THE CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS.
NEW ORLEANS THE LARGEST SOUTHERN CITY--FORTS ON THE MISSISSIPPI--CAPT.
DAVID G. FARRAGUT CHOSEN COMMANDER--GEN. BENJAMIN F. BUTLER IN COMMAND
OF LAND FORCES--TERRIFIC BOMBARDMENT OF THE FORTS--CUTTING THE CHAIN
ACROSS THE MISSISSIPPI--THE GREAT NAVAL BATTLE IN THE NIGHT--ALL THE
FORTS AND THE CONFEDERATE FLEET CAPTURED BY FARRAGUT--SURRENDER OF NEW
ORLEANS--GENERAL BUTLER'S CELEBRATED "WOMAN ORDER."
The Crescent City was by far the largest and richest in the
Confederacy. In 1860 it had a population of nearly one hundred and
seventy thousand, while Richmond, Mobile, and Charleston together had
fewer than two-thirds as many. In 1860-61 it shipped twenty-five
million dollars' worth of sugar and ninety-two million dollars' worth
of cotton, its export trade in these articles being larger than that
of any other city in the world. Moreover, its strategic value in that
war was greater than that of any other point in the Southern States.
The many mouths of the Mississippi, and the frequency of violent gales
in the Gulf, rendered it difficult to blockade commerce between that
great river and the ocean; but the possession of this lowest
commercial point on the stream would shut it off effectively, and
would go far toward securing possession all the way to Cairo. This
would cut the Confederacy in two, and make it difficult to bring
supplies from Texas and Arkansas to feed the armies in Tennessee and
Virginia. Moreover, a great city is in itself a serious loss to one
belligerent and a capital prize to the other.
As soon as it became evident that war was being waged against the
United States in dead earnest, and that it was likely to be prolonged,
these considerations presented themselves to the Government, and a
plan was matured for capture of the largest city in the territory of
the insurgents.
{89} [Illustration: PANORAMIC VIEW OF NEW ORLEANS--FEDERAL FLEET AT
ANCHOR IN THE RIVER.]
The defences of New Orleans against an enemy approaching from the sea
consisted of two forts, on either side of the stream, {90} thirty
miles above the head of the five great passes through which it flows
to the Gulf. The smaller, Fort St. Philip, on the left bank, was of
earth and brick, with flanking batteries, and all its guns were _en
barbette_--on the top, in plain sight. These numbered about forty.
Fort Jackson, on the right bank, mounted seventy-five guns, fourteen
of which were in bomb-proof casemates. Both of these works had been
built by the United States Government. They were now garrisoned by
about one thousand five hundred Confederate soldiers, commanded by
Gen. Johnson K. Duncan. Above them lay a Confederate fleet of fifteen
vessels, including an iron-clad ram and a large floating battery that
was covered with railroad iron. Just below the forts a heavy chain was
stretched across the river--perhaps suggested by the similar device
employed to keep the British from sailing up the Hudson during the
Revolutionary war. And it had a similar experience; for, at first
supported by a row of enormous logs, it was swept away by the next
freshet. The logs were then replaced by hulks anchored at intervals
across the stream, and the chain ran over their decks, while its ends
were fastened to great trees. One thing more completed the
defence--two hundred sharp-shooters patrolled the banks between the
forts and the head of the passes, to give warning of an approaching
foe and fire at any one that might be seen on the decks.
[Illustration: FROM PENSACOLA TO THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI.]
The idea at Washington, probably originated by Commander (now Admiral)
David D. Porter, was that the forts could be reduced by raining into
them a sufficient shower of enormous shells, to be thrown high into
the air, come down almost perpendicularly, and explode on striking.
Accordingly, the first care was to make the mortars and shells, and
provide the craft to carry them. Twenty-one mortars were cast, which
were mounted on twenty-one schooners. They threw shells thirteen
inches in diameter, weighing two hundred and eighty-five pounds; and
when one of them was discharged, the concussion of the atmosphere was
so great that no man could stand close by without being literally
deafened. Platforms projecting beyond the decks were therefore
provided, for the gunners to step out upon just before firing.
