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AMERICAN CRISIS BIOGRAPHIES
Edited by
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Gbe Hmerican Ctisis Btograpbies
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counsel and advice of Professor John B. McMaster, of
the University of Pennsylvania.
'Each i2mo, cloth, with frontispiece portrait. Price
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These biographies will constitute a complete and comprehensive
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and authoritative biography. The editor has enlisted the co-operation
of many competent writers, as will be noted from the list given below.
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Now ready:
Abraham Lincoln. By Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer.
Thomas H. Benton. By Joseph M. Rogers.
David G. Farragut. By John R. Spears.
William T. Sherman. By Edward Robins.
In preparation :
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Daniel Webster. By Prof. C. H. Van Tyne.
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John Quincy Adams. By Brooks Adams.
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William H. Seward. By Edward Everett Hale, Jr.
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Stephen A. Douglas. By Prof. Allen Johnson.
Judah P. Benjamin. By Pierce Butler.
Thaddeus Stevens. By Prof. J. A. Woodburn.
Andrew Johnson. By Waddy Thompson.
To be followed by :
Henry Clay Edwin M. Stanton
Ulysses S. Grant "Stonewall" Jackson
Wade Hampton Jay Cooke

AMERICAN CRISIS BIOGRAPHIES

David G. Farragut

by
JOHN RANDOLPH SPEARS
* » *
Author of "History of Our Navy,"
"Our Navy in the War with Spain," etc.

PHILADELPHIA
GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1905, by
George W. Jacobs & Company
Published September, /goj

V-_> \_* &. 4^

'5Ct>

To the Men of the American Navy,
Good and True, Every One,
Who believe with Admiral Farragut that
' The Best Protection Against the Enemtfs Fire
is a Well- Directed Fire from Our Own Guns."

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In preparing this biography of Admiral David
Glasgow Farragut, I have been assisted in the most
liberal and cheerful spirit by Captain Loyall Farra
gut, the son of the admiral, and author of "The
Life and Letters of Admiral D. G. Farragut." It
is with hearty thanks that I acknowledge my in
debtedness to him and his work.
I am also under great obligations to Mr. Charles
W. Stewart, Superintendent of the Library and
Naval War Records, Navy Department, Washing
ton. Through his courtesy, I have had the use of
hundreds of documents, gathered from Union and
Confederate sources, which have not yet been pub
lished, but are to appear in the "Official Eecords
of the Union and Confederate Navies." From
these documents I was able to gather much valua
ble fresh material. And it may not be out of place
to add here that by consulting other original sources
of information I have been able to correct a few
errors that appear in other works relating to the
admiral, and to throw new light on events with
which he was connected. The story of the war
with the West India pirates, for instance, was
written after a careful search of the Naval Affairs
volumes of the American State Papers. "War
Papers" printed by the "Loyal Legion" have

8 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
proved of great value, while such private memoirs
as those of James K. Hosmer have been gathered
and searched with care.
Finally, I have to thank Captain A. T. Mahan,
United States Navy (retired), for services kindly
rendered.
John Randolph Spears.

CONTENTS
Chronology 11
I. A Backwoods Boy .... 23
II. A Midshipman in the American
Navy  30
III. Farragut Afloat and in Battle. 37
IV. Captain of a Ship When Twelve
Years Old .... 54
V. The Essex and the British
Squadron  64
VI. Study and Travel ... 88
VII. In the War with the West
India Pirates .... 104
VIII. Routine Work in Time of Peace. 131
IX. Farragut and Secession . . 148
X. The Blockade and the Blockade
Runners  156
XI. The Expedition to Capture New
Orleans  169
XII. Confederate Defenses at New
Orleans  182
XIII. Preparations for Passing the
Forts  195
XIV. The Battle on the Mississippi . 209
XV. New Orleans Under the Flag . 222
XVI. A Futile Expedition Up the
Mississippi . . . .241

10 CONTENTS
XVII. The Story of the Ironclad War
ship  257
XVIII. At Pensacola and Before Port
Hudson  269
XIX. In Waiting Before His Last
Battle  300
XX. The Battle of Mobile Bay . . 316
XXI. Stories Told After the Battle. 341
XXII. The Last Days . . . .356
Bibliography .... 374
Index  378

ILLUSTRATIONS

Portrait .....
The Gulf States showing the Scene of
Farragut's Engagements
Forts Jackson and St. Phillip
Order of the Fleet to attack Forts Jackson
and St. Phillip .
The Mississippi River
Vicksburg and its Approaches
Port Hudson ....
Mobile Bay .

. Frontispiece
Facing page 1 70
184

242 248282

3°4

CHRONOLOGY

1801 — David G. Farragut born July 5th at a ferry across the
Holston River, near Knoxville, Tenn.
1807— March 2d, his father, George Farragut, is appointed a
master in the United States navy. In the fall of the
year the family removes to New Orleans.
1808 — June 21st, death of his mother. His adoption by Com
mander (afterward Commodore) David Porter.
1809 — Leaves New Orleans with adopted father and goes to
Washington.
1810— December 17th appointed midshipman in the United
States navy.
1811 — August 9th, joins frigate Essex, under the command of
Captain David Porter, and sails on a cruise along the
coast to protect American commerce.
1812 — June 18th, Congress declares war against Great Britain.
July 3d, Midshipman Farragut sails on Essex, Captain
David Porter, for cruise against British commerce.
August 3d, British sloop of war Alert captured. Sep
tember 7th, arrival in port. October 28th, sails to join
Commodore Bainbridge's squadron for cruise in East
Indies. December 12th, on way to Brazilian coast, the
British packet Nocton captured.
1813 — January 26th, Essex sails from St. Catherine's Island for
cruise in the Pacific. March 3d, ports stove in on one
side — narrow escape from foundering. March 26th, cap
tures Peruvian man-of-war Nereyda for attacking Ameri
can whalers. April 17th, arrives at Galapagos Islands.
July 9th, Farragut appointed captain of whaler Barclay
that had been recaptured from the enemy. A mutinous
whaler captain subdued. During September news re
ceived that a British squadron is in pursuit of Essex.
October 23d, arrives at Nukahiva to relit Essex.

12 CHRONOLOGY
1814— February 3d, arrives at Valparaiso in search of British
squadron. February 8th, British frigate Phcebe and
sloop Cherub arrive. March 28th, Essex drags anchor
in squall, puts to sea, loses topmast, anchors near beach
and is attacked by the two ships of the enemy at 3:54
p. m., being captured at 6:20 p. m. On July 5th,
Essex Junior arrives in New York harbor with Farragut
a prisoner in cartel. In November, he is exchanged.
1815 — Ordered to the Independence for first cruise in the Medi
terranean.
1816— Ordered to the President for cruise in the Mediterranean.
1817 — October 14th, obtains permission to go to Tunis with
Rev. Charles Folsom for study. During a visit to ruins
south of Tunis, his eyes are seriously injured by a sun
stroke.
1818 — Returns to fleet and joins the Franklin.
1819 — While cruising in the Mediterranean, he is made ex
ecutive officer of the schooner Shark, frequently having
full command of her.
1820 — Ordered home for examination for promotion. Arrives
at Washington, November 20th, but fails to pass the
examination.
1822 — Cruise on coast of Mexico as deck officer of the sloop of
war John Adams.
1823 — In February sails on schooner Greyhound in fleet under
Commodore Porter for cruise against the West India
pirates. Made executive officer of the Sea Gull, the first
steamer to see active service in the American navy.
1824 — In command of schooner Ferret in war against West
India pirates. Returns to Washington with yellow fever.
September 2d, marries Susan Caroline, daughter of
Jordan and Fanny Marchant, of Norfolk, Va.
1825 — January 13th, promoted to lieutenancy. Watch officer
on Brandy wine for cruise on European station.
1826 — Returns to Norfolk for shore duty and leave of absence.
1828— December 28th, sails for the South Atlantic station on
sloop of war, Vandalia.

CHRONOLOGY 13
1829 — In November is sent home because of defective eye
sight.
1832 — December 4th, ordered to Natchez as executive officer.
1833 — Sails in Natchez to Charleston to aid in quelling the
nullification troubles. May 8th, sails to the South
,, Atlantic station.
1834 — March 6th, ordered to command of the schooner Boxer,
and sails for home.
1838 — August 7th, ordered to command of sloop of war Erie,
and to oruise on coast of Mexico to protect American
interests while French naval ships are blockading and
capturing Vera Cruz. Makes careful studies of the coast
and of French ships.
1840 — December 27th, Mrs. Farragut dies.
1841 — February 22d ordered as executive officer to line-of -battle
ship Delaware, for cruise on South Atlantic station.
September 8th, promoted to commander.
1842 — June 1st, in command of sloop of war Decatur.
1843 — In February returns home in ill health. On December
26th, marries Virginia, eldest daughter of Mr. William
Loyall, of Norfolk, Va.
1844 — Executive officer of the line-of-battleship Pennsylvania
at Norfolk Navy Yard.
1845 — Second in command of Norfolk Navy Yard.
1846 — On April 24th occurred the first fight in the war with
Mexico.
1847 — February, ordered to command of sloop of war Saratoga
for service against the Mexicans and sails, determined to
take the fort at Vera Cruz called San Juan de Ulloa "by
boarding," but arrives after the surrender (March 26th)
to General Scott. Serves on coast of Mexico.
1848— February 19th. arrives at New York, and is ordered to
Norfolk Navy Yard.
1850-1851— Draws up ordnance regulations for the navy and
leotures on gunnery at Norfolk Navy Yard.

14 CHRONOLOGY
1852— Conducts important tests of naval guns at Old Point
Comfort.
1854 — Ordered to San Francisco, where he establishes the Man
Island Navy Yard.
1855 — September 14th, promoted to captain.
1858 — Ordered to command the steam sloop of war Brooklyn in
cruise on Mexican coast.
1861 — Beginning of the Civil War. April 17th, Virginia state
convention votes to secede from the Union. April 18th,
having long since determined to remain loyal to the
Union, Farragut goes North with his family and settles
at Hastings-on-the-Hudson. In December, ordered to
Washington to take command of an expedition against
New Orleans.
1862 — January 9th, formally invested with the command. Feb
ruary 2d, sails in the steam sloop Hartford from Hampton
Roads for the mouth of the Mississippi River. February
20th, arrives at Ship Island. April 18th, the mortar flotilla
opens fire at Fort Jackson. April 20th, fleet ordered to
prepare to pass the forts guarding the river. On April
24th, passes the forts. On April 25th anchors at New
Orleans. On April 28th, Forts Jackson and St. Phillip sur
render. April 29th, hands the city over to General B. F.
Butler. In May cruises up the river to Vicksburg and
back. June 6th, leaves New Orleans for another cruise
to Vicksburg. On June 28th, passes Vicksburg batteries.
July 16th, promoted rear-admiral, the first of that rank
in the American navy. July 20th, reports his return to
New Orleans.
1863 — March 14th, dashes past Port Hudson batteries with
Hartford and Albatros. In June, aids in attacks on Port
Hudson. July 3d, Vicksburg surrenders, placing the
Mississippi under control of Federal forces. On August
1st, sails for New York to repair lie Hartford and other
ships of his fleet. August 13th, enthusiastically received
by oitizens of New York.
1864 — In January, returns to Gulf Station with view of captur
ing Mobile. On June 18th, receives a sword presented
by the Union League Club of New York. August 5th,
battle of Mobile Bay. August 6th, Fort Powell evacu
ated and destroyed by Confederates. August 8th, Fort

CHRONOLOGY 15
Gaines surrenders. August 23d, Fort Morgan surrenders.
In September, on account of ill-health, is unable to accept
command of expedition against Fort Fisher at Wilming
ton, N. C. November 30th, sails for New York. De
cember 31st, promoted vice-admiral, the first to hold
that rank in the American navy.
1865 — In January, employed for a brief period on James River,
Virginia, to repel an expected Confederate raid. April
4th, visits Richmond, the Confederate capital, after it had
been captured by the National forces. End of Civil
War.
1866 — July 26th, promoted admiral, the first to hold that rank
in the American navy.
1867 — June 17th, hoists flag on steam frigate Franklin and on
June 28th, sails for cruise on coast of Europe where he is
most cordially received.
1869— Visit to the Pacifio coast. Taken seriously ill while at
Chicago on his way East.
1870 — Goes to Portland, Maine, to take charge of the reception
given to H. B. M. ship Monarch that brought home the
remains of the eminent philanthropist, George Peabody.
During the summer, cruises to the Portsmouth, N. H.,
Navy Yard, and on August 14th, dies there at the home
of Rear- Admiral A. M. Pennock. On September 30th,
public funeral is held in New York City.

INTRODUCTION
If I were asked why I supposed the history of
the first American admiral was worthy of preser
vation, I should reply first of all, "Because he was
a typical American citizen." For though David
Glasgow Farragut was born in a log cabin on the
American frontier, during a period when the
frontiersmen depended upon game for their meat,
and cultivated their land with their long rifles
within easy reach because the Indians were liable
to attack them at any time, yet he attained by good
work a world-wide reputation. His father was a
leader among the hardy neighbors of the region,
not because of inherited rank or wealth, but by
right of good heroic qualities ; while his mother
was a woman who could, and did, protect her
children from deadly peril by force of arms. For
his inheritance Farragut had ability and ambition.
But as for book-learning, he had fewer days in
schoolhouses than the poorest child in the land
may have at the beginning of the twentieth cen
tury. It was for an unschooled boy from the back
woods of Tennessee that the American people were
glad to create in their navy the ranks of rear-ad
miral, vice-admiral and admiral.
Farragut was a model sailor. After a midship
man's warrant was procured for him, he had no one
to push him up in rank. To the end of his life the

18 INTRODUCTION
memory of the many boys who entered the navy
after him, and became lieutenants before him,
rankled in his mind. But in the end he got what
was better than any promotion — a thorough train
ing, and the story of this training alone makes the
history of Farragut' s life worth telling. For after
making full allowance for what he learned under
his first instructor in the arts of war, he was a self-
made admiral. Though turned into steerage after
steerage where his shipmates thought and talked
of nothing so much as a frolic on shore, Farragut
never lost an opportunity for acquiring knowledge.
When his ship was ordered to lay up for the winter
at Port Mahon, where life for the boys was one pro
longed " lark," Farragut sought and obtained per
mission to go away with the fleet chaplain and
spend the time in study. And long years before
the Bureau of Information was established in the
Navy Department, Farragut spent his leisure
moments in sounding out reefs in foreign ports and
in making notes on the rigging, guns, fittings and
practices found aboard foreign ships.
Yet he was no ' ' goody-goody. ' ' When a prisoner
on the Phcebe he thrashed one of the British mid
shipmen in a fair fist fight. Though he never
fought a duel he would not have hesitated to do so
if challenged, and he was one of the best swords
men in the navy. The fact is, his thorough train
ing saved him from the challenges that were thrown
around so readily in his early days, and that is
something for the consideration of those good but
mistaken people who think that any preparation for

INTRODUCTION 19
war disposes a nation to quarrel-making. While
Farragut was never a roysterer he not only held the
respect of his shipmates, but he was affectionately
called "the little luff," by all who knew him.
In his constant self-training he sought and ob
tained opportunity. While yet a boy in his teens
he had experience as executive officer of a schooner
and had learned to handle her in a gale. He
served on the first American naval steamer that
was engaged in actual war. He obtained command
of one of the great steam sloops that were built just
before the Civil War and armed with the huge
smooth-bores that had been only recently developed.
In short, the Civil War found Farragut the best
equipped man in the navy, although his ambition
for active service was thwarted for a time. His
loyalty to the Constitution he had sworn to defend
was unswerving, but because his family and friends
lived in the South, he was doubted. In some way,
however, it comes to pass that the man who is always
ready finds his opportunity. For his first tutor
in the arts of war, Farragut had one of the most
capable captains in his day — Commodore David
Porter — and it happened that a son of the old com
modore was able to open the way for Farragut
early in the war. Thereafter his course lay plain
before him and the work of a lifetime had its
fruition. How he carried his fleet past the forts on the
Mississippi has been often told, and the story of the
battle of Mobile Bay is found in many books, but
certain features of the admiral's character as they

20 INTRODUCTION
appeared during those days can never be described
too often. Thus, the plan for the capture of New
Orleans was laid down in his orders from Washing
ton, but when after a fair trial he found that it was
worthless he had the courage to brush it aside in
order to force the fighting — in order to accomplish
the work. Likewise when Craven disobeyed orders
and lost his life in an effort to get into closer quar
ters with the enemy, Farragut had only words of
praise for him.
That the man who had labored all his life to train
himself would make full preparations for a great
battle was a matter of course, but one feature of his
character stands out most prominently whenever he
had such preparations in mind. He never called a
council of war to determine whether he ought to
fight. His officers were invited to council only
that they might consider how best to fight. No
man ever had stronger faith in aggressive action
than Farragut, and yet he could wait when it was
necessary. He had fortitude as well as courage.
And with all else he had the inspiration of genius
as is abundantly proved by his words quoted in the
dedication of this book.
The admiral is memorable, too, because during all
his long and laborious career he preserved his
sweetness of temper and sense of humor. We will
not forget that he was half Spanish. He could be
merry when the occasion served, and men who
knew him well, when asked what they remember
about him best, first of all almost invariably speak
of his smile.

INTRODUCTION 21
Finally we may mention his religious tempera
ment. Of sour-visaged religion he had not a trace.
He did not join a church until after the Civil War.
But throughout his life he believed in the power and
presence of Deity. He would not ask his captains
for advice but he would appeal to his God. And
his appeals were characteristic. With the tor
pedoes under the bows of his ship his prayer was,
" Shall I go on * " And for every success he gave
most hearty thanks.
The greatest of our naval officers was also the
most sincere and upright of men. In the history
of the leaders of the American people he stands with
the highest. Not one word or act of his needs
apology or explanation. In his private life he was
without blemish, and as an officer of the navy he
was a model for those coming after him.
J. R. S.
Northwood, N. T.

DAVID G. FARRAGUT

CHAPTER I
A BACKWOODS BOY
David Glasgow Farragut, the first admiral
of the American navy, was born on July 5, 1801,
at a place then called Stony Point, but afterward
Low's Ferry, near Knoxville, Tennessee. The
house stood on the north side of the Holston River."
The main highway from the North Carolina settle
ments to Nashville, ran past it. Major George
Farragut, the admiral's father, had a license
(granted in April, 1797) to operate a ferry at this
point, and the family estate amounted to 640 acres
of land.
But it should be remembered that this main high
way west of the Alleghanies was but a blazed trail
in an almost unbroken forest. Through the energy
of such men as James Robertson and John Sevier,
people from the east side of the range had been led
across the Alleghanies down the Holston, overland
to the Cumberland, and as far west as Nashville.
The settled region west of the mountains was in
form an irregular triangle whereof the Ohio and
Muskingum Rivers were the north line, the Holston
1 Haywood's " Major George Farragut."

24 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
the south line, and Nashville the apex. The Cher-
okees still owned wide breadths of land in the east
ern part of Tennessee, and west of Nashville the
Chickasaws held undisputed sway. It was not un
til October 24, 1801, that the whites obtained the
right to blaze a trail from Nashville through the
Chickasaw country to Natchez.
The great red war path of the forest-covered val
ley of the Tennessee lay but a few miles south of
the place where Farragut was born, and beyond
that path was the land of the Creek warriors as
well as that of the Cherokees — a fighting host that
numbered thousands — and these warriors were
steadily urged by the jealous Spaniards at New
Orleans, to exterminate the Yankee pioneers.
The house in which Farragut was born was built
of logs. " Originally it was 40x20, but additional
rooms built later greatly added to its size." 1 The
wolves howled in the near-by forest during the long
winter nights, while the red deer ate the grain in
the narrow fields during the summer-time.
It was the day of log rolling, when the neighbors
for miles around gathered at the new-made clearing
of a settler, and made sport of the work of throw
ing the fallen trees into huge piles for burning;
and then after a satisfying supper of meats and
"journey cake," they wrestled and ran races by
the light of the moon, jumping on a log and crow
ing like roosters when they won, and finally danced
half the night away to the music of a well-scraped
fiddle. 1 Haywood.

A BACKWOODS BOY 25
But what is of still greater interest in the bi
ography of this man-o' -warsman is the fact that his
father and neighbors cultivated their fields with
long flint-lock rifles ever at hand to repel the red
men that came from the south in search of scalps
and plunder. The walls of the Farragut home
were pierced with loopholes, like a frontier fort.
"I remember," says Farragut in his journal,1
" that on one occasion during my father's absence, a
party of Indians came to our house, which was some
what isolated, when my mother, who was a brave
and energetic woman, barred the door in the most
effectual manner, and sent all of us trembling little
ones up into the loft, while she guarded the en
trance with an axe. The savages attempted to
parley with her, but she kept them at bay, until
finally they departed, for some reason which is
unknown, their intentions having been evidently
hostile." In a letter written to Dr. Lyman C. Draper, on
September 20, 1853, * Farragut adds that he was
five years old at the time. It was therefore some
time in the year 1806 that this raid occurred. Dur
ing the parley the Indians offered to go away if the
mother would give them some whiskey. She there
upon opened the door, part way, to comply with
the offer, when one of the Indians struck at her
with a knife. " But she closed the door by the bar
and the knife stuck in the door. They soon after
went away."
1 Quoted in Loyall Farragut's life of the admiral.
* Am. Hist. Rev.

26 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
George Anthony Magin Farragut, father of the
admiral, was a full-blooded Spaniard. He was
born in Cuidadela, on the Island of Minorca, in the
Mediterranean, on September 29, 1755, and the an
cient records of that place show that there was
fighting blood in the family as far back as the
year 1229. In 1776 George came to America,
joined the patriot forces and served with credit
during the Revolutionary War. It is noted par
ticularly that at the battle of the Cowpens he saved
the life of Colonel William Washington. After the
war he went with two comrades to Tennessee where
he was employed as a surveyor. But while he was
yet living in North Carolina he had become enam
ored of a maiden named Elizabeth, the daughter of
Captain John Shine, of Dobbs County, and at a for
gotten date he returned to the Old North State,
married her and carried her to Tennessee.
There George Farragut, because of his personal
characteristics and military training, became a man
of much local importance. He was a typical fron
tiersman in his ability to turn his hand to any kind
of work. Knoxville, for instance, boasts of a house
still standing that was built by him. He was a
famous hunter — "a glorious Indian hunter, and a
great provider in great straits for food," as an old
comrade said of him.
On November 3, 1790, William Blount, Governor
of the territory south of the Ohio, appointed him
muster master of the district of Washington, and a
major of cavalry. He was also something of a land
speculator, as the old records show, and it was on

A BACKWOODS BOY 27
December 9, 1796, that he bought the tract where
the future admiral was born.
Any one who could gain credit for ability among
the patriots of North Carolina during the War of
the Revolution, and thereafter obtain rank among
the frontiersmen of Tennessee, was, beyond ques
tion, an able fighting man. It is natural to suppose
that the son of such a man would have similar
abilities. But when we consider the inherited
fighting qualities of Admiral David Glasgow Far
ragut we will also remember the picture of his
mother, standing by the barred door of her log
cabin, axe in hand, awaiting the attack of hostile
savages. Among the leading citizens of Tennessee with
whom George Farragut was associated for a number
of years was William Charles Cole Claiborne.
When Louisiana was transferred to the United
States (December 20, 1803), he was appointed gov
ernor of the territory and, according to a tradition
in the Farragut family, George Farragut removed
from Tennessee to Louisiana through his influence.
The governor, having "executive, legislative and
judicial powers over a vast territory, peopled by
heterogeneous races," was burdened with a task
more difficult, perhaps, than any ever set before
such an officer in America. His position was dan
gerous as well as difficult, for assassination was a
common occurrence among the floating population
of New Orleans, while dueling was a pastime with
the gentry. It was therefore natural for Claiborne
to bring to his support such of his friends as were

28 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
skilled in the arts of war. Thomas Jefferson was
President of the Nation and Claiborne stood very
close to him. It is not improbable that when Jef
ferson developed his policy of building gunboats
for harbor defense, instead of a navy, Claiborne
saw in it an opportunity for obtaining congenial
employment in government service for the venture
some Major Farragut. At any rate, Major George
Anthony Magin Farragut was appointed, on March
2, 1807, a sailing master in the American navy, and
was ordered to New Orleans to take command of
Gunboat 11, a schooner-rigged craft of shoal draft,
carrying four cannon.
From the admiral's letter previously quoted, it
appears that Sailing Master Farragut departed for
his new post immediately after receiving the ap
pointment, leaving his wife to follow him with the
children and such household effects as she could
bring, in a flatboat. This flatboat journey was
made in the fall of 1807.
It is a memorable fact that at the time of the Far
ragut migration the territory around New Orleans
was a troubled and perilous part of the country be
cause the American government claimed the land
between Lake Pontchartrain and Pensacola as a part
of the Louisiana territory, while Spain, with better
reason, claimed it as a part of Florida. Having
faith in the claim of the United States, George Far
ragut, on arrival at New Orleans, bought 900 acres
of land "in what is now Jackson County, Missis
sippi. It was situated at a slight promontory,
called Point Plaquet," since called Farragut's

A BACKWOODS BOY 29
Point, and lay on the west side of the Pascagoula
River, but well within West Florida.
Some of the few incidents of George Farragut's
life in New Orleans and the regions roundabout,
are of particular interest. For one thing, he made
a voyage from New Orleans to Havana in a pirogue
— a kind of dug-out canoe built of two tree trunks
hollowed out and fastened together. Then, being
on duty at the naval station in New Orleans while
managing his Pascagoula estate, he was obliged to
make numerous journeys across Lake Pontchartrain.
For this purpose he used a yawl and he frequently
carried his children (he had three sons) with him.
Young David wrote afterward that his first experi
ence on salt water was a trip across the lake in this
yawl while the wind was " blowing almost a gale."
As they passed a gunboat stationed there, its cap
tain invited the senior Farragut to " come on board
until the blow is over." But Farragut replied:
"I can ride it out better than you can." And
that was his candid opinion, for he had entire con
fidence in his own boat, and a sailor's natural con
tempt for such craft as the gunboats of that day.
While making these trips the father and his boys
often slept on the sandy beach wrapped in the
boat's sail. When his friends suggested that he
was subjecting his children to great risks he re
plied: " Now is the time to conquer their fears! "
Thus not only did David Glasgow Farragut
spring from good fighting stock, but he was taught-
as a child to faee peril with unruffled composure.

CHAPTER H
A MIDSHIPMAN IN THE AMERICAN NAVY
It is a fact of much importance in the life of Ad
miral Farragut that he was associated in his earliest
years with men who made their names memorable
in American history. The influence of Governor
Claiborne has been mentioned. Still more influ
ential were the Porters of the old navy.
While Sailing Master George Farragut was on
duty at the New Orleans naval station, he had for
an associate a Captain David Porter, of whose
career every historian wishes that more could be
known, for he saw service in the Revolution as cap
tain, both of a privateer, and of a ship in the Mas
sachusetts navy. He was also at one time in the
Jersey prison ship of infamous memory.
It is particularly well worth recalling here that
he was in command of the American schooner
Eliza, lying in the port of Jeremie, San Domingo,
in 1796, when a British press gang tried to board
her. The old captain, calling his men to the rail,
made a fight for liberty wherein several were killed
and wounded on each side, and the men-stealers
were finally driven off. This exploit made Captain
Porter famous. Because of it Washington appointed
him a sailing-master in the regular navy, and he
was, in due time, ordered to the naval station at
New Orleans. One may well believe that young

MIDSHIPMAN IN AMERICAN NAVY 31
Farragut often heard the stories of Captain Porter's
adventures, and particularly of that in the port of
Jeremie, for the captain and George Farragut,
while associates at New Orleans, became warm
friends. It is said that Captain Porter had been ordered
south because he was not in good health. He was,
at any rate, well on in years. One day while fish
ing from a small boat on Lake Pontchartrain he was
sunstruck and fell unconscious to the bottom of the
boat. In this condition he was found by Sailing
Master Farragut, who took him home to the plan
tation on the Pascagoula, where he was assiduously
nursed by the hospitable Mrs. Farragut, until she
was stricken with the yellow fever. The two died
within so brief a time that they were buried on the
same day (June 22, 1808).
The kindly work of George Farragut in caring
for the captain was to have far-reaching effect
upon the fortunes of his son, David Glasgow. For,
some time later, the captain's son, Commander
David Porter, came to New Orleans to take charge
of the naval station. To show his appreciation of
the kindness of the Farragut family, he offered to
adopt one of the motherless boys and train him for a
career in the navy.
At that time the oldest Farragut boy, William,
was already a midshipman, and when Porter's offer
was discussed during a visit, young David Glasgow,
as he writes in his diary, " said promptly " that he
would go. The diary adds that he was inspired to
make this decision by the commander's uniform,

32 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
and the uniform worn by young Midshipman Will
iam ; but one may believe that this was not a com
plete statement of aU the facts. While the joy of
wearing gold lace must have appealed to the boy,
the adventurous career for which the uniform stood
was not without its influence, even though he was
less than eight years old.
Something of what Commander Porter did to
earn fame, will appear further on in connection
with the War of 1812, and with the quasi war that
was waged on the Cuban pirates between 1819 and
1825. But as showing the already established char
acter of the man by whom young Farragut was
adopted, it should be recalled here that as a lad
of sixteen Commander Porter was in the fight for
liberty on the Eliza in the port of Jeremie. Later,
during West India voyages, he was twice impressed
into the British navy, but succeeded in escaping
both times. Naturally, as Soley points out,1 he
conceived "a personal antipathy for everything
British — a feeling not unlike that which the Eng
lish sailors of Drake's day entertained for every
thing Spanish." Having entered the navy as a
midshipman, young Porter had a part, during the
naval war with France, in the capture of the Insur-
gente by the Constellation, and he was with Lieu
tenant Rodgers who, with a dozen seamen, carried
the captured ship and two hundred prisoners
through a three-days' gale into St. Kitts. Later he
was executive officer of the schooner Experiment,
and had part in her remarkable series of fights
1 "Admiral Porter," p. 4.

MIDSHIPMAN IN AMERICAN NAVY 33
with the French and the pirates in the West Indies.
During the subsequent wars on the Mediterranean
pirates he was on the schooner Enterprise when she
captured a Tripolitan polacca; he distinguished
himself by leading a landing party that captured
old Tripoli, and he was finally captured by the
pirates when the Philadelphia ran on a reef in
Tripoli harbor.
It was by a man who had had that kind of a
career that David Glasgow Farragut was adopted
when less than eight years old.
Going at once to the commander's home, young
Farragut was adopted as a member of the family,
and thereafter accompanied him on such boat ex
peditions as were made on the river and bayous
of the vicinity. Some of these were undoubtedly
service expeditions, for it was in 1809, that the
famous pirates, Jean and Pierre Lafitte, began their
notorious career by smuggling slaves from the Gulf
across the bayous to the planters of the interior.
Young Farragut "soon became fond of this adven
turous sort of life," and it was admirably adapted
to fit him for the more stirring adventures that
were near at hand.
After a time Porter was ordered north, and
taking Farragut with him, he sailed from New
Orleans in the bomb brig Vesuvius, of 11 guns.
Farragut now took leave of his father forever.
Sailing Master George Farragut remained in the
navy until March 25, 1814, when he left, because
he had lost his health. He "died of a cough" at
Pascagoula, on June 4, 1817.

34 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
The Vesuvius went north by way of Havana,
where it was learned that a British man-o' -war had
recently fired on the United States brig Vixen. It
was during the most humiliating period of Ameri
can history that Farragut reached Havana. For
years the British authorities, urged on by the jeal
ous British merchants, had made systematic efforts
to injure American oversea commerce, and render
it tributary to Great Britain when it could not be
entirely destroyed. For many years, too, Ameri
can citizens, afloat in American ships, had been
taken by British press gangs and compelled to
serve without pay on British war-ships. British
frigates had blockaded American ports, firing on
all shipping passing in or out, and in one case
killing an American sailor well within American
waters. And then, to complete the humiliation of
the Nation, as the American frigate Chesapeake was
leaving the capes of Chesapeake Bay on a voyage
to Europe, she was attacked by a British frigate,
several of her crew were killed and wounded, and
finally three of her men, two of whom, it was ad
mitted, were American citizens who had been im
pressed into the British navy and had recently es
caped, were taken from her on the charge that they
were deserters from the British navy.
The attack on the Vixen was but one of a long
series of outrages on the American flag but Far
ragut mentions it in his log because it aroused his
anger, and cultivated his hatred of the aggressor.
"I looked upon this as an insult to be paid in
kind, and was anxious to discharge the debt with

MIDSHIPMAN IN AMERICAN NAVY 35
interest," he wrote afterward. And in comment
ing on this statement Captain Mahan, speaking as
an American naval officer, remarks :
"It is scarcely necessary to say how keenly this
feeling was shared by his seniors to whom the
Vixen incident was but one among many bitter
wrongs which the policy of their government had
forced them humbly to swallow."
On reaching Washington Porter took Farragut
with him on a visit to Mr. Paul Hamilton, of South
Carolina, then Secretary of the Navy. The lad's
desire to enter the navy was considered, and the
Secretary said he would make him a midshipman
as soon as he should become ten years old.
With this promise to encourage him, Farragut
was placed in a school in Washington, while Porter
returned to New Orleans. In the latter part of
1810, Porter was relieved of the command of the
New Orleans station. Returning north in a gun
boat by way of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers
to Pittsburg, he went to Washington where, on
December 17th, the Secretary of the Navy made
good his promise by issuing a midshipman's war
rant to young Farragut who was then just nine
years, five months and twelve days old.
The records of the Navy Department show that
he was appointed from Tennessee, and to Tennessee
he was accredited throughout his life. Although
George Farragut was a resident of New Orleans,
and owner of a plantation at Pascagoula, his love
for Tennessee made him claim it as his home state
so long as he lived.

36 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
Born on the frontier of the Nation and bred from
his early youth in the navy, it may well be said of
the first American admiral that he was a typical
American citizen as well as a model American
seaman.

CHAPTER IH
FARRAGUT AFLOAT AND IN BATTLE
Farragut's first service afloat was seen in the
frigate Essex, a ship of unique history, and one
whose good fame in the War of 1812 was exceeded
only by that of the Constitution. As Farragut
served on her through this war until she was cap
tured, it is worth while to relate that the Essex was
built at Salem, Massachusetts, for use in the unde
clared war with France which began in 1798.
As the reader will remember, this war grew out
of the unreasonable efforts of the French Republi
cans to compel the United States to join them in
their war with Great Britain. These efforts took
the shape of piratical aggressions on American com
merce, and more than three hundred American ves
sels were captured and confiscated in a single year.
Having no naval ships, save a few that the pirates
of the north coast of Africa had nagged us into
building, the government was compelled, when war
was at hand, to seek ships wherever they could be
found. In these straits the people of Salem began
to discuss, in the summer of 1798, the project of
building a frigate for government use, being incited
thereto, undoubtedly, by the losses they had sus
tained through French aggressions. When the sum
of $74,700 had been subscribed, a meeting was held
(October 25), and it was resolved "to build a frig-

38 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
ate of 32 guns and to loan the same to the govern
ment." Preble, in his " Ships of the Nineteenth Century,"
tells how the people of the region about Salem passed
the following winter in cutting and hauling timber
for the new ship, and that they "considered it a
patriotic duty to cut down the finest sticks of their
wood-lots for the chastisement of French insolence
and piracy."
The Essex was launched on September 30, 1799.
She was 141 feet long on the gun deck, 37 feet beam,
and 12 1 feet deep. She measured 840.21 tons. As
indicating the care taken in building her, it is re
lated that her first suit of canvas fitted her so well
that she never sailed so swiftly afterward. Her
battery, when her flag was hoisted, consisted of
26 long 12-pounders on the main deck, and ten
9-pounders on the quarter deck, but was afterward
changed. In the French war the Essex saw no fighting, but
she sailed for Batavia on January 6, 1800, to convoy
home a fleet of American merchantmen, and was
thus the first American man-o' -war to round the
Cape of Good Hope. In the wars on the African
pirates (1801 and 1805), the Essex was in the Medi
terranean, and a part of her crew landed and helped
in the capture of Derne (April 27, 1805), when four
teen of them were killed.
The Essex was then laid up in ordinary, for a
time, but in January, 1809, was again commissioned
and sent to Europe to carry dispatches which now
make a part of an immense mass of dreary read-

AFLOAT AND IN BATTLE 39
ing for the patriotic student of American history.
When she returned she brought home William
Pinckney, who for five years had represented the
American government in Great Britain with unsur
passed ability. By his return diplomatic relations
with Great Britain were severed, and the War of
1812 was at hand.
From the day when Thomas Jefferson was in
augurated President of the United States until No
vember 2, 1810, every possible effort had been made
by the American government to avoid war with
Great Britain. Jefferson, and after him Madison,
had believed that every European aggressor could
be restrained and brought to reason by what they
called ' ' peaceable coercion. " In a letter to Thomas
Paine, written March 18, 1801, Jefferson said:
"We shall avoid implicating ourselves with the
Powers of Europe even in support of principles
which we mean to pursue. We believe we can en
force those principles as to ourselves by peaceable
means." In another letter he tells how this was to be
done: " Our commerce is so valuable to them that they
will be glad to purchase it when the only price we
ask is to do us justice. I believe we have in our
hands the means of peaceable coercion."
That is to say, no matter what aggressions a na
tion of Europe might commit, we had only to with
draw our trade from the aggressor to compel him
to end the aggression and pay for the damage we
had already suffered.

40 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
This policy had been followed with astonishing
stubbornness, but the British found it more profita
ble to prey on American commerce than to "pur
chase" it by "doing us justice." Confiscation of
American ships and cargoes under piratical Orders
in Council, and murderous attacks on American
crews became matters of as common occurrence as
gales of wind at sea. But all these aggressions
were met by Non-Intercourse Acts and Embargoes
only. To stifle the honest indignation which arose
at times, the people were told that to build a navy
would necessitate the laying of taxes that had been
justly odious under the preceding administration.
And with infamous iteration members of Congress
said that it would be impossible to succeed on the
ocean in a war with Great Britain.
"The idea of our meeting Great Britain on the
ocean is too ludicrous to be repelled by serious
argument," said Congressman Nicholson in the
House, and the assertion was applauded. The
work of John Paul Jones was never so much as
mentioned in the prolonged debates between 1804
and 1812. The deeds of Truxton were forgotten ;
the work of Sterrett and Decatur was ignored.
Aud to quiet the clamor of honest manhood which
arose at each fresh outrage, the President, with de
liberate intent to evade the issue, talked well while
he postponed action, and his followers in Congress
blinded the indignant, by voting money for gun
boats which were known to be useless.
From a contemplation of the supposed impossi
bility of success in a naval war with Great Britain,

AFLOAT AND IN BATTLE 41
some leaders of the people came to believe that it
would be impossible to defend our seaports ; and
Congressman R. Nelson, on January 23, 1807, stood
up in the House and said, "When the enemy comes
let them take our towns, and let us retire into the
country." In fact a time came when, to compel
Great Britain "to do us justice," Congress passed
a bill1 to lay " a line of blocks and chains across
New York harbor."
John Randolph, though the greatest of American
blatherskites, did not live in vain. For, clothed in
riding habit, carrying a whip, and followed by a
pack of hounds, he strode into the House of Con
gress, and facing the cowering representatives of
the Nation, told them that they could not be kicked
into fighting.
Judged by these open assertions and the acts of the
majority of Congress, the American people had be
come a nation of cowards, their property the " safe
booty ' ' of every pirate. And the people of Europe,
with hearty contempt, accepted them at the estimate
of their Congress.
In the meantime, however, a war party had been
springing up in Congress and the Nation, with men
like John C. Calhoun and Henry Clay as its leaders.
The growing power of this party had impelled
President Madison to an unwonted state of mind,
and it was carrying the country into its second war
for independence.
The last act of "peaceable coercion" by self-
strangulation, which Congress passed, was the Em-
1 See Aot of February 10, 1809.

42 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
bargo of March 1, 1809, as amended by the Act of
June 28th, of the same year. It was provided in
this act that, for a specified period, no trade should
be carried on between the United States and either
France or Great Britain. In due time this act ex
pired by limitatiop, but it was further provided
that in case either party to the offensive measures
against American commerce should relent, after the
expiration of the embargo, the President was to
revive it in reference to the unrelenting nation.
Napoleon, in due time, took advantage of the
situation, and by falsehood and treachery led the
American government and people to suppose that
he had repealed his decrees in restraint of American
commerce. This change of policy was first asserted
in a letter to his Minister of Foreign Affairs
(Cadore), dated July 31, 1810. The deception of the
American officials was not complete, but it was suffi
cient. In a letter from Cadore to the French minis
ter at Washington, received on September 25th, the
new policy was announced. It was by no means a
satisfactory document. But Madison, pushed on by
the war party in Congress, accepted it as sincere, for
war in some quarter was then seen to be absolutely
necessary. More than once men of this party had
urged a declaration of war against both France and
England. It is easy to show now that we had
ample cause for taking strong measures against
France, but policy demanded that one nation only
be chosen, and Madison therefore revived the em
bargo against Great Britain. His proclamation of
November 2, 1810, said, "it has been officially

AFLOAT AND IN BATTLE 43
made known to this government" that Napoleon's
decrees are revoked. Secretary of the Treasury
Gallatin sent orders the same day to all collectors
of customs announcing that commerce with Great
Britain would end on February 2, 1811.
This proclamation was the first step toward a
war with England. In answer to it a British fleet
was sent to blockade New York harbor, as it had
been blockaded while previous non-intercourse and
embargo acts were in force. The President, again
spurred on by the leaders of the war party, resented
this aggression and an American squadron, under
Commodore Rodgers, pitifully small in numbers,
but with the men behind the guns eager for a fight,
was ordered to sea May 6, 1811, to protect the flag.
We can imagine how the blood of Midshipman
Farragut was stirred when he heard about this
order, especially as it proved to him that his oppor
tunity to see service would soon come.
Late in the evening of May 16th, Commodore
Rodgers, who was on the frigate President, over
hauled the British sloop of war Little Belt. He
supposed her to be the British frigate Guerrier, that
had recently impressed an American sailor from a
merchantman on the coast, and he intended to re
cover the man. After a hail or two from each side
the Little Belt fired a gun, and a brief battle fol
lowed. The conflict is memorable chiefly because the
captain of the Little Belt reported afterward under
oath, although incorrectly, that he had maintained
a fight with the Yankee frigate for about three-
quarters of an hour, and that he had forced her " to

44 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
stand from us," at the end of that time. It was a
high honor for a sloop so long to endure the fire of
a frigate if she could endure it. This testimony
shows how British naval officers then regarded the
fighting ability of the Americans. The fight is also
to be kept in mind because, although it lasted
eighteen minutes, the President did no material
damage to the Little Belt. The American sailors
had not then learned to shoot.
It was soon after this fight that the Essex returned
home from Europe bringing Minister Pinckney.
She made port at Norfolk, Va., where orders were
at once issued to refit her for immediate service.
Captain David Porter (he was as yet in rank
only a commander) was ordered to do this work.
It was then that young Farragut, who, since re
ceiving his warrant, had been at school at Chester,
Pa., first saw active service. For Porter at once
took the lad, who was then just past his tenth
birthday, from the school to the Essex. It was
his first visit to Norfolk, which was to become the
scene of some of the most important events of his life.
Of Farragut's first work as a midshipman, we
have one brief glimpse in a letter written by Cap
tain Porter and preserved at the Boston Navy Yard :
August 9, 1811.
" Sir: — I have sent Mr. Farragut and David Tit-
timary on board, and beg you take them under your
particular care. When the wherry is perfectly dry
I will thank you to send her over to me every
morning at half-past nine, under charge of Mr.
Farragut."

AFLOAT AND IN BATTLE 45
The letter was directed to " Lieutenant John
Downes, United States Frigate Essex, Navy Yard."
Downes was then executive officer of the Essex, and
was afterward a commodore in the navy. The
notable facts in the letter are that the ten-year-old
midshipman was mentioned as "Mr. Farragut,"
and that in spite of his youth and lack of experi
ence, he had the responsibility of commanding a
wherry's crew of seamen.
Another significant glimpse of the young mid
shipman is found in an anecdote related by Mahan.
Farragut, having been sent ashore in charge of the
boat one day, was obliged to wait some time at the
landing. In the usual alongshore fashion a crowd of
dock loungers gathered near the wherry and began
to make remarks about the personal appearance
of the tiny young midshipman who was dressed
in a new uniform and was standing fully erect in
the stern sheets, after a manner that remained with
him through life. The remarks of the crowd were
no doubt exceedingly irritating to the lad, and cer
tainly were still more so to the crew of the boat,
who held the honor of their ship and officers in the
highest estimation.
But Farragut and his men remained silent and
dignified under the chafing until one of the loung
ers procured a sprinkling pot full of water and
began sprinkling the little midshipman, at the
same time expressing the opinion that watering
would make him grow. At that the bow oarsman
with his boat hook caught the lounger in the
pocket, and by a jerk tumbled him into the boat,

46 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
where he was well pounded, while the other mem
bers of the crew seized stretchers, oars and boat
hooks, and jumping ashore, dashed into the crowd,
whom they chased up to Market Square, while
Farragut, with his long dirk in hand, followed and
cheered them on.
At the square the police interfered, and the little
midshipman and his men were haled to court, where
they were bound over to keep the peace. It was
not a lawful fight, but the incident showed first that
though but ten years and a month old the lad had
self-restraint, as well as self-respect, and that he
would fight when the proper time came.
As Porter said to Lieutenant Downes that night,
the lad was made up of "three pounds of uniform
and seventy pounds of fight." '
In the later years of his life Farragut used to tell
how Porter once caught him chewing tobacco on
the Essex. Seeing the stains on Farragut's lips the
captain clapped his hand on the lad's mouth and
made him swallow the stuff. Farragut never used
tobacco in any form after that experience.
In some memoranda on "The Two Admirals,"
furnished by Mr. Richard B. Porter, son of Admiral
D. D. Porter to the Century Magazine, is an account
of young Farragut that illustrates one of his pe
culiarities while on the Essex.
" He was the life of the midshipman's mess,"
said Mr. Porter, "full of fun and as agile as a cat.
He liked nothing better than to climb to the top of
the mainmast and sit curl-legged, gazing out to sea.
1 Barnes in "Midshipman Farragut."

AFLOAT AND IN BATTLE 47
"'Where's Glasgow?' the commodore would
ask, missing him.
"'Up on the mainmast, sir, looking for fresh
air,' the quartermaster would reply."
In his diary Farragut says of the Essex : "I was
exceedingly pleased with the ship and her officers,"
and after she had sailed from port he adds the im
portant statement : ' ' We exercised the crew until
they were brought into as great a state of perfection
as ever existed, probably, in the navy." More
over, the Essex proved " the smartest in the squad
ron, and Commodore Rodgers complimented our
captain highly. ' '
The time when a British sloop of war could en
dure the fire of an American frigate for eighteen
minutes and escape unhurt was passing. But in
this cruise no aggressive enemy was found annoying
American commerce, and beyond a narrow escape
from shipwreck in a gale off the bluffs at Newport,
R. I., there was no incident of interest to record.
In the spring of 1812 we find the Essex in New
York harbor, and a letter written by her purser,
Melancton W. Bostwick, under date of "17 April,
1812, on board the United States frigate Essex, at
the Narrows below New York," shows very well
the spirit of her crew. It says :
"We are now, sir, going to sea, in every respect
prepared for action, and should we fall in with any
of the British cruisers which infest our coast, they
will not have a Chesapeake to deal with. The
Essex is rated a 32-gun frigate, but mounts 44, and
carries about 350 men, as eager for a skirmish with

48 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
the British as any set of men you ever saw ; I be
lieve that many of them would fast three days for
the sake of a dust."
On June 18, 1812, the long humiliation of the
American people came to an end. Though Madi
son, as well as Jefferson, by the policy of " peace
able coercion" had invited insult and outrage, it
was literally true, as Madison said in two of his
war messages, that the American people had shown
"unexampled forbearance" and patience under
aggressions that were singularly brutal. To the
astonishment of the world they would fight at last.
It is a curious and memorable fact that, when
war was declared, the administration purposed
keeping such ships as we had (nine in all that were
ready) within the range of the protecting guns of
our forts, lest the British should capture them all.
It was the natural instinct of politicians who for
ten years had talked of "peaceable coercion" to
do this; but the spirit of the American people,
which the politicians could not appreciate, shone
forth in the navy, and two captains, William Bain-
bridge and Charles Stewart, by spirited remon
strances prevailed upon the timorous executive, and
the ships were ordered out to try their strength.
A small squadron that included the Essex, had
been gathered at New York under Commodore
Rodgers just previous to the declaration of hostili
ties, and when the word came, all the ships except
her put to sea. She was detained by the necessity
of making repairs, the need of which was not ap
parent when Dr. Bostwick wrote his letter. Farra-

AFLOAT AND IN BATTLE 49
gut tells in his journal that while the crew worked
at the rigging the declaration of war was read to
them on three successive days, and they were told
that if any British subject was on board he could
have his discharge by asking for it. No one re
sponded, but when all were called to the capstan
to swear their allegiance, one man, who was really
an American, but who wanted to go ashore for a
spree, declined to take the oath. At that his mess
mates, who knew his birthplace, were so angry that
they tarred and feathered him as a coward — a fact
that seems worthy of mention to show the condi
tions prevailing on the Essex during Farragut's
first experience aboard ship.
On July 3d, the Essex put to sea in search of the
British frigate Thetis, a 36-gun ship reported on
her way to South America with specie. The Thetis
was not found, but a convoy of British merchant
men were overhauled, and a brig, with 150 soldiers
and some general officers on board, was taken out.
The frigate Minerva in charge of the convoy,
though of equal force, declined to fight the Essex,
and the latter, because of the strength of some of
the ships of the convoy, could not close in on
the Minerva.
On August 13, 1812, Farragut first smelled gun
powder under service conditions. A sloop of war
was seen bearing down upon the Essex, and Cap
tain Porter put drags over the side of his ship, and
then made sail as if eager to escape. The stranger
at once gave chase and the crew of the Essex was
sent to quarters, though the ports were kept shut

50 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
to continue deceiving the enemy until she was
alongside. In due. time the stranger arrived within range
and fired a gun. The Essex hove to, and then the
other ship crossed astern. She was now within
"the lion's reach," as Farragut writes, and Old
Glory, then contemptuously called by the enemy
"the gridiron flag," was flung to the breeze. At
sight of the flag the British crew cheered and fired
a broadside, but while their smoke was yet in the
air, the ports of the Essex were opened, and for
eight minutes a steady fire was maintained. The
enemy at first tried to run, but was shot to pieces
and hauled down his flag. The ship proved to be
the British sloop of war Alert, of 20 guns.
The story of the fight, as told by Purser Bost
wick, is particularly interesting because it describes
the feelings of the crew of which Farragut was a
member. A letter he wrote at the end of the cruise
says :
"We left New York on the 2d of July, and
during the cruise were as far south as 28° north
latitude and north as far as 47° north latitude, and
as far east as 30° west longtitude. We have cap
tured nine of the enemy's ships and brigs. I pre
sume you have seen an account, as I am informed
it has been published, of our first capture, the par
ticulars of which reflect as much honor on the
American, as it does disgrace on the British, flag.
The next succeeding seven were merchantmen, four
of them with cargoes, ordered for the United States
— (we have only as yet heard of the arrival of one,
a West Indiaman), — two with no cargo, burnt ; one
sent into Newfoundland as a cartel for the purpose

AFLOAT AND IN BATTLE 51
of effecting an exchange of prisoners ; and our last
prize captured on the 13th of August, H. B. M.
sloop of war Alert of 20 guns, commanded by Cap
tain T. L. Langharne, after an action of eight min
utes, without the loss of a drop of American blood ;
the enemy had 5 men wounded, 3 dangerously,
and it is stated by the crew that they had 13 men
killed and thrown overboard before we got posses
sion of her, and from examining the course and
effect of our shot, it is presumed that at least that
number fell a sacrifice to British pride and arro
gance ; and we are now convinced, notwithstanding
Captain Bingham's assertion to the contrary, that
a British sloop of war has the assurance to com
mence an action on an American frigate, within
short pistol shot, for such they told us they knew
us to be, and when our flag went up, and they
under our quarter, they had the impudence to give
three cheers, which did. us as little injury as their
five broadsides which followed it in succession.
We returned their fire as fast as our guns could be
brought to bear, and in the short space of eight
minutes their pride was humbled, their flag was
struck to a Yankee, with seven feet of water in her
(the Alert's) hold ; then it was our turn to cheer.
She was much cut to pieces in every part and it was
evident that had she not struck the moment she
did, but received the broadside which we were on
the point of firing, she must most inevitably have
gone down, and very probably before our boats
could have gotten out to save her crew from a
watery grave. When her commander came on
board to deliver up his sword, he informed Captain
Porter the ship was sinking which we however pre
vented by wearing her around and bringing her
shot holes above water." *
' Quoted by Admiral George Dewey, United States Navy, in
Navy League Journal, October, 1904.

52 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
This fight, unequal as were the forces, was mem
orable. For in the action between the President (a
much more powerful ship than the Essex) and the
Little Belt, a ship of the Alert class, the firing
lasted for eighteen minutes, yet the Little Belt
was able to go on her way not badly hurt. Now,
at the end of eight minutes, the fire of the Essex
had cut the Alert to pieces so badly that when an
American lieutenant boarded her, he found that she
had seven feet of water in her hold. On the ship
where Farragut got his first lessons in the art of
war the men were trained to aim their guns.
Curiously enough, the prisoners from the prizes
were so loosely guarded that some time later they
conspired to take the Essex. Arms were secured,
and the moment of uprising was at hand, when one
of them, with a pistol in hand, went to Farragut's
hammock to see if he were asleep. The lad was
awake, but seeing the pistol in the man's hand, he
pretended that he was not until the man left. Then
Farragut hastened to inform Captain Porter, who
ran to the berth deck and began to shout :
"Fire! Fire!"
Ever since leaving port the captain had been ex
ercising his men at fire drill. He had sounded the
alarm at all times of the night, and he had even
built smudges in the hold to give the men the idea
that she really was burning. Hearing this cry the
crew ran to their stations in perfect order, while the
prisoners were so confused and alarmed that they
were easily controlled. Thereafter the Essex fell in
with the British frigate Shannon and another ship

AFLOAT AND IN BATTLE 53
that gave chase. The Essex ran until night, when,
seeing the Shannon well separated from her con
sort, Porter turned. By swinging a small anchor
to the main yard whence it could be easily dropped
into the rigging of the enemy to hold him fast, and
in other ways, the Essex was prepared to attack the
Shannon by boarding. It was a most hazardous
enterprise, for the Shannon was bowling along at no
less than ten knots an hour and it was likely that
the Essex would be traveling at least four when
striking her. A collision like that in the night
was likely to dismast both ships, and might sink
them. But the Essex failed to find the enemy, and
the attempt is worthy of mention only because it
shows something of the daring of the man by whom
Farragut was first trained in the duties of a naval
officer. Finally, having run short of food, the Essex re
turned to the Delaware for supplies. She had been
out seventy -two days. Captain Porter expected to
put to sea once more after only a trifling delay ;
but on arrival he found that his ship was destined
for a more interesting adventure. How this cruise
proved of lasting honor to the navy, and was to end
in a battle that served better than any other of
that war to rehabilitate the American people in
the eyes of the world, if not in their own estimation,
shall now be told.

CHAPTER TV
CAPTAIN OF A SHIP WHEN TWELVE YEARS OLD
It appears from the record that when Captain
Porter returned with the Essex to the Delaware
for provisions he was disappointed in finding none
there. The government at Washington had fol
lowed the policy of "peaceable coercion" for so
long a time that a small bit of war-like work such
as the preparation of provisions for a single ship,
could not be attended to properly.
However, the failure proved beneficial in the end.
Porter had recommended some time previously,
that a squadron be sent to the Pacific Ocean to des
troy the enemy's commerce — especially the whale-
ships cruising there. It was decided now to follow
this advice, and the Constitution, Captain William
Bainbridge, and the Hornet (sloop of war), Master-
Commandant James Lawrence, with the Essex,
were detailed for the work.
Accordingly, after overhauling the rigging and
taking in supplies, the Constitution and the Hornet,
which were at Boston, sailed on October 26, 1812,
for the Pacific. The Essex sailed from the Dela
ware, two days later, to join them. Porto Praya,
in the Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of Africa,
had been appointed as the meeting-place, and at this
far-away harbor the Essex arrived November 27th.

CAPTAIN WHEN TWELVE YEARS OLD 55
The Constitution and the Hornet were not there,
and the Essex anchored for five days to get in fresh
water and provisions. Then she sailed to Fernando
de Noronha, the place that had been appointed for
meeting in case of failure at Porto Praya. On
December llth, Porter had the good fortune to
fall in with the British packet Nocton, having on
board $55,000 in coin, which was a prize of
material use, as shall appear.
On the 15th Fernando de Noronha was reached
and a letter was received from Commodore Bain-
bridge, directing the Essex to cruise off Cape Frio,
and wait for the Constitution and the Hornet, for a
certain length of time, after which, failing to meet
his consorts, Captain Porter was to go to St.
Sebastian's Island and thence to St. Catherine's
Island further down the Brazilian coast.
The Essex reached her station off Cape Frio on
December 29th. A British ship of the line — the
Montagu — was known to be stationed in those
waters, but Porter held his place until rough
weather and heavy seas so strained the masts and
rigging of the Essex as to make it necessary for
her to enter port and refit. Accordingly he bore
away for St. Catherine's Island, 500 miles down
the coast of Brazil, where he found a harbor
fit for his purpose, and sufficiently far from the
Montagu. He arrived there on January 20, 1813.
As showing the ingenuity of Farragut's instructor
it may be worth mentioning that Porter worked
the Essex through a dead calm to a good anchorage
at St. Catherine's by means of two sea anchors —

56 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
sails stretched to small spars that, when hauled aft
alongside the ship, stood upright in the water, and
when dragged forward to the spritsail-yards for a
new grip, floated on the surface. The speed at
tained with this device was about two knots (or sea
miles) an hour.
The refitting was done rapidly in spite of squally
weather, and then on January 25th, a small coaster
came into port from Rio de Janeiro, the captain of
which told Porter that the Montagu had captured
an American sloop of war that had been cruising
with a frigate on the Brazilian coast. The story
was untrue, for in the meantime the Constitution
had captured the British frigate Java, and the
Hornet was then blockading the Bonne Citoyenne
in the harbor of Bahia. But Porter had no reason
for doubting it ; and he naturally supposed the
sloop was the Hornet. It was also reasonable to
think that the captain of the Montagu would
learn that the Essex was refitting at St. Catherine's,
and would come in search of her. Therefore it was
necessary for the Essex to leave as soon as possible,
and with that necessity the opportunity of a life
time came to Captain David Porter.
Before nightfall his ship was on her way down
the harbor and on January 26, 1813, she headed
away for the Pacific. Porter had been waiting for
the Constitution and the Hornet to come down to St.
Catherine's and to join him in the cruise beyond the
Horn. But now, having no longer any hope that
either would arrive, he had decided that he would
go on the hazardous trip alone. It is a memorable

CAPTAIN WHEN TWELVE YEARS OLD 57
fact that Farragut's earliest training was under a
man who could thus promptly and courageously
choose a course that involved the greatest responsi
bility. As Mahan points out, too, it is a notable fact that
young Farragut, along with the others of the crew,
was put on short allowance of food immediately
after leaving port, although the ship was bound to
the stormiest waters of the world. The Essex had
been unable to procure either bread or flour at St.
Catherine's, and the food supply was so short that
when serving only a half a pound of bread per day
for each man on board she had enough for but three
months. With the men perpetually hungry the ship en
tered the fierce cold and storms of Cape Horn.
Throughout the month of February, she butted the
tremendous seas and squalls found in that region,
and then on March 3d, a sea struck her that burst
in, from stem to stern, every gun port on one side
of the ship. Immense volumes of water flooded in,
and many sailors, supposing the ship was going
down, fell on their knees and began to pray. But
in the midst of the danger, good, profane William
Kingsbury, boatswain's mate, ran up from below,
shouting to the men :
"Damn your eyes, put your best foot forward.
There is one side of the ship left yet ! "
"Long shall I remember the cheering sound of
his stentorian voice, which resembled the roaring
of a lion rather than that of a human being," wrote
Farragut in his diary.

58 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
Good courage proved as contagious as panic.
The men followed Kingsbury on deck where all
hands got the ship before the wind, patched up the
broken ports, and then drove her on her way. The
disastrous stroke proved the last of the storm. A
fair wind came next day and carried the Essex
up to the island called Mocha, on the Chilean coast,
where the crew were glad to land and shoot wild
horses in order to get a supply of fresh meat. Then
on the llth Valparaiso was reached and a good
supply of provisions was purchased with the money
taken from the captured Nocton.
On going ashore for news, Captain Porter found
that the Essex was needed in those waters to pro
tect American commerce as well as to destroy
British trade. For Chile had revolted against
Spain, and the Spanish viceroy in his efforts to
subdue the Chilenos, had fitted out several priva
teers to prey on their commerce ; and these priva
teers, on the plea that Spain was an ally of Great
Britain, had begun to capture American whalemen.
Accordingly, the Essex, as soon as supplies could
be brought on board, sailed north along the coast,
and on March 26th fell in with the privateer
Nereyda, of 15 guns. The Essex was flying the
British flag, and a lieutenant of the Nereyda
boarded her and talked with the utmost freedom.
He boasted of having captured two Yankee whalers
already, the crews of which were then held on the
Nereyda as prisoners.
Thereupon Porter seized the Nereyda, but, not
caring to send her to the United States, he threw

CAPTAIN WHEN TWELVE YEARS OLD 59
her guns and ammunition overboard, took off her
topgallant masts to cripple her speed, and sent her
to her own home with a message to the viceroy that
" was calculated to insure peaceable treatment to
American vessels "
The two whalers captured were the ship Barclay,
Captain Gideon Randall, of New Bedford, and the
Walker, Captain West, of Nantucket. The Walker
had been taken from her Spanish prize crew by
the British whaler Nimrod, carrying a letter of
marque, and she was sent to England. On March
27th, the Essex fell in with the Barclay, as her
prize crew were taking her into Callao, and cap
tured her.
To begin the work of clearing the sea of the
British whalers the Essex now sailed for the Gala
pagos Islands, a whaler resort lying 500 miles
off shore, and just south of the Equator. The
islands were reached on April 17th, and the Essex
cruised around them until the first of June when
she was obliged to head for the mainland for water.
During this time six British whalers were cap
tured. Three of these were taken on April 29th.
The first, — the Montezuma, Captain Baxter — was
overhauled by the Essex, early in the forenoon.
The other two were then from seven to nine miles
off and the wind dying out entirely, a boat expedi
tion, under First Lieutenant John Downes, was sent
in pursuit, and young Farragut was placed in charge
of Downes' s boat. The sailors worked the oars from
11 to 2 p. m., when though the Americans were yet
out of range, the whalers opened fire ; for the Brit-

60 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
ish boats were armed, and had letters of marque.
Downes divided his flotilla into two divisions, and
approaching one of the whalers at bow and stern,
hailed and asked the crew if they surrendered, at
the same time displaying, for the first time, the
American flag on a boarding pike instead of a flag
staff. At sight of the flag the whalemen began to
cheer, and Farragut notes that they were for the
most part American seamen who had been carried
on board by press gangs. Many of them were glad
to seek revenge by shipping on the Essex. The
other whaler surrendered a little later.
On June 8th, the Essex sailed for the coast and
arrived at Tumbez on the 19th. It is to be noted
that she first made the coast well to the south of the
port ; that is to say, to the windward. Then she ran
alongshore, in order to have the weather guage of
any of the enemy's ships she might find in port.
At Tumbez (on the bay of Guayaquil), the swift
est of the captured ships, the Atlantic, was armed
with ten 6-pounders and ten 18-pounder carro-
nades and commissioned as a cruiser, with a crew
of sixty men, under the name of Essex Junior. The
new cruiser was then ordered to convoy four of the
prizes to Valparaiso, among the four being the New
Bedford whaler Barclay, Captain Gideon Randall,
though Randall was no longer master of the ship.
As a lawful prize of the Essex, Captain Porter had
the right to designate her crew and officers, and he
did so by sending Midshipman Farragut to com
mand her, with a faithful crew from the Essex to
handle the sails.

CAPTAIN WHEN TWELVE YEARS OLD 61
On June 30th, the fleet (nine vessels all told)
sailed from Tumbez and reached off shore until
July 4th, when, having arrived within the trade
winds, the Essex Junior proceeded to head for
Valparaiso with her convoy, while the Essex, with
the other ships reached on toward the Galapagos
Islands. At that point Farragut' s ability and cour
age as an officer were put to their first great test.
Captain Randall, who had been sent along as navi
gating officer on the Barclay, wished to go whaling,
and was determined to do so, once he could get clear
of the Essex Junior. Having commanded ships
for many years, he was in no humor to take orders
from a youngster of a midshipman, Farragut at
this time being less than twelve years old.
One day Captain Randall had been blustering
around the deck in a way calculated to overawe the
whole crew, including Farragut.
" You will find yourself off New Zealand," he
said to them, "to which," as Farragut remarks in
his diary, " I decidedly demurred." The Barclay
had her main yards aback at that time.
"We were lying still, while the other ships were
fast disappearing from view, the commodore's going
north and the Essex Junior with her convoy, steer
ing to the south for Valparaiso," continues Farra
gut. "I considered that my day of trial had ar
rived. The time had come, at least, for me to
play the man ; so I mustered up courage and in
formed the captain that I desired the maintopsail
filled away, in order that we might close up with
the Essex Junior. He replied that he would shoot

62 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
any man who dared to touch a rope without his
orders.
" ' I will go my own course,' he said. ' I have no
idea of trusting myself with a damned nutshell.'
"Then he went below for bis pistols. I called
my right-hand man of the crew, and told him my
situation. I also informed him that I wanted the
maintopsail filled. He answered, ' Ay, ay, sir ! ' in
a manner which was not to be misunderstood, and
my confidence was perfectly restored. From that
moment I became master of the vessel and immedi
ately gave all necessary orders for making sail."
Farragut also told Captain Randall not to come
on deck with his pistols unless he wished to go over
board, and Randall remained below.
On arriving up with the Essex Junior, young
Farragut went over to her and made report to Cap
tain Downes of what had occurred. Randall also
went over, and tried to persuade Downes that it
was all a mere practical joke, intended to frighten
the youngster. "I replied by requesting Captain
Downes to ask him how he succeeded ; and to show
him that I did not fear him, I offered to go back
and proceed with him to Valparaiso," says Farra
gut in his diary. Accordingly Downes sent both
Farragut and Randall back to the Barclay, with
Farragut still serving as master, and thereafter
"everything went on amicably."
On reaching Valparaiso, Captain Downes found
important news for the Essex. The American con
sul at Buenos Ayres had written to say that on
July 5th the British frigate Phoebe, of 36 guns, in

CAPTAIN WHEN TWELVE YEARS OLD 63
command of Captain James Hillyar, "a vessel in
every way of superior force to the Essex " as Mahan
notes, and two sloops of war, the Cherub and the
Raccoon, each of 20 guns, had sailed from Rio de
Janeiro for the Pacific, to capture the Essex and
destroy the American ships on the whaling grounds.
With this news in hand the Essex Junior made
haste to the Galapagos Islands, carrying along the
officers and men who had handled the prize ships,
and on arrival there found that the Essex had cap
tured four more British whalers, all valuable.
The work of the Essex as a commerce destroyer
now came to an end. She had captured ten Brit
ish whalers, which with their cargoes were worth
$2, 500, 000. There was but one other British whaler
in the region, so far as Porter could learn, and she was
laid up in port. The New Bedford whaler Barclay
had been taken from the enemy and other Ameri
can whalers worth $2,500,000, had been protected
from destruction at the hands of the British armed
ships and Peruvian privateers.
The Essex— a ship that had cost but $154,687.77,
fully armed and equipped for war — had earned in
damage done to the enemy and in property saved
for her nation, at least $6,000,000 in one cruise that
was not a year long.

