Vicksburg.--River on Fire.--Baton Rouge.--Start again for Vicksburg.
--The _Hartford_.--The Canal.--Farragut.--Captain Craven.--The
_Arkansas_.--Major Boardman.--The _Arkansas_ runs the
Gauntlet.--Malaria.
Admiral Farragut was anxious, after the capture of New Orleans, to
proceed at once against Mobile. I heard him say that, in the panic
excited by the capture of New Orleans, Mobile would fall an easy
prey. The Government, however, for political as well as military
reasons, was anxious to open the Mississippi. Farragut was ordered
against Vicksburg, and Williams, with two regiments and a battery,
was sent to accompany and support him. When one reflects upon the
great strength of Vicksburg, and the immense resources it afterward
took to capture it, it seems rather absurd to have sent us against it
with two regiments and a battery. The excursion, however, if it is to
be looked upon in this light, was delightful. We had two fine river
boats. The plantations along the banks were in the highest state
of cultivation; the young cane, a few inches above the ground, of
the most lovely green. Indeed, I know no more beautiful green than
that of the young sugar-cane. Our flag had not been seen in those
parts for over a year, and the joy of the negroes when they had an
opportunity to exhibit it without fear of their overseers was quite
touching. The river was very high, and as we floated along we were
far above the level of the plantations, and looked down upon the
negroes at work, and into the open windows of the houses. The effect
of this to one unused to it--the water above the land--was very
striking. Natchez, a town beautifully situated on a high bluff, was
gay with the inhabitants who had turned out to see us. The ladies,
with their silk dresses and bright parasols, and the negro women,
with their gaudy colors, orange especially, which they affect so
much, and which, by-the-way, can be seen at a greater distance than
any other color I know of.
One often hears of "setting a river on fire," metaphorically
speaking: I have seen it done literally. The Confederate authorities
had issued orders to burn the cotton along the banks to prevent its
falling into our hands. But as the patriotism of the owners naturally
enough needed stimulating, vigilance committees were organized,
generally of those planters whose cotton was safe at a distance.
These men preceded us as we ascended the river; and burned their
neighbors' cotton with relentless patriotism. The burning material
was thrown into the stream, and floated on the surface a long time
before it was extinguished. At night it was a very beautiful sight
to see the apparently flaming water. We had to exercise some care to
steer clear of the burning masses.
Arrived opposite Vicksburg, we boarded the flag-ship to consult
for combined operations. We found Farragut holding a council of
his captains, considering the feasibility of passing the batteries
of Vicksburg as he had passed the forts. We apologized for our
intrusion, and were about to withdraw, when he begged us to stay,
and, turning to Williams, he said, "General, my officers oppose my
running by Vicksburg as impracticable. Only one supports me. So I
must give it up for the present. In ten days they will all be of my
opinion; and then the difficulties will be much greater than they are
now." It turned out as he had said. In a few days they were nearly
all of his opinion, and he did it.
But we found no dry place for the soles of our feet. "The water was
down," as the Scotchmen say (down from the hills), and the whole
Louisiana side of the river was flooded. It would have been madness
to land on the Vicksburg side with two regiments only. Nothing could
be done, and we returned to Baton Rouge, where, finding a healthy
and important position, a United States arsenal, and Union men who
claimed our protection, Williams determined to remain and await
orders.
Here cotton was offered us, delivered on the levee, at three cents a
pound. It was selling at one dollar in New York. I spoke to Williams
about it, and he said that there was no law against any officer
speculating in cotton or other products of the country (one was
subsequently passed), but that he would not have any thing to do
with it, and advised me not to. I followed his advice and example. A
subsequent post-commander did not. He made eighty thousand dollars
out of cotton, and then went home and was made a brigadier-general; I
never knew why.
But the Government was determined to open the river at all hazards.