[Illustration: COMMANDER DAVID D. PORTER. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.)]
The remainder of the fleet, as finally made up, consisted of six
sloops-of-war, sixteen gunboats, and five other vessels, besides
transports carrying fifteen thousand troops commanded by Gen. B. F.
Butler. The whole number of guns was over two hundred. The flagship
_Hartford_ was a wooden steam sloop-of-war, one thousand tons' burden,
with a length of two hundred and twenty-five feet, and a breadth of
forty-four feet. She carried twenty-two nine-inch guns, two
twenty-pounder Parrott guns, and a rifled gun on the forecastle, while
her fore and main tops were furnished with howitzers and surrounded
with boiler iron to protect the gunners. The _Brooklyn_, _Richmond_,
_Pensacola_, _Portsmouth_, and _Oneida_ were similar to the
_Hartford_. The _Colorado_ was larger. The _Mississippi_ was a large
side-wheel steamer.
This was the most powerful expedition that had ever sailed under the
American flag, and the man that was chosen to command it, Capt. David
G. Farragut, was as unknown to the public as Ulysses S. Grant had
been. But he was not unknown to his fellow-officers. Farragut was now
sixty years of age, being one of the oldest men that took part in the
war, and he had been in the navy half a century. He sailed the Pacific
with Commodore Porter years before Grant and Sherman were born, and
participated in the bloody encounter of the _Essex_ and _Phoebe_ in
the harbor of Valparaiso. He was {91} especially familiar with the
Gulf of Mexico, and had pursued pirates through its waters and hunted
and fought them on its islands. There was nothing to be done on
shipboard that he could not do to perfection, and he could have filled
the place of any man in the fleet--except perhaps the surgeon's. He
was born in Tennessee, and married twice in Virginia; and if there had
been a peaceable separation he would probably have made his home in
the South. He was at Norfolk, waiting orders, when Virginia seceded,
but he considered that his first duty was to the National Government,
which had educated him for its service and given him rank and
employment. When he said that "Virginia had been dragooned out of the
Union," and that he thought the President was justified in calling for
troops after the firing on Sumter, he was told by his angry neighbors
that a person holding such sentiments could not live in Norfolk. "Very
well, then," said he, "I can live somewhere else." So he made his way
North with his little family, and informed the Government that he was
ready and anxious for any service that might be assigned to him.
This was in April, 1861; but it was not till January, 1862, that he
was appointed to command the New Orleans expedition and the Western
gulf blockading squadron. He sailed from Hampton Roads February 2, in
the flag-ship _Hartford_. Some sentences from the sailing-orders
addressed to him by the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, are
significant and suggestive. "As you have expressed yourself perfectly
satisfied with the force given to you, and as many more powerful
vessels will be added before you can commence operations, the
department and the country 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 great object in view, the certain capture of the city of New
Orleans.... Destroy the armed barriers which these deluded people have
raised up against the power of the United States Government, and shoot
down those who war against the Union; but cultivate with cordiality
the first returning reason which is sure to follow your success." In a
single respect Farragut was not satisfied with his fleet. He had no
faith in the mortars, and would rather have gone without them; but
they had been ordered before he was consulted, and were under the
command of his personal friend Porter. Perhaps his distrust of them
arose from his knowledge that, in 1815, a British fleet had
unavailingly thrown a thousand shells into a fort at this very turn of
the river where he was now to make the attack.
The mortar schooners were to rendezvous first at Key West, and sail
then for Ship Island, off Lake Borgne, where the transports were to
take the troops and the war-vessels were to meet as soon as possible.