CHAPTER V
THE ESSEX AND THE BRITISH SQUADRON
On learning that the enemy had sent a vastly
superior force to meet him, Captain Porter sailed
from the Galapagos Islands to the Marquesas, far
to the westward, where he anchored in a port called
Nukahiva. For the moment he was running away.
His object in doing so, however, was to seek a safe
harbor where the Essex and the Essex Junior could
be thoroughly refitted for battle.
For six weeks they both remained at anchor,
during which time landing parties from the ships
went ashore to defend the natives near at hand
from the tribes in other parts of the island, and
establish peace. Farragut and the other boys on
board were not permitted to go on these expedi
tions because Porter thought they were too young
for such work. To keep them usefully employed,
they were put on one of the prizes where the chap
lain was established as a schoolmaster. But after four
o'clock, each day, they were allowed to go ashore,
and there Farragut learned from the natives how
to swim. In his journal he speaks with enthusi
asm of the prowess of the savages in the water,
saying that he often saw mothers go into the sea
with children no more than two years old, and that
the little ones " could swim like young ducks."
As for the refusal to let him join the war parties,

ESSEX AND BRITISH SQUADRON 65
he says he and his mates "were indignant." But
when a strange sail appeared in the offing, and the
Essex Junior was sent under Captain Downes to
learn her character, with the possibility of a sea
fight ahead, Farragut was sent along as aide to
Downes. The stranger proved to be an American
East Indiaman called the Albatross.
In the meantime the prisoners, having been al
lowed considerable latitude, took advantage of it
to plan an uprising to capture the Essex Junior,
but they were betrayed, and were thereafter con
fined. At the end of six weeks, the Essex and her
consort had been thoroughly refitted for battle, and
on December 4, 1813, they made sail for the South
American coast.
It is to be noted here that previous to this war
the guns originally mounted on the Essex had been
replaced. She now carried only six long 12-pound -
ers, and for the remainder of her battery had 40
32-pounder carronades — a short, thin-barreled gun
that used two pounds of powder to throw a 32-pound
shot. A long 32-pounder used from five to six
pounds. The extreme effective range of these light
guns was a little over three hundred yards. At a
greater range than that the 12-pounders she had
carried were much more effective because they
could penetrate an enemy's ship where the short
guns could not. But if the captain were able to
lie alongside the enemy, yard-arm to yard-arm,
then the short guns might prove slightly more
effective. On the whole, considering the fact that
our naval ships of that day were obliged to fight

66 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
an enemy with a vastly superior navy, and that
one of our ships could rarely hope to choose her
own position in time of battle, it was as serious a
mistake to arm a ship with short-range instead of
long-range guns, as to fritter away the nation's
resources on harbor -defense (that is to say, short-
range) gunboats ; but it is a mistake not repeated
in the twentieth century, for, caliber to caliber, our
modern guns are the most powerful afloat.
The Essex was fit for battle in hull and rigging
though not in guns. Her crew were fore and fit.
Every man was armed with a cutlass, kept as sharp
as a razor, a dirk that had been forged from a file,
and a pistol. Day after day the men were drilled
at the great guns, with muskets and with wooden
swords called single sticks, the use of sharpened
cutlasses being wholly impracticable in drill.
Their skill became so great that Farragut wrote
in after years : "I have never been in a ship where
the crew of the old Essex was represented but that
I found them to be the best swordsmen on board."
' ' With a crew thus perfectly drilled, ' ' says Mahan,
"Porter had done all that in him lay in the way
of preparation for victory. If he did not win he
would at least deserve to do so." Mahan adds that
Farragut thus had before him, in his earliest train
ing, a most admirable captain — one who was "dar
ing to recklessness, and yet leaving nothing to
chance," — one who was a rigid disciplinarian and
yet in full sympathy with the peculiarities of his
men — a captain who was able to infuse his own
spirit into the entire crew.

ESSEX AND BRITISH SQUADRON 67
The story of all this work of refitting the ships
and drilling the men is an important part of the
history of the Nation as well as of the life of Ad
miral Farragut. For let it be said again for the
sake of emphasis that the War of 1812 was forced
upon the American people because the English
knew we were not prepared for hostilities, and
fully believed that we were a nation of cowardly
traders who could not be kicked into fighting. To
secure peace and maintain it we had to change
these conditions; it was especially necessary to
demonstrate that we could and would fight. That
Porter realized the necessity resting upon the navy
seems apparent, but whether he did or not the
venture of the Essex alone into the Pacific to do
what a squadron of three ships had been assigned
to do was of itself a fair indication of the spirit of
American sailors. The destruction of the British
whaling fleet showed something of the thorough
ness of their work, while the training of the Ameri
can crew indicated their fitness for service condi
tions. But what was of still more importance for the
future peace of the young republic is yet to be con
sidered. The British had already acknowledged
that a change had come over their opinions by
sending three war-ships, aggregating much more
than twice Porter's force, to drive him from the
sea ; while Porter was to exhibit his own spirit and
that of his people by deliberately going, after thor
ough preparation, in search of this powerful enemy
when without dishonor he might have sailed for

68 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
home. The work which followed is not exceeded
in interest by that done by any American ship of
war ; though this is not to say that Porter, with all
his ability and care, made no mistakes.
To make sure of meeting the British fleet, he
headed for Valparaiso, since that squadron, after
rounding the Horn, would be sure to look in there
for refreshments. But in order not to be caught to
leeward of a superior force, Porter laid his course
so that he reached the South American coast sev
eral hundred miles south of his objective. The
reason for doing this was that the wind usually
blows from the south up along the coast. On his
passage along shore Porter would sail with the
wind ; and it would be in his favor if he found the
enemy's squadron in any port.
However, on February 4, 1814, on reaching Val
paraiso, Porter learned that the enemy had not yet
arrived. Accordingly, the Essex Junior was sta
tioned out at sea to give warning of the approach
of any sail. While Valparaiso was a neutral port,
and the Essex was by law safe from attack when
within three miles of land, Porter knew very well
that neither the British nor the French in the war
then raging would have regard for any right of an
other people that was not fully protected by well-
manned guns.
Moreover, as Mahan points out, Commodore
James Hillyar had already grossly violated neutral
rights in a boat attack on Spanish frigates in Bar
celona harbor. He had sheltered his flotilla behind
a Swedish vessel that was standing into the port

ESSEX AND BRITISH SQUADRON 69
until the over-patient Spaniards began to fire on
the sheltering ship. Porter, therefore, had every
reason to suppose he would be attacked if he were
caught napping in Valparaiso harbor.
Knowing, as he did, the British contempt for
neutral rights ; knowing further the character of
Hillyar (for he was personally well acquainted with
the British flag officer), the story of Porter's subse
quent forbearance, when the British ships might
have been, and by right should have been, taken,
stirs the blood of the patriot.
On the evening of February 7th, Captain Porter
gave a little hop or dance on the Essex. Many of
the ladies and gentlemen of Valparaiso came off to
the ship, and in order to give opportunity to the
officers of the Essex Junior to enjoy the evening
she was brought in from the sentinel station. At
the same time one watch of the men before the
mast (that is, one-third of the crew, for because of
their efficiency, the Essex men were divided into
three watches instead of the usual two), went ashore
for a frolic.
The ball ended at midnight, and after helping to
carry away the guests the crew of the Essex Junior
got up their anchor and reached out to the lookout
station. No sooner had they passed the cape at the
south side of the harbor than they signaled to the
Essex that two ships were coming with the wind
from the southward. The bunting that had deco
rated the Essex for the ball had not yet been taken
down, and a third of her crew were still on shore.
Porter ordered a recall signal set and a gun fired to

70 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
bring the liberty men on board, and then he went
off in a small boat to take a look at the strangers.
Satisfied that the enemy was at hand, the Essex
Junior was sailed into port and anchored where she
could support the Essex, while Porter returned to
his ship. He had been gone an hour and a half
only, but he found all the shore party on board and
every man sober except one, while even that one
was not so drunk that he could not accomplish
something, as he almost did at a critical moment.
Some time after daylight, the two strangers
appeared in the offing with colors flying. They
were, as Porter supposed, two of the enemy's
squadron — the Phoebe and the Cherub. The third
ship had gone north to destroy the American fur-
trading station on the Columbia. In the meantime
the mate of a British merchantman at anchor in
the harbor, seeing from the signals on the Essex
Junior that the British squadron was coming,
manned a yawl and, pulling off to the British flag
ship, told Hillyar about the ball, and that one
watch of the Essex was on shore.
What Hillyar thought, or said, on receiving this
information is not a matter of record. What he
did was to clear his ship for action. With every
man ready for battle he steered into the harbor,
heading directly for the weather quarter of the
Essex. When there he put down his helm and
luffed up within fifteen feet of the weather side of
the Essex precisely as if he supposed he had caught
the Yankee crew napping, and intended to attack
them, then and there. Every intelligent person

ESSEX AND BRITISH SQUADRON 71
familiar with the facts believes that this is what
Hillyar meant to do.
As the Phoebe ranged forward, a powder-boy,
stationed with slow match ready to fire one of the
guns on the Essex as soon as Porter should give the
command, was peering through the port-hole at the
gun crews of the enemy. This lad was the only one
of the Essex men who had taken too much liquor
while on shore leave the night before, and he was
still feeling the effects of his dram, when he saw
one of the Phoebe's crew grinning at him.
"My fine fellow, I'll stop your making faces," he
said, and leaned forward with his match to fire the
gun, but Lieutenant McKnight saw the movement
and knocked the boy down before the fire reached
the powder.
"Had that gun been fired," says Farragut in his
diary, "I am convinced that the Phoebe would
have been ours."
In this opinion Hillyar unquestionably concurred.
As his ship weathered the Essex he climbed on
a gun carriage. He had seen that the American
ship was ready and he had no longer any desire to
force the fighting. He said :
" Captain Hillyar' s compliments to Captain Por
ter, and hopes he is well."
Porter replied :
"Very well, I thank you ; but I hope you will
not come too near, for fear some accident might
take place which will be disagreeable to you."
" And with a wave of his trumpet," says Farra
gut, " the kedge anchors went up to our yard-arms,

72 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
ready to grapple the enemy." In fact, Porter
called his boarders to the rail, where they stood
with sharpened cutlasses in hand ready to board
the enemy under cover of the smoke of the first
broadside, " as was our custom at close quarters."
At that Hillyar braced aback the yards of the
Phoebe so that she drifted astern, and said, in an
agitated voice that "if he did fall aboard he
begged to assure Captain Porter it would be en
tirely accidental."
"Well," said Porter, "you have no business
where you are. If you touch a rope yarn of this
ship I shall board instantly."
With that he let the Phoebe go, and she anchored
half a mile astern — well out of range of Porter's
short guns, but where her own long eighteens could
be used with effect. " We thus lost an opportunity
of taking her, though we had observed the strict
neutrality of the port," says Farragut.
" The British frigate was unquestionably in a po
sition where a seaman should not have placed her
unless he meant mischief," says Mahan. In short
the approach of the Phoebe was lawfully an attack
on the Essex and Porter would have been fully
justified in every way had he opened fire on her.
He was " the pink of chivalry," and therefore let
her go. But his chivalry cost him his ship and
the lives of nearly a hundred of his men, not to
mention the sufferings of his wounded. If an
other American naval captain is ever guilty of
such folly a court martial will give him the pun
ishment due him for neglect of duty in the presence

ESSEX AND BRITISH SQUADRON 73
of the enemy. Nevertheless, in the long run, the
battle that followed, if it be rightly considered, was
perhaps as good for the peace of the Nation as the
capture of the Phoebe would have been.
In the days thereafter, Captain Porter did all
that he reasonably could to induce Captain Hillyar
to meet the Essex, ship for ship ; but Hillyar very
plainly said that he had been sent to the Pacific to
destroy the Essex, and he should not give up any
advantage which his superior force gave him. This
was not chivalric, but it was sensible ; and when,
on one occasion, the Essex started out to meet the
Phoebe, which was at the moment unsupported by
her consort, Captain Hillyar promptly ran away to
obtain aid.
On another occasion, the sea being calm, Porter
and his crew (with Farragut along as aide) pulled
out in small boats intending to try surprising the
enemy by boarding at night on the high seas. But
on getting alongside he learned that the British
were at quarters waiting for him, and the attack
had to be abandoned.
Finally he heard that other British frigates were
coming and he determined to sail out and take his
chances against the superior force, whenever he
could see a reasonable hope of getting to windward
of the enemy. While waiting for such an oppor
tunity a squall came up (March 28, 1814), and drove
him from his anchorage in a way that brought on
the final battle.
As already noted, the wind usually blows from
the south along the South American coast. In

74 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
March there are many squalls and one of them that
came in a gale parted a cable by which the Essex
was anchored. Captain Porter, seeing sufficient
room between the enemy and the south point of
the harbor, immediately made sail and stood out to
sea. The Essex was doing well, and should have
weathered the foe in fine style, but when the point
of the harbor was close aboard another fierce
squall came down off the lofty promontory there
and carried away her maintopmast, together with
several men who were at work aloft.
After cutting away the wreckage Captain Porter
turned around and tried to regain the anchorage.
He did this because Hillyar had promised, in return
for Porter's generosity when the Phoebe was in jeop
ardy, to respect the neutrality of the port. What
Farragut thought of the attempt to return to the
harbor is recorded in his diary and he let it stand
in his mature years. He wrote :
" I consider that our greatest error was in at
tempting to regain the anchorage ; as, being greatly
superior to the enemy in sailing qualities, I think
we should have borne up and run before the wind.
If we had come in contact with the Phoebe, we
should have carried her by boarding ; if she avoided
us, as she might have done by her greater ability to
manoeuvre, then we could have taken her fire and
passed on, leaving both vessels behind until we re
placed our topmast, by which time they would have
been separated, as, unless they did so, it would
have been no chase, the Cherub being a dull sailor."
Thus at thirteen years of age Farragut was of the

ESSEX AND BRITISH SQUADRON 75
opinion that it was better for a crippled ship to
fight than to trust the enemy to observe the laws of
nations. When the Essex reached back for her anchorage,
she was unable to make it. She anchored, there
fore, on the leeward side of the harbor, a quarter of
a mile from the beach. Captain Hillyar now felt
under no obligation to keep his word, and with
colors flying the Phoebe and Cherub swooped down
on the cripple.
" I well remember the feeling of awe produced in
me by the approach of the hostile ships," says
Farragut in his diary ; "even to my young mind
it was perceptible in the faces of those around me,
as clearly as possible, that our case was hopeless.
It was equally apparent that all were ready to die
at their guns rather than surrender."
At 3:54 o'clock in the afternoon with the whole
population of Valparaiso standing on the bluff to
watch the battle, the Phoebe opened fire. She had
taken station under the stern of the anchored Essex
(where not one of the guns of the Essex would
bear), and coming to the wind, broadside to, she
began to work her broadside of 13 long 18-pound-
ers, one long 12-pounder and one long 9-pounder.
Porter had only six long guns on board and they
were 12-pounders. Three of these were brought
aft, and pointed through the cabin ports ; that is,
three 12-pounders were pitted against the whole
great broadside of the enemy. They threw 36 pounds
of shot where the Phoebe threw 255 pounds. At the
same time the Cherub took a position off the star-

76 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
board bow of the Essex where her two long guns
would bear. And the long guns only are mentioned
because the British ships were carefully held be
yond range of the short guns of the Essex.
Nevertheless, in spite of the overwhelming odds
on the British side, and because of the excellent
marksmanship of the Essex gunners, both the
Phoebe and the Cherub were compelled, after a half
hour of firing, to haul off for repairs.
After a little while the Phoebe returned to the
fight, and taking a position off the port quarter of
the Essex, where none of the American guns could
reach her, she anchored broadside to, and opened
fire. Lieutenant William Ingram, the executive
officer of the Phoebe said " it was deliberate mur
der" to lie off there and fire at the Essex as if she
were a target, but he was thinking of the chivalry,
rather than the business, of war. It was Hillyar' s
object to destroy the Essex with as little loss as pos
sible to his own crew and he was doing it.
In the meantime Porter had put springs on his
cable three times to swing the Essex so that his
guns would bear, but each time that they were
hauled taut, they were cut by the enemy's shot.
The Essex thus became at last literally a mere target,
and moreover a target in flames. But at the moment
when the last spring was shot away, and all hope of
making another effective shot at the enemy seemed
gone forever, the supreme moment of the battle was
at hand.
A gentle breeze came drifting from the shore to
waft the smoke of the burning Essex out to sea.

ESSEX AND BRITISH SQUADRON 77
She was a wreck aloft. Her halliards and sheets
were shot away. Her sails were torn and cut to
pieces. Many of her guns had been dismounted.
Her decks, in spite of sanding, were slippery with
blood because nearly a third of her crew had been
shot down. But with this crew — even those dying
under the surgeon's care — shouting on all sides,
"Don't give her up, Logan," and "Hurrah for
Liberty !" Porter hoisted a jib — the one sail that
could be spread to the breeze, and with the square
sails hanging ragged, loose and fluttering, from the
yards, he slipped his cable and headed the Essex
for the Phoebe, determined to lead his men to the
enemy's deck.
Hillyar had been trained under Nelson — trained
in the school wherein ship commanders were told
that " no captain can do wrong if he places his ship
alongside an enemy." But when he saw the Essex
coming with her ragged sails flapping in the air,
and the blood of her crew running in streams from
her scuppers, he slipped his cable, brailed in his
spanker as a whipped dog sticks its tail between its
legs, and fled. As for the Cherub it had already
been beaten off so that it was no longer of much
consequence. Times had changed since the crew of a British
sloop of war would cheer for joy, as did the crew
of the Alert, at the prospect of a battle with a
Yankee frigate.
As the Phoebe fled, she continued firing, and her
gunners being safe, their aim was good. Porter
once more anchored the Essex, hoping the Phoebe

78 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
would drift out of range. But when Porter an
chored, Hillyar ceased to flee. An effort to run the
Essex on the beach failed because the wind threw
her flat aback. In the meantime fires that had been
started in the hold of Porter's ship were spread
ing rapidly, and were nearing the magazine. The
shot of the enemy were still splintering the hull
and slaughtering the crew. It being no longer pos
sible to fire an effective shot in return, it was
manifest to all that the Essex must surrender at last ;
"passive resistance" was no longer worth the
growing losses. Accordingly men came to Porter
to beg that he would save the lives of those who re
mained by surrendering the ship. Among the sup
pliants were sailors with their clothes on fire.
In reply to these petitions Porter gave permission
to all who wished to do so to jump overboard and
swim ashore, and many, supposing the ship would
soon blow up, did so. Then he called for his
officers to get reports as to the condition of the
various parts of the vessel, but only one lieutenant
was able to respond, and after a brief consultation
with him, Porter at 6:20 o'clock ordered the flag
hauled down. With batteries that threw 273
pounds of metal where the Essex could throw less
than 72, it had taken the British two hours and a
half to gain the victory.
The Essex lost 58 killed and 66 wounded. After
the battle there were 31 men found missing, nearly
all of whom, it was learned, had been drowned
in the effort to swim ashore when Commodore Por
ter gave his crew permission to jump overboard to

ESSEX AND BRITISH SQUADRON 79
escape the flames. The British official report ac
knowledged a loss of but four killed and seven
wounded on the Phoebe, and one killed and four
wounded on the Cherub. The Phoebe went into
battle with 300 men, the Essex with 255. When
the Phcebe fled for fear that Porter would board
her she had 289 men on board, while the Essex had
less than 150.
The Essex was at last conquered but the objects
for which the War of 1812 was necessarily waged
had been attained as in no other battle of the war,
afloat or ashore. By endeavoring to board the
Phcebe, by driving an enemy of vastly superior
force before him, Commodore David Porter com
pelled the British to admit, in the most humiliating
way, that the American people were not the
cowards they were supposed to be. As a test of
American pluck and persistency this battle was
most convincing. From this standpoint even Por
ter's " pink- of- chivalry " refusal to fire on the
Phoebe when she came alongside to attack him on
the day of her arrival in Valparaiso was, perhaps,
as good for the Nation, as the capture of the frigate
would have been.
It may seem absurd, at first thought, to dwell
upon this view of the Essex affair, now that the
United States has attained unquestioned promi
nence as a world power, but it is necessary to do so
in order to emphasize these facts. It was the sub
stitution of " peaceable coercion" for line-of-battle
ships that invited the outrages and spoliations
which at last compelled us to fight. The war was

80 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
fought to secure a respectful hearing from the
nations of the world, and such a hearing never
could have been obtained in any other way. How
well the war succeeded is evidenced by the fact that
the enunciation of the " Monroe Doctrine," within
ten years after hostilities ended, peacefully effected
its purpose of protecting Spanish America from
European aggression. It will be remembered too
that British war-ships, when cruising afterward on
the African coast for the destruction of the slave
trade, did not dare to interfere with slavers which
sailed under the American flag, even though they
knew they were engaged in this illicit commerce.
In describing his work during the battle between
the Essex and the British ships, as he had part in
it, Farragut says, ' ' I was like Paddy in the cat-
harpins, a man on occasions." He was, first of all,
the captain's aide, and his station was beside Por
ter on the quarter-deck. But as aide there was not
enough work to keep him busy, and he turned to
the guns near at hand for employment. He hauled
on the side tackles, ran as a powder monkey for
ammunition, and, perhaps, trained a gun now and
then. Although the shot fell short the carronades
were fired as often as possible. It was while work
ing thus that he saw, for the first time, a man killed
in battle. A boatswain's mate was cut to pieces
by a cannon ball.
The sight of the mutilated corpse " staggered and
sickened me," he wrote afterward, "but they soon
began to fall around me so fast that it all appeared
like a dream, and produced no effect on my nerves."

ESSEX AND BRITISH SQUADRON 81.
Even when a shot came through the bulwarks, at
the waterways, and glancing upward killed four
men and scattered the blood and brains of the last
of the four all over Farragut and the captain, the
effect was by no means as trying as the sight of the
slaughtered boatswain's mate had been.
" I neither thought of nor noticed anything but
the working of the guns," he says. After a time
Midshipman Isaacs reported to the captain that a
sailor named Adam Roach had gone skulking to the
berth deck. Turning to Farragut, the captain said :
" Do your duty, sir."
Farragut took a pistol in hand and went hunting
the man to kill him. But a sailor named William
Call, even though he had a leg shot off, had been
dragging himself, pistol in hand, about the deck in
chase of the skulker and, thus warned, Roach had
been able to hide himself so well that Farragut was
unable to find him.
Farragut says that Roach had been considered a
leading man of the ship. At the time the Phcebe
came into the harbor to attack the Essex, he was
seen at the head of the line of Americans who stood
ready to board her, standing on the cat head, a
most exposed position, with sleeves rolled up, and
sharpened cutlass in hand, ready to leap among
the sailors on the British deck. But when the
Essex became a target for the enemy without a
chance for effective reply his courage fled. Far
ragut says : " Roach was brave with a prospect of
success, but a coward in adversity."
After his failure to find the skulker, Farragut

82 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
was sent below by Porter to bring up some gun
primers. While he was on the ladder leading down
to the wardroom deck a shot struck the captain of
the gun standing opposite the hatch. The man was
knocked down the hatch and fell upon Farragut.
Fortunately he landed across the boy's hips and
he escaped with bruises, whereas he might have
been killed ; for the man weighed nearly two hun
dred pounds. Though not much hurt the shock
knocked from the lad's mind the thought of what
his errand was, and he ran on deck.
"Are you hurt." asked Porter, as he saw the
lad was covered with blood.
" I believe not, sir," replied Farragut.
" Then where are the primers ? " asked Porter.
"This brought me completely to my senses,"
says the diary, " and I ran below again and car
ried the primers on deck."
One of the greatest charms of the diary of the
admiral is its entire frankness. He even tells us
in one place how the executive officer of the ship,
Lieutenant Downes, found him asleep when on
wateh. He was reclining on a gun carriage. The
lieutenant covered him with a greatcoat, so that he
would not catch cold, and let him sleep on, but did
not fail to tell him afterward what sleeping on post
meant in a man-o' -war.
After a time Farragut saw Porter knocked to the
deck, and ran to ask if he were wounded, but
learned that the captain's fall was probably due to
the wind from a shot passing over his head, for
" his hat was somewhat damaged."

ESSEX AND BRITISH SQUADRON 83
When the surrender of the ship was determined
on, Farragut was sent to see that the signal book
was thrown into the sea. Having found and thrown
it overboard, he and Midshipman Isaacs ran along
the deck tossing small arms into the water to keep
them from falling into the hands of the enemy.
Finally, Farragut went to the lower deck where the
wounded were laid out. " When I saw the mangled
bodies of my shipmates, dead and dying, groaning
and expiring with the most patriotic sentiments on
their lips, I became faint aud sick ; my sympathies
were all aroused," he wrote.
But the shock passed away quickly, and he has
tened to help the surgeon. He found, dying, one
of his best friends, Lieutenant J. G. Cowell, and
gained a lesson in unselfish manhood that was not
lost. A shot had taken off Cowell' s leg just above
the knee, and he was carried to the surgeon. But
when the latter proposed to attend to him at once,
the lieutenant replied :
" No, doctor, none of that ; fair play is a jewel.
One man's life is as dear as another's ; I would not
cheat any poor fellow out of his turn."
When Cowell' s turn came it was too late. Far
ragut observed that " many of our fine fellows bled
to death for want of tourniquets," also a lesson that
he did not forget.
Another glimpse of Boatswain Kingsbury, who
with a lion's voice led the men on deck in the fight
for life when the sea knocked in all the ports on
one side of the ship off Cape Horn, is found in the
story of the battle. He came from the Essex Junior

84 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
in a small boat while the contest was raging, and in
the fighting that followed was so badly burned that
there was scarcely a square inch of his body that
did not show marks of the flames. Yet, at the
word, he jumped overboard and swam ashore —
three-quarters of a mile. The Essex Junior had
been unable to join in the action because the wind
did not serve.
In his official report of the battle, Commodore
Porter wrote as follows : "Midshipmen Isaacs, Far
ragut and Ogden, as well as acting Midshipmen
James Terry, James R. Lyman and Samuel Duzen-
bury, and Master' s-mate William Pierce, exerted
themselves in the performance of their respective
duties, and gave an earnest of their value to the
service ; the three first are too young to recommend
for promotion ; the latter I beg leave to recom
mend for confirmation."
It was equivalent to saying that the lads had
served as well as possible, even though yet too
young to carry a lieutenant's commission ; but the
words always nettled Farragut, for in later years
as well as at that time he found himself doing
duties usually performed by older officers, and yet
was unable to secure promptly the recognition that
such work seemed to demand.
As a prisoner Farragut was sent to the Phoebe,
on the morning of the 29th. He was so mortified
by the defeat that, on reaching the steerage, tears
streamed from his eyes. Just then, however, a
British midshipman came along with a young pig
in his arms, and shouted :

ESSEX AND BRITISH SQUADRON 85
" A prize ! a prize ! Ho, boys, a fine grunter, by
Jove!" It was a pig that had been a pet in the steerage
of the Essex, where it was called " Murphy," and
Farragut at once claimed it as private property.
" Ah," replied the young Britisher, "but you are
a prisoner and your pig also."
"We always respect private property," said
Farragut, and he grabbed the pig, determined to
hold on until forced to surrender. The oldsters
present, liking his pluck, sided with him so far as
to say :
"Go it, my little Yankee! if you can thrash
Shorty you shall have your pig ! "
A ring was then formed, and " Shorty" came at
Farragut, "hammer and tongs." There was no
lack of strength or pluck in "Shorty," but Farra
gut was a well-trained pugilist, for one of his years,
and he very quickly won the pig. It is a small
matter but it shows, as shall yet appear more fully,
that Farragut, like John Paul Jones, "was every
kind of a fighting man there was."
A little later Captain Hillyar sent for the lad
and asked him to eat breakfast in the cabin, where
Captain Porter was entertained. It is not unlikely
that Hillyar had heard of Farragut's fight for
"Murphy," and liked his pluck. At any rate,
when he saw how the lad was cast down by defeat,
he said in a very kind manner :
"Never mind, my little fellow, it will be your
turn next, perhaps."
Farragut replied that he hoped so, and then with

86 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
tears in his eyes once more, he hurried from the
cabin. Defeat was a heavy burden for a lad who
was made up of three pounds of uniform and seventy
of fight.
Having arranged with Captain Hillyar for the
parole of the prisoners and their return on the
Essex Junior to the United States, Porter took all
hands ashore, where Farragut served faithfully as
surgeon's assistant until all except two of the
wounded who were necessarily left behind were
ready to embark.
The Essex Junior sailed from Valparaiso on
April 27, 1814, rounded Cape Horn with all sails
set, and on July 5th was stopped ten leagues off the
Long Island coast by the British razee Saturn, one
of the blockading fleet. Captain Nash, on learning
how the Essex Junior happened to be there, held
her over night. Under the terms made with Hill
yar this absolved Porter from his parole, and the
next morning he launched a whale boat and pulled
to the Long Island beach, landing near Babylon,
where, when recognized, he received an ovation
from the people, and was conveyed, as a hero, to
New York City.
In the meantime, after an examination of the
prisoners, the Essex Junior was allowed to go on.
She was twice mistaken for an enemy's ship, and
fired on for some time by shore batteries in New
York harbor, but was not struck by a single shot
— a fact that caused Farragut to think "it was
not such an awful thing as was supposed to lie
under a battery." Apparently the memory of that

ESSEX AND BRITISH SQUADRON 87
experience came to him in a most critical time of
his life in later years. On July 7, 1814, the Essex
Junior anchored in the upper bay at New York.
The ship was sold, and the crew, being on parole,
were dispersed to their homes to await exchange.
For Farragut the fighting of the war was ended.
But that the injustice of the British, especially in
their battle at Valparaiso, made a lasting impres
sion on his mind, appears from a remark he uttered
when at New Orleans during the Civil War.
Speaking of the men who saved the Nation in the
War of 1812, he said : "We have no better sea
men in the service to-day than those gallant fel
lows. . . . If I only had their chance and
could lay the Hartford alongside an English ship, I
should like it better than fighting our own people."

CHAPTER VI
STUDY AND TRAVEL
After landing under parole in New York City,
young Farragut went to Chester, Pa., with his
adopted father, and was there sent to school to "a
queer old individual named Neif." Neif had been
one of Napoleon's guards. In his school he used no
books but relied entirely upon lectures and oral in
struction. The pupils were taken for long rambles
across the fields where Neif gave them lectures in
geology, mineralogy and botany. They were also
drilled like soldiers. One may well believe that
they were duly instructed in the languages, mean
time, and that the school was in some respects far
in advance of others of that period. Farragut
himself says that what he learned there was " of
service" to him "all through life."
On November 30, 1814, the boy was exchanged,
and was ordered to the brig Spark, then fitting out
under Lieutenant Commandant Thomas Gamble to
join a small squadron with which Commodore Por
ter was to go cruising against the enemy's com
merce in the West Indies. While the work on the
Spark was in hand, Farragut was quartered on the
John Adams, a receiving ship, and thus for the first
time since entering the navy, he was removed from
the immediate influence of Commodore Porter.

STUDY AND TRAVEL 89
The lad was not yet fourteen years old, but for
four years he had been trained as few men of the
sea have been. Whenever an opportunity for a
fight had offered, or had seemed to offer, Porter had
been careful to put him in the battle line. At
every opportunity for exercising authority, as in
the command of single boats, and of the captured
whaler, he had been called on to accept the respon
sibility, and in the meantime he had been taught
by schoolmasters whenever possible. It seems cer
tain, therefore, that at this time David Glasgow
Farragut, in spite of his youth, was one of the best
equipped midshipmen in the world.
In connection with this fact it is apparent from
the records that he was thoroughly well-liked by
all his associates. While dignified as an officer — he
never forgot that he had need to hold erect every
inch of his small frame — he yet combined the frank
ness and good-nature of the Tennessee woodsman
with the hearty and wholesome manners of the
typical American sailor.
It is small wonder, then, that the midshipmen's
mess on the John Adams made him welcome. And
because they were a wild set of youngsters — doubt
less, boys who were, in some cases, uncontrollable
at home — they at once led him into some kinds
of dissipation of which he had learned nothing.
While Farragut joined with the gang for a time,
he no sooner saw the trend of the life they were
leading than he abandoned it, and this is one of the
most important facts in the life of the first admiral
of the American navy. In this determination Far-

90 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
ragut was greatly assisted by the advice and encour
agement of Lieutenant William H. Cocke, the ex
ecutive officer of the Spark, of whom something is
to be said further on.
Before the squadron could be made ready for
sea, peace with honor was obtained and the day
when American sailors could be taken from be
neath their flag by a foreign press-gang was gone
forever. Farragut was then ordered to the Inde
pendence, a ship of the line rated at 74 guns com
manded by Captain William N. Crane. War had
been declared against Algiers, to which nation of
pirates the United States had paid tribute for many
years, and a squadron commanded by Commodore
Bainbridge was under orders to sail for the Mediter
ranean. Captain Crane chose Farragut for his aide.
The squadron arrived out too late because Commo
dore Decatur had already "thrashed the Algerines
and made peace with the Bey." However, the
fleet went to Carthagena, and thence to Tripoli and
the Barbary coast, across to Malaga, and finally
back to Gibraltar where, as Farragut notes in his
diary, he saw fifteen American warships, carrying
320 guns, all gathered in one foreign port. It was
the largest fleet of Yankee men-of-war ever seen
abroad, and it was an impressive sight to a boy.
The real greatness and power of this assemblage,
however, were found in the spirit and ability of the
crews, since as fighting machines the ships were all
small, save only the Independence, though two were
36-gun frigates.
Returning home with the fleet in 1815, Farragut

STUDY AND TRAVEL 91
sailed once more for the Mediterranean in the ship-
of-the-line Washington, Captain John Orde Creigh
ton. Farragut here served again as captain's aide.
Creighton had entered the navy as a midshipman in
1800, and obtained his commission as captain on
April 27, 1816. The Washington was therefore his
first ship under his new rank. He was naturally
proud of commanding a ship-of-the-line so soon
after attaining battleship rank, especially since the
Washington was to be the flag-ship of the Medi
terranean squadron, and she was to carry Hon.
William Pinckney, Minister to Naples, to his post.
Under such circumstances, Captain Creighton' s
highest ambition was to put his ship into perfect
condition, and to bring his crew into an unequaled
state of discipline and ability. To do this, being
by nature a martinet, he kept all hands on the
jump, day and night, and " it was no uncommon
thing with us for the officer of the deck to call up
the whole watch and give them two or three dozen
strokes with the cat-o' -nine- tails apiece for the
fault of one man, or perhaps an accident. All
hands were sometimes kept out of their meals for
eight or ten hours, and once, at Algiers, the whole
crew was kept on deck all night for several nights
in succession."
The captain had his wish. The Washington was
called the "crack" ship of the squadron, and of
those seas. Work was done with a precision and
celerity unsurpassed. But the life they led was
ruinous to the peace and to the health, as well, of
the erew.

92 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
All of this is particularly worth telling because
of its effect upon Farragut. He saw and appre
ciated the desirable qualities of a "crack" ship,
but he was able to note that these qualities were
not worth the sacrifice of the comfort of every one
on board. He determined, therefore, to consider
the welfare of his crew, whenever he should attain
commanding rank, and the loyalty and affection of
his men, in later years, proved the wisdom of his
course. Nevertheless, when the facts are considered now,
one cannot help feeling a sympathy for a captain
like Creighton. He saw that the American navy
numbered only a few ships, as compared with other
navies, and that those few were on parade before
hostile and "gimlet-eyed" critics. It was for the
honor of the flag that they made their ships out
shine and outsail all others afloat. On one occa
sion a party of British naval officers were con
ducted around the decks of the Constitution. They
were silent or yielded grudging praise, until they
came, at last, to the wheel on the quarter-deck,
when one of them, with manifest pleasure, pointed
to it as an object of scorn. To this the American
officer in charge of the party had ready a reply.
He admitted that the wheel was not above criticism
and said :
"We lost our own wheel in battle, and took that
one from the Java." '
1 The Java was the British frigate captured by the Constitu
tion ofE Bahia (or San Salvador) , Brazil, while Porter and the
Essex were cruising off Cape Frio waiting for the Constitution
and Hornet to meet him for the proposed cruise in the Pacific.

STUDY AND TRAVEL 93
The squadron of which the Washington carried
the flag wintered at Port Mahon, and in 1817 made
a cruise around the Mediterranean, visiting many
places of interest. During this trip Farragut
showed the bent of his mind by making ample
notes, none of which, however, have been pub
lished because his journal of that cruise was lost.
But he recalled in after years the visit of the Em
peror of Austria and the King of Naples, along with
Prince Metternich, to the Washington while she lay
in the Bay of Naples. Farragut, as the best linguist
present, was interpreter for the Emperor. He ex
cited the derision of Prince Metternich by address
ing the Emperor as "Mister." The Emperor was
ridiculous, in Farragut's eyes. "He seemed to be
a mere puppet, and he took short, mincing steps,
presenting to my youthful mind altogether a silly
appearance." While the royal guests wandered around the
decks "one of the Emperor's chamberlains mistook
a wind-sail for a mast, and leaning against it, was
precipitated to the cockpit." The fall broke his
leg. As the chamberlain fell an American quarter
master faced aft and in a loud voice reported to
the officer of the deck : "One of them kings has
fallen down a hatch, sir," and his words are re
lated at navy mess-tables to this day.
The Emperor and the King seemed to think that
the accident, though due to the stupidity of the
chamberlain, was in some way a manifestation of
evil designs against their persons, and they left the
ship hastily.

94 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
Another incident illustrating the service in those
days is noted in connection with the passage of the
Washington through the Straits of Messina. A file
of marines with loaded muskets was stationed in
the gangway to shoot the pilot in case he ran the
ship aground.
In the fall (1817), the squadron returned to Port
Mahon, where the discontent due to the rigorous
discipline culminated in two memorials, one of
which was signed by the lieutenants and was sent
to the Senate, while the other was signed by mid
shipmen and sent to the President. The chief point
of complaint was that junior officers had been
struck by captains of the fleet. Not only were
midshipmen treated in this fashion, but Captain
John Heath, of the marine corps, was knocked
down in the cabin of the Java by Captain O. H.
Perry, the hero of Lake Erie — an affair that led
afterward to a duel on the Hoboken ground where
Alexander Hamilton had been killed by Burr.
Farragut did not sign the memorial prepared by
the midshipmen ; he had left the squadron before
it was written. But he notes with satisfaction that
it was "highly approved by the Navy Depart
ment," while that sent by the lieutenants and ma
rine officers was disapproved because they threat
ened to use force in resenting the attitude of the
captains. It is further noted in the diary that as a
result of these memorials "the powers assumed by
the post captains were moderated, whereas, before
this event, with the exception of life or death, the
absolute authority which they assumed was but

STUDY AND TRAVEL 95
little inferior to that of the Czar of all the
Russias." Farragut left the squadron at the end of the sea
son of 1817 in order to study. The chaplain of the
Washington was Mr. Charles Folsom, and he was
also the schoolmaster of the midshipmen. It ap
pears that Farragut was the most studious of all the
boys. He was what later-day midshipmen would
call a ' ' boner ' ' ; midshipmen who are not ' ' boners ' '
would have called him a "chaplain's favorite."
He attended to such studies as could be pursued in
stead of joining the roysterers of the steerage in
more or less demoralizing sports ashore.
Accordingly in the fall of 1817, when Mr. Folsom
was appointed American consul at Tunis, Farragut
was anxious to go thither with him and pass the
winter in study. A petition to Commodore Isaac
Chauncey, the flag officer, was favorably consid
ered, and Farragut left the Washington at Gibraltar,
going to Tunis by way of Marseilles.
While waiting at this place the boy showed his
entire willingness to fight a duel, according to the
notions of honor prevailing at the time, although,
like John Paul Jones, he never did fight one. He
was frequently invited to the house of an American
merchant named Fitch, while in the French city,
and although he had "no fondness for cards " he
felt obliged to take a hand at whist. The arrogance
with which good players of this game usually treat
those who have small interest in it, was carried far
by Farragut's partner. He threw his hand on the
table as a mark of contempt when the young A mer-

96 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
ican naval officer made an error in playing. But
Farragut at once resented the indignity by throw
ing his hand into his partner's face, and then, after
an apology to Mr. Fitch, left the house. If the
partner had been a fighting man, as well as a whist
player, a duel would have followed ; but nothing
came of it.
At Tunis, Farragut devoted his time for nine
months chiefly to the study of the Italian and
French languages, mathematics and English litera
ture. As this was his last schooling it may be
worth while to note for the encouragement of those
similarly afflicted, that he was never able to learn
to write or spell in his own language correctly. His
autobiographical letter, written to Dr. Lyman C.
Draper on September 20, 1853, and published in the
American Historical Review for April, 1904, is of a
character to make a modern sophomore shiver.
' ' On one occasion our house was surrounded by some
stragling Indians," he writes, while telling of the
time his mother guarded the house door with
an axe. Further on in the same letter he says,
speaking of Commodore Porter — "When he was
releived I embarked with him." Then his father
is referred to as "a man of great wrecMessness of
character. ' ' Nevertheless his letters and diary both
show that he could think clearly, and express his
thoughts on paper in a way not to be misunder
stood. That his orders, as expressed on the quarter
deck, or when lashed to the futtock shrouds during
battle, were not misunderstood, has never been
doubted. As for the rest it appears that he was

STUDY AND TRAVEL 97
well-read in general literature and possessed a fund
of information that was certainly remarkable. But
it was of the knowledge of his profession that he
had most notable mastery — an example for all naval
men who shall come after him.
Of his life at Tunis a number of facts are memor
able. He became very popular with the foreign
colony. He studied so hard that at the end of three
months his health gave way. Partly in conse
quence of this, and for their own pleasure, the
Danish, the French and the American consuls de
termined to visit the ancient ruins of the region,
and particularly those of some old Roman works
built by Julius Caesar, after the capture of Carthage.
The site of ancient Carthage is only a short distance
from Tunis. Farragut's notes on this journey
show that he was a good observer — he would have
been beyond question an excellent newspaper cor
respondent. But he was so venturesome that he
"received a stroke of the sun which caused a par
tial paralysis of the tongue." The effects of this
accident were felt for many years afterward.
On the ninth day out from Tunis the "splendid
amphitheatre of El Jem " appeared in view, but the
pleasant anticipations of the party were somewhat
modified by the scowling of the natives who very
plainly showed their dislike for the Christian "sons
of dogs." In fact, every one of the excursionists
went well armed while exploring for fear of an at
tack. Farragut got tired of carrying a gun, and
went wandering about the old ruins alone, with
small pistols only. Seeing him apparently un-

98 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
armed, a Bedouin went after him with a club.
Farragut let the fellow approach within a few feet
and then drew the pistols, the sight of which sent
him flying.
One of the Sheiks of the region, however, proved
to have a very friendly temper, for he invited the
excursionists to dine with him and gave them not
only an excellent meal but an abundance of good
wine. He invited them to drink freely by setting
an example, swallowing a bottle of wine and "four
solid glasses of brandy, which seemed to have no
bad effect on him." The Sheik showed a special
regard for the midshipman by giving him a gazelle.
In all, Farragut was under the instruction of Mr.
Folsom for nine months, and would have remained
longer still but for the fact that a plague broke out
in the city. This spread so alarmingly that Mr.
Folsom thought Farragut ought to leave, and early
in October he sailed with the Danish consul, Mr.
A. C. Gierlew, for Leghorn. It is pleasing to note
that, when Farragut became a vice-admiral, Mr.
Folsom was still alive. He was residing in Cam
bridge, Mass., and Farragut, to show his appreci
ation of his old-time instructor, sent him a paint
ing which "set forth two great epochs of our con
nection," as the admiral wrote. An artist had
been employed to make the painting from sketches
drawn by Farragut, "to portray our landing at
Tunis" from the United States ship Erie, Folsom
as United States Consul receiving a salute while
"accompanied in the boat by Midshipman Farra
gut." The other epoch is illustrated by the old

STUDY AND TRAVEL 99
Hartford " gracefully lying at anchor, bearing the
flag of the Vice- Admiral."
The passage to Leghorn was made in a Genoese
brig. Off Corsica one evening, a dead calm fell on
the boat, and the captain went to sleep, leaving
orders that he should not be awakened. Farragut,
going on deck, saw that the brig was drifting
ashore. No one of the crew dared call the cap
tain, so Farragut did it himself. The former, on
seeing the danger, lost his head, but when the Dan
ish consul threatened him with a sword he recov
ered a little sense and the danger was, by a narrow
margin, averted.
After forty days in quarantine at Leghorn, Far
ragut went to Pisa where he attended a grand ball,
but with no great pleasure. He managed to catch
his shoe-buckle in the dress of an archduchess, to
tread on the toe of a duke, and finally he found
that a countess was using his cocked hat as a foot
warmer. In the meantime the host spread out a
number of gold table dishes and invited the guests
to gaze upon them and wonder at his immense
wealth. Farragut was disgusted with the whole
entertainment. Nevertheless life at Pisa had not been without
amenities. In a letter to Consul Gierlew (January
27, 1819), he says, " I am happy to inform you that
I had a pleasant ride out last evening with a young
Jewess, who was very easy and agreeable in her con
versation, so that I did not repent in the least my
late ride, as we contrived to make the time pass."
Going from Pisa, late in January, Farragut re-

100 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
ported on the flagship Franklin, and was assigned
to duty as the aide of Captain John Gallagher. The
squadron remained at Messina during the remain
der of the winter. It is noted in Farragut's diary
that the younger officers of the fleet went to the
arsenals, of afternoons, where they engaged in ath
letic exercises, " in which," says he, "I always held
my own." He was not large in frame, but was wiry
to an extraordinary degree ; and he never lost an
opportunity for improving himself.
The summer of 1819 proved an important one in
Farragut's career because he was then, though only
eighteen years old, made an acting lieutenant and
sent to the schooner Shark, on which in due season
he became executive officer. Farragut notes in his
diary that he was at times the actual commander
of the schooner, and his words in connection there
with ought to be printed in large type and kept on
the desk of every secretary of the navy. He says :
"I consider it a great advantage to obtain com
mand young, having observed as a general thing
that persons who come into authority late in life
shrink from responsibility, and often break down
under its weight."
After serving in the Shark until the spring of
1820, Farragut was ordered home for the regular
examination preceding his confirmation in the rank
of lieutenant. For the encouragement of ambitious
young men who may be unfortunate in some way,
it is worth while anticipating the event by saying
that when he first tried to pass this examination he
failed and was greatly discouraged. But after a

STUDY AND TRAVEL 101
voyage to the coast of Mexico, he tried once more
and was successful. He acquired fame through his
determination to succeed in spite of failures that to
some observers might have seemed to indicate a
certain degree of mental deficiency.
In going home Farragut took passage in the mer
chant ship America along with two invalided man-
o' -war sailors, and while on the way across had an
interesting adventure.
When approaching the United States coast the
weather one day became perfectly calm, while a
brig that was seen to be armed was approaching.
As the wind failed, the crew of the brig manned
sweeps and began rowing her toward the America
— an act that with good reason made every one on
board the ship believe that the stranger was a pirate.
The captain and mates of the America became panic-
stricken. No thought of resistance entered their
heads. They begged Farragut to put on citizen's
clothing because they supposed that the uniform of
an American naval officer might incite the men
to greater ferocity.
To such talk Farragut not only refused to listen
but he called on the two man-o' -war sailors to stand
by him in resisting the attack of the pirate. The
two promptly obeyed, and when the brig was seen
to be sending a boat with an armed crew to board
the America, a grindstone and a barrel of tar were
brought to the starboard gangway ready to drop
down through the bottom of the coming boat and
sink it alongside. The courage of the man-o' -war's
men proved as contagious as had been the panic of

the captain ; the crew of the ship came to the aid of
Farragut, who assumed command of all hands.
When the boat came within hail, and Farragut
asked if its mission were friendly, the officer in
charge said " yes " in English, and a little later an
nounced that he was from Baltimore and bore the
unpiratical name of Smith. He added that the
armed brig, of which he was lieutenant, was a
Colombian man-o' -war, instead of a pirate. He
boarded the America, leaving his arms in his boat
at Farragut's suggestion, and delivered a bundle of
letters to the captain, to whom he offered any sup
plies that might be needed. Farragut refers to the
incident in his diary in order " to remark how easily
men may defend themselves against pirates if they
do not become panic-stricken at the beginning."
And he adds, speaking of the two man-o' -war's men
that " men trained to arms will never fail, if properly
led." Whether this particular brig was a pirate or not
cannot be definitely learned at this late day, but it
is fair to suppose that she was one of a fleet of armed
vessels that had been fitted out in American ports
to sail as privateers under various Spanish- Ameri
can flags and prey on Spanish commerce. The
story of this privateer fleet has never been, and
very likely never will be, written. But the vessels
of which it was composed were, without exception,
sent to sea in violation of the laws of the United
States. According to the treaty existing between
Spain and this country, every one of them was a
pirate. By their outrages they raised up a host of

STUDY AND TRAVEL 103
pirates in the West Indies against whom the Ameri
can navy waged a most remarkable undeclared war.
This campaign deprived the navy of two of the
most famous captains of the War of 1812, caused
the addition of more than a dozen vessels to the
navy's list of ships, and cost the lives of scores of
sailors and officers. In this work of pirate hunting
an important part was taken by David G. Farragut.

CHAPTER V_I
IN THE WAR WITH THE WEST INDIA PIRATES
One of the most interesting episodes in the his
tory of American commerce is that of our war with
the Spanish West Indian pirates from 1819 to 1826.
And yet our writers of school histories do not
mention the war, and other historians have failed to
set forth the one feature of it best worth considera
tion. In our naval histories these piratical aggressions
are said to have been merely the outgrowth of the
spoliations committed by the French at the end of
the eighteenth century. But the fact is that while
some of the French pirates of the eighteenth century
may have been found among the later gangs, the
piracies that brought on the war were the direct
outgrowth of the work of sundry predatory ships
fitted out in the United States and England to prey,
under the flags of the Spanish- American insurgents,
upon Spanish commerce.
During the War of 1812, many American priva
teers were commissioned to cruise in search of
British merchantmen, and some of them were so
successful that the owners became very wealthy.
Their success, instead of satisfying them, did but
stimulate a number to greater exertions. This was
also true of the officers of other privateers. In fact

WAR WITH WEST INDIA PIRATES 105
it created a form of greed that became, when the war
ended, not unlike the hunger of wolves. These
privateersmen looked around for an opportunity to
continue their predatory work and they found it
awaiting them.
Beginning in 1810, a number of Spanish- Ameri
can colonies had thrown off the yoke of Spain. At
the end of 1815, the insurgent leaders had suc
ceeded so well that several ports on the Spanish
main were found under their control. To these ports
came the plunder-hungry privateersmen who had
failed to get rich during the War of 1812 and with
them were some who had captured much British
property and were yet eager for more. Commis
sions were there easily obtained and then the ships
went cruising against Spanish commerce. The
pirates of Barataria, under Pierre and Jean Lafitte,
had already done some plundering before the War
of 1812 ended, but the number of armed vessels of
the kind was greatly augmented after the war.
The laws of the United States explicitly declared
these cruisers to be pirates, and they were pirates
in other points of view, as well. The commissions
were often issued by men not legally competent to
do so ; the vessels gave no bonds for the indemnity
of ships that might be wrongfully captured ; the
prizes were not taken before any court of admiralty
for judicial examination. In short there was no re
straint on the captain of such a cruiser stronger
than his own conscience, or the fear that he might
bring some naval ship, belonging to a power other
than Spain, in chase of him.

106 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
For a time these privateers marketed a part of
their plunder in the United States, but the ships
captured from the Spaniards were more difficult to
handle. Some of these were sold in the United
States also, but Spanish consuls were prompt to ap
peal to the courts in behalf of the original owners,
and it was there made plain that the privateers
were without standing before any just judge.
To overcome the difficulty thus arising, the
pirates established (1816-1817) a resort on the is
land where Galveston, Texas, now stands, and went
through the forms of organizing a new republic
whereof their community was to be the capital. A
similar resort was created on Amelia Island
(Fernandina), Florida, and it was called the capital
of the Two Floridas Republic. A court of ad
miralty was established at each place first of all,
and to these courts came the predatory cruisers
with their captures.
That these privateers in some cases were remark
ably successful is a matter of record in the " Ameri
can State Papers." Havana and Santiago, Cuba,
were blockaded for days at a time, even when
Spanish naval ships of superior force were lying
within. The cruisers also hovered off Cadiz, and
the various ports of the Spanish main under
Spanish control. They even sailed as far as Manila
and captured prey on the waters where Dewey won
fame in later years. Millions of dollars' worth of
Spanish cargoes, were taken. But while some of
these predaceous vessels enriched their owners, a
much greater number failed to secure a single

WAR WITH WEST INDIA PIRATES 107
Spanish cargo. With the crews they carried, some
kind of plunder had to be secured, or a mutiny
would sweep the officers over the rail. This is not
to say that a mutiny was necessary to induce the
average captain to seek plunder wherever it could
be found, for with few exceptions the officers were
more greedy than their men.
No flag could protect a ship at that time and in
those waters, but American commerce suffered from
the depredations more than that of any other na
tion. The Wait edition of "State Papers and
Public Documents" contains several tales of
American ships that were robbed by American-
owned privateers. Niles' s Register supplements
these with many others. Perhaps the most notable
instance of an attack upon an American merchant
man was the capture of the schooner Evening Post
by the brig Brutus, Captain Jolly, who sailed un
der the Venezuelan flag. For the capture of the
Evening Post led directly to the death of Commo
dore Perry as told further on.
The depredations committed by these American
and English privateers under Spanish- American
insurgent flags, in time compelled the authorities at
Washington to send our naval ships to cruise in
West Indian waters for the protection of American
commerce. Neither the French nor the Spanish
pirates of the preceding century were even re
motely involved when, on November 5, 1819, the
naval schooner Lynx, commanded by Lieutenant
J. R. Madison, appeared off Lafitte' s resort on Gal
veston Island and began sounding the channel pre-

108 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
liminary to an attack. This work of the Lynx
was due solely to the depredations of the privateers
that had made Galveston harbor their home port.
But Lafitte, by hanging one of his gang who had
been stealing slaves in Louisiana, warded off the
attack, and continued to hold his place as a pi
rate's "fence" for many years. The sloop of war
Congress and the brig Boxer were also cruising in
the Gulf of Mexico to restrain these pirates under
insurgent flags at the time the Lynx went to Gal
veston Island.
Meanwhile a still more important expedition had
been fitted out. On March 29, 1819, Commodore
Oliver Hazard Perry, then recently home from his
cruise in the Mediterranean, was sent with a squad
ron of three vessels to the Caribbean Sea, with
orders to sweep the pirates from those waters ; but
first of all he was to go up the Orinoco, and visit
Bolivar to obtain a list of privateers that had been
commissioned under the Venezuelan flag, and to
demand compensation for their attacks on American
merchantmen. Perry went up the river, as di
rected, but he died of a fever in consequence of
the trip — the first notable loss of life in the cam
paign. It is to be noted further that the Act of March 3,
1819, was especially designed to meet the exigencies
of such a case. The President was " requested " to
employ the navy in protecting commerce by send
ing into port as good prize all armed vessels that
might attempt "piratical aggression, search, re
straint, depredation or seizure," upon American

WAR WITH WEST INDIA PIRATES 109
merchantmen, or "any other vessels." The plain
meaning of the act was that American men-o' -war
were to protect the commerce of all nations includ
ing Spain's. The courtesy of the Colombian armed
brig toward the captain of the merchantman on
which he found Midshipman Farragut was, very
likely, inspired by this act.
Finding that such ships as the navy already pos
sessed were unfit for pirate hunting because of their
great draft of water, Congress, by the act of May 15,
1820, appropriated $60,000 for building "any num
ber of small vessels of war (not exceeding five)."
These were named Porpoise, Alligator, Dolphin,
Shark and Grampus, and ranged in size from 177
to 198 tons. They carried ten guns in broadside
batteries and a long pivot gun amidships, mounted
on a kind of disappearing carriage that could be
lowered to the deck when not in use and raised
above the bulwarks' level in time of battle. The
last of the five was launched in August, 1821. The
work had been done deliberately, but after the last
launching, it was hastened because an American
merchantman was plundered, at about that date,
just south of Chesapeake Bay.
By the time these five schooners were put in com
mission, however, the situation had changed. When
the Spanish- American privateers first went hunting
Spanish merchantmen, the sympathy of the Ameri
can people was with them. Their successful battles
were applauded everywhere. But by the increas
ing number of piratical acts committed by them on
American as well as European shipping, they for-

110 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
feited almost all the favor our people had earlier
exhibited for them.
This sympathy,. however, had endured too long.
The loyal Spanish knew very well the hailing ports
of the privateers, and they knew too that the Ameri
can people were, or had been, favorable to the
piratical crews. The Spanish minister kept the
State Department at Washington very busy reading
his complaints, and while he complained the prej
udices of his countrymen grew. When the Span
ish-American cruisers began capturing American
merchantmen the Spanish of the Cuban ports openly
taunted the Americans resident there. "It is so
much for so much " was a common expression when
the capture of an American ship was reported —
meaning, "it serves you right for allowing those
pirates to fit out in your ports."
This state of public mind having been attained
in Havana, it was but a short step easily taken to
the manning of piratical vessels that should seek
vengeance on American commerce for the injuries
received from the American-owned privateers, and
at the same time make good profits on the transac
tion. The measures of the American government
for the destruction of the Spanish- American pirates,
such as the building of the five schooners named,
were taken much too late to save it from the indig
nation of the loyal Spanish. In fact, because the
earlier acts of our Government to this end were
inadequate, the Spaniards were the more deeply
angered by what was done at Washington.
The work of the Spanish vengeance-seeking pirates

WAR WITH WEST INDIA PIRATES 111
soon startled the world. Their armed boats and ves
sels appeared, in 1821, off all the coasts of Cuba.
When on October 16th, of that year, the United
States war brig Enterprise arrived at Cape San An
tonio, at the western end of Cuba, in search of law
less privateers under Spanish- American insurgent
flags, she found a gang of Spanish pirates there,
together with one American and two British vessels
and the cargo of another American vessel, which
they had captured. The plunder was taken by the
Enterprise, but the pirates escaped. On November
8th, following, the Porpoise found another cargo of
plunder there, and seized it, but the pirates got
away as before. On December 21st the Enterprise
returned to the cape and captured a fine schooner
that the pirates had fitted out for cruising. This
was thought to be a serious blow to them, but when
the Porpoise came again a little more than two
weeks later (January 7, 1822), the pirates were
found afloat with six smart schooners. These were
all captured, and five of them were burned, but the
gang was by no means broken up, for they were
backed by rich merchants who made their head
quarters at Regla, on Havana Bay, within sight of
the palace of the Captain-General, the Governor of
Cuba, and there they openly fitted out pirate
schooners and small boats for the capture of Ameri
can merchantmen.
Because of the activity and ferocity of these
Spanish pirates (they murdered and tortured many
of their prisoners in a shocking fashion), the whole
available strength of the American navy was con-

112 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
centrated in Cuban waters in 1822. Even the big
square riggers Macedonian, Congress, John Adams
and Cyane went cruising there, the whole force be
ing under command of Commodore James Biddle.
Biddle had some correspondence with the Captain-
General (Don Nicholas Mahy), that is still interest
ing, because the Don said unmistakably, though
with much politeness and diplomatic circumlocu
tion, "We have done at least as much to restrain
our pirates as you have done to restrain yours."
Neither by diplomatic correspondence nor by
actual war was Biddle able to accomplish anything
of consequence. Thirty pirate vessels, big and lit
tle, were captured ; five merchantmen that had been
taken by the pirates were released ; but so secure
did they feel in the support received from the
Spanish authorities that when a gang of them were
attacked (November 9, 1822), in Cardenas Bay by
Lieutenant William Howard Allen, commanding the
schooner Alligator, they made a fight in which
Allen and four of his men were killed, and several
others were wounded. In fact, the work of the navy
during 1822 served only to increase the ferocity of the
pirates, and President Monroe was impelled to send
a special message to Congress, saying that there was
needed a "peculiar kind of force . . .ef
fectually to suppress" them.
This "peculiar force" when procured, included
a side-wheel steamer that was purchased in New
York. She was renamed the Sea Gull, and was the
first steamer to see actual service in the American
navy. The sloop of war Peacock, the schooner

WAR WITH WEST INDIA PIRATES 113
Shark, the store-ship Decoy, and eight smart little
Chesapeake Bay schooners, each drawing no more
than seven feet of water and carrying three guns,
one of which was a " long Tom," were added to the
squadron. And then to perfect the scouring of the
shoal-water harbors, five big barges or rowboats,
each propelled by twenty oars and fit to carry forty
men, were built to order and sent along. The total
number of vessels added to the navy especially to
suppress piracy was thus brought up to twenty.
To command this fleet the Secretary of the Navy
selected Commodore David Porter ; and David Glas
gow Farragut, who had meantime passed his exam
inations for promotion, but was yet a midshipman,
was assigned to one of the newly purchased schoon
ers — the Greyhound, commanded by Lieutenant
Commandant John Porter.
In the course of a banquet tendered the officers of
the fleet by the citizens of Norfolk, where the ves
sels were assembled, Commodore Porter declared
that the rallying cry of his men should be "Re
member Allen." The expedition sailed from the
Chesapeake on February 14, 1823. Commodore
Porter had the sloop of war Peacock for his flag
ship, the steamer Sea Gull for use in calm weather,
nine shoal draft schooners for patrolling the coasts
and giving convoy, and the five big barges for
scouring the shoaler waters, besides the store-ship
Decoy. On March 2d, the fleet reached St. Thomas,
and sailed thence to the vicinity of San Juan, Porto
Rico. Off San Juan the fleet hove to and the schooner

114 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
Greyhound, Lieutenant Commandant Porter (with
Farragut as deck officer), was sent into harbor with
a letter to Governor Miguel de la Torre asking for
an official list of the privateers that had been au
thorized to cruise from Porto Rico, and for a set of
blank papers such as had been filled out for these
cruisers in order that all lawful privateers over
hauled by the fleet might be recognized.
This request was made because, during the previ
ous year (1822), a half dozen privateers had been
commissioned in Porto Rico, and sent cruising, os
tensibly for vessels bound to or from a 1,200 mile
strip of the Spanish mainland that had been de
clared under blockade but was not actually block
aded even by one ship. These privateers had taken
every American vessel that came within their range,
regardless of the port of departure or destination.
One of them (the Palmyra, alias Pancheta) had
fired on the American war schooner Grampus
(August 15, 1822), had been badly damaged and
was then sent to Charleston, S. C, for adjudication.
Because the Palmyra had a commission she was re
leased, in spite of the fact that she had robbed
American vessels on lawful cruises. The Spanish
of Porto Rico, and notably those of San Juan, where
the Palmyra belonged, took this release as an ad
mission that she had been fully justified in her at
tacks on American commerce, and were eager to
avenge the drubbing she had received from the
Grampus. The opportunity to obtain such a revenge as they
desired came after Porter sent the Greyhound into

WAR WITH WEST INDIA PIRATES 115
San Juan on March 4th. The "Naval Affairs"
volumes of the "American State Papers" contain
the correspondence in connection with this affair,
and it is there conclusively shown that the Spanish
authorities deliberately planned to fire on the first
American vessel to follow the Greyhound into port,
and they did so. The vessel was the little schooner
Fox, commanded by Lieutenant Commandant Wil
liam H. Cocke, who had been Farragut's friend and
counselor on the John Adams in New York har
bor, late in the year 1814.
As the Fox reached in toward the fort (March 5),
five guns loaded with solid shot and scrap iron were
fired at her, and Cocke was struck in the shoulder.
He died ten minutes later. The gunner who fired
this shot saw that his aim had been good, and shouted
exultantly that he had avenged the Palmyra.
As Porter wrote to Governor Torre, it was "an
act of most unpardonable cruelty and barbarity,"
done " by the hand of a dastard whose aim was the
more sure from a confidence in his own safety and
the defenceless condition of his object."
A number of effusive letters were written by the
Governor, but Porter got neither a list of licensed
privateers nor a set of the papers he had asked for.
Accordingly, the American fleet was divided and
one part was sent to examine the south coasts of San
Domingo, Haiti and Cuba, while the commodore
himself with the other part hunted along the north
coasts. This search was made in the most thorough man
ner, especially on the Cuban coasts, but nowhere

116 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
was a pirate found. For the Captain -General of
Cuba, Don Nicholas Mahy, had sent to all ports
notice of the approach of the American fleet.
In writing in his diary about his cruise in the
Greyhound, Farragut notes that but few of the
American officers of the fleet had ever sailed in a
schooner-rigged vessel. They left the Chesapeake
in a northeast gale. Lieutenant John Porter, com
manding the Greyhound, carried sail in a way that
ran his vessel out of sight of the squadron very
quickly and was but little short of driving her un
der the waves. As she labored along, Farragut,
who was officer of the deck, and had had experience
in driving the schooner Shark across the Mediter
ranean, called Porter's attention to the fact that the
Greyhound did not " rise to the sea," but Porter
who was sitting well aft replied : " If she can't
carry the sail, let her drag it." It was great sport
for a captain to outsail a squadron, as the Grey
hound did. But at eight o' clock Porter went below,
leaving Farragut to handle her as he pleased. She
was then put under a foresail, " when she scudded
through the gale like a duck."
Before again joining the fleet, the Greyhound met
a British squadron, and a brig carrying twenty
guns sent to intercept the American ship, fired a
gun to bring her to the wind. Porter merely called
his crew to quarters and kept on. At that the brig
fired another shot and Porter said to the gunner in
command of the pivot gun :
" Fire, but don't hit her."
The gunner obeyed. He did not hit her but he

WAR WITH WEST INDIA PIRATES 117
sent the shot only a few feet above the heads of the
officers on the brig's poop deck. The Greyhound
had her colors flying and no American naval officer
would take orders from a foreigner after the War of
1812. This reply to his second shot satisfied the
British captain. " None but a Yankee would have
done that," he said. He had now arrived within
hail, and after asking for the nationality of the
Greyhound, made a proper apology.
In the meantime the crews of brig and schooner
were "furious." The English captain, hearing
that Porter was sick, sent a boat with some fruit.
As the cockswain of the boat passed it over the
Greyhound's rail he said :
"Here is some fruit for the shot you sent us."
To this the Yankee boatswain's mate who re
ceived it replied :
"We are always ready to fight or eat with you."
And a careful consideration will convince any
student of American history that this boatswain's
mate expressed a sentiment not unknown among
American naval men ever since that day.
After cruising along the Cuban coasts the fleet
gathered at Key West, where a naval station had
been established the previous year. A deal of
shifting among the crews followed in order to make
a still more thorough search for the pirates. Com
mander Lawrence Kearney, who had already done
excellent work on the Cuban coast with the brig
Enterprise, took command of the little Greyhound,
and with the Beagle, commanded by Lieutenant
J, C. Newton, explored the southern shores of Cub».

