1862. Port Royal during the month of March, consist- CHAP. XIV. ing of nineteen ships-of-war, under Flag-officer Samuel F. Du Pont, and a few transports, carrying a brigade of volunteers, under General H. G. Wright, which, within a few days, and without serious resistance, occupied, and thereafter securely held, the whole remaining Atlantic coast southward, including Brunswick, Fort Clinch, Fernandina, Cumberland Island and Sound, Amelia Sound, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine. Nor did the triumphs of the navy end here. While this reduction and repossession of the Atlantic coast was going on, another movement, more formidable in its preparation and more brilliant in its successes, was in progress. CHAP. XV. E CHAPTER XV FARRAGUT'S VICTORY VENTS bring us to the relation of the capture of New Orleans, the commercial metropolis of the South, by a fleet under command of Flag-officer David G. Farragut. The expedition took shape very gradually; first, through information derived from the blockade; second, through the practical experience gained at the bombardment of the Hatteras forts in August, and those at Port Royal in October, of the year 1861. In these engagements the United States vessels of war demonstrated such a relative strength against shore batteries as to inspire confidence in yet more hazardous attempts of the same character. It was there proved that even wooden ships might be relied on to pass ordinary fortifications under fire with many chances of success; and upon this main idea the expedition against New Orleans was organized. It found its inspiration largely in the nautical skill and experience of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Captain G. V. Fox, who, by many years of service both in the navy and in the merchant coasting trade, had acquired a fund of practical knowledge which gave him a solidity of judgment and spirit of enterprise rarely found in a subordinate department official. The first indirect steps grew out of the necessities CHAP. XV. of the Gulf blockade. Ship Island, lying in the Gulf, off the coast of the State of Mississippi, midway between New Orleans and Mobile, was many years since selected as a point on which to erect a Federal fort, which at the beginning of the rebellion had risen but little above its foundations. The island was taken possession of by the rebels, but found to be useless, with their limited resources, and abandoned. Thereupon the Union forces occupied it in September, and it soon became, because of its central position, the principal naval station in the Gulf. Several naval and military enterprises in that quarter were being suggested and studied during the autumn of 1861. Before it was determined whether the attack should be directed against the Texas coast, or New Orleans, or Mobile Bay, a preliminary force of 2500 troops, under command of General Benjamin F. Butler, was organized to be sent to Ship Island, with a view of taking part in an expedition against such of these points as might be selected. New Orleans being the most important prize, both military and political, naturally became the principal objective as information about the feasibility of its capture was collected. The turning-point in its selection seems to have been the arrival at Washington early in November of Commander David D. Porter from several months' blockading duty off the mouths of the Mississippi, bringing the latest information gleaned from spies and contrabands concerning the river and city defenses. The designs of the Navy Department were confidentially laid before him, and his professional "Galaxy," opinion of the enterprise was asked. Welles, in Nov., 1871, p. 677. CHAP. XV. New Orleans lies on the Mississippi River, about one hundred miles above its mouths; and the chief obstacles the fleet would have to encounter in its ascent were Forts St. Philip and Jackson, situated nearly opposite each other at a bend of the river, seventy-five miles below the city. They were formidable forts of masonry, of scientific construction, originally built by the Government; and, like so many others, had been seized by the State authorities in the early movements of secession, and turned over to the use of the Confederates. Together they had an armament of over 100 guns, and garrisons of 600 or 700 men each. Fort Jackson lay on the right bank of the stream; St. Philip on the left bank half a mile above it. "The original proposition of the Navy Department," says ex-Secretary Welles, "was to run past the forts and capture the city, when, the fleet being "Galaxy," above and communication cut off, the lower defenses must fall." Commander Porter concurred in the desirability and probable success of the naval expedition which the department suggested and outlined, but strongly advised the addition of a powerful mortar flotilla, which should reduce these formidable forts by a bombardment before the fleet essayed to pass them, so as to leave no enemy or serious obstruction in the rear; and his proposal was adopted. Nov., 1871, p. 678. 1861. The formal beginning of the enterprise dates from the 15th of November. On the evening of that day there met at the residence of General McClellan a council composed of President Lincoln, Mr. Welles, Secretary of the Navy, Assistant-Secretary Fox, Commander Porter, and McClellan himself, whom the President had recently made CHAP. XV. general-in-chief of all the armies. Here the proposed expedition against New Orleans was for the first time mentioned to the general; with the other members of the council it was already a familiar topic. Hitherto, the army plans against New Orleans contemplated reaching it with a column descending the Mississippi from Cairo, and, premising that it would require an army of 50,000 to attack it from the Gulf, McClellan objected that he could not detach that number of troops from other undertakings. Mr. Welles replied that he expected the navy to capture the city, and that he only asked a contingent of 10,000 to hold it; one-fourth of this number was already destined for Ship Island. McClellan promised the required forces; the project was once more fully discussed and definitely ordered by the President; and three days thereafter to Porter, Porter was instructed to proceed to New York and organize his mortar flotilla, which he was to command in person. The enterprise once agreed upon, there came the momentous and perplexing question, who should command and lead an expedition of this magnitude and importance? By happy fortune the choice of the department fell upon Captain David G. Farragut, sixty years of age, forty-eight years of which had been spent in naval service, he having become a midshipman when he was eleven years old. He was made lieutenant at twenty-four, commander at forty, and captain at fifty-four. But in all this time his talents, experience, and service had largely outrun his opportunities for distinction. Fame approached her favorite with unusual tardiness, Welles Nov. 18, 1861. "Galaxy," Nov., 1871, p. 682. |