THE BOMBARDMENT.
During the interval between the return of the British fleet, on the
15th of May, and the time fixed by the Admiral for the commencement
of the bombardment, an active interchange of messages had been going
on by cable between the Governments of the United States and Great
Britain. Inasmuch as the minister of each power had been recalled
from the other's capital, this intercourse could only take place
through the British and American ambassadors at Paris.
Protests against the inhumanity and barbarity of bombarding a
defenseless city, were met by propositions for a settlement of the
whole dispute. Great Britain offered to cede Canada to the United
States, and conclude a definite treaty of peace, and withdraw her
fleet from American waters at once, provided the United States would
pay the sum of £300,000,000 sterling (about $1,500,000,000). This
proposition was met with a howl of indignant rage, by the Senators
and members of Congress from the Western and Central States; and the
old and almost forgotten cry of "Millions for defense; not one cent
for tribute!" was resuscitated by these back-country orators, and
used with as much dramatic effect as though it had never been uttered
before.
For the first time in the history of the country, parties seemed
about to divide, on entirely new sectional lines. Heretofore it had
always been the North against the South. Now it was the seaboard
against the interior. The Pacific Coast States joined with the
Atlantic and Gulf States in advocating a settlement, even on the
harsh terms proposed by Great Britain.
They pictured the enormous destruction of property which the
bombardment of all our principal coast cities would involve, and
although they conceded the truth of the assertion of their opponents
in the debate, that there could be but one ultimate result to the
war, if fought to its natural termination, and that Canada was
practically ours already, yet they claimed that as a mere matter of
dollars and cents, it would be cheaper to pay even fifteen hundred
millions of dollars, than to go on with the war; when the enormous
amount of property involved, and the vast extent of Canadian
territory to be overrun, were taken into consideration.
The orators from the west, however, took the high and lofty ground of
"millions for defense, etc.," and numerous propositions were made to
establish navy yards at various points in the interior, on navigable
rivers a hundred miles or more from the coast, and also on the great
Lakes; thus indicating that their authors had an eye to the "main
chance," and were willing to vote for the "old flag and an
appropriation," provided the appropriation was to be expended in
their own states. The debate waxed hot, and it was with the greatest
difficulty that several personal encounters among the members and
senators were prevented.
A member from one of the so called "Granger States" even went so far
as to intimate that he would rejoice to see these soulless
monopolists and capitalists of the eastern cities brought down a peg
or two. They had for years been sapping the foundations of the
country's prosperity by vast combinations of capital; and had levied
extravagant tolls on everything that the farmers of the Great West
bought and sold, thus increasing the cost of their living, while
diminishing the product of their labor. Of course he was not
unpatriotic enough to rejoice at beholding a foreign foe upon
American soil; nor did he anticipate any such result from the present
war; which would certainly end by establishing the stars and stripes
as the sole National Emblem of the North American Continent.
"Nevertheless, while we of the Great West send our brawny sons and
brothers to the battle-field to wrest a portion of its ill-gotten
territory from the so-called British Empire, it is not too much to
expect our friends In the East to bear their proper share of the
burdens of the contest. Patriotism has its responsibilities and its
duties, and these frequently involve the sacrifice of life and
property; and I would be the last man to deprive my eastern friends
of one iota of the patriotic satisfaction which they will experience,
when some of their ill-gotten gains are sacrificed on their country's
altar,"--and a lot more rubbish of the same sort.
To which a New York member replied, by making sarcastic allusions to
the "honest Grangers," who he said had for years been going down on
their knees and begging the capitalists of the great eastern cities,
to send their money west and invest it, in railways, water-works,
gas-works and other public improvements; or to lend money to western
farmers on their farm mortgages; and then, as soon as they had fairly
gotten the money out there, they had invariably tried to steal it--or
to confiscate it through forms of law--which amounted to the same
thing. They passed laws limiting the price of gas and water to such
low figures that many of the gas and water companies were bankrupted;
they organized state boards of Railway Commissioners who assumed to
fix passenger and freight rates at figures which would scarcely pay
operating expenses; and having discovered that several hundreds of
millions of dollars of eastern capital had been advanced on what were
known as "farm mortgages," at rates of interest varying from seven to
twelve percent., passed usury laws fixing the rate at not to exceed
six per cent., and also passed laws exempting a farmer's house and
barns from sale under execution. It is true, this last law had been
decided to be unconstitutional, but it only showed the lengths to
which the "honest" agricultural toiler would go in his efforts to get
something that did not belong to him. "Why sir!" continued this
metropolitan statesman, "Who supports our confidence men? Visitors
from the country, who want to play a 'skin game' where they think
they have a 'sure thing.' How do our 'green goods' men find their
customers?'