A considerable portion of March was gone before enough of the fleet
had reached the rendezvous to begin operations. The first difficulty
was to get into the river. The Eads jetties did not then exist, and
the shifting mud-banks made constant soundings necessary for large
vessels. The mortar schooners went in by Pass à l'Outre without
difficulty; but to get the _Brooklyn_, _Mississippi_, and _Pensacola_
over the bar at Southwest Pass required immense labor, and occupied
two or three weeks. The _Mississippi_ was dragged over with her keel
ploughing a furrow a foot deep in the river bottom, and the _Colorado_
could not be taken over at all.
[Illustration: INGENIOUS METHOD OF DISGUISING COMMANDER PORTER'S
MORTAR FLOTILLA.]
The masts of the mortar schooners were dressed off with bushes, to
render them indistinguishable from the trees on shore near the forts.
The schooners were then towed up to a point within range, and moored
where the woods hid them, so that they could not be seen from the
forts. Lieut. F. H. Gerdes of the Coast Survey had made a careful map
of that part of the river and its banks, and elaborate calculations by
which the mortars were to be fired with a computed aim, none of the
gunners being able to see what they fired at. They opened fire on
April {92} 18, and kept up the bombardment steadily for six days and
nights. Six thousand enormous shells--eight hundred tons of iron--were
thrown high into the air, and fell in and around the forts. For nearly
a week the garrison saw one of Porter's aërolites dropping upon them
every minute and a half. They demolished buildings, they tore up the
ground, they cut the levee and let in water, and they killed and
mangled men; but they did not render the forts untenable nor silence
their guns. The return fire sank one of the mortar boats and disabled
a steamer. Within the forts about fifty men were killed or
wounded--one for every sixteen tons of iron thrown.
[Illustration: SHIP ISLAND.]
While the fleet was awaiting the progress of this bombardment, a new
danger appeared. The Confederates had prepared several flat-boats
loaded with dry wood smeared with tar and turpentine; and they now set
fire to them one after another, and let them float down the stream.
But Farragut sent out boats' crews to meet them, who grappled them
with hooks, and either towed them ashore or conducted them past the
fleet, and let them float down through the passes and out to sea.
In his General Orders, Farragut gave so many minute directions that it
would seem as if he must have anticipated every possible contingency.
Thus: "Trim your vessel a few inches by the head [that is, place the
contents so that she will sink a little deeper at the bow than at the
stern], so that if she touches the bottom she will not swing head down
the river." "Have light Jacob-ladders made, to throw over the side for
the use of the carpenters in stopping shot-holes, who are to be
supplied with pieces of inch-board, lined with felt, and ordinary
nails." "Have a kedge in the mizzen chains on the quarter, with a
hawser bent and leading through in the stern chock, ready for any
emergency; also grapnels in boats, ready to tow off fire-ships." "Have
many tubs of water about the decks, both for extinguishing fire and
for drinking." "You will have a spare hawser ready, and when ordered
to take in tow your next astern do so, keeping the hawser slack so
long as the ship can maintain her own position, having a care not to
foul the propeller." It was this minute knowledge and forethought,
quite as much as his courage and determination, that insured his
success. In addition to his own suggestions he called upon his men to
exercise their wits for the occasion, and the crews originated many
wise precautions. As the attack was to be in the night, they painted
the decks white to enable them to find things. They got out all the
spare chains, and hung them up and down the sides of the vessels at
the places where they would protect the machinery from the enemy's
shot. Farragut's plan was to run by the forts, damaging them as much
as possible by a rapid fire as he passed, then destroy or capture the
Confederate fleet, and proceed up the river and lay the city under his
guns.
The time fixed upon for starting was just before moonrise (3:30
o'clock) in the morning of April 24. On the night of the 20th two
gunboats went up the river, and a boat's crew from one of them, under
Lieut. Charles H. B. Caldwell, boarded one of the hulks and cut the
chain, under a heavy fire, making an opening sufficient for the fleet
to pass through. Near midnight of the 23d the lieutenant went up again
in a gunboat, to make sure that the passage was still open, and this
time the enemy not only fired on him, but sent down blazing rafts and
lighted enormous piles of wood that they had prepared near the ends of
the chain. The question of moonrise was no longer of the slightest
importance, since it was as light as day for miles around. Two red
lanterns displayed at the peak of the flag-ship at two o'clock gave
the signal for action, and at half-past three the whole fleet was in
motion.
