compliment of allowing him to pilot the vessel, and Perkins took
position in the eyes of her, on the topgallant forecastle, while
Lieutenant-Commanding Harrison and Captain Bailey stood aft, near the
wheel, and all the men except the helmsmen were made to lie flat on the
deck until the time came for them to serve the battery. Prone on the
deck at Perkins's feet, and with his head close down over the bow, was
the captain of the forecastle, to watch the channel and give timely
warning of anything barring the way that might escape the wider-ranging
eye of the intrepid young pilot; and as the Cayuga pressed on, receiving
the first shock of the outburst from the forts, what finer subject for
the painter, than that lithe young figure standing up in bold and
unflinching relief, at the extreme bow of the ship, peering ahead in the
morning starlight to pilot her safely on her way, amid the blinding
flame and screaming bolts, the hurtle of shot and crash of shell, the
explosion and deafening roar of a hundred shotted guns, as the vessel
steamed into the jaws of death, leading the fleet into one of the most
momentous and memorable conflicts in naval annals. Nor should cool and
phlegmatic Harrison nor grand old Bailey be overlooked, as the constant
flashes of the thick exploding shells revealed them standing, calm and
grim, at their posts, in readiness to direct the movements of vessel and
column, and engage the foe, ashore and afloat; nor the impatient
officers and crew, who eagerly waited the order to spring to their guns
and make reply to the withering fire pouring in upon them as yet
unavenged.
"Noticing," said Perkins, "that the enemy's guns were all aimed for
midstream, I steered right close under the walls of St. Philip, and
although our masts and rigging were badly shot through, the hull was
hardly damaged. After passing the last battery, I looked back for some
of our vessels, and my heart jumped into my mouth, when I found I could
not see a single one. I thought they must all have been sunk by the
forts. Looking ahead, I saw eleven of the enemy's gunboats coming down,
upon us, and I supposed we were _gone_. Three made a dash to board us,
but a charge from our eleven-inch settled one, the Governor Moore. The
ram Manassas just missed us astern, and we soon disposed of the other.
Just then, some of our gunboats came to the assistance of the Cayuga,
and all sorts of things happened; it was the wildest excitement all
round. The Varuna fired a broadside into us instead of the enemy.
Another attacked one of our prizes; three had struck to us before any of
our ships came up, but when they did come up we all pitched in and sunk
eleven vessels in about twenty minutes."
The brief encounter with the Moore had been very exciting. The vessels
were alongside each other, and both were reloading,--the guns muzzle to
muzzle, and but a few feet apart. The gun that could fire first would
decide the fate of one or the other. Perkins sprang down, and, taking
personal charge of the smoking eleven-inch, put fresh vigor into its
loading, and firing the instant the rammer was withdrawn, swept the
Moore's gun from its carriage, and killed or disabled thirteen of its
crew.
The Cayuga still leading the way up the river came upon a regiment at
daylight encamped close to the bank, and Perkins, as the mouthpiece of
the captain, hailed them and ordered them to come on board and deliver
up their arms or he would "blow them to pieces."
It proved to be the Chalmette regiment, and, surrendering, the officers
and men were paroled and the former allowed to retain their side-arms,
"except," said Perkins, "one captain, whom I discovered was from New
Hampshire. I took his sword away from him and have kept it!"
Now Farragut came up in the Hartford and signalled the fleet to anchor.
This was near Quarantine, some five miles above the forts. All the
vessels had succeeded in running the gauntlet of their fire except three
gunboats, and New Orleans was now practically at the mercy of the fleet;
but the Varuna had been rammed and sunk in the hot fight with the
enemy's flotilla just above St. Philip.
The Cayuga had received forty-two hits in mast and hull, and six men had
been wounded.
The hurricane of projectiles had passed mostly too high to do mortal
harm to her crew, due in part to the skilful manner in which Perkins had
sheered in toward the bank from midstream so early in the fight.
