steamers, protected about their boilers by barricades of pine wood and compressed cotton, and carrying between them one 9-inch gun and eight 32-pounder smooth-bores. Finally, there were six armed and seven unarmed steamers of the "River Defense Fleet," which were not under the orders of either the general or naval officer in command, but obeyed only the War Department at Richmond, when they obeyed any one. There was neither discipline nor training on board them; they had no competent naval officers, and no drilled gunners. On the scene of action they behaved with positive cowardice, and thus they could not be seriously reckoned in the defense. Moreover, there was a certain amount of friction between General Duncan and Commander Mitchell, so that the conditions were not favorable for the Confederates. It would appear to be essential, when forts and ships are co-operating, that one man should have the control of forces on land and forces on the water.

Most important among the Confederate defenses was a boom which had been carried across the Mississippi, just below the forts, and under the muzzles of their guns. It was constructed of cypress logs four to five feet in diameter, fastened together with iron cables of immense strength. Thirty three-thousand-pound anchors held the boom in position, while each end was made fast on land.

Luck, however, was against the Southerners. The Mississippi is subject to sudden freshets in the spring, and during March, rising to an unwonted height, had carried away the central por