The sloop _Portsmouth_, and Porter's gunboats moved up to a {93} point
where they could engage the water-battery of Fort Jackson while the
fleet was going by. The first division of eight vessels, commanded by
Capt. Theodorus Bailey, who was almost as old and as salt as Farragut,
passed through the opening in deliberate fashion, unmindful of a fire
from Fort Jackson, ran over to the east bank, and poured grape and
canister into Fort St. Philip as they sailed by, and ten minutes
afterward found themselves engaged at close quarters with eleven
Confederate vessels. Bailey's flag-ship, the _Cayuga_, was attacked by
three at once, all trying to board her. He sent an eleven-inch shot
through one of them, and she ran aground and burst into a blaze. With
the swivel gun on his forecastle he drove off the second; and he was
preparing to board the third when the _Oneida_ and _Varuna_ came to
his assistance. The _Oneida_ ran at full speed into one Confederate
vessel, cutting it nearly in two, and in an instant making it a
shapeless wreck. She fired into others, and then went to the
assistance of the _Varuna_, which had been attacked by two, rammed by
both of them, and was now at the shore, where she sank in a few
minutes. But she had done effective work before she perished,
crippling one enemy so that she surrendered to the _Oneida_, driving
another ashore, and exploding a shell in the boiler of a third. The
_Pensacola_ steamed slowly by the forts, doing great execution with
her rifled guns, and in turn sustaining the heaviest loss in the
fleet--thirty-seven men. In an open field men can dodge a cannon-ball;
but when it comes bouncing in at a port-hole unannounced, it sometimes
destroys a whole gun's-crew in the twinkling of an eye. In such an
action men are under the highest possible excitement; every nerve is
awake, and every muscle tense; and when a ball strikes one it
completely shatters him, as if he were made of glass, and the shreds
are scattered over the ship. The _Mississippi_ sailed up in handsome
style, encountered the Confederate ram _Manassas_, and received a blow
that disabled her machinery. But in turn she riddled the ram and set
it on fire, so that it drifted away and blew up. The other vessels of
this division, with various fortune, passed the forts and participated
in the naval battle.
The second division consisted of three sloops of war, the flag-ship
leading. The _Hartford_ received and returned a heavy fire from the
forts, got aground on a shoal while trying to avoid a fire-raft, and a
few minutes later had another raft pushed against her, which set her
on fire. A portion of the crew was detailed to extinguish the flames,
and all the while her guns were loaded and fired as steadily as if
nothing had happened. Presently she was got afloat again, and
proceeded up the river, when, suddenly, through the smoke, as it was
lighted by the flashes of the guns, she saw a steamer filled with men
bearing down upon her, probably with the intention of carrying her by
boarding. But a ready gun planted a huge shell in the mysterious
stranger, which exploded, and she disappeared--going to the bottom,
for aught that anybody knew. The _Brooklyn_, after getting out of her
course and running upon one of the hulks, finally got through, met a
large Confederate steamer, and gave it a broadside that set it on
fire, and then poured such a rain of shot into St. Philip that the
bastions were cleared in a minute, and in the flashes the gunners
could be seen running to shelter. A Confederate gunboat that attacked
her received eleven shells from her, all of which exploded, and it
then ran ashore in flames. The _Richmond_ sailed through steadily and
worked her guns regularly, meeting with small loss, because she was
more completely provided with splinter-nettings than her consorts, as
well as because she came after them.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN DAVID G. FARRAGUT. (Afterward Admiral.)]
[Illustration: COMMANDER C. S. BOGGS. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.)]
[Illustration: CAPTAIN THEODORUS BAILEY. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.)]