"By mailing their circulars, offering to sell well executed
counterfeit money at ten cents on the dollar, to 'honest' tillers of
the soil in all parts of the country. Show me a man who is
constantly prating about the 'tyranny of capital,' and the 'grinding
of honest toilers' by corporate greed and individual usury; and I
will show you a man who is at heart a scoundrel and a knave; and who
will never pay even a just debt, if he can sneak out of it."
Of course these speeches were entirely foreign to the subject under
discussion, but I introduce these brief extracts merely to show to
what extent sectional feelings and prejudices ran, as well as to
explain to a certain extent, the almost incredible failure of
Congress to act promptly, and prevent the vast destruction of
property which the bombardment of our seaport cities would involve.
These discussions were continued day and night (for Congress sat in
almost continuous session) from the 15th to the 18th, without any
result being arrived at. The members and senators were flooded with
letters and telegrams from all threatened points, begging them to act
at once; to pay the indemnity demanded; take Canada, and bide our
time for a final settlement with Great Britain. But owing to the
objections of the Western and Central States, nothing could be
accomplished, and when the sun rose on the morning of the 18th of
May, it was a foregone conclusion that New York and Brooklyn were to
suffer all the horrors of a bombardment, unless (as was highly
improbable) the British Admiral should see fit to further extend the
time of probation. This he utterly refused to do; and having on the
two previous days silenced the forts on Long and Staten Islands, and
easily repulsed a feeble attack by the unarmored cruisers "Atlanta,"
"Baltimore," "Boston" and "Philadelphia," and a score or so of
torpedo boats, he prepared, on the morning of the 18th, to force his
way through the Narrows into the Upper Bay, where he would be within
easy range of the two cities. He had satisfied himself that the
torpedoes, with which the Narrows were supposed to be thickly
planted, would not be able to prevent his fleet from passing through.
Many of these torpedoes had been cut loose and destroyed by his
torpedo destroyers; and the officers of these little boats assured
him that they had cleared a narrow channel, which they had marked
with diminutive buoys; and that if he would take his fleet in, in
single file--each vessel following as closely as possible in the wake
of the one immediately preceding her--the whole fleet could
unquestionably pass through without damage.
This suggestion was adopted, and before 10 o'clock on the morning of
the 18th, the whole British fleet, with the exception of the "City of
New York," was safely riding at anchor in the Upper Bay. The "City
of New York" was one of the merchant steamships which had been
metamorphosed into a cruiser. She had formerly been plying in the
passenger trade between New York and Liverpool. Owing to the
shortsighted policy which our Government had previously adopted in
refusing to aid or encourage the establishment of American steamship
lines; this ship, although her owners were Americans, had been built
in England, and sailed under the English flag in order to secure the
subsidy of £10,000 a year, which that Government agreed to pay for
the privilege of turning her into a cruiser in time of war.
Thus, when war was declared, the American owners of this vessel and
the "City of Paris," had the mortification of seeing their own
property taken from them, to make war upon their own country. In
attempting to enter the Narrows with the rest of the fleet, the "City
of New York," owing to her superior speed, could only keep her place
in the line with great difficulty, and in sheering off, to avoid a
collision with the vessel just ahead of her, she ran out of the
channel which had been buoyed by the torpedo destroyers, and getting
directly over two large torpedoes, she was partially blown up, and
sunk in the deepest part of the Narrows in about a hundred feet of
water.
Her destruction caused great rejoicing among all classes of
Americans, who had protested loudly but vainly against this
unpatriotic use of the British flag. But after all, the owners of
the vessel were not so much to blame for it as Congress was.
