Farragut had returned to New York, after arduous service in the
Mississippi, which cannot be told here, and had received the hearty
congratulations and hospitalities of not only public bodies, but of all
grateful citizens. He had been made Rear Admiral, a new rank in the
United States, and had been thanked by Congress for his achievements.
But, after about four months of rest and relaxation he was called to
duty again, and early in January, 1864, he once more hoisted his flag
upon the Hartford and sailed for the Gulf. His flag-ship had received
much needed repairs, and, on examination, it was found that she had
been struck two hundred and forty times by shot and shell.
After a short stay at New Orleans, to settle naval matters there, he
visited Ship Island and Pensacola, the established depots for supplies.
He was now preparing for the long desired attack on Mobile Bay and its
defences, which he had long contemplated, and was only prevented from
carrying out before by the necessity of carrying out joint operations
on the Mississippi River.
It was impossible to prevent vessels from occasionally entering Mobile,
no matter how vigilant the blockaders were. Forts Morgan, Powell and
Gaines protected the principal channels, and the light blockade-runners
would creep along the shore, under cover of the night, under charge of
experienced pilots, and soon be under the protecting guns of the forts.
Now and then some adventurous craft would suffer for her temerity, by
being captured, or driven on shore and riddled with shot and shell;
but, still, too many got in. Most of these vessels had clearances for
Matamoros, a Mexican town on the Rio Grande.
A steamer was captured off Mobile which was evidently a blockade-runner.
The Captain was sent on board the flag-ship, to be interrogated by the
Admiral. Farragut recognized him as an old acquaintance, and one of
the most experienced merchant captains in the Gulf trade. The Admiral
asked him what in the world he was doing close in with Mobile, when
he was three hundred miles out of his course for Matamoros. The
Captain entered into a long story about having been swept in shore
by a northeast gale. When he had finished, Farragut smiled and said,
“How could you be blown to the northward and eastward by a northeast
gale? I am very sorry for you, but we shall have to hold you for your
thundering bad navigation.” Among the articles captured in this vessel
were one thousand copies of a caricature of General Butler, who has
certainly had notoriety conferred upon him in that way as often as any
one who ever lived.
Personal reconnoissances and skirmishes with the different forts about
Mobile occupied the Admiral for some time, and he recognized the
importance of having light draft ironclads to fight those which the
enemy were preparing.
He wrote, “I feel no apprehension about Buchanan’s raising the blockade
at Mobile, but with such a force as he has in the Bay, it would be
unwise to take in our wooden vessels, without the means of fighting the
enemy on an equal footing. By reference to the chart you will see how
small a space there is for the ships to manœuvre.”
On the 2d of March he wrote, “I saw the Mobile ram Tennessee yesterday.
She is very long, and I thought moved very slowly.”
He was most anxious to make the attack upon Mobile, as every week’s
delay rendered the work more dangerous. But he was delayed by the
necessity of awaiting ships.
In the meantime stirring work was going on inland, and the armies
grappling in the fight of giants. Farragut’s letters show that he was
keenly alive to all that was going on, although the mental strain upon
him in keeping up the blockade and in preparing for the undertaking he
had in view, was very great.
In a letter written in May he says, “We have the Southern papers of the
17th, and yet they contain no news. All is dark with respect to Grant
and Lee. Grant has done one thing. He has gone to work making war and
doing his best, and kept newsmongers out of his army. The only comfort
I have is, that the Confederates are more unhappy, if possible, than we
are.”
“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.”
To Admiral Bailey, at Key West, he writes, “I am watching Buchanan, in
the ram Tennessee. She is a formidable looking thing, and there are
four others, and three wooden gun-boats. They say he is waiting for the
two others to come out and attack me, and then raid upon New Orleans.
Let him come. I have a fine squadron to meet him, all ready and
willing. I can see his boats very industriously laying down torpedoes,
so I judge that he is quite as much afraid of our going in as we are
of his coming out.”
On June 21st he writes, “I am tired of watching Buchanan and Page,
and wish from the bottom of my heart that Buck would come out and
try his hand upon us. This question has to be settled, iron _versus_
wood, and there never was a better chance to settle the question as
to the sea-going qualities of ironclad ships. We are to-day ready
to try anything that comes along, be it wood or iron, in reasonable
quantities. Anything is preferable to lying on our oars. But I shall
have patience until the army has finished its campaign in Virginia and
Georgia. I hope it will be the close of the war.”
On the 6th of July, he writes, “My birth-day; sixty-three years old.
I was a little down in the mouth, because I thought we had not done
as well as we ought to, in destroying a blockade-runner that tried to
force her way by us. But Dyer, in the Glasgow, ran her on shore under
the guns of Fort Morgan, and I had been trying to get the gun-boats to
destroy her, but they did bad work, and the Rebels were at it, night
before last, trying to get her off. I determined to send a party to
board and set her on fire. Watson volunteered for the work, and I sent
him, with Tyson, Ensign Dana, Whiting, Glidden, and Pendleton, and
Master’s Mate Herrick. Jouett and McCann covered the party. Well, as
you may suppose, it was an anxious night for me; for I am almost as
fond of Watson as yourself, and interested in the others. I thought it
was to be a hand-to-hand fight, if any. I sat up till midnight, and
then thought they had found the enemy in too great force, and had given
it up; so I laid down to rest. About half an hour later the Rebel was
reported to be on fire, and I was happy, because I had heard no firing,
and I knew the surprise was perfect. And so it turned out. The Rebels
scampered off as our fellows climbed on board. The boats returned about
2 o’clock A. M., all safe, no one hurt. I was anxious until their
return. But no one knows what my feelings are; I am always calm and
quiet.”
“I have never seen a crew come up like our’s. They are ahead of the
old set in small arms, and fully equal to them at the great guns. They
arrived here a new lot of boys and young men, and have now fattened
up, and knock the nine-inch guns about like 24-pounders, to the
astonishment of everybody.”