{94} [Illustration: PASSAGE OF THE SECOND DIVISION OF THE FEDERAL
SQUADRON BY FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP.]
{95} The third division consisted of six gunboats. Two of them became
entangled among the hulks, and failed to pass. Another received a shot
in her boiler, which compelled her to drop down stream and out of the
fight. The other three went through in gallant style, both suffering
and inflicting considerable loss from continuous firing, and burned
two steamboats and drove another ashore before they came up with the
advance divisions of the fleet. The entire loss had been thirty-seven
killed and one hundred and forty-seven wounded.
Captain Bailey, in the _Cayuga_, still keeping the lead, found a
regiment encamped at Quarantine Station, and compelled its surrender.
On the morning of the 25th the Chalmette batteries, three miles below
the city, were silenced by a fire from the sloops, and a little later
the city itself was at the mercy of their guns. At noon Captain
Bailey, accompanied only by Lieut. George H. Perkins, with a flag of
truce, went ashore, passed through an excited crowd that apparently
only needed a word to be turned into a mob, and demanded of the Mayor
that the city be surrendered unconditionally and the Louisiana State
flag at once hauled down from the staff on the City Hall. Bailey
raised the stars and stripes over the Mint; but the Mayor at first
refused to strike his colors, and set out upon an elaborate course of
letter-writing, which was of no consequence except as it furnished
another instance of the fatuity that grasps at a shadow after the
substance is gone.
[Illustration: CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS.]
A letter written by Lieutenant Perkins at the time gives a vivid
description of this incident, which is interesting in that it exhibits
the effect upon the first people of the South who realized the
possibility of their being conquered. "Among the crowd were many women
and children, and the women were shaking rebel flags and being rude
and noisy. As we advanced, the mob followed us in a very excited
state. They gave three cheers for Jeff Davis and Beauregard, and three
groans for Lincoln. Then they began to throw things at us, and shout,
'Hang them! Hang them!' We reached the City Hall in safety, and there
found the Mayor and Council. They seemed in a very solemn state of
mind; though I must say, from what they said, they did not impress me
as having much mind about anything. The Mayor said he had nothing to
do with the city, as it was under martial law, and we were obliged to
wait till General Lovell could arrive. In about half an hour this
gentleman appeared. He was very pompous in his manner, and silly and
airy in his remarks. He had about fifteen thousand troops under his
command, and said he would 'never surrender,' but would withdraw his
troops from the city as soon as possible, when the city would fall
into the hands of the Mayor, and he could do as he pleased with it.
The mob outside had by this {96} time become perfectly infuriated.
They kicked at the doors, and swore they would have us out and hang
us. Every person about us who had any sense of responsibility was
frightened for our safety. As soon as the mob found out that General
Lovell was not going to surrender, they swore they would have us out
any way; but Pierre Soule and some others went out and made speeches
to them, and kept them on one side of the building, while we went out
at the other end and were driven to the wharf in a close carriage. The
Mayor told the Flag-officer this morning that the city was in the
hands of the mob, and was at our mercy, and that he might blow it up
or do with it as he chose."
[Illustration: OLD CITY HALL, NEW ORLEANS, WHERE THE SURRENDER OF THE
CITY WAS DEMANDED.]
[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL MANSFIELD LOVELL, C. S. A.]
[Illustration: THOS. O. MOORE, GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA.]
On the night of the 24th, by order of the authorities in the city, the
torch was applied to everything, except buildings, that could be of
use to the victors. Fifteen thousand bales of cotton, heaps of coal
and wood, dry-docks, a dozen steamboats and as many cotton-ships, and
an unfinished ironclad ram were all burned. Barrels were rolled out
and broken open, the levee ran with molasses, and the poor people
carried away the sugar in their baskets and aprons. The Governor
called upon the people of the State to burn their cotton, and two
hundred and fifty thousand bales were destroyed.