Resting until the next morning to care for the dead and wounded, and the
repair of damages, the fleet again weighed, the Cayuga still in advance;
and when the spires of the city hove in sight from her deck, "three
rousing cheers and a tiger" went up from her gallant crew. But the
plucky little gunboat was getting ahead too fast, for arriving close
abreast the Chalmette battery, which seemed to be deserted, she suddenly
received a fire that compelled a halt. Over-matched five to one, and
having been struck fourteen times, with shot and shells dropping thick
and fast about her, she slowed and dropped back a little with the
current, until the Hartford and Brooklyn coming up quickly silenced the
enemy with their heavy broadsides, while the Pensacola cared for the
hostile works on the opposite bank in like manner. The fleet then kept
on without further obstruction, and arrived and anchored off the city
about noon; finding the levee along its entire length aflame with
burning cotton, coal, ships, steamboats, and other property the
infuriated enemy had devoted to destruction.
The loss to the fleet in this daring and brilliant feat had been
thirty-seven killed and one hundred and thirty-seven wounded.
It is needless to say that Lieutenant Perkins not only received high
commendation from Captain Bailey and Lieutenant-Commanding Harrison, but
won the praise and admiration of all on board and in the fleet, by the
coolness and intrepidity shown by him in every emergency of the fight
and passage up the river.
The first tidings received in Washington foreshadowing the success of
the attack was through rebel telegrams announcing, "one of the enemy's
gunboats"--the Cayuga--"above the forts." Some question subsequently
arose between Bailey and Farragut as to the Cayuga's position in the
passage, which in the diagrams accompanying the official reports
contradicted the text, putting the Cayuga third instead of first in the
van. Farragut cheerfully made the correction.
Soon after anchoring, Bailey was ordered to go on shore and demand the
unconditional surrender of the city, and he asked Lieutenant Perkins to
accompany him. This duty was almost as dangerous and conspicuous as the
passage of the forts had been, for an infuriated and insolent mob
followed them from the landing to the mayor's office, and while there
with the mayor and General Lovell, besieged the doors, demanding the
"Yankee officers" to be given up to them to be hung. The demonstration
at last became so threatening, that the mayor drew off the attention of
the mob by a speech to them in front of the building, while the Union
officers took a close carriage in its rear and driving rapidly down to
their boat, reached the ship in safety.
Bailey had managed to hoist the flag over the mint, which a party of
rebels tore down the next day, but the authorities refused to surrender
the city or to haul down the insignia of rebellion. Then ensued a
correspondence which, to read at this day, makes the blood boil at rebel
insolence, and the wonder grow at Farragut's forbearance; but on the
twenty-ninth of April, he sent Fleet-Captain Bell on shore with two
howitzers manned by sailors and a battalion of two hundred and fifty
marines and took possession of the city. Meanwhile the forts had
surrendered to Porter of the mortar fleet, and General Butler, arriving
on the first of May, relieved Farragut of further responsibility as to
the city.
[Illustration: GOING ASHORE TO DEMAND THE SURRENDER OF NEW ORLEANS.]
The Cayuga had been so badly cut up by shot and shell that she was
selected to take Captain Bailey north as bearer of dispatches, and
landing him at Fortress Monroe, proceeded on to New York to be
refitted. This enabled Lieutenant Perkins to make a short visit to
Concord, where his father, now become judge of probate of Merrimack
County, had removed, and both himself and the family received many
congratulations, personal and written, at the brilliant record he had
made in the recent memorable operations on the Mississippi.
Modest and unassuming, with a genial frankness of manner that told
pleasantly alike on quarter-deck or street, in family-circle or
drawing-room, he wore his honors in the quietest way possible, never
speaking of his own part in the brave deeds of the time, except when
pressed to do so, and then with a reticence all too provoking, from the
well-grounded suspicion that he kept back the pith of the real story of
personal participation he might tell without tinge of exaggeration or
boastfulness.
Returning to the Cayuga he found a new commanding officer,
Lieutenant-Commanding D. McN. Fairfax, another loyal Virginian, who not
only stood faithful to the flag under all circumstances, but had, as the
officer from the San Jacinto, boarded the Trent and taken from her the
arch-conspirators, Mason and Slidell, suffering the contumely of rebel
womanhood in the reception accorded him by Mr. Commissioner Slidell's
daughter.
Fairfax and Perkins had known each other on the coast of Africa, and it
was the meeting of old friends made doubly pleasant by the senior's
hearty appreciation of the laurels so gallantly won by the junior, and
self-congratulation in the promised comfort of retaining an executive of
so much energy, ability, and reputation.
Rejoining Farragut's squadron, Perkins saw other gallant and varied
service in the Cayuga until November, 1862, when he was transferred to
the Pensacola, and the following month commissioned
lieutenant-commander, a new grade created by Congress to correspond with
that of major in the army.