Farragut was re-enforced. Butler was ordered to send all the troops
he could spare. Davis was ordered down with the Upper Mississippi
fleet. Early in June we started again for Vicksburg, with six
regiments and two batteries. It was a martial and beautiful sight
to see the long line of gun-boats and transports following each
other in Indian file at regular intervals. Navy and army boats
combined, we numbered about twenty sail--if I may apply that word
to steamers. On our way up, the flag-ship, the famous _Hartford_,
was nearly lost. She grounded on a bank in the middle of the river,
and with a falling stream. Of course there was the usual talk about
a rebel pilot; but no vessel with the draught of the _Hartford_, a
sloop-of-war, had ever before ventured to ascend above New Orleans.
The navy worked hard all the afternoon to release her, but in vain.
The hawsers parted like pack-thread. I was on board when a grizzled
quartermaster, the very type of an old man-of-warsman, came up to the
commodore on the quarter-deck, and, pulling his forelock, reported
that there was a six-inch hawser in the hold. Farragut ordered it up
at once. Two of our army transports, the most powerful, were lashed
together, the hawser passed round them, and slackened. They then
started with a jerk. The _Hartford_ set her machinery in motion, the
gun-boat lashed along-side started hers, and the old ship came off,
and was swept down with the current. It required some seamanship to
disentangle all these vessels.
We found that the waters had subsided since our last visit to
Vicksburg, and so landed at Young's Point, opposite the town.
Some years previously there had been a dispute between the State
authorities of Louisiana and of Mississippi, and the Legislature of
the former had taken steps to turn the river, and cut off Vicksburg
by digging a canal across the peninsula opposite. This we knew, and
decided to renew the attempt. We soon found traces of the engineers'
work. The trees were cut down in a straight line across the Point.
Here we set to work. Troops were sent to the different plantations
both up and down the river, and the negroes pressed into the service.
It was curious to observe the difference of opinion among the old
river captains as to the feasibility of our plan. Some were sure
that the river would run through the cut; others swore that it would
not, and could not be made to. The matter was soon settled by the
river itself; for it suddenly rose one night, filled up our ditch,
undermined the banks, and in a few hours destroyed our labor of days.
A somewhat careful observation of the Mississippi since has satisfied
me that if a canal be cut where the stream impinges upon the bank,
it will take to it as naturally as a duck does to water. But when the
current strikes the opposite bank, as it does at Young's Point, you
can not force it from its course. Had we attempted our canal some
miles farther up, where the current strikes the right bank, we should
have succeeded. Grant, the next year, renewed our ditch-digging
experiment in the same place, and with infinitely greater resources,
but with no better success.
Farragut had now made his preparations to run by the batteries. He
divided his squadron into three divisions, accompanying the second
division himself. The third was under command of Captain Craven,
of the _Brooklyn_. We stationed Nim's light battery--and a good
battery it was--on the point directly opposite Vicksburg, to assist
in silencing the fire of one of the most powerful of the shore
batteries. Very early in the morning Farragut got under way; two
of his divisions passed, completely silencing the rebel batteries.
The third division did not attempt the passage. This led to an
angry correspondence between the commodore and Craven, and resulted
in Craven's being relieved, and ordered to report to Washington.
There was a great difference of opinion among naval officers as to
Craven's conduct. He was as brave an officer as lived. He contended
that it was then broad daylight, that the gunners on shore had
returned to their guns, and that his feeble squadron would have been
exposed to the whole fire of the enemy, without any adequate object
to be gained in return. Farragut replied that his orders were to
pass, and that he should have done it at all hazards.
And now an incident occurred which mortified the commodore deeply.
His powerful fleet, re-enforced by Davis, lay above Vicksburg. The
weather was intensely hot, and the commodore, contrary to his own
judgment, as he told Williams, but on the urgent request of his
officers, had permitted the fires to be extinguished. Early one
morning we had sent a steamboat with a party up the river to press
negroes into our canal work. Suddenly a powerful iron-clad, flying
the Confederate colors, appeared coming out of the Yazoo River. There
was nothing for our unarmed little boat to do but to run for it. The
_Arkansas_ opened from her bow-guns, and the first shell, falling
among the men drawn up on deck, killed the captain of the company,
and killed or wounded ten men. It is so rarely that a shell commits
such havoc, that I mention it as an uncommon occurrence.