Butler had witnessed the passage of the forts, and he now hurried over
his troops and invested St. Philip on the land side, while Porter sent
some of his mortar-boats to a bay in the rear of Fort Jackson, and in
a few days both works were surrendered. Farragut sent two hundred and
fifty marines into the city to take formal possession and guard the
public buildings. Butler arrived there with his forces on the 1st of
May, and it was then turned over to him, and it remained in Federal
possession throughout the war. His administration of the captured
city, from May to December, was the subject of much angry controversy;
but no one denies that he reduced its turbulence to order, made it
cleaner than it had ever been before, and averted a pestilence. He
also caused provisions to be issued regularly to many of the needy
inhabitants.
The most famous incident of his administration was what became known
as "the woman order." Many of the women of New Orleans, even while
they were living on food issued to them by the National commissary,
took every possible pains to flaunt their disloyalty and to express
contempt for the wearers of the blue uniform. If an officer entered a
street car, all the women would immediately leave it. If a detachment
of soldiers passed through a residence street, many windows were
thrown open and "Dixie" or the "Bonny Blue Flag" was loudly played on
the piano. If the women met an individual soldier on the sidewalk,
they drew their skirts closely around them and passed at its extreme
edge. And all the while they took every opportunity to display small
rebel flags on their bosoms and to proclaim loudly that their city was
"captured but not conquered." These things were borne with patience;
but when one woman, enraged at the imperturbable calmness of the
city's captors, stepped up to two officers in the street and spat in
their faces, General Butler judged that the time for putting a stop to
such proceedings had come. Accordingly, he issued General Orders No.
28, which read thus:
"As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject
to repeated insults from the women (calling themselves ladies) of New
Orleans, in return for the most scrupulous noninterference and
courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter when any female
shall, by word, gesture, or movement, insult or show contempt for any
officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and
held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her
avocation."
This immediately produced two effects. It put an end to the
annoyances, and it raised an uproar of denunciation based upon the
assumption that the commanding officer had ordered his soldiers to
insult and assault the ladies of New Orleans. Of course no such thing
was intended, or could be implied from any proper construction of the
words of the order; but in war, as in politics, it is sometimes
considered good strategy to misrepresent an opponent. However honest
any Confederate {97} citizen or editor may have been in his
misconstruction of it, no soldier misunderstood it, and no incivility
was offered to the women who were thus subdued by the wit and moral
courage of perhaps the most successful man that ever undertook the
task of ruling a turbulent city.
One other incident attested the firmness of General Butler's purpose,
and assured the citizens of the presence of a power that was not to be
trifled with. After Farragut had captured the city and raised the
National colors over the Mint, four men were seen to ascend to the
roof and tear down the flag, and it was only by a lucky accident that
the gunners of the fleet were prevented from instantly discharging a
broadside into the streets. The act was exploited in the New Orleans
papers, which ostentatiously published the names of the four men and
praised their gallantry. General Butler caused the leader of the four,
a gambler, to be arrested and tried by a court-martial. He was
sentenced to death, and in spite of every solicitation the General
refused to pardon him. He was hanged in the presence of an immense
crowd of citizens, the gallows being a beam run out from one of the
windows of the highest story of the Mint building.
[Illustration: GROUP OF SAILORS ON A GUNBOAT.]
[Illustration: GENERAL BUTLER'S HEADQUARTERS, NEW ORLEANS.]
At the first news of this achievement the people of the North hardly
appreciated what had been accomplished; many of their newspapers told
them that the fleet "had only run by the forts." But as they gradually
learned the particulars, and saw that in fighting obstructions,
fire-rafts, forts, rams, and fleet, and conquering them all, Farragut
had done what neither Nelson nor any other great admiral had ever done
before, they felt that the country had produced a worthy companion for
the victor of Donelson, and was equal to all emergencies, afloat or
ashore.
{98} [Illustration: CAPTURE OF ISLAND No. 10, DURING A VIOLENT
HURRICANE, APRIL 1, 1862.]
{99}