118 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
The numerous islands there were carefully searched
but no pirates were found until Cape Cruz was
reached— July 21, 1823.
At this point Kearney and Newton went ashore
partly to look for signs of pirates and partly in
search of game. A man crossed their path, and
one of the sailors was going to shoot him, but was
stopped by Kearney. The sailor said he knew "by
his rig" that the fellow was a pirate, and the party
therefore returned to the boat. When they pre
pared to pull off to the schooners the ruffians
opened fire with muskets from the brush. The
sailors returned the fire, aiming at the smoke (forms
could not be seen in the bushes), but no one was
hurt on either side.
In order to exterminate this gang a landing party
under command of Acting-Lieutenant Farragut was
ordered ashore at three o'clock next morning. The
party numbered seventeen, including two acting-
lieutenants. The Greyhound was to warp in close
to the beach in order to cover them, and once
landed they were to keep back in the brush, out of
sight of the vessels, and march toward the higher
land near the point of the cape.
On landing, Farragut found himself on a long
narrow island. To make headway on their course
it was necessary for the men to hew a path through
the brush with their cutlasses. After a time they
arrived at the end of the island and saw that an
unfordable strait lay between them and the rocky
cape. They were therefore obliged to show them
selves on the beach. When they appeared the

WAR WITH WEST INDIA PIRATES 119
crew of the Greyhound were about to fire on them,
for they were covered with mud and looked like
natives, rather than sailors in uniforms. But
Kearney saw Farragut's epaulette in time, and then
sent boats to ferry the party across the channel.
The crews of these boats, on seeing the party so
fully covered with mud, dropped discipline for the
moment, to laugh heartily at their ridiculous ap
pearance. It is pleasant to note that Farragut en
joyed the scene as much as any one.
Captain Kearney, after transporting Farraguf s
party to the mainland, pulled boldly alongshore
until close under the bluffs of the cape when the
pirates opened fire on him with a four pounder and
so great a number of muskets that he was obliged
to retreat. Then, after ordering Farragut to work
through the brush to the rear of the pirate strong
hold, Kearney returned to the Greyhound and with
sweeps drove her and the Beagle within range when
he opened fire with the great guns.
In the meantime the task assigned to Farragut
was proving to be one of the most laborious of his
life. The bushes were thickly covered with thorns
and well intermingled with cacti. The ground was
covered with sharp rocks and bits of iron ore that
cut the shoes from the feet of the men with most
painful rapidity, and every inch of the way had to
be opened by stroke of cutlass. Worse yet the sun
had climbed well up, and the heat of the motionless
air had become intense. One officer was overcome
and fainted, while several of the sailors were greatly
exhausted.

120 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
When half a mile from the beach a tremendous
clatter was heard in the thicket behind the toil
ing party, and after listening a moment, Farra
gut became convinced that a large number of
pirates were coming to attack him. He therefore
made a most stirring speech to his command,
and then charged the enemy, only to find that it
was a great host of land crabs migrating through
the brush.
A little later they heard the schooners firing on
the pirate stronghold, and with renewed energy
worked on only to find, upon reaching the more
open country near the cape, that the enemy were
already in flight. They chased the retreating pirates
as well as they could. "Now and then a fellow
would be seen in full run, and apparently fall
down and disappear from view" — crawling through
the brush. Only two were taken, and they were
"old and decrepit beings." Farragut captured a
big black monkey that bit him through the arm,
"but had to surrender at discretion."
The pirate haunt consisted of one large, well-
thatched house and three smaller ones that were
well concealed from view — structures made of poles
and covered with palm leaves. Near by were "nu
merous deep and intricate caves," as Kearney says
in his report. The settlement was defended by a
"4-pounder, two swivels mounted on the heights"
and numerous muskets and blunderbusses. In the
caves were found considerable plunder including
goods with English labels on them "but of no
value." One woman and several children were

WAR WITH WEST INDIA PIRATES 121
among the outlaws. The houses were burned and
the guns were carried away.
The party also destroyed a quantity of fishing
tackle and all the boats but one, which was given
to the "old and decrepit" prisoners, who were
allowed to go, even though they had lighted signal
fires to announce the approach of the Americans.
On returning to Key West for provisions, Far
ragut was transferred to the steamer — the Sea Gull
— of which he was made the executive officer.
Commodore Porter was using her as his flagship,
while searching the Cuban coast, and was willing
to give Farragut an opportunity to learn how to
handle what was then a wondrous innovation — a
steam war vessel.
But a great and fearsome peril was now hanging
over the fleet. When the Sea Gull returned to
Key West with Farragut, he found the yellow fever
raging there. Of twenty -five officers who had been
attacked at this time, twenty-three died, and Far
ragut says that the enlisted men had suffered in
the same proportion. During 1823 and 1824, taken
together, a half of the officers and men employed
in the fleet were stricken with the disease, and one-
fourth of the entire force died of it.
Though he might have obtained a transfer to
another station at any time, Farragut faced the
yellow fever on the West India coasts for two years
and a half; for there, and nowhere else in the
world, he had a chance to smell burning gunpowder
— to see active service. It is interesting, now, to
recall the fact that the men who were cruising

122 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
nearest the beach suffered most from the fever.
The surgeons supposed that this was due to the
influence of the "night air," but Farragut noted
that "night air" was not injurious in all cases.
He says :
" On board the Greyhound we all slept on deck.
For myself I never owned a bed during my two
years and a half in the West Indies, but lay down to
rest wherever I found the most comfortable berth."
Yet Farragut escaped the dread disease until
he was ordered north near the end of the pirate
war. Among the twenty -five officers stricken with
the fever, when it first came to the fleet, was the
commodore himself. He was one of the two that
recovered, although he was so much debilitated
that he went north in the Sea Gull, taking Farra
gut with him. But the latter soon returned to the
West Indies and was sent on a cruise that was ex
tended to St. Kitts and St. Bartholomew'.
On reaching the Florida Keys after this cruise
Farragut found a schooner, loaded with brick,
bound for the Mississippi, and obtained leave of
absence for one month to visit his relatives in
Louisiana. This schooner, as the diary notes,
carried the first cargo of brick used in building
Fort Jackson which was designed, as no one could
foresee, for the defense of New Orleans against
Farragut and his men nearly forty years later.
Commodore Daniel T. Patterson was in command
at New Orleans when Farragut arrived there, and
a letter written by him on May 20, 1824, contains
this sentence :

WAR WITH WEST INDIA PIRATES 123
"We have been gratified by the visit of young
Farragut, of whom we have formed a high opinion. ' '
The young man returned to the fleet just in time
to obtain an independent command. The captain
of the Ferret was going north, and Commodore
Porter had established the rule that the passed
midshipmen should be chosen for command in the
order of the dates of their warrants. Farragut's
warrant had an earlier date than any other mid
shipman within reach, but Porter for a time hesi
tated lest he be accused of partiality in giving his
ward the schooner. Like many a young man afloat
since his day, Farragut found that an influential
father, even though an adopted one, might be an
impediment to his advancement. However, Fleet
Captain W. B. Finch interceded and Farragut got
the schooner — "another important event in my
life," he writes. It was his first naval ship. He
was then twenty-three years old.
Going to sea within a few hours, Farragut entered
upon the search for pirates with the eagerness of a
youth most ambitious to accomplish something ; but
the previous work of the fleet had been so thorough
that they no longer went afloat, save at night
and in rowboats when they saw a merchantman
becalmed offshore, though they were not wholly
suppressed until 1825. However, the young cap
tain found employment in convoying merchantmen
"through the Gulf and as high as the Double-
Headed Shot Keys," and in handling his crank
little schooner in the squalls that frequently swept
those waters.

124 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
"It required great vigilance, but it was an ad
mirable school for a young officer," he wrote after
ward, "and I realized its benefits all my life. I
have never felt afraid to run a ship since, generally
finding it a pleasant excitement."
During this period we get one glimpse of the
young midshipman in a personal encounter with
two men supposed to be pirates. In arranging for
convoys, Farragut had frequently to go ashore at
the ports to consult with the merchants and cap
tains. In this way he became well-known person
ally to the alongshore people. Accordingly when
he was sitting on his hotel veranda, in Havana, one
evening, two men took seats near him, where they
abused the whole American nation in general, and
then insulted Farragut personally. It was tolerably
certain that they were "looking for trouble" ; and
whether they were or not, they found it.
As it happened, the two were sitting close to a
stout iron railing that guarded the front edge of
the veranda. Noting this fact, Farragut left his
seat, grabbed the two men by the throats, jerked
them from their chairs, and whirling them around
backed them over the rail and held them with their
heads down toward the pavement until they begged
him to let them go. It was a striking exhibition of
the young officer's strength and skill as an athlete,
and of his courage as well ; for every member of
the piratical gangs carried a knife. In fact, Farra
gut was soon warned that the pirates would waylay
and murder him, if he were found ashore at night,
thereafter. But they apparently had had enough

WAR WITH WEST INDIA PIRATES 125
of fighting with him, hand to hand, for he came and
went as usual, and was never again molested in any
way. It appears from what he told his son (Captain
Loyall Farragut of New York, from whom the
above story was obtained), that he learned to know
some of the pirates by sight. There was one in par
ticular, named Domingo, whom he mentions in his
diary as a man who had "something chivalric"
about him. In 1823 or 1824, a schooner was built in
Baltimore, which under the name of Pilot, became
noted for her speed. She was put in the Havana
trade, where she attracted much attention among
seafaring people. To secure this schooner for
piratical uses Domingo gathered a crew, and await
ing her approach, went off in a rowboat one night
and captured her within gunshot of the Morro. In
addition to a rich cargo, the Pilot carried a great
amount of mail for the naval men under Commo
dore Porter. Domingo carefully preserved this
and sent it all to Porter's fleet, " with a message in
which he said that the Yankees were a gallant set
of fellows, and he had no wish to keep them out of
their letters ; but that he would retain the minia
ture of Lieutenant G.'s wife, in case he should meet
the original. He thought if she looked like the
picture he should make love to her."
Later, while cruising in the Pilot, Domingo fell
in with two of the big barges manned by the
Yankee sailors. These chased him ashore, shot
him through the arm, killed one of his men, and re
took the schooner. Farragut afterward saw Do-

126 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
mingo loafing around the mole in Havana with his
arm in a sling waiting for another chance to go
afloat. Farragut writes in his diary that he was ordered
to Nassau, N. P., on August 23, 1823, but he was
writing from memory, and the date must be wrong,
because in a report of the Captain of the Squadron,
W. B. Finch (Finch afterward changed his name
to Bolton), dated July 20, 1824, an event of this
trip is described much as Farragut describes it,
though the report is dated July 10, 1824.1 The re
port says:
" Acting Lieutenant Farragut, commanding the
Ferret, reports that while at Nassau, about the 10th
inst., one of his crew, of the name of James
Fredenburg, stated himself to be a deserter from
H. B. Majesty's ship Pandorn ; and that in conse
quence he gave him over to Captain Du Maigue,
commanding H. B. Majesty's ship Kangaroo. The
grounds on which Lieutenant Farragut acted are
that no foreigners were wanted in our service, and
moreover Captain Du Maigue had recently returned
an American deserter to the Wild Cat." Captain
Finch was especially careful to add that Farragut
was "not constrained thereto by any act of the
British officer."
Farragut gives more details in his diary. The
sailor hailed the British ship, announced himself as
a deserter, and asked to be taken from the Ferret.
As soon as Farragut heard what had been done he
got up his anchor, sailed outside the harbor, and
1 State Papers, Naval Affairs, Vol. II, p. 301.

WAR WITH WEST INDIA PIRATES 127
tricing the offending sailor up to the rigging, gave
him a thorough application of the cat, returning
then to the anchorage. There he waited two days to
see whether the British officers would demand him,
being fully determined, meanwhile, that he would
not surrender the fellow under any circumstances.
But the days of insolent foreign demands had ended
with the War of 1812, and having heard that the
British had promptly given up an American de
serter from one of their ships in Havana, Farragut
thought to return the courtesy. The deserter was
therefore sent to the ship he had hailed.
On leaving Nassau, Farragut sailed under orders
for Washington, and when within sight of that city
was stricken with the yellow fever. He recovered
in due time, but remained in delicate health for
several months. Moreover, his eyes troubled him
through the lingering effects of the sunstroke re
ceived in Tunis. In consequence the Ferret was
placed under the command of Lieutenant Charles
H. Bell, who capsized her off the north coast of
Cuba, and lost many of her crew.
The fact that another took the schooner seems to
have made a deep impression on Farragut, for he
says in connection with the event:
"I had always to contend with the burden first
imposed on me by Commodore Porter's saying that
I was 'too young for promotion.' Although that
remark was made just after the action of the Essex,
I never appeared to get any older in the eyes of
the government, or my commander, and conse
quently had to contend, inch by inch, as oppor-

128 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
tunities presented, with men of riper age and ap
parently more entitled to the places sought."
This reference to the competition " with men of
riper age" is explained by an examination of the
old naval registers. Boys who were older, and
who had had much better schooling than the back
woods Farragut, came into the navy just before and
during the War of 1812. Their warrants were of
later date than his by years, but where he failed to
pass his first examination for promotion, they suc
ceeded. No less than ninety-eight midshipmen who
entered the navy after Farragut, received the lieu
tenant' s commission ahead of him. Moreover, in the
register where his name appears for the first time as
a lieutenant, twenty -one names stand ahead of his
with their commissions of the same date, and nearly
all of the twenty-one entered the navy after him.
In his experience in battle, and in his ability to
handle men and ships, Farragut was undoubtedly
superior to nearly every one of those promoted
over him, as we can easily see now. Few officers
of the American navy have had such an experi
ence in this regard as Farragut. It is a most in
teresting fact for the reason that he was never
soured by his ill -fortune. He never lost pluck or
ambition, and he worked all the harder to fit him
self to embrace the opportunities to which he ever
looked forward.
With the attack of yellow fever Farragut's serv
ice in the West Indies came to an end, although
he was nominally attached to the fleet some months
longer.

WAR WITH WEST INDIA PIRATES 129
However one other incident of the war should
be related here, briefly. On the night of Octo
ber 23, 1824, pirates from the little village of
Foxardo, in the east end of Porto Rico, landed at
St. Thomas and robbed the store of two American
citizens of a large quantity of goods which were
carried to Foxardo. Lieutenant Charles T. Piatt,
commanding the schooner Beagle, sailed to that
place, landed and asked the Alcalde and other
officials to help him recover the property. But
they, being in partnership with the pirates, not
only refused to do so, but imprisoned the lieutenant
and otherwise grossly insulted him. On November
12th, this matter was reported to Commodore Por
ter, who went to Foxardo with a competent force
and compelled the Alcalde to make a proper
apology to Lieutenant Piatt.
This act did more to make the Spanish of Porto
Rico respect the American navy than anything
ever done in that region theretofore. As docu
ments in the case show, every American naval
officer who landed in the island thereafter was
treated with marked courtesy and consideration.
But when the Spanish minister complained at
Washington, Porter was ordered home, and was
tried by a court-martial that declared his conduct
"censurable." The blood of Lieutenant William
H. Cocke, deliberately shot to death at San Juan,
was forgotten, and Porter, unable to endure such
treatment, resigned his commission, August 18,
1826— the second of the heroes of the War of 1812
that were lost to the navy through the pirate war.

130 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
When Jackson became President he offered to
restore Porter to his place, but the latter declined
to return to an association with officers who could
censure a man for showing an excessive regard for
the honor of the Nation and the naval service.
Afterward Porter was sent to represent the United
States at Constantinople, where he remained until
his death on March 28, 1843. His body was brought
home and buried in Woodlands Cemetery, West
Philadelphia. Farragut was a witness before the court that
tried Porter but his testimony was not important,
for he was not in any way connected with the
Foxardo affair.

CHAPTER VIH
ROUTINE WORK IN TIME OF PEACE
After recovering from the fever which he had
contracted in the West Indies, Farragut went to
Norfolk, Va., where on September 2, 1824, he was
married to Susan Caroline, the daughter of Jordan
and Fanny Marchant. Naval officers are known
the world over as good husbands, but Farragut was
especially noted in this respect. His wife lost her
health and was an invalid who suffered intensely
until December 20, 1840, when she died. During
the years of her sickness Farragut was stationed at
Norfolk, much of the time, and how he cared for
her may be inferred from the remark made by a
Norfolk lady :
"When Captain Farragut dies," she said, "he
should have a monument reaching to the skies,
made by every wife in the city contributing a stone
to it."
As for his work during the years following the
pirate war it was on the whole merely the routine
life of a naval officer in time of peace. Neverthe
less there were incidents in it worth recalling.
On January 13, 1825, he became a lieutenant in
the navy. His pay was then forty dollars per
month with three rations added. As a midship
man, and when married, he had received nineteen
dollars a month, with one ration.

132 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
When the frigate Brandywine was sent to carry
Lafayette home (she sailed from the Potomac on
September 13, 1825), Farragut was ordered to her
as a deck officer. His pride in his profession is
shown by his diary wherein he notes that the
Brandywine was one of the fastest vessels in the
world, and was able to keep up with the other
ships in the Mediterranean squadron, which she
ioined, while spreading from twelve to sixteen sails
less than any of them.
Between 1826 and 1828, being at Norfolk once
more, he observed that but few of the apprentices
on the station knew so much as their letters. See
ing very clearly, what few officers saw then, that the
education of the apprentices would promote their
efficiency as seamen, he established a school on the
sloop of war Alert for their instruction, and was so
successful with it that the secretary of the navy on
visiting the yard was moved to compliment him.
It is a matter that ought to be remembered. If
Farragut were living now we may believe that he
would favor giving all apprentices of the navy as
good an education as is given to the midshipmen.
After that (1828), he made a cruise to the South
Atlantic station in the old Vandalia, wherein the
late Rear Admiral Benjamin F. Sands was a mid
shipman. Sands in his autobiography recalls a
squall that struck the ship off Cape Frio, Brazil.
It was so severe that even Captain John Gallagher,
a well-tried officer, "became somewhat excited."
But Farragut, who had the deck, "gave his orders
through the trumpet calmly and distinctly ; and

ROUTINE WORK IN TIME OF PEACE 133
with no confusion the ship in a little while was
under snug sail." "Young as I was," continues
Sands, "I was struck with admiration, and breathed
a hope that I would some day make just such an
other sailor and officer — as he was my beau-ideal."
On the South Atlantic station, Farragut was
present at some of the proceedings in one of the
oft-recurring revolutions in the Argentine, but his
eyes having failed him he was sent home. On
December 4, 1832, he joined the Natchez as her
executive officer (first lieutenant), and on Janu
ary 5th sailed for Charleston, to which port the
ship had been ordered by President Jackson to
quell with force, if necessary, the troubles that were
expected to arise in connection with the "nullifica
tion" of the national revenue laws by the state of
South Carolina. The only work done by the naval
force was when Farragut with fifty men went ashore
and helped the citizens extinguish a fire that threat
ened to sweep the city. The Natchez was the largest
ship (700 tons) with which Farragut had been con
nected as executive officer, and she carried a crew
of 140 men. One of the officers who sailed in her
wrote afterward :
" Never was the crew of a man-of-war better dis
ciplined, or more contented and happy. The mo
ment all hands were called, and Farragut took the
trumpet, every man under him was alive and eager
for duty."
When at Rio, on one occasion, he " box-hauled "
a ship out of port, although the wind was ahead,
the passage was narrow, and many good seamen

134 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
thought "the manoeuvre could not be successfully
accomplished." On August 7, 1838, Farragut got his first square-
rigged ship, the Erie, a vessel of 509 tons, and
carrying 140 men. France was, at that time, at
war with Mexico, to compel the payment of dam
ages for injuries done to French citizens during the
unending revolutions that prevailed in that coun
try, and the Erie was sent down to the Mexican
coast to look after the rights of American citizens,
and presumably to see that the provisions of the
Monroe Doctrine were not impaired.
There is a significant entry in the diary of the
young captain, during his stay on the Mexican
coast. Having leisure at one time, he says, " I oc
cupied myself in sounding around the reefs and
islands of Sacrificios." Farragut had been in these
waters in 1822 as a midshipman in the sloop of war
John Adams, and he was now continuing the work
of studying the coast that he had begun in his first
cruise thither.
But a much better opportunity for increasing his
knowledge was found in connection with the French
fleet, under Admiral Baudin. For Baudin being
unable to secure the satisfaction demanded of
Mexico determined to capture the huge fort of San
Juan de Ulloa, guarding the harbor of Vera Cruz.
The French fleet included two steamers brought out
for use as tugs. On November 27, 1838, these tugs
placed the frigates, sloops and bomb vessels where
their fire would be most effective, and at 2 : 30
o'clock the action began. The firing was continued

ROUTINE WORK IN TIME OF PEACE 135
during the daylight hours until nine o'clock the
next morning, when the fort capitulated. About
200 shot a minute were hurled into the works dur
ing that time.
Farragut had already carefully noted the arma
ment of the ships and now he had an opportunity
to see the effect of the shot. As early as 1825, guns
to fire shells horizontally — as distinguished from
the high-thrown shell-fire of mortars — had been in
troduced into the French navy, and the frigates in
this fleet each had either two or four 80-pounders
for throwing shells. No other navy then mounted
such guns, the best in the American navy being
a long 32-pounder firing a round six inch solid
shot with a charge of five or six pounds of powder.
His examination of the French ships led Farra
gut to declare in a letter to Commodore Barron,
that " the English and ourselves may affect to de
spise the French by sea, but depend upon it, sir,
they are in science far ahead of us both. Of all
this I know you have seen much in theory, but I
have seen it tested in practice."
The attack on this fort was the first practical
trial of the value of guns for firing shells instead
of the solid shot that had been used theretofore,
aud it was also the first comparative test with
mortar fire. Fully alive to the occasion, Farragut
noted that " the French threw almost entirely shell-
shot, which entered the wall twelve or eighteen
inches and then exploded, tearing out great masses
of stone, and in some instances rending the wall
from base to top. The damage done by these [hori-

136 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
zontally-fired] shell-shot was inconceivably greater
than that by the shell from the bomb vessels. I am
satisfied that they might have bombarded with
bomb vessels for a month without success, while the
frigates would in four hours more, with their shell-
shot, have reduced the fort to a heap of ruins."
In modern days a Bureau of the Navy Depart
ment has been established to collect just such in
formation about foreign ships and their work as
was then gathered by Farragut, and sent to Com
modore Barron. Moreover the peculiarities of
every officer are npw recorded in the Navy Depart
ment so that when one like Farragut shows a special
interest in gleaning information, and a special
aptitude for such work, the facts about his abilities
are all written down to his credit, in order that his
services may be obtained in case of need.
But in those days no records were kept, either of
the officers of the American navy or of the progress
made by foreign navies. The success of the navy
in the War of 1812 had been in one way injurious
to it. Splendid victories had been gained with
such inadequate preparation that the American
people came to think their "valor" was sufficient
for every emergency. Indeed as late as in 1884 a
famous New York orator said, in a public address,
in that city, that if a foreign war squadron should
attempt to blockade New York the population
would rise up en masse, board the great fleet of
harbor steamers, rush down to the bar and mob the
enemy off the face of the ocean. And yet every
European power had ironclads a-plenty in 1884,

ROUTINE WORK IN TIME OF PEACE 137
and it was the well-equipped battleship that the
orator thought to mob with wooden river steamers
and ferry boats. Said Farragut in his letter to
Barron :
"If we who wander about the world do not keep
those at home informed of the daily improvements
in other navies, how can we hope to improve, par
ticularly when we see men impressed with the idea
that, because they once gained a victory, they can
do it again . So they may, but I can tell them that
it must be with the means of 1838, not those of
1812." In the meantime Farragut was relieved of the
command of the Erie by an officer of superior rank,
and he returned to his home in Norfolk. There
after he was not afloat again until February, 1841,
when he was ordered to the battleship Delaware as
executive officer. The activity of " the little luff,"
as he was then called, is well shown by the fact that
he devised improved machinery for hoisting ammu
nition from the magazine to the various gun decks,
and then drilled the crew until they could fire three
aimed broadsides in four minutes — a speed that was
astounding to the gunners of that day.
Farragut was promoted to the rank of commander
on September 8, 1841. In the following two years
he was attached to the South Atlantic station, from
which he returned to Norfolk once more in com
mand of the sloop of war Decatur. He arrived
there on February 18, 1843. On December 26th,
the same year, he was married to Virginia, the
daughter of Mr. William Loyall, of Norfolk. He

138 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
remained in that city, being employed on the Penn
sylvania (ship-of-the-line), or at the navy yard,
until the outbreak of the war with Mexico. Dur
ing this period of comparative ease, Farragut wrote
much of the material that has been incorporated in
his published diary, using the log books of his
various cruises when he had them, and writing
from memory of periods for which they had been
lost. When war with Mexico was at hand, Farragut
made every possible effort to obtain command on
the Mexican coast. In a letter to the Secretary of
the Navy, Hon. J. Y. Mason, dated November 3,
1846, he wrote saying that although two letters
previously forwarded had accomplished nothing,
"I now take the liberty of addressing you, sir, in
much the same language, with the sincere hope,
that, should anything like an attack on the Castle
of San Juan de Ulloa be contemplated, at some
future day, I may be allowed to participate in the
glorious achievement, for such I believe it will be
whenever it is undertaken.
" I served in the Gulf in 1822, '23, and '24, under
Commodore Porter, and in 1838, '39 under Commo
dore Dallas. I was present in command of the
sloop of war Erie when the castle was taken by the
French in 1838, and was in the castle a few minutes
after its surrender, and I therefore know how vul
nerable it is to ships. I was intimate with the
French officers, and saw daily all their preparations
and plans of attack ; all of which might be servicea
ble. I am proud to say I learned a good deal.

ROUTINE WORK IN TIME OF PEACE 139
The French were prepared to attack by escalade.
This I also considered feasible, and at, perhaps,
much less risk than by bombardment ; but it would
have been executed under cover of night. My in
timate knowledge of the localities and these ar
rangements induces me to hope that I may have a
position under whoever has the good fortune to
command the squadron."
In his diary Farragut tells of the outcome of his
efforts : "I finally obtained command of the sloop
of war Saratoga, after much difficulty. I had urged
my claims on the ground that I had taken great
pains to inform myself as to the local advantages
of attacking the place, measured the depth of water
all around the fort, and marked the penetration of
every shell from the French ships; and that in so
doing I had not at the time looked forward to a
war with Mexico, but I had made it a rule of my
life to note these things with a view to the possible
future. I had labored much in this way, and it
was the first opportunity I had ever had of reaping
a reward. I urged that I could take the Castle of
San Juan with the Pennsylvania and two sloops of
war like the Saratoga, for which declaration I came
near being ruled out as a monomaniac. I was will
ing to take the inferior position of executive officer
on board the Pennsylvania that I might have the
duty of organizing her crew for the fight ; but it
was not permitted, and I did not obtain command
of the Saratoga until February, 1847."
Once in command of this ship, Farragut made
such haste as has been rarely seen on a naval ves-

140 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
sel. To gather his complement of men he took
servants, boatmen — any one that could haul on
a rope — and two days after receiving his orders, he
sailed with a crew that was ten per cent, short of
the necessary number. He had just one man that
was rated as an able seaman. But he drilled the
crew every day on his way down, and when he en
gaged in target practice off the Bahama Banks,
"they made pretty good practice," and he had
them "in fair trim" when they reached Vera
Cruz. In the meantime the fort had surrendered to Gen
eral Scott. The navy did not enjoy the honor of
taking it and why it did not do so Farragut thus
explains :
" Unfortunately the officers then in the Gulf, who
did not understand the condition of the fortifica
tions or know the people, were not willing to at
tack, because an English officer had said that the
castle ' could sink all the ships in the world.' It is
now known, and sadly felt, that they were imposed
upon. The navy would stand on a different footing
to-day if our ships had made the attack. It was all
we could do, and it should have been done at all
hazards. Commodore Conner thought differently,
however, and the old officers at home backed his opin
ion ; but they all paid the penalty — not one of them
will ever wear an admiral's flag, which they might
have done, if that castle had been taken by the
navy." The significance of these words is observable
when one remembers that it was the gallant feats of

ROUTINE WORK IN TIME OF PEACE 141
the navy in the Civil War which induced Congress
to create the rank of admiral, and Farragut was the
leader in this work. But " of all the service I had
seen since entering the navy," he writes, "the
cruise during the war with Mexico was the most
mortifying. I have little to look back to with satis
faction or pleasure at that time, except the con
sciousness of having done my duty. I had the ill-
will of my commodore [M. C. Perry]. I was not
permitted to participate in any of the expeditions
or more honorable duties, but was placed under a
reef of rocks off Tuxpan, to blockade that port.
When I could bear the imposition no longer, I re
ported the facts to the Navy Department, and asked
to be relieved from under his command, or from
command of his ship."
Farragut was accordingly ordered home, where
he learned that his letters "were considered im
proper by the Secretary of the Navy. ' ' In the mean
time he had passed through another attack of yel
low fever that well-nigh ended his life.
On returning from the Mexican War (he reached
New York on February 19, 1848), Farragut was
made second in command at the Norfolk Navy
Yard, a position showing that the Department
still had confidence in his ability. His first
work of importance was an assignment in
October, 1850, in company with four officers
of lesser rank, to write a book of ordnance
regulations. The value of this work, which occu
pied him for a year and a half, was never fully
recognized because the ordnance of the navy was

142 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
soon to be revolutionized by the inventive talent
of Lieutenant John A. Dahlgren. The old style
32-pounders were to be thrown aside and 9-inch,
10-inch and 11-inch smoothbores of improved de
sign were to be substituted. Farragut's work in
volved a thorough study of the gunnery systems of
the world, and that was something to his taste.
While engaged in it he regularly attended .the lec
tures at the Smithsonian Institution, a fact worthy
of mention as showing his habit of acquiring
knowledge. It was now, after forty years of unwearied toil for
self-improvement, that Farragut came to be recog
nized at the Department as an officer of special at
tainments, and when he was done with the ord
nance regulations, he was sent to Norfolk and
ordered to give a series of lectures on gunnery to
his fellow officers on the station. In 1852 it was
determined to test the endurance of all the various
kinds of guns in the navy and Farragut was chosen
to fire one or two of each class until they were finally
worn out and bursted. He says that by the results
obtained "many preconceived opinions of the serv
ice were entirely overturned."
But when on April 12, 1854, Farragut asked the
Department to send him to the Crimea that he might
render a report on the advancement that had been
made by the British and French in naval affairs,
"no action was taken" in the matter. Although
armored batteries were used in the Crimean War,
and novelties in guns such as a cannon with a grape
vine shaped bore, were to be seen, the Navy De-

ROUTINE WORK IN TIME OF PEACE 143
partment thought it not worth while to possess a
knowledge of the improvements then made and
making in Europe. The fact that our success on the
ocean during the War of 1812 was due to superior
guns, as well as to valorous and well-trained men,
had been forgotten.
However, Farragut was sent on a mission that
was considered important. The government had
decided to establish a navy yard near the growing
port of San Francisco, California. A site had been
selected on Mare Island, thirty miles up the bay
from the young city, and Farragut was ordered in
August, 1854, to create the yard. He was four
years on the station, and while there, he was pro
moted to the rank of captain on September 14, 1855.
At the Mare Island Navy Yard it has been said
that " he reserved the ornamental work until every
thing of importance had been accomplished."
And it is not a little pleasing to read that "th
poorest laborer could approach him with any com
plaint or grievance, without awe or inferiority of
manhood, and feel that he would receive equal and
exact justice without respect to person. He in
spired and preserved the confidence, respect, and
esteem of all his subordinates."
It was while Farragut was in command at Mare
Island that the celebrated Vigilance Committee of
1856 was formed in San Francisco. The blacklegs
of the city obtained control of all official machinery
and created a reign of terror from which there
seemed no escape but by lynch law methods. It
was a trying time for Farragut because the Vigi-

144 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
lance Committee on the one hand, and the city and
state officials calling themselves the Law and Or
der Party, on the other, steadily besought him to
interfere by landing an armed force. To add to his
difficulties a sloop of war, the John Adams, of the
Pacific squadron, came into port, and the city
officials begged her captain, Commander E. B.
Boutwell, to fire on the town in order to compel
the Vigilance Committee to release one of their
prisoners, the notorious Judge Terry. Thereupon
Commander Boutwell wrote a letter threatening to
" use all the power " at his command to save Terry
from the committee.
Farragut was then obliged to interfere so far as to
require Boutwell not to take sides with either party
ashore. It is very plain that Farragut appreciated
the evils which had goaded the citizens to form the
Vigilance Committee. He would have sanctioned
any efforts short of anarchy for ousting the black
legs who were supported by the so-called Law and
Order Party. But he was very far from counte
nancing lynch law, or what may be called the
American cross-lots route to a supposed natural
justice. His course had the approval of the Depart
ment. On his return to the east, Farragut was given
command of the Brooklyn, one of a new squad
ron of steam frigates that had been built because it
was thought that trouble with England impended.
At any rate, the Secretary of the Navy said to
Commander John A. Dahlgren, on the evening of
February 7, 1856, that such a war would break out

' ROUTINE WORK IN TIME OF PEACE 145
"in a twelvemonth," and Dahlgren' s plans for
arming the new ships were adopted for that reason.
The broadside guns of the Brooklyn were 9-inch
Dahlgren smoothbores, then the most efficient
broadside guns in the world.
Farragut took the new steamer on her trial trip,
and afterward in 1859 on a cruise through the
West Indies and along the coast of Mexico, which
country at the time was in a rather worse state of
anarchy than usual.
It was fortunate for Farragut that he obtained
this command. He had been trained to the hand
ling of a sailing ship, and had shown himself able
to take a sloop of war out of the harbor of Rio de
Janeiro against both wind and tide. But his pro
fession had "materially changed since the advent
of steam," as he said at the time. There were
many officers in the navy who had a strong pre
judice against steam ships of war, but Farragut
was not one of them. On the contrary, he found as
much pleasure in handling the Brooklyn "as ever
a boy did in any feat of skill." And he showed
his .-uvarying interest in the work of the ship by
constantly drilling the crew — particularly by target
practice, and boat expeditions.
Farragut did not know it, but on this cruise he
himself was in training ; he was receiving the final
schooling that was to fit him for the great work
that lay but a short distance away.
In her cruise on the Mexican coast the Brooklyn
was acting most of the time as a transport for the
use of Robert M. McLane, United States Minister

146 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
to Mexico. Our government had recognized Benito
Juarez, a liberal, as the legitimate executive at the
time that Mexico City was in the hands of the con
servatives. McLane traveled up and down the
coast, visiting the American consuls wherever he
could find them, and looking after the interests of
American citizens resident in the country. But
during these visits he was also lending his influence
to the Juarez party. The size and power of the
Brooklyn undoubtedly strengthened the influence
he constantly exerted, and it is not too much to
suppose that Farragut, with his perfect command
of the language, and superior knowledge of the
character of the Spanish- American people, was
able to give the minister great assistance.
Eventually the ministers of England, France,
Germany and Spain united with Minister McLane
in recognizing the Juarez government. The spe
cial work of the Brooklyn then came to an end,
and McLane was taken to the Mississippi and
landed at a plantation below New Orleans. As it
happened Farragut's older brother, Lieutenant
William Farragut, whose state of health had for
years prevented active service, was at the point of
death in New Orleans, when the Brooklyn entered
the river. Farragut though unaware that his
brother was in a critical condition hastened to the
city, but arrived too late to find him alive.
The cruise of the Brooklyn came to an end in
1860. The government was then, as now (1905),
interested in plans for an interoceanic canal, and a
naval expedition was sent out in this ship to sur-

ROUTINE WORK IN TIME OF PEACE 147
vey the Chiriqui route. The expedition, however,
was under the command of Captain Frederick Engle,
who was lower on the list than Farragut, and thus
the latter was obliged to take orders from a junior
officer. Farragut put the ship in trim for the expedition,
and sailed with it from Hampton Roads on August
13, 1860 ; but he had in the meantime made a pro
test to the Secretary of the Navy, who, on perceiv
ing the abnormal condition of affairs, relieved him
from the embarrassing situation by ordering him
back to Norfolk.

CHAPTER IX
FARRAGUT AND SECESSION
It was in October, 1860, that Farragut returned
to Norfolk after his cruise to the Isthmus of Panama,
and within a month (November 6th) Abraham Lin
coln was elected President of the United States.
South Carolina seceded from the Union at 12:45
o'clock on December 20th ; Mississippi followed on
January 9th ; Florida on the 10th ; Alabama on the
llth ; Georgia on the 19th ; Louisiana on the 26th,
and Texas on February 1st.
The origin of the secession movement cannot be
considered in the biography of a naval officer who
had no part in it. But one may recall that it was
the most appalling period in the history of the
American people ; and that no man in the Nation
maintained his poise and self-possession better than
did David G. Farragut. He was born in Tennessee.
His home, so far as a naval officer could have a
home, had been in Norfolk, Va., for nearly forty
years. His friendships and affections were formed
south of Mason and Dixon's line, and so far as
he had prejudices, they were those of a Southern
man. But he had begun to wear the uniform of the Na
tion's navy before he was ten years old. At thir
teen he had borne an honorable part in one of the

FARRAGUT AND SECESSION 149
most important battles ever fought for the honor of
the flag and the unity of the Nation. For if the
navy had not done such triumphant work in the
War of 1812, New England might have left the other
states. One may well remember here the blue-light
traitors of 1812, for while they strove to divide the
Nation, they did but arouse the indignation and
strengthen the patriotism of every man who fought
under the stars and stripes. Farragut learned on
the bloody decks of the Essex to revere the flag as
the emblem of a Nation, not of a conglomerate of
petty communities. For no one need doubt that
though but a boy, he knew about the secession
movement in New England, and shared the patri
otic indignation expressed against the men of the
Essex Junto and the Hartford Convention.
Then, too, he was of the naval force sent by " Old
Hickory" Jackson to quell the South Carolina nul
lification movement. It was a small matter in his
experience but it was an incident that must have
strengthened the national sentiment of every naval
man engaged in it.
It is apparent from his diary that Farragut was
familiar with the arguments for and against the
division of the Union, as they were used in the
period before the Civil War, and that he fully un
derstood the principles on which the Union had
been maintained. Thus, in his correspondence with
Commander N. B. Boutwell, who, during the San
Francisco Vigilance Committee troubles, threatened
to use the guns of the John Adams on the city, Far
ragut not only pointed out the attitude that the

150 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
National government had always maintained toward
individual states, in cases of domestic troubles, but
he quoted Kent and Story in the matter.
When South Carolina seceded, Farragut had al
ready determined that he would remain faithful to
the flag under which his life had been passed. As
Mahan says, "Those appeals to affection, to interest
or to prejudice under which so many succumbed,"
could never move him from his position.
But the real test of his devotion to the Nation did
not come when South Carolina seceded. Virginia
did not follow the cotton states immediately. Ef
forts were made by the Virginia legislature to pre
serve peace, though on a basis where it was impos
sible ; and when on February 15th, a state conven
tion, urged by the more radical element, assembled
at Richmond to consider the proposition to join
the states that had already organized a confedera
tion, a vote showed (April 4th), that eighty -nine del-
gates were against secession while forty -five favored
it. The Union men came chiefly from the section that
was afterward organized as West Virginia, the least
influential section of the state ; but some were from
Norfolk, as Farragut said in a speech after the war,
which will be mentioned farther on.
In spite of the majority that favored the Union
on the first vote, the hope of keeping Virginia out
of the secession movement rapidly faded. Lincoln' s
official assertion that he would "hold, occupy and
possess property and places belonging to the gov
ernment," and "to the best of my ability repel
force by force," turned some of the Union dele-

FARRAGUT AND SECESSION 151
gates. The excitement following the attack on Fort
Sumter alienated more. Then, according to the
statement of one of the members of the convention
(Annual Cyclopedia, 1861), ten members were in
timidated by threats of personal violence into re
maining away from the hall when the next vote was
taken, and thus the ordinance of secession was
passed (April 17th), eighty -five to fifty-five.
Whether this particular statement is true or not,
Farragut believed it. He said, and the facts seem
to justify him, that the state was "dragooned"
from the Union. How the ardent secessionists tried
to dragoon him from the Nation's navy can be told
only in part because the facts were never fully
recorded. In lieu of a club the naval officers in
Norfolk and their friends were in the habit of meet
ing at a certain store to discuss the news, and it was
there that the question of allegiance was argued out.
The secessionists appealed to Farragut's love for his
friends, to his pride in the state where he had made
his home, to such prejudices as he held against the
"fanatics" of the North, and finally to his ambition
by offering him any place in the Confederate service
that he might name.
Discussion came to an end when it was learned
at Norfolk (April 18th), that the secession ordi
nance had been passed at Richmond. It is a pity
that the talk of the naval officers at the meeting-
place on that day was not fully reported, for it was
then Farragut asserted that the state had been
"dragooned" from the Union. It is certain, too,
that the bearing of the secessionists soon became

152 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
menacing, for by one report Farragut then said to
them :
"Gentlemen, I would see every man of you
damned before I would raise my arm against the
flag." Whatever he said, the others quickly told him
that a man holding his sentiments " could not live
in Norfolk," and to this he replied :
"Well, then, I can live somewhere else."
Farragut's own account of the event was given in
a brief address at Norfolk, after the fall of Rich
mond, where at a public gathering he met some old
friends and many naval officers. He then said :
"I wish that I had the language to express my
self as I have heard others very near four years ago,
in this place, when we had our best speakers stand
ing forth for the Union, and striving with all their
rhetoric to persuade the people to desist from their
unholy resolution, and cast their votes for the
Union. This meeting recalls to me the most mo
mentous events of my life, when I listened in this
place till the small hours of the morning and re
turned home with the feeling that Virginia was safe
and firm in her place in the Union. Our Union
members of the convention were elected by an over
whelming majority, and sent to Richmond, and we
believed that everything was right. Judge, then,
my friends, of our astonishment in finding a few
days later, that the State had been voted out by a
miserable minority for the want of firmness and
resolution on the part of those whom we trusted to
represent us there, and that Virginia had been
dragooned out of the Union.
"What was the reason for this act . The Presi
dent's call for 75,000 men. Why, our arsenals,

FARRAGUT AND SECESSION 153
navy yards, money in the mint at New Orleans, had
been seized, Sumter bombarded. Was it, then, re
markable that the Government of the United States
should call for troops to sustain itself? Would
Jackson have submitted to this I No ; for I recall
that I myself had the honor to be sent to South
Carolina to support his mandate that the Union
must and should be preserved.
"I was told by a brother officer that the state
had seceded, and that I must either resign, and
turn traitor to the government which had supported
me from my childhood, or I must leave this place.
Thank God ! I was not long in making my deci
sion. I have spent my life in revolutionary coun
tries and I know the horrors of civil war, and I
told the people what I had seen, and what they
would experience. They laughed at me, and called
me 'granny' and 'croaker.' And I said, 'lean-
not live here, and will seek some other place where
I can live ; and on two hours' notice ! ' I suppose
they said I left my country for my country's good
— and thank God I did !
"I went from here with the few valuables I could
collect. I was unwilling to believe that this diffi
culty would not have been settled ; but it was all in
vain. And as every man must do in a revolution,
as he puts his foot down, so it marks his life. It
has pleased God to protect me thus far, and make
me somewhat instrumental in dealing heavy blows
at the rebellion. I have been nothing more than
an instrument in the hands of God, well supported
by my officers and men, who have done their duty
faithfully." When Virginia seceded, Farragut had reached
the parting of the ways. For the love of the flag,
he was willing to abandon home and friends and
lifelong associations. He was ready to do even

154 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
more, for on returning home he told his wife that
he should at once leave Norfolk to go North. He
then pointed out to her that if she went with him,
she was likely to be separated from her home and
friends for years, and told her to make her
choice. Having taken an oath that he would support the
Constitution he was ready to stand by it, even
though he was obliged, when doing so, to leave his
wife among his enemies until after the war. And
he reached that determination too, when he knew
that as an officer of Southern birth he would be an
object of suspicion among the people of the North,
and that he could have, on account of this suspi
cion, but little hope of obtaining a command suited
to his rank and abilities. The greatest sacrifice
short of life itself that man can make for his coun
try was made by David Farragut, and he was ready
to sacrifice his life also.
Happily Mrs. Farragut was a woman worthy of
such a man, and at night, on April 18, 1861, the
captain, his wife and his son Loyall, went by
steamer to Baltimore. They found the city in a
state of turmoil following the attack that had been
made that morning (April 19th), by a furious mob
on the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment. The bridge
on the railroad line to Philadelphia had been des
troyed and no trains were running north. The
mob was still in possession of the city and the lives
of known Union men were in danger. Under these
conditions Farragut and his family, with a lot of
other Union refugees, took passage on a canal boat

FARRAGUT AND SECESSION 155
through the Delaware and Chesapeake canal for
Philadelphia, and so the North was reached.
Going to Hastings on the Hudson, Farragut made
his family as comfortable as possible in a little cot
tage there. Then he applied to the Navy Depart
ment for an active command, and on failing to get
it, he settled down to wait. He had a tedious time
there among strangers — most tedious. To pass the
long months he took walks over the hills and fields
round about the village, and thus excited a suspi
cion among the people of the region that he was an
emissary of the Confederacy seeking an opportunity
to destroy some part of the Croton Aqueduct in
order to create a water famine in New York City.

CHAPTER X
THE BLOCKADE AND THE BLOCKADE RUNNERS
To understand fully the part taken by Farragut
in the Civil War it is necessary first to consider
what was done by the sailors and ships that were
engaged in the war before he entered it.
The most important feature of this work is to be
found in the order repeatedly issued by the Navy
Department to commanders of ships and expedi
tions, to "act strictly on the defensive." More
over, fear was often expressed that officers might
act " on the defensive " with too much energy. On
January 12, 1861, Captain James Armstrong sur
rendered the Pensacola Navy Yard with all its arms
and military supplies to Confederate troops without
making any resistance whatever, lest a fight there
should "precipitate a conflict" and bring on "all
the horrors of war." On January 21st, when the
warship Brooklyn carried supplies to Fort Pickens,
on Santa Rosa Island, off Pensacola harbor, her
orders were to "act strictly on the defensive," and
these orders were so interpreted that Lieutenant
Adam J. Slemmer, U. S. A., who held the fort for
the Union with splendid heroism, was not relieved
until April 1st. And, when D. D. Porter came
down to Fort Pickens in command of the steam
warship Powhatan, as shall be told further on, thus

THE BLOCKADE 157
increasing the Federal forces to a degree amply suf
ficient for retaking and holding Pensacola, he was
stopped on his way into the harbor (April 17th) by
the same act-on-the-defensive policy. Then on April
12th, when a relief expedition reached the channel
leading to Fort Sumter, and the Confederate forces
were found bombarding the fort, the expedition re
mained in the offing instead of making a dash to
help the overmatched soldiers of the Nation.
In spite of the infinite national shame, degrada
tion and loss that had come, before 1812, through
the porcupine policy inaugurated by Thomas Jef
ferson, that President's theories had a mighty influ
ence on the minds of the whole American people,
in 1861. While the Confederates with splendid
energy reached out for Pensacola, Fort Sumter and
the Norfolk Navy Yard, even Lincoln and his cabi
net were uncertain what to do because of the feeling
that whenever Americans were compelled to fight
they ought always to act " on the defensive."
It is a most important matter. For the hardest
lesson that the American people have had to
learn is that the best means of self-defense is the
most vigorous possible attack upon the enemy. To
"act strictly on the defensive" is to bring the
enemy and the "horrors of war" upon our own
homes, while vigorous offensive action, when war is
necessary, keeps the enemy at his home and the hor
rors of war upon his borders. The fact is, the
American people have not yet learned the full
value of offensive action at the very beginning of a
war. Many a congressman, in recent years, has

158 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
pointed with silly satisfaction to the Atlantic Ocean
as something that would weaken an attack upon
our shores, while our naval officers, in working out
their war games, have been employed in consider
ing means for defending Long Island Sound, or
Delaware Bay, or Cheesequake's Creek.
The first aggressive work for the Federal navy in
the Civil War was laid out when, on April 19 and
27, 1861, proclamations were issued for blockading
the Confederate ports. Then in August an expedi
tion under Flag Officer Silas H. Stringham was sent
to Cape Hatteras and on the 28th, Fort Hatteras, at
Hatteras Inlet, was captured. This was the first
victory obtained by the National forces in the Civil
War. In November, 1861, Port Royal was taken. A
base for the Atlantic blockading fleet was thus es
tablished, and in the meantime the Gulf blockad
ing squadron had made a base at Ship Island,
which lay near the mainland, northeast of the
mouths of the Mississippi. Key West with its har
bor was also kept under National control.
On the whole, something had been done, but in
after years Gideon Welles, who was Secretary of
the Navy throughout the war, felt impelled to write,1
regarding the National naval work of 1861 : "But
for some redeeming successes at Hatteras and Port
Royal, the whole belligerent operations would have been
pronounced weak and imbecile failures." Neverthe
less it was at the end of 1861 that the most impor-
1 Galaxy, February, 1871.

THE BLOCKADE 159
tant naval expedition of the war — the expedition
against New Orleans— was projected, and command
of it was given to David G. Farragut.
Before entering into the details of this campaign,
it is advisable to relate the story of the blockade of
the Southern ports which had been established be
fore the expedition was planned. For the work of
the blockade served to reduce the Confederate forces
precisely as a well managed siege reduces the garri
son of a beleaguered fort. Moreover, a considera
tion of the blockade will help to an understanding
of Farragut's great naval movement.
President Lincoln's first proclamation (April 19,
1861) covered all the Confederate states except Vir
ginia and Texas, which had not then seceded. The
second covered those two states, having been issued
after they had left the Union. From the beginning
of its existence, the American government had stood
for the doctrine that a blockade to be legal must be
actual ; a sufficient force to stop commerce must be
stationed off every blockaded port. This doctrine
had been accepted by the maritime governments of
the world, and they were quick to apply it to
the United States. It was therefore necessary
to station an adequate force off the Confederate
ports. To appreciate how great a task had thus been as
sumed, one must remember that there were one
hundred and eighty-five harbor and river open
ings in the Confederate coast line. Nor was that
all. In pleasant weather merchandise could be
landed at almost any point on the whole long coast

160 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
line of the Confederacy, and many cargoes were
landed where no harbor existed. This coast line ex
tended from Alexandria, Va., to the Mexican port
of Matamoras which lies forty miles up the Rio
Grande. The Continental line so measured was
3,549 miles long. The shore line including bays
and sounds was 6,789 miles long, and if to this
be added the beach lines of the various islands the
total length to be guarded was 11,953 miles. The
alongshore waters were almost everywhere too shal
low for the warships of the day, but were admira
bly suited to shoal-draft vessels of various kinds —
another fact which greatly contributed to the safety
of all kinds of smugglers.
To guard this great stretch of coast line the Na
tional government had just three ships at the time
the President's proclamation was issued. There
were in commission twenty-six steamers and sixteen
sailing ships, but all except three were scattered
around the world where they could not be made
available immediately. To add to the embarrass
ments of the situation no one at Washington, or at
the ports of the North, for that matter, had any
adequate idea of what force would be needed for
the work. When the Secretary of the Navy held a
consultation with leading ship merchants of New
York in regard to the matter, one of them informed
him that "at least thirty armed sailing ships"
would be needed. The number actually employed
in the work was above 600, of which nearly all were
steamers, and even then the blockade runners were
able to slip through with almost the regularity of

THE BLOCKADE 161
packet lines to both Charleston, S. C, and Wil
mington, N. C.
How the 600 blockading vessels were provided by
purchase and building need not be told here. As
to their crews the clippers, the coasters, the fishing
smacks of the sea, and the boats of the Great Lakes
supplied an able host. The increasing force of ships
and men soon stopped short the employment of the
great fleet of European merchantmen that had been
running to the Southern ports, and it deprived the
manufacturers of Europe of the supplies of cotton,
tobacco and naval stores that they had been obtain
ing from the South, and could obtain nowhere else.
The shock which the commerce of the world then
received is not easily appreciated in these prosper
ous days of the twentieth century.
But the flow of commerce is much like the flow
of a stream of water. Dam it and the flood will rise
so high that it will find every crevice in the dam.
The price of cotton fell in the Southern states and
rose amazingly elsewhere. The prices of some
goods that the South had been accustomed to buy
rose amazingly there. A bale of 500 pounds of cot
ton when smuggled through the line, could be sold
in Europe for a price that would pay all risks and
expenses and yet yield a net profit of $250. The
arms, ammunition, medicines and clothing needed
by the Confederates, paid profits equally great on
delivery. A contraband trade at once sprang up, and those
engaged in it found the ports at the Bermuda and
Bahama Islands most convenient for their unlawful

162 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
operations. The distance from the Bermudas to
Wilmington was 674 miles ; from the Bahamas to
Charleston, 515 miles. Havana was within a day's
run of a good landing place on the Gulf coast, and
Matamoras, Mexico, was just across the Rio
Grande from Texas. The trade that developed
through the blockade lines was almost entirely in
the hands of British merchants and sailors. The
British merchants had been so badly beaten in their
competition with Yankee clippers that they added
to their love of great profits a strong dislike for the
North. At first they loaded their goods into ves
sels of the cheapest classes, sail or steam, in order
that the loss might be less in case of capture. The
risk on the cargo was covered by insurance at a
premium of twenty-five per cent. The risk on the
lives of the crews did not worry the merchants, save
only as the wages rose to unheard-of heights. The
ships were loaded in England and sent thence un
der regular papers to Nassau in the Bahamas, to the
Bermudas, or to some other foreign destination where
they again cleared for whatever Confederate port
had been decided on.
The touch at a neutral port was to give safety to
ship and cargo thus far on the journey, but the
courts soon held that if the ultimate destination of
the goods was a Confederate port, they were contra
band no matter where they were captured. In this
emergency goods were ostensibly sold to merchants
in the neutral ports, and on arrival were landed.
They were then reshipped, of course, to the Confed
erate coast.

THE BLOCKADE 163
The papers of the ships showed that merchants
on the barren coral reefs of the Atlantic were buy
ing ship -loads of cannon, muskets, ammunition,
blankets, medicines and other military supplies.
Of course the papers were mere blinds. There was
no real sale, and every person engaged in making
the papers was guilty of perjury each time he swore
to one of them. Every blockade runner found per
jury as easy as drinking wine. But one should re
member that the pilots were citizens of the Confed
eracy and must be excepted. The foreigners were
an infamous gang, ready at any time to sacrifice
honor and risk human life for gold ; the Confederate
pilots were engaged in what they believed was a
righteous cause — they were fighting or were risking
their lives for principle, and were as honorable as
the foreigners were degraded.
To show the runners' standard of honor one may
quote from Thomas E. Taylor's account of how he
got rid of the Will-o' -the- Wisp, a vessel that was
"a constant source of delay and expenditure."1
" After having her cobbled up with plenty of putty
and paint, ' ' he opened ' ' negotiations with some Jews
with a view to her purchase." A trial trip was
arranged, with "a sumptuous lunch" to precede
it, and then with steam bottled up to the last
gasp the vessel was driven over a measured mile.
"She logged seventeen and a-half knots. The
Jews were delighted, so was I ; the bargain was
clinched." Thus the blockade runners would
boast of how they swindled others even in the
1 "Running the Blockade," p. 110.

164 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
books which they wrote publicly describing their
adventures. When preparing to run from a near-by neutral
port, such as Nassau, in the Bahamas, the vessel
was painted a dirty white, and the crew were re
quired to wear clothes of a similar color. The hold
was crammed full of cargo, and such quantities were
stowed on deck that the men dreamed of capsizing.
The crews received their money in advance. The
captain got $5,000 for the trip, the mate and chief
engineer $1,000 each, the second mate $500, the fire
men eighty dollars and the deck hands forty dollars.
From the beginning, swift vessels were in demand.
The famous yacht America was a blockade runner.
But even the best of the sailers were soon found to
be too slow, and then the swiftest steamers that the
ship yards of England could turn out were built for
the purpose. Feathering paddle wheels, that were
as nearly noiseless as possible were in favor, but some
double screw propellers were used. The frames and
plating were of the lightest possible kinds. For
fuel the runners bought the anthracite of New York
(because it was smokeless), until the export of that
kind of coal was forbidden.
On the passage from the Confederate to the neutral
port the runner always avoided every sail and
every pillar of smoke that was seen, and there
was a bright lookout on each ship. Very rarely
was such an outlaw caught on the high seas. The
run was timed, of course, so that the vessel arrived
off her port at night — at the dark hour just before
day, if possible. The lone light always displayed

THE BLOCKADE 165
on the flagship served the runner as well as a light
house, and on seeing it she ran around the end of the
line of blockaders, or else steered boldly through
under the guns of the big ship whose light had
been detected. It was work to make the crews feel
as if they were walking on air, but that was a part
of the inducement to some of them. If seen, they
had to run ; it was piracy to resist. It was piracy
for the crew of a captured vessel to rise upon the
prize crew, but one of them did so with success,
and the act was rewarded and applauded by the
Liverpool Board of Trade.
An itemized account printed in Scharf 's " His
tory of the Confederate States Navy," shows that
one blockade runner in one voyage incurred ex
penses amounting to $80,265, and received for
freight $160,000 and for passengers $12,000, all in
gold. The net profit of the round trip was $91,735,
or about twice the cost of the steamer. The Banshee
on her first trip in was paid $250 per ton in gold for
her cargo of war materials. How high this was
will be understood by landsmen when it is said that
within a week of this writing (November, 1904), a
cargo of coal sent from Baltimore around the Horn
to San Francisco cost the owner but $5.50 per ton
for freight. On her outward trip the Banshee
carried 100 tons of tobacco at $350 per ton and 500
bales of cotton for which she received $250 each —
all in gold.
Between November 1, and December 6, 1864,
forty-three steamers sailed from Charleston and
Wilmington, N. O, for various neutral ports.

166 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
Between November, 1861, and March, 1864, eighty-
four different steamers were engaged in blockade
running between Nassau and various Confederate
ports, of which thirty-seven were captured, twelve
were wrecked with all cargoes, eleven were lost with
parts of their cargoes, and one foundered at sea.
A record of 425 runs from Nassau shows sixty-two
failures. Between March 1, 1864, and January 1,
1865, the Confederate authorities shipped out cot
ton that sold for $5,296,000. They imported in
return, among other things, 1,507,000 pounds of
lead, 1,933,000 pounds of saltpetre, and no less
than 8,632,000 pounds of meat — a most significant
matter. The importation of meat shows that the
Confederacy was starving to death, while the other
articles on the list are proof that the blockade
deprived the Confederate armies of all war-making
material. If the blockade runners did ply with al
most packet-like regularity they were in all cases
small vessels, and with all their activity and success
they could not bring in more than a small part of
the great amount of supplies needed by the Con
federacy. There was an element of bitter cruelty in the
effect of the blockade ; many a woman and many a
little child died for want of the medicines that it
kept from them. On the other hand, by its severity
the barrier of vessels shortened the period of war.
The work of the National fleets is soon described.
Each important port like Charleston, S. O, Wil
mington, N. O, and Mobile, Ala., was blockaded
with a squadron — a sufficient number of vessels to

THE BLOCKADE 167
form a line, each almost within hailing distance of
another, from beach to beach. The line was estab
lished as close to the beach and the mouth of the
harbor as the Confederate guns would permit.
Charleston was further obstructed by sinking a line
of old hulks in the channel. Once formed the
blockade was maintained steadily. At small inlets
one or two vessels only were stationed. At unim
portant inlets, such as Sabine Pass, Texas, was sup
posed to be in those days, sailing ships took the
place of steamers.
For the men the service was the most monotonous
and wearisome known to the history of the navy.
To lie, month after month, just out of reach of the
shore guns, and do nothing but keep a bright look
out, was trying to the soul. It was all the worse
when an ambitious officer learned how some brother
officer had had opportunity to win renown else
where. Irritability followed on stagnation. Food
spoiled. The water was never fresh. The heat of
the stoke-hole varied from 110 to 150 degrees.
Many of the vessels had been built by contractors
who were thieves at heart, and they were constantly
in need of repair. The wonder is not that runners
slipped through, but that the blockade service was
half as efficient as it was.
To show in a way how successful the blockaders
were, it is only.necessary to cite the fact that in all
over 1,000 runners were captured. The Memphis
paid her captors in prize money $510,914.07, and
whole fleets of prizes yielded upward of $100,000
each.

168 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
As already noted, Port Royal was captured by the
National forces late in 1861, for use as a supply sta
tion for the Atlantic blockading fleet. Earlier still
the Federals had captured the forts at Hatteras
Inlet and occupied the sounds within the long sand
bar. While these advances gave shelter to the
blockaders it was seen that in occupying a port it
was closed in a way that no fleet off shore could
close it. The best way to blockade a port was to
occupy it ; and it was after this fact had been
clearly demonstrated that a young officer of the
navy came to Washington with a plan for the cap
ture of New Orleans.

CHAPTER XI
THE EXPEDITION TO CAPTURE NEW ORLEANS
The expedition under Farragut against New
Orleans had a curious origin. In the course of the
early naval operations of the Civil War, which
Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles afterward
called "weak and imbecile failures," the war
steamer Powhatan was placed under the command
of Lieutenant D. D. Porter and ordered to Pensa
cola to assist in the relief of Fort Pickens and the
maintenance of the National authority over Pensa
cola Bay. The Powhatan was still off Fort Pickens
when, on May 12, 1861, the senior officer on the
station received the President's proclamation block
ading all Confederate ports, and on May 30th,
Porter was ordered on blockade duty off the South
west Pass of the Mississippi.
The hull of the Powhatan was rotten and it
leaked. The boilers had been thinned by rust.
The machinery was in need of many repairs. Her
supplies were so far reduced that she had no rope
from which to make braces, sheets or halliards ; no
paint or whitewash with which to cover her well-
worn planks — not even a nail or a board with which
to repair a small boat. The condition of affairs
while this ship lay at the mouth of the Southwest
Pass was enough to make any officer thoughtful,

170 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
and more especially such a resourceful man as
Lieutenant Porter.
Accordingly when the Confederate cruiser Sumter
came down to the head of the Passes, preparing for
the dash that finally took her to sea, Porter observed
that she had for a tender an armed tug called the
Ivy, which frequently lay at the telegraph sta
tion. A crew of thirty-three picked men, under
Lieutenant Watson Smith, was therefore sent by
night to seize the telegraph station and capture the
Ivy. The station was occupied but the tug was
seen no more. A mail steamer came, however, and
landed at the opposite bank of the pass. Then
Smith with his men under the hatches of a little
schooner went drifting over to take her instead of
the Ivy, but the character of his force was discov
ered just one minute before he could arrive within
boarding distance, and the steamer escaped up the
river. Had she been taken, Porter intended to put
200 men on her, and use her to get alongside of
and capture the Sumter by boarding. With the
Sumter he purposed proceeding to New Orleans to
destroy whatever Confederate shipping he could
find there.
While Porter failed in carrying out this plan he
accomplished something of greater worth, for it was
then that he conceived the idea of an expedition
for the capture and permanent occupation of New
Orleans. In reporting his failure to Flag Officer
William Mervine (July 4, 1861), he said, "There is
a field here for something to do." And to Midship
man John R. Bartlett, of the warship Mississippi,

94

92 Longitude West from 90 Greenwich

88
Tmoscow ^fi_!f_r ,

1?

15

13

The Gulf States, Showing the Scene of Farragut's Engagements

TO CAPTURE NEW ORLEANS 171
who visited the Powhatan at this time, Porter said
that if he "had half a dozen good vessels he would
undertake to run by the forts and capture New Or-

Until August 13th, Porter contemplated this un-
worked field and then went in chase of the Sumter
that had, in the meantime, escaped through the
Pass al' Outre. The chase was unsuccessful, and
finally the rotten and pitted Powhatan had to head for
New York, where she arrived on November 9, 1861.
While chasing the Sumter Porter had kept in mind
the "something " that might be done in the Missis
sippi, and on reaching New York he went to Wash
ington to lay before the Navy Department a plan
he had evolved for the capture of New Orleans.
Fortunately, while waiting for an interview with
the secretary, Porter met Senator Hale, of New
Hampshire, and Senator Grimes, of Iowa, to whom
he unfolded his scheme. Their good judgment ap
proved it, and they took him at once to the secre
tary who also thought favorably of it.,
' ' In general and desultory conversation with mili
tary and naval men and others, the passage of the
forts and the capture of New Orleans was spoken of
as desirable, but not a practicable naval undertak
ing," wrote Secretary Welles, in connection with
the "weak and imbecile failures" of the first seven
months of the war. The hope of the Department
and of the President had been to open the Missis
sippi by means of an armed flotilla that had been
preparing in the upper waters of the river. The
tremendous strategical advantages to be obtained

172 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
by wholly dividing the Confederate States along the
line of the Mississippi, as the British strove to di
vide the colonies on the line of the Hudson, in the
War of the Revolution, were so manifest, and the
success so far attained in the upper river had been
so great,j||_at neither the authorities at Washington
nor those at Richmond had given any considerable
attention to New Orleansas an object of attack by
a naval force from the Guly.
But with the plans evolved by Commander Por
ter (who had meantime been promoted), Secretary
Welles was readily convinced that the scheme was
practicable. He was the more easily persuaded,
perhaps, because he was in a very comfortable state
of mind on the day the matter was presented to
him. It was the 12th of November, and the news
of the capture of Port Royal had reached the De
partment that morning. Moreover the scheme
fitted in well with what was then called the "ana
conda" plan of "strangling the rebellion." With
the National armies on the north, the navy block
ading all ports, and the whole Mississippi in the
power of the Union forces, the Confederacy, it was
thought, would soon be "strangled."
Porter's plans as first submitted to the Secretary
of the Navy were of course tentative and incom
plete. Accordingly after the matter had been pre
sented to the President, and his approval of the
general scheme was obtained, a conference was held
for the purpose of working out the details. At this
conference there were present, Secretary of the Navy
Welles, Assistant Secretary Fox, Commander D. D.