The firing attracted the attention of the fleet, and they beat to
quarters. But there was no time to get up steam. The _Arkansas_
passed through them all almost unscathed, receiving and returning
their fire. The shells broke against her iron sides without
inflicting injury. The only hurt she received was from the
_Richmond_. Alden kept his guns loaded with powder only, prepared
to use shell or shot as circumstances might require. He loaded with
solid shot, and gave her a broadside as she passed. This did her some
damage, but nothing serious.
In the mean time the alarm was given to the transports. Farragut had
sent us an officer to say that the _Arkansas_ was coming, that he
should stop her if he could, but that he feared that he could not.
The troops were got under arms, and our two batteries ordered to the
levee. A staff officer said to General Williams, "General, don't let
us be caught here like rats in a trap; let us attempt something, even
if we fail." "What would you do?" said the general. "Take the _Laurel
Hill_, put some picked men on board of her, and let us ram the rebel.
We may not sink her, but we may disable or delay her, and help the
gun-boats to capture her." "A good idea," said the general; "send for
Major Boardman." Boardman, the daring officer to whom I have before
referred, had been brought up as a midshipman. He was known in China
as the "American devil," from a wild exploit there in scaling the
walls of Canton one dark night when the gates were closed; climbing
them with the help of his dagger only, making holes in the masonry
for his hands and feet. He was afterward killed by guerrillas, having
become colonel of his regiment. Boardman came; the _Laurel Hill_
was cleared; twenty volunteers from the Fourth Wisconsin were put
on board, and steam got up. The captain refused to go, and another
transport captain was put in command. We should have attempted
something, perhaps failed; but I think one or other of us would have
been sunk. But our preparations were all in vain. The _Arkansas_ had
had enough of it for that day. She rounded to, and took refuge under
the guns of Vicksburg.
Reporting this incident to Butler subsequently, he said, "You would
have sunk her, sir; you would have sunk her."
Farragut, as I have said, was deeply mortified. He gave orders at
once to get up steam, and prepared to run the batteries again,
determined to destroy the rebel ram at all hazards. He had resolved
to ram her with the _Hartford_ as she lay under the guns of
Vicksburg. It was with great difficulty he was dissuaded from doing
so, and only upon the promise of Alden that he would do it for him in
the _Richmond_. Farragut, in his impulsive way, seized Alden's hand,
"Will you do this for me, Alden? will you do it?" The rapidity of the
current, the unusual darkness of the night, and the absence of lights
on the _Arkansas_ and on shore, prevented the execution of the plan.
To finish with the _Arkansas_, she afterward came down the river to
assist in the attack on Baton Rouge. Part of her machinery gave out;
she turned and attempted to return to Vicksburg, was pursued by our
gun-boats, run ashore, abandoned, and burned.
The rebels never had any luck with their gun-boats. They always came
to grief. They were badly built, badly manned, or badly commanded.
The _Louisiana_, the _Arkansas_, the _Manassas_, the _Tennessee_, the
_Albemarle_--great things were expected of them all, and they did
nothing.
But we were as far from the capture of Vicksburg as ever. Fever
attacked our men in those fatal swamps, and they became thoroughly
discouraged. The sick-list was fearful. Of a battery of eighty men,
twenty only were fit for duty. The Western troops, and they were our
best, were homesick. Lying upon the banks of the Mississippi, with
transports above Vicksburg convenient for embarkation, they longed
for home. The colonels came to Williams, and suggested a retreat _up_
the river, to join Halleck's command. Williams held a council of war.
He asked me to attend it. The colonels gave their opinions, some in
favor of, and others against, the proposed retreat. When it came to
my turn, I spoke strongly against it. I urged that we had no _right_
to abandon our comrades at New Orleans; that it might lead to the
recapture of that city; that if our transports were destroyed, we
should at least attempt to get back by land. I do not suppose that
Williams ever entertained the least idea of retreating up the river,
but thought it due to his officers to hear what they had to say in
favor of it. The plan was abandoned.