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thought he was among the killed. But a few minutes after he saw the lad gallantly swimming towards the wreck. Clambering on board, he threw his hand up to his forehead, in the usual salute, and with the simple, "All right, Sir, I report myself on board," coolly took up his old station. Though a boy, he had an old head on his shoulders, and if he lives and is given an opportunity, will be heard from in the future.

The Kineo was acidentally run into by the Brooklyn, and badly stove, yet she fought her way steadily forward,though receiving twelve shots in her hull, and with twelve others, passed the terrible ordeal. The description of the conduct of one boat is a description of all. Though riddled with shot from the forts, they closed in with the rebel gun boats so fiercely, that in an hour and a half eleven went to the bottom of the Mississippi.

The victory was won and the combat ended, yet the maddened enemy could not wholly surrender, and the ram Manassas came down on the Richmond. The Mississippi, seeing her intentions, instantly steamed towards her, when the affrighted crew ran her ashore. Even after the surrender was made, and while terms of capitulation were being agreed the rebels cut adrift the Louisiana, which had cost nearly two millions of dollars, and sent her down past the fort amid our mortar fleet. She failed, however, to do any damage, and soon went ashore.

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The forts being passed, New Orleans was ours; yet still the former, though completely cut off, refused to surrender.

Farragut sent Captain Boggs in an open boat through a bayou, inland, to Porter, to report his success. One would have thought from his letter, that he had encountered scarcely more than pretty stormy weather. "We have had a rough time of it, as Boggs will tell you," he says, and then pro

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TALL OF NEW ORLEANS.

ceeds to tell him that as soon as he goes to New Orleans he will come back and finish the forts.

The next morning he steamed up towards the astonished city. The inhabitants had deemed it unapproachable by any naval armament whatever, and in their fancied security were building vessels of offensive warfare, that soon would have given us far more trouble than the Merrimac. Lovell, in command of the troops in the city, immediately left, for it lay completely at the mercy of our vessels. The mayor undertook to avoid the humiliation of a formal capitulation, and wrote a ridiculous letter to the commander, but it mattered little how it was done-the great commercial port of the confederate states surrendered, and the most difficult part of opening the navigation of the Mississippi was accomplished.

Martial law had long been established in New Orleans, and the city, bereft of its commerce, drained of its money, and even of its provisions, was in a deplorable state. The people, either cowed, or sullen, looked moodily on the old flag as it once more floated in its accustomed place from the public buildings. But little Union feeling was found, nor could it be expected till the armies in the field had measured strength. Captain Bailey, who had so ably seconded Farragut, and won from him the highest commendations, was sent home with dispatches. On arriving at fortress Monroe he sent the following telegram to the Secretary of the Navy: "I have the honor to announce that in the providence of God, which smiles upon a just cause, the squadron under flag-officer Farragut has been vouchsafed a glorious victory and triumph in the capture of New Orleans, forts Jackson, St. Philip, Lexington, and Pike, the batteries above and below New Orleans, as well as the total destruction of the enemy's gun boats, steam rams, floating batteries (iron-clad,) fire rafts, and obstructions, booms, and chains. The enemy with their own hands destroyed from eight to ten millions

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ORDER OF FARRAGUT.

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of cotton and shipping. Our loss is thirty-six killed and one hundred and twenty-three wounded. The enemy lost from. one thousand to fifteen hundred besides several hundred prisoners. The way is clear, and the rebel defenses destroyed from the Gulf to Baton Rouge, and probably to Memphis. Our flag waves triumphantly over them all. I am bearer of dispatches.

THEODORUS BAILEY."

General Butler soon after arrived with his army, and took possession of the city, establishing his head-quarters at the St. Charles Hotel. A part of the garrison at fort Jackson having mutinied, it surrendered with all the other forts. The gun boats then began to ascend the Mississippi, clearing their way towards Memphis, seven hundred and ninety miles distant by water.