TO CAPTURE NEW ORLEANS 173
Porter and General George B. McClellan (then at
the head of the army).
With Ship Island for a base (the Confederates had
evacuated the island on September 17, 1861), it was
proposed that a National fleet should enter the river,
pass the two forts that guarded the river's lower
reaches and anchor before the unwalled city of New
Orleans. The army was to furnish 20,000 men to
hold the place after the navy captured it.
So much was approved by McClellan, and Major-
General Benjamin F. Butler was selected to com
mand the troops. Then the conference considered
whether the squadron should make a dash past the
forts, leaving the Confederates in possession of them,
or should first reduce them, and then go on to New
Orleans. Assistant Secretary Fox, it appears, was
in favor of the first method. To aid the squadron
in passing up the river, Porter suggested that a
mortar flotilla, carrying the most powerful mortars
of the day, be sent along in order to bombard the
forts while the squadron should be passing them.
This seemed to be a good idea ; McClellan agreed to
it, and appointed Major J. G. Barnard to represent
him in future conferences. Barnard, who, like
McClellan, was an engineer and had a strong confi
dence in the power of forts, thought those on the
Mississippi ought to be reduced, and Porter fell in
with this suggestion quite naturally. Porter's rank
was not high enough to entitle him to command the
expedition, but he could take charge of the mortar
flotilla, and if the forts were captured his own hope
of winning favorable notice would be increased.

174 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
In the meantime, the choice of an officer to com
mand the expedition had to be considered, and it
was now that the work of a lifetime met its due re
ward. The records of the Navy Department did
not show what Farragut had done, but all naval
officers well knew his natural abilities, of his ex
perience and the training he had given himself — a
training that had long included daily physical ex
ercise. It is asserted by officers who knew him that
Farragut at this time often took a broom in his
hands and then, while retaining hold of the handle,
leaped up and passed his feet between his hands
and over the handle, either forward or backward,
or both in succession.
Because of the reputation that he had gained by
prolonged hard work, Farragut was suggested by
Porter for the command of the expedition. It is
true that Farragut was Porter's adopted brother,
but the latter' s interest in the expedition was too
great to allow any such family ties to influence him
in the choice of a commander.
Soley in his "Admiral Porter " relates that Secre
tary Welles was not easily convinced of Farragut's
abilities, and was particularly doubtful as to his
loyalty. Porter himself says that Assistant Secre
tary Fox ' ' named several but I opposed them all,
and finally urged the appointment of Captain D. G.
Farragut so strongly that I was sent to New York
to communicate with him on the subject." For the
man who had been hoping against hope during
eight long months of idleness at Hastings, work
was now at hand, though Secretary Welles consid-

TO CAPTURE NEW ORLEANS 175
ered the matter until the middle of December be
fore ordering Farragut to Washington.
Farragut reached the National capital on Decem
ber 21, 1861, and was taken to the home of Mont
gomery Blair, where Assistant Secretary of the
Navy Fox (Blair's brother-in-law) laid the plans
before him and asked his opinion of them.1 " Far
ragut unhesitatingly answered that it would suc
ceed." Fox then showed him a list of the vessels
assigned to the squadron, and Farragut said, "he
would engage to run by the forts and capture New
Orleans with two-thirds the number."
This remark is significant, for while the plans
contemplated the reduction of the forts, Farragut
said " he would engage to run by" them and cap
ture the city. But neither Fox nor Secretary Welles
seems to have fully appreciated what was said. In
fact, after the command was offered to Farragut,
Mr. Fox thought that he showed rather too much
enthusiasm over the prospect ; for Farragut, with
all his ability, courage, determination and persist
ence, was a boy at heart.
On January 9, 1862, he was formally " appointed
to command the Western Gulf Blockading Squad
ron" and to hoist his flag on the Hartford, the
geographical limits of the area under his authority
extending from St. Andrew's Bay, Florida, to the
Rio Grande; and including too all the coast of
Mexico and Yucatan. Then on January 20th, he
received instructions for the capture of New Or
leans. 1 United Service, January, 1881.

176 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
"When the Hartford is in all respects ready
for sea," said the letter, "you will proceed to the
Gulf of Mexico with all despatch. . . . There
will be attached to your squadron a fleet of
bomb vessels, and armed steamers enough to
manage them, all under command of Commander
D. D. Porter, who will be directed to report to
you. As fast as these vessels are got ready they
will be sent to Key West to await the arrival of
all, and the commanding officers, who will be per
mitted to organize and practice with them at that
port. "When . . . you are completely ready, you
will collect such vessels as can be spared from the
blockade, and proceed up the Mississippi and re
duce fhe defenses which guard the approaches to New
Orleans, when you will appear off that city and
take possession of it under the guns of your squad
ron, and hoist the American flag therein, keeping
possession until the troops can be sent to you. If
the Mississippi expedition from Cairo shall not
have descended the river, you will take advantage
of the panic to push a strong force up the river to
take all their defenses in the rear.
" As you have expressed yourself perfectly satis
fied with the force given to you, and as many more
powerful vessels will be added before you can com
mence operations, the Department and the country
will require of you success. . . . There are
other operations, of minor importance, which will
commend themselves to your judgment and skill,
but which must not be allowed to interfere with the

TO CAPTURE NEW ORLEANS 177
great object in view — the certain capture of the city
of New Orleans." '
Rear Admiral W. S. Schley, who was a lieuten
ant on the Potomac, one of the Gulf Blockading
Squadron, in relating his experience on blockade
duty, says in his memoirs :
"It was surprising in those days to observe how
accurately the men knew and gauged their officers.
It often happened in the long hours of the watch
that the deck officer would consult with the quarter
masters, always old and experienced seamen, about
the weather or matters touching the qualities of the
ship, etc. In one of these confidences James
Barnes an old and competent quartermaster said
that ' the men for'd had heard that the Commodore
(McKean) was ill and had to be sent home.' Al
most immediately he volunteered the suggestion
that if he had anything to do with it, he ' would
pick out Cap'n Davy Farragut ' to take his place.
He added that if 'Davy Farragut' came down
there, it wouldn't be long till the fur was flying."
The steam sloop of war Hartford (a ship with a
single deck devoted to guns was a sloop of war) was
one of the newest ships in the navy when Farragut
took command of her. Like the Constitution, that
was made famous by good fighters in the War of
1812, the Hartford was built of wood at Boston.
She was launched in 1858, and was one of four
somewhat similar ships built at that time, the Rich
mond, the Pensacola and the Brooklyn being the
other three. A peculiarity of the hulls of these
1 Sen. Ex. Doc. 56, 37th Cong. 2d Seas.

178 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
ships was seen in the location of the gundeck high
above the water, so that they could fight well on the
ocean even in a gale of wind. It is a matter of
record that they were designed thus because the
administration, as already noted, was expecting a
war with England at the time they were author
ized.1 The Hartford was 225 feet long, by 44 wide,
and she drew 16.25 feet of water. She was ship
rigged, with full sail power, and had engines
that could drive her eight knots an hour in still
water. With all sail set and steam up she could
make eleven knots, provided wind and water were
just right. Her battery was excellent for a ship of
her size — perhaps the best in the world, for she
carried twenty-two 9-inch Dahlgrens (smooth bore),
in broadside, and two 20-pounder rifles. A third
rifle was mounted later. At the suggestion of Far
ragut, rims of boiler iron were erected around
the foretop and the maintop in such fashion as to
protect the men stationed there from musket fire,
and then brass howitzers were mounted within the
rims. The howitzers were mounted aloft in order that
they might pour grape shot into the gun crews on
top of the two Mississippi River forts — Jackson and
St. Phillip. And it has been noted by various writ-
•From the "Memoir of John A. Dahlgren," p. 176, giving
quotation from diary dated February 7, 1856 : " Saw Secretary
at his house in the evening. Talked ordnance. He said the
chances were war with England in a twelvemonth." See also
discussion of a bill for " Additional sloops of war " in United
States Senate, March 3, 1856.

TO CAPTURE NEW ORLEANS 179
ers that the position of the broadside guns on the
Hartford, being well above the water line, brought
them where they could fire directly into the gun
ports of the forts.
Farragut sailed from Hampton Roads on Feb
ruary 2, 1862, bound for the Mississippi, via Key
West, and he arrived at Ship Island, the rendezvous
100 miles north and east of the mouth of the river,
on the twentieth, after having been detained some
what at Key West by hard winds. At Ship Island
he took formal command of his district. Thereafter
the vessels of the expedition assembled rapidly, un
til the following were found gathered for the work :
The flagship Hartford, Flag Officer David Glasgow
Farragut, Fleet Captain Henry H. Bell, Commander
Richard Wainwright ; Brooklyn, 24 guns, Captain
T. T. Craven; Richmond, 26 guns, Commander
James Alden ; Mississippi, 17 guns, Commander
Melancton Smith; Pensacola, 24 guns, Captain H.
W. Morris ; Cayuga, six guns, Lieutenant Com
mander N. B. Harrison ; Oneida, nine guns, Com
mander S. P. Lee ; Varuna, ten guns, Commander
Charles S. Boggs ; Katahdin, four guns, Lieutenant
Commander George H. Preble ; Kineo, four guns,
Lieutenant Commander George M. Ransom ; Wissa-
hickon, four guns, Lieutenant Commander A. N.
Smith ; Winona, four guns, Lieutenant Commander
E. T. Nichols ; Itaska, four guns, Lieutenant Com
mander C. H. B. Caldwell ; Pinola, four guns, Lieu
tenant Commander Pierce Crosby ; Kennebec, four
guns, Lieutenant Commander John H. Russell ;
Iroquois, nine guns, Commander John De Camp ;

180 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
Sciota, four guns, Lieutenant Commander Edward
Donaldson.
The big frigate Colorado, ,50 guns, Captain
Theodorus Bailey, and the sailing sloop of war
Portsmouth, Commander S. Swartwout, were also
brought to the mouth of the river, but the Colorado
drew so much water that she could not cross the bar,
and the sailing vessel was, of course, unfit for the
work of passing the fort. The Colorado's guns,
however, were distributed among the other ships.
What may therefore be called the available naval
squadron was made up of the seventeen steamers
enumerated above, of which the Hartford, Pensa
cola, Brooklyn and Richmond were screw sloops of
about 2,000 tons each, and armed with 9-inch guns
in the broadside, besides pivot guns ; the side- wheel
steamer Mississippi was of 1,700 tons, armed with
a 10-inch pivot, fifteen 8-inch smoothbores, and a
small rifle ; the Oneida, Varuna and Iroquois were
screw corvettes, armed with guns that varied from
a 32-pounder to an 11-inch smoothbore ; and nine
members of the squadron were 500-ton gunboats,
each of which carried one 11-inch smoothbore, one
30-pounder rifle, and two smaller guns.
The mortar division, under Commander D. D.
Porter, included twenty merchant schooners, each
of which carried a 13-inch mortar. To these were
attached three ferryboats, from New York har
bor — the Clifton, Westfield and Jackson ; the reve
nue steamer Harriet Lane ; the gunboat Owasco,
and a double-ender called the Miami. These steam
vessels were armed with guns that varied from a

TO CAPTURE NEW ORLEANS 181
32-pounder to an 11-inch shell gun, the most useful
of all the flotilla being the ferryboats, because they
made excellent tugs, and good gun platforms.
When the expedition was planned, it was sup
posed that all the ships named could readily enter
the Mississippi, but after the blockade had stopped
the commerce of the river, the mud rapidly accu
mulated on the bar, and it was only by taking from
the Pensacola and the Mississippi every pound of
weight that could be spared — guns, spars, provisions
and some coal — and then using every available
steamer as a tug, that they were at last (April 7th),
floated over the bar.

CHAPTER Xn
CONFEDERATE DEFENSES AT NEW ORLEANS
While the expedition to the mouth of the Mis
sissippi was in hand, a most remarkable state of
affairs prevailed among the Confederate forces in
and about New Orleans. From the month of May,
1861, when the Federal government purchased three
river steamers at Cincinnati, and began making
armored gunboats of them in order to descend the
river, the Confederate authorities had seen that an
effort was to be put forth to sever the Confederate
states on the line of the Mississippi, and capture
and hold the important cities from Memphis to
New Orleans. Every possible effort was made
therefore to meet this attack from the north.
It had been foreseen by some Confederate officials,
however, that an attack might come from the direc
tion of the Gulf. On September 6, 1861, Major-
General D. E. Twiggs, in reporting the lack of am
munition at New Orleans, said, "There is not in
my mind the slightest doubt that this city will be
attacked early in the autumn." General Twiggs.
was too infirm from age to prepare the city for such
an emergency and, during the last week in Septem
ber, he was succeeded by General Mansfield Lovell.
Lovell found that New Orleans had " been greatly

DEFENSES AT NEW ORLEANS 183
drained of arms, ammunition, medical stores, cloth
ing and supplies for other points," and addressed a
remonstrance to the War Department at Richmond.
In the meantime he worked with energy to complete
a line of fortifications for the protection of the city.
This line included forts on all the bayous that cut
through the lowlands round about, and particular
attention was given to the two forts, Jackson and
St. Phillip, that stood on the banks of the great
river. On October 25, 1861, he was able to report :
"We have now at the various forts and ap
proaches 210 guns in position, and about 100 more
that we shall soon have in place, giving in all 310
guns of a calibre of 24- pounders and upward."
The forts on the navigable waters constituted an
outer line of works, of which St. Phillip and Jack
son were of chief importance. An inner line of
earthworks began on the river four miles below the
city (where General Jackson beat off the British),
and extended around the east and north as far as
Lake Pontchartrain. This line was intended to re
pel a land attack such as the British had made at
the end of the War of 1812. It was a matter of no
consequence to Farragut's fleet. In fact, the only
work that had any effect whatever on the Na
tional forces was done at the two forts, St. Phillip
and Jackson, ninety miles below New Orleans.
As already noted, Fort Jackson was begun in
1824. Both forts had been designed to prevent
any fleet, no matter how strong, from passing up
the river. When taken in hand by the Confederate
authorities, on January 26, 1861, they were armed

184 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
with smooth-bore guns ranging from 24-pounders
to 42-pounders and there were a few short guns
(Columbiads) of still larger calibre. Of one hun
dred and nine guns in the two forts, flfty-six
were 24-pounders. To repel sailing ships of the
style of 1824, the forts were very good. But the de
velopment of steam warships carrying Dahlgren
guns of 9-inch and 11-inch calibre had changed
the conditions, and General Lovell, on November
19, 1861, wrote that he felt "satisfied that ships
under steam can pass forts in an open channel."
To strengthen the forts, therefore, Lovell obtained
three 10-inch Columbiads and a few mortars, and
borrowed two 7-inch rifles from the Confederate
navy — a most excellent weapon, designed by Lieu
tenant John M. Brooke and made of cast iron
strengthened by a double series of wrought bands
over the breech. However two days before the first
attack on the forts one of these excellent 7-inch
rifles was, by order of the Confederate War Depart
ment, sent north to Island No. 10.
Each of the forts had a sufficient number of men
in garrison— not far from seven hundred — but many
of them were foreigners. "The party that seized
the forts early in 1861 was a company of German
Yagers." There were also some Northern men in
the forts, most of whom had "volunteered, hoping
in that way to avoid suspicion." General Johnson
K. Duncan commanded Fort Jackson, and Colonel
Edward Higgins commanded Fort St. Phillip.
Higgins was a lieutenant of the old navy whom the
Confederate authorities had placed in the army.

Reconnoissance
of the Mississippi River below
FORTS JACK SOX and STPHI
made previous to the- reduction., by the U.
under the command of
Flag officer D.G.ForracJiU, US }
By the parly under the,
direction of F.H.Gerdes. Asst. U S Coast I
A.D.Bache, Supdt.

Stale of Yards.

— XOTE — o.o2.o3 <£c. h'. h'.h3 £c. are points cstablisha
a.b co &c are points on the left bank, and 1.2.3. ._f-c point;
of the Ri\cr, established for placing the Gunboats and Mot
Theposition ofthcJ/ortarFfofd/a on the first day of the bi
J8'k was as follows  6 mortars on the left bank betwi
to Fort Jackson 0900 to -JSOO.yards.  /-/ mortars on th
\(ob, distance to Fort Jackson 2S30 to 3100 yards. On th
of i/ie^bomba rdment ' . they were aH_on the right bank arm
placed untant from Fort Jackson 30)0 to 1/00 yards T
the 3r</ and l'h days nearly in the same position All the la
and Gunboats we're placed from '. to IU miles below the I
On the first day the small steam sloops and the Gunboats
of the Smokestack, where they ent/at/ed the forts and the ent

\ktd by triangidation .
nils on. the right bank
%itarboats m position
\lflnibardment, April
<lw'cn && j, distance
ilk right bank from
i//r 10th. the 2n/i 'day
i42.0 mortars were
Jhev remained on
, hrgc armed steamers
ylcwcst mortar vessel
sis went up to abreast
tnunys steamers.

DEFENSES AT NEW ORLEANS 185
Of the ability and energy of these two commanding
officers there was never the slightest doubt. But it
appears that the Confederate War Department,
urged by men of influence, had detailed for service
under these commanders, some "very young and
entirely inexperienced officers who were placed in
command of others much their superiors in knowl
edge." The effect on the men of such an improper
disposition of their commanders appeared later on.
Of more interest than the added guns was a raft <
or boom built across the river at Fort Jackson.
Cypress logs, forty feet long and four feet or more
in diameter were mortised in two places, on one side
and near each end, so that they could be strung
like beads, side by side, upon two long iron two
and one-half inch ship cables that were stretched
across the river. They were placed three feet apart
on the cables, and held in place by iron staples.
When this boom was completed, a man could run
across the river on it, stepping from log to log.
Then timbers (4x6 inch) were bolted down on top
of the logs so that they were thoroughly well braced,
and supported each other. In fact the boom might
have been called a floating bridge, although it was
more like a truss lying flat down on the water. On
the left bank of the river the chains were secured to
trees ; on the Fort Jackson side to heavy anchors.
To take the weight of the current from the end fas
tenings of the boom, some thirty anchors were
placed in the bed of the river above, and chains
were secured from them to the boom. Finally a
flanking boom was stretched diagonally across the

186 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
river above the main boom to shed or shunt the
driftwood over toward Fort Jackson.
With the current against them it seemed certain
that such a fleet as Farragut's, with its best ships
able to travel only eight sea miles an hour in slack
water, would be detained by this boom, under the
short-range and direct fire of the forts, for a very
long time. Because the boom was laid at right an
gles to the current from Fort Jackson, the fire of
that fort would strike the ships at a range not to ex
ceed five hundred yards. Fort St. Phillip stood
further up stream, and on the easterly side of the
river ; but it was within easy range also and its fire
would rake the attacking fleet fore and aft. To this
raking fire such ships as those in Farragut's fleet
could make no reply worthy of mention, because
their guns were not mounted for effective service
either ahead or astern.
As a part of the Confederate equipment for war,
this raft would have been most pleasing to those
statesmen who in Jefferson's day wished to build a
similar obstacle across New York harbor (at the
Narrows), in order to compel the nations of Europe
to treat us justly. But in February (1862), the thing
began to show signs of weakness. The water in the
river rose, as usual, and the effect was, as always, to
scour the bottom of the channel below the city, taking
with it the anchors sunk in the channel to support
the central parts of the raft. Then immense quan
tities of driftwood piled up on the raft in spite of
the flanking boom, and a number of steamboats and
skiffs were employed to haul the stuff clear. Even-

DEFENSES AT NEW ORLEANS 187
tually, the boom sagged down stream to the limit
and then, in the first week of March, the chains
snapped and a part of the structure was swept
out to sea.
Into the gap thus created eight schooners, each
of 200 tons burden, were anchored, and their masts
were cut away and allowed to drag astern by their
rigging in order to foul the wheels of any steamers
that might come to displace them. These schooners
were connected, of course, by the heaviest chains
that could be procured. "This obstruction was,
however, far inferior to the other," according to
General Lovell, but it was the best that he could
then make. In addition the General "prepared
and sent down forty or fifty fire rafts loaded with
lightwood and mixed with cotton, rosin and tar oil,
which were placed above and below the new ob
struction," ready to be sent against Farragut's
ships. He "also sent to Memphis and procured
the services of Mr. J. B. Cook, who had much ex
perience with torpedoes, and endeavored to have
them placed in the river," but the great depth (130
feet), and the rapid current "rendered such at
tempts nugatory." 1
More interesting and more important than the
forts and obstructions prepared to check the prog
ress of the National forces were the ships designed
for the defense of New Orleans. The fact is that all
the naval work of the Confederacy was a most re
markable combination of strength and weakness.
Many officers from the old navy joined their for-
1 Testimony of General Lovell.

188 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
tunes with the Secessionists, and they were in them
selves a mighty host. But the rulers at Richmond
could find no use afloat for many of these skilled
seamen, and gave them commissions in the Confed
erate army, while those that were employed in
service suited to their training usually received no
higher rank than they had held in the old navy.
As if to emphasize a prevailing distrust of naval
men a river defense fleet was organized by the act
of the Confederate Congress of January 9, 1862.
"The force intended is a peculiar one," wrote the
Confederate Secretary of War Benjamin, on Jan
uary 19th. "It is not to be a part of the navy . . .
and will be composed of the steamboat men of the
western waters."
For this fleet, towboats were purchased and were
strengthened with timbers and iron stretched around
the bows till they could be used as rams, "the mode
of attack devised by the enterprising captains " who
pushed the scheme through. These captains openly
boasted that they were going to show the navy men
how to fight. Their valor and dash were to aston
ish the men trained to war afloat ; and that sort of
talk was never discouraged (or resented, so far as I
can learn), by any one.
In short, from Jefferson Davis, with his West
Point training, down through the Confederate Con
gressmen and the State authorities, to the back
woods politicians, there was scarcely a man who
was not infected with that old-time prejudice against
the navy which had roiled John Randolph of Vir
ginia, and D. R. Williams of South Carolina. The

DEFENSES AT NEW ORLEANS 189
army was to accomplish everything, and the one
characteristic needed in that army was valor.
Nevertheless, some of the Confederates believed
in a navy and a few men found the opportunity to
perform useful service. They turned the frigate
Merrimac into the ironclad Virginia, and made
first-class guns for her. They built the ironclad
Albemarle in a corn-field on the Roanoke, with no
better tools than those afforded by a blacksmith's
shop, and they gathered an engine for her from the
scrap pile at the Tredegar Iron Works. They built
the ironclad Tennessee at Mobile, and the Arkansas
in the backwoods of the Mississippi Valley. Every
where green timber was used for the hulls, railroad
iron for armor plate and scrap iron for machinery.
In courage, energy and enterprise these men of the
South were unsurpassed by any known to history,
but they were handicapped beyond hope.
At New Orleans the naval work was of particular
interest. A commission of three officers from the
old navy undertook the construction of ten gun
boats, by utilizing such hulls as they could find
afloat, and by building others. Two steamers of
the Havana line were purchased, one of which be
came famous as a commerce destroyer, though com
merce destroyers have rarely had any influence
worthy of mention in deciding a war. The other
steamer became the gunboat McRae, and she had a
part in the defense of New Orleans. A little screw
vessel, the Florida, was put in service on the lakes.
A steamer called the Yankee was fitted out as the
Jackson.

190 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
By the act of May 21, 1861, the Confederate Con
gress authorized privateers, offering to pay such
boats twenty per cent, of the value of any Union
vessel they might destroy. Under this act citizens
of New Orleans bought the Boston-built tug Enoch
Train (a vessel 128 feet long, 26 feet wide and
12.5 feet deep), which they turned into an iron
clad ram. Her bow was filled in solid with tim
bers for twenty feet. Her light carpenter work
was removed, and a rounding deck of twelve-
inch timbers was laid over her. This deck was
covered with one and a-half inch bar iron. A port
for a single gun pointing forward (a 24-pounder
carronade according to her captain;, was opened in
this deck and there was a tiny hatch through which
men and supplies entered. As she floated she
looked something like a modern submarine when
awash. She was named the Manassas, and was
commanded by an officer of the old navy, Lieu
tenant A. F. Warley.
Then several river boats were purchased, and
after placing compressed bales of cotton in them to
give some protection to their machinery, they were
armed with light guns. These vessels could not be
classed even as gunboats. They were of such light
construction that they were among the frailest gun
platforms ever used in actual war. That they were
used at all shows the activity of the naval men,
who believed that a gun afloat on a raft was better
than no gun at all, and were bound to see that every
possible shot would be available when the time of
need came.

DEFENSES AT NEW ORLEANS 191
Two more sea-going steamers were, later, con
verted into warships. They were high out of water,
and had paddle wheels with walking beams that
towered still higher. One, named the Governor
Moore, and commanded by Beverly Kennon, who
had been a lieutenant in the old navy, carried two
rifled 32-pounders. The other, called the General
Quitman, Captain Grant, carried two 32-pounder
smoothbores. The Moore, because it was com
manded by a trained naval officer, saw effective
service. This was not all. Because the Federal authorities
were building a fleet of ironclads on the upper
river with which to descend to the Gulf, the Con
federates laid down other vessels of which two must
be mentioned here — the ironclad floating batteries,
Louisiana and Mississippi.
The foundation, so to speak, of the Louisiana was
a floating dry dock that had been used in repairing
vessels in the New Orleans trade. This hulk was
rebuilt, beginning on October 15, 1861, into a scow,
270 feet long. Amidships a superstructure was
erected with its sides and ends inclined at an angle
of forty-five degrees. Its walls were heavy tim
bers and these were covered with two layers of
T-shaped railroad iron. The lower layer of iron
was bolted to the timbers, and then the other rails
were inverted and driven in between the lower rails,
thus forming what was almost a solid plate of armor.
For motive power there were two paddle wheels
placed one before the other in two wells within the
hull, and two screws, placed aft, one on each side.

192 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
Sixteen guns, of which two were 7-inch rifles, seven
were 6-inch rifles, and the others were 8-inch and 9-
inch smoothbores, were mounted within the case
ment. The Mississippi was the invention of Mr. Nelson
Tift, of Florida, who had had no experience in ship
building, and the story of this vessel better than
any other story of the war, unless it be that of the
Louisiana, portrays the innate weakness of the Con
federacy. This is shown first by the fact that she
originated with a planter who knew nothing about
naval affairs. Further than that, she was designed
strictly as a river defense craft. There was no
thought of building a ship that could steam away
to carry on an aggressive war in New York or Bos
ton harbor.1 But perhaps the most important fea
ture of the weakness of the Confederacy that she
exhibited was found in the fact that she was de
signed to meet an emergency in labor conditions,
prevailing not only at New Orleans, but throughout
the slave states. Lacking ship carpenters, the
plans of the Mississippi called only for straight
timbers and planks. There was not a knee or a
crooked timber in her. After the work of building
was begun in September, 1861, every kind of a car
penter in the region was employed on her, and even
then, the contractors failed to get as many mechan
ics as they needed, being compelled at last to pro
cure between 200 and 300 slaves from the plan
tations. 1 Judah P. Benjamin, while serving as the Confederate Secre
tary of War, wrote a letter in which he showed clearly that he
appreciated the value of aggressive warfare.

DEFENSES AT NEW ORLEANS 193
At the North many a shipshape vessel was built
and put in service within ninety days, but at New
Orleans the work on the great scow dragged, the
work on her machinery dragged still more, and she
never was completed. The builders of the Missis
sippi failed, and the cause for which they fought
failed in good part because of a woeful lack of
skilled, intelligent laborers. And the South lacked
intelligent laborers because of the contempt in
which mechanics had always been held by owners
of slaves. It was the curse of slavery that weighed
down and overcame the splendid energies of the
leaders who were striving to defend New Orleans.
This is a memorable matter. The most impor
tant benefit we have derived from the creation of
our magnificent modern navy is found in the de
velopment of men able to design, build and handle
such ships. The ships, after a few years, will be
out of date and worthless, but the men have been
trained ready for the construction of others vastly
superior, in quality and force. Moreover, the in
fluence of this trained host has been, and will be,
by no means confined to the navy : for the ship, one
may say, is nothing ; the development of the man
is everything.
The Mississippi was a scow. Her flat bottom was
22 inches thick, " with numerous thick keelsons to
brace it," and the walls were two feet thick. Bot
tom and walls were bolted through and through, in
the most substantial manner. There were, as has
been said, no frames, crooks or knees. She was
simply a great box, 260 feet long, 58 feet broad and

194 DAVLD G. FARRAGUT
15 feet deep. Above this the plans called for an
ironclad casemate with the best guns available.
Within the machinery was planned for three screws
with sufficient power to drive her eleven knots an
hour. Of the Mississippi, Commander D. D. Porter
wrote that if she had been "finished and had suc
ceeded in getting to sea, the whole American navy
would have been destroyed." This report was
made after hearing the vessel described by those
who were not able to give an intelligible account of
her. Since she was designed by men ignorant of
naval architecture, and built by men who were not
trained mechanics, there is no reason for supposing
that her machinery would have proved more effect
ive than that of the Louisiana. At best, the two
ironclads could have been useful only as floating
batteries. But because good guns had been provided for
them, and because they were ironclad, they might
have proved powerful enough, even though im
movable, when well placed at the forts, to guard
the barrier raft. When Farragut arrived at the
mouth of the Mississippi with a wooden-walled
fleet, these two ironclads were nearing completion —
men were working on them day and night — and
there was need of prompt action if he were to cap
ture New Orleans.

CHAPTER XIII
PREPARATIONS FOR PASSING THE FORTS
The work of getting the larger ships of Farra
gut's fleet into the mouth of the Mississippi had
taken two weeks, and more, of precious time. For
a fortnight was consumed on the bar, while they
were being stripped of every weight that could be
spared before they were dragged through the mud
and then these weights had to be replaced — a work
that required time also. That all this was done
without a fight with the Confederates was due
to the fact that the authorities at Richmond could
see no danger to New Orleans save in the gunboats
(called tin-clads because of their thin armor), that
were afloat and building on the upper river. In
stead of attacking Farragut the Richmond authori
ties ordered Commodore George N. Hollins to go to
Memphis, and take with him nearly every available
fighting ship afloat in the lower river. Orders were
also issued to send the Louisiana north as soon as
she could be made ready. As it appears Hollins
went but left a considerable fleet behind him, in
spite of the instructions of his superiors.
Hollins had made a dash at the National squad
ron off the Southwest Pass before Farragut's arrival
(it was at 3:45 A. m., October 12, 1861), and had
driven the blockading vessels (three good fighting

196 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
ships, including the Richmond) helter-skelter from
the head of the Passes down to and across the bar.
The dash on the part of Hollins was as brilliant as
the flight of the Federal ships was disgraceful ; and
if he could have had his way, Farragut would have
been obliged to fight at the bar. Even after reach
ing Memphis, Hollins begged for permission to re
turn to New Orleans and attack the National ships
which were then within the river, but he was not
allowed to do so. Farragut' s fleet caused no anxiety
in Richmond during the earlier days of April, 1862.
Accordingly the preparation of his fleet for the
work that lay before it was begun under general or
ders of which the following extracts ought to be
preserved :
Send down the topgallant masts. Rig in the fly
ing jib-boom, and land all the spars and rigging ex
cept what are necessary for the three topsails, fore
sail, jib and spanker. . . . Bring all the rig
ging into the bowsprit so that there shall be noth
ing in the range of the direct fire ahead.
Make arrangements, if possible, to mount one or
two guns on the poop and topgallant forecastle ; in
other words be prepared to use as many guns as
possible ahead and astern . . . bearing in mind
that you will always have to ride head to the cur
rent, and only avail yourself of the sheer of the
helm to point a broadside gun more than three
points forward of the beam.
Have a kedge in the mizzen chains (or any con
venient place) on the quarter with a hawser bent
and leading through the stern chock, ready for any
emergency ; also grapnels in the boats, ready to
hook on to and tow off fire ships. Trim your ves
sel a few inches by the head, so that if she touches

PASSING THE FORTS 197
the bottom she will not swing head down the river.
Put your boat howitzers in the foremain tops, on
the boat carriages, and secure them for firing abeam,
etc. Should any injury occur to the machinery,
making it necessary to drop down the river, you
will back and fill down under sail, or you can drop
your anchor and drift down, but in no case attempt
to turn the ship's head down stream.
No vessel must withdraw from battle under any
circumstances, without the consent of the flag officer.
You will see that force and other pumps and engine
hose are in good order, and men stationed by them,
and your men will be drilled to the extinguishing
of fire. Have many tubs of water about the decks,
both for the purpose of extinguishing fire and for
drinking. You will be careful to have lanyards on the lever
of the screw so as to secure the gun at the proper
elevation, and prevent it from running down at
each fire. I wish you to understand that the day
is at hand when you will be called upon to meet the
enemy in the worst form of our profession. . , .
Hot and cold shot will, no doubt, be freely dealt to
us, and there must be stout hearts and quick hands
to extinguish the one and stop the holes of the other.
The ingenuity of all the officers of the fleet was
taxed to supplement these orders from the flag offi
cer. Chief Engineer John W. Moore suggested that
the chain cables be secured along the sides of each
ship to serve as armor to protect the machinery and
waterline, and the suggestion was adopted by all of
them. He also proposed daubing the vessels over
with mud to render them less easily visible at night,
and this was done.
Some captains whitewashed the decks and inner

198 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
walls of their ships so that the men could better see
to do their work in a night battle. Bags of coal, of
ashes, of sand, and even the clothes bags and the
hammocks of the crews, were piled around the ma
chinery to stop shot, while nets made of ropes were
stretched where they would catch splinters that the
shot from the forts was sure to knock from the sides
of the ships. While these preparations were in
hand, Farragut visited every ship to see how the
work was being done and to make sure that his
orders were fully understood.
In the meantime the mortar schooners were put
in place. Mr. A. F. Gerdes with a party of men
from the coast survey joined the expedition. He
explored and measured the banks of the river in
order to determine the best location for the mortar
fleet, and the distance from that location to Fort
Jackson. It was decided to concentrate the mortar
fire on Jackson because it was the stronger, and
what was of more importance, because it directly
guarded the raft that was expected to stop Farra
gut's ships.
The points chosen for the mortar boats varied
between 2,850 and 3,680 yards from Fort Jackson.
At first one division of them was placed on the east
bank of the river, but the forts soon got the range,
and drove them to the west bank where all were
hidden behind a tall growth of trees, the conceal
ment being made more effective by lashing tree
limbs to the masts.
At ten o'clock on the morning of April 18, 1862,
the mortar fleet fired the first shot at Fort Jackson.

PASSING THE FORTS 199
It had been well aimed and was dropping into the
fort when the burning fuse reached the powder,
whereupon it exploded in the air. As this shell
appeared the crew of the little Confederate ram
Manassas (she had been sold to the Confederate
navy), that was lying at the Fort Jackson dock, cast
off her lines, and at once steamed up and across
the river to tie up above St. Phillip. She had barely
left her berth at Fort Jackson dock when another
shell came, and it fell into the water precisely where
she had been lying.
The work of this second shell was in a way like
that of the whole mortar flotilla. The mortar fire
almost but not quite accomplished something of
importance. More than forty shells on the aver
age were thrown at the fort every hour thereafter
for a week (nearly 6,000 shells were fired in all), but
Lieutenant Godfrey Weitzel, of the United States
Engineers, reported on May 5, 1862 :
"To an inexperienced eye it seems as if this
work [Fort Jackson] were badly cut up. It is as
strong to-day as when the first shell was fired
at it."
Because of what he had seen of the French mortar
fire at Vera Cruz, years before, Farragut had no
confidence in the result of that kind of an attack
upon Fort Jackson. The plan having been made
before the command of the expedition was offered
him, he accepted it without protest. He was so
well pleased to be at the head of any squadron that
he was not disposed to quarrel about details. But
to lie idle in the river while the mortars spouted

200 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
useless shells at the fort " sorely tried " his patience,
as he said afterward.
Porter, in his report of April 30th, admits that
" after bombarding the fort for three days I began
to despair of taking it, and, indeed, began to lose
my confidence in mortars, but a deserter presented
himself from Fort Jackson and gave me such an
account of the havoc made by our mortar practice
that ... we went to work with renewed
vigor." Farragut, however, made a more accurate esti
mate of the value of the deserter's story. He had
already determined to drive his fleet up the river
without waiting for the reduction of Fort Jackson
and he called his captains to the flagship on the
day the deserter came, in order that they might
give their opinions "as to the best manner of pass
ing the forts."
His instructions from the Department said, "You
will proceed up the Mississippi and reduce the de
fenses which guard the approaches to New Orleans,"
but Farragut was determined to ignore that part of
his orders, — a most important fact. He was willing
to assume that responsibility in order to force the
fighting. It is a noteworthy circumstance in the
history of our navy that officers have been censured
for adhering too closely to orders that kept them
out of a battle, but never has one been rebuked for
disobeying orders, that he might force the fighting.
All of the captains except Porter attended the
council. He was looking after the work of his flo
tilla, as he had been doing, day and night, since his

PASSING THE FORTS 201
arrival on the river, but Captain Alden, of the
Richmond, brought to the council a memorandum
written by Porter some time (Soley in his life of
Porter says at least a month) before. The captains
had assembled, and "the flag officer then proceeded
to state the reason why the officers had been sum
moned, which was to give his plan for passing the
forts," says Lieutenant J. M. Wainwright in a let
ter to Commander Porter, dated June 1, 1862.
"The prevailing opinion seemed to be averse to
making the attempt to pass the forts at that time ;
that it was premature ; that the forts had not yet
been sufficiently reduced by the fire of the mortar
vessels, and that the risk of the loss of too many
vessels was too great to be run." Then Alden read
Porter's memorandum which was in part :
" There are two methods of attack : one is for the
vessels to run the gauntlet of the batteries by night,
or in a fog ; the other to attack the forts by laying
the big ships close alongside of them. . . . The
large ships should anchor, . . . the smaller
vessels to keep under way and be constantly moving
about, some to get above, and open a cross fire ; the
mortars to keep up a rapid and continuous fire and
to move up to shorter range.
"The objections to running by the forts are
these : It is not likely that any intelligent enemy
would fail to place chain across above forts, and
raise such batteries as would protect them against
our ships. Did we run the forts we should leave an
enemy in our rear, and the mortar vessels would
have to be left behind. We could not return to
bring them without going through a heavy and de
structive fire. If the forts are run, part of the

202 DAVLD G. FARRAGUT
mortars should be towed along, which would render
the progress of the vessels slow, against the strong
current at that point. If the forts are first cap
tured, the moral effect would be to close the batter
ies on the river and open the way to New Orleans ;
whereas, if we don't succeed in taking them we will
have to fight our way up the river. Once having
possession of the forte, New Orleans would be her
metically sealed, and we can repair damages and go
up on our own terms.
"Nature points out the English Turn as the posi
tion to be strongly fortified, and it is there that the
enemy will most likely make his strongest stand.
"If the ships can get by the forts, and there are
no obstructions above, then the plan should be to
push on to New Orleans every ship that can get up
there, taking up as many of the mortar fleet as can
be rapidly towed. An accurate reconnoissance
should be made, and every kind of attainable in
formation provided before any movement is made.
" Nothing has been said about a combined attack
of army and navy. Such a thing is not only prac
ticable, but if time permitted should be adopted."
It is entirely fair to suppose that this document
was read with Porter's knowledge and consent ;
one is almost driven to the belief that it was done
at his request. And yet Farragut told the captains
(according to Wainwright), that "Captain Porter
had submitted a plan of operations, which em
braced ideas similar to his own, and with which he
entirely agreed." To this Farragut added the
further statement, later on during the discussion,
that "Captain Porter urged very strongly the at
tempt being made [to take the fleet past the forts],
not only on the grounds of its probable success,"

PASSING THE FORTS 203
but because the mortar schooner fire must soon
slack away for a variety of reasons.
Without trying to solve the mystery of the pres
ence of the Porter memorandum in the hands of
Captain Alden the document itself has been given
here in part because it certainly represented the
views of Alden himself, Captain T. T. Craven and
"the prevailing opinion" of those present, and it
therefore by contrast brings out clearly the distin
guishing merits of Farragut's ideas.1
After hearing the opinions of his captains the
flag officer delivered his own opinion in the form of
a general order " immediately after the council."
That is to say, he had determined what to do before
he called the council and had desired to learn only
whether the captains had any ideas that would im
prove the details of his plan. In writing the gen
eral order he gave some consideration to the oppo
sition as it had been embodied in Porter's memo
randum. Farragut wrote :
"The flag officer . . . is of the opinion that
whatever is to be done will have to be done quickly.
. . . He has always entertained the same opin
ions which are expressed by Commander Porter :
that is, that there are three modes of attack, and the
question is, which is the one to be adopted . His
own opinion is that a combination of two should be
made, viz., the forts should be run, and when a
force is once above the forts to protect the troops,
they [the troops] should be landed at quarantine
1 See Vol. 18, Official Records, Union and Confederate Navies,
p. 131, et seq.

204 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
from the Gulf side by bringing them through the
bayou, and then our forces should move up the river,
mutually aiding each other.
" When, in the opinion of the flag officer the pro
pitious time has arrived, the signal will be made to
weigh, and advance to the conflict. If, in his opin
ion, at the time of arriving at the respective posi
tions of the different divisions of the fleet, we have
the advantage, he will make the signal for close ac
tion, and abide the result — conquer or be conquered
— drop anchor or keep under way, as in his opinion
is best."
To this he added the statement that unless the
signal for close action was given, the ships, after
passing Fort St. Phillip, were to be formed in "the
first order of sailing" and then "proceed up the
river in accordance with the original opinion ex
pressed." It appears, therefore, that while Farragut supposed
he might think best to close up and attack the forts
with a view of reducing them, he intended to run
by them first of all. And then, unless obliged by
further obstructions to seek the aid of the troops, he
intended to "proceed up the river." The fact that
he would be leaving two strong fortifications behind
him, as Porter's memorandum had pointed out, was
not even mentioned in the general order, except in
directly. When Farragut said that troops from the
army transports could be conveyed to the river bank
"from the Gulf side by bringing them through the
bayou," he answered every objection that had
been, or could be, made to the act of leaving "an

PASSING THE FORTS 205
enemy in our rear." For if troops could come to
the ships "through the bayou," sufficient supplies
could come to them also by the same route. The
forts would become a matter of no pressing impor
tance to the ships. The route to the city of New
Orleans would be open, or very easily opened.
But Farragut saw a further and very important
reason for making a dash past the forte. As he said
to his council of captains, the forts would be cut off
from every source of supplies, once the ships were in
the river above them. It would then be only a
question of time when they would be starved into
surrendering, if they did not yield at once from other
considerations. The strategy of the case seemed so
simple to Farragut that he did not argue the matter,
but merely stated it to his captains. And, as
said, he did not even mention it directly in his gen
eral orders. Further than that, it seemed to him
unnecessary to attempt "an accurate reconnois-
sance" of the river between the forte and the city,
as Porter had suggested.
After the ships were prepared for battle one more
preliminary bit of work had to be taken in hand,
and that was the breaking of the boom across the
river. Captain Henry H. Bell, chief of staff, had
been sent with the steamers Kennebec and Wissa-
hickon to examine that construction soon after Far
ragut arrived in the river. He reported that "the
obstructions seem formidable," and described the
boom as he saw it. The British frigate Mersey,
Captain Preedy, and a French warship, had come
into the river meantime. The captains of these ves-

206 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
sels were representatives of the elements in England
and France that were anxious to see the American
Union destroyed, and had come there to do every
thing possible in a neutral way to obstruct the work
of Farragut. Both captains had gone up to exam
ine the barrier raft, and on returning, with an as
sumed air of candor had assured every officer of
Farragut's fleet who would listen to them that the
raft was perfectly impassable. But Farragut, who
remembered how a British captain had deliberately
deceived our officers with a similar story when they
were before Vera Cruz, during our war with Mexico,
was unaffected by their reports, or if influenced at
all by them was only the more determined to make
the dash.
Lieutenant C. H. B. Caldwell, commanding the
Itaska, had previously volunteered to run up to the
boom, if supported by another vessel, and break
through it. Under the supervision of Fleet Captain
Henry H. Bell, Caldwell was now ordered to do the
work, and the Pinola, Lieutenant Pierce Crosby
commanding, was sent along to assist.
At ten o'clock, on the night of the 20th, the two
vessels started on their perilous mission. Foresee
ing that they would be discovered, and subjected to
the concentrated fire of all the guns in the forts, the
mortar fleet was set at work firing shells as rapidly
as possible. This fire was of some use, but a brisk
cannonade was opened from the forts as the two
vessels reached the raft. In spite of that fact both
of them attacked it. An effort to break the chain
with a torpedo failed because the electric wires

PASSING THE FORTS 207
broke. A little later the Itaska, after tearing the
rail from one hulk in a vain effort to drag it from
the raft, boarded the schooner at the east end of the
line of eight dismantled boate. This hulk was cast
loose from the chain, but as the Itaska was dragging
it from the raft she and her tow were carried hard
aground. Two hawsers were broken by the Pinola,
in trying to get the Itaska off the mud, but a third
one held and pulled her clear.
As the Itaska floated free, her bow was pointed
up the river and Caldwell saw that by the removal
of the hulk an opening had been made in the raft
wide enough for his little gunboat to pass through.
Thereupon he drove her ahead, and well up above
the raft. Then he turned around, gave her a full
head of steam, and with the force of the current to
aid him, he struck the chain between the third and
fourth hulks. The curved stem of the gunboat rose
up over the chain until her bow was more than
three feet out of the water. Then the chain broke
and the schooner hulks of the raft, with two excep
tions—the second and last — were left unsupported.
The third, fourth, fifth and sixth swung around
with the current and drifted down stream, leaving
an ample space for Farragut's fleet to pass through.
It was one of the most brilliant exploits of the war.
Curiously enough, while this work, which re
quired several hours, was in hand, there were no less
than thirteen Confederate vessels at or near Fort St.
Phillip, including the little ironclad ram Manassas,
six of the much-vaunted River Defense Fleet rams,
and the big Louisiana. But not one of these ves-

208 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
sels made the least movement to interfere with the
attack on the raft — a fact that has never been ex
plained. Commodore Mitchell commanding the
Confederate flotilla had asked the River Defense
Fleet to guard the raft, but the captains had de
clined to do so, and there the matter rested. Nor
was any effort made to repair the raft after it was
broken.

CHAPTER XIV
THE BATTLE ON THE MISSISSIPPI
With the boom broken Farragut was free to put
his ships in lines for the passage up the river. He
had previously arranged the fleet in two divisions,
and at his own earnest request, Captain Theodorus
Bailey of the Colorado, had received command of
one of them. Under this plan the two were to ad
vance side by side, with Bailey's toward the east
bank. Farragut intended to attack Fort Jackson
with his own division while the other was to pass
on up and engage Fort St. Phillip. But after a
further consideration of the width of the opening
in the boom, and the probability that the two lines
of ships would foul each other in passing the open
ing, Farragut decided to make three divisions of
his fleet.
To Bailey, who was ordered to attack Fort St.
Phillip, he gave the Cayuga, Pensacola, Mississippi,
Oneida, Varuna, Katahdin, Kineo and Wissa-
hickon. For himself and the attack on Fort Jack
son, he added the Brooklyn and the Richmond to
the Hartford. Then for a third division to support
either of the others as occasion might warrant, he
gave to Fleet Captain Bell the Sciota, Iroquois,
Kennebec, Pinola, Itaska and Winona. Bailey's
division was allowed to lead the others, when the
line was formed, because he was to attack the fort

210 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
situated higher up the stream, and it was desirable
that his ships should be firing on it at the moment
Farragut opened on Fort Jackson. And it may be
noted here that the Cayuga, a gunboat, led Bailey's
division because Bailey, at the invitation of her
captain, Lieutenant N. B. Harrison, had hoisted his
flag on her. Captain Henry W. Morris of the big
Pensacola, the natural leader, did not wish any
divisional officer on board his ship to take from
him the glory that she might earn ; but it seemed
an honor to Captain Harrison to have his little gun
boat selected to lead the battle line, and he eagerly
sought it.
The early morning of April 23d was first chosen
for the movement, but the carpenter's crew from
each of two of the big vessels was absent. The
captains preferred to wait for their return, and the
start, though against Farraguf s desire, was post
poned one day. As the moon would not rise until
3:30 o'clock on the morning of the 24th, Farragut
determined to pass the forts — to "conquer or be
conquered" — before that hour. During the after
noon of the 23d he visited every ship of his fleet,
seeing for himself that each was ready, and that
her commander fully understood the orders. Porter,
who had come to admit that it was useless to wait
longer for a reduction of the forts, was ordered to
fire with the mortars with the utmost rapidity pos
sible while the fleet was passing, and further than
that, to take his little squadron of mortar-guarding
steamers up within range and do what he could
with their guns to check the fire of Fort Jackson.

THE BATTLE ON THE MISSISSIPPI 211
The sailing ship Portsmouth, Captain Swartwout,
was ordered to this duty also. As night came on,
Caldwell, at his own request, was sent up to the
boom with the Itaska to see that the way was still
open — a task that curiously enough he performed
unmolested. Finally at two o'clock in the morning two red
lights, one above the other, were hoisted on the
Hartford and a moment later was heard the shrill
piping of the boatswains' whistles calling all hands
on every ship to get up anchor. The clank of the
capstan pawls followed promptly, as the men hove
up the anchors, but the mud of the river was tena
cious, and a long time — most trying to the com
manding officer— passed before all the ships were
afloat in their places. At last, however, all were
found in order, and the fleet— the mightiest the
Nation had ever assembled — steamed with throb
bing engines up to the forte. Not a light was dis
played, and so little noise was made on the ships
that the men, standing at their guns, heard the calls
of birds and frogs along the shore.
At 3:30 o'clock (later than was intended) the
little Cayuga, a steamer no longer than a harbor
lighter, led the way unmolested through the open
ing in the barrier boom. But as the next ship of
the long line behind her, dimly seen in the star
light, passed the barrier a gun on shore was fired.
At that signal every cannon in both forte that
would bear, began its blazing work, the roar was
answered by the boom of the mortars in the flotilla,
the air was filled with the curving light of the fly-

212 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
ing shells, the black walls of the ships began to
belch the sheeting flames of their broadside guns,
the Porter flotilla of steamers joined in, and then
raft after raft, piled high with blazing pine and tar,
was cast loose from the river banks above and
towed out by the Confederates to meet the fleet. One
of the most impressive pictures of fire the world
has ever seen was witnessed when Farragut's fleet
came to the Confederate forts that guarded the
Mississippi. Peering ahead by the light of the flames around
him, Lieutenant George H. Perkins, who was navi
gating the Cayuga, saw that the guns of Fort St.
Phillip were aimed to throw their shot into the
middle of the river, whereupon he steered his little
ship close under the walls of the fort and passed
on. The hull of the vessel "was but little dam
aged," and because she was low in the water her
guns had no noticeable effect upon the fort.
Then came the Pensacola and the Mississippi.
Both steamed slowly while their crews, with the
energy of men who fight for life, worked their guns,
sheeting the air with lurid flames and dusting the
walls and porte of the fort with iron hail. So close
to the fort were these ships that, at times, crew and
garrison saw each other clearly and cursed each
other heartily. The fire of the ships proved so
deadly that the men in the fort, in spite of their
officers, fled to cover. Not until they had been en
gaged for more than an hour did these ships pass
wholly out of range of St. Phillip.
For the ships of the first division the passage up

Order of the F/eet in passing up to fhe attack of
Forts Jackson and St Phi/ip, Apr it 34, 1862.

First Division
leading under command
of Capt. Theodorus Bai/ey.
A

I _ Cayuga, it. Com'dy Harrison, F/ag'Ci/n
0 _ Pensaco/a, Capt. H W Morris.
0 _ Mississippi, " M.Smifh.
0 _ Oneida, Comd'r S.PLee.
0_ Varuna, " C.S.Boggs
0_ Katahdin, Lt.Com. G.H. Preble.
0 . Kine o, " " Ransom.
§ . Wissahicfcon " A-N. Smith.

Centre Division, Admira/ Farragut.

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Third Division,
Capt. H.H.Bell.
Sciota, Lt.Com. Donaldson. .0
Iroquois, Com. DeCamp. .0
Kennebec, Lt. Com. Russell. _0
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Itasca. « » Caldwell. J)
Winona, " " /Vichols.-O

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THE BATTLE ON THE MISSISSIPPI 213
to Fort St. Phillip was a simple matter. They were
through the barrier raft and away before the Con
federates got fairly to work. But for Farragut and
the Hartford, the conditions were changed before
he reached the raft. The guns of all the fleet and
of both forts had been firing for twenty minutes as
the bow of the Hartford entered the opening in the
boom, and thick clouds of smoke filled the motion
less air and settled on the water, blinding the pilots.
Worse than all that, time enough had passed to
enable the men with the flaming fire rafts to arrive
at the barrier ; and as the Hartford reached the
open water above, the heroic crew of the little Con
federate tug Mosher, Captain Sherman, came push
ing one of these boats against the side of the flag
ship. With wheel hard over, the Hartford strove to
dodge the danger, but ran aground instead, and
then the raft was held relentlessly to her wooden
side. For a moment the fire lapped the planks and
then the thick paint with which the hull was cov
ered burst into flames that leaped up almost to her
lower yards.
The fierce heat drove the men from the guns on
that side of the ship but they returned to their sta
tions as they heard Farragut's voice saying :
" Don't flinch from that fire, boys ; there's a hot
ter fire than that for those who don't do their
duty." A moment later, however, as the flames spread
swiftly over the side of the ship, the case seemed
so desperate that even the courageous Farragut

214 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
' ' thought it was all up with us. ' ' Raising his hands
above his head he exclaimed :
" My God, is it to end this way ? "
But while Farragut realized the extent of the
danger he by no means lost his head. He instantly
"ordered the ship backed with all speed," which
was done with such effect that the propeller threw
both the ram (tug) and the fire raft forward and on
shore, while the ship slid off. In the meantime sal
vation from the flames on the ship's side was at
hand. The Hartford's crew had been well drilled
at fire quarters. Master's Mate Allen, of the fire
brigade, climbed into the mizzen rigging with a
hose in hand, and a moment later he was drown
ing the flames with a well directed deluge. Inci
dentally a half dozen shells had been fired into the
tug that had done its appointed work so well, and
she sank in the black water with all her heroic crew.
The Hartford, in backing off the mud, got her
head down stream, presumably because of an eddy,
and she was a long time turning about. During
this most tiying period Farragut stood still, giving
such orders as were needed as coolly as if at drill,
and "referring occasionally to a little compass that
was attached to his watch-chain " to see how near
she was pointing to the course up the river.
The next attack on the flagship was quickly re
pulsed. A vessel, black with men, was seen head
ing for her as if to board, but a shell from the pivot
gun worked by the marine guard was fired into it.
The shell exploded and the ship then drifted away.
The Hartford was thereafter free.

THE BATTLE ON THE MISSISSIPPI 215
The Brooklyn which followed the flagship col
lided with the Kineo, as she reached the opening in
the raft, and Captain Craven, being unable to see
the little gunboat clearly, supposed and reported
that he had struck one of the raft hulks. The Kineo
was almost rolled over, but no particular damage
was done to either vessel.
The Richmond arrived next in line, and then
came the Sciota and the Iroquois. "The gallant
Iroquois" was the last of the fleet to pass above the
boom, and Commander Porter, while directing his
flotilla's fire on Fort Jackson, saw her "provokingly
linger and slow her engines opposite the forts to
give the rebels a taste of her formidable battery."
The remaining vessels of the fleet (all were gun
boats), were disabled or stopped by the fire of the
forte until too late to pass the raft — a heart-break
ing condition of affairs for their commanders.
The ships had come to the barrier as a fleet in
orderly line, but once they were above it, the line
was broken and each ship became an independent
unit that fought as her captain thought best. While
the Pensacola and Mississippi overwhelmed the fire
of Fort St. Phillip, the smaller vessels of the divi
sion slipped past and up the river. But they were
then by no means out of danger. As the Cayuga
steamed clear of the fire of the fort her crew saw no
less than eleven Confederate steamers in the river
around her.
The ram Manassas, the Governor Moore and the
McRae attacked her at once. Her big 11-inch pivot
gun was fired into the Moore with deadly effect.

216 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
Captain Kennon, of the Moore, had intended to
board the Cayuga, but that shot stopped him. The
ram Manassas missed her and went hunting larger
ships. The McRae was left astern.
Then came the Oneida and Varuna firing right
and left into the Confederate fleet, — "a refreshing
fire," according to Captain Bailey. It was mani
fest to the Confederate crews that the National fleet
was succeeding very well in passing the barrier raft,
and the opportunity for which the River Defense
Fleet had been created had therefore arrived. The
National ships were scattered and exposed, as never
before and never afterward during the war, to the
attacks of rams commanded by resolute men. In
fact in the gloom of early morning and the smoke
of battle, the confusion was so great that one Na
tional ship fired into another. But the River De
fense captains with one exception fled.
It was not so with the trained officers of the old
navy. When Kennon was driven from his attack
on the Cayuga by her big gun and the opportune
arrival of the Oneida, he saw that the Varuna was
steaming alone up the river in chase of one of the
River Defense Fleet. The Varuna carried ten guns
and the Governor Moore only two, but Kennon was
a man who could "conjugate the verb to do."
He therefore went in chase of the over-energetic
Boggs of the National ship. His own distinguish
ing lights had been shot away and he now showed
the Federal lights to deceive the Varuna' s lookout.
Until the Varuna' s steam had been run down by
her futile speed Kennon let her go on unmolested.

THE BATTLE ON THE MISSISSIPPI 217
But when it slackened he opened fire. Having
used oil on his coal, Kennon himself had plenty
of steam, and he overhauled the ship until his
bow gun (it was mounted on a high forecastle) would
no longer bear on her. Then he depressed the gun
to the full limit, shpt a port-hole through the bow
of his own ship and raked the Varuna, killing and
wounding twelve men.
Captain Boggs now put the Varuna' s helm aport
to throw her around and give the Moore a broad
side. He succeeded in doing this, but Kennon,
meantime, put his helm to starboard and drove the
Moore into the Varuna' s side. The latter' s engine
was stopped by the shock, and as she lay dead in
the water the Moore rammed her again.
The Varuna was a converted merchantman of the
usual light framework. The wounds from the
ramming were mortal and Boggs was obliged to
drive her ashore to keep her from sinking. But
her guns were worked until her stern was under
water. Many men were killed on the Moore, but
no damage was done to her machinery, and Ken
non, whose blood was up, turned to face a half
dozen National ships that were coming after him.
His fight was over. Such a hail of projectiles was
fired into his already battered ship that she was
wholly disabled. With the aid of a jib she was
drifted ashore and burned ; her flag being consumed
at the main peak. It was a sad day for the Nation
when men like Kennon left the old navy.
In the meantime the River Defense steamer Stone
wall Jackson, while striving to flee up the river and

218 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
escape the National ships, saw the Varuna ashore
and sinking rapidly. At that her captain shifted
her helm and rammed the wreck. The only stroke
delivered by any of the six River Defense steamers
present at this battle came as an anti-climax.
No less courageous and determined than Kennon
was Lieutenant A. F. Warley, commanding the lit
tle ironclad ram Manassas. Having failed in his
dash at the Cayuga, he then headed for the Pensa
cola, but missed his stroke again, because the
watchful captain of the big ship dodged him. Then
he drove the Manassas at the Mississippi and
reached her, but only succeeded in peeling a heavy
splinter from her hull under water. The Mississippi
fired a useless broadside over the Manassas, as she
approached. As Warley sheered off toward the
barrier raft (for with her speed of six knots, she
could do nothing against the current), he found the
Brooklyn just getting clear, and was able to deliver
a fair blow while steaming directly across the cur
rent. The ironclad bow of the ram struck between
two frames and crushed both the outer and the inner
planking. But the chain cable triced to her side at
the water line, thanks to Engineer John W. Moore,
saved the big ship from a mortal wound.
As the Manassas drifted clear of the Brooklyn a
man climbed through her hatch to look at the
wound she had made. For a moment he stood be
side her smokestack and then tumbled into the river.
An officer of the Brooklyn afterward asked the
quartermaster who was heaving the lead on that
side of the ship if he had seen the man disappear.

THE BATTLE ON THE MISSISSIPPI 219
"Yes, sir," replied the quartermaster, "I saw
him fall overboard — in fact, I helped him, for I hit
him alongside the head with my hand lead."
As the Brooklyn passed up, the Manassas steamed
on down stream. Warley had determined to go
down through the barrier raft and ram the mortar
schooners. But "I no sooner neared the forts," as
he wrote afterward, "than both opened fire on me.
Fort St. Phillip did not strike me. Captain Squires
informed me that he fired seventy-five times at me,
but Fort Jackson struck me frequently with her
42-pounder." As that region was getting pretty hot, the Man
assas was turned up stream to look for another op
portunity to ram the National fleet, when she was
seen by Farragut, who sent the Mississippi to attack
her. In Farragut's account of the destruction of
the ram, as written to his family, one sees both the
feeling of the man and that of the naval officer. He
said :
"Loyall [his son] would have been delighted, as
I was, to see the contest between the old Mississippi
and the Hollins ram Manassas, after we had passed
the forte. All saw the ram coming up. I hailed
Melancton Smith, and told him to run her down.
Smith turned his ship's head down stream, and they
ran at each other. We all looked on with intense
anxiety. When within fifty yards, the enemy's
heart failed him, and he turned to the right and
ran on shore. Smith poured in a broadside, which
riddled her. Thus ended the Hollins ram. She
floated down stream, on fire from her own furnace ;

220 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
the officers and men making their escape to the
shore. These rams are formidable things, but when
there is room to manoeuvre, the heavy ships will
run over them."
Off Fort St. Phillip, Lieutenant Read, of the
McRae, boarded the Manassas, and reported after
ward that she was sound save for a cut pipe. But
he must have been mistaken, for when she passed
Porter's flotilla, she was on fire, and she soon "ex
ploded faintly " and sank.
A curious incident of the battle occurred when
the lingering Iroquois was at last beyond the forts.
The Confederate steamer McRae fired a broadside
of grape shot and copper slugs at her, doing some
damage, but the Union ship with her more power
ful guns returned a storm of grape and canister.
The slaughter on the McRae was great, and among
those mortally hurt was Thomas B. Huger, her
commander. Huger, but a few months before, had
been the executive officer of the Iroquois, and the
larger part of her crew at this time were men who
had served under him.
To pass the forts, the broken raft, and the Con
federate fleet of eighteen vessels, had taken less
than two hours. "A more desperate, more mag
nificent dash was never made," wrote Captain
Craven afterward.
The loss of the National fleet was 35 killed, 147
wounded, and the converted merchantman Varuna.
Fort Jackson lost nine killed and thirty-three
wounded during the bombardment and the battle ;
Fort St. Phillip lost two killed and four wounded.

THE BATTLE ON THE MISSISSIPPI 221
No complete statement of the Confederate loss afloat
was ever compiled, but on one of the vessels the
destruction was extraordinary. The Governor
Moore had 64 killed and wounded out of a crew
of ninety-three, and Captain Kennon reported
that he thought 57 of these were killed. The
McRae lost four killed, including Captain Thomas
B. Huger, and 17 wounded. Captain Charles Mc
intosh, of the Louisiana, who is affectionately men
tioned by both Farragut and Craven in their letters
as "Charlie Mcintosh," was mortally wounded.
Of the Confederate fleet, that had numbered thirteen
armed vessels, three remained under the guns of
Fort St. Phillip— the ironclad Louisiana, the con
verted merchantman McRae and the guerrilla Defi
ance. These were destroyed later.
With the exception of the Varuna, the ships that
passed the forts were as fit for battle as they were
before the fight began. The river lay fair before
them and New Orleans was at their mercy.
" I am so agitated that I can scarcely write," said
Farragut in a letter to his wife, the day after the
battle — a letter that shows the heart of the man
— "and I shall only tell you that it has pleased Al
mighty God to preserve my life through a fire such
as the world has scarcely known. I shall return
properly my thanks, as well as those of our fleet,
for His goodness and mercy. He has permitted me
to make a name for my dear boy's inheritance, as
well as for my comfort and that of my family."