In June, 1863, General Banks, then besieging Port Hudson, sent word to
the now Rear-Admiral Farragut, that he must have more powder or give up
the siege, wherefore the Admiral ordered the gunboat New London on the
important service of powder transportation and convoy, and assigning
Perkins to the command until the officer ordered from the North by the
department should arrive. The enemy had possession at that time of some
three hundred miles of the river below Port Hudson, with batteries
established at various points and sharpshooters distributed along the
banks.
Five times Perkins ran the fiery gauntlet successfully, but on the sixth
his vessel was disabled in a sharp fight at Whitehall's Point. One shot
from the enemy exploded the New London's boiler, and another disabled
her steam chest. In that critical condition, directly under the guns of
the hostile battery, and exposed to the fire of sharpshooters on the
bank, and deserted by his consort, the Winona, his position seemed
desperate almost beyond remedy; but fertile in expedients and daring to
rashness in their execution, he finally succeeded, after almost
incredible exertion and perilous personal adventure, in communicating
with the fleet below, and the vessel was saved.
Now the commanding officer from the North having arrived, Perkins was
transferred to the command of the ninety-day gunboat Sciota, the best
command at that time, in the squadron, for an officer of his years, and
assigned to duty on the blockade off the coast of Texas. To one of his
social disposition and active temperament, the blockade, ever harassing
and monotonous, was, as he wrote, a "living death," adding that "we are
all talked out, and sometimes a week passes and I hardly speak more than
a necessary word." Venturing ashore several times on hunting excursions,
he at last came near being captured by the enemy, and held after that,
that "cabin'd confinement was preferable to a rebel prison," and so kept
on board. Once during that weary nine months, the tedium was broken by
the capture of a fat prize--a schooner loaded with cotton. Let us hope
that the prize-court and its attendant officials did not absorb too big
a share of the proceeds!
[Illustration: THE CHICKASAW.]
Relieved from that command late in May, 1864, with leave to proceed
home, he arrived at New Orleans in June, to find active preparations for
the Mobile fight going on, and though he had not been at home for two
years, he could not stand it to let slip so glorious an opportunity for
stirring service, and so volunteered to remain. Farragut, delighted at
such determination, quite different from the experience he had had with
some officers, assigned to Perkins a command above his rank--the
Chickasaw,--a double-turretted monitor, carrying four eleven-inch guns
and a crew of one hundred and forty-five men and twenty-five officers.
She had been built, together with the Winnebago, a sister vessel, at St.
Louis, by Mr. Joseph B. Eads, the eminent engineer, on plans of his own.
Of light draught and frame, and peculiar construction, some officers
distrusted her strength and sea-going qualities. The Chickasaw, too,
was not yet completed, the mechanics being still at work on her
machinery and fittings, and her crew, with exception of a half-dozen
men-of-war's-men, were river-men and landsmen, knowing nothing of
salt-water sailing or of naval discipline. But time pressed: every
moment was of priceless value; and Perkins, declining all social
invitations, set about with characteristic energy to prepare his ship
for the coming conflict. Nor did his work of preparation and drill
cease, either in the river or outside, until well into the night
preceding the eventful day in Mobile Bay that was to add another
brilliant page to the annals of the navy.
On the twenty-eighth of July, he left New Orleans to join the fleet off
Mobile, and on the way down the river an episode occurred that came nigh
settling the fate of the Chickasaw without risk or chance of battle; for
on nearing the bar, Perkins left the pilot-house a moment to look after
some matters requiring attention outside. He had hardly reached the spot
he sought, when, turning round, he saw that the pilot had changed the
ship's course and was heading directly for a wreck close aboard, which
to strike would end the career of the Chickasaw then and there.
Springing back into the pilot-house, he seized the wheel and brought the
ship back on her course, then snatching a pistol from his belt, said to
the traitorous fellow: "You are here to take this ship over the bar, and
if she touches ground or anything else, I'll blow your d----d brains
out!" Pale with suppressed rage, and trembling with fear, the pilot
expostulated that "the bottom was lumpy, and the best pilot in the river
could not help touching at times."
