THE next day the servants were gathered on the lawn and presented with
the parting gifts procured for them by the ladies and little girls,
which they received with many thanks and demonstrations of delight. But
the following morning, when the time of parting had really come, there
were some tears shed by the old retainers, yet they were greatly cheered
by the assurances of their loved mistress, her father, and Captain
Raymond, that in all probability it would not be very long before the
family would be there again for a season.
The feelings of the departing ones were of a mingled character--regret
at leaving lovely Viamede, and joy in the prospect of soon being again
in their own sweet homes farther north.
The weather was delightful, light fleecy clouds tempering the heat of
the sun; the fields and plantations clothed in the richest verdure of
spring; the air filled with the perfume of flowers and vocal with the
songs of birds; then on reaching Bayou Teche they found their own yacht,
the _Dolphin_, awaiting them.
The young folks of the party greeted her with a clapping of hands and
many another demonstration of delight, and soon all were on board, and
she was steaming out through the bay, into the Gulf beyond, her
passengers, from Grandpa Dinsmore down to baby Ned, grouped together on
deck underneath an awning.
"We are in the Gulf now, aren't we, sir?" asked Walter at length,
addressing the captain.
"Yes, my boy," was the pleasant toned reply; "and are there any places
along its coast that you or any of the others would particularly like to
see?"
"Oh, yes, sir; yes, indeed!" exclaimed Walter with enthusiasm. "I for
one would like greatly to see Mobile Bay with its fort. Morgan is the
name?"
"Yes; Fort Morgan is at the extremity of Mobile Point, where Fort Bowyer
stood in the War of 1812-14. You remember what happened there at that
time?"
"It was attacked by the British, wasn't it, sir?"
"Yes; in September, 1814, by a British squadron of two brigs and two
sloops of war, aided by a land force of one hundred and thirty marines
and six hundred Indians, led by Captain Woodbine, who had been trying to
drill them at Pensacola.
"Florida did not belong to us at that time; the Spaniards had made a
settlement at Pensacola in 1696, were still there at the time of our
last war with England, and favored the British, who there, as well as in
other parts of Florida, organized expeditions against the United States,
the Spanish governor, though professing neutrality, evidently siding
with and giving them aid and comfort."
"And when then did we get possession of Florida, sir?" asked Walter.
"In July of 1821," answered the captain.
"Didn't Jackson capture Pensacola at one time during that war with
England, Captain?" asked Evelyn.
"Yes; in the attack about which Walter was just asking, before Lafitte
forwarded to New Orleans those documents showing how the British were
trying to get him into their service, Jackson had perceived that the
Spaniards were, as I have said, secretly siding with the British, and
now, with the positive proof furnished by those papers before him, he
squarely accused Manrequez, the Spanish governor at Pensacola, of bad
faith.
"Then followed a spicy correspondence, which Jackson closed by writing
to the governor, 'In future I beg you to withhold your insulting charges
against my government for one more inclined to listen to slander than I
am; nor consider me any more a diplomatic character unless so proclaimed
from the mouth of my cannon.'
"Then he set to work to raise troops, and in a very short time had two
thousand sturdy young Tennesseeans ready for the field.
"But before these reached Mobile, hostilities had begun. Jackson himself
went there early in August, and on his arrival perceived that an attempt
would be made by the British to seize it as soon as their talked of
great expedition should be ready to move.
"Fort Bowyer was but a small and weak fortification; had no bomb-proofs,
and but twenty guns, only two of them larger than twelve pounders, some
still smaller in size.
"Yet small and weak as was the fort, it was the chief defence of Mobile;
so Jackson threw into it a hundred and thirty of his Second Regular
Infantry, under Major William Lawrence, who was as gallant an officer as
any in the service.
"Lawrence at once made every preparation in his power to resist the
expected attack. But before he could complete his work, on the morning
of the 12th of September, the British Lieutenant-colonel Nichols
appeared on the peninsula back of the fort, with, as I have said, his
marines and Indians, the latter under the command of Captain Woodbine,
who had been drilling them at Pensacola.
"Later in the evening of the same day the four British vessels of which
I spoke appeared in sight, and anchored within six miles of Mobile
Point. They were a part of a squadron of nine vessels in Pensacola Bay,
under the command of Captain Percy.
"Our little garrison slept upon their arms that night. The next morning
Nichols caused a howitzer to be dragged to a sheltered point within
seven hundred yards of the fort, and threw some shells and solid shot
from it, but without doing much damage."
"And our fellows fired back at him, of course?" exclaimed Walter
excitedly.
"Yes, but their fire was equally harmless; but later in the day
Lawrence's guns quickly dispersed some of Percy's men who were
attempting to cast up intrenchments, and in the same way several light
boats, whose men were engaged in sounding the channel nearest the fort.
"The next day was occupied in very much the same way, but on the third
the garrison perceived that an assault was to be made from both land and
water. At two o'clock the vessels were seen approaching, and Lawrence
called a council of officers.