CHAPTER XV
NEW ORLEANS UNDER THE FLAG
That Farragut was able to pass the forts and
fleet of the Confederates with so much ease, and so
little loss, is a matter that demands consideration
although the cause may be stated in few words —
lack of proper preparation on the part of the Con
federates. The forts were not armed as they might
have been, because the guns that were removed
from Pensacola, when the Confederates determined
to abandon that place (it was not actually evacu
ated till May 9th, however), were sent north.
Moreover, the soldiers in the garrisons of Fort St.
Phillip and Fort Jackson were chiefly foreigners
because the fighting men of New Orleans were so
active and aggressive that they sought service with
the armies at the north ; they could by no means
endure the stagnation of garrison life. Then, while
the commanders of the forts were among the ablest
men in the Confederate service, a number of the
junior officers were of very inferior fibre. One of
those junior officers, "a captain from the back
country," had charge of those casemate guns which
were firing hot shot. He depressed the muzzles of
his guns very considerably, fearing to fire too high,
and being desirous of working them vigorously,
had them run out with a jerk, the consequence of
which was that the balls rolled harmlessly into the

NEW ORLEANS UNDER THE FLAG 223
moat, while he blazed away powder and hay
wads. Some officers on the ramparts, observing
this, told him of it. He then commenced opera
tions on one particular vessel, which he kept at
until some one informed him that he was devoting
himself to one of their own chain hulks.
This story, told in one of the official reports,
describes, in a way, the whole Confederate defense.
Splendid courage and most praiseworthy activity
and devotion were shown by the Confederate army
and navy officers ; but some of them also showed a
woeful lack of training.
The ironclad Mississippi was launched before the
forte were passed but her machinery was not in
stalled nor were her guns mounted. The Louisiana
was so far completed that her engines had a trial,
but they developed so little power, and the wheels
were so poorly placed, that she could not stem the
current of the river, even when aided by two tugs.
She was then (April 20th) ordered down to the
forte to serve as a floating battery, and was moored
at Fort St. Phillip. Her guns were not all mounted,
as yet, but a gang of men went along to finish the
work, and they kept at it, night and day, with the
result that the riverside guns were soon put in place.
It was then found that the ports were so poorly de
signed that the guns could be elevated only five de
grees, and even the excellent 7-inch rifles had an
effective range of no more than 2,000 yards, if they
really had as much as that. And when the iron
clad had dropped her anchor, her crew found that
the purchase for getting it up was not strong

224 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
enough. What might have been a most powerful
ship proved defective even as a floating gun car
riage because of the lack of skill in those who de
signed and built her.
When some of the Louisiana' s guns were mounted,
General Duncan urged Commodore Mitchell, com
manding all the Confederate naval ships, to place
the Louisiana near the east end of the raft at Fort
Jackson. Duncan supposed that the Louisiana,
from that point, could drive away the Federal
mortar flotilla, and hold Farragut's fleet in check.
But Mitchell refused to do this on the ground that
if he went there a single shell from one of Porter's
mortars could easily sink the Louisiana. For she
was unprotected with armor on the flat top of her
casemate where a bomb would strike her ; and even
if she escaped the bombs her guns, Mitchell said,
could not reach the Federal vessels of any kind,
while they lay at their anchorage.
Accordingly the Louisiana remained at Fort St.
Phillip. Her crew, during the battle, worked their
guns bravely and as efficiently as the design of the
ship permitted. The Federal ships pounded her at
short range, without causing a single shot to enter
her casemate, but when her crew tried to depress
their guns to reach the waterline of the Federal
ships, they were unable to do so. If the guns had
been well-mounted on the fort they would have
done better service.
Six rams of the River Defense Fleet had been re
tained to defend the boom. They were under the
command, nominally, of General Duncan, but when

NEW ORLEANS UNDER THE FLAG 225
the general ordered them to guard the barrier by
night, the captains refused to go below it. They
would neither submit to control nor do any work
on their own initiative.
The handling of the fire rafts (with the exception
already noted), particularly while Farragut was
below the forts, was as badly managed as that of
the River Defense Fleet. Rafts were set adrift while
Farragut was preparing his fleet, but they were
committed to the current, in every case but one, at
points whence they drifted ashore, or were towed
ashore with ease ; and in the one case there was no
more damage done than to cause a collision of no im
portance between two National ships. Last of all,
when Caldwell had broken the raft, no effort was
made to reclose the opening or place any ship near
the breach to stop the passage of the Federal fleet.
These facts are given in detail because every
American ought to see and fully understand the
contrast between the opposing forces on that night
of battle. On the one hand, Farragut's ships were
prepared in every detail that the inventive minds
of the officers of the fleet could think of. On the
other hand, Mitchell, though of unquestioned cour
age, was ready in scarcely a single detail. This was
through no particular fault of his own, however,
for he had labored faithfully.
At bottom the trouble among the Confederates
was founded on the unbounded confidence which
the people had in valor, — a misplaced confidence
not confined to the South, or to that time. Un
trained troops, as was supposed, had wrought

226 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
wonders in the American Revolution. Untrained
troops had faced the foreign enemy right there at
New Orleans in the War of 1812, with what result
was well known and often boasted. For the sake
of emphasis, let it be repeated that the War of 1812
had been necessary because Europe thought all
Americans were at once afraid of war and too
greedy of commercial gain to abandon business in
order to resent whatever degrading insult might be
offered them. That war proved the courage and
spirit of the American people in most striking fash
ion ; it even taught the British navy the virtue
found in caution, betimes ; but unfortunately, the
American people did not learn at the same time
that the important victories of that war were in
every case gained because of the superior training
of the American soldiers and sailors — particularly
the training that had taught them to see, clear-
eyed, through the sights of a gun.
There was one other sentiment among Confeder
ates, it appears, that must have hampered thorough
preparation and training. I hope that this matter
may be mentioned without doing offense anywhere.
It is worth while recalling it because the American
people, as a whole, now have the same feeling re
garding all other nations. The Confederates, ex
cept those that had been trained in the old navy,
seem to have underestimated the fighting qualities
of the Northern men. Confederate periodicals had
often said, and the mass of Southern politicians of
that time believed, that one Confederate could
whip five Yankees. It is the soldier, justly esti-

NEW ORLEANS UNDER THE FLAG 227
mating the power of the enemy, and making the
most earnest efforts in preparing for the battle that
usually wins it.
While some of his officers had overrated the
strength of the Confederate defenses, as the pro
ceedings of the council before the battle show,
Farragut's estimate was precisely right; and his
"genius for war" is as plainly proved by his ac
curate judgment in this regard as by his careful
preparation for the battle, and his brilliant dash
past the forts. For the conception of a proper plan
was possible only when the strength of the defenses
was properly understood.
Having passed the forts Farragut, for the time,
wholly ignored them as well as such Confederate
vessels as had been left under the guns of Fort St.
Phillip. But he did not wholly ignore the exist
ence of batteries on the river above. After the
battle with the lower forte he allowed his men to
rest for the remainder of that day (April 24), in
order that they might be in good condition to meet
the fire of the forts that had been erected where
Jackson had repelled the British at the end of the
War of 1812. He made no further special prepara
tion for the attack on those fortifications because
he foresaw that the upper barrier was sure to be
less efficient than the lower, and that to pass it
would be, as he wrote afterward, " one of the little
elegancies of the profession — a dash and a victory."
On the morning of the 25th, the National flag ap
peared before the upper works.
In the meantime a most remarkable condition of

228 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
affairs prevailed in New Orleans. As described by
George W. Cable, in the Century Magazine, there
had been "a system of espionage, secret, diligent
and fierce . . . the scheme of some of the
worst villains who had ruled New Orleans with the
rod of terror for many years — the Thugs." The
Thugs had created a veritable reign of terror and
when it was learned (April 24th) that Farragut had
passed the forte, they took charge of the streets.
"I went to the riverside," says Cable. "There
until far into the night I saw hundreds of drays
carrying cotton out of the presses and yards to the
wharves where it was fired. The glare of those sin
uous miles of flame set men and women weeping
and wailing thirty miles away on the farther shore of
Lake Pontchartrain. But the next day was the day
of terrors. During the night fear, wrath and the sense
of betrayal had run through the people as the fire
had run through the cotton. The firemen were out ;
but they cast fire on the waters, putting the torch
to the empty ships and cutting them loose to float
down the river.
" Whoever could go was going. The great mass
that had no place to go to, or means to go with, was
beside itself. I saw a crowd catch a poor fellow
whose crime was that he looked like a foreigner
and might be a spy. They swung him to a neigh
boring lamp -post, but the foreign legion saved the
man. This was one occurrence ; there were many
like it. I stood in the rear door of our store soon
after opening it. The junior member of the firm
was within. I called him to look toward the river.

NEW ORLEANS UNDER THE FLAG 229
The masts of the cutter Washington were slowly
tipping, declining, sinking — down she went. The
gunboat moored next to her began to smoke all over
and then to blaze. My employers left the city. I
closed the doors and ran to the river to see the sights.
1 ' What a gathering ! The riffraff of the wharves,
the town, the gutters ! Such women — such wrecks
of women ! And all the juvenile ragtag. The
lower steamboat landing, well covered with sugar,
rice and molasses, was being rifled. The men
smashed ; the women scooped up the smashings.
The river was overflowing the top of the levee. A
rain-storm began to threaten.
" 'Are the Yankee ships in sight?' I asked an
idler. He pointed to the tops of their naked masts
as they showed up across the huge bend of the river.
They were engaging the batteries at Camp Chal-
mette — the old field of Jackson's renown. Pres
ently that was over. Ah, me ! I see them now as
they come slowly round Slaughter House Point into
full view, silent, so grim and terrible ; black with
men ; heavy with deadly portent ; the long-banished
Stars and Stripes flying against the frowning sky.
Oh, for the Mississippi ! The Mississippi ! Just
then she came down upon them. But how ? Drift
ing helplessly, a mass of flames.
"The crowds on the levee howled and screamed
with rage. The swarming decks answered never a
word ; but one old tar on the Hartford, standing
with lanyard in hand beside a great pivot gun, so
plain to view that you could see him smile, silently
patted its big black breech and blandly grinned."

230 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
And while the Thugs ruled the streets, the ' ' slaves,
rushing out, leaving the houses open, disordered,
behind them, shouted triumphantly to one another,
' The Yankees are here ! ' . . . It was their
hour of victory — and retribution." '
Farragut in describing the scene upon the river
says :
" All the morning I had seen abundant evidence
of the panic which had seized the people in New
Orleans. Cotton-loaded ships on fire came floating
down, and working implements of every kind, such
as are used in shipyards. The destruction was
awful." And again : " The levee of New Orleans
was one scene of desolation. Ships, steamers, cot
ton, coal, etc., were all in one common blaze, and
our ingenuity was much taxed to avoid the floating
conflagration." s
On arriving off the city, Farragut sent ashore
Captain Theodorus Bailey and Lieutenant George
H. Perkins to see the Mayor. Cable, who was pres
ent, says he was drawn to the street by " a roar of
shoutings and imprecations and crowding feet down
Common Street. ' Hurrah for Jeff Davis ! Hurrah
for Jeff Davis ! Shoot them ! Kill them ! Hang
them ! ' About every third man there had a weapon
out." The two officers on their way to the Mayor's
office, were "unguarded and alone, looking not to
right or left, never frowning, never flinching, while
the mob screamed in their ears, shook cocked pis
tols in their faces, cursed and crowded and gnashed
1 Grace King.
"Sen. Ex. Doc. 56, 37th Cong., 2d Seas.

NEW ORLEANS UNDER THE FLAG 231
upon them. So through the gates of death those
two men walked to the City Hall. It was one of
the bravest deeds I ever saw done."
Lieutenant Perkins says that when " they began
to throw things at us and shout ' Hang them !
Hang them ! ' we both thought we were in a bad fix,
but there was nothing for us to do but just to go on."
The Mayor's office was reached at 1:30 o'clock.
There Captain Bailey said (to quote the account of
Marion A. Baker, the private secretary of Mayor
John T. Monroe), "that he came as the bearer of a
demand from Flag-officer Farragut for the sur
render of the city, the lowering of the state flag on
the City Hall, and the hoisting of the United States
flag over the post-office, custom-house, and mint."
The Mayor, after consulting with a number of
citizens present, said that he had no authority to
surrender the city, "and that General Lovell was
the proper person to receive and reply to that de
mand." General Lovell was brought in. He "re
fused to surrender the city or his forces, but stated
that he would retire with his troops and leave the
civil authorities to act as they saw fit." Then the
Mayor said that he would present the matter to the
city council, and the two officers returned to the
ships escorted by men furnished by General Lovell,
to protect them from the unrestrained Thugs.
The Mayor on his side sent a message to the city-
council narrating the proceedings in his office, and
said that " in reply to the demand to haul down the
[Louisiana] flag from the city hall, I returned an
unqualified refusal." As to surrendering the city

232 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
he said : "My own opinion is that as a civil magis
trate, possessed of no military power, I am incom
petent to perform a military act such as the surren
der of the city to a hostile force ; that it would be
proper to say that ... we can offer no ob
struction to the occupation of the place by the
enemy ; that the custom-house, post-office and
mint are the property of the Confederate govern
ment, and that we have no control over them ; and
that all acts involving a transfer of authority be per
formed by the invading forces themselves ; that we
yield to physical force alone, and that we maintain
our allegiance to the government of the Confederate
States." On the morning of the 26th, the common council
resolved "That the sentiments expressed in the
message of his Honor . . . are in perfect ac
cordance with the sentiments entertained by these
councils and by the entire population of this me
tropolis." The Mayor wrote a letter to Farragut that ex
pressed these sentiments in simple language, but
Pierre Soule, a citizen of New Orleans, who had
been a Senator at Washington and a Minister to
Spain, and who (according to Major S. L. James),
" seemed to speak for the Mayor and council of the
city," wrote a much longer letter to say the same
thing, together with many other things that indi
cated an hysterical state of mind. This letter was
also sent to the Hartford.1
1 Private Secretary Baker, in explaining for the Century Maga
zine, Soule's dominant attitude, in later years, said : "Mr. Mon-

NEW ORLEANS UNDER THE FLAG 233
With the streets full of Thugs, and the city authori
ties dominated by an hysterical politician, Farragut's
kindly heart and patience were sorely tried. But
he was equal to the occasion. When Private Secre
tary Baker went off to the flagship, early on the
morning of the 26th, to carry a message, he says :
"Captain Farragut, who had known me from my
boyhood, received me with the utmost kindness,
and when my errand was disposed of, readily an
swered my inquiries about the battle at the forte.
He took me over the ship and showed me with al
most boyish interest the manner in which the boil
ers were defended, and the scars upon the ship's
sides where the shots had taken effect. Then
making me stand beside him upon the very spot
where he had stood during the passage of the forte,
he described in eloquent terms the conflict, perhaps
the most terrific that had ever been withstood.
roe, though a man of much energy and decisive oharaoter, was
entirely » ' self-made ' man and his secretary was very young. ' '
One of Soule's schemes, as described by General Lovell when
courtmartialed for abandoning the city, is also worth recalling
here :
' ' It having been reported to me that a sufficient number of
desperately bold men could easily be got together to board the
enemy's vessels and carry them by assault, I authorized Major
James to seize such steamers as might be necessary for his pur
pose and to attempt it. He called for 1,000 men by public ad
vertisement, but being able to find but about 100 who would
undertake it, he abandoned the project."
Private Secretary Baker also says that this scheme originated
with Pierre Soule. Captain Mahan observes that "the better
and stronger element among the men had gone forth to swell
the ranks of the Confederate army."

234 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
'I seemed to be breathing flame,' said the cap
tain." Some of the junior officers of the fleet were so in
censed at the mob that they urged the flag officer to
clear the streets with " a whiff of grape." It is said
that Butler favored the same remedy. This Farra
gut instantly refused to do, saying that the people
were in such a state of hysteria as to be not respon
sible for their acts.
To add to the trial of Farragut's patience, the
British frigate Mersey followed the National fleet up
the river and anchored near the Hartford where the
English seamen, unrestrained by their officers, sang
Confederate songs in voices heard on shore as well
as on the National ships. On landing these sailors
also proclaimed on the street corners their hope
that the Confederacy would succeed. Farragut
was obliged, at last, to call the attention of the
captain of the Mersey to the matter before the ill-
mannered outbreaks were stopped.
In the meantime (on the morning of April 26th),
the American flag was hoisted over the mint by a
boat's crew sent out by Captain Morris of the Pen
sacola. It was hauled down by a youth named
William B. Mumford, and three companions, while
the crews of the National ships were attending a
thanksgiving service by order of Farragut. The
flag was then dragged through the streets, and
finally hurled through an open window into the
Mayor's office, where two officers from the fleet were
negotiating with the city authorities.
The fact that his " officers and men were treated

NEW ORLEANS UNDER THE FLAG 235
with insult and rudeness when they landed, even
with a flag of truce, to communicate with the au
thorities," eventually led Farragut to warn the
Mayor that "the fire of the vessels might at any
moment be drawn upon the city," and on Monday,
the 28th, the Mayor was officially notified to get the
women and children out of town within forty-eight
hours. These negotiations over the question of who ought
to haul down the flag of Louisiana, it seems now
were really needless, as well as tedious and annoy
ing. Happily they came to an end on the 28th
through the surrender of the forts St. Phillip and
Jackson. General Benjamin F. Butler, commanding the
soldiers that had been brought to the Gulf to oc
cupy the city, witnessed Farragut's successful pass
ing of the forte. Hastening to his transports, he
took them to Sable Island, east of Fort St. Phillip,
and thence carried them in small boate through the
bayous to the river bank. At the same time Com
mander Porter placed six mortar boate in the shoal
water behind Fort Jackson. Under the inspiration
of battle, the garrisons of the two forts had done
well enough, but once the ships were between them
and the city of New Orleans, their spirits fell.
General Duncan issued a stirring appeal in which
he said truthfully that the forts were as well able to
resist assault as ever, but the men — particularly
those of Fort Jackson — had lost all heart. On the
night of the 27th the garrison of this fort rose
on the officers, spiked the guns, and informed the

236 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
commander that they would fight no more. Then
250 of them marched up the levee and surrendered
to General Butler. The officers managed to keep
the others in some sort of order until the forenoon
of the 28th when the forte were formally made over
to Commander Porter. The ironclad Louisiana was
burned, and soon all the other fortifications were
surrendered or abandoned.
The news of the fall of the two forte changed
the situation of affairs at New Orleans materially,
and Farragut, seeing the futility of discussion with
the Mayor's representatives, sent 250 marines ashore
under Captain J. L. Broome, with a squad of sea
men from the Hartford under Midshipman J. H.
Read. The force carried two howitzers, and took
possession of the city hall and the custom-house
and mint. Lieutenant John Campbell Harris of the
marine corps hoisted the old flag over the city hall.
The work of the navy in capturing New Orleans
was completed, and in what may be considered "a
handsome style," to quote Farragut's words when
he passed the forte.
Having taken formal possession of the city, Far
ragut held it until General Butler came with his
command, comprising 13,000 men in all, instead of
the force originally intended. He took charge of
affairs on May 1st. When he had hanged Mumford
for hauling down the flag, and had sent "the
doughty but unmannerly mayor," as Grace King
calls Monroe, to one of the forts, and it was seen
by the citizens that the " two great French lawyers,
Soule and Mazureau, could be sent off like common

NEW ORLEANS UNDER THE FLAG 237
felons," the Thugs ceased to run through the streets,
and order was restored.
In one point of view the capture of New Orleans
was but a continuation of the successful work done
by the navy elsewhere. In the sounds of North
Carolina and on the coast of Georgia, it had al
ready secured a definite foothold for the National
forces. At the end of 1862, the inland waters of
North Carolina, from Roanoke Island to Newbern,
were under National control. So was the coast of
Georgia, and so, too, was Pensacola and its navy
yard. But even when considered as an incident in
the general work of restoring the Nation's navigable
waters and porte to Federal control the capture of
New Orleans was of vastly more importance than
that of all the other places counted together.
For New Orleans was not only the metropolis of
the Confederacy; its population (168,675), was
greater than that of any three of the other Southern
cities. In 1860, the exports, imports and domestic
receipts of the city amounted to $324,000,000, and
the people were looking forward to a time when the
business interests of the place would exceed in value
and magnitude those of any other port of the United
States. When New Orleans was taken an immense
territory was at once deprived of those supplies and
comforts that the Southern people had been in the
habit of obtaining there.
As a feature of the strategy of the war, however,
the capture of New Orleans is chiefly notable from
the fact that thus was secured a base for further
operations on the Mississippi. And one must by no

238 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
means forget the hope with which the National
forces and the Union people were then inspired.
It seems certain that without this invigoration the
dark days that were to follow would have been fatal
to the Federal cause.
But it was in its influence upon our relations with
European nations that the capture of New Orleans
proved of most importance to the Federals. For
there is good reason to believe that Farragut's vic
tory stayed the hand of the French Emperor when
he contemplated intervening in behalf of the Con
federacy. In May, 1861, ' ' the Due de Morny, the
greatest personage in France, after the Emperor,
had told Mr. Rost, the first Confederate agent at
Paris, that 'the South would soon be recognized.' "
After Mr. Slidell, who was later sent abroad by
the Confederates to secure recognition and aid — he
who was taken out of the British steamer Trent
by Captain Wilkes — arrived in Paris in February,
1862, and had visited M. Thouvenel, Minister of
Foreign Affairs, and other men who stood next to
Napoleon III, he wrote home to say that "the Em
peror has invited the English Government to join
with him in recognizing the South."
M. Thouvenel had on two occasions invited Great
Britain to join in this recognition — once in June,
1861, and again early in March, 1862. The British
Government having declined to do this, the Em
peror could not again make the request directly,
but he was so anxious to arrange the matter that
he began intriguing through W. S. Lindsay, a
British ship merchant who was active in his sym-

NEW ORLEANS UNDER THE FLAG 239
pathies for the South because of his hatred for
Yankee ship-builders. Lindsay had bought a seat
in Parliament, and was able to see and talk with
members of his Government. On April 11, 1862,
the Emperor authorized Lindsay to say to Lord
Cowley, that "he [the Emperor], would at once
despatch a formidable fleet to the mouth of the
Mississippi, if England would send an equal force,
and that they would" then raise the blockade.
In a further interview with Mr. Lindsay (on
April 18th), the Emperor said "he could not con
sent that his people should continue to suffer from
the acts of the Federal Government. He thought
the best course would be to make a friendly appeal
to it, either alone or concurrently with England, to
open the ports, but to accompany the appeal with
a proper demonstration of force; and, should the
appeal appear likely to be ineffective, to back it by
a declaration of his purpose not to respect the
blockade." It is to be observed that Napoleon's eagerness to
intervene was not due to any love for the Southern
people. He had seen that he could preserve his
throne solely by an aggressive or warlike foreign
policy. He had dreamed of recovering the colonial
domain which Napoleon the Great had sold. He
had already invaded Mexico. He was preparing to
make Maximilian emperor of that country. There
is some evidence that he was looking to the rees-
tablishment of the separate nation of Texas. " The
French consul [was] exercising, as the French con
suls always will in New Orleans, a quasi-paternal

240 DAVDD G. FARRAGUT
authority over the citizens." ' Napoleon could
realize his ambition only through the dismember
ment and destruction of the American Nation. But
he concluded his conversation with Lindsay by
making this important statement :
' ' The taking of New Orleans, which he did not antic
ipate, might render it inexpedient to act; that he
would not decide at once, but would wait some days
for further intelligence." *
It was on April 18, 1862, that Napoleon spoke of
a "friendly appeal" with "a proper demonstra
tion of force" to back it. While the Emperor
talked with the jealous British ship merchant, the
mortars of Farragut's fleet were hurling bombs into
Fort Jackson, and the crews of the ships were pre
paring for the mighty struggle on the morning of
April 24th. If Farragut had failed, or if he had
met with serious delays in the capture of New Or
leans, Napoleon would have intervened alone in the
hope that Great Britain would come to his support.
But the taking of New Orleans rendered it "inex
pedient" for Napoleon to act, and a time never
came thereafter when it was expedient for him to
do so. Farragut's victory at New Orleans was the
decisive naval battle of the Civil War.
1 King.
s The quotation is from Slidell's correspondence, as printed in
the North American Eeview, Ootober, 1879.

CHAPTER XVI
A FUTILE EXPEDITION UP THE MISSISSIPPI
After General Butler had taken charge of New
Orleans (May 1st) Farragut found himself under
orders to go up the river to attempt to complete the
work of severing the Confederacy. One needs to
know the river to understand how great a task was
thus contemplated, but some idea of the difficulties
in the way may be obtained by considering the fact
that a river boat drawing seven feet of water was
regarded as a deep ship, while the Hartford drew
sixteen feet. Being long as well as of deep draft,
the warships were not easy to handle in narrow
waters, and this difficulty was all the greater in the
Mississippi, because, while the fleet could steam at
best but eight knots in slack water, they here had a
current of three knots or more to oppose them.
Further than that pilots were scarce, and not always
trustworthy, because many of the guild were ardent
Confederates. Worse yet, even the best and most
faithful pilot might go astray because of the con
stant changing in the river's channel.
At the same time Farragut saw very clearly that
his next work ought to be done elsewhere. In a
letter to Assistant Secretary of the Navy Fox, dated
April 25th, he says, ' ' I will soon be off for Mobile. ' '
And in a report to the Secretary of the Navy, dated
April 29th, he says, "As soon as I see General

242 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
• Butler safely in possession of this place I will sail
for Mobile with the fleet."
Nevertheless, he contemplated going up the river
first, according to orders, and he did so. Seven of
the smaller vessels were sent up in advance. Baton
Rouge and Natchez surrendered to them but when
Vicksburg was reached (May 18th) the Confeder
ates, in decided terms, refused the summons. The
high ground there lay 200 feet above the river. In
various fortifications built on the bluffs the Con
federates had mounted 8-inch and 10-inch guns.
In battle the ships would receive a plunging fire
while it would be impossible for them to elevate
their guns to reach the Confederate batteries. In
addition to these batteries on the bluffs, were sev
eral near the water level.
Commander S. P. Lee, the senior officer present,
therefore waited for further orders. Farragut ar
rived, in a day or two, bringing with him a detach
ment of troops (1,500 men all told) under General
Thomas Williams, who had been sent to hold what
ever ground Farragut should capture. General
Williams made a reconnaissance ashore and found
that the Confederates had 30,000 men that could be
concentrated in the town within a day. It was
therefore impossible for him to land, and it was, as
said, impossible for Farragut's ships to reach the
forts with an effective fire.
In the meantime the troops under Williams had
used up all their rations and Farragut had been
obliged to supply them until his own stores were
almost exhausted. Moreover his coal was running

GULF OF
MEXICO

The Mississippi River

A FUTILE EXPEDITION 243
low, and the ships had come 400 miles, through
hostile territory, from New Orleans, the base of
supplies. Farragut saw, as he said afterward, that he could
pass the batteries, but running these batteries was a
very different matter from running those below
New Orleans. Passing these batteries would not
cut them off from their source of supplies or in
anywise injure them ; while the ships, once they were
above Vicksburg, would have those heavy hill guns
to repass when heading for the sea once more.
Moreover, coal and provisions brought up for the
ships, would have to run the same gauntlet.
In short, while the original plan for taking New
Orleans had been well-conceived and brilliantly
executed, the Department's orders requiring Farra
gut to open the river were based on an ignorance of
the situation that was most deplorable. Finding it
impossible to reach the forts with an effective fire,
and discovering further that, even if he could si
lence the forte, it would not be worth while to do so
since there were but 1,500 men to hold them against
the assault of 30,000, Farragut returned to New
Orleans with the big ships, leaving a number of
gunboats to patrol the river, and, as far as possible,
prevent communications between the two banks.
To his mortification on his arrival at New Orleans,
he found letters from the Department ordering him
up the river once more. Said Assistant Secretary
of the Navy Fox writing on May 12th :
" The only anxiety we feel is to know if you have
followed your instructions and pushed a strong

244 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
force up the river to meet the Western flotilla. We
only hear of you at Baton Rouge. The opening of
the Mississippi is of more importance than Mobile,
and if your ships reach Memphis in the next few
days, Beauregard's army is cut off from escape.
We listen most anxiously for word that your forces
are near there."
" The rebellion" was " caving in all around," if
one could believe the optimistic Fox.
Accordingly, Farragut once more took his ships
up the river, and without serious mishap. On
June 18th, the Brooklyn and the Richmond reached
an anchorage just below Vicksburg. The Hart
ford, after lying aground for a night in the river,
followed, bringing Porter's mortar flotilla of steam
ers, and seventeen mortar schooners.
The Mississippi River, at that time, in its wind
ing course to the sea, flowed up from the southwest
to a point just at the northern boundary of Vicks
burg. There it made a sharp bend back toward
the southwest. There was deep water close to the
city, and a sand-bar opposite. To guard this bend
the Confederates had two 10-inch guns, one 9-inch,
four 8-inch and seven smaller smoothbores, besides
12 rifled guns that ranged from a 32-pounder down
to a 12-pounder. The most important battery of
all was placed on high ground just opposite the
bend where its guns could not only rake the ships
as they came up from below but could " put it to
them," as Farragut was in the habit of saying, after
they had rounded the bend. It was here that the
9-inch gun (a Dahlgren from the Norfolk Navy Yard)

A FUTILE EXPEDITION 245
was placed, and there were three 8- inch guns and
an 18-pounder rifle with it. The distance from the
lowest battery to the highest, at this time, was
about three miles, and since the National ships
could steam against the current at a speed of no
more than five knots when passing this point in the
river, they would be under fire for at least forty
minutes. On the 26th and 27th, the mortar schooners were
put in place ; and at two o'clock on the morning of
June 28, 1862, the fleet steamed up the river to run
the gauntlet. The Richmond, the Hartford and the
Brooklyn were in one column, at wide intervals,
near the easterly or city bank, while the Iroquois,
the Oneida, the Wissahickon, the Sciota, the
Winona, the Pinola, the Kennebec, and the Katah-
din, all of relatively lighter draft, formed a column
on the westerly side of the big ships. At four
o'clock the mortars opened fire, the batteries began
to reply immediately, and then the ships of the
fleet opened up as their guns would bear. Finally
the steamers of the mortar flotilla joined in. The
picture drawn by the flaming guns and winking
shells was magnificent ; the roar was tremendous.
It was a grand spectacle — and nothing more. As
the fleet drew up opposite the lower batteries the
Confederates crouched down behind the earthworks.
Their guns seemed to be silenced, but as soon as the
weight of the fire of the fleet lessened the batteries
opened with undiminished vigor, and continued
firing while any ship was in range.
It was noted that in passing the batteries the flag-

246 DAVID G. FARRAGUT '
ship not only steamed slowly but stopped com
pletely at one time to allow the other vessels to close
up the line. And when she did this, the Iroquois,
Captain James S. Palmer, leading the other column,
came back to draw part of the Confederate fire, and
add to that of the flagship. That is to say, there was
cool fighting afloat and ashore. The entire fleet ex
cept the Brooklyn and two gunboats passed the
batteries, but when Farragut had anchored (at 6
A. M.), out of range, he had little more satisfaction
than was due to the knowledge that he had obeyed
orders, and that only a little damage had been done
to the fleet during the nearly two hours it was
under fire.
In the course of the battle Farragut took a stand
in the mizzen rigging, where he would be above the
smoke and could see what the other ships were
doing. After a time the captain of a gun on the
poop deck asked him to get down because the gun
was to be pointed near that point. Accordingly
Farragut did so, and just as he reached the deck a
shot cut away the rigging above the place where
he had been standing. He escaped a bad fall by
a few seconds only.
In his report to the Department, Farragut said
that "the forte can be passed and we have done it,
and can do it again as often as may be required of
us." Meanwhile Memphis had fallen (June 6, 1862),
and Flag officer Charles H. Davis, who had suc
ceeded Foote, in the upper river, found fairly
clear water below him. Accordingly he started

A FUTILE EXPEDITION 247
down the river, having in his fleet six or more iron
clad gunboats, and six mortar boate in tow of trans
ports, while a River Defense ram, called the Queen
of the West, one of a number of vessels built by the
Union forces that were much like the River De
fense Fleet of the Confederates — was picked up on
the way down. Davis arrived at the anchorage
above Vicksburg early on the morning of July 1st.
The union of the two fleets for which the Navy De
partment had been so urgent was now accomplished.
But the junction of forces instead of compelling the
Confederates to surrender Vicksburg, only served
as a warning to them to make greater exertions to
hold the river.
While the National forces had been engaged in
the work that brought Farragut and Davis together
at the anchorage above Vicksburg the Confederates
had been constructing an ironclad ship at Memphis
with which they hoped to sweep the river. On a scow
hull they had erected a stout timber casemate, with
vertical sides and slanting ends, and this had been
covered with railway iron to form an armor almost
good enough to keep out the projectiles of the Na
tional guns, but they furnished the gun crews with
additional protection by lining the casemate walls
with cotton bales. Twin screws turned by separate
engines gave her a moderate speed, and she was
thus far an excellent ship ; but for a good draft to
the fire in her boilers, they depended on a tall
smoke-stack, which was to prove a serious defect.
After Island No. 10 had been passed by the Na
tional gunboats under Commander Walke, it was

248 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
seen that Memphis must fall, and the Arkansas, as
this ironclad was called, was taken to Greenwood,
on the Yazoo River, while a similar vessel that was
yet on the stocks at Memphis was burned. At
Greenwood the Arkansas was completed under the
eyes of Lieutenant Isaac N. Brown, a competent
officer who had held a lieutenant's commission in
the old navy. The work was ended a couple of
weeks after Farragut's arrival above the batteries
of Vicksburg and while he was still lying there.
At this time the Mississippi and Yazoo were both
falling so rapidly as to make it appear likely that
Farragut would be compelled to remain where he
was all summer, and that the Arkansas would also
have to lie in her berth for the same time. Farra
gut was anxious to get away and do something, but
must wait for orders from Department officials who
did not comprehend the situation. Brown of the
Arkansas was equally anxious for action and when
he sought the opportunity by applying to General
Earl Van Dorn, commanding the Confederate forces
at Vicksburg, he was invited (July 14, 1862), to
come down the Yazoo and run through the National
fleet. That night Brown took the Arkansas down
through a raft that had been built across the Yazoo
to protect her from Federal assault. It was his in
tention to steam down the Yazoo on the morning of
the 15th, and surprise the National fleet, but on the
14th two deserters carried word to Farragut and
Davis that the Arkansas was coming next day.
Accordingly Davis sent the gunboats Carondelet
and Tyler, and the River Defense ram Queen of the

A FUTILE EXPEDITION 249
West, up the Yazoo to hunt for the Confederate
ship. They found her. She was very much alive,
and her crew so eager for a fight, and so well able
to make one, that all three of the National vessels
turned back to carry the news of her coming to the
anchored ships in the Mississippi. The Queen of
the West led the procession, with the Tyler next
and the Carondelet last of all, and made as good a
fight as possible after the initial error of turning
around to expose an unarmed stern to the heavy
gun fire of the Arkansas — heavy because the Ar
kansas carried two 8-inch guns firing solid shot
over her bow. In a short time the Carondelet, with
her rudder chains cut, ran ashore where the Ar
kansas, being of deeper draft, could not follow, and
she was left there to repair damages while the Con
federate boat chased the Tyler out of the Yazoo,
both ships firing as rapidly as they could load their
guns. It was at 8.30 o'clock on the morning of July
15th that the crews of the National fleet in the Mis
sissippi saw the Tyler coming from the mouth of
the Yazoo with her stern guns spitting fire at an
enemy just then unseen. The noise had been heard
for some time, but Farragut and his officers "sup
posed it to be the gunboats firing at the flying ar
tillery," said to be lining the river. Worse yet (to
quote Farragut further), "we were lying with low
fires ; none of us had steam, or could get it up in
time to pursue" the Arkansas.
The Confederates had caught the old sea dog nap
ping in freshwater, and "with deep mortification"

250 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
Farragut was obliged to report that "notwithstand
ing my prediction to the contrary, the ironclad ram
Arkansas has at length made her appearance and
taken us all by surprise."
The National ships were lying, heads up stream,
along the easterly or left bank of the river. With
her crew working their guns with a good will un
surpassed, the Arkansas passed down the long line,
taking the broadsides as they came. Her smoke
stack was shot so full of holes that the draft from
her furnaces was deadened, and she was able to
steam but one knot an hour. Heavy proj ectiles from
the big ships crashed through her sides and in two
instances a shot wiped out a gun's crew. But un
dismayed the living took the place of the dead, and
with shouts and cheers ("Talk about yelling and
cheering — you should have heard it ! " ') fought on
until they were safe under the guns of the Vicks
burg batteries. Every National ship was struck by
at least one shot from the guns of the Arkansas.
Brown was at once promoted for " meritorious con
duct." He was the first Confederate naval officer
to compel the unappreciative Richmond govern
ment to recognize, in this way, the worth of naval
work. It was characteristic of Farragut to acknowledge
frankly in his report that he had been mistaken
about the strength of the enemy, and that through
a "feeling of security" he had been "surprised."
He also gave credit for bravery to the Confederate
1 Report of Lieutenant George W. Gift.

A FUTILE EXPEDITION 251
commander by saying in the report that "it was a
bold thing" to do.
In the hope of destroying the Arkansas under the
batteries of the town, and with the object at any
rate of protecting the mortar flotilla below, Farra
gut ordered his fleet to prepare to pass down the
river immediately — that is, on the day the Arkan
sas succeeded in reaching the shelter of the Vicks
burg batteries. But it was six o'clock in the after
noon before the ships were ready to form in line,
and dark before they were under fire. When op
posite the batteries all of the ships reduced their
speed, while several stopped their engines entirely
and drifted with the current in order that their
guns might be worked more effectively. But the
heavy smoke filled the air, and the Arkansas, with
her rusty iron sides, was moored under a red bluff.
Some of the crews on the National fleet did not see
her until her guns lit up the scene, and at best none
gave her more than two broadsides. She was, in
deed, cut up badly, but she was not sunk, or even
silenced. Then Commander William D. Porter, command
ing the ironclad gunboat Essex, of the Davis fleet
(this Porter was another son of the old Commodore),
offered to run down under the batteries and destroy
the Arkansas. The effort (made on July 22d),
showed great gallantry, for the Essex remained
under fire for more than two hours, and was struck
by forty -two heavy shot besides a perfect hail from
field guns and musketry aimed at her porte. But
she failed to destroy the Arkansas. Meantime the

252 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
Queen of the West (Lieutenant Colonel Alfred E.
Ellet, commanding), ran down and rammed the
much-harried Confederate, but she did no harm,
and was badly cut up for her pains. She finally
steamed away up stream while the Essex ran below
and joined Farragut's fleet.
The Essex was the first ironclad regularly under
Farragut's control, for while the vessels of the
Davis fleet were his to command while he was
present as senior officer, they were regularly a sep
arate fleet. It was natural for Farragut to dislike
such ships as the river ironclads, and his first ex
perience with them confirmed his prejudices. Be
fore the Arkansas appeared, and while waiting to
learn whether an army corps would be sent to co
operate with the navy before Vicksburg, Farragut
went aboard the ironclad Benton — Davis's flagship
— and steamed down the river for a look at a new
battery lately erected. As the ship arrived within
range a heavy solid shot from one of the batteries
came crashing through her casemate, armor and all,
and killed a man standing beside Farragut. For a
moment he looked at the corpse and then said :
" Everybody to his taste. I am going on deck ; I
feel safer outside." And in a letter dated Septem
ber 3d, of the same year, when referring to his ex
periences at Vicksburg, he said : "I would have
given my admiral's commission to have gotten up
to the Arkansas. I wanted a wooden ship to do it.
The ironclads are cowardly things, and I don't want
them to succeed in the world."
His mention of his "admiral's commission" is

A FUTILE EXPEDITION 253
interesting. On May 14, 1862, President Lincoln
sent a message to Congress in which he refers to a
law, previously enacted, "to promote the efficiency
of the navy," and then says :
"Believing that no occasion could arise which
would more fully correspond with the intention of
the law or be more pregnant with happy influence
as an example, I cordially recommend that Captain
D. G. Farragut receive a vote of thanks of Congress
for his services and gallantry displayed in the cap
ture of Forts Jackson and St. Phillip, city of New
Orleans, and the destruction of various gunboats,
rams, etc."
Accordingly, Mr. Grimes, of the Senate Naval
Committee introduced, on May 21st, a resolution
tendering "the thanks of the people and of the
Congress of the United States" to " Captain David
G. Farragut of the United States Navy, and to the
officers and men under his command." The reso
lution was passed, and on July 11, 1862, it received
the President's signature.
Up to this time Farragut had commanded the
fleet with the title of flag-officer, which had been es
tablished by the act of December 21, 1861. But by
"an act to establish and equalize the grade of line
officers of the United States navy," that was ap
proved on July 16, 1862, the rank of Rear Admiral
was created, with sea pay at $5,000 a year, and Far
ragut was the first officer to receive a commission in
this rank. His commission bore date on the day
that the act was signed.
Under orders from Washington, Farragut had

254 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
gone up the river a second time. He had passed
the Vicksburg batteries also. But because the Con
federates at Vicksburg were well supported in the
country east of the river, and because their more
important batteries were located so high on the
bluffs that the guns on the ships could not reach
them, absolutely nothing had been gained by the
expedition. And to add to Farragut's embarrass
ments the army had failed to assist him. General
Williams was again with the fleet, but his force
was only 3,000 men, and on July 3d, General Hal-
leck, who, it had been hoped, would furnish an
adequate number, was obliged to telegraph that
" the scattered and weakened condition of my forces
renders it impossible" to cooperate. In short the
expedition, instead of helping the National cause,
aided the Confederates, since Farragut by tempo
rarily shutting off their sources of supplies found
west of the river, had shown them that they needed
to bestir themselves if they were to continue receiv
ing the pork, beef and grain they had been drawing
from the Red River country.
When, therefore, Rear Admiral Farragut, under
orders from Washington, returned to New Orleans
(July 28th), and Davis with his ironclads steamed
up the river for repairs, the Confederates took the
aggressive, and determined to drive the National
forces (5,000 men), out of Baton Rouge. If they
could hold Baton Rouge and Vicksburg, their com
merce with the rich Red River Valley would be un
impeded. General Breckinridge was sent to capture Baton

A FUTILE EXPEDITION 255
Rouge, and the Arkansas was ordered to go down
and help in the attack. She arrived within sight
of the city, on August 5, 1862, but there her en
gines broke down. They were repaired as far as
possible, and next morning an effort was made to
attack the National ships that Farragut had sent up
from New Orleans to assist in the defense of Baton
Rouge. The most important of these National
ships, and the one nearest the Arkansas as she
headed down the river, was the Essex. A fierce
naval duel seemed to be at hand, but soon after the
Arkansas got under way one engine broke again.
She was then driven ashore, and the Essex, ap
proaching within 400 yards (according to Lieuten
ant Read of the Arkansas), poured in such a hot
fire that the crew of the disabled ship was ordered
to leave her, while Lieutenant Henry K. Stevens, who
was temporarily in command, set her on fire, and
let her go adrift. The Essex kept up a heavy can
nonading meantime, and at ten o'clock (August 6,
1862), fire reached the magazine, and the Arkansas
was blown to pieces.
"It is one of the happiest moments of my life,"
said the enthusiastic Farragut in his official report
of August 7th, "that I am enabled to inform the
Department of the destruction of the ram Arkansas ;
not because I held the ironclad in such terror, but
because the community [Nation] did."
The Arkansas was the last armored vessel of the
Confederacy in the Mississippi Valley. After her
destruction, the Confederates were never able to
put anything afloat that was really dangerous.

256 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
But while the National ships were then able to pa
trol the river almost at will, the Confederates, hav
ing failed in their attack on Baton Rouge, began
building fortifications well-nigh impassable on the
bluffs at Port Hudson, twenty miles above that city.
As a point for the control of the river by land batteries,
Port Hudson was at least as advantageous as Baton
Rouge ; the force soon concentrated there by the
Confederates was so great that the Federal troops at
Baton Rouge were withdrawn on August 16, 1862.
With the fortifications at Port Hudson armed and
manned, the Confederate hold upon the river was
far stronger than when Farragut had first left New
Orleans in May.

CHAPTER XVII
THE STORY OR THE IRONCLAD WARSHIP
So many references have been made already to
the ironclad ships of the Civil War, and so much is
to be said about them hereafter, that the work of
Admiral Farragut will be better appreciated if a
concise account of the development of these fighting
machines is given in this place. The idea of build
ing a bullet-proof ship is old, and it was put to
practical use in numerous places many years before
the Civil War. For instance, when Pontiac's In
dians were besieging the fort where Pittsburg, Pa.,
now stands, the garrison built and launched a
wooden-armored boat that drove the red men from
the entrenchments they had constructed in the river
banks. The first contract made by any government for an
iron armored ship was that signed in 1843 when the
United States ordered a floating battery of Stevens,
the Hoboken inventor.
During the Crimean War the French used floating
batteries driven by screw propellers, and protected
by 4-inch iron plates. The success of these iron
clads at Kinburn (October 17, 1855), led to the use
of iron armor on the sides of steam vessels that were
of the model then common in all navies, the Gloire,
of France, being the first of this class.
The innovation thus made, though widely dis-

258 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
cussed, did not find much favor among naval men,
the bravest of whom felt, as Admiral Farragut did,
that armor was a " cowardly thing." After the be
ginning of our Civil War the Confederates at once
saw the need of ironclad ships. In May, 1861, S. R.
Mallory, Confederate Secretary of the Navy, wrote,
" Inequality of numbers may be compensated by in
vulnerability. Not only does economy, but naval
success, dictate the wisdom and expediency of fight
ing with iron against wood."
It was in accordance with this belief that the
Confederates favored the building of those ironclad
floating batteries on the Mississippi which have al
ready been described. It will be remembered that
each of these batteries was a floating fort. In de
signing the Confederate ironclads, casemate ships
without masts, and propelled by steam, were alone
considered ; and when the National government be
gan building armor-clad gunboats on the upper
waters of the Mississippi the casemate idea was also
adopted. It was on a casemate gunboat, as already
said, that Farragut went under fire at Vicksburg.
The most famous Confederate ironclad was the
one known to history as the Merrimac, although
after she was rebuilt she was named the Virginia.
When the National forces supinely abandoned the
Norfolk Navy Yard to the Confederates, the steam
frigate Merrimac was lying at one of the docks.
She was burned and sank at her moorings. During
the summer of 1861, when the Confederate naval
authorities contemplated building an ironclad with
which to gain control of Chesapeake Bay and tribu-

STORY OF THE IRONCLAD WARSHIP 259
tary waters, they turned to the half -burned hull of
the old frigate because it was already provided with
engines and a screw propeller.
The wreck was raised and placed in the drydock.
Chief-engineer W. P. Williamson overhauled and
improved the machinery, while Naval Constructor
J. L. Porter, after cutting the hull down to where
the old berth-deck had been, built a new deck of
heavy timbers. On this deck he erected a casemate
with sloping timber walls two feet thick, and cov
ered it with a double layer of 2-inch iron plates.
To the bow of the ship was bolted a cast-iron wedge
that projected two feet from the stem. Her guns
included six 9-inch Dahlgrens and four excellent
rifles, two of 7-inch and two of 6-inch calibre.
The Confederates began work on the Merrimac in
June, 1861. In February, 1862, she was ready for
her trial trip. On the 24th of that month, Flag-
officer Franklin Buchanan was ordered to the com
mand of the James River defenses, and he hoisted
his flag on the Merrimac of which he also became
the captain. The letter of Secretary Mallory or
dering Buchanan to this command shows great con
fidence in the vessel. " Her powers as a ram are
regarded as very formidable," he says, and that
was something to " commend itself to " the captain,
"in the present scarcity of ammunition." The
secretary also suggested "a dashing cruise on the
Potomac as far as Washington," and in another
letter dated March 7th, urged an attack upon New
York. "Such an event would eclipse all the glo
ries of the combats of the sea, would place every

260 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
man in it preeminently high, and would strike a
blow," said the Secretary, "from which the enemy
could never recover."
The next day (March 8) the new Merrimac left the
navy yard to begin the career for which the secre
tary had planned such a dazzling climax. She had
not yet had a trial trip, but her engines had been
turned over at the dock, her armor plates had been
well slushed to make the projectiles slide off easily,
and the crew to a man were enthusiastic in their
confidence of success.
As the Merrimac left Norfolk the National steam
frigates St. Lawrence, Roanoke and Minnesota were
lying at wide intervals in a line along Hampton Bar
from Fortress Monroe toward Newport News. The
sailing frigate Congress lay just east of Newport
News Point and the sailing sloop of war Cumber
land just around the point to the westward. It was
a lovely day, with a gentle breeze blowing, and in
the rigging the sailing vessels had put up lines upon
which the wash clothes were rapidly drying. In
all the National fleet there was not a man who gave
serious thought to the ironclad that for months past
had been building down at Norfolk ; for the naval
men of that day were not to be roused from their
comfortable trains of thought by any new-fangled
notions whatever.
However, at noon exactly, a lookout on the Cum
berland saw a heavy trail of smoke in the route to
Norfolk, and a little later it was observed that it
was coming from a low black hulk that answered
the description of the rebuilt Merrimac.

STORY OF THE IRONCLAD WARSHIP 261
The Cumberland's crew were called to quarters,
then, and at the same time the Congress prepared
for battle. Slowly but relentlessly, the Merrimac
came plowing across the open water. As she ar
rived within range, the Congress opened fire, but,
save for a broadside in reply, the Merrimac gave
no heed to this. She was heading for the Cumber
land, determined to begin at one end of the Federal
line and sink the ships in succession. The men on
the Cumberland fired broadside after broadside,
but the shot bounded from the iron plates or broke
into fragments, until, unharmed and unimpeded,
the Merrimac closed in and the iron wedge on her
bow went crashing through the wooden wall of the
old sloop just under the fore rigging.
As the Cumberland sank into the water the Con
federates called on her crew to surrender. But
Lieutenant George U. Morris (may his name live
forever !) who was in command, replied : " Never !
I'll sink alongside!" And the Cumberland went
down with her flag flying, and the crew worked
their guns till the rising waters wet their feet.
The Congress was attacked next and eventually
set on fire with red-hot shot. Then the Merrimac,
after seeing that the Federal forces from the shore
batteries would be unable to extinguish the flames,
headed away for the Norfolk Channel. The ebb
tide was running and the Merrimac drew more than
twenty-two feet of water. If she had remained to
attack the three steam frigates mentioned she would
have run a great and needless risk of getting
aground. She was apparently unhurt by the day's

262 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
battle, but she had lost the iron wedge from her
bow when ramming the Cumberland, and several of
her crew had been hurt by projectiles that had en
tered her port, among whom was Captain Buchanan,
who had to relinquish the command to the executive
officer, Lieutenant Thomas ap C. R. Jones.
No ship of war built before or since has had such
a trial trip as that of the rebuilt Merrimac. And
no ship has ever created a greater local panic than
she did. When the news was telegraphed to Wash
ington, a cabinet meeting was called and the opin
ion was there expressed that the new ironclad would
"destroy, seriatim, every naval ship; she will lay
all the cities on the seaboard under contribution
. . . not unlikely we shall have a shell or can
non ball from one of her guns in the White House
before we leave this room." Worse yet, Assistant
Secretary of War, John Tucker, wrote to Cornelius
Vanderbilt of New York to ask : "For what sum
will you contract to destroy the Merrimac? . . .
answer by telegraph, as there is no time to be lost."
March 8, 1862, was the darkest day known in the
naval history of the Civil War, but the next day
was to be the most memorable, all things considered,
in the history of fighting ships. While naval men as
a class had been opposed to the use of armored ships,
a few had been found willing to try experiments
with them. The National government had plenty
of old wooden hulls that might have been converted
into abler ironclads than the Merrimac, but noth
ing of the kind was done. On August 3, 1861, how
ever, Congress made an appropriation for building

STORY OF THE IRONCLAD WARSHIP 263
ships of this kind. Designs were called for, and
from those submitted, three were selected. One
proved a failure, and need not be considered here.
Another was a hull much like the old frigate hulls,
and when covered with 4_-inch iron plates proved
a good ship under the name of the New Ironsides.
The third design selected for trial was that of the
epoch-making Monitor submitted by John Ericsson,
who had previously gained a reputation by intro
ducing the screw propeller. Ericsson's plan was
something no sailor could have invented. He be
gan by designing a hull 124 feet long by 34 wide
and 6 deep that was in shape like an elongated
saucer — rounded at the ends and rounding in cross
section. Above and across this he laid a super
structure like a great box or scow, 172 feet long,
41 wide and 5 deep. This superstructure projected
3 feet 8 inches beyond each side of the lower hull,
and 24 feet beyond each end. The whole hull was
like a flatboat riding a canoe, and one may say
now that a worse sea-going hull it would be hard to
design, even though it did ride the waves easily.
Nevertheless, because of one other feature this
vessel was to work a tremendous revolution in the
world. The hull of the Monitor floated but a few
inches above water, and there was no good place in
or on it for mounting guns. To arm this ship it
was necessary to erect a superstructure, but instead
of building a casemate, as had been previously done
in Europe as well as in the South, Ericsson n}ade a
revolving turret, 9 feet high and 20 feet in diameter
(inside dimensions), which he located on the centre

264 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
of the deck. The turret was composed of eight layers
of one-inch thick iron plates, and it revolved on a
spindle turned by steam engines. Two 11-inch
Dahlgrens were mounted in the turret and fired
through ports cut in the iron walls.
It should be remembered here that the revolving
turret was invented by Theodore R. Timby, of Syra
cuse, N. Y., in 1843, and Ericsson paid him a
royalty for the use of it ; but it was first brought
into use on the ill-shaped hull which was built and
launched under the name of the Monitor.
The government contract with Ericsson was signed
on October 4, 1861 — about four months after the
Confederates began rebuilding the Merrimac. But
the work was driven with such speed that the hull
was launched on January 30, 1862, and on the night
of March 8th, while yet the flames of the old frigate
Congress were illuminating the waters of Hampton
Roads, the Monitor under Captain J. L. Worden
appeared upon the scene.
At 7:30 o'clock on the morning of March 9th, the
great casemated ironclad Merrimac left her anchor
age at Sewell's Point and steamed across toward
Hampton Bar to continue the work of destroying
the National steamers, before making the "dashing
cruise on the Potomac" which had been planned by
the Confederate secretary of the navy. The little
Monitor got under way at the same time, and with
a tired but eager crew at the guns in the turret
(they had been at work all night), she steamed into
deep water and waited. An hour passed in idle
ness, for the Merrimac was slow, but at 8:30 o'clock

STORY OF THE IRONCLAD WARSHIP 265
the Confederates opened fire on the Minnesota at a
range of a mile. At that Captain Worden drove the
Monitor out to meet the Merrimac, and ranging up
within pistol shot gave the order : " Commence fir
ing." Each gun had been loaded with a solid shot, and
when Lieutenant S. D. Greene, commanding in the
turret, after careful aim, pulled the lock string of a
gun, the iron plates of the Merrimac broke and rat
tled under the impact of the projectile, but the
casemate was not penetrated. To the Monitor's fire
the Merrimac replied with a broadside, every shot
of which struck the Monitor's turret, but not one
entered it.
Thereafter the crews of both ships, having per
fect confidence in the protection of their armor,
worked their guns with unsurpassed deliberation,
and for two hours with an unheard of lack of suc
cess. As one lieutenant on the Merrimac said, "I
find I can do her [the Monitor] about as much dam
age by snapping my thumb at her " as by firing the
gun. The Merrimac tried to ram the Monitor but
failed because the latter was able to dodge the blow.
The Monitor fired a shot while her side touched the
Merrimac. It broke the plates and bulged the
wood backing but it did not enter, and when the
Monitor tried to ram the Merrimac she failed to do
any damage.
It is easy now to see that if the Monitor's guns
had been aimed at the Merrimac' s water line, or at
any one spot on the Merrimac' s casemate for sev
eral shots in succession, they would have penetrated

266 DAVID G.. FARRAGUT
and won a decisive victory. But Greene did neither.
Eventually Lieutenant C. A. R. Jones of the Merri
mac began firing at the Monitor's conning tower, a
superstructure made of iron logs. A shell exploded
against a slit in the wall through which Captain
Worden was looking, and the flaming powder
blinded him. While waiting to learn the extent of
Worden' s injury Greene took the Monitor out of
the fight. The Merrimac' s crew supposed the
enemy was retreating, and as their boat was leak
ing rather badly, and the tide was falling so that
she was likely to go aground if manoeuvred further
on the battle-ground, she was taken over to the
channel leading to Norfolk.
Lieutenant John Taylor Wood, of the Merrimac,
writing after the war, said truly that "the battle
was a drawn one, so far as the two vessels were con
cerned. But in its general results the advantage
was with the Monitor." She saved the Federal
ships from destruction, and she kept the Merrimac
from every kind of a "dashing cruise" until the
National land forces encompassed Norfolk and com
pelled the Confederates to destroy her.
By her achievement, the Monitor conquered the
prejudices of the naval world. Farragut, though
he believed that armor was "cowardly," soon ac
knowledged the value of monitors, and a time came
when he delayed a battle in order to add one of
them to his fleet.
The Confederates clung to the casemate plan per
force. They had no shops fit for the construction
of revolving turrets, and but few mechanics able to

STORY OF THE IRONCLAD WARSHIP 267
do the class of work that would have been needed
in building them. It was clearly seen, however,
that the casemate plan had some serious defects
which were emphasized, for instance, in the Louis
iana. The inability of her crew to train the guns
through any considerable arc, or even to elevate or
depress them, was manifest. Other Confederate
casemate ships had better ports, but the handling
of the guns was restricted nevertheless. The single
revolving turret, on the other hand, had an all-
around fire, and even with two turrets the guns of
both could be easily trained on an enemy, no matter
what his bearing. The turret, therefore, became a
permanent feature of armored ships in Europe as
well as in America. In time, when it was de
sirable to carry more guns than could be placed in
two turrets, they were mounted between the turrets
and a casemate was then built from turret to turret
to protect them. That is to say, the twentieth cen
tury battleships of the world have been developed
from the two classes of ironclads used in our Civil
War. Yet, when Farragut declared that armor clads
were " cowardly things," and that the best defense
against an enemy's fire was an accurate fire of our
own guns, he was entirely right, and the present trend
of naval opinion is in support of those sentiments.
We have built ships with the idea that they must
carry thick armor in order that they may stay in the
battle line, but the memory of the Essex with her
short guns and lack of power to reach the Phoebe is
not lost. The aggressive men of the navy see that

268 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
a ship must be able first of all to get into the battle
line, and that when there the next requisite is "a
well-directed fire from our own guns." Acting
according to the theory of our first admiral our
naval constructors in time will develop a battleship
that with thinner armor will have far greater speed
and a far more efficient battery than any now in
hand.

CHAPTER XVIII
AT PENSACOLA AND BEFORE PORT HUDSON
After returning from the unfortunate expedi
tion up the Mississippi River, Farragut proceeded
from New Orleans to Pensacola, where he arrived
on August 20, 1862. Having been abandoned by
the Confederates for lack of men to hold it, Pensa
cola had become a base of supplies for the Gulf
blockading fleet, and Farragut went there to direct
the work.
It is to be noted that while Farragut was in the
river the ships had done nothing but blockade the
ports off which they were stationed. On October
15th, however, he wrote to the Secretary of the
Navy : "I am happy to inform you that Galveston,
Corpus Christi and Sabine City and the adjacent
waters are now in our possession. . . . All we
want is a few soldiers to hold the places, and we
will soon have the whole coast. It is a much better
mode and a more effectual blockade to have the
vessels inside instead of outeide." And on De
cember 4th he said : "I have all the coast except
Mobile Bay, and I am ready to take that the
moment I can get troops to hold the forts, etc."
He was constantly strengthening his grip on the
coast, and extending the sphere of his influence.
Nevertheless the later days of 1862 and the earlier
of 1863 together made up a period that was disas-

270 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
trous to the National forces afloat as well as ashore,
and Farragut's command suffered its share of re
verses. Galveston and Sabine City were retaken.
The Confederate cruiser Florida, commanded by
Captain John N. Maffitt, ran the blockade (Septem
ber 4th) and entered Mobile. There she was refltted
and on the night of January 15, 1863, she ran out
again to make a most destructive raid on the com
merce of the United States. In a private letter
mentioning the escape of the Florida, we get an
interesting glimpse of Farragut's spirit. In speak
ing of the fact that the gunboat Cuyler chased the
Florida off shore, he said: "If the Cuyler runs
her down, as I think she will, in a gale, as it was
blowing, both vessels will go down. I would not
hesitate a moment, and I don'tthink Emmons will."
The admiral would have rammed an enemy on the
high seas in a gale of wind.
The National cruiser Hatteras, a converted mer
chantman, while blockading Galveston, was at
tacked and sunk by the famous Alabama, under
Raphael Semmes.
To understand how the appearance of these two
Confederate cruisers within his jurisdiction, af
fected Farragut, we may very well digress a moment
to consider the career of the warships which were
afloat upon the high seas, first and last, under the
Confederate flag. The fleet comprised more than
twenty all told, which number included several
merchantmen captured by other cruisers and fitted
out while at sea to aid in the work begun by their
captors.

PENSACOLA AND PORT HUDSON 271
The object for which these cruisers were commis
sioned was the destruction of the high-seas com
merce of the Northern States. That such destruc
tion was then, and is yet, entirely within legal
bounds is not to be questioned, and it is to be
observed that the swift cruisers in modern navies,
commonly called commerce-destroyers, are very
good peace preservers. On the other hand, history
shows very clearly that commerce destruction never
ended a war.
The Sumter, commanded by Raphael Semmes, was
the first Confederate cruiser to raid northern mer
chant ships. Originally a screw merchantman
called the Habana, she was fitted out at New Or
leans with five light guns. She steamed out of the
Mississippi River on June 30, 1861, and after cruis
ing with much success through the West Indies,
during which time Semmes eluded the Federal
cruiser Iroquois, he took the Sumter to Europe,
where he was finally blockaded at Gibraltar (Jan
uary, 1862), by the Federal cruisers Kearsarge,
Tuscarora and Chippewa. Being unable to escape,
Semmes laid up his ship and eventually sold her to
a Liverpool merchant who made a blockade-runner
of her. She had captured 18 vessels, of which
eight were burned.
The Florida, of which Farragut wrote as quoted
above, was the first Confederate cruiser built for
war purposes. She was from the yard of William
C. Miller & Sons, Liverpool. Under the name of
Oreto, the Florida sailed from that port on March
22, 1862, bound for Nassau in the Bahamas. Her

272 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
guns and stores were sent in another steamer to the
same port. The two ships then went to an unin
habited island of the group where the Florida
was fitted out and her flag hoisted under the
orders of John Newland Maffitt, lieutenant com
manding. The Florida had but eighteen men on board all
told, and within five days yellow fever prostrated
all but Maffitt and five others. At Cardenas Bay,
Cuba, to which the Florida steamed to recruit,
Maffitt was stricken with the fever, and then while
yet in bed he was ordered by the Spanish to take
his ship to Havana. Knowing that he should find
trouble at that port, Maffitt put to sea and headed
for Mobile instead. He arrived off the bar on Sep
tember 4, 1862. Three blockaders were lying where
they commanded the channel, but hoisting British
colors Maffitt steamed boldly in, and arrived be
tween two of them before he was ordered to stop.
Then he hoisted his own flag and ran for the fort
with success. It was a dash that Farragut might
have described as "one of the elegancies of the
profession." After refitting at Mobile the Florida escaped on
January 15, 1863, and went on a cruise across the
Atlantic to Brest, France, and back to the West
Indies. She finally anchored in Bahia, Brazil, on
October 4, 1863, having captured, meantime,
37 merchantmen. The United States steamer
Wachusett, Commander Napoleon Collins, was in
port at the time, and Collins, like Hillyar of the
Phcebe, would not respect the port of a neutral

PENSACOLA AND PORT HUDSON 273
government that was unable to compel respect.
While Maffitt and some of his men were on shore,
Collins captured the Florida and took her to
Hampton Roads. The Washington authorities
disavowed the act and ordered her returned
to Bahia. But while she was lying near New
port News in charge of three men she sank at
her moorings. One of the men probably opened
the seacocks.
The most famous of all the Confederate cruisers
was the Alabama, to which Semmes was transferred
from the Sumter. She was built by the Laird
Brothers, near Liverpool, and sent to sea on July
29, 1862. Steaming to the Azores, she met two
other British vessels bringing arms, stores and
crew. The Alabama was able to make ten knots
under sail alone, and eleven and one half under
steam and sail. Having large fore and aft sails she
could lie closer to the wind than ordinary mer
chantmen, and being commanded by an able sailor,
she proved a most efficient cruiser. Her career
lasted until June, 1864, and the losses she inflicted,
as estimated by the owners of the ships and cargoes
destroyed, amounted to $6, 547, 609. Semmes' s story
of his "Service Afloat" is one of the most inter
esting of the books relating to the Civil War, be
cause he wrote as he felt.
On June 11, 1864, the Alabama reached Cher
bourg, France, where she was blockaded by the
Kearsarge, Captain John A. Winslow. On June
19th, the Alabama steamed out, and a most inter
esting naval duel followed. For while the Kear-

274 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
sarge carried heavier guns, and a few more men the
two ships were as nearly matched as two opposing
naval ships are ever likely to be.
The Kearsarge headed off shore in order that the
fight might take place so far from port that the
Alabama could not escape when beaten, and then
she turned suddenly and headed back under a full
head of steam. The firing began at a range of a
mile, but the Kearsarge rapidly closed in and the
two ships were soon steaming in a circle that was
in time reduced to a diameter of half a mile.
The Alabama for pivot guns carried a 100-pounder
British rifle, and an 8-inch shell gun ; the Kearsarge
two 11-inch Dahlgrens, and it was chiefly on these
guns that the result of the battle depended. But
all guns were worked with the full powers of their
crews, and at the end of an hour and ten minutes,
according to the report of Semmes, the Alabama
was in a sinking condition.
Finding that she was going down, he headed the
Alabama for the beach, but the Kearsarge ranged
up within 400 yards and continued the fire. The
rising water soon drowned the fires in the Alabama's
stoke hole, and the Confederate flag was hauled
down. The wounded and some who could not swim
were sent off in two boate. Semmes threw his
sword into the sea, and then, with the remainder of
his crew, jumped overboard, where he and a num
ber of his men were picked up by the steam yacht
Deerhound, belonging to Mr. John Lancaster, an
Englishman. They were carried to Southampton.
Said Farragut, after hearing the story of this bat-

PENSACOLA AND PORT HUDSON 275
tie : "I would sooner have fought that fight than
any ever fought on the ocean."
The Georgiana was also built by the Lairds and
she was a much more powerful cruiser than the
Alabama. But on March 20, 1863, while striving
to get into Charleston, S. O, where she was to fit
out, she was driven ashore by the blockaders and
destroyed. More important still were two double turreted
ironclads built by the Lairds in 1862-63. The
armor was from 4_ to 5. inches thick, and two
9-inch rifles were mounted in each turret. Con
federate officers (notably, Captain Hollins) ex
pressed the belief that these ships were powerful
enough to lift the blockade and lay Northern porte
under contribution. Their power was never tested,
however, for when they were ready for sea, and
Lord Russell had declared that "her Majesty's
government cannot interfere in any way with the
vessels," the American Minister, Charles Francis
Adams, wrote a note to say that allowing these
ironclads to escape was "practically opening to the
insurgents free liberty in this kingdom to execute a
policy of attacking all the seaboard cities of the
North." And to this he added, " It would be su
perfluous in me to point out to your Lordship that
this is war." And it was seen, as Farragut said at
the time, that, in spite of the Civil War, any Euro
pean government would find the United States "a
hard nut to crack." Her Majesty's government
therefore found a way to stop the ships.
Another ironclad called "the Ram Stonewall"

276 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
was built in France, but it was not until January 6,
1865, that she got to sea under a Confederate com
mander (Captain T. J. Page). After she was in
battle trim she appeared off Coruna, Spain, within
sight of the Federal frigate Niagara and the sloop
Sacramento, that were under the command of Com
modore Thomas T. Craven. Craven was under
orders to capture the Stonewall, but now that the
opportunity was come he refused to fight her.
However, the war ended before Page could do any
thing more with his ship.
Passing over other cruisers because their services
were of less significance, the last to be considered
is the Shenandoah, Captain James Iredell Waddell.
She was a British merchant ship, originally, and
was fitted for steam and sail power. She left Lon
don on October 18, 1864, and went to the north
Pacific where she wiped out the American whaling
fleet. In all she captured 38 ships, and destroyed
34. Some of these vessels were retaken after the
end of the war. On learning definitely of the peace,
the Shenandoah was headed for Liverpool, where
she was eventually surrendered to the United States
authorities. After the war the United States Government
pressed a claim against Great Britain for damages
arising out of the work of the British built Con
federate cruisers, but Lord Russell, "with some
impatience," ' declined to listen to the claim. Per
sistence, however, led to the Treaty of Washington
(May 8, 1871), which expressed " the regret felt by
1 Foster.