As the fleet proceeded up the Bay and came to anchor between Bedloe's
and Governor's Islands, its movements were watched with intense
interest by a large crowd, which had assembled on the seawall of the
Battery. As the hour of noon approached, however, this crowd thinned
out rapidly; and at twenty minutes of twelve o'clock--at which time
it had been announced that the trains on the elevated railways would
cease running,--there were not more than a dozen persons visible
along the whole water front of the Battery. At ten minutes before
twelve, a shudder of apprehension ran through the few remaining
denizens of the two cities, as they heard the ominous boom of a heavy
gun. It was, however, not immediately followed by any others; and as
was subsequently ascertained, was only a blank cartridge, fired as a
preliminary signal to the rest of the fleet, to hold themselves in
readiness to commence firing, in ten minutes. It was like the
preparatory gun before starting a regatta. Everything was apparently
to be done in exact accordance with a programme previously agreed
upon; and the bombardment was to commence with true "man of war"
precision and ceremony.
To us of the present generation, who have never experienced any of
the horrors of war, it seems almost incredible that civilized and
Christian men, could thus coldly arrange the details of the
destruction of life and property on such a vast scale, and calmly
count the seconds on their watches as they ticked away the few
remaining moments which separated the two great cities from
destruction.
Promptly at noon, the guns on the portside of the flagship flashed
the signal to the rest of the fleet, and the work of destruction
commenced in earnest. The fire at first seemed to be directed
against the tall buildings in the lower part of the city, which were
in plain eight, and afforded excellent marks for the gunners. But as
these became rapidly battered down into masses of ruin, the guns were
elevated a little, so as to throw the shells further uptown, and the
area of destruction was thus vastly widened.
During the first day's bombardment, there seemed to be a tacit
understanding among the artillerists (probably the result of a
general order on the subject) to spare the Brooklyn Bridge; and
although many projectiles came very near to the towers and supporting
cables, and some almost grazed the structure itself, yet it remained
intact on the evening of the 18th.
On the morning of the 19th, however, when the bombardment was
renewed, these orders (if any such had existed on the previous day)
had evidently been countermanded, foe nearly the whole fire of the
fleet seemed to be concentrated on the towers and the cables, and in
less than half an hour after the opening of the second day's
cannonade, the massive granite towers gave way, and the whole
magnificent structure fell into the river beneath, where for many
months it remained an absolute barrier to navigation through the East
River and Long Island Sound.
The Brooklyn Navy-yard was also thoroughly riddled during the second
day. The British gunners had evidently been studying their charts
over night, and had gauged the distance and direction of the yard so
exactly, that before noon of the 19th, they had thrown over five
hundred shells into the yard itself, or its immediate vicinity.
Nearly everything inflammable took fire and was consumed, and all of
the buildings in the neighborhood were more or less damaged.
One rather amusing feature of the bombardment occurred here. A Mr.
Higgins had an immense soap manufacturing establishment almost
adjoining the Navy-yard and (with the ingenuity and enterprise, which
then, as now, seemed to characterize that particular industry in the
invention of novel advertising devices) had erected on his premises a
gigantic fac-simile of a soap box, the sides of which being
transparent, were brilliantly illuminated at night with powerful
electric lights. This box, being elevated on an iron frame-work more
than 100 feet high, made a most striking and conspicuous display,
plainly visible for a long distance up and down the East River, and
was unquestionably very successful as an advertisement. One of the
first shells which was intended for the Navy-yard, went crashing
through this counterfeit soap box on the morning of the 19th,
shivering it to atoms; and as a matter of course, putting an end to
its career as an advertising device.
Meanwhile, affairs in the business and residence quarters of the two
cities were in a deplorable condition. Fires were raging in every
direction, caused by the exploding shells, and although the police
and firemen stood their ground bravely, and were most efficiently
aided by such troops of volunteers and militia as still remained in
town, their efforts were entirely futile in staying the progress of
the flames; and it seemed as though any further bombardment would be
a mere waste of ammunition; as such portions of the cities as had not
been already shattered by the shells, seemed doomed to certain
destruction by fire.
The whole of the lower portion of New York was a confused heap of
ruins. The palatial business structures, many of which rose to an
enormous height, and which had been such a source of pride to the
citizens, had all been demolished, and the streets in the lower
portion of the city were rendered almost impassible, by the debris
which lay scattered about in confused piles throughout their entire
length. The numerous safe deposit vaults, which occupied the
basements of many of these mammoth structures, were buried so deeply,
that several week's excavation were required before they once more
became accessible.
In short, the destruction was about as complete as it could well be,
and the British Admiral could at least have the satisfaction of
feeling that he had carried out his instructions to the very letter.