"No matter," rejoined Perkins, "if you love the Confederacy better than
your life, take your choice; but if you touch a single lump, I'll shoot
you!" Needless to say, no lumps were found, nor that the pilot made
haste to get out of such company the moment he was permitted to do so;
neither may we doubt that the recording angel traced, with lightest
hand, the strong language used by the nearly betrayed captain!
The Chickasaw arrived off Mobile bar August 1, where all was expectancy
and preparation for the coming fight, a fight which perhaps had more in
it of dramatic interest than any other naval battle of the war. The
wooden ships pushing into the bay through the torpedo-strewn channel and
under the fierce storm of shot and shell from Fort Morgan, lashed
together in pairs for mutual support in case of disaster; the sudden and
tragic sinking of the Tecumseh by torpedo stroke, with the loss of the
heroic Craven and most of his brave officers and men; the halt of the
Brooklyn in mid-channel in face of that dire disaster, which, with the
threatened huddling of the ships together by the inward sweep of the
tide, portended swift discomfiture and possible defeat; the intuitive
perception and quick decision that literally enabled Farragut to take
the flood that led to fortune, in the instant ordering of the Hartford
to push ahead with his flag and assume the lead he had relinquished only
at the urgent request of the Brooklyn's commander; the restored order
and prompt following of the fleet, regardless of torpedoes, on the new
course blazed out by the eagle eye and emphatic tongue of the fearless
old admiral as he grappled with the emergency from the futtock-shrouds
of the flagship; the little boat putting off from the Metacomet,
suddenly lighted up by its saucy ensign, in the midst of the fiery chaos
and thunderous roar of battle, to save the few souls struggling in the
water from the ill-fated Tecumseh, calling forth admiration, alike from
friend and foe, at the intrepidity of its mission; the dash of the
enemy's powerful ram Tennessee, clad in heaviest armor, down the Union
line, endeavoring to strike each vessel in turn; the separation of the
coupled ships when beyond the reach of Morgan's guns, and the dash of
the gunboats led by Jouett, of the Metacomet, like hounds released from
the leash, at the enemy's flotilla; the reappearance of leviathan
Tennessee and the fierce tournament that ensued, with turtle-backed
Chickasaw following close under her stern with bulldog grip that knew no
release; the intrepid skill and desperate valor never surpassed, with
which the ram manoeuvred and withstood the hammering and ramming of the
wooden ships, the pounding and shattering of the ironclads, before she
yielded to the inevitable fate that awaited her,--all conspired to form
a scene of grand and dramatic circumstance almost without parallel in
naval warfare.
The youngest officer in command on that day,--the fifth of August,--so
fateful to the fading fortunes of the Confederacy, so glorious to the
reascendant star of Union, no one contributed more to its glories and
success than Perkins of the Chickasaw; and in any other service under
the sun he would have received immediate promotion for what he did on
that day. Had he been an Englishman, the honors of knighthood would have
been conferred on him, as well as promotion, but as an American he still
waits adequate recognition for deeds as brave as they were conspicuous
and telling.
Said Mr. Eads, the builder, when he heard the results of the battle and
the surpassing part of the Chickasaw in it: "I would walk fifty miles to
shake hands with the young man who commanded her!" And remembering the
disparagement that had been put on the vessel and her sister ship, the
Winnebago, his enthusiasm knew no bounds, and he took pains to gather
all the details of the Chickasaw's brilliant work.
With the loss of the Tecumseh, the ironclad portion of the fleet was
reduced to the Manhattan, armed with two fifteen-inch guns, and the
Chickasaw and Winnebago of two eleven-inch guns each; but one of the
Manhattan's guns became disabled early in the action, by a bit of iron
lodging in the vent, and the Winnebago's turrets would not turn, so that
her guns could be pointed only by manoeuvring the vessel. But the
Chickasaw, owing to Perkins's foresight and hard work, was in perfect
condition, as illustrated in all her service on that eventful day, as
well as on all subsequent occasions, until the capitulation of Mobile
ended the drama of rebellion on the Southern seaboard.
The wooden ships, stripped as at New Orleans for the stern work in hand,
numbered fourteen, and the number of guns carried by the fleet was one
hundred and fifty-five, throwing, by added facility of pivot and turret,
ninety-two hundred and eight pounds of metal in broadside, from which
thirteen hundred and twenty must be deducted through the early loss of
the Tecumseh and the disabled gun of the Manhattan.