PENSACOLA AND PORT HUDSON 277
her Majesty's government for the escape . . .
of the Alabama and other vessels," and formulated
an agreement to submit the claim for damages to
arbitration. The actual damage done to individual
ships and cargoes by 11 different cruisers, accord
ing to claims submitted, amounted to $17,900,633.
The matter went before what is known as the
Geneva Tribunal — a commission that included one
American, one British and three neutral mem
bers. The upshot of the arbitration was the payment
to us of $15,500,000 for the damages adjudged actu
ally to have been done to ships and cargoes. For
that sum Great Britain was able to sweep her only
rival from the ocean, and during the forty years
that have elapsed since their ships were destroyed,
the American people have made no serious effort to
recover their old place upon the high seas.
After remaining at Pensacola for some weeks
Farragut was obliged to return to New Orleans by
the action of unfriendly foreigners. "I deemed
that my presence here would be well, as the French
Admiral is here with two vessels at the city, and a
frigate at the bar. There is also an English corvette
off the city, and we sailors understand each other
better in many cases than landsmen," the Admiral
wrote on November 14th. The British ship was the
Rinaldo, Captain Hewitt, and her crew not only
learned to sing Confederate songs, such as the
"Bonnie Blue Flag"1 but cheered for Jefferson
1 The most popular song of the war on the Confederate side.
The people sang it, and the bands played it. It began :

278 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
Davis on all possible occasions. Farragut eventu
ally heard the singing, and said : "We must stop
that. If it isn't stopped we shall have to drop
down and blow him out of water." When Captain
Hewitt learned how the Admiral felt about the mat
ter, he quickly put an end to the singing.
As an additional reason for returning to New
Orleans, Farragut noted that General Butler was
operating in the Opelousas, and cooperation by the
naval forces was advisable. More important still,
both Butler and Farragut were now looking toward
Port Hudson.
That Farragut should contemplate an attack on a
river town when but a few months before he had
deprecated taking his fleet up the Mississippi is a
matter readily explained. He had objected to the
expedition at the previous time because there were
not enough soldiers available to make the move-
" We are a band of brothers
And native to the soil,
Fighting for the property
We gained by honest toil ;
And when our rights were threatened,
The cry rose near and far —
' Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears the single star ! ' "
Chorus
" Hurrah ! hurrah !
For Southern rights hurrah !
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears the single star."
The first flag of the South was of solid blue bearing one white
star.

PENSACOLA AND PORT HUDSON 279
ment successful. But now, with 5,000 men on
shore, he thought Port Hudson might be taken and
held. At the same time, however, he kept one
eye on Mobile, as already noted. "If they will
only let me do something, " he said in a private let
ter, he would be contented.
On December 16th, General N. P. Banks came to
New Orleans and relieved Butler. He brought
"troops to open the Mississippi and occupy
Texas," and in the first conference with him,
Farragut "recommended the occupation of Baton
Rouge," as a "base of operations" in an attack
on Port Hudson. Baton Rouge was therefore
occupied by the troops, supported by the naval
forces, before the end of December, 1862, and then,
early in 1863, Farragut determined to make a dash
past Port Hudson, although he foresaw, of course,
that doing so would by no means compel the Con
federates to evacuate their forts.
The chief reason for undertaking this dash was
that an attempt had been made by vessels from the
upper river National fleet to take charge of the
river between Vicksburg and Port Hudson, and it
had failed, while the necessity for the control of
that part of the Mississippi by the Federals was
imperative. The National army under Grant was at that time
before Vicksburg, and the upper river flotilla,
under Acting Rear Admiral D. D. Porter, was
rendering efficient aid. Grant had taken command
on January 30th. It was his purpose to lead his
troops across the peninsula opposite Vicksburg, and

280 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
on reaching the river south of the city to cross over
to the easterly bank, and march up to attack the town
from below. To further this plan, and at the same
time shut off the flow of supplies sent by the Con
federates to Vicksburg from the Red River coun
try, Admiral Porter ordered the river ram Queen
of the West, commanded by Colonel Charles R.
Ellet (a youth of twenty, by the way), to run past
the batteries of Vicksburg. Ellet succeeded on
February 2d, and promptly destroyed several
steamer loads of Confederate provisions. The iron
clad gunboat Indianola — a vessel that carried two
11-inch and two 9-inch guns besides several smaller
ones — was sent down to support the swifter Queen.
On the night of February 12th, the Indianola passed
the batteries without any loss whatever. A vessel
captured from the Confederates below Vicksburg
was then armed and Admiral Porter reported with
justifiable pride that "this gives us complete con
trol of the Mississippi except at Vicksburg and
Port Hudson."
But Ellet, who was a youth of extraordinary en
terprise and courage, in making a dash up the Red
River to destroy three well-loaded Confederate
transporte, ran his boat aground under a Confederate
battery where she had to be abandoned. The Con
federates got her afloat and after making repairs,
sent her with three other armed river steamers,
to hunt the ironclad Indianola. They found her on
the night of February 24th, and by a well-managed
and courageous attack rammed her until she sank,
later capturing her consort.

PENSACOLA AND PORT HUDSON 281
This victory again gave the Confederates the
command of the Mississippi from Vicksburg to Port
Hudson, and to render their triumph more com
plete, it appeared that Porter could not spare an
other detachment from his flotilla to go down to re
trieve the lost ground.
The situation on the Mississippi, therefore, at the
end of February, 1863, was as follows : General
Grant was investing Vicksburg and was supported
by Porter's flotilla, every vessel of which, however,
lay in the river above the city. At Baton Rouge
General Banks was concentrating 12,000 men for an
attack on Port Hudson, and Farragut's fleet was
ready to support him. But the river from Vicks
burg to Port Hudson was under Confederate control,
and the armies defending both of the towns named
had free communication with the Confederate sources
of supplies in the Red River watershed and beyond.
It was obvious to Farragut that the first important
service he could render the National cause was to
deprive the Confederates of food and thus aid Grant
and Banks in their attacks on Vicksburg and Port
Hudson. He saw, too, that such a service was then
so important as to be worth even the risk of placing
himself between the two heavily fortified towns
where his own line of communications with a base
of supplies would be cut off.
That is to say, in order to cut off the Confederate
source of supplies, Farragut determined not only to
take the risk of running past the heavy batteries at
Port Hudson, with their plunging fire from bluffs
eighty and one hundred feet high, but he was going

282 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
to depend for his coal supply on the chance of float
ing barges by night past the batteries at Vicksburg,
or on the more hazardous chance of another dash
up past those batteries.
The general order which Farragut issued to his
captains after determining to pass Port Hudson is
the document which, perhaps, is remembered better
among naval men than any other the Admiral ever
wrote. It said :
The ships will each take a gunboat on her port
side, and secure her as well aft as possible, so as to
leave the port battery clear for the enemy's battery
on the port side of the river, going up, after we
round the point opposite Port Hudson.
Each ship will keep a little on the starboard
quarter of her next ship ahead, so as to give free
range to her chase guns, without risk of damage
from premature explosion of shrapnel or shell.
The captains will bear in mind that the object is,
to run the batteries at the least possible damage to
our ships, and thereby secure an efficient force
above for the purpose of rendering such assistance
as may be required of us to the army at Vicksburg,
or, if not required there, to our army at Baton
Rouge. If they succeed in getting past the batteries, the
gunboats will proceed up to the mouth of Red
River, and keep up police of the river batteries be
tween that river and Port Hudson, capturing every
thing they can.
Should any vessel be disabled so that she is un
able to pass Port Hudson, she will use the gunboat
to the best advantage. If the captain thinks he
can get by, try it ; if he thinks not, let the gunboat
drop her down below the range of the batteries. If
both are disabled, then club down with a light

PENSACOLA AND PORT HUDSON 283
anchor, or use the sails, as in his judgment may
seem best. But I expect all to go by who are able ;
and I think the best protection against the enemy1 s fire
is a well-directed fire from our own guns, shell and
shrapnel at a distance, and grape when within four
hundred or five hundred yards.
It is a most interesting fact in the history of our
navy that several of our greatest sea fighters have
used expressions that will serve to inspire the
American sailor until warfare ends. When John
Paul Jones in the fight with the Serapis, was asked
if he had surrendered, he replied, though his ship
was sinking : "J have not yet begun to fight." In
the battle of Lake Erie, when the sailing master of
the Lawrence called attention to the fact that, as
the wind was blowing, the British fleet would have
the weather gauge, the heroic Perry replied : " To
windward or to leeward, they shall fight to-day. " And
Farragut, with his wooden ships (he who had called
ironclads "cowardly things"), when preparing to
run the bluff-top batteries of Port Hudson, told his
captains that " the best protection against the enemy's
fire is a well directed fire from our own guns." This
is the only instance on record where the whole art
of battle has been described in a single sentence.
Lieutenant John C. Parker, who was then ex
ecutive officer of the ironclad Essex, has left a de
scription of the Admiral, as he appeared when pre
paring to pass Port Hudson :
' ' He was at this time in the full pride of his man
hood, and presented a perfect picture of an ideal
sailor. Rather undersized, his figure was faultless,

284 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
and, dressed with the neatness and care customary
in the navy, he appeared much younger than he
was. His smooth face with its prominent features
was as clearly cut as a cameo, in which was blended
firmness with gentleness. He always wore the regu
lation service cap, and his face as it lighted with a
smile made an indelible impression, a mental photo
graph, which time has never effaced."
Parker also describes the Admiral as seen in ac
tion at this time. The Hartford had steamed up the
river to draw the Confederate fire and give the Ad
miral a chance to see the location of the shore bat
teries :
"Steaming ahead with the ship's company at
quarters, the Hartford soon began to draw the
enemy's fire, and the shot from the lower battery
began to reach her. At this moment the Admiral
was standing under the mizzen boom and a shot
having struck the boom further aft, threw a
quantity of splinters over the younger officers
standing near. The Admiral, who was intently
observing the range of the guns as they opened
upon the flagship, hastily turned his head as the
shot struck, and noticing the slight muscular
movement which is the result of a close call from
a solid shot, exclaimed with a smile, ' What ! Are
you youngsters dodging . ' The words were scarcely
spoken when a round shot struck the boom square
over his head. Dropping his left shoulder a mere
trifle, and without moving an inch from his posi
tion, he turned his head toward the young officers
and said :

PENSACOLA AND PORT HUDSON 285
"'Gentlemen, bravery is a mere question of
pride, but it is some comfort to dodge even as
much as that,' illustrating his remark by raising
his left hand and with the first finger of his right,
measuring perhaps the width of his finger nail."
As for the other features of the general order to
his captains when preparing to pass Port Hudson,
one must note that, having ships with single pro
pellers, Farragut secured some of the advantages of
twin screws by lashing the ships together, two and
two, and it is remembered that the most powerful
gunboat was lashed to the slowest ship. Moreover,
by putting the gunboat on the port side of the big
ship, he sheltered the small boat from the fire of the
batteries, all of which were on the easterly side of
the river. In short, in the order of the procession
and the location of the various ships the Admiral
showed a strong desire, first of all, to secure the
greatest efficiency of gun fire, and then as much
protection as possible for the weaker vessels.
Port Hudson, as Private James K. Hosmer saw it
somewhat later, was "a little cluster of perhaps forty
or fifty houses on the edge of the bluff." It was en
closed on the landward side by a line of entrench
ments seven miles long. Along the edge of the
bluff were seven batteries mounting 19 guns,
of which two were of 10-inch and two of 8-inch
calibre, eight were rifles — 80-pounders and 50-
pounders, while the remainder were smaller smooth
bores. Furnaces were provided to heat the shot of
the smoothbores, and all the guns were fitted " with
delicate sights," by means of which "hot shot and

286 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
shell could be thrown, almost with the precision of
rifle balls, at objects passing below." Thirty -five
field pieces to sweep the decks of the ships with
shrapnel were also in place.
To pass these batteries, Farragut took the lead
ing place with the Hartford, Captain James S. Pal
mer, the gunboat Albatross, Lieutenant Commander
J. C. Hart, being lashed alongside. The Rich
mond, Captain James Alden, with the gunboat
Genesee, Commander W. H. Macomb, came next.
She was followed by the Monongahela (a 10-gun
ship), Captain J. P. McKinstry, with the Kineo,
Lieutenant Commander John Watters. Last of all
came the Mississippi, Captain Melancton Smith, a
side wheeler without a consort. The ironclad Essex
was not included, but was placed with the gunboat
Sachem near five mortar schooners that anchored
within easy range of the batteries.
Of the details of preparing the ships only one
item need be mentioned. The Hartford was pro
vided with a speaking tube from the mizzen top to
the wheel, and the pilot was placed in the mizzen top.
The night of March 14, 1863, was chosen for the
dash past the batteries. At five o'clock in the af
ternoon of that day, Farragut visited all the ships of
the squadron and talked over the situation and his
general orders for the work until he saw that each
captain was fully informed in the matter, and that
each vessel was thoroughly prepared. As the night,
still and damp, came on, a red light was hung over
the stern of the Hartford, to serve as a preparatory
signal, and just before ten o'clock, the squadron

PENSACOLA AND PORT HUDSON 287
got under way. At eleven o'clock, as the flagship
was abreast of the lower batteries, some pickete saw
her through the gloom, and fired a rocket into the
air. A minute later a number of locomotive head
lights were turned on the river — the first use of
search-lights in war, perhaps — and then great fires
of light wood flamed up on the westerly bank of the
river, and threw a glare over the water by which
the shore gunners were able to aim almost as well
as if it were day. A storm of shot and shell soon
burst upon the fleet and the thunder of the guns
was heard by men working with cotton on the
banks of the Courtableau, forty miles away.
"The Hartford," as Parker saw her, "being in
the lead soon had the Citadel battery on her star
board quarter, and as she steamed ahead was thrown
in bold relief by the huge signal fire on the west
bank of the river. She stood out with the bright
background of firelight as clear as a silhouette.
On her poop deck stood a group of officers while the
Admiral was mounted in the mizzen rigging, his
pilot being above him in the mizzen top. At this
time there was no smoke to obstruct the vision and
every particle of her spars and rigging were visible.
A moment later, when she commenced to fire her
broadside guns, clouds of smoke enveloped her and
she was lost to sight."
The other ships then opened in turn on the shore
batteries. The smoke spread over the water and
swelling up, fogged in the fleet until nothing was
visible from the shore but a flame-riven cloud that
drifted slowly up the stream.

288 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
The critical moment of the expedition had come.
Blinded by the smoke, the faithful pilot of the
Hartford, Thomas R. Carroll, called through the
tube that he could no longer guide the ship aright.
The firing was stopped and as she slowly emerged
from the smoke it was seen that she was headed for
the eastern shore with the current driving her on ;
and the bluffs were already so close that her crew
could distinguish the words of the Confederates
when they called to each other. But by backing
the engines of the Albatross at full speed while
driving ahead those on the Hartford, Farragut
cleared the bank and rounded the point, safe at last.
Several men who were in this fight remember now
that when the danger of disaster to the Hartford
seemed greatest, the Admiral showed his ability to
grasp instantly the meaning of everything that was
done or said around him. He saw when a gunner
made a good shot, and said, "That's your sort," or
"Well done, you! Give them another." He
noted the position of the wheel. He hailed the
mizzen top occasionally, to learn whether the pilot
were yet alive. He conversed with and gave or
ders to his aides in a way that infused them with
his own serene spirit. But when the forte were
passed and he turned to look for the others of his
fleet he could only exclaim :
"My God, what has stopped them ? "
A moment later as he gazed at the cloud of smoke
he had left he saw it illuminated by a light that grew
until he discerned the outlines of a ship in flames.
The Mississippi, the last of the fleet, while driving

PENSACOLA AND PORT HUDSON 289
at full speed past the batteries, was headed by her
pilot too far to the westward, and getting into the
eddy under the lee of the long bar opposite Port
Hudson, she ran ashore so hard that no possible ex
ertion could free her, though the Essex steamed up
to help. For more than half an hour her crew
labored, while the Confederates fairly ballasted her
with the shot that they hurled into her hull. Then
she was set afire and abandoned. It is a matter of
record that Captain Melancton Smith was the last
to leave the ship, and that her executive officer,
Lieutenant George Dewey, — he who is Admiral of
the navy at this writing — remained with him, and
showed great heroism in rescuing her crew.
As the fire spread the flames " caused her sides to
warp which threw her head off the reef where she
was grounded, and being caught by the current she
turned her head down stream, straightened her
self up and with her entire lower rigging a blaze of
fire passed down with the current." ' Then the
flames having reached the vents of her guns, she
fired shot after shot until she reached the foot of
Profit Island where the fuse that had been laid to her
magazine did its work and she was blown to pieces.
In the meantime the Richmond had almost
rounded the turn when a plunging shot released her
safety valves and thus exhausted the steam in her
boilers. Her captain then turned her around by
the aid of her consort and ran below out of range,
while her executive officer, Lieutenant Commander
A. B. Cummings, who had just had a leg shot off, —
1 Parker.

290 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
a mortal wound — said to his shipmates, "I would
rather lose the other leg than go back."
The Monongahela, too, was unfortunate, for
she was aground for twenty-five minutes, and,
while making a heroic effort to continue on her
way, her crank pin heated and the engines stopped.
She was then obliged to drift down out of range.
Partly because of the excellent marksmanship of
the Confederate gunners, and partly through mis
fortune that could not have been foreseen, Admiral
Farragut was able to carry but two of his squadron
past the batteries.
Loyall Farragut, a youth in his teens, the Admi
ral's only child, was on the quarterdeck of the
Hartford, acting as aide while the batteries were
passed. Fleet Surgeon J. M. Foltz said afterward
that before reaching the batteries he went to the
Admiral and asked for the assistance of the lad be
low with the wounded in the safest part of the ship.
He explained that the boy was not in the service,
and therefore had nothing to gain but everything
to lose through exposure on the quarterdeck. To
this the Admiral replied :
"No, that will not do. It is true our only child
is on board by chance, and he is not in the service ;
but, being here, he will act as one of my aides, to
assist in conveying my orders during the battle,
and we will trust in Providence and la fortune de-la
guerre." The surgeon then appealed to the lad but he
"wanted to be stationed on deck and see the fight."
That ended the discussion.

PENSACOLA AND PORT HUDSON 291
As the batteries loomed up through the night, the
Admiral took "from his pocket a simple piece of
hempen rope, about a yard in length, to which was
securely fastened at one end a cross-piece of wood,"
and showed his son how to pass the rope around a
wounded limb and with the piece of wood set it
tightly enough to stop the flow of blood from an ar
tery. Another view of Farragut's character was ob
tained when a lookout reported that a steamer was
bearing down on the Hartford from above. In
an instant the Admiral ordered the port battery
manned. Then he called another division of the
crew to repel boarders, drew his sword, and saying
under his breath, "Let them come," prepared to
lead his men in the hand-to-hand fight that was ex
pected at the rail. He could have made a mark
with his sword in such a fight, for though he was
nearly sixty-two years old, he was an athlete in per
son, and those who saw him in attack have testified
that he was most resolute in spirit.
By the reports of Major-General Franklin Gardner,
commanding Port Hudson, there were five steam
boats unloading supplies for the Confederate garrison
when Farragut's fleet advanced. The work of dis
charging cargo was continued to the last moment
possible, showing that the supplies were badly
needed, but the steamers finally fled to Red River.
Gardner in two different reports thereafter said
that he had on hand only "ten days' subsistence "
and a report from his commissary, on March 23d,
proves that only 15,724 rations of flour then re-

292 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
mained. On April 15th, there were 3,644 rations
of flour and 3,760 of bulk pork, while bacon and
corn were so scarce that the soldiers had to live on
reduced quantities of these articles. The garrison
at this time numbered twenty thousand men. Pri
vate Hosmer, previously quoted, says that the Con
federates told him, after the surrender, that they
were reduced to a point when mule meat was eaten
by many of them after Farragut had closed the river.
Farragut in his letter to General Grant, when he
had passed Port Hudson, said: "Having learned
that the enemy had the Red River trade open to
Vicksburg and Port Hudson, and that two of the
gunboate of the upper fleet had been captured, I
determined to pass up, and if possible recapture the
boats and stop the Red River trade."
He stopped the Red River trade, and as a letter
to the Confederate Secretary of War, Seddon,
pointed out, "The enemy [National forces] having
command of the river, and innumerable transports
in their service, can move nearly 200 miles in
twenty-four hours, and thus have it in their power
to land an attacking force in large numbers without
timely notice of their approach."
General Grant in a letter written toward the end
of the month said, " I see by Southern papers that
Vicksburg must depend upon Louisiana or west of
the Mississippi for supplies. Holding Red River
from them is a great step in the direction of pre
venting this."
With Grant and an adequate force before Vicks
burg, and Banks with another force at Port Hudson,

PENSACOLA AND PORT HUDSON 293
the taking of even a part of Farragut's fleet up past
the latter' s guns was worth the cost, even though
the steamer Mississippi was lost. It was a move
ment conducted on Farragut's own initiative, when
circumstances warranted it, and it was, as already
said, a very different movement from the passage
that had been made the previous year on orders
from officials who were ignorant of the conditions
prevailing in the Mississippi. Farragut now
steamed up the river by easy stages to Vicksburg,
where he communicated with General Grant and
obtained coal from a barge load which the latter
floated down past the Vicksburg batteries at night.
Acting Rear Admiral Porter was then in the
bayou country on the east side of the river, north
of Vicksburg, on an abortive expedition, and
Farragut, who was anxious for more vessels, had
an interview with General Alfred W. Ellet, com
manding the River Defense Ram Fleet of the
National forces, who at once offered to bring down
his ram flotilla. It is worth noting here that this
ram flotilla did effective work, while the Con
federate flotilla failed utterly, and for a very good
reason. The Confederate flotilla officials not only
refused to work with the Confederate naval forces,
but they would not work together, while Ellet' s
rams operated steadily and faithfully with and under
the National naval officers. At the same time the
Ellet family was most remarkable for reckless
courage, and when sending two rams to Farragut
disaster overtook them. Early in the morning of
March 25th, the Lancaster and Switzerland sailed

294 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
down to pass the Vicksburg batteries. Fearing no
danger they started late and broad daylight was
upon them before they arrived under the guns
ashore. The Lancaster was shot to pieces and the
Switzerland was disabled but passed down with flag
flying, and was repaired.
While before Vicksburg Farragut sent his son
Loyall home, saying that " the anxieties of a father
should not be added to those of the commander,"
and then on the 27th, he steamed down with his two
vessels and the ram Lancaster to blockade the Red
River, where he arrived on April 2d. There he
remained until April 30th. Remembering the fate
of the Indianola, Farragut surrounded the Hartford
with big logs, through which the Confederate rams
would not be able to cut their way, and he lowered
the yards of the ship down to the rail, connecting
their ends with chain cables to keep at a distance
ships bringing boarders. The blockade of the
Mississippi was not absolutely complete ; but it was
efficient enough severely to restrict the Confed
erate food supply, and to show the Southern lead
ers how badly they were handicapped by their
lack of ships.
While lying at the mouth of the Red River with
the Hartford, Albatross and Switzerland, early in
May, a reinforcement from the fleet below Port
Hudson joined the Admiral. General Banks had
temporarily abandoned the siege of that place for a
swift dash into the country west of the Mississippi.
Four gunboate from the lower fleet worked their way
through the bayous to support this movement. It

PENSACOLA AND PORT HUDSON 295
was a dash at the Confederate source of food, and
according to Private Hosmer, who was on the ex
pedition, the movement was a feint that led the
Confederates to reduce the garrison of Port Hudson
materially. At any rate, the expedition was suc
cessful in capturing supplies, while two of the
gunboate worked their way through to the Red
River and Farragut.
At the end of April the Admiral went down to
Port Hudson to communicate with the part of his
squadron below ; for of course he was still in com
mand of the whole Gulf blockading fleet, as well as
of the squadron at the mouth of Red River. He also
wished to communicate with General Banks. To get
letters through to him, Farragut's private secretary,
Edward C. Gabaudan, at his own request, was
set adrift in a dugout, covered with dead brush in
such fashion that it looked like a drift log. The
Confederates came afloat once, to look at the strange
thing, but it passed clear.
In the meantime, Grant was carrying out the
plans that placed his army on the south and east
sides of Vicksburg. Porter with a powerful
squadron passed the Vicksburg river defenses (there
were guns for eight miles along the Mississippi at
that time), and reached New Carthage, which was
then fifteen miles below Warrentown, the site of the
southernmost of the Vicksburg batteries. Trans
ports were brought down later. Then various
feinte were made to deceive the Confederates, and
on April 29th a serious attack was directed by
Porter's fleet on Grand Gulf, a point that had been

296 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
recently fortified to strengthen Vicksburg. This
attack failed, but on April 30th, the advance corps
of Grant's army crossed the Mississippi at Bruins-
burg, nine miles below Grand Gulf. On May 1st,
this advance corps met the Confederate General
Bowen and defeated him, and when two days later
Porter moved up to renew his attack on Grand
Gulf he found it had been evacuated. He at once
took possession, and then leaving the captured forts
in charge of Lieutenant-Commander Elias K. Owen,
he started that same day down the river to relieve
Farragut's blockaders at the mouth of Red River.
Thereupon Farragut, on May 6th, turned over the
Hartford and the minor vessels to the command of
Captain James S. Palmer, and went down the west
bank of the river (overland), to New Orleans,
arriving on May 1st. There he took charge of the
fleet in the river, and with it started up to Port
Hudson to aid in the campaign against that place.
These operations were, at last, pushed effectively,
though the siege proved rather monotonous. Four
Dahlgren guns were landed, under Lieutenant-
Commander Edward Terry, and did good service in
worrying the Confederates, who were already in
straits for lack of food. From time to time the
ships moved up in range and battered the forts
with the result that the Confederates, after a time,
having used up their ammunition, had to reply with
pieces of railroad iron in place of regular pro
jectiles. With a less heroic commander than
General Franklin Gardner, the place would have
surrendered early in the season.

PENSACOLA AND PORT HUDSON 297
Rear Admiral Schley, who was serving on the
Monongahela under Farragut, while before Port
Hudson, has in his " Forty -five Years under the
Flag" several stories of the Admiral.
Schley, at one time temporarily in command
of the Monongahela, was sent up to bombard
one of the forts, and through being unable to read
a recall signal, continued firing longer than was in
tended by Farragut. Accordingly, when Schley
reported on board the flagship, the Commander-in-
Chief reprimanded him. The story is told as fol
lows :
" ' Captain, you begin early in your life to disobey
orders. Did you not see the signal flying for near
an hour to withdraw from action ? '
"The decided manner and tone in which Admiral
Farragut asked this question, taken with the sur
prising inquiry itself, confused and embarrassed the
writer, who felt that the ship's work was creditable
rather than censurable. An attempt to explain,
somewhat stammeringly made, and to the effect that
we could not read the signals, which were seen only
with difficulty through the smoke, elicited the
quick reply from the Admiral that he ' wanted none
of this Nelson business in his squadron about not
seeing signals.'
"The writer succeeded, however, in stating to him
that the lack of wind and the smoke of battle en
veloping the ship made it impossible to interpret
the signal, which, from the nature of his orders to
destroy the citadel, could hardly have been sup
posed to refer to the writer, whose duty in the prem-

298 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
ises seemed clear — to retire only when the duty was
done. ' ' The Admiral then invited the writer into his
cabin. The moment the door was closed behind
him there was an entire change in his tone and
manner as he said smilingly, ' I have censured you,
sir, on the quarterdeck for what appeared to be a
disregard of my orders. I desire now to commend
you and your officers and men for doing what you
. believed right under the circumstances. Do it again
whenever in your judgment it is necessary to carry
out your conception of duty.' "
"The Admiral," says Schley, writing of this
period, "was a man of perhaps five feet seven
inches in height. His gait and step were those of a
very young man, and in conversation he was an
animated and interesting talker. His information
and experience were general, and upon almost all
subjects — professional, scientific or political — he
was interesting and attractive. Like all great men
he was affable and accessible. His manner was one
of great mildness and self -poise. His ideas were
clear and his methods of doing things were always
decided. When he had made up his mind to give
battle in a certain way, it was realized that his way
was the best. In any of the emergencies of battle,
his towering genius was readiest and his cool self-
possession was an inspiration to everybody. The
wide difference that was apparent between this
sprightly, kind, mild and pleasing gentleman, even
when under a heavy load of responsibility, and his
lion-like character and presence when battle was

PENSACOLA AND PORT HUDSON 299
going on, was the contrast between sunshine and
storm. His judgment of men was excellent, as the
choice of officers with whom he surrounded himself
indicated. The unvarying and complete success he
met in everything he undertook in that great war
was due largely to his strong personality, unerring
purpose and dashing example."
After a paragraph to show wherein Farragut and
Nelson were alike, Schley adds: "Farragut's pri
vate life and high ideals, however, gave him pre
eminence over his great English compeer."
On July 4, 1863,' Vicksburg surrendered to Grant ;
Port Hudson capitulated on the 9th. " I am grow
ing old fast and need rest," said Farragut at this
time ; and with the surrender of Port Hudson he
was able to enjoy it. The command of the Missis
sippi was turned over to Porter, who arrived at New
Orleans on August 1st, and Farragut, taking the
Brooklyn and Richmond with the Hartford, at once
headed for New York where he arrived on August
10th.

CHAPTER XIX
IN WAITING BEFORE HIS LAST BATTLE
In December, 1861, on his way to Washington to
consult with the Secretary of the Navy and other gov
ernment officials, Farragut passed through New York
unnoted by the people, who knew so little of his tal
ents and character that they even expressed doubts
about his loyalty to the flag under which he had
served for more than fifty years. Under date of
August 13, 1863, a committee of eighty-one influential
men of the city wrote to him to say that " the citi
zens of New York are too familiar with your bril
liant career in the public service not to feel earnestly
desirous of showing, in some appropriate manner,
their high appreciation of your personal and pro
fessional character. The whole country, but es
pecially this commercial metropolis, owes you a
large debt of gratitude for the skill and dauntless
bravery with which . . . you have sustained
the authority of the government and recovered and
defended the national territory. ' ' Therefore they ex
tended to him "a cordial welcome" and asked him
to name a convenient time when he would allow
them in person to assure him of their high respect
and regard.
The Chamber of Commerce sent an engraved set
of resolutions in which it was declared that Farra
gut at New Orleans had "achieved one of the most

BEFORE HIS LAST BATTLE 301
celebrated victories of any time;" that "in the
progress of the war for the unity and life of this
great Nation, no services have been more eminent
than those of Admiral Farragut ; " and that "in the
daily increasing commerce of the port of New Or
leans," was to be found " a pleasing omen of the re
newed happiness and prosperity" that would ac
crue to all the Southern cities once they were
brought under the old flag.
It was characteristic of the man to say in reply to
these resolutions "that we did our duty to the best
of our ability, I believe ; that a kind Providence
smiled upon us and enabled us to overcome obsta
cles before which the stoutest of our hearts would
have otherwise quailed, I am certain."
In the meantime the Admiral must see that his
ships were thoroughly overhauled and repaired.
And there was yet the capture of Mobile Bay to en
gage his thoughts.
From the beginning of the war the effective work
of the Federal navy — the work that had tended to
restore and preserve the unity of the Nation — had
consisted, as already set forth, in maintaining and
strengthening the blockade of the Confederate ports,
and in opening and holding the Mississippi for the
use of Federal warships and merchant boats. In
one point of view the National control of the Mis
sissippi was an extension of the blockade. Scores
of blockade runners had taken supplies to Mata
moras, Mexico. From that place they were con
veyed across the Rio Grande into Texas, whence the
Confederates carried them by whatever conveyance

302 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
was possible— bull team, dugout, or steamer— to
Vicksburg and Port Hudson. When a port like
New Orleans was occupied, and a line of communi
cation like the Mississippi was wholly secured, the
Confederate trade was effectually stopped, and suc
cessful work for the ending of the war accom
plished. As already noted, Farragut had wished to cap
ture Mobile Bay immediately after the fall of New
Orleans. It might have been done then with com
parative ease, for the forts guarding the main en
trance to the bay were not fully manned, and were
not well supplied with ammunition or guns ; indeed
the fort guarding the western pass had not yet been
built. The opening of the Mississippi on which
the Navy Department was then bent was a matter
of much greater importance — no one doubts that
fact, but the Department was in error in suppos
ing that any naval force could do the work single
handed. When Farragut had shown that it was
not possible to control the Mississippi with sea-go
ing ships alone the Department might well have al
lowed him to go to Mobile while awaiting the co
operation of the army in occupying the river. The
navy, with a small force of soldiers at that time
might have occupied Mobile Bay, and compelled
the forts there to surrender as they had done on the
Mississippi. For with the National fleet in the bay
and a force of soldiers on Mobile Point neither Fort
Morgan nor Fort Gaines could have obtained sup
plies, and surrender through starvation would have
been inevitable. The failure to allow Farragut to

BEFORE HIS LAST BATTLE 303
make the attack gave the Confederates the oppor
tunity to prepare for a vigorous defense.
Mobile Bay is now a fine harbor with a deep
water channel to the city docks, where business is
increasing, and is to increase, by marvelous strides.
At the beginning of 1864, it was but a harbor of
refuge. A bar at the upper end with only nine
feet of water on it, shut off the city from the
sea and the ships that might have come there
for the great white staple of the South had a chan
nel been provided.
A glance at a good chart of war-time date shows
that Mobile Bay was about thirty miles long, north
and south, by fifteen miles wide at the lower end
and six at the upper. From the shores the water
gradually increased until a depth of from twelve to
seventeen feet was found, and maintained through
out the whole bay, save at the lower end where there
was a pocket six miles long by two and a half miles
wide, in which the water was from twenty to twenty-
four feet deep.
On the easterly side, the bay was protected from
the off shore seas by a long peninsula called Mobile
Point ; on the westerly side by Dauphin Island, one
of a chain alongshore. The open water between Mo
bile Point and Dauphin Island was more than three
land miles wide. This open water, however, was
at best but ten or eleven feet deep, except on the
easterly or Mobile Point side, where a channel that
averaged about half a mile in width ran nearly
north and south into the bay. The shoals on each
side of this channel extended off shore for more

304 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
than three miles from Mobile Point, and two islands,
Sand Island and West Sand Island, were found at
the outer limits. A lighthouse on Sand Island was
two and one-fourth nautical miles from a light
house on Mobile Point. The shoalest water in the
channel, even on the outer bar was three and one-
half fathoms ; it was therefore deep enough every
where for all the ships of Farragut's fleet.
On Mobile Point stood Fort Morgan, " on the site
of old Fort Bowyer." It was "a pentagonal, bas-
tioned work, built of brick whose full scarp wall
was four feet eight inches thick." Alabama troops
had taken possession of it on January 5, 1861, the
garrison numbering at that time only two hundred
men. Slowly, as men and means could be spared,
the strength of this fort was increased until the time
came for the Federal attack, when it mounted eighty-
six guns, in all, of which some were small smooth
bores scarcely worth counting, and the most impor
tant were seven 10-inch and three 8-inch smooth
bores, with two 8-inch, two 6. 5-inch and four 5.82-
inch rifles. In a separate battery near by, built
to command the channel, were one 8-inch and
four 10-inch smoothbores, with two 6.5-inch rifles.
There were sixteen 32-pounder smoothbores bearing
on the channel, and that was a calibre sufficient
to penetrate Farragut's wooden ships. Fort Mor
gan was commanded by R. L. Page, a commander
in the old navy whom the authorities transferred to
the army, with rank as Brigadier-General.
Fort Gaines stood on Dauphin Island. It mounted
three 10-inch and five 32-pounder smoothbores, be-

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BEFORE HIS LAST BATTLE 305
sides smaller guns ; but it was of no particular con
sequence in the battle because it was too far from the
channel. On a little sand bar called Tower Island,
at the extreme westerly side of the bay, and adjoin
ing a channel leading to New Orleans by way of
Mississippi Sound, was another fort that was of
some importance, however, because this channel
(called Grant's), might become very useful to the
National fleet after passing into the bay. For
while the Confederates should hold Fort Morgan,
Grant's Channel, if under the National flag, could
be used for carrying supplies to Farragut. A struc
ture called Fort Powell had been erected on Tower
Island. It was not completed when the attack on
the bay was ordered, but it mounted one 32-pounder,
one 10-inch, and two 8-inch smoothbores, besides
two of the excellent Brooke 7-inch rifles. All
of these guns but one commanded the approaches
from the westward ; the fort on the side of Mobile
Bay was not completed and was practically defense
less. To supplement their fortifications on land the
Confederates had obstructed the water between
Dauphin Island and the channel under Mobile
Point, by driving rows of piles that would stop
any light draft vessel striving to cross the flats.
Then in the westerly part of the main or real chan
nel three rows of torpedoes were anchored, with a
red buoy at the easterly end of the line. This buoy
was but a little more than three hundred feet from
the easterly edge of the channel, and the water thus
left free was, of course, directly under the guns of

306 DAVH) G. FARRAGUT
Fort Morgan. This open channel was for the ac
commodation of blockade runners.
It is to be noted that torpedoes were first gener
ally employed in our Civil War, and it was the Con
federate, or the physically weaker side, naturally,
that made the greater use of them. Beer kegs
filled with powder and supplied with fuses that
might be exploded on contact with a ship, were
favored by the torpedo makers. Tin cans of vari
ous shapes were also utilized. Whatever the de
vice it was generally buoyant enough to float on
the water's surface when unrestrained, and it was
secured by a flexible mooring — chain or rope — to
an anchor of some kind resting on the bottom of
the channel. Fixed torpedoes attached to sunken
frames were also used, though not in the channel
Farragut was to follow.
To show the effectiveness of these devices in the
hands of the Confederates it may be recalled that
the ironclad Cairo was sunk in the Yazoo River by
a torpedo on December 12, 1862. On February 28,
1863, the monitor Montauk was seriously injured
by a torpedo in the Ogeechee River, and in the
course of that year two other Federal ships were
injured or destroyed in the same manner. A new
and most fearsome peril had thus been added to
war, and there was no escaping it when aggressive
movements were undertaken.
In addition to their fixed defenses the Confeder
ates had provided a small squadron of armed ships
to defend Mobile Bay. An open-deck river steamer
called the Selma, had been converted into a gun-

BEFORE HIS LAST BATTLE 307
boat by so placing bales of cotton as partially to
protect her machinery and by arming her with one
8-inch and two 9-inch smoothbores and one 6-inch
rifle. Two gunboate had been built — poorly built
because of a lack of mechanics and materials.
One, the Morgan, carried two 7-inch rifles and four
32-pounders. The other, the Gaines, carried one
8-inch smoothbore and five 32-pounders. In short,
here were three poor steamers, splendidly armed,
and that they were well-manned scarcely need be
said. In addition to these, however, two or three iron
clads were in hand, one of which just missed being
among the most formidable ships of the war. This
ironclad was named the Tennessee. Her keel was
laid at Selma, on the Alabama River, where the
Confederates had established a naval station which
was under the charge of Commander Ebenezer Fer-
rand. The timber was cut in the forest and the ore
for making the iron for her armor was dug from
the ground as the work on her frames progressed.
She was 209 feet long over all, and 48 feet wide.
In the middle of the hull a casemate was erected
that was 79 feet long by 29 feet wide, inside meas
urements. The walls of the casemate were inclined
at an angle of forty-five degrees and were twenty-
five inches thick. The forward end of the case
mate was covered with three layers of 2-inch iron
plates — six inches in all — while the sides and after
walls were covered five inches thick. Plating and
wooden walls were bolted through and through.
For the battle that was impending a still more

308 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
important feature of the armor remains to be de
scribed. The walls of the casemate were carried
out and down beyond the hull proper as the eaves
of a country house project beyond ite walls. This
projection extended two feet below the level of
the water, and therefore two feet from the side of
the hull. Then it turned in at a right angle and
came back to the hull which it reached four feet
below the water line. The knuckle thus formed
was filled in solid with timber, as a protection
against ramming. The flat parts of the deck were
covered with two inches of iron.
As the ship, when completed drew but fourteen
feet of water, it is plain that her design for the in
tended purpose — defending Mobile Bay — was the
best then extant. But in carrying out details, one
serious mistake and one remarkable blunder, were
made. To close the ports when the guns were run
in for loading, she was provided with five- inch iron
shutters revolving on pivots in such fashion that
the shot of an opponent could hammer the sur
rounding armor in upon them, rivet the pivots, and
thus prevent the crew from moving them. This
was the mistake. The blunder was made when the
steering chains were laid on top of the armored flat
deck, abaft the casemate where they were exposed
to every shot coming that way. It was foreseen,
too, that the chains might be shot away, for deck
tackles were put on board for use in that emergency.
The guns of the Tennessee were few in number
but superior in quality. She carried a 7-inch rifle
at each end of the casemate, and two 6-inch rifles

BEFORE HIS LAST BATTLE 309
on each side. The ship was driven by a screw, and
she was able to make six knote an hour, or about
the speed of the monitors in the National service.
Admiral Franklin Buchanan (formerly of the
Merrimac), the first officer to attain that rank in the
Confederate service, was placed in command of the
Mobile squadron, and Commander J. D. Johnson
of the formidable Tennessee, on which Buchanan
hoisted his flag. It was not until March, 1864,
that this ship was ready for commission, and
even then she was still at Selma on the Alabama
River. While she was to draw fourteen feet of
water, loaded, the bar between her and the bay,
called Dog River Bar, had but nine feet of water
on it. Accordingly, she had to be lightened to the
last ounce (no guns or ammunition were put upon
her), and as a helpless hulk she was towed to the
bar. There large floats, called camels, were fitted
on each side, and by these she was lifted and carried
over into deep water, on May 18, 1864, while the
National fleet lay in the offing — within view of the
work, possibly, if the air were clear — but wholly
incapable of interfering.
In short, the Confederates were able to give the
last stroke of the hammer in completing their de
fenses long before the attack was begun on Mobile
Bay. The disadvantages which the National forces
were thus compelled to face were serious ; but be
cause their opponents were fully prepared the op
portunity of a lifetime came to Admiral Farragut.
Leaving New York in the Hartford, early in Jan
uary, 1864, Farragut arrived off Mobile, and once

310 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
more took command of his squadron. He was anx
ious to lead his fleet inside the bay at once ; for he
learned from refugees that the Tennessee was yet
uncompleted, and that once he was able to pass
Fort Morgan he should find no force within to mo
lest him seriously.
Moreover, Mobile had developed rapidly as a
centre of commerce in the Confederacy. Blockade
runners had passed in and out frequently, and be
cause of the facilities for inland transportation of
fered by the river system and the railroads of the
back country, the manufacturing interests of the
town had increased steadily.
The problem for Farragut here was slightly dif
ferent from that which confronted him in passing
the forte on the Mississippi. Once he was above
these forte they were, as repeatedly noted, wholly
cut off from their sources of supplies ; but Fort
Morgan was on a point of the mainland, and a
mainland route for supplies could be followed by
the Confederates in spite of anything that could be
done by the deep-water ships under Farragut. Ac
cordingly it was absolutely necessary that troops
should be provided to invest the landward side of
Fort Morgan, and thus isolate it from the mainland
while the ships were holding the bay. In no other
way, it appeared, could the fort be secured.
But just then troops were not to be had. Banks,
who still commanded in the Mississippi country had
gone away on an expedition into the Red River val
ley which accomplished and could accomplish noth
ing ; in fact it very nearly led to the destruction of

BEFORE HIS LAST BATTLE 311
a large part of Porter's Mississippi squadron.
Therefore no troops could be spared from New Or
leans, and none could be had from any other point
to assist the navy at Mobile.
On January 20th (two days after his arrival),
Farragut went with a couple of gunboats to a point
within three miles of Fort Morgan for an examina
tion of the defenses. It was a clear day and he was
able distinctly to see the forts and such vessels as
were within the bay. As a result of his examina
tion, he wrote to the Department saying :
" I am satisfied that if I had one ironclad at this
time I could destroy their whole force in the bay
and reduce the forte at my leisure, by cooperation
with our land forces — say 5,000 men."
The work of the ironclads had compelled all the
old marlin -spike sailors to acknowledge the effi
ciency of armor. Having seen the Arkansas shed
9-inch shot like hail stones, at Vicksburg, Farra
gut was compelled to believe that the ironclads
building above Mobile for the defense of the bay
would prove effective fighting machines. His in
formation regarding these vessels was fragmentary
— he had heard no more than that one called the
Nashville would be ready in March, and that the
Tennessee would have to be lifted over the Dog
River Bar by camels. He said that if he could
have one shoal draft ironclad, he would be willing
to go in ; "but without ironclads we should not be
able to fight the enemy's vessels of that class with
much prospect of success, as the latter would lie on the
flats, where our vessels could not go to destroy them.

312 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
Wooden vessels can do nothing with them un
less by getting within one hundred or two hundred
yards, so as to ram them or pour in a broadside."
Admiral Buchanan in a speech to his men prom
ised to raise the blockade with the Tennessee. Far
ragut heard of this threat though he cared nothing
for it. But to take deep-draft wooden ships into
the bay, where the room for turning was at best
restricted, to meet a shoal-draft ironclad, was a seri
ous matter. It is a notable fact, too, that Farragut
at this time understood and was willing to consider
the power of public opinion. In the letter quoted
he says :
"It is depressing to see how easily false reports
circulate, and in what a state of alarm the commu
nity [Nation] is kept by the most absurd rumors.
If the Department could get one or two of the iron
clads here, it would put an end to this state of
things, and restore confidence to the people of the
ports now in our possession."
The ironclads he desired were monitors. We
have learned by sad experience that the monitor
type of ship is worthless as a deep water fighting
machine ; and that it is by no means desirable even
for coast patrol service. But for use in enclosed
waters like Mobile Bay — if we were to adopt the
porcupine policy in foreign affairs, and invite the
enemy to fight us in our own harbors, as the Con
federates were doing — the monitors were, and
would be, fairly good warships.
For more than six months Farragut was unable
to get either monitors or troops, and the greater

BEFORE HIS LAST BATTLE 313
part of that time was passed in rocking to the waves
of the Gulf, off the Bay of Mobile. It is therefore
manifest that one element of the man's greatness
was his ability to wait — to stand by, as a sailor
would say — during heart-breaking delays, and then,
when the time did come, to take hold with a mas
terful will.
During this most tedious season, his Diary, as
edited by his son Loyall, gives several little stories
and letters that well show the bent of the man's
mind under varying circumstances. Thus, the cap
tain of a captured blockade runner, when brought
before the Admiral, proved to be one of his old per
sonal friends. The ship had cleared for Matamoras,
Mexico, but was caught trying to enter Mobile — 300
miles north and east of the course to Matamoras.
Farragut asked how that had happened and the
captain went into a detailed statement of the effect
a northeast gale had on his ship. Farragut listened
without interruption till the flow of explanations
ran dry and then, putting his hand on the captain's
shoulder, said :
"How could you be blown to the north' ard and
east'ard by a northeast gale? I'm sorry for you,
but we shall have to hold you for your thundering
bad navigation."
On April 4th he wrote home : " If any one asks
what I am doing, answer, — nothing but waiting for
the world to turn round till it comes my turn to do
something, and then I will 'pitch in' ; but I am
like cold sauce — always ready."
On May 13th he wrote : "The rebels had a jubi-

314 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
lee yesterday at Fort Morgan, in honor of the cap
ture of Steele by Price. I expect Porter to save
Banks. I am very much afraid the army will be
captured. I get right sick, every now and then, at
the bad news. ... I am at work on the old
Hartford, to make her ready for any work I may
have to do."
A week or so later, while off Mobile he wrote to
his son : "I am lying off here, looking at Buchan-
nan and waiting his coming out. He has a force of
four ironclads and three wooden vessels. I have
eight or nine wooden vessels. We'll try to amuse
him if he comes. . . . We started with few good
officers of experience, but shall end with some of
the best in the world. Our fellows are beginning
to understand that war means fighting. It is the
duty of an officer to save his men as much as possi
ble, but in almost all cases there has to be a certain
amount of sacrifice of life."
To Admiral Theodorus Bailey, at Key West, he
wrote, saying among other things, that he could
see the Confederates "very industriously laying
down torpedoes " in the channel at Fort Morgan.
Bailey replied : " Nothing will please me more than
to hoist once more the square red flag, and lead the
van of your squadron into Mobile Bay, to the cap
ture of Forte Morgan and Gaines, as well as the city.
Put me down for two chances, as the Jackass said
to the Monkey at the Lion's ball."
Concerning the crew of the Hartford, Farragut
said :
"I have never seen a crew come up like ours.

BEFORE HIS LAST BATTLE 315
They are ahead of the old set in small arms, and
fully equal to them at the great guns. They arrived
here a mere lot of boys and young men, and have
now fattened up and knock the 9-inch guns about
like 24-pounders, to the astonishment of every
body." Blockade work was dreary, but not wholly devoid
of humor. The most cheering incident of the long
wait was the receipt of a sword sent by the Union
League Club of New York — a beautiful weapon with
brilliants in the hilt and a scabbard of silver orna
mented with gold. As his son says, no one could
appreciate such a compliment more deeply than
Admiral Farragut, whose letter of acknowledg
ment was dated June 24, 1864.
The time of waiting was not yet over but finally
on July 31st, he was able to write that " the moni
tors have all arrived, except the Tecumseh, and she
is at Pensacola and I hope will be here in two
days." A day for which Farragut had been preparing
during fifty-three years of service in the navy, was
now at hand.

CHAPTER XX
THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAT
The fleet that was gathered under Farragut for
the attack upon Mobile Bay was, for that time, nota
bly formidable. Two single turret monitors, each
carrying two 15-inch guns, had been ordered from
the Atlantic squadron — the Tecumseh, Commander
Tunis A. M. Craven, and the Manhattan, Com
mander J. W. A. Nicholson. The 15-inch gun, it
should be observed, was then the most power
ful weapon afloat. The projectiles weighed 440
pounds, and the powder charge about sixty pounds.
The iron turrets of these monitors were ten inches
thick. Two double-turret monitors, the Winne
bago, Commander Thomas H. Stevens, and the
Chickasaw, Lieutenant Commander George H. Per
kins, had been drawn from the Mississippi. The
reader will remember that Perkins was the execu
tive officer of the Cayuga when Farragut passed the
Mississippi forts. The turrets on the Mississippi
monitors, which were nine and one-half inches
thick, carried two 11-inch guns each, and it is a
curious fact that these vessels, being of very shoal
draft, were driven by four screws each. But all the
monitors were slow boate, the best speed that could
be made by those at Mobile being no more than
seven knots.

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY 317
The best of the wooden fleet was the Brooklyn,
Captain James Alden. She now carried twenty-
four guns of which twenty were 9-inch smoothbores
throwing solid shot weighing ninety pounds, and
four were Parrott rifles. Two of these, so-called
100-pounders, threw projectiles weighing seventy
pounds, and two were 60-pounders, properly so
called. The Hartford carried eighteen 9-inch guns
and three Parrotts. The Richmond, Captain Thorn
ton A. Jenkins, carried eighteen 9-inch guns and
two Parrotts. The remainder of the wooden fleet
included the Lackawanna, Captain John B. March-
and ; the Monongahela, Commander James H.
Strong ; the Ossipee, Commander William E. Le-
Roy ; the Oneida, Commander J. R. M. Mullany ;
the Octorara, Lieutenant Commander Charles A.
Greene; the Metacomet, Lieutenant Commander
James E. Jouett ; the Port Royal, Lieutenant Com
mander Bancroft Gherardi ; the Seminole, Com
mander Edward Donaldson ; the Kennebec, Lieu
tenant Commander William P. McCann ; the Itasca,
Lieutenant Commander George Brown ; and the
Galena, Lieutenant Commander Clark H. Wells.
These latter vessels had mixed batteries — badly
mixed, in fact. Thus the Lackawanna carried one
150-pounder Parrott rifle (which fired a projectile
of 135 pounds), one 50-pounder rifle, two 11-inch
smoothbores, four 9-inch smoothbores, two 24-
pounders and four 12-pounders. The others carried
from four to five different calibres of guns, the dis
tinctive feature of the armament of the fleet being,
however, the great power of the guns even on the

318 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
smaller vessels. In all, there were eighteen ships
carrying 159 guns of considerable size, besides
howitzers. In the meantime General E. R. S. Canby, who
had relieved the defeated Banks in the Mississippi
Valley, notified Farragut that enough troops could
be spared to invest one of the forts at Mobile, and
on August 3d, 1,500 men under General Gordon
Granger, were landed on Dauphin Island to begin
the advance on the bay by attacking Fort Gaines.
It had been agreed by Farragut that the fleet should
attempt to pass within the bay the next morning
(August 4th), but the Tecumseh had not yet arrived
from Pensacola, and the Richmond was also at that
place preparing for the battle ; therefore the attack
was postponed.
The preparations for the battle have been dis
cussed by the best informed tacticians of the world,
since that day, with the result, to use Mahan' s
words after reviewing the facte, that they find
"much to praise and very little to criticise." The
individual captains were left to their own devices
in preparing their ships for action, and the work
done was much like that when the forts on the Mis
sissippi were to be passed, the chief difference being
on the Richmond. Captain Jenkins built a wall of
sand bags on the starboard side, from the berth deck
up, to stop shot and splinters.
For the order of the battle, the Brooklyn was put
at the head of the wooden-ship line, followed by the
Hartford, the Richmond, the Lackawanna, the Mo
nongahela, the Ossipee and the Oneida in the order

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY 319
named. Farragut at first determined to lead the
line with the Hartford, but he yielded when the
captains unanimously remonstrated against his tak
ing what they supposed to be the post of greatest
danger — a yielding which he afterward regretted,
though it gave him the opportunity for making one
of the greatest displays of courage and resourceful
ness known to naval history. Another reason for
giving the Brooklyn first place was the fact that she
carried four chase guns, and had a device on her
bow that was intended for use in catching up and
removing torpedoes from her path.
Alongside each of the seven larger ships of the
fleet just named was lashed a smaller one — a gun
boat — as had been done in the dash past Port Hud
son. The Brooklyn had the Octorara, the Hartford
had the Metacomet, and the others in the order al
ready named, had the Port Royal, the Seminole, the
Kennebec, the Itasca and the Galena. Because
Fort Morgan was the point of danger, and the ships
would expose their starboard sides to its fire, the
gunboats were lashed to port, where they would be
as well protected as possible. For the guns of Fort
Gaines were, as has been said, so far away that they
could do no damage.
The four monitors were ordered to form just to
the right and ahead of the Admiral's line, so as
to interpose their fire between the fort and the
wooden ships. The Tecumseh, Commander T. A.
M. Craven, had the honor of leading the monitors.
The Mississippi monitors followed the big ones, the
Chickasaw, Lieutenant Commander George H. Per-

320 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
kins, being the last in the line, though by no means
of least importance.
Having arranged the order of his ships, the Ad
miral looked to the conditions of tide and weather.
The start was to be made, as the general order said,
with the flood tide ; for Farragut had determined that
every ship must go through and pass the forts.
"If one or more of the ships be disabled, their
partners must carry them through if possible ; but
if they cannot then the next astern must render the re
quired assistance.'' '
The direction of the wind was considered — one
from the southwest was desired, to blow the smoke
of the fleet into the eyes of the gunners in the fort.
A subsequent general order called attention to the
"black buoys placed across the channel, from the
piles on the west side of the channel toward Fort
Morgan." Because these buoys marked the sites
of the torpedoes the ships were ordered to pass to
eastward of the red buoy, "which is clear of all ob
structions." It is worth while recalling, too, that the first gen
eral order said, "It will be the object of the Ad
miral to get as close to the fort as possible before
opening fire." This was not uttered in any spirit
of bravado ; it simply meant that by getting
close in with the ships their fire would be more
effective and the lives of the crews therefore in less
danger. Six other small steamers not hitherto mentioned —
the Genesee, Pinola, Pembina, Sebago, Tennessee
and Bienville, all under the command of Lieutenant-

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY 321
Commander Edward C. Grafton, were ordered to
take a station at a point southeast of Fort Morgan,
whence they could shell it and thus help beat down
its fire. But Grafton kept them at so long a range
that they were unable to reach the fort, and thus he
lost the one opportunity for distinction that ever
came to him.
This fact is, perhaps, worth emphasizing for the
admonition of the officers of the navy now, and in
time to come. Two classes of officers have been
found afloat. In one class are included men like
George Upham Morris, of the old Cumberland, and
Raphael Semmes, of the Confederate Alabama —
men who fought till their ships sank from under
them. The other class always kept well in mind
all orders that had been received from the Depart
ment, or other superior authority, cautioning them
not to risk their ships. The cautious class never
accomplished anything for peace by their caution,
but fighting men have achieved immortality even
when, through their eagerness, they have disobeyed
orders as did one captain — Craven — in Farragut's
fleet at Mobile.
Because the Tecumseh did not come upon the
scene in time, the agreement to go in on the
morning of August 4th was not kept. But during
the 4th the Tecumseh steamed up. When Craven
had received his orders from Farragut at Pensacola
he had not an ounce of coal on board, but aided by
Jenkins, of the Richmond, he managed to put
everything in order and to arrive off Mobile not too
late. During the night of the 4th, the monitors

322 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
anchored behind Sand Island. The remainder of
the fleet anchored farther out. There was then
nothing more to do but wait for morning and the
battle. With a full appreciation of the character of the
contest before him, when he had done all that
he could do, Farragut's thoughts turned, as the
thoughts of every good man in the navy always
turn on the eve of battle, to his home, and sitting
down in his cabin he wrote this letter :
"My dearest Wife: — I write and leave this
letter for you. I am going into Mobile Bay 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
proper place for me to die, I am ready to submit to
His will, in that as all other things. My great
mortification is, that my vessels, the ironclads,
were not ready to have gone in yesterday. The
army landed last night, and are in full view of us
this morning, and the Tecumseh has not yet arrived
from Pensacola.
"God bless and preserve you, my darling, and
my dear boy, if anything should happen to me,
and may His blessing also rest upon your dear
mother, and all your sisters and their children.
"Your devoted and affectionate husband, who
never for one moment forgot his love, duty or fi
delity to you, his devoted and best of wives."
Save for the work of the engineer forces in keep
ing up steam, and of the watches on deck with
their sharp lookout for a dash of the ironclad Ten
nessee, the night was absolutely quiet. The weather
proved lowering with a strong threat of rain from

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY 323
the Gulf. But as daylight approached the clouds
vanished, and a gentle southwest wind came in
with the tide beneath a clear sky.
At four o' clock the shrill piping of the boatswains'
whistles, with the call of " all hands up hammocks, ' '
was heard from ship to ship, and the crews turned
out to find ready for them their pannikins of refresh
ing coffee. A little later the gunboats got under
way, and steaming over to their consorts, were made
well fast with hawsers.
At 5:30 the Admiral was sitting at the table in
the cabin of the Hartford, with Captain Drayton
and Dr. James C. Palmer, a volunteer from the
naval hospital at Pensacola. Seeing that daylight
was at hand the Admiral said :
"Well, Drayton, we might as well get under
way." The signal was promptly displayed, and at 6:10
o'clock the flagship was crossing the outer bar,
bound in. At 6:30 the column of wooden ships
was formed in the channel, and then, to the in
spiration of every man who could see, the old
flag was flung to the breeze from each mast head
and flag-staff in the fleet.
Next came the monitors to take their positions in
line in the channel and wait for the wooden ships
to overtake them; and finally at 6:55, the whole
battle line moved forward toward the fort, the eager
captain of the Tecumseh firing her two guns as she
started ahead.
Ten minutes later — at 7:05, the fort opened fire
on the fleet ; the Brooklyn replied instantly, and the

324 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
crews of the guns that would bear from the other
ships joined in. Then the Confederate squadron
within the bay steamed out from behind the shelter
of the fort and took its station across the channel
just within the line of torpedoes. It was an awe-
inspiring scene as the long line of National ships
moved slowly in, with clouds of smoke bursting
from their sides as they hurled storms of shell and
shrapnel upon forte and beach, while the guns of
the fort thundered back with shot that knocked
sprays of smoking splinters from the wooden
vessels. As the smoke began to cover the water and fog
in the monitors, Farragut left the poop deck of the
Hartford, and going to the port main rigging
climbed up where he could get a full view of his
fleet. From this place he could see all the ships :
Captain Drayton, on the poop deck, was within
reach of his voice ; Lieutenant Commander Jouett
of the Metacomet was standing on her wheel house
just below him ; above him in the top was Captain
Martin Freeman, the faithful pilot, while a quarter
master, not far away, was leaning out from the
ship's side, swinging the lead and calling in a voice
plainly heard, the depth of water — "By the mark
three ! " and " A quarter less four ! "
It was a most advantageous position for a fleet
commander, and as the smoke thickened Farragut
climbed higher and higher until he reached the fut-
tock shrouds, just under the maintop. There he
stopped. Then Captain Drayton, fearing that the
Admiral might be thrown to the deck by a wound,

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY 325
sent up Quartermaster Knowles with a piece of
lead line, which he passed around the Admiral's
body, making the ends fast in the shrouds. It was
a simple incident, but the people of the Nation were
thrilled as rarely before when the newspapers told
how the Admiral went into battle " lashed to the
mast." After the wooden ships overhauled the monitors,
Captain Stevens of the Winnebago was seen walk
ing to and fro on deck between the turrets, wholly
regardless of the fire of the fort that was directed at
her, while Perkins of the Chickasaw, showing the
uplift of a daring soul going into battle, was on top
of his forward turret.
Craven, in the Tecumseh, having once fired his
guns at the fort, ceased firing. Both guns were
then loaded with full charges of powder and in
each was placed a solid steel projectile. The Te
cumseh was leading all, and the captain had de
termined to reserve his fire for an attack upon the
Confederate ironclad Tennessee.
In perfect silence, thereafter, but with every man
ready, the Tecumseh led the way in until so near
the line of torpedoes at the slight bend in the chan
nel that the Brooklyn and Hartford, though well in
the rear of the monitors, were both able to fire full
broadsides at the fort, driving the men of the water
battery and the barbette guns hastily to shelter. In
spired by the spectacle thus afforded, and impatient
to get at the ironclad ram, which was then seen
steaming just to westward of the line of torpedoes,
Craven said to his pilot :

326 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
"It is impossible that the Admiral means us to
go inside that buoy ; I cannot turn my ship."
He was arguing with himself, rather than with
the pilot — seeking an excuse for a dash at the Ten
nessee, and finding it, too ; for the next instant, he
said firmly : ' ' Hard a-starboard, ' ' and then headed
the ship across the torpedo line.
Over on the Tennessee Captain Johnson saw the
Tecumseh change her course, and said to Lieutenant
Arthur D. Wharton, commanding the forward di
vision :
" Do not fire until the vessels are in actual con
tact." " Aye, aye, sir," replied Wharton, taking in the
slack of the firing lanyard of the bow gun. Both
of these officers, indeed all the officers of the fleet
that could see the two ships, were looking for "a
deadly fight at close quarters," but as the Tecumseh' s
bow touched the black buoys of the torpedo line she
lurched from side to side. An instant later she
pitched down by the bow ; her stern rose until her
wheel was seen whirling in air, and then with a
score of men leaping from deck and turret, down
she went.
And while she reeled during that moment on the
surface, Pilot John Collins and Captain Craven met
at the foot of the ladder that led up through the tur
ret to possible safety. The Captain came first, but
he stepped back and said :
"After you, pilot."
The pilot reached the top of the ladder, but when
there the "vessel seemed to drop from under him.

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY 327
He alone was saved to tell the story of the captain's
heroism." '
It was a frightful disaster, and over on the Brook
lyn the captain ordered the engines stopped. At once
the rest of the line began closing in on her rapidly.
"What is the matter with the Brooklyn? " said
Farragut to his pilot. " She must have plenty of
water there?"
"Plenty of water and to spare, Admiral," said
the pilot, " but her screw is moving — I think she is
going ahead, sir."
Unhappily she began to back, instead, and with
her bow turning toward the fort she drifted, broad
side to, athwart the channel, blocking the way.
Glancing hastily around, the Admiral saw his
whole fleet becoming disordered. The fire of all
the ships died away, while the Confederates, seeing
their advantage, worked their guns till the fort
seemed to be sheeted with flames. The gladiator
was staggering under the blows of the enemy : the
supreme moment of the battle and of the Admiral's
life had come. Instinctively he breathed a prayer
— " Shall I go on ? " A voice seemed to whisper in
his ear, "Go on! "
1 " When the divers went down to examine the wreck of the
Tecumseh they found nearly all the crew at their posts as they
sank. The chief engineer, who had been married in New York
only two weeks before, and who had received from the flag
ship's mail his letters while the line was forming, stood with
one hand upon the revolving bar of the turret engine, and in
the other an open letter from his bride, which his dead eyes still
seemed to be reading " (Soharf).

328 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
Turning to the Brooklyn, now close aboard, he
hailed :
' ' What is the trouble ? ' '
"Torpedoes," replied her captain.
"Damn the torpedoes! Full speed, Jouett!
Four bells, Captain Drayton," shouted Farragut.
And when the crew of the Hartford heard those
orders they leaped as one man to the starboard rail,
facing the fort, and gave three yells of defiance.
When, in the battle on Lake Champlain,
Macdonough invoked the aid of God, his act un
doubtedly gave resolution to the hearts of his crew ;
but it was the spectacle of a rooster crowing in the
rigging that roused them to the shouting pitch.
And (such is the heart of the fighting man) while
the crew of the Hartford loved and trusted their
Admiral for the sincerity of his religious convic
tions it was when they heard his good, vigorous
"damn the torpedoes" that they were inspired
with the full joy of battle.
The channel was blocked by the Brooklyn, but
the helm of the Hartford was put to starboard, and
aided by the Metacomet she was pointed clear.
Then, regardless of the lurking danger that had
destroyed the Tecumseh, Farragut drove his ship
straight at the torpedo line. In a few momente the
torpedoes were heard knocking against her bottom,
and several of the percussion primers exploded as
she crossed, but none was fired, and victory was
close at hand. When the Hartford passed the three
monitors her crew saw Perkins of the Chickasaw
dancing about on top of her forward turret, and

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY 329
waving his hat for joy at the sight of the Admiral's
ship saving the day by leading the fleet into battle.
But while the scales of fortune yet hung quiver
ing Farragut's thoughts turned to the unfortunate
men who had leaped from the Tecumseh into the
water, and hailing Lieutenant- Commander Jouett,
of the Metacomet, he ordered a boat sent to their
aid. The thoughtful Jouett had already done so.
Acting Ensign Henry C. Nields, a mere boy, had
been put in charge of the boat. Pulling through
the storm of shot Nields headed for* the men in the
water. A little later he remembered a small flag
that should have been floating from his boat, and
dropping the tiller ropes, he drew it from its case
and shaking its folds to the breeze, stepped it above
the stern. The Tennessee at that moment had a gun
pointed directly at the boat, but the officer in com
mand, thrilled by " this most gallant act," elevated
the muzzle and the shot " flew harmlessly over the
heads of that glorious boat's crew."
The fort was passed but the Confederates might
have said, as John Paul Jones said, that they had
not yet begun to fight. In fact, General Page, com
manding Fort Morgan, did say that, while the ships
had forced their way in, the door was closed behind
them and he held the key.
As the Hartford cleared the torpedo line the Ten
nessee made a dash at her, but missed her because
the Hartford was moving more swiftly than the
Confederate. "Farragut took no further notice of
her than to return her fire." The three gunboate
being of far inferior strength, retreated, but they

330 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
fought as they went. Their huge guns were worked
with vigor and skill, and because the Hartford was
chasing them bow on, their shot raked her fore and
aft, making a slaughter pen of her forward gun deck.
In the meantime the Tennessee had been follow
ing the Hartford, but seeing, after a time, that he
could not catch her, Admiral Buchanan turned his
vessel back to meet the other National ships ; for
the flagship had gained a lead of nearly a mile
over the others.
Then the Hartford reached the pocket of deep
water in the bay and was able to yaw around and
bring her broadside guns to bear on the three gun
boats, with the result that the Gaines was struck a
number of times, seeing which Farragut turned to
Jouett, of the Metacomet, and ordered him to cast
loose and go in chase of the gunboats. " Aye, aye,
sir," said Jouett, with enthusiasm, and at the same
moment two sailors, who had been stationed with
axes beside the fastening hawsers awaiting such an
order, chopped the Metacomet clear, and away she
went. Just as she got fairly headed for the Con
federates, a heavy rain squall came across the bay,
shutting in the ships so that it was impossible to
distinguish one from another. While it lasted the
Confederate gunboats Morgan and Gaines turned
back toward Fort Morgan. The Selma, however,
kept off to eastward, and when the squall cleared
away the Metacomet was found to be in chase of
and overhauling her. But after a time the leadmen
on the Metacomet announced that the water was
growing shoaler, and finally it was seen that her

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY 331
keel was actually plowing through a foot of mud
on the bottom.
"Call in the men from the chains," said Jouett,
when the executive officer reported this fact to him.
" Call in the men ; they are only intimidating me."
Hearing these words the crew shouted with laugh
ter. The pursuit was continued until a shot killed
the executive officer of the Selma with six of her
crew, when her flag was hauled down.
The Gaines and Morgan reached the shelter of
Fort Morgan, but the Gaines had been so badly cut
up that she was beached and burned. The Morgan
made a good retreat up to Mobile that night.
After failing to catch the Hartford, the Tennessee
tried to ram several of the other National ships,
in turn, but the fatal defect of inferior power pre
vented success, and the whole National fleet joined
Farragut at the upper end of the deep water pocket.
In spite of the disorder and the delay of the fleet in-
ident to the Brooklyn's flinch at the torpedo line,
tje ships had in no case been so seriously damaged
as to put them out of commission. The Oneida had
suffered most of all because, being the last ship in
the line, she had been obliged to pass the fort un
aided by the fire of the other ships. One shot
entered her starboard boiler, another cut her wheel
ropes, and a third set her on fire. But Captain Mul-
lany (a fighting Irishman) led his crew in quench
ing the fire, and in making the needed repairs ;
when she joined the Admiral her crew could boast
that her guns had never for a moment ceased firing
on the fort while she was within range.