"All were determined to resist to the last, and if finally compelled to
surrender, to do so only on condition that officers and privates should
retain their arms and private property, be treated as prisoners of war,
and protected from the savages.
"The words adopted as the signal for the day were, 'don't give up the
fort.'
"At half past four the battle began, the four vessels opening fire
simultaneously, and pouring broadside after broadside upon the fort,
which returned a fearful fire from its circular battery.
"While this was going on in front, Captain Woodbine was assailing our
men in the rear, from behind his sand-dune, with a howitzer and a
twelve-pounder.
"So the battle raged for an hour; then the flag of the _Hermes_ was shot
away, and Lawrence stopped firing to learn if she had surrendered; but
the _Caron_ fired another broadside, and the fight went on with renewed
vigor. Soon a shot cut the cable of the _Hermes_, and she floated away
with the current, her head toward the fort, and her decks swept of men
and everything by a raking fire from the fort.
"Then the fort's flag-staff was shot away and her ensign fell, but the
British, instead of following Lawrence's humane example, redoubled their
fire. At the same time, Woodbine, supposing that the fort had
surrendered, hastened toward it with his Indians, but they were driven
back by a storm of grape-shot, and almost immediately the flag was seen
again floating over the fort at the end of the staff to which Major
Lawrence had nailed it."
"And was that the end of the fight, papa?" asked Lulu.
"Very nearly, if not quite," he replied. "Two of the attacking vessels
presently withdrew, leaving the helpless _Hermes_ behind; she finally
grounded upon a sand-bank, when Percy fired and abandoned her. Near
midnight her magazine exploded."
"I should think that was a great victory; was it not, Brother Levis?"
queried Walter.
"I think it was," the captain said. "The result was very mortifying to
the British. It was entirely unexpected, and Percy had said that he
would allow the garrison only twenty minutes to capitulate. It is not
surprising that he expected to take the weak little fort, with its
feeble garrison of one hundred and thirty, when he brought against it
over thirteen hundred men and ninety-two pieces of artillery.
"The Americans lost only eight men, one-half of whom were killed. The
assailants lost two hundred and thirty-two, one hundred and sixty-two of
them killed.
"One result of that fight was that the Indians lost faith in the
invincibility of the British, and many of them deserted, and sought
safety from the anger of Jackson by concealing themselves in the
interior of their broad country."
"Papa," said Grace earnestly, "did not God help our cause because we
were in the right?"
"No doubt of it, daughter," replied the captain; "ours was a righteous
cause, a resistance to intolerable oppression and wrong, as our poor
sailors felt it to be when a British man-of-war would stop our
merchantmen on the high seas and force into their service any man whom
they choose to say was an Englishman.
"But I need not enlarge upon that subject to my present audience, as I
am convinced that you all know of and appreciate that bitter wrong.
"To resume. The Americans were highly gratified with the result of the
conflict at Fort Bowyer, and their zeal was greatly quickened for
volunteering for the defence of New Orleans, whose citizens testified
their appreciation of Major Lawrence's achievement by resolving to
present him with an elegant sword in the name of their city."
"Was there not a second attack by the British upon Fort Bowyer,
Captain?" asked Evelyn.
"Yes; after their defeat at New Orleans. That, you will remember, was on
the 8th of January, 1815. They reached their fleet, lying in the deep
water between Ship and Cat Islands, on the 29th of that month, Fort
Bowyer on the 9th of February, and besieged it for nearly two days, when
Major Lawrence found himself compelled to surrender to a superior force.
That left Mobile at the mercy of the foe, but just then came the news
of peace, concluded at Ghent nearly two months before."
"But wasn't there some fighting done there or at Mobile in the Civil
War, sir?" asked Walter.
"Yes; on August 5, 1864, the government forces under Farragut attacked
the Confederate defences there, consisting principally of the two forts,
Morgan on the eastern side of the bay, and Gaines on the western, about
three miles apart.
"A line of piles and a double one of torpedoes stretched nearly across
from Fort Gaines to Fort Morgan, leaving only a narrow channel between
that fort and the point of termination. It was through that channel,
indicated by a red buoy, that blockade runners passed in and out, and
inside of these defences lay the Confederate ironclad _Tennessee_, and
three wooden gun-boats. It was early in the morning of that August day
that Farragut's signal was given, for the advance of his seven sloops of
war. The firing was heavy and destructive on both sides. But I will not
go into particulars at this time, only saying that the result was in
favor of the Federals; but the victory cost many lives--of Federals 335
men, of whom 113 were drowned in the _Tecumseh_--the leading monitor,
which had struck a torpedo and gone down--and 52 killed by shot, while
the Confederate loss was 10 killed, 16 wounded, and 280 prisoners,
besides the loss in the forts, which is unknown."
Just at this point a passing vessel attracted the attention of the
captain and his listeners, and the conversation was not renewed until
after dinner.