The enemy's defences consisted of Fort Morgan, commanding the channel
at Mobile Point, mounting seventy guns; Fort Gaines, on the eastern
point of Dauphin Island, some three miles northwest of Fort Morgan,
armed with thirty guns, and Fort Powell, about four miles from Gaines
northwest, at Grant's Pass, with four guns.
Across the channel, which runs close to Morgan, several lines of
torpedoes were planted, and just beyond them to the northward of the
fort, in line abreast waiting their opportunity, was the rebel squadron,
comprising the Tennessee, flagship of Admiral Buchanan, and the gunboats
Morgan, Gaines, and Selma, carrying in the aggregate twenty-two
guns--eight rifles and fourteen smooth-bores. The Tennessee, the most
powerful ship that ever flew the Confederate flag, was two hundred and
nine feet in length, and forty-eight feet in width, with a heavy iron
spur projecting from the bow some two feet under water. Her sides
"tumbled home" at an angle of forty-five degrees and were clad in armor
of five and six inches thickness, over a structure of oak and pine of
twenty-five inches. Her guns, six heavy Brooke's rifles, were arranged,
by port and pivot, for an effective all-round fire, and her speed was
six knots.
[Illustration: THE TENNESSEE.]
All was ready for the attack on the evening of the fourth of August, and
at half-past five the next morning the signal was thrown out to weigh,
and fall into the order prescribed; the wooden ships in couples, and the
ironclads in line by themselves; the Tecumseh in the van and the
Chickasaw in rear, according to the rank of their commanding officers.
At half-past six the fleet was across the bar and in order of battle. No
starlight or favoring clouds now, to partially mask its movements as at
the passage of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, but the joyous sunshine,
flooding land and sea with its brightness, and mirroring its revealing
gleams upon fort and ship and pennon, serving friend and foe alike
impartially. Alas! for the brave souls to whom that gracious morning
light was the last of earth, but we may hope they awoke in a light of
still more radiance and glory, and amid paeans of a joyous host,
choiring "Well done, thou good and faithful servants, that didst give
thy lives to God and country!"
The soft south wind of that fair morn came like a benediction to the
fleet now sweeping on with the flood tide, and stillness like a sentient
presence, only disturbed by the sound of screw or paddle-wheel as they
turned ahead, hung over the ships till broken by the belching roar of
the Tecumseh's monster guns, as she threw two fifteen-inch shells into
Morgan--her first and last! And now, at seven, "by the chime," the
action became general, and the Tecumseh, having loaded with heaviest
charge and solid steel shot, steamed on ahead of the Brooklyn to attack
the Tennessee; but Craven, thinking he saw a movement on the part of the
ram to get out of the way, together with the seemingly too narrow space
between the fatal buoy and the shore for manoeuvre in case of need, gave
the order to starboard the helm, and head directly for the watchful
Tennessee, waiting with lock-strings in hand to salute the monitor as
she closed--gallant foeman worthy of her steel! So near and yet so far,
for hardly had the Tecumseh gone a length to the westward of the
sentinel buoy, than the fate, already outlined, overwhelmed her, and her
iron walls became coffin, shroud, and winding-sheet to Craven and most
of the brave souls with him, and all so suddenly that those who had seen
the disaster could hardly realize what had taken place.
Ours is not the purpose to follow further the details of the fight, but
to go with Perkins in the Chickasaw and see things as he saw them on
that stirring day, as gathered from his letters and as fortified from
other sources. Of tireless energy and restless activity, and sternly
intent upon making the Chickasaw second to none in the grand work
demanded of the fleet, he imparted nerve and enthusiasm throughout the
vessel; now in the pilot-house, looking after the helmsman; then in the
forward turret, personally sighting the guns; anon on top of the turret,
taking in the surroundings.
His fine spirit and high moral courage had characteristic illustration
when, the night before the fight, calling his officers into the cabin,
he thus addressed them: "Gentlemen, by this time to-morrow, the fate of
this fleet and of Mobile will be sealed. We have all a duty to perform
and a victory to win. I have sent for you to say, that not a drop of
wine, liquor, or beer, is to be drunk on board of this vessel from this
hour until the battle is over, and the victory won, or death has come to
us. It is my wish that every officer and man shall go into battle with a
clear head and strong nerves. I rely upon you to comply with this
requirement, confident that the Chickasaw and her crew can thus best
perform their whole duty."