332 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
At 8:30 o'clock — an hour and a half after the
battle with the fort began — the Hartford anchored
four miles above Fort Morgan and sent her crew to
breakfast. "The Admiral," says Mahan, "had comedown
from his post in the main rigging and was standing
on the poop, when Captain Drayton came up to him
and said : ' What we have done has been well done,
sir ; but it all counts for nothing so long as the
Tennessee is there under the guns of Morgan.' "
One of the officers on the Tennessee made a simi
lar remark to Admiral Buchanan. The Confeder
ates believed that they had the Federal squadron
bottled up, and Farragut appears to have felt that
he was not yet the victor, for he replied to Dray
ton :
" As soon as the people have had their breakfasts
I am going for her."
But this he did not have to do. The Tennessee
came to him. The tacticians unite in condemning
Buchanan for taking the offensive. The Tennessee
had been well hammered by the broadsides of every
ship that entered the bay. Every sort of projectile,
including the solid round shot of 11-inch and 15-inch
smoothbores, and the long 136-pound bolts of the
big rifles, struck her as the fleet passed, but when
her armor was examined it was found that not even
a rivet had been started. At long range she was
invulnerable to all the guns of the National fleet.
Further than that the projectiles from the Ten
nessee's rifles— the bow and stern guns threw bolts
of 140 pounds — had been able to pierce the wooden

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY 333
walls of the Union fleet. The fact is to be considered
too that the Tennessee drew but fourteen feet of
water. She might have taken a position on the
shoals where Farragut's big wooden ships could
not get near her, and at long range it would have
been possible for her to shoot them to pieces while
lying secure from their fire. The tacticians say that
the Tennessee should have done as the British Phoebe
did at Valparaiso, when fighting the ill-armed Essex.
But in defense of Buchanan, it may be said that
the monitors could follow him wherever he might take
the Tennessee, and there were three of these, all
practically invulnerable to his guns. They could
gather like bloodhounds around a bull, to compass
his destruction. Farragut saw that they were the ships
to send against the Tennessee, for he wrote, some
time later, that he had intended to attack her with
them if she had remained under the fort. Buchanan
was right in fighting it out at once.
Whether it was due to what Mahan calls " incon
siderate bravery," or to a feeling that if he could
conquer at all he could do it better while the Na
tional crews were tired and his crew fresh, cannot
now be told definitely. The fact is, when he saw
that the last of Farragut's ships had passed up the
bay, he turned to the captain and said :
"Follow them up, Johnson. We can't let them
off that way."
While Captain Drayton talked with Admiral Far
ragut on the poop deck of the Hartford, the Ten
nessee was seen under motion. She seemed to be
heading out to sea, as if to attack the vessels out-

334 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
side, and when this was reported to Farragut, he
said :
"Then we must follow him out."
To get alongside the Tennessee Farragut would
have taken his ships once more through the fire of
the forts. But the Confederate was merely turning
in a wide circle to "follow them up." By the
time this fact was ascertained Farragut had gone
below and was eating his breakfast in the cabin.
"What ! Is that so ? " he said, as an officer told
him the Tennessee was coming. ' ' Just like Buchan
an' s audacity. Signal to all frigates to get imme
diately under way and run the ram under, and to
the monitors to attack at once."
Fleet Surgeon Palmer who had started in the Ad
miral's launch, Loyall, to make a round of inspec
tion among the wounded of the fleet was recalled
and ordered to go to each of the monitors with indi
vidual orders to attack the Tennessee. And in his
diary (quoted by Mahan), Palmer wrote of the
Chickasaw's captain :
"Happy as my friend Perkins habitually is, I
thought he would turn a somersault overboard with
joy when I told him, ' the Admiral wants you to
go at once and fight the Tennessee.' "
Clearing away their messkite, the men of the
Federal fleet hurried to their work, and with an
chors at the hawse pipes, in some cases, the whole
fleet flocked down to meet the lone ironclad. The
Monongahela had the lead, and at full speed she
charged the Tennessee. But the Tennessee's helm
was put over so that her opponent struck her a

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY 335
glancing harmless blow ; and yet the impact made
the Confederate whirl as if on a pivot, and Lieutenant
Wharton, commanding the forward division, felt
as if he " were going through the air."
The Tennessee responded by firing two shots that
passed clear through the Monongahela and dropped
in the water beyond. Then the Monongahela fired
a broadside at the ram, but the solid shot liter
ally rolled down her inclined armor like marbles on
a plank. As the Monongahela swung clear " a hideous
looking monster whose slowly revolving turret re
vealed the cavernous depths of a mammoth gun" —
the monitor Manhattan — appeared to the crew of
the Tennessee. Lieutenant Wharton had time only
to shout, " Stand clear of the port side ! " when the
great gun was fired, and the 440-pound shot
struck the casemate, crushing in the plates and
solid mass of wood till daylight showed through.
Then it rebounded into the water.
The Lackawanna came next, plowing up the water
at a ten-knot gait, and striking the Tennessee at
right angles on the port side near the after end
of the casemate. The bow of the Lackawanna was
crushed in both above and below the water line, but
she did the Tennessee no damage, while the hammer
ing broadside that she delivered as she swung around
had no more effect than the guns of the Monongahela
had had. But both the Monongahela and the Lack
awanna at once headed off to circle around and re
turn for another attack at full speed.
Then came the Hartford, her anchor dragging on

336 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
the surface of the water because the eager crew had
found no time to get it higher. The Tennessee
turned slightly and the two met, port bow to port
bow. The Hartford's anchor was doubled up, but
the blow did no other damage, and the two ships
scraped along, side against side. Seven guns of the
Hartford's battery were fired at that short range,
but without effect.
There was even hand to hand fighting, in spite of
the thickness and inclination of the walls of the
Tennessee's casemate. As ship after ship rubbed
along the walls of the Tennessee, the men on each
side could see and reach each other through the
port-holes. Engineer Rodgers of the Tennessee "was off
watch and had nothing to do but sit on a hatch-
comb and note incidents." While there he said
later, "A Yankee cursed me through a port-hole,
and I jabbed him with my bayonet in the body and
his comrade shot me with his revolver." The
story is related by Surgeon D. B. Conrad of the Ten
nessee, who had curious wounds to dress. The shot
from the National ships could not penetrate the Ten
nessee's armor but flaming cubes of powder were
hurled through her port-holes, there to pierce the
skins of her guns' crews, for the men were stripped
to the waist. And no more painful wounds were
ever endured than these.
As the Hartford turned to ram again she got
across the bows of the Lackawanna, from which she
received a crushing blow near the port mizzen rig
ging. Admiral Farragut had long before that time

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY 337
climbed into the mizzen rigging, and had been
"lashed" there again by Lieutenant J. C. Watson.
As the ships came together every man on deck
turned to look at the Admiral, while the sailors, be
lieving that the collision would sink the Hartford,
wholly forgot their own danger, and began to
shout :
"Save the Admiral!" "Get the Admiral on
board the Lackawanna ! "
Happily the Admiral was unhurt. Clearing
away his lashing he climbed down to the rail,
where he found that the injury to the Hartford did
not extend to the water line, and then he ordered
the ship headed once more for the Tennessee.
By this time the Confederate was, as Farragut
wrote, "sore beset." She was fairly surrounded
— mobbed — by the ships that were headed in to ram
her. Worse yet, the Chickasaw had taken a posi
tion under her port quarter, and remained there,
firing her four 11-inch guns at one small area on
the casemate — firing them so rapidly, indeed, that
no less than fifty-two solid shot struck the stern end
of the casemate within half an hour. The Tennes
see's armor had resisted the blow from a single 15-
inch shot, but it could not withstand the prolonged
hammering of the smaller guns. Three shutters
over the port-holes of stern and port-side guns were
riveted fast in place at times when they were cover
ing the port holes, and the guns were thereby
silenced. Then, while four mechanics were trying
to release the shutter over the stern port, and Ad
miral Buchanan was personally directing the work,

338 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
another shot struck the weakened casemate, bulg
ing it in, and splitting two of the mechanics into
shreds . that were gathered up with a shovel,
besides hurling a splinter that broke Buchanan's
leg. "I saw their limbs and chests, severed and
mangled, scattered about the deck, their hearts
lying near their bodies," wrote Surgeon Conrad,
when speaking of the horrors of the battle. The
shots that followed this one set the plates jingling
and bolts flying — Death was swiftly finding a way
through the armor.
In the meantime the Tennessee's smoke-stack had
been broken off below the deck of the casemate.
The furnaces lost their draft. The hot smoke and
gases from them filled the space where the guns
were worked, and overpowered the crew. The
steering chains had also been shot away, and when
tackles were hooked on instead, they were quickly
destroyed. The Tennessee had become a helpless hulk, un
able either to steer or to work her guns. Her
officers had fought with unsurpassed gallantry and
endurance, but now they could do no more. Going
down to the berth deck, Captain Johnson found
Admiral Buchanan under the hands of Surgeon
Conrad, who, alone, had carried him below for treat
ment. Buchanan had said to Johnson, "They have
got me again. You'll have to look out for her now ;
it is your fight." But Johnson had now come to
report the helpless condition of his ship, and the
further fact that all three monitors were in position

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY 339
to hammer the casemate to pieces as the Chickasaw
had been doing.
"Well, Johnson, fight to the last," said Buchanan.
" Then to save these brave men, when there is no
longer any hope, surrender."
The flagstaff of the Tennessee had been shot away
long since, but her banner was flying bravely from
a boat hook. Going on deck, regardless of the
storm of shot that the monitors were hurling at him,
Captain Johnson took down the flag. " It had been
raised in triumph, it was lowered without dishonor."
And then when he saw that the absence of the
flag was not observed, or was misunderstood, he
attached a handkerchief to the boat hook, and
standing alone on deck, waved it in the air.
In an instant the order "cease firing " was heard
ringing from ship to ship, and then the little
Ossipee that, with two or three larger ships had
been heading full speed to ram the Tennessee,
sheered alongside of her. Captain William E.
LeRoy, of the Ossipee, and Captain Johnson, of
the Tennessee, had been close friends in the old
navy, and going to the Ossipee' s topgallant fore
castle, as he neared the Tennessee, LeRoy shouted :
"Hello, Johnson, old fellow! How are you?
This is the United States steamer Ossipee. I'll
send a boat alongside for you. I'm LeRoy ; don't
you know me?"
A few minutes later LeRoy took charge of the
surrendered Tennessee and raised above her the
Stars and Stripes. The battle of Mobile Bay was
won.

340 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
"It was one of the hardest victories of my life,"
wrote Admiral Farragut, " and the most des
perate battle I ever fought since the days of the old
Essex."

CHAPTER XXI
STORIES told after the battle
It was exactly ten o'clock when the Tennessee
surrendered. The guns at Fort Morgan had opened
on the National ships at 7:05 — the battle had raged
for. just under three hours. The losses in the
Federal fleet were : On the Hartford, 25 killed and
28 wounded ; on the Brooklyn, 11 killed and 43
wounded ; on the Lackawanna, 4 killed and 35
wounded ; on the Oneida, 8 killed and 30 wounded,
while the other vessels of the fleet suffered enough to
bring the total losses up to 52 killed and 170 wounded,
besides 113 who went down in the Tecumseh — a
total loss of 335 men and one good ship. But the
Confederate fleet was overwhelmed, and, unlike the
event below New Orleans, the guns of the one
formidable Confederate ship were secured in good
condition to be turned upon the Confederate forte.
The Confederate ships lost 12 killed aud 19 wounded
all told.
Immediately after the surrender of the Tennessee
she was boarded by Farragut's fleet surgeon, Dr.
Palmer, who hastened to the side of Admiral
Buchanan. Finding his wound serious, Dr.
Palmer returned to Farragut, who arranged with
General Page, commanding Fort Morgan, to send
the Metacomet, with Buchanan and others that

342 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
were seriously wounded, under a flag of truce, to
Pensacola, where better care could be given them.
Surgeon Conrad, of the Tennessee, went along and
afterward published Buchanan's plan of battle and
anticipations of the result, as Buchanan discussed
the matter while lying in the hospital at Pensacola.
Buchanan said.,:
" I did not expect to do the passing vessels any
serious injury ; the guns of Fort Morgan were
thought capable of doing that. I expected that the
monitors would then and there surround me and
pound the ' shell ' in ; but when the Federal vessels
had passed up and anchored four miles away, then
I saw that a long siege was intended by the army
and navy, which, with ite numerous transporte at
anchor under Pelican Island, were debarking nearly
10,000 infantry. I determined, then, having the
example before me of the blowing up of the Merri
mac in the James River by our own officers without
a fight, by being caught in such a trap — I deter
mined by an unexpected dash into the fleet, to
attack and do it all the damage in my power ; to
expend all my ammunition and what little coal I
had on board— only six hours steaming ; and then
having done all I could with what resources I had,
to retire under the guns of the fort, and being with
out motive power, there to lay and assist in repell
ing the attack and assaults of the fleet."
Dr. Conrad gives us also a glimpse of Farragut
and the Hartford in the flush of victory, for he went
to the flagship to arrange for the transfer of Admiral
Buchanan from the Tennessee. He says :

STORIES TOLD AFTER THE BATTLE 343
"Ascending by the man rope I mounted the
hammock netting, as the whole starboard side amid-
ship and the gangway had been carried away. From
the hammock netting the scene was one of carnage
and devastation. The spar deck was covered and
littered with broken gun carriages, shattered boats,
disabled guns and a long line of grim corpses,
dressed in blue, lying side by side. The officer
accompanying me told me that these men — two
whole guns' crews — were all killed by splinters,
and, pointing with his hand to a piece of weather-
boarding ten feet long and four inches wide, I
received my first vivid idea of what was meant by
a splinter. "Ascending the poop, where all the officers were
standing, I was introduced to Admiral Farragut,
whom I found a very quiet, unassuming man, and
not in the least flurried by his great victory. In
the kindest manner he inquired regarding the
severity of the Admiral's wound, and then gave
the necessary orders to carry out Admiral Bu
chanan's request."
Farragut had gazed upon that " long line of grim
corpses dressed in blue," of which Conrad speaks,
and the sight brought tears from his eyes. "It
was the only time I ever saw the old gentleman
cry," said Quartermaster Knowles, afterward, " but
the tears came to his eyes like a little child."
In his report of the battle Farragut made some
statements showing his feelings as a man in time
of battle; and they are well worth repeating here.
He said :

344 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
" Notwithstanding the loss of life, particularly on
this ship, and the terrible disaster to the Tecumseh,
the result of the fight was a glorious victory and I
have reason to feel proud of the officers, seamen and
marines of the squadron under my command, for it
has never fallen to the lot of an officer to be thus
situated and thus sustained.
"Regular discipline will bring men to any
amount of endurance, but there is a natural fear
of hidden dangers, particularly when so awfully
destructive on human life as the torpedo, which re
quires more than discipline to overcome. . . .
After I saw the Tecumseh, struck by a torpedo, dis
appear almost instantly, beneath the waves, . . .
I determined at once, as I had originally intended,
to take the lead ; and ... I dashed ahead with
the Hartford and the ships followed on, their officers
believing they were going to a noble death with
their commander-in-chief.
"As I had an elevated position in the main rig
ging near the top, I was able to overlook not only
the deck of the Hartford, but the vessels of the
fleet. I witnessed the terrible effects of the enemy's
shot and the good conduct of the men at their guns,
and although no doubt their hearts sickened, as
mine did, when their shipmates were struck down
beside them yet there was not a moment's hesita
tion to lay their comrades aside and spring again to
their deadly work."
For Craven the Admiral had nothing but praise ;
and this is a significant fact that should be treas
ured by young naval officers. For the sake of em-

STORIES TOLD AFTER THE BATTLE 345
phasis let it be said here again that in the history of
our navy it has been observed that officers have had
their reputations tarnished by too strictly adhering
to orders that kept them far from the enemy, while
honors have always been accorded to every one
who, for the sake of getting his ship alongside the
enemy, or for the sake of making a better fight, has
disobeyed his orders.
A paragraph from Admiral Buchanan's report is
especially memorable because it is, indirectly, a
severe arraignment of the policy of the Confederate
authorities toward their navy. He said :
" I seriously felt the want of experienced officers ;
all were young and inexperienced, and many had
but little familiarity with naval duties, having been
appointed from civil life within a year."
A grouty, able, far-seeing old sailor was he, and
given to telling the truth even when it was unpleas
ant. Officers of the old navy who gave their
swords to the Confederacy were shifted into the
army, or set at tasks that could never, in any de
gree worth mention, aid the cause for which they
worked, and boys were "appointed from civil life"
to take the places that might have been filled by
experienced sailors on such battleships as were got
afloat. A private journal, as quoted by Loyall Farragut,
says that, as the fleet headed in for the fort "the
calmness of the scene was sublime. No impatience,
no irritation, no anxiety, except for the fort to
open ; and after it did open, full five minutes
elapsed before we answered. In the meantime the

346 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
guns were trained as if at a target, and all the
sounds I could hear were, ' Steady, boys, steady !
Left tackle a little. So ! so ! ' then the roar of a
broadside, and an eager cheer as the enemy were
driven from their water battery. Don't imagine
they [the Confederates] were frightened ; no man
could stand under that iron shower ; and the brave
fellows returned to their guns as soon as it lulled,
only to be driven away again."
While the Ossipee and Itasca were passing the
fort a splinter struck Lieutenant -Commander George
Brown, commanding the Itasca, and caused him
intense pain.
"What is the matter, Brown?" asked Lieuten
ant J. A. Howell of the Ossipee, "have you been
struck by a splinter ? "
"You may call it a splinter on your big vessel,"
replied Brown, " but aboard this little craft it ranks
as a log of wood."
In all eighty-three men before the mast received
medals of honor for showing coolness and bravery
in the battle of Mobile Bay — a sufficient proof that
the gallantry of Admiral Farragut inspired his
men throughout the fleet. Though unnamed in
history the men at the oars were as heroic as was
young Nields when he went to save the crew of the
Tecumseh. Of the many letters of congratulation that Farra
gut received, after entering Mobile Bay, there was
none that described the effect of the victory upon
the Nation as well as that of General Benjamin F.
Butler. The letter also shows by what route the

STORIES TOLD AFTER THE BATTLE 347
news reached the North. Writing on August llth,
he said :
"I had the exquisite gratification of telegraph
ing from the Richmond papers the first account of
your most glorious success, and the noble exploit of
your fleet. I need not use the language of compli
ment where none is needed. It is all said in one word.
It was like you. Reminding me so much of the pas
sage of the Mississippi forts, was it wonderful that,
boy-like, in my tent all alone, when the rebel jour
nal was brought and the official telegram read that
you and seventeen of your vessels had passed Fort
Morgan, I called out, ' Three cheers for Farragut ' ?
They were given with a will that brought in my
staff and orderlies, who thought their general had
gone crazy, perhaps with sunstroke, whereas it was
only a stroke of good luck, of high daring and
noble enterprise, quite as brilliant as anything the
sun could do.
" Let me assure you, admiral, that those cheers,
the first given on the occasion in the loyal North,
are not done ringing yet ; but every hilltop is re
sounding with them as they are caught up from
hamlet to hamlet and city to city, of a grateful
Nation. I speak no language of hyperbole, and
only the words of sincere admiration when I say I
envy you alone of all men, for the place you have
in the hearts of your countrymen — a feeling, how
ever, which will not prevent me from, at all times,
adding my mite to the tribute."
However, there was more work for Farragut to do
even after the Tennessee had been captured. It

348 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
makes one proud of the old navy to recall the fact
that General R. L. Page, who had been a com
mander in it, now "looked upon Farragut's fleet as
practically prisoners in a port whose keys he held."
General Page was mistaken ; he was soon to be cut
off from every source of supplies, but he had the
John Paul Jones spirit, and would fight to the last
gasp, looking for some turn in affairs that would
save the day.
Moreover, Fort Gaines was yet in the possession
of the Confederates, and because Farragut had been
unable to enter the port on the 4th, they had
thrown a large quantity of supplies and an ad
ditional force of men into it to strengthen it against
the assaults that had been commenced by General
Granger's command. Further than that, Fort
Powell, commanding Grant's Pass westward from
the bay, was in position to sink any vessels trying
to bring supplies from New Orleans to Farragut's
fleet. While General Granger was landing on Dauphin
Island (Aug. 3d), to attack Fort Gaines, Lieu
tenant-Commander J. C. P. DeKraft was sent with
the Conemaugh and a number of other light- draft
gunboate to cover the landing. This was accom
plished without trouble, and then DeKraft, on the
5th, went around to the westward and attacked Fort
Powell. The fort was struck several times during
the forenoon, but nothing was accomplished toward
its capture. In the afternoon of the 5th, however,
the bay being wholly under the command of Far
ragut, the Chickasaw was sent to attack Fort Powell

STORIES TOLD AFTER THE BATTLE 349
in the rear. Steaming up within 700 yards of the
fort Perkins opened on it with his four 11-inch guns.
Lieutenant-Colonel J. M. Williams, commanding the
fort, had but one gun mounted and able to reply
to the Chickasaw. It was a 7-inch Brooke rifle, and
he managed it as well as circumstances permitted,
but the earth work before the gun was not high
enough to protect the men, and at the same time too
high to permit a sufficient depression of the weapon
for a ricochet fire at the Chickasaw. Moreover, there
was no platform for the men to stand on when load
ing the gun, and they therefore handled the ammu
nition slowly. Worse than all else was the fact
that, because the fort had not been completed, the
bomb proof could be and was pierced by a shell.
The shell did not explode, but it was manifest that
the magazine might be blown up at any moment ;
and the projectiles that reached the face wall of the
fort from time to time knocked it down so rapidly
that its destruction was plainly a matter of time only.
Being wholly unable to hold the fort longer, Colo
nel Williams, after consultation by wire with Colo
nel Charles D. Anderson, commanding Fort Gaines,
abandoned Fort Powell on the night of the 5th, and
when his men were well clear of it, he fired the
magazine, destroying the whole work.
The case of Fort Gaines was somewhat different.
On the 4th, in anticipation of a siege, the Confed
erates, as has been said, added to the garrison until
there were 864 officers and men in it. They had
carried in supplies to last six months. It was a
brick fort, well-planned, and it mounted twenty-

350 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
seven guns of which three were 10-inch Columbiads
and four 32-pounder rifles. There was a chance
here for a long fight.
On the 6th, preparations were made in Farragut's
fleet for bombarding this fort, and late in the after
noon the Chickasaw was sent to drop a few shells
into it and get the range. Then, being anxious to
save life where possible, Farragut forwarded a flag
of truce and invited Colonel Anderson and his staff
to consider the matter of surrender in a conference.
Colonel Anderson accepted the invitation. On ar
riving in the cabin of the Hartford Admiral Far
ragut said to him : "Surrounded on three sides
by my vessels, and on the fourth by the army you
cannot possibly hold it. Submit, then, like a man
to this hard necessity, and prevent further loss of
life." A major who accompanied the Colonel
wanted "to fight it out," but Farragut continued :
"Gentlemen, if hard fighting could save that
fort, I would advise you to fight to the death ;
but by all the laws of war, you have not even a
chance of saving it."
The Admiral was a sincere man and his sincerity
was manifest to the Confederate officers. It was
true that they could not save the fort and by agree
ment it was surrendered to officers representing the
navy and army at nine o'clock on the morning of
the 7th. The garrison was sent to New Orleans,
and the flag of the Nation was once more hoisted
above the walls.
Until the surrender of Fort Gaines the unfriendly
British authorities had professed to see nothing

STORIES TOLD AFTER THE BATTLE 351
striking in the work of Farragut in Mobile Bay.
But on learning that Fort Gaines had surrendered
and Fort Powell had been abandoned, the British
Army and Navy Gazette said :
" There can now be no doubt of the signal char
acter of his victory and of the serious blow given to
the Confederates in that quarter. It was argued
that he had done nothing more than run past Fort
Gaines and Fort Morgan, and sink and destroy a
certain number of the enemy's fleet ; that his posi
tion was precarious, and his transporte could not
pass the batteries and he would have to run back
for supplies ; that he could not get up to the town,
in consequence of shoal water and of formidable
works on land ; and that he could not hope to hold
his own ; as he had not troops to make an impres
sion on the east side of the bay and prevent the
transmission of supplies to the forts at the en
trance. "Yesterday's news blew all these speculations,
arguments and assertions into the air without ex
ception. By the surrender of Fort Gaines on the
west side of the entrance and by the voluntary de
struction of Fort Powell, the position of Farragut
is rendered secure. The middle channel is left
open, and stores can be landed under the guns of
Fort Gaines ; and the channel to New Orleans,
which was closed by Fort Powell, must now fall
into the hands of the victor.
" Next to New Orleans, the city of Mobile was the
greatest cotton port in the States. It was lately
driving a considerable trade in blockade-running,
and gave abundant supplies to the Confederacy.
Now neither can cotton go out nor goods run in,
and Mobile, ite inhabitants and garrison are thrown
on the resources of the impoverished and hard-
pressed Confederacy.

352 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
" Already a fleet of transporte, laden with fresh
provisions and ice, has sailed from New York to
supply the doughty Admiral, whose feate of arms
place him at the head of his profession, and cer
tainly constitute him the first naval officer of the day,
as far as actual reputation, won by skill, courage
and hard fighting, goes."
This quotation is specially memorable, for it
was not until this time — after Farragut's victory
at Mobile — that the army and navy authorities in
England would admit that the Union forces were
likely to win. Moreover, the quotation shows how
" skill, courage and hard fighting" make friends for
a Nation as well as for a man. Beginning with the
naval victories of the Civil War, the old time prej
udices of the British against the " Yankee" nation
wore slowly away until our victories in the war with
Spain almost entirely dissipated them. Indeed,
near the end of 1904, when an American squadron
visited London the King of England at a luncheon
given to the officers of the squadron proposed the
toast :
"The American navy — may ite power never grow
less!" After the surrender of Fort Gaines, Flag Lieuten
ant John Crittenden Watson and Major James E.
Montgomery, were sent to Fort Morgan to demand
ite surrender, but "General Page replied that he
would defend his post to the last extremity." Ac
cordingly on the 9th increased forces and a train of
heavy artillery landed at Navy Cove, on the bay
side of the Peninsula, four miles from Fort Morgan.

STORIES TOLD AFTER THE BATTLE 353
From this point a steady advance was made by
throwing up earthworks until there were sixteen
mortars and twenty-five heavy cannon (including
four 9-inch navy guns under Lieutenant H. B.
Tyson), mounted within 500 yards of the fort. On
August 22d the fleet, including the Tennessee, closed
in and "began one of the most furious bombard
ments that sailor or soldier has ever witnessed." '
Without break the storm of shells was hurled at the
fort until sunset. Thereafter the fire became irregu
lar until nine o'clock when it was seen that the fort's
citadel was burning, whereupon the National forces
renewed their fire and maintained it all night.
"Yet, amid all the horrors of this disastrous
night, with their walls breached, almost every piece
of ordnance disabled, and the magazine endangered
by the conflagration which raged fiercely for several
hours, the garrison of Fort Morgan was not dis
mayed. Some of the soldiers applied themselves
to throwing their powder into the cistern, others to
spiking or destroying dismounted guns, while others
again contended successfully with the devouring
flames." *
At daylight of the 23d, all the powder in the fort
had been destroyed. The citadel was again set on
fire. The walls had been breached until there was
' ' no bomb-proof in the fort. ' ' All means of defense
were gone. In short "crumbling walls, broken
guns and water-soaked powder were all that re
mained of Fort Morgan, and at two o'clock on August
23d the white flag was displayed."
'F.A.Parker. sIbid.

354 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
The work of Admiral Farragut in the Civil War
was done. He remained in the bay until November,
but beyond clearing out the torpedoes, and exam
ining the shores, nothing worth while could be ef
fected. The Confederates had obstructed the chan
nel above Dog River Bar by sinking in it a hulk
that had been planned for an ironclad. Piles were
also driven so that the vessels that might otherwise
have crossed the Bar were unable to go up to the
city. Admiral Farragut advised that no attack be
made on Mobile at that time, but it was not because
of these obstructions. His reason, as he gave it, is
memorable. "It would be an elephant," he said,
"and take an army to hold it. And besides, all
the traitors and rascally speculators would flock to
that city and pour into the Confederacy the wealth
of New York."
Meantime the Admiral's health was failing.
What with the anxiety he had had to endure, and
the effects of the hot climate, his system was break
ing down. On the day after Fort Morgan surren
dered he fainted away while talking to Perkins of
the Chickasaw.
Late in August he wrote to the Department say
ing : "As long as I am able I am willing to do the
bidding of the Department to the best of my abili
ties. I fear, however, my health is giving way. I
have now been down in the Gulf and the Caribbean
Sea nearly five years out of six, with the exception
of the short time at home last fall, and the last six
months have been a severe drag upon me, and I
want rest if it is to be had."

STORIES TOLD AFTER THE BATTLE 355
The Department had already made out orders as
signing him to the command of the Atlantic squad
ron in order that he might direct the operations
against Fort Fisher at Wilmington, N. O, a port
that was then doing a thriving business with block
ade-runners. But the order was revoked. Having
seen Fort Morgan surrender, and having put his
fleet in order for his successor (Commodore James
S. Palmer), Admiral Farragut sailed from Pensacola
on November 30, 1864, and arrived at New York on
December 12th.

CHAPTER XXH
THE LAST DAYS
According to Captain Loyall Farragut the best
existing description of the Admiral as he appeared
at the time of the battle of Mobile, is that written
in "The Southerners," by Cyrus Townsend Brady
who says, ' ' He was a rather small man who still pre
served his waist and figure although he had already
entered upon his sixty-third year." While he was
"rather small " he yet had "broad shoulders and a
well-knit frame" that showed unusual vigor for
one of his age. In reading he wore eye-glasses, and
"when he removed them a slight contraction of his
brows was noticeable, which turned the upper
curves of the eyelids into straight lines, giving a
singular eagle-like directness to his glance ; — if an
eagle's eye could be kindly and filled with humor
which is the completing quality of greatness. His
face, which was rather long, was smooth-shaven.
His forehead was round and high. His nose was
aquiline, and his upper lip long ; the curves of his
mouth bespoke an indomitable resolution which the
firm, bold chin and resolute jaw confirmed. He was
bald on the top of his head, but his black hair, al
ready turning white about the temples, which was
allowed to grow long on the left side, was carefully
brushed over the denuded spot ; in seaman's par-

THE LAST DAYS 357
lance, 'the after guard was made to do fok's'l
duty.' "His natural very dark complexion was intensi
fied by an exposure of many years to wind and
weather, largely in tropic seas," and a whitish line
across his forehead showed where his cap had pro
tected it from the sun' s rays. ' ' In spite of his dark
skin his color came and went like a boy's, especially
when he laughed or grew excited. His manners
were simple, genial and unaffected, his address easy
and pleasant.
"Fifty years of naval service had given the Ad
miral the authoritative appearance of long command.
There was about him that indefinable stamp of
power and its habitual use, or enjoyment, which
held the most presumptuous at a proper distance.
At the same time he was easily approachable, too.
In his bearing there was dignity without stiffness.
When he knitted his brows, as he frequently did on
account of slightly impaired vision, and his mind
turned to action, his hazel eyes fairly flashed with
fire and spirit. In repose there was a twinkle of
humor, and good humor, in them, which yet neither
invited presumption nor allowed familiarity. The
predominate impression that an observer accus
tomed to reading men would have gathered from
his appearance was one of absolute fearlessness.
. . . You could see that he was a sailor beyond
peradventure, a thousand things indicated it to the
observing or experienced eye. He could no more
disguise it than he could disguise his character.
Yet there were none of the popular accepted signs

358 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
of his profession about him ; nothing of the ' roll,
like-a-seventy-four-in-a-gale-of-wind' in his man
ner ; nothing of the bluff, burly, bull-like, blow-
hardness of the so-called Benbow school of sailors
in his appearance. Nor was he of the red-faced,
irascible type, which so many ancient seamen affect
— especially in novels. He was not full of strange
oaths and uncouth phrases more or less technical.
There were about him none of the common affecta
tions of the sea — indeed no affectations of any sort.
Here was a cultivated gentleman of the very highest
type, an accomplished officer, a lion in his bravery,
almost a woman in gentleness."
To do honor to this man a committee represent
ing the officials and people of New York met
the Hartford as she entered the Narrows in the
harbor on her return North from Mobile. This
committee invited the Admiral to attend a public
reception to be given him at the custom house that
afternoon, and he consented to do so. The Battery
was covered with a cheering host when he landed a
little later, and the leading men of the city were in the
custom house when he arrived there. The collector,
Mr. S. Draper, welcomed the Admiral to the city,
and then read a series of resolutions that had been
adopted by the New York merchants, wherein it
was said that the people recognized " the illustrious
service, heroic bravery, and tried loyalty which
have distinguished the life of Rear Admiral D.
G. Farragut in the cause of his country — especially
the lofty spirit of devotion by which he has
been animated during all the period of the pres-

THE LAST DAYS 359
ent war, and the signal victories achieved by
him." To mark this recognition it was resolved "That
the city of New York, following the example of the
great free cities of the world, in doing honor to
their illustrious countrymen, honors itself by ten
dering Admiral Farragut an invitation to become a
resident thereof." It was further resolved "That
we see with the highest satisfaction that the Presi
dent, in his annual message, and the Secretary of
the Navy, recommend the creation of a higher
grade of naval rank with the designation of
Admiral Farragut as the recipient, as a national
recognition of distinguished service and exalted
patriotism." Farragut's greatest words had been, theretofore,
uttered in the smoke of battle, when he said :
"The best protection against the enemy's fire is a
well directed fire from our own guns," and " Damn
the torpedoes ! Go ahead." Standing now before
the most prominent gentlemen of New York he
spoke as appropriately as he had done in his ac
customed sphere. He said :
"My friends, I can only reply to you as I did
before, by saying that I receive these compliments
with great thankfulness and deep emotions. I am
entirely unaccustomed to make such an address as
I would desire to do upon this occasion ; but if I do
not express what I think of the honor you do me,
trust me, I feel it most deeply. I don't think,
however, that I particularly deserve anything at
your hands. I can merely say that I have done my

360 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
duty to the best of my abilities. I have been
devoted to the service of my country since- 1 was
eight years of age, and my father was devoted to it
before me. I have not specially deserved these
demonstrations of your regard. I owe everything,
perhaps, to chance, and to the praiseworthy ex
ertions of my brother officers serving with me.
That I have been fortunate is most true, and I am
deeply thankful for it for my country's sake. I
return my thanks to the committee for their resolu
tions, especially for the one in regard to the creation
of an additional grade."
The invitation to the Admiral to make his home
in New York was accompanied, a few days later,
by a gift of $50,000 donated by men of means to
enable him to do so. The presentation took place
at the custom house on December 31, 1864, and it
was accompanied by an address engrossed on parch
ment which was directed to "Vice Admiral Far
ragut." In his message of December 6, 1864, President
Lincoln wrote : "I cordially concur in the recom
mendation of the Secretary [of the Navy] as to the
propriety of creating the new rank of Vice Admiral
in our naval service."
In furtherance of this recommendation a bill to
create the grade of Vice Admiral was introduced in
Congress on December 22d. It passed both houses
the same day and was signed by Lincoln the next.
Farragut was, of course, immediately nominated
for the rank and his commission bore the date of
December 23, 1864.

THE LAST DAYS 361
At this time the Civil War was drawing rapidly
to an end. Porter was in command of the fleet
that a little later captured Fort Fisher at the en
trance to the harbor of Wilmington, N. C.
(January 15, 1865). The arrival of Sherman at
Columbia, S. C, compelled the evacuation of
Charleston, February 17th. Richmond, Va., was
surrendered on April 3, 1865. But toward the end
of January, 1865, a number of Confederate vessels
in the James River tried to " cut off both the army
of the James and that of the Potomac from their
base of supplies at City Point," by a descent of the
river. The Federal naval force in the waters around
and above City Point had been depleted to give
strength to Porter's fleet, and the Confederates at
that time had three relatively good ironclads and a
number of wooden gunboats in the James. To meet
what seemed to be an emergency, Farragut was
ordered to the command of the National ships in
the James. But when he arrived he found that the
Confederates had been repulsed and were again
wholly on the defensive. He was therefore at
once relieved, and this was his last service in the
Civil War.
On April 4th, Farragut entered Richmond,
having passed up the James by steamer after hear
ing that the Confederates had evacuated their cap
ital. Charles C. Coffin, correspondent of the Boston
Journal (quoted by Loyall Farragut), described the
appearance of the Admiral when entering the Con
federate Senate chamber :
"General Weitzel was in the Senate chamber,

362 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
issuing his orders. General Shopley, Military-
Governor, was also there. The door opened, and a
smooth-faced man with a keen eye, and a firm,
quick, resolute step, entered. He wore a plain blue
blouse with three stars on the collar. He was the
old hero who opened the way to New Orleans, and
who fought the battle of the Mobile forts from the
masthead of his ship — Admiral Farragut. He was
accompanied by General Gordon of Massachusetts.
They heard the news yesterday noon, and made all
haste up the James, landing at Varina, and taking
horses to the city. It was a pleasure to take the
brave Admiral's hand and answer his eager ques
tions as to what Grant had done : ' Thank God,
it is about over,' said he, meaning the rebellion."
On June 14, 1866, Senator Grimes, of Iowa,
introduced a bill from the Naval Committee "to
define the number and regulate the appointment of
officers in the navy." As immediately amended
and passed by the Senate, this act provided "that
the number allowed in each grade of line officers on
the active list of the navy shall be one admiral, one
vice admiral, ten rear admirals," etc. In this way
the rank of admiral was established in our navy, and
the reason for establishing the grade was, as senators
explained, the desire to place Farragut on a level
with Grant, for whom the rank of general was to
be provided. Congress and the people appreciated
Farraguf s work afloat as they did that of their
greatest general ashore. It was agreed, too, that it
would be unjust to the navy, after its splendid part
in the work of preserving the Nation, to leave its

THE LAST DAYS 363
most conspicuous leader with a lower rank than
that of the first general.
The act further provided that the Admiral's
salary should be $10,000 a year (as Vice Admiral,
while on leave of absence, his pay was but $5,000),
and that a secretary should be provided for him at
a salary equal to the sea pay of a lieutenant of the
navy. This act was approved July 25, 1866, and
Farragut was commissioned as admiral next day.
It was afterward provided "That vacancies oc
curring in the grades of admiral and vice admiral
shall not be filled by promotion." Porter was
made vice admiral and afterwards admiral, but
at his death the grades ceased to exist in the navy.
It was the judgment of the people that since the
ranks of admiral and vice admiral had been
created to reward extraordinary services to the
Nation, they should not be filled except by men
who had in like manner earned such a reward.
And there was no American admiral after Porter
until Commodore Dewey, by his services in Manila
Bay, showed himself worthy of the honor.
In the summer of 1867, Farragut was assigned to
the command of the European station, and on June
17th his flag was hoisted on the steam frigate Frank
lin, one of the stately, full-rigged ships with auxil
iary steam power that were especially favored by
the Department in those days. Then, very unex
pectedly, the President sent orders that Mrs. Farra
gut and a kinswoman should be allowed to accom
pany the Admiral on the cruise. It was a permit
that greatly pleased him.

364 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
The Franklin sailed from New York on June 28th,
and anchored behind the breakwater in Cherbourg
Harbor on July 14th. A great fleet of French and
American ships gathered in the harbor, and among
the latter were the vessels from Annapolis with the
naval cadets on their practice cruise.
Farragut was promptly invited to dine with Na
poleon III. The Emperor had not forgotten that
Farragut's work at New Orleans had prevented
French recognition of the Confederacy, and he had no
love for the government which had thwarted his de
signs upon Mexico. But because the Americans
had proven their ability in war, afloat and ashore,
he had determined to cultivate the old friend
ship that had existed between the French people
and those of the United States. This is a point
of sufficient importance to bear emphasis. When
our Nation was staggering under the first burden
of the Civil War, French rulers talked only
of intervention and the sending of a squadron to
the American coast to support their plan for ending
the war by the division of the Nation. In our
weakness the French Government (and it was not
alone) became aggressive. In 1867 as a nation we
were far weaker than in 1862, for we had an enor
mous debt to pay, broken industries to rebuild, the
flower of the country's manhood, destroyed in bat
tle, to replace. But in the meantime we had built
and armed a fleet of ships so powerful that there
was no other in the world to equal them ; and what
was of still more importance, we had manned them
with veterans whose ability, skill and courage were

THE LAST DAYS 365
then preeminent. It was not because Napoleon loved
the American Republic that he invited Farragut to
dinner. He did it because good policy demanded
that he make friends with the people having for the
moment the most powerful navy in the world. The
changed attitude of the French monarch is a very
good proof of the assertions often made by naval
men, that in a powerful navy lies the Nation's
strongest hope of peace.
In England, the attentions bestowed upon the
Admiral were of a similar significance. It by no
means detracts from the honor done to him per
sonally, to say that the receptions given him had
a political significance. For it was his work
that had, most of all, impressed the nations of
Europe with the idea that peace with America was
desirable. No American army was likely to land
on a coast of Europe ; but it was now plainly evi
dent that the thunder of American guns might be
heard in the ports of any European nation which
should force a war upon the United States.
While our civil contest was yet undecided the
British sailors sang Confederate songs at New Or
leans, at Norfolk — and in fact wherever there were
Confederate ears to hear them. But when Farragut
reached Malta, in 1867, the sailors sang :

_« <

God save the Queen ' delights you still,
And ' British Grenadiers ' ;
The good old strains your heart strings thrill,
And catch you by the ears ;

366 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
And we, oh, hate us if you can,
For we are proud of you —
We like you, Brother Jonathan,
And ' Yankee Doodle ' too !

" As friend with friend and man with man,
Oh, let our hearts be thus —
As David's love to Jonathan
Be Jonathan's to us ! "

The ports of the north of Europe were visited
after the sojourn in France. Russia showed the
Admiral particular honor and when he visited the
Czar's officers at Cronstadt the orders of the day
issued by the Russian Admiral contained these
words :
"Let us remember the glorious example of Far
ragut and his followers at New Orleans and Mo
bile." From the point of view of a naval officer the most
interesting feature of the Admiral's diary while
cruising around the coasts of Europe is the attention
he gave to matters that might be of use to his gov
ernment in time of war. He was well advanced
in years but the position and strength of forts, the
novel features of ships, the relative power of a 15-
inch Dahlgren and a 9-inch rifle which he saw tested
in England, were of as much interest to him as if he
had been a young lieutenant. It was the persist
ence of the habit of a lifetime ; and the opportunity
to make such studies gave him much more pleasure

THE LAST DAYS 367
than any entertainment offered him by any person
of any degree however high.
Nevertheless one reception in his honor was par
ticularly pleasing — that which he received at Ciu-
dadela on the island of Minorca, one of the Balearic
group. It must be remembered that Farragut's
blood was half Spanish. A Spanish troubadour
had written in the thirteenth century about Pedro
Ferragut, an ancestor of the Admiral, as follows : *
Pkdbo Fkeeagut
Troba 237.
Sobre camp bermell una ferradura
De finisim or, ab un clau durat,
Pere Ferragut pinta, _ en tal figura
Esplicit lo agnom. La historia asegura
Ser aragones, de Jaca baixat.
Apres que en Mallorca servi de sargent,
Venint a Valencia, hon gran renom guanya
De expert capita per lo dilitgent ;
Los anys, e sucesos lo feren prudent
Te en lo pelear gran cordura e manya,
Pergue ;l totes armes facilment se apanya.
This is translated as follows :
" Peter Ferragut, in order that all might know
his agnomen, painted upon the vermilion of his
shield a golden nail and horseshoe. History in
forms us that he was born in Jaca, in Aragon.
After serving as a sergeant in Mallorca, he went to
Valencia where he gained great renown as a captain
whose age and experience had made him at once
adventurous and prudent. He was famous for his
1 Quoted by Loyall Farragut, also by Parker in " The Battle of
Mobile Bay."

368 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
skill in the use of arms and for his great amiability in
battle." The visit to the town of Ciudadela, the original
home of the Admiral's father, was made on the day
after Christmas. Landing at Port Mahon the Ad
miral found the people of the island assembled
in great throngs along the route of his journey.
The Alcalde and other officials of Ciudadela, met
him four miles from the city's limits to bid him
welcome and escort him to the town, and when he
entered the streets he found not only the way but
the house-tops covered with people "filling the air
with cheers and exclamations." A committee es
corted him to the places of interest about the city.
He was lodged at the house of one of the distin
guished citizens. He was visited by the Alcalde
and Auyuntamiento (town council), "in a body,
and by them presented with a book containing the
register of the baptism of his father ; and also with
a copy of a law passed that day making him a citi
zen of Ciudadela." That night a grand banquet
was held in his honor, the principal ornament of the
table being "a large centre piece representing the
castle of Ciudadela, on the four walls of which was
written ' Homenage de Respeco y Patriotismo, Ciu
dadela.' From the centre of this castle rose a col
umn of victory marked ' El Gran Almirante Farra
gut.' The whole was decorated with ribbons rep
resenting the American colors. It was presented to
Mrs. Farragut after the banquet. The roads were
once more thronged with an enthusiastic populace
when the Admiral returned to his ship."

THE LAST DAYS 369
"This unexpected reception by the people of
Ciudadela was to our naval commander one of the
most gratifying incidents of his cruise," says James
E. Montgomery, who wrote a book to describe " The
Cruise of Admiral Farragut," and the ovation that
was extended to him on the coasts of Europe by
men who were best able, of all the Old World, to ap
preciate the work that he had done.
In 1869 the Admiral went to California, and only
those who have enjoyed the comforting hospitality
of the Californians can fully understand how he
Was received there. Perhaps of all the journeys of
his life this was the most satisfactory, for it showed
him, as he had never been able to see it before, the
development and extent of the Republic he had
done so much to preserve.
In the meantime (1868), prominent politicians
had asked Farragut to allow them to place his name
as a candidate for President before the National
Democratic Convention, to be held that year. In
reply to a letter urging him to accept this offer
Farragut wrote :
"My entire life has been spent in the navy ; by
a steady perseverance and devotion to it I have
been favored with success in my profession, and to
risk that reputation by entering a new career at my
advanced age, and that career one of which I have
little or no knowledge, is more than any one has a
right to expect of me."
On his way East from California, Farragut was
taken seriously ill at Chicago, and it was found that
his heart was affected. He was, after a time, able

370 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
to reach home, but when there he suffered from
further attacks of the kind, and in spite of a con
stitution originally of extraordinary strength, he
never fully recovered his health.
In January, 1870, he had charge of the naval con
tingent that received the body of the philanthropist,
George Peabody, when it was brought to this coun
try by the British naval ship Monarch, and landed
at Portland, Me. Brother officers who met him at
Portland noted that he looked like one whose health
was broken. To a young officer who nevertheless
complimented him on having the appearance of
good health, he said :
"Do you think so ? I am very far from being a
well man."
In fact Farragut's end was at hand. Remember
ing his great services, the Secretary of the Navy
placed the steamer Tallapoosa under the Admiral's
charge with permission to cruise in it with his
family where he would. He thereupon went to the
Portsmouth Navy Yard, then under the command
of Rear Admiral Pennock, who had married a rela
tive of Mrs. Farragut. The Admiral was in bed
much of his time during the passage but when he
heard the guns fired in his honor, as the ship en
tered Portsmouth harbor, he dressed himself in full
uniform and went on deck. There, as he gazed at
his flag flying from the mast-head, he said :
"It would be well if I died now — in harness."
A few days later, while wandering around the
navy yard he went on board the old sailing sloop-
of-war Dale that was lying dismantled at the wharf.

THE LAST DAYS 371
A brief look around her deck satisfied him, and
then as he stepped ashore, he said to the old seaman
who had charge of her :
"That is the last time I shall ever tread the deck
of a man-of-war."
It was so. On August 14, 1870, at the house of
the commandant of the navy yard, where "he was
surrounded by his family and loving friends, in
cluding many of his old comrades in arms," and
with the old flag above his head, he died. The
body was laid away temporarily at Portsmouth,
but in September the Navy Department brought it
to New York. There "the municipal authorities
took charge of the public funeral" that was held
on September 30th. The public schools and offices,
the custom house, the stock exchange and the lead
ing mercantile houses were closed. The city edi
fices were draped, bells tolled, and minute guns
were fired. A procession which included the Presi
dent of the United States and members of his cabi
net, many naval and military officers, veteran
associations, 10,000 soldiers, the fire brigade and
numerous civic societies, escorted the body, which
was borne by sailors from the boat landing to the
Harlem train at Forty-seventh Street. From there it
was taken to Woodlawn Cemetery, the trustees of
which had set apart for the purpose of the inter
ment a beautiful plot of ground, where it now

By a joint resolution approved June 22, 1874,
Congress appropriated $20,000 for "a bronze
statue of the late Admiral Farragut." This work

372 DAVID G. FARRAGUT
of art was designed by Vinnie Ream and was
erected in Farragut Square, Washington, where it
was unveiled on April 25, 1881. The propeller of
the Admiral's old flagship Hartford was used in
casting the statue. A contemporary account says
that when the memorial was unveiled, the proces
sion contained so many naval officers and sailors
as to astonish even those who had looked for great
numbers of men of the service to attend the cere
monies. The Farragut Monument Association, an aggre
gation of representative New York citizens, con
tracted with Augustus St. Gaudens for a statue
of Farragut, which was erected in Madison Square,
New York, and unveiled on May 21, 1881, in the
presence of a great throng of people. This, the
best known statue of him, was cast in Paris.
"Of heroic size, it shows the Admiral in his
navy uniform, his cap straight visored, and the
trousers loose, his sword hanging from the belt. In
his left hand he holds a marine glass. The right
hangs naturally. The skirt of the coat seems to be
agitated by the wind. The pose is easy and natural
and the expression admirable in ite combination of
gravity and penetration. The instant that it was un
veiled it achieved the success to which it is in every
way entitled. Indeed, there are few, if any, statues
in America to be compared with it in naturalness
and power." Thus wrote a competent critic in the
"Magazine of American History."
An inscription on the pedestal, written by Rich
ard Grant White reads as follows :

THE LAST DAYS 373
"That the memory of a daring and sagacious
commander and gentle great-souled man whose life
from childhood was given to his country, but who
served her supremely in the war for the Union,
MDCCCLXI-MDCCCLXV, may be preserved and
honored and that they who come after him and who
will owe him so much may see him as he was seen
by friend and foe, his countrymen have set up this
monument, A. D., MDCCCLXXXI."

THE END

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adams, Henry. History of the United States, 1903.
Allen, J. Battles of the British Navy, 1852.
American Historical Review, 1904.
American State Papebs— Naval Affairs, 1834-1861.
Annals of Congress, 1801-1816.
Annual Reports of the Secretary of the Navy.
Barnes, James. Commodore Bainbridge, 1897.
 Midshipman Farragut, 1902.
Bennett, Frank M. The Steam Navy of the United
States, 1897.
Binns, John. Life and Recollections of, 1854.
Busk, Hans. Navies of the World, 1859.
Butler, B. F. Butler's Book, 1892.
Cable, George W. History and Present Condition of New
Orleans, 1881.
Century Magazine.
Claibobne, J. F. H. Mississippi, 1880.
CONGBESSIONAL GLOBE, 1860-1870.
Conner, P. S. P. Home Squadron Under Commodore
Conner, 1896.
 The Castle of San Juan de Ulloa and the Topsy-
Turvyists, 1897.
Cooper, F. Naval History of the United States, 1847.
Dahlgren, M. V. Admiral John A. Dahlgren, 1882.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 375
Dawson, H. B. Battles of the United States by Sea and
Land, 1858.

Historical Magazine, 1857, et seq.

Dobsey, Sarah A. Recollections of Henry W. Allen, 1866.
Douglass, Sir Howard. Naval Gunnery, 1860.
Farragut, Loyall. Life and Letters of Admiral D. G. Far
ragut, 1891.
Foster, John W. A Century of American Diplomacy, 1902.
Galaxy Magazine.
Hamersly, L. R. Naval Encyclopaedia, 1884.
 The United Service Magazine.
Harper's Magazine.
Harris, T. Life and Services of Commodore William Bain-
bridge, 1837.
Haywood, Marshall De Lancey, Major George Farragnt.
(Pamphlet, no date.)
Headley, J. T. Farragut and Our Naval Commanders, 1867.
 Vice Admiral D. G. Farragut, 1865.
Hoppin, J. M. Life of Admiral Foote, 1874.
Hosmer, J. K. The Color Guard, 1864.
House Journal, 1801-1815.
James, William. Naval History of Great Britain, 1837.
King, Grace. New Orleans, 1902.
Kibkland, Frazar. Pictorial Book of Anecdotes and In
cidents of the Rebellion, 1866.
Kountz, John S. Record of the Organizations Engaged in
the Campaign, Siege, and Defense of Vicksburg,
1901.
MACLAY, E. S. History of the Navy, 1897.
Mahan, A. T. Admiral Farragut, 1895.

376 BIBLIOGRAPHY
 The Gulf and Inland Waters, 1883.
 Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1896.

Montgomery, J. E. The Cruise of Admiral Farragut, 1869.
Moore, Frank. Putnam's Record of the Rebellion, 1862-1866.
Niles, H. Weekly Register, 1811, et seq.
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 1880,
et seq.
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 1894,
et seq.
Olive Bbanch, The. 1816.
Pabkeb, F. A. The Battle of Mobile Bay, 1878.
Pakkkb, John C. A Night with Farragut, in War Papers
and Reminiscences, Commandery of Missouri, Loyal
Legion, 1892.
PABKEB, W. H. Recollections of a Naval Officer, 1883.
Porter, Admiral D. D. Incidents of the Civil War, 1891.
 Naval History of the Civil War, 1886.
Pobteb, D. Porter's Journal, 1815.
Richardson, James D. Messages and Papers of the Presi
dents, 1896.
Rigby, W. T. Historic Vicksburg, 1904.
Roosevelt, Theodore. The Naval War of 1812, 1897.
Sands, Rear Admiral B. F. From Reefer to Rear Admiral,
1899.
Scharf, J. T. History of the Confederate Navy, 1894.
Schley, Rear Admiral, W. S. Forty-five Years Under the
Flag, 1904.
Scribner's Magazine.
Soley, J. R. The Blookade and the Cruisers, 1895.
 Admiral Porter, 1903.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 377
Starbuck, Alexander. History of the American Whale
Fishery, 1878.
Stephen, James. War in Disguise, 1806.
Walke, Reab Admieal H. Naval Scenes and Reminiscences
of the Civil War, 1877.
Whabton, Feancis. International Law Digest, 1887.
Wilson, H. W. Iron Clads in Action, 1896.
Winsor, Justin. Narrative and Critical History of America,
1889.

INDEX

Adams, U. S. Minister Charles
Francis, stops career of
British-built Confederate
ironolads, 275.
Alabama, Confederate cruiser,
sinks U. S. S. Hatteras, 270 ;
career of, 273, 274 ; men
tioned, 277, 321.
Alabama River, Confederate
naval station on, 307, 309.
Alabama, secession of, 148.
Albatross, American merchant
man, mentioned, 65.
Albatross, U. S. gunboat, be
fore Port Hudson, 286 ; at
mouth of Red River, 294.
Albemarle, Confederate iron
clad, 189.
Alden, Commander James, in
New Orleans expedition,
179 ; opposes passing unre
duced forts on the Missis
sippi, 201 ; before Port
Hudson, 286.
Alert, British sloop of war.
captured by U. S. frigate
Essex, 50-52 ; mentioned,
77.
Alert, U. S. sloop, school ship
at Norfolk, 132.
Alexandria, Va., mentioned,
160.
Algiers, war with, 90.
Allen, Lieutenant William
Howard, killed by pirates,
112.
Allen, master's mate, saves
Hartford from fire, 214.

Alligator. U. S. schooner, built
to suppress piracy, 109 ; in
fight with pirates, 112.
Amelia Island (Fernandina),
Fla., once a pirate resort,
106.
America, American merchant
ship mentioned, 101.
America, yacht, as blockade
runner, 164.
" American Historical Re
view," quoted, 25, 96.
Americans, accused of coward
ice, 41 ; British opinion of
fighting ability of, 44 ; hu
miliation of ended, 48 ;
character as naval seamen
becoming apparent, 67 ; ef
fect on of battle between
Essex and British squadron,
79, 80; Spanish hatred of,
110.
"American State Papers,"
quoted, 106, 115, 126.
Anderson, Colonel Charles D. ,
conduct at Fort Gaines con
sidered, 350.
Annual cyclopedia, quoted,
151.
Arkansas, Confederate iron
clad, mentioned, 189 ; re
sists attacks of Essex and
Queen of the West, 248 et
seq. ; destroyed. 255 ; men
tioned, 311.
Armstrong, Captain James,
surrenders Pensacola, 156.
A.tlantio, British whaler, cap-

INDEX

379

tnred, armed and renamed
Essex Junior, 60.
Atlantic Ocean, influence of
on a foreign war, 158.
Azores, C.S. Alabama at, 273.

Bahama Banks, Farragut's
target practice off, 140.
Bahamas, The, as station for
blockade runners, 162.
Bahia, Brazil, mentioned, 272.
Bailey, Captain Theodorus, in
New Orleans expedition,
180 ; in command of division
of fleet, 209, 210 ; sent
ashore at New Orleans, 230 ;
negotiations with Confeder
ate leaders, 231 et seq. ; let
ter of to Farragut, 314.
Bainbridge, Commodore Will
iam, good influence on Navy
Department, 48 ; in com
mand of a squadron that
included the Essex, 54 ;
mentioned, 55 ; in command
of squadron for war with
Algiers, 90.
Baker, Marion A., describes
capture of New Orleans,
231.
Baltimore, secession mob in,
154 ; mentioned, 165.
Banks, General N. P., in com
mand at New Orleans, 278 ;
operations against Port
Hudson, 280, 292; expedi
tion of west of Mississippi,
294 ; Red River expedition
of, 310; relieved, 318.
Banshee, a noted blockade
runner, one trip of, 165.
Barataria, pirate resort, men
tioned, 105.
Barclay, New Bedford whaler,
59 et seq.

Barnard, Major J. G., and the
New Orleans expedition,
173.
Barnes, James, work quoted,
46.
Barnes, Seaman James, opin
ion of Farragut, 177.
Barron, Commodore James,
Farragut writes to, 135, 136,
137.
Bartlett, Midshipman John R.,
Porter's talk with, about
New Orleans, 170.
Baton Rouge, captured by
Union forces, 242; men
tioned, 244, 254; resists
Confederate attacks, aban
doned by Union forces, 256 ;
base for operations against
Port Hudson, 279, 282.
Baudin, Admiral, in command
of French forces in war with
Mexico, 134.
Baxter, Captain, of British
whaler Montezuma, 59.
Beagle, U. S. schooner, on
Cuban Coast, 117.
Beauregard, General G. T.,
mentioned, 244.
Bell, Captain Henry H., fleet
captain, in New Orleans ex
pedition, 179 ; in charge of
work of breaking boom at
Fort Jackson, 205 et seq. ;
leads division in attack on
Confederate forts, 209.
Bell, Lieutenant Charles H.,
relieves Farragut on Ferret,
127.
Benjamin, Secretary Judah
P., favored aggressive war
fare, 192.
Benton, U. S. ironclad, under
fire, 252.
Bermudas, The, as a station
for blockade runners, 162.

380

INDEX

Biddle, Commodore James, in
command of squadron to
suppress West India pirates,
112.
Bienville, U. S. S. at Mobile,
320.
Blair, Montgomery, plan of
New Orleans expedition ex
plained to Farragut at
house of, 175.
Blockade of Confederate ports
considered, 159 etseq.; work
of Union navy in, 166 et
seq., 301, 302.
Boggs, Commander Charles S.,
in New Orleans expedition,
179; in battle with Gover
nor Moore, 216, 217.
Bolton, Capt. W. B., see Finch.
Bonne Citoyenne, British
sloop, held in port by Hor
net, 56.
"Bonnie Blue Flag," song,
quoted, 278.
Bostwick, Purser Melancton
W. , letter of describing crew
of Essex, 47; mentioned,
48; describes fight between
Essex and Alert, 49, 50.
Boutwell, Commander E. B.,
and San Francisco vigilance
committee, 144 ; mentioned,
149.
Bowen, General John S., de
feated below Vicksburg, 296.
Boxer, U. S. brig, hunting
pirates, 108.
Brady, Cyrus Townsend, work
quoted, 356 et seq.
Brandywine, U. S. frigate,
Farragut on when she car
ried Lafayette home, 132.
Breckenridge, General John
C, sent to Baton Rouge,
254 et seq.
Brest, France, mentioned, 272.

Brooke, Lieutenant John M.,
inventor of cannon, 184.
Brooklyn, U. S. S., mentioned,
145, 146, 156, 177; under
Farragut at mouth of Mis
sissippi, 179 et seq. ; in at
tack on Confederate forts,
209 ; passing the Confeder
ate raft, 215 ; struck by
ram, 218, 219 ; at Vicks
burg, 244 et seq. ; battery of
at Mobile Bay, 317 ; heads
the line of wooden ships at
Mobile, 318, 319 ; opens fire
on Fort Morgan, 323 ; men
tioned, 325 ; flinched at the
torpedo line, 327 ; losses on
in battle, 341.
Broome, Captain J. L., com
mands landing force at
New Orleans, 236.
Brown, Lieutenant Comman
der George, at Mobile, 317 ;
humorous remark of when
wounded by a "splinter,''
346.
Brown, Lieutenant Isaac N.,
work done with ironclad
Arkansas, 248 et seq. ; pro
moted, 250.
Brutus, Venezuelan privateer,
captures American mer
chant schooner Evening
Post, 107.
Buchanan, flag officer Frank
lin, and the Merrimac, 259 ;
wounded in battle, 262;
commanding Confederate
fleet at Mobile, 309 ; men
tioned, 311, 314; tactics of,
329 et seq. ; conduct of de
fended, 333 ; Farragut's
opinion of, 334 ; wounded
by splinters, 338; sent to
Pensacola hospital, 341 ;
describes his plan of battle

INDEX

381

and hopes therefrom, 342 ;
important part of report of
battle, 345.
Bureau of Information, U. S.
Navy Department, men
tioned, 136.
Butler, Major General Benja
min F., commands land
forces in New Orleans expe
dition, 173; at New Or
leans, 234 etseq.; mentioned,
241, 242 ; in Opelousas
country, 278 ; sends north
report of Farragut's victory
at Mobile and congratulates
the admiral, 346, 347.

Cable, GeobgeW., describes
New Orleans when Farra
gut's fleet came up the
river, 228 et seq.
Cadiz, Spain, pirates off, 106.
Cairo, U. S. ironclad, sunk by
torpedo, 306.
Caldwell, Lieutenant Com
mander C. H. B., in New
Orleans expedition, 179 ;
breaks the boom at Fort
Jackson, 206 et seq. ; men
tioned, 225.
Calhoun, John C, a leader of
war party in Congress, 41.
California, Farragut visits,
367.
Callao, mentioned, 59.
Cambridge, Mass., mentioned,
98.
Camels, use of, lifting ships
over a bar, 309.
Canby, General E. R. S., in
command at New Orleans,
318.
Cardenas Bay, Cuba, C. SS.
Florida at, 272; pirates at
tacked in, 112.

Carondelet, U. S. ironclad,
and the Arkansas, 248 et seq.
Carroll, Pilot Thomas R., be
fore Port Hudson, 288.
Carthagena, mentioned, 90.
Cayuga, U. S. S., at mouth
of Mississippi River, 179;
in attack on Confederate
forts, 209 et seq. , passes the
forts, 215 ; gives Governor
Moore a shot, 216 ; men
tioned, 316.
Century Magazine, quoted, 46,
228, 232.
Chain, proposal to close New
York Harbor with, 41.
Chalmette, Camp, fight at,
229.
Chamber of Commerce, New
York, address to Farragut,
300, 301.
Champlain, battle of Lake, re
called, 328.
Charleston, S. C, Farragut at,
133 ; blockade of, 161 ; and
blockade runners, 165 ;
channel obstructed, 166 ;
evacuated by Confederate
troops, 361.
Cherbourg, France, battle of
Alabama and Kearsarge off,
273, 274 ; Farragut at, 364.
Cherub, British sloop of war,
mentioned, 63 ; at Valpa
raiso, 70 ; a dull sailor, 74 ;
in battle with Essex, 75 et
seq.
Chesapeake, American frigate,
attacked by British, 321.
Chesapeake Bay, pirates near,
109.
Chester, Pa., temporary home
of Farragut, 88.
Chicago, Farragut sick in, 369.
Chickasaw, U. S. Monitor, at
Mobile, 316, 319, 328; ef-

382

INDEX

fective work of, 337, 338;
attack on Fort Powell, 348 ;
attack on Fort Gaines, 350 ;
mentioned, 354.
Chile, throws off Spanish yoke,
58.
Chippewa, U. S. S., blockad
ing C.S. Sumpter at Gi
braltar, 271.
Chiriqui route for interoceanic
canal surveyed, 147.
City Point, as Union base of
supplies, 361.
Ciudadela, Farragut at, 367 et
seq.
Civil War, period of men
tioned, 149 ; Farragut's part
in mentioned, 156 ; first ag
gressive work of Union navy
in, 158 ; ironclads of consid
ered, 257 et seq. ; darkest
day of, 262; closing days
of, 361 et seq.
Claiborne, William Charles
Cole, Governor of Louisiana,
27.
Clay, Henry, a leader of war
party in Congress, 41.
Clifton, U. S. S. in New Or
leans expedition, 180.
Cocke, Lieutenant William
H., friendship for Farragut,
90 ; murdered at San Juan,
Porto Rico, 115 ; death of
recalled, 129.
Coffin, Charles C, work
quoted, 361.
Collins, Commander Napo
leon, captures C.S. Flor
ida in neutral waters, 272,
273.
Collins, Pilot John, escapes
from the Tecumseh, 326.
Colorado, U. S. frigate, at
mouth of Mississippi River,
180 et seq.