As a finale to their daring exploit, nothing could be more appropriate or beautiful than the following order of Farragut, issued three days after the passage of the forts. UNITED STATES FLAG SHIP HARTFORD,

Off the City of New Orleans, April 26th, 1862. GENERAL ORDER. Eleven o'clock this morning is the hour appointed for all the officers and crews of the fleet to return thanks to Almighty God for His great goodness and mercy in permitting us to pass the events of the last two days with so little loss of life and blood.

At that hour the church pennant will be hoisted on every vessel of the fleet, and their crews assembled, will, in humiliation and prayer make their acknowledgments therefor, to the Great Dispenser of all human events.

D. G. FARRAGUT, Flag Officer Western Gulf Blockading Squadron.

Thus both our naval Captains who had won such immortal renown on the western waters, delighted to lay their laurels at the feet of their Maker, and humbly give Him all the glory. Such conduct on the part of our commanders,

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LETTER FROM PORTER.

inspired the people with as much confidence as did their victories. That dependence on God, which the Puritans acknowledged in their great struggle for liberty, has never been forgotten by their descendants.

The character of the bombardment, and the magnitude of the naval preparations at New Orleans for our defeat are graphically given in a private letter of Captain Porter, in which among other things he says, "The topographical corps triangulated every position occupied by the mortar vessels, and it is safe to say that we knew to a yard the exact distance of the mouth of the mortars from the center of the fort. The enemy never saw us except for one day, when one of the divisions of six vessels was placed in sight, getting pretty roughly handled. I moved them under a point of woods, where, with their masts covered with green bushes, and their rigging with vines, they were invisible to the best glasses. Our firing was a matter of calculation, and you may judge how accurate it was when I tell you that one thousand three hundred and thirteen bombs struck in the center and solid parts of the works; two thousand three hundred and thirty in the moat near the foundations, shaking the whole fort to its base; nearly one thousand exploded in and over the works, and one thousand three hundred and fifty-seven struck about the levees, in the marsh close around, and in the paths, and near the water's edge, where the steamers attempted to come. I never saw so perfect a scene of desolation and ruin, nor do I believe there ever was such perfect mortar practice. We could clear the batteries whenever the soldiers appeared on the ramparts. In fact no guns could be worked there." Of the rams, etc. he says, "Four rams and floating batteries, such as the world never before saw, have been destroyed in the late attack. The Louisiana, an invincible steam battery, was set on fire and sent down on the vessels while I was engaged in drawing up a capitulation of the forts-a flag of

A FEARFUL FLOATING BATTERY.

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truce flying at the time. She exploded within three hundred yards of us, and sunk in one minute, her splendid battery of rifled guns being lost to us. That vessel was four thousand tons, two hundred and seventy feet long, and had sixteen heavy rifled guns. She intended to take position that night, when she would have driven off all our fleet. As a proof of her invulnerability, one of our heaviest ships lay within ten feet of her, and delivered her whole broadside, making no more impression on her than if she was firing peas. The iron ram Manassas hit three vessels before her commander ran her ashore and abandoned her. In New Orleans our officers found the most splendid specimen of a floating battery the world has ever seen, (sca--going,) and had she been finished, and succeeded in getting to sea, the whole American navy would have been destroyed. She was six thousand tons, two hundred and seventy feet long, sixty feet beam; had four engines, three propellers, four inches (and in some places more) of iron, and would steam eleven knots an hour. · She cost Mallory and Co. two millions of dollars. The best one I saw floating by me, was a dry dock turned into a floating battery, mounting sixteen guns, and the entire engine, which was to propel it, hermetically sealed by a thick iron turret. Besides these monsters, the naval part of the enemy's defenses at the fort consisted of six or seven iron-clad gun boats, almost impervious to shot, and certainly so against vessels coming bow on.' Past forts mounting over two hundred heavy guns, many of them rifled, past three iron plated batteries mounting thirty-one guns, straight on to these floating monsters, and iron-clad gun boats, thirteen sloops of war and gun boats together moved triumphantly. It was a marvellous exploit, and no wonder Farragut felt like giving the credit of success to the "Great Dispenser of all things."

This statement shows two things clearly; first, that we were

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