Columbia, S. C, captured by
Union forces, 361.
Conemaugh, U. S. S., at
Mobile, 348.
Congress, U. S. frigate, and
the ironclad Merrimac, 260
et seq. ; when the Monitor
arrived, 264.
Congress, U. S. sloop of war,
hunting pirates, 108, 112.
Conner, Commodore, deceived
by a British naval officer,
140.
Conrad, Surgeon D. B., ac
count of battle of Mobile
Bay, quoted, 336, 338, 342 ;
describes Farragut, 343.
Constitution, U. S. frigate,
mentioned, 54, 55, 56, 177.
Cook, J. B., torpedo expert,
187.
Corpus Christi, Texas, Union
forces take, 269.
Coruna, Spain, Confederate
ram off, 276.
Cowell, Lieutenant J. G., un
selfish manhood of, 83.
Crane, Captain William N., in
command of U. S. ship In
dependence, 90.
Craven, Capt. Tunis A. M., at
Mobile, 316 ; leads the iron
clad line, 319 ; mentioned,
321 ; heroic dash across tor
pedo line and death of, 325
et seq. ; praised by Farragut,
344.
Craven, Captain T. T., in New
Orleans expedition, 179 ;
opposed passing unreduced
forts, 202 ; mentioned, 215 ;
opinion of battle below New
Orleans, 220; and the C.
ram Stonewall, 276.
Creighton, Captain John Orde,
as commander of battleship,

INDEX

383

91 ; his pride in the Ameri
can navy, 92.
Crimean War, mentioned, 142,
257.
Cronstadt, Farragut at. 366.
Crosby, Lieutenant Comman
der Pierce, in New Orleans
expedition, 179 ; breaks
boom at Fort Jackson, 206
et seq.
Croton Aqueduct, fear that
Farragut would ruin, 155.
Cruz, Cape, pirates at, 118.
Cumberland, U. S. sloop, and
the ironclad Merrimac, 260
et seq.
Cummings, Lieutenant Com
mander A. H., heroism of
before Port Hudson, 289,
290.
Cuyler, U. S. S., in chase of
C.S. Florida, 270.
Cyane, U. S. sloop, in search
of pirates, 112.

Dahlgren guns, weights of
projectiles and charge of
larger sizes of, 316.
Dahlgren, Lieutenant John A.,
revolutionizes naval ord
nance, 142, 144, 145 ; diary
of quoted, 178.
Dale, U. S. sloop, last ship
visited by Farragut, 370,
371.
Dallas, Commodore, men
tioned, 138.
Dauphin Island, off Mobile,
mentioned, 304, 305, 318,
348.
Davis, Flag Officer Charles
H., work in Mississippi
River, 246 et seq. ; leaves
Vicksburg, 254.
Davis, President Jefferson,

prejudiced against the navy,
186 ; cheers for at New Or
leans, 230, 277.
De Camp, Commander John,
in New Orleans expedition,
179.
Decatur, Commodore, con
quers Algerines, 90.
Decoy, U. S. storeship, in
pirate-hunting squadron,
113.
Deerhound, British yacht, aids
escape of prisoners from
U. S. S. Kearsarge, 274.
Defiance, Confederate war
steamer, mentioned, 221.
DeKraft, Lieutenant Comman
der J. C. P., attacks Fort
Powell, 348.
De Morny, Due, and Confed
erate agent, 238.
Dewey, Admiral George,
quoted, 51; before Port
Hudson, 289 ; made an ad
miral, 363.
Dog River Bar, Mobile Bay,
mentioned, 309, 311 ; ob
structed, 354.
Dolphin, U. S. schooner, built
to suppress piracy, 109.
Domingo, notable pirate,
stories of, 125, 126.
Donaldson, Lieutenant Com
mander Edward, in New
Orleans expedition, 180 ; at
Mobile, 317.
Double Headed Shot Keys,
Farragut cruises near, 123.
Downes, Lieutenant John, ex
ecutive officer of Essex, 45;
mentioned, 46 ; commands
boat expedition, 59 ; in
command of Essex Junior,
62; takes prizes to Valpa
raiso, 62; kindness of to
Farragut, 82.

384

INDEX

Draper, Dr. Lyman C, letter
from Farragut to, 25.
Draper, S., collector of port of
New York, receives Farra
gut, 358.
Drayton, Captain Percival, in
command of Hartford at
battle of Mobile Bay, 323
in the battle, 324, 328
cautions Farragut, 332
mentioned, 333.
Duel, between Captain O. H.
Perry and Captain John
Heath, 94 ; Farragut willing
to fight, 96.
Du Maigue, Captain R. N.,
mentioned, 126.
Duncan, General Johnson K.,
commanding Fort Jackson,
184 ; and the defense of the
Mississippi River, 224 ; vain
effort to hold the fort, 235.
Duzenbury, Midshipman
Samuel, praised for conduct
in battle, 84.

El Jem, African ruin, visited
by Farragut, 97.
Ellet, Colonel Charles R., work
of on the Mississippi. 280.
Ellet, General Alfred W., work
with River Defense Fleet,
252, 293, 294.
Embargo, acts of, 40, 41, 42.
Emmons, Commander George
F., in chase of Confederate
cruiser Florida, 270.
Engle, Captain Frederick, on
interoceanic survey, 147.
Enoch Train, a tug at New
Orleans, 190.
Enterprise, U. S. brig, in
search of pirates at Cape
Antonio, 111 ; mentioned,
117.

Ericsson, John, inventor of
Monitor, work of, 263 et seq.
Erie, U. S. sloop, Farragut in
command of on coast of
Mexico, 134 et seq. ; men
tioned, 138.
Erie, U. S. warship men
tioned, 98.
Essex Junior (ex-whaler At
lantic), mentioned, 61, 62;
at Galapagos Islands, 63 ;
investigates a strange sail,
65; as a sentinel, 68 ; dis
covers the enemy, 69 ; an
chors near the Essex, 70;
unable to enter battle with
Phoebe and Cherub, 84;
passage as cartel from Val
paraiso to New York, 86;
sold, 87.
Essex Junto, mentioned, 149.
Essex, U. S. frigate, early
history, 37 et seq. ; at Nor
folk, Va., under Comman
der David Porter, 44; to
New York after a cruise,
47; first cruise in War of
1812, 49 et seq. ,- fight with
sloop of war Alert, 50, 51 ;
prisoners on mutiny, 52 ; in
chase of British frigate Shan
non and makes port, 53 ;
sails for Cape Verde Islands,
54 ; at Fernando de No
ronha, 55 ; refitted at St.
Catherine's, 56 ; in peril off
Cape Horn, 57 ; at Val
paraiso, 58 ; among the
British whalers, 59 et seq. ;
at Galapagos Islands, 59 ; at
Tumbez, 60 ; value of prizes
captured by, 63 ; refitted at
Marquesas Islands, 64 et
seq. ; inferior character of
battery on, 65, 66 ; reaches
Valparaiso, 68; dance on,

INDEX

385

69 ; sails out of port to meet
enemy, is wrecked aloft and
returns to port, 74; battle
with Phoebe and Cherub,
75 et seq. ; surrendered, 78 ;
orew of parolled and sent
home, 86 ; Farragut learned
patriotism on, 149; men
tioned, 267, 333.
Essex, U. S. gunboat, before
Vicksburg, 251 et seq. ; des
troys ironolad Arkansas,
255.
Evening Post, American
schooner, captured by a
Spanish-American privateer,
107.
Fabbagut, David Glas
gow, born, 23; describes
early life, 25 ; well trained
by father, 29 ; adopted by
Commander David Porter,
31 ; hunting smugglers and
pirates, 33 ; goes north, 33 ;
roused by an unwarranted
attack on the American brig
Vixen, 34 ; meets Secretary
of the Navy Paul Hamil
ton, appointed midshipman
in the navy, 35 ; mentioned,
43; on frigate Essex, 44 et
seq. ; charges a mob at Nor
folk, 45, 46 ; cured of to
bacco chewing, 46; as a
midshipman on Essex, 46,
47,; in fight with Alert, 49;
detects outbreak of prison
ers, 52 ; on short allowance
of food, 57 ; in boat expedi
tion, 59; adventures while
captain of the whaler Bar
clay, 60 et seq. ; at the
Marquesas Islands, 64 et
teq. ; with Lieutenant
Dowub when fight seemed

at hand, 65; describes ar
rival of Phcebe, 71, 72; in
boat expedition against
Phoebe, 73 ; criticises hand
ling of Essex, 74 ; personal
part in the battle between
Essex and British squadron,
80 et seq. ; nursing the
wounded, 83 ; praised for
conduct in battle, objects to
reference to his youth, 84 ;
wins in a fist fight with a
British midshipman, 85 ;
nurses wounded in hospital,
and under fire in New York
harbor, 86 ; lasting dislike
of British nation, 87 ; at
Chester, Pa., and ordered
thence to brig Spark, 88;
training of considered, 89 ;
ordered to the Mediterra
nean on Independence, 90 ;
ordered to Mediterranean on
Washington, 91 ; calls an
emperor "Mister," 93;
signs memorial protesting
against tyranny of captains
of Mediterranean fleet, 94 ;
goes to Tunis to study under
Consul Charles Folsom, 95
et seq. ; willing to fight a
duel, 96 ; unable to learn to
spell, 96 ; explores African
ruins, 97, 98 ; leaves Tunis
because of plague — affection
for Mr. Folsom, 98 ; saves
Genoese brig from wreck —
at a grand ball in Pisa, 99 ;
aide to Captain John Gal
lagher of flagship Franklin
— executive officer of U. S.
schooner Shark — ordered
home for examination, 100 ;
meeting a privateer while
crossing the Atlantic in mer
chantman, 101 ; ordered to U.

386

INDEX

S. schooner Greyhound, of
West India piracy suppress
ing squadron, 113 ; hunting
pirates on Cuban shore, 118-
120 ; executive officer of
U. S. steamer Sea Gull, 121 ;
visits New Orleans, 122 ; in
command of U. S. schooner
Ferret, 123 et seq. ; personal
encounter with two pirates,
124 ; affair with a deserter
from the British navy, 126,
127; stricken with yellow
fever, 127; end of service
in war on West India
pirates, 129 ; witness in
*' Foxardo Affair," 130;
marriage of and promotion,
131; on U. S. frigate
Brandywine when Lafayette
was carried home, school
teacher on U. S. sloop Alert,
deck officer on U. S. sloop
Vandalia, 132 ; executive
officer of U. S. sloop Natchez
during "nullification"
trouble at Charleston and
on South Atlantic station,
133 ; good work on Mexican
coast, in command of sloop
Erie, during French-Mex
ican war, 134 et seq. ; execu
tive officer of the U. S. bat
tleship Delaware, in com
mand of U. S. sloop Decatur,
marriage to Virginia, daugh
ter of William Loyall, 137 ;
in war with Mexico, 138 et
seq.; writes book on naval
ordnance, 141; lectures on
gunnery, 142 ; establishes
Mare Island Navy Yard,
promoted captain, 143 ;
trouble with San Francisco
lawless elements, 143, 144 ;
in training for civil war,

145 ; at New Orleans, 146 ;
on interoceanic canal sur
vey, 147 ; and secession, 148
et seq. ; speech of at Norfolk
after the Civil War, 152,
153; goes north, 154, 155;
and expedition to New Or
leans mentioned, 159, 169 ;
chosen to command naval
forces in New Orleans expe
dition, 174 et seq. ; official
instructions for capture of
New Orleans, 176 ; Rear
Admiral Schley's story of,
177 ; from Hampton Roads
to Ship Island and Missis
sippi River, 179 ; order
preparing fleet for battle,
196, 197; personally in
spects his ships before
battle, 198; disobeys orders
that he may force the fight
ing, 200 et seq. ; in a council
of war, 201 ; views on pass
ing the unreduced forts, 203
et seq. ; disposition of forces
for passing Confederate
forts, 209 et seq. ; passing
the forts, 213 et seq. ; and
Confederate ram Manassas,
219; losses under below
New Orleans, 220; letter
written after great victory,
221 ; steams up the river,
227 ; at New Orleans, 232
et seq. ; importance of vic
tory of at New Orleans
stated, 240 ; first expedition
to Vicksburg, 241 et seq. ;
narrow escape of, 246 ; caught
napping at Vicksburg, 249,
250 ; opinion of ironclad
when under Are, 252 ; made
rear admiral, 253; returns
to New Orleans, 254 ; opin
ion of ironclads changed,

INDEX

387

266; spirit of illustrated,
270; opinion of Alabama-
Kearsarge duel, 274, 275;
called to New Orleans by
attitude of foreign warships,
277 ; advises attack on Port
Hudson, 279 ; determines to
pass Port Hudson, 281;
general orders for passing
Port Hudson, 282, 283 ; aa
he appeared before Port
Hudson, 284, 285, 288; in
cidents showing character
of, 290, 291 ; letter to Gen
eral Grant, quoted, 292;
blockades the river above
Port Hudson, 294; returns
to New Orleans overland,
296 ; described by Rear Ad
miral Schley, 297-299 ; goes
to New York, 299 ; cordially
welcomed in the metropolis,
300 et seq. ; leaves New
York to capture Mobile
Bay, 309 ; wanted ironclads
— monitors, 311 ; letters of
quoted, 313, 314, 315; fleet
of at Mobile described, 316
et seq. ; plans of in battle of
Mobile Bay, 320; letter to
wife on eve of battle, 322;
orders attack on Mobile
Bay, 323; "lashed to the
mast," 324, 325 ; at the su
preme moment of the battle,
327 et seq. ; tactics of after
entering Mobile Bay, 332
et seq. ; his opinion of battle
of Mobile Bay, 340 ; weeps
over his dead, 343; report
of the battle, 344 ; work in
Civil War ended by broken
health, 354; sails to New
York, 355 ; described by
Brady, 356 et seq. ; return to
New York after Mobile vic

tory described, 358 et seq. ;
promoted to rank of vice
admiral, 360 ; at Richmond,
Va., 361 ; promoted to rank
of admiral, 362, 363 ; cruise
in Europe, 363 et seq. ; in
terest in naval improve
ments, 366 ; at the home of
his ancestors, 367, 368 ; de
clines to become Democratic
candidate for president,
369 ; last visit to a warship,
370, 371 ; death and funeral
of, 371 ; statues erected to,
371, 372, 373.
Farragut, Elizabeth Shine,
mother of David Glasgow
Farragut, encounter with
Indians, 25 ; removes to
New Orleans in flatboat, 28 ;
death, 31.
Farragut, George Anthony
Magin, a ferryman, 23 ;
early career described, 26 et
seq. ; appointed master in
navy, and removes to New
Orleans, 28 ; method of
training children, 29 ; asso
ciate of Captain David Por
ter, 30 ; influence of his
kindness to Captain Porter
on commander (afterward
commodore) David Porter,
31 ; death, 33.
Farragut, Loyall, work
quoted, 25, 125, 126, 139 ;
mentioned, 54, 21 9 ; heroism
of before Port Hudson, 290 ;
returns home, 294 ; work
quoted, 313, 345, 346, 356,
361.
Farragut Monument Associa
tion, erects statue to Farra
gut, 372.
Farragut, Mrs. Virginia, and
the secession movement,

388

INDEX

154 ; goes to Europe with
the admiral, 364 ; present
at death of admiral, 371.
Farragut, Pedro, ancestor of
Farragut, described, 367,
368.
Farragut Square, Washington,
mentioned, 372.
Farragut, William, a midship
man, 31 ; death of, 146.
Fernandina (Amelia Island),
Fla., once a pirate resort,
106.
Ferrand, Commander Ebe-
nezer, in charge of Confed
erate naval station, 307.
Finch, Capt. W. B., helps
Farragut to independent
command, 123 ; reports
Farragut's affair with Brit
ish seaman to Navy Depart
ment, 126.
Fisher, Fort, Farragut ordered
to command attack on, 355 ;
captured, 361.
Florida, Confederate cruiser,
work of, 270 et seq.
Florida, Confederate gunboat
on New Orleans lakes, 189.
Florida, secession of, 148 ;
mentioned, 175.
Folsom, Rev. Charles, one of
Farragut's teachers, 95 ; re
membered by Farragut in
his old age, 98.
Foltz, Surgeon J. M., before
Port Hudson, 290.
Foote, Rear Admiral Andrew
H, mentioned, 246.
Foster, John W., work quoted,
276.
" Foxardo affair, " 129, 130.
Fox, Assistant Secretary of
Navy Gustavus V., consid
ers plan for taking New Or
leans, 172 ; Farragut writes

to, 241 ; letter from to Far
ragut, 243.
Fox, U. S. schooner, fired on
at San Juan, 115.
France, war with Mexico, 134 ;
attitude toward United
States changed, 364, 365.
Fredenburg, James, a deserter
from the British navy,
makes trouble for Farragut,
126.
Freeman, Martin, pilot for
Farragut at Mobile Bay, 324.
French navy, scientific de
velopment, Farragut's views
on, 135 et seq. ; in war with
Mexico, 138 et seq.
Frio, Cape, Brazil, Essex off,
55 ; Farragut in a squall off,
132, 133.
Gabaudan, Edward C, sec
retary of Admiral Farra
gut, floats past Port Hudson,
295.
Gaines, Confederate gunboat,
described, 307 ; destroyed
near Fort Morgan, 331.
Gaines, Fort, mentioned, 302 ;
described, 304, 305 ; men
tioned, 314, 318, 319; de
fense of, 348, 349; surren
dered, 350 ; mentioned,
351, 352.
Galapagos Islands, Essex at,
59 ; Essex Junior sails to,
63.
Galena, U. S. S., at Mobile,
317, 319.
Galveston Island, Texas, orig
inally a pirate resort, 106 ;
Union forces take, 269 ;
Confederates retake, 270.
Gamble, Lieutenant Com
mandant Thomas, com
mands brig Sparki 88.

INDEX

389

Gardner, Major General
Franklin, in command of
Port Hudson, 291 ; efficient
work of, 296.
Gaudens, Augustus St., de
signs statue to Farragut, 372.
Gazette, British Army and
Navy, opinion of Farragut's
victory at Mobile quoted,
351, 352.
General Quitman, Confederate
war steamer, 191.
Genesee, U. S. gunboat before
Port Hudson, 286 ; at Mo
bile, 320.
Geneva Tribunal, work of,
277.
Georgiana, Confederate oruis-
er, story of, 275.
Georgia, secession of, 148.
Gerdes, A. F., survey of Mis
sissippi below the forts, 198.
Gherardi, Lieutenant Com
mander Bancroft, at Mobile,
317.
Gibraltar, American fleet at,
90; mentioned, 90; Con
federate cruiser Sumpter at,
271.
Gierlew, Danish consul at
Tunis, mentioned, 98, 99.
Gift, Lieutenant George W.,
quoted, 250.
Gloire, French ironclad, men
tioned, 257.
Governor Moore, Confederate
cruiser at New Orleans, 191 ;
attack on Union fleet above
forts, 215 et seq. ,- losses on,
221.
Grafton, Lieutenant Comman
der Edward C, at Mobile,
321.
Grampus, U. S. schooner,
built to suppress piracy,
109 ; captures Palmyra, 114.

Grand Gulf, Mississippi, Por
ter's attack on, 295 ; evacu
ated, 296.
Granger, General Gordon,
commanding Union soldiers
at Mobile, 318, 348.
Grant, Captain, commanding
steamer, General Quitman,
191.
Grant, General U. S., in com
mand before Vicksburg, 279,
281 ; letter of quoted, 292;
invests Vicksburg from be
low, 295, 296 ; captures
Vicksburg, 299 ; mentioned,
362.
Grant's Channel, off Mobile,
mentioned, 305.
Great Britain, oppression of
American commerce, 40, 42 ;
commerce with declared
ended, 43 ; contempt for
neutral powers, 69; when
press gangs from ceased to
visit American ships, 127;
attitude of in Civil War,
162, 163; ships built for
war with, 178 ; naval officers
of try to discourage Farra
gut, 205; attitude of naval
seamen of, 234 ; government
of refuses to join French in
attack on United States,
238; expresses regret for
work of Confederate oruis-
ers, 276, 277 ; attitude to
ward the United States
changed by Farragut's vic
tory at Mobile, 350, 351,
352, 365.
Greene, Lieutenant Comman
der Charles A., at Mobile,
317.
Greene, Lieutenant S. D., in
command of Monitor's tur
ret, 265.

390

INDEX

Greyhound, U. S. sohooner, in
squadron for suppressing
piracy, 113; sent into San
Juan, 114; detained in
port, 115 ; when Farragut
had the deck, 116; meets a
British squadron — cruises on
Cuban Coast, 117-120; men
tioned, 122.
Grimes, Senator James W.,
and New Orleans expedition,
171 ; and vote of thanks to
Farragut, 253 ; introduces
bill to make Farragut an
admiral, 362.
Gulf Blockading Squadron,
base of at Ship Island, 158;
Farragut in command of
Western, 175.
Habana, C.S., see Sumpter.
Hale, Senator John P., and
the New Orleans expedition,
171.
Halleck, General H. W., and
attack on Vicksburg, 254.
Hampton Roads, Farragut at,
147; Farragut sails from,
179 ; ironclad Merrimac at,
260 et seq.
Harriet Lane, U. S. Revenue
steamer, in New Orleans ex
pedition, 180.
Harris, Lieutenant John
Campbell, hoists flag at New
Orleans, 236.
Harrison, Lieutenant Com
mander H. B., in New Or
leans expedition, 179; in
post of honor when passing
Confederate forts, 210.
Hartford convention, men
tioned, 149.
Hartford, U. S. steam sloop,
mentioned, 99 ; Farragut to
hoist flag on, 175; described,

177 et seq. ; at mouth of
Mississippi, 179 ; in attack
on Confederate forts, 209;
orders fleet under way, 211 ;
passing the forts, 212 etzeq. ;
as seen from levee at New
Orleans, 229 ; mentioned,
232; aground on way to
Vicksburg, 244 ; at Vicks
burg, 244 et seq. ; passing
Port Hudson, 286 et seq. ;
armored with logs, 294 ; crew
of described by Farragut,
314, 315; battery of at
Mobile Bay, 317; place in
line at Mobile Bay, 318,
319; mentioned, 325; joy
of crew of when she crossed
the torpedo line, 328 ; es
capes the ironclad Tennes
see's ram, 329; raked by
Confederate gunboats, 330;
at anchor in Mobile Bay,
332; ramming the Tennes
see, 335; rammed by the
Lackawanna, 336 ; anxiety of
crew of for safety of Farra
gut, 337 ; losses on in battle
of Mobile Bay, 341 ; boarded
by officials of New York.
358 ; wheel of used in cast
ing statue of Farragut, 372.
Hart, Lieutenant Commander
J. C, before Port Hudson,
286.
Hastings, Farragut's home at,
155.
Hatteras, Cape, mentioned,
158.
Hatteras, Fort, taken by
Union forces, 158.
Hatteras Inlet, mentioned,
158, 168.
Hatteras, U. S. S., sunk by
Confederate oruiser Ala
bama, 270.

INDEX

391

Havana, Cuba, blockaded by
pirates, 106 ; pirates at, 125,
126; as station for block
ade runners, 162; men
tioned, 272.
Haywood, author of "Major
George Farragut," quoted,
23, 24.
Heath, Captain John, U. S.
marine corps, knocked down
by Captain O. H. Perry, 94.
Hewitt, Captain, British navy,
mentioned, 277.
Higgins, Colonel Edward,
commanding Fort St.
Phillip, 184.
Hillyar, Captain James, com
manding British frigate
Phoebe, 63; disregard of
neutral rights, 68, 69;
learns that Essex is in Val
paraiso, 70; failure of at
tempt to catch Porter nap
ping, 71, 72; refuses tomeet
Essex, ship for ship, 73; in
battle with Essex, 75 et seq. ;
invites Farragut to break
fast, 85 ; paroles prisoners,
86.
Hoboken, dueling ground
mentioned, 94.
Hollins, Commodore George
N., ordered away from New
Orleans when Farragut
threatened the city, 195;
brilliant work of, 195, 196 ;
opinion of Confederate iron
clads, 275.
Hornet, U. S. sloop of war,
mentioned, 54, 55 ; block
ades British sloop Bonne
Citoyenne, 56.
Hosmer, J. K., work quoted,
285, 292, 295.
Howell, Lieutenant J. A.,
mentioned, 346.

Hudson River, British strategy
on mentioned, 171.
Huger, Commander Thomas
B., death of, 220, 221.
Independence, U. S. ship of
the line, ordered to Mediter
ranean, 90.
Indianola, Union ironclad,
loss of, 280 ; mentioned,
294.
Iroquois, U. S. S. at mouth of
Mississippi River, 179 et
seq. ; in attack on Confeder
ate forts, 209, 215 ; fight
with the McRae, 220; at
Vicksburg, 245 et seq. ; fail
ure to capture C.S. Sump-
ter, 271.
Isaacs, Midshipman, reports
skulker to Captain Porter,
81 ; praised for conduct in
battle, 84.
Island No. 10, mentioned,
247.
Itaska, U. S. S., at mouth of
Mississippi River, 179; at the
Fort Jackson boom, 206 et
seq. ; in attack on Confeder
ate forts, 209 ; examines
broken boom, 211; at Mo
bile, 317, 319; incident of
battle on, 346.
Ivy, Confederate armed tug,
mentioned, 170.
Jackson, Andbew, and nul
lification, 149; at New Or
leans, 183 ; mentioned, 227,
229.
Jackson, Confederate warship,
189.
Jackson, Fort, brick for, 122 ;
mentioned, 178 ; strength of
in 1862 considered, 183 et
seq. ; boom at, 185 ; mortar

392

INDEX

fleet to bombard, 198; not
seriously injured by the at
tack, 199 ; Farragut's plan
of attack on, 209 et seq. ;
fired on Confederate ram,
219; losses in, 220; men
tioned, 222 ; surrendered,
235 et seq. ; mentioned, 240,
253.
Jackson, U. S. S., in New
Orleans expedition, 180.
James River, Confederate ope
ration in mentioned, 361.
Java, British frigate, captured
by Constitution, 86 ; good
story of her wheel, 92.
Java, U. S. frigate, men
tioned, 94.
Jefferson, Thomas, foreign
policy as President, consid
ered, 39 et seq. ; prolonged
influence of, 157.
Jenkins, Captain Thornton A.,
at Mobile, 317, 318; good
work of, 321.
John Adams, U. S. sloop of
war, mentioned, 88; Farra
gut in on Mexican coast,
134 ; at San Francisco, 144,
149.
Johnson, J. D., captain of
C.S. Tennessee, 309 ; await
ing the Union fleet, 326 ;
ordered to follow Union
fleet, 333 ; obliged to sur
render his ship, 338, 339.
Jolly, Captain, commander of
privateer Brutus, 107.
Jones, John Paul, notable
words of quoted, 283, 329 ;
spirit of mentioned, 348.
Jones, Lieutenant Thomas ap
C. R.. in command of iron
clad Merrimac, 262; good
work in battle with Moni
tor, 266.

Jouett, Lieutenant Comman
der James E., at Mobile,
317 ; near Farragut in the
battle, 324, 328; saving
men from the Tecumseh,
329 ; in chase of Confederate
gunboats, 330 ; would not
be "intimidated," 331.
Journal, Boston, quoted, 361.
Juarez, Benito, President of
Mexico, aided by United
States, 146.
Kangaeoo, British warship,
mentioned, 126.
Katahdin, U. S. S., at mouth
of Mississippi River, 179 ;
in attack on Confederate
forts, 209; at Vicksburg,
245.
Kearney, Commander Law
rence, on Cuban coast, 117-
120.
Kearsarge, U. S. S., block
ading C.S. Sumpter at Gi
braltar, 271 ; battle with
Alabama, 273, 274.
Kennebec, U. S. S., at mouth
of Mississippi River, 179;
in attack on Confederate
forts, 209 ; at Vicksburg,
245 et seq. ; at Mobile, 317,
319.
Kennon, Lieutenant Beverly,
commanding the Governor
Moore, 191 ; gallant attack
on Union fleet above Con
federate forts, 216 etseq. ; re
port of losses in battle, 221.
Key West, naval station es
tablished at, 117; Farragut
at, 121 ; Union forces at,
158 ; Farragut at, 179.
Kinburn, European ironclad,
mentioned, 257.
Kineo, U. S. S., at mouth of

index

S93

Mississippi River, 179; in
attack on Confederate forts,
209 ; struck by Brooklyn at
raft, 215 ; before Port Hud
son, 286.
King, Grace, quoted, 230, 236,
240.
Kingsbury, Boatswain Will
iam, encourages crew of
Essex, 57; in battle with
British squadron at Valpa
raiso, 83, 84.
Knowles, Quartermaster,
"lashes" Farragut to fut-
tock shrouds of Hartford,
325 ; saw Farragut weep for
the dead, 343.
Knoxville, Term., mentioned,
23.
Lackawanna, U. S. S., bat
tery of at Mobile described,
317 ; place in battle line at
Mobile, 318; in attack on
the Tennessee, 335 ; rams
the Hartford, 336; men
tioned, 337 ; losses on, 341.
Lafitte, Jean, mentioned, 105 ;
hangs a pirate, 108.
Laird Brothers, builders of
C.S. Alabama, 273 ; build
ers of C.S. Georgiana and
two ironclads, 275.
Lancaster, Union ram, des
troyed before Vicksburg,
294.
Langharne, Captain T. L.,
command British sloop Lit
tle Belt, 51.
Lawrence, Master Command
ant James, mentioned, 54.
Lee, Commander S. P., in
New Orleans expedition,
179; at Vicksburg, 242.
Le Roy, Commander William
E., at Mobile, 317 ; greeting

to the captain of the Ten
nessee, 339.
Lincoln, President A., men
tioned, 148, 157; blockades
Confederate ports, 159; hope
to control Mississippi River,
171 ; approves Porter's plan
for taking New Orleans,
172 ; recommends promo
tion of Farragut, 253, 360.
Lindsay, W. S., member
British Parliament, efforts
to aid Confederacy, 239.
Little Belt, British sloop of
war, fight with frigate Pres
ident, 43, 44 ; mentioned,
52.
Liverpool Board of Trade, ap
plauds pirates, 165 ; home
port of C.S. Alabama, 273;
mentioned, 276.
"Logan," name given to
Commodore Porter by the
crew of Essex, 77.
Louisiana, Confederate iron
clad floating battery, de
scribed, 191 et seq. ; men
tioned, 221 ; work of when
Farragut passed Confederate
forts on Mississippi River,
223 et seq.; burned, 235;
mentioned, 267.
Louisiana, secession of, 148.
Lovell, General Mansfield, in
command of New Orleans,
182 et seq. ; said ships could
steam past Forts Jackson
and St. Philip, 184; when
New Orleans was captured,
231 et seq.
Low's Ferry, see Stony Point.
Loyall, Virginia, marries Far
ragut, 137.
Lyman, Midshipman James
R., praised for conduct in
battle, 84.

394

INDEX

Lynx, U. S. schooner, at Gal
veston Island, 107, 108.
Macdonough, Commodobe
Thomas, prayer of before
battle of Lake Champlain
recalled, 328.
Macedonian, U. S. frigate, in
search of pirates, 112.
Macomb, Commander W. H.,
before Port Hudson, 286.
Madison, James, foreign policy
as President, mentioned, 39,
41, 42 ; proclamation ending
commerce with Great Brit
ain, 43 ; war messages of, 48.
Madison, Lieutenant J. R., at
Galveston Island, 107.
Maffitt, Captain John F.,
commanding Confederate
cruiser Florida, 270 et seq.
Magazine of American His
tory, quoted, 372.
Mahan, Captain A. T., work
quoted, 35, 45, 57, 63, 66,
68, 150, 332, 333, 334.
Mahy, Captain General Don
Nicholas, Governor of Cuba,
encourages Spanish pirates,
112 ; gives friendly warn
ing to pirates, 116.
Malaga, mentioned, 90.
Mallory, S. R., Confederate
Secretary of Navy, and iron
clads, 258; opinion of Mer
rimac, 259.
Malta, Farragut entertained
at, 365, 366.
Manassas, Confederate ram,
described, 190; narrow es
cape of, 199 ; attacks Union
fleet above the forts, 215,
218 etseq.; end of , 221.
Manhattan, U. S. monitor at
Mobile, 316 ; effect of a shot
from, 335.

Manila, pirates cruise to, 106 ;
mentioned, 363.
Marchand, Captain John B.,
at Mobile, 317.
Marchant, Fanny, mother-in-
law of Farragut, 131.
Marchant, Jordan, father-in-
law of Farragut, 131.
Marchant, Susan Caroline,
married to Farragut, and
death of, 131.
Mare Island Navy Yard, Far
ragut establishes, 143.
Marquesas Islands, Essex re
fitted at, 64 et seq.
Mason and Dixon's Line, men
tioned, 148.
Mason, Hon. J. Y., Secretary
of Navy, Farragut's letter
to, 138, 139.
Matamoras, Mexico, men
tioned, 160 ; and blockade
runners, 162; mentioned,
301, 313.
Maximilian, puppet emperor
of Mexico, 239.
Mazureau, New Orleans law
yer, sent to jail, 237.
McCann, Lieutenant Comman
der William P., at Mobile,
317.
McClellan, General George B. ,
and capture of New Orleans,
173 et seq.
Mcintosh, Captain Charles,
death of on Confederate iron
clad Louisiana, 221.
McKean, Commodore William
W., mentioned, 177.
McKinstry, Captain J. P., be
fore Port Hudson, 286.
McKnight, Lieutenant, pre
vents attack on Phoebe, 71.
McLane, Robert M., U. S.
Minister to Mexico, with
Farragut, 145, 146.

INDEX

395

McRae, Confederate gunboat,
mentioned, 189 ; in battle
on Mississippi River above
Confederate forts, 216 ; fight
with Iroquois, 220; losses
in battle, 221.
Memphis, Tenn., mentioned,
195, 196 ; Confederate ship
yard at, 247; untenable,
248.
Memphis, valuable blockade
runner captured, 167.
Merrimac, Confederate iron
clad, mentioned, 189; de
scribed, 258 et seq. ; work
of, 260 et seq.; battle with
Monitor, 264 et seq. ; des
troyed, 266.
Mersey, British frigate at New
Orleans, 205 ; ill-mannered
crew of, 230.
Mer vine, Flag Officer William,
mentioned, 170.
Metacomet, U. S. S., at
Mobile, 317, 319, 324, 328,
329 et seq. ; carries wounded
to Pensacola, 341, 342.
Metternich, Prince, derides
Farragut, 93.
Mexico, war with United
States, 138 et seq. ; revolu
tion in, 146; mentioned,
175, 364 ; French effort to
subjugate, 239, 240.
Miami, U. S. S., in New Or
leans expedition, 180.
Miguel de la Torre, Governor
of Porto Rico, 114.
Miller, W. C. & Sons, build
Confederate cruiser Florida,
271.
Minnesota, U. S. S., at Hamp
ton Roads, 260.
Minorca, Island of, Farragut
at, 367.
Mississippi, Confederate iron

clad floating battery, de
scribed, 192 et seq. ; men
tioned, 223, 229.
Mississippi River, mentioned,
158 ; blockaded, 169 ; hope
of national government to
control, 171, 172; Farragut
crosses bar at mouth of,
195; base in secured, 238;
difficulties in navigating
above New Orleans, 241 ; at
Vicksburg, described, 244;
mentioned, 248 ; ironclads
on upper waters of, 258;
when Confederates gained
command of from Vicksburg
to Port Hudson, 280, 281;
completely blockaded, 294;
wholly under Union control,
299.
Mississippi Sound, mentioned,
305.
Mississippi, State of, secession
of, 148.
Mississippi, U. S. S., men
tioned, 170 ; at mouth of
Mississippi River, 179 et
seq. ; in attack on Confeder
ate forts, 209, 212, 215 ; and
Confederate ram, 218, 219;
before Port Hudson, 286 ;
destruction of, 288, 289.
Mitchell, Commodore John
K., commanding naval
forces for defense of Missis
sippi River, 208 ; work of
when Farragut passed Con
federate forts on Mississippi
River, 224, 225.
Mobile Bay, mentioned, 269 ;
capture of considered, 301,
302, 310; described, 303 et
seq. ; torpedoes in, 305 ;
steamers to defend, 306 et
seq. ; mentioned, 310, 311,
312; Union ships in battle

396

INDEX

of described, 316 et seq. ;
Union line of battle at, 318,
319; attack on ordered,
323 ; duration of battle of,
341.
Mobile, city of, mentioned,
189, 241; Confederate cruiser
Florida at, 272 ; commerce
of, 310 ; importance of trade
of to Confederacy, 351 ;
reasons for refusing to at
tack, 354.
Mobile Point, mentioned, 302,
303, 305.
Monarch, British warship,
brings Peabody's body to
Portland, 370.
Monitor, story of U. S. iron
clad, 263 ; battle with Mer
rimac, 264 et seq.
Monitors, in battle of Mobile
Bay, described, 316 ; men
tioned, 321 ; value of in
shoal harbor work, 333.
Monongahela, U. S. S., before
Port Hudson, 286, 290, 297 ;
at Mobile, 317, 318; leads
in attack on Tennessee,
335.
"Monroe Doctrine," accept
ance of made possible by
American navy, 80; Farra
gut enforces, 134.
Monroe, Mayor John T., when
New Orleans was captured,
231 et seq. ; imprisoned,
236, 237.
Monroe, President James, is
sues proclamation regarding
pirates, 112.
Montagu, British ship of the
line, mentioned, 55, 56.
Montauk, monitor, sunk by
torpedo, 306.
Montezuma, British whaler,
taken, 59.

Montgomery, James E., work
quoted, 369.
Montgomery, Major James E.,
demands surrender of Fort
Morgan, 352.
Moore, Chief Engineer John
W., ingenuity of, 197 ;
work of that saved a ship,
218.
Morgan, Confederate gunboat,
described, 307 ; escapes
Union fleet, 331.
Morgan, Fort, mentioned, 302 ;
described, 304 ; problem of
capturing, 310 ; jubilee at,
313 ; torpedoes in channel
at, 314, 320; chief point of
danger to Union fleet, 319 ;
opens fire on Union fleet,
323 ; mentioned, 347, 351 ;
surrender of demanded and
refused, 352 ; siege and cap
ture of, 353; mentioned,
354.
Morris, Captain H. W., in
New Orleans expedition,
179 ; place in battle line
when passing Confederate
forts, 210; hoists flag at
New Orleans, 234.
Morris, Lieutenant George U.,
extraordinary gallantry of,
261; heroism of recalled,
321.
Mosher, Confederate tug, with
fire raft in attack on Con
federate forts, 213.
Mullany, Commander J. R.
M., at Mobile, 317; heroism
of, 331.
Mumford, William B., hauls
down the American flag at
New Orleans, 234 ; hanged,
236.
Napoleon, Empeeoe, treaoh-

INDEX

397

ery toward American people,
42.
Napoleon III., Emperor, anx
ious for destruction of
United States, 238 et seq. ;
invites Farragut to dinner,
364.
Nash, Captain, British razee
Saturn, 86.
Nashville, Confederate iron
clad, mentioned, 311.
Nassau, N. P., Farragut at,
126 ; port of call for block
ade runners, 162, 164, 165;
C.S. Florida at, 271.
Natchez, captured by Union
forces, 242.
Natchez, U. S. sloop, Farragut
exeoutive officer of, 133.
Navy League Journal, quoted,
51.
Neif, a schoolmaster, men
tioned, 88.
Nelson, Admiral Horatio, an
order of, quoted, 77.
Nelson, Congressman R., will
ing to let enemy take Amer
ican seaports, 41.
Nereyda, Spanish privateer,
captured and released, 58,
59.
Newbern, mentioned, 237.
New Carthage, mentioned,
295.
New England, attitude of in
War of 1812, 149.
New Ironsides, Union iron
clad, mentioned, 263.
New Orleans, Farragut at
when a child, 27 et seq. ;
Farragut visits, 122; expe
dition against mentioned,
159, 168; origin of expedi
tion against, 169 et seq. ;
Porter's plan for capturing,
169 et seq. ; Confederate de

fense of, 182 et seq. ; build
ing warships at, 189 et seq. ;
at mercy of Farragut, 221 ;
in War of 1812, 226 ; when
Farragut came to, 228 et
seq. ; importance of capture
of considered, 237 et seq. ;
mentioned, 243, 253, 256,
351, 364 ; Confederate cruiser
Sumpter at, 271; General
Banks in command at, 279 ;
Porter at, 299; General
Canby in command at, 318 ;
garrison of Fort Gaines sent
to, 350.
Newport News, mentioned,
260; C.S. Florida sunk off,
273.
Newton, Lieutenant J. C,
commanding U. S. schooner
Beagle, 117, 118.
New York City, Confederate
ironclad Merrimac expected
at, 259 ; cordial welcome to
Farragut, 300 et seq. ; shows
appreciation of Farragut's
work, 358 et seq. ; publio
funeral of Farragut at, 371 ;
monument to Farragut in,
372.
Niagara, U. S. frigate, and
Confederate ram Stonewall,
276.
Nichols, Lieutenant Comman
der E. T., in New Orleans
expedition, 179.
Nicholson, Commander J. W.
A., at Mobile, 316.
Nicholson, Congressman, ridi
cules idea of resisting British
aggression, 40.
Nields, Acting Ensign Henry
C., heroism of when afloat
in a small boat, during bat
tle, 329 ; mentioned, 346.
Niles's Register, quoted, 107.

398

INDEX

Nimrod, British whaler, cap
tures American whaler
Walker, 59.
Nocton, British packet, cap
tured by Essex, 55 ; money
from of good service, 58.
Norfolk, Va., Farragut at, 44
et seq. ; Farragut married
at, 131; Farragut stationed
at, 132, 151; Farragut
leaves, 154 ; Confederates at,
157; mentioned, 244; and
ironclad Merrimac, 258 et
seq.
North American Review,
quoted, 240.
North Carolina, mentioned,
237.
"Nullification" troubles in
South Carolina, 133.
Octoraea, U. S. S., at Mo
bile, 317, 319.
Ogeechee River, mentioned,
306.
Oneida, U. S. S., at mouth of
Mississippi River, 179 et
teq. ; in attack on Confeder
ate forts, 209; mentioned,
216; at Vicksburg, 245 et
seq. ; at Mobile, 317, 318 ;
badly cut up but remained
in the line, 331 ; losses on,
341.
Opelousas, expedition to, 278.
Oreto, see Florida.
Ossipee, U. S. S., at Mobile,
317, 318 ; receives surrender
of Tennessee, 339; men
tioned, 346.
Owen, Lieutenant Commander
Elias K., in command at
Grand Gulf, 296.
Page, Captain T. J., com

manding Confederate ram
Stonewall, 276.
Page, General R. L., com
manding Fort Morgan, 304 ;
determined defense of the
fort, 329; arranges for
transfer of Confederate
wounded prisoners to Pensa
cola, 341, 342; courage of,
348 ; heroic defense of Fort
Morgan, 352, 353.
Palmer, Captain James S.,
gallant conduct before
Vicksburg, 246; before
Port Hudson, 286; in com
mand of Farragut's River
Squadron, 296 ; succeeds
Farragut in command of
Gulf Squadron, 355.
Palmer, Dr. James C, volun
teer services at battle of
Mobile Bay, 323; serves
Farragut as aide, 334 ; visits
the Tennessee, 341.
Palmyra, Porto Rico priva
teer, captured by U. S.
schooner Grampus, 114.
Pancheta, see Palmyra.
Pandorn, British warship,
mentioned, 126.
Paris, statue to Farragut cast
in, 372.
Parker, F. A., work quoted,
353, 367.
Parker, Lieutenant John C,
describes Farragut before
Port Hudson, 283 et seq. ;
describes Hartford before
Port Hudson, 287.
Parrott rifles, weight of shot
of, 317.
Pass a 1' Outre, C.S. Sumpter,
escapes through, 171.
Pass of the Mississippi, south
west, blockaded, 169.
Patterson, Commodore Daniel

INDEX

399

F., letter of commending
Farragut, 123.
Peabody, George, Farragut in
charge of reception of body
of, 370.
"Peaceable Coercion," Jeffer
son's policy of considered,
39 et seq. ; last act of Con
gress to promote, 41 ; influ
ence of after war began, 54.
Peacock, U. S. sloop, ordered
in search of pirates, 112,
113.
Pembina, U. S. S., at Mobile,
320.
Pennock, Rear Admiral Alex
ander M., Farragut dies at
home of, 371.
Pensacola, Union forces off,
156 et seq. ; mentioned,
222 ; Farragut at, 269 ; Far
ragut leaves, 274; U. S.
monitor Tecumseh at, 315;
mentioned, 318.
Pensacola, U. S. S., men
tioned, 177 ; at mouth of
Mississippi River, 179 et
seq. ; in attack on Confeder
ate forts, 209, 212, 215;
mentioned, 234.
Perkins, Lieutenant George
H., when passing forts on
Mississippi River, 212; sent
ashore at New Orleans, 230 ;
describes experience, 231 ;
at Mobile, 316, 319 ; mounts
the turret when going into
battle, 325 ; manifest joy of
when Hartford took the
lead, 328, 329; when or
dered to attack the Tennes
see, 334 ; attacks Fort Pow
ell, 349 ; mentioned, 354.
Perry, Commodore M. C,
Farragut's trouble with,
141.

Perry, Commodore O. H, at
tack upon Captain John
Heath, U. S. marine corps,
94; death of while cruising
in search of West India
pirates, 108 ; notable words
of quoted, 283.
Phcebe, British frigate, men
tioned, 63 ; arrives at Val
paraiso, 70 et seq. ; narrow
escape from capture, 71 ;
mentioned, 74; in battle
with Essex, 75 et seq. ; men
tioned, 267, 333.
Pickens, Fort, held by Union
force, 156 ; mentioned, 169.
Pierce, Master's Mate Will
iam, praised for conduct in
battle, 84.
Pilot, American schooner,
taken by pirates. 125.
Pinckney, William, U. S.
minister to England, 39;
mentioned, 44; U. S. min
ister to Naples, 91.
Pinola, U. S. S., at mouth of
Mississippi River, 179 ; at
the Fort Jackson boom, 206
et seq. ; in attack on Con
federate forts, 209 ; at
Vicksburg, 245 et seq. ; at
Mobile, 320.
Pisa, Farragut at, 99.
Pittsburg, Pa., mentioned,
257.
Piatt, Lieutenant Charles T.,
precipitates the "Foxardo
affair," 129.
Pontchartrain, Lake, men
tioned, 183, 228.
Pontiac's War, mentioned,
257.
Porpoise, U. S. schooner, built
to suppress piracy, 109 ; at
Cape Antonio, 111.
Porter, Admiral D. D., and

400

INDEX

steamer Powhatan at Pensa
cola, 156 ; at Washington,
168 ; originates plan for cap
ture of New Orleans, 169 et
seq. ; commands mortar divi
sion in New Orleans expedi
tion, 180 ; opinion of Confed
erate ironclad Mississippi,
194 ; opinion of mortar fire,
200 ; views regarding at
tempt to pass the uninjured
forts, 200 et seq. ; in attack
on Fort Jackson, 210 et seq. ;
on fire, 213, 214 ; in rear of
Fort Jackson, 235 etseq. ; be
fore Vicksburg, H9 et seq. ; in
swamps north of Vicksburg,
293; takes fleet down past
Vicksburg, 295; in com
mand of all the Mississippi
River, 299 ; narrow escape
of fleet of in Red River, 311 ;
captures Fort Fisher, 361 ;
promotions of, 363.
Porter, Captain David, fight
with British press gang, 30 ;
death at the home of George
Farragut, 31.
Porter, Commander (Commo
dore) David, adopts David
G. Farragut at New Orleans,
31 ; early career, 32, 33 ;
ordered north, 33; secures
appointment as a midship
man for young Farragut,
35; in command of frigate
Essex, 44 ; quells mutinous
prisoners on Essex, 52 ; rec
ommends cruise in Pacific,
54 ; on Brazil coast, 55 ; de
cides to cruise alone in the
Pacific, 56 ; captures Span
ish privateer Nereyda, 58;
prepares for battle with
British squadron, 64 et seq. ;
character as a commander

considered, 67 ; seeks the
enemy, 69 ; prepares to
meet an attack in port, 70
et seq. ; as a " pink of
chivalry," 72; on a boat
expedition against Phcebe,
73 ; in battle with British
squadron, 75 et seq. ; on
route home in cartel Essex
Junior is released from
parole and lands on Long
Island, 86; in command of
West India squadron for
suppression of piracy, 113 ;
letter of to Governor of
Porto Rico, 115 ; in the
"Foxardo affair," 129;
death of, 130; mentioned,
138.
Porter, Commander William
D., gallantry before Vicks
burg, 251 et seq.
Porter, Lieutenant Comman
der John, commanding U.
S. schooner Greyhound, 113-
116 ; reply to an insolent
British naval captain, 116.
Porter, Naval Constructor J.
L., and the Merrimac, 259.
Porter, Richard P., work
quoted, 46.
Port Hudson, Confederates
fortify, 256 ; Union forces
in attack on, 278 et seq. ;
extent of forts, 285 ; scarcity
of provisions in, 291, 292 ;
captured by Union forces,
299.
Port Mahon, rendezvous of
American squadron, men
tioned, 93, 94 ; Farragut at,
368.
Porto Praya, mentioned,
54.
Port Royal, taken by Union
forces, 158, 168, 172.

INDEX

401

Port Royal, U. S. S., at Mo
bile, 317, 319.
Portsmouth Navy Yard, Farra
gut dies at, 371.
Portsmouth, U. S. sloop, at
mouth of Mississippi River,
180 ; in attack on Fort
Jackson, 211.
Potomac River, mentioned,
259 ; 361.
Powell, Fort, defending Mo
bile, 305 ; attacked, 348 ;
destroyed, 349; mentioned,
351.
Powhatan, U. S. S., at Pensa
cola, 156; blockades pass
of Mississippi River, 169;
sent to New York for re
pairs, 171.
Preble, Lieutenant Comman
der George H., work quoted,
38; in New Orleans expedi
tion, 179.
Preedy, a British captain, ef
fort of to discourage Farra
gut, 205, 206.
President, U. S. frigate, fight
with British sloop of war
Little Belt, 43, 44; men
tioned, 52.
Price, General Sterling, men
tioned, 314.
Privateers, Spanish-American,
considered, 102 et seq.
Queen of the West, Union
war steamer, 247 ; meets
the Arkansas, 248, 249;
fails in attack on Arkansas,
252 ; loss of, 280.
Raccoon, British sloop of
war, mentioned, 63.
Raft, proposed for defense of
New York harbor, 41, 186 ;
to close Mississippi River at

Fort Jackson, 185 et seq. ;
strength of considered, 205 ;
broken, 206 et seq.
Rafts, fire, below New Or
leans, 187; work of in battle
of Mississippi River, 213 et
seq. ; poorly handled, 225.
Randall, Captain Gideon,
whaler, adventures of, 59 et
seq. ; mutiny of quelled by
Farragut, 61, 62.
Randolph, John, tells Congress
that it could not be kicked
into fighting, 41 ; dislike for
navy, 188.
Ransom, Lieutenant Comman
der George M., in New Or
leans expedition, 179.
Read, Lieutenant C. W., on
Confederate ram Manassas,
220 ; and ironclad Arkansas,
255.
Read, Midshipman J. H.,
with landing force at New
Orleans, 236.
Ream, Vinnie, designs statue
of Farragut, 372.
Red River country, mentioned,
254 ; importance of to Con
federates, 280 etseq. ; block
aded, 292; Banks' expedi
tion to, 310.
Regla, on Havana Bay, pirate
resort, 111.
Richmond, U. S. S., men
tioned, 177 ; at mouth of
Mississippi River, 179 et
seq. ; in attack on Confeder
ate forts, 209 ; passing the
forts, 215; at Vicksburg,
244 et seq. ; before Port Hud
son, 286, 289 ; battery of at
Mobile Bay, 317 ; armored
with sand, 318 ; mentioned,
321.
Richmond, Va., secession con-

402

INDEX

vention at, 150 et seq. ; Con
federate government at, 172;
authorities at blind to dan
ger of New Orleans, 195 et
seq. ; surrender of to Union
forces, 361; Farragut at,
361.
Rinaldo, British warship, men
tioned, 277.
Rio Grande, mentioned, 301.
Rio de Janeiro, Fan-agut at,
133.
River Defense Fleet, Confeder
ate, organized, 188 ; failure
to protect Fort Jackson
boom, 207, 208, 224, 225;
when valor of crews failed,
216.
River Defense Fleet, Union,
reason for efficiency of, 293.
Roach, Adam, a skulker, 81 .
Roanoke Island, mentioned,
237.
Roanoke River, mentioned, 89.
Roanoke, U. S. S. at Hampton
Roads, 260.
Rodgers, Commodore John,
ordered to protect American
commerce, 43 ; fight with
British sloop Little Belt,
43, 44 ; mentioned, 47 ; sails
with squadron, 48.
Rodgers, engineer of the Ten
nessee, hand to hand fight
ing during battle of Mobile
Bay, 336.
Host, Mr., Confederate agent
in Paris, 238.
Russell, Lieutenant Comman
der John H., in New Or
leans expedition, 179.
Russell, Lord, and the Confed
erate ships built in England,
275; and United States
claim for damages by Con
federate cruisers, 276.

Russia, welcomes Farragut,
366.
Sabine City, Texas, Union
forces take, 269 ; Confeder
ates retake, 270.
Sabine Pass, blockaded, 167.
Sacramento, U. S. sloop, and
Confederate ram Stonewall,
276.
Sacri ficios, islands of, Farragut
surveys, 134.
San Antonio, Cape, a pirate
resort, 111.
Sand Island, off Mobile, men
tioned, 304.
Sands, Rear Admiral B. F.,
with Farragut on the Van-
dalia, 132, 133.
San Francisco, Cal., Farragut
at, 143 et seq. ; mentioned,
165.
San Juan de Ulloa, fort at
Vera Cruz, Mexico, French
attack on, 134 et seq. ; Far
ragut's wish to cany by
storm in our war with Mex
ico, 138 ; captured by the
army, 140.
San Juan, Porto Rico, U. S.
fleet off, 113 ; home port of
piratical privateers, 114 ;
mentioned, 129.
Santa Rosa Island, mentioned,
156.
Santiago, Cuba, blockaded by
pirates, 106.
Saratoga, U. S. sloop, Farra
gut in command of, 139 et
seq.
Saturn, British razee, over
hauls Essex Junior, and
absolves Porter from parole,
86.
Scharf, Dr. J. T., work
quoted, 165, 327.

INDEX

403

Schley, Rear Admiral W. S.,
work quoted, 177, 297-299.
Sciota, U. S. S., at mouth of
Mississippi River, 180 ; in
attack on Confederate forts,
209, 215 ; at Vicksburg, 245
et seq.
Scott, General Winfield, cap
tures San Juan de Ulloa,
140.
Sea Gull, U. S. steamer, fitted
out to suppress piracy, 112,
113 ; Farragut executive of
ficer of, 121.
Sebago, U. S. S., at Mobile,
320.
Seddon, James A., Confeder
ate Seoretary of War, quoted,
292.
Selma, Confederate gunboat,
described, 306, 307; men
tioned, 309.
Selma, village on Alabama
River, site of Confederate
ship yard, 307.
Seminole, U. S. S., at Mobile,
317, 319.
Semmes, Captain Raphael,
commands Confederate
cruiser Alabama, 270 ; work
of on C. S. Sumpter, 271 ;
on the Alabama, 273 et seq. ;
heroism of recalled, 321.
Shark, U. S. sohooner, Farra
gut executive officer of, 100 ;
built to suppress piracy, 109.
Shells, first service use of by
horizontal fire, 135, 136.
Shenandoah, Confederate
cruiser, story of, 276.
Sherman, captain of tug
Mosher, in attack on Con
federate forts below New
Orleans, 213, 214.
Sherman, General W. T., cap
tures Columbia, S. ft, 361.

Ship Island, mentioned, 158 ;
base for Union attack on
New Orleans, 173 ; Farragut
at, 178.
Slemmer, Lieutenant Adam
J., holds Fort Pickens for
the Union, 156.
Slidell, J., Confederate envoy
to France, 238 ; correspond
ence of quoted, 240.
Smith, Commander Melanc-
ton, in New Orleans expedi
tion, 179; and Confederate
ram, 219; before Port Hud
son, 289.
Smith, Lieutenant Comman
der A. N., in New Orleans
expedition, 179.
Smith, Lieutenant Watson,
effort to capture C. S.
Sumpter, 170.
Smithsonian Institution, Far
ragut at, 142.
Soley, James Russell, work of
quoted, 201.
Soul_, Pierre, doings of when
New Orleans was captured,
232 et seq. ; is imprisoned,
236.
South Carolina, "nullifica
tion" in, 133; secession of,
148,150; and Andrew Jack
son, 149.
Spanish, loyal, hatred of
Americans, 110, 114.
Squires, Captain (Confeder
ate), mentioned, 219.
St. Andrew's Bay, Florida,
mentioned, 175.
St. Catherine's, Brazil, Essex
at. 55.
St. Lawrence, U. S. S., at
Hampton Roads, 260.
St. Phillip, Fort, mentioned,
178; strength of in 1862
considered, 183 et seq.;

404

INDEX

Farragut's plan of attack
on, 209 et seq. ; unskilful
gunners of, 212 ; fleet passes,
215 ; fires on Confederate
ram, 219 ; losses in, 220 ;
mentioned, 221, 222, 223,
224, 227 ; surrenders, 235,
253
St. Thomas, W. I., U. S. fleet
at, 113.
" State Papers, " Wait edition,
quoted, 107.
Steele, General F., mentioned,
314.
Stevens, Commander Thomas
II., at Mobile, 316; on deck
in the battle, 325.
Stewart, Commodore Charles,
good influence of on navy
department, 48.
Stonewall, Confederate ram,
built in France, 276.
Stonewall Jackson, Confeder
ate steamer, in an anti
climax, 217, 218.
Stony Point, birthplace of
Farragut, 23.
Stringham, Flag Officer Silas
H., at Hatteras, 158.
Strong, Commander James
H., at Mobile, 317.
Sumter, Confederate cruiser,
Porter's attempt to capture,
170 ; off to sea, 171 ; work
of, 271.
Sumter, Fort, effect of attaok
on, 153 ; attempt to relieve,
157.
Swartwout, Commander S.,
in New Orleans expedition,
180 ; in attack on Fort
Jackson, 211.
Switzerland, Union ram, dis
abled before Vioksburg, 294.
Tallapoosa, U. S. S., takes

Farragut to Portsmouth, N.
H., 370.
Taylor, Thomas E., story of
sale of a blockade runner,
163.
Tecumseh, U. S. monitor,
mentioned, 315 ; under Far
ragut at Mobile, 315, 321;
belated en route to Mobile,
318; leads monitor line,
319 ; mentioned, 323 ; under
Fort Morgan, 325 ; sunk on
the torpedo line, 326; as
the divers saw her after the
battle, 327 ; mentioned,
328, 329; losses on, 341;
mentioned, 344.
Tennessee, Confederate iron
clad, mentioned, 189; de
scribed, 307 et seq. ; men
tioned, 311, 322 ; when the
Union fleet approached, 326,
329 ; ineffective attack on
Union fleet, 229 et seq. ;
mobbed, 334 et seq. ; sur
rendered, 339; mentioned,
347.
Tennessee, U. S. S., at Mobile,
320.
Terry, Lieutenant Comman
der Edward, good work of
before Port Hudson, 296.
Terry, Midshipman James,
praised for conduct in bat
tle, 84.
Texas, mentioned, 30 ; seces
sion of, 148; when ports were
blockaded, 159 ; France and,
240.
Thouvenel, M., French Min
ister of Foreign Affairs,
favors Confederates, 238.
Thugs, in charge of New Or
leans, 228 et seq. ; work of,
231, 233; rule ended by
General Butler, 237.

INDEX

405

Tift, Nelson, designer of Con
federate ironclad Missis
sippi, 192.
Timby, Theodore R., inventor
of revolving turret for guns,
work of, 264.
Torpedoes, use of in Civil
War, particularly at Mobile
Bay, 305, 306, 314, 320, 326,
328, 344.
Tower Island, off Mobile,
mentioned, 305.
Treaty of Washington, terms
of, 276, 277.
Tredegar iron works, men
tioned, 189.
Trent, British merchant
steamer, mentioned, 238.
Tripoli, American squadron
off, 90.
Tucker, Assistant Secretary of
War, extraordinary letter
of, 262.
Tumbez, Essex at, 60.
Tunis, Farragut at, 95 et seq.
Tuscarora, U. S. S., blockad
ing C. S. Sumpter at Gi
braltar, 271.
Twiggs, Major General D. E.,
in command of New Orleans,
182.
Two Floridas Republic, at
tempt to organize, 106.
Tyler, U. S. ironclad, and the
Arkansas, 248 etseq.
Union League Club of
New York, presents sword to
Farragut, 315.
Valparaiso, Essex at, 58 ;
mentioned, 61, 62; Ameri
can squadron at, 68 ; people
of watch battle between
Essex and British squadron,
75.

Van Dorn, General Earl, in
command at Vicksburg,
248.
Varina, Va., mentioned, 362.
Varuna, U. S. S.. at mouth of
Mississippi River, 179 et
seq. ; in attack on Confeder
ate forts, 209 ; fight with
Governor Moore, 216 ; des
troyed, 217.
Vera Cruz, Farragut off, 140 ;
French fight at recalled, 199.
Vicksburg, fortifications de
scribed, 242 ; Farragut's
first expedition to, 242 et
seq.; Confederate forces
near, 243, 244; when Far
ragut passed, 245 ; Union
operations against, 279 et
seq. ; extent of fortifications,
295; surrendered to Grant,
299 ; mentioned, 311.
Vigilance Committee, San
Francisco, troubles of, 143 et
seq. ; mentioned, 149.
Virginia, a warship, see Mer
rimac.
Virginia, state of, secession of,
150 et seq. ; when ports were
blockaded, 159.
Vixen, American war brig,
British attack upon, 34.
Wachusett, U. S. S., captures
C. S. Florida, 272, 273.
Waddel], Captain James Ir-
dell, commanding C. S.
Shenandoah, 276.
Wainwright, Commander
Richard, in New Orleans
expedition, 179.
Wainwright, Lieutenant J.
M., report of Farragut's
council of war, 201.
Walke, Commander Henry, at
Island No. 10, 247.

406

INDEX

Walker, whale ship, men
tioned, 59.
Warley, Lieutenant A. F.,
commanding Confederate
ram at New Orleans, 190;
courageous work in battle
with Union fleet, 218 et
seq.
War of 1812, declared, 48 ;
mentioned, 136, 143 ; atti
tude of New England in,
149 ; mentioned, 226, 227.
War of Revolution, mentioned,
171, 226.
Warrenton, village at south
end of Vicksburg batteries,
295.
Washington, D. ft, men
tioned, 35, 253, 254 ; iron
clad Merrimac expected at,
259 ; panic at, 262 ; statue
of Farragut in, 372.
Washington, President George,
mentioned, 30.
Washington, revenue cutter,
destroyed, 229.
Washington, U. S. ship of the
line, Farragut on, 91 ; vis
ited by royalty, 93 ; marines
prepare to shoot a pilot on,
94.
Watson, Lieutenant J. C,
" lashes " Farragut in Hart
ford's rigging, 337; de
mands surrender of Fort
Morgan, 352.
Watters. Lieutenant Comman
der John, before Port Hud
son, 286.
Weitzel, General Godfrey, in
command at Riohmond, Va. ,
361.
Welles, Gideon, Secretary of
Navy, work quoted, 158,
171 ; considers plan for
taking New Orleans, 172 ;

approves choice of Farragut,
175.
Wells, Lieutenant Commander
Clark H., at Mobile, 317.
West, Captain, of whale ship
Walker, 59.
Westfield, U. S. S., in New
Orleans expedition, 180.
West Sand Island, off Mobile,
mentioned, 304.
West Virginia, mentioned,
150.
Wharton, Lieutenant Arthur
D., in command of guns on
the Tennessee at the battle
of Mobile, 326; impression
of when Tennessee was
rammed, 335.
White, Richard Grant, writes
inscription for statue to
Farragut, 372, 373.
Wild Cat, U. S. schooner,
mentioned, 126.
Wilkes, Captain Charles, men
tioned, 238.
Williams, D. R., dislike for
navy, 188.'
Williams, General Thomas,
commanding troops in Far
ragut's Vicksburg expedi
tion, 242 et seq. ; mentioned,
254.
AVilliams, Lieutenant Colonel
J. M., defense of Fort Pow
ell, 349.
Williamson, Chief Engineer
W. P., and the Merrimac,
259.
Will-o'-the-Wisp, a noted
blockade runner, 163.
Wilmington, N. C, blockade
of, 161, 165 ; attack on
planned, 355 ; captured, 361
Winnebago, U. S. monitor, at
Mobile, 316, 325.
Winona, U, S. S.v at mouth of

INDEX

407

Mississippi River, 179 ; in
attaok on Confederate forts,
209 ; at Vicksburg, 245 et
seq.
Wissahickon, U. S. S., at
mouth of Mississippi River,
179 ; in attack on Confeder
ate forts, 209 ; at Vicksburg,
245 et seq.
Woodlawn Cemetery, Farra
gut buried in, 371.
Wood, Lieutenant John Tay
lor, describes battle of Mon
itor and Merrimac, 266.
Worden, Captain J. L., in
command of Monitor, 264 et

seq. ; wounded in fight with
Merrimac, 266.
Yagees, German, the soldiers
who seized Fort Jackson,
184.
Yankee, a merchant steamer
fitted for war, 189.
Yazoo River, Confederate iron
clad Arkansas in, 248 et seq. ;
mentioned, 306.
Yellow fever, influence of on
naval forces in pirate war,
121, 122.
Yucatan, mentioned, 175.

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