ORDER OF FARRAGUT. 375 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, 376 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. 377 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, (sea--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 378 A NARROW ESCAPE. not a day nor an hour too soon in making the attack. A few hours later, and the Louisiana would have taken position that would have driven every vessel off. A few weeks later, and an impregnable sea-going vessel would have been afloat, before which our entire navy must have disappeared like mere toy ships in a gale. Secondly: that an overruling Providence saved us, and not the naval department or the government. It had long been known that formidable engines of destruction were constructing at New Orleans, just as it was known that the Merrimac was being covered with iron at Norfolk, yet little was done towards constructing any thing to match them. It makes one shudder to think how near our boasted naval superiority came being made a by-word, and the blockade we were so fearful the European powers would raise, destroyed by the confederates themselves. But while such momentous events at the west and southwest distinguished the month of April, it being heralded in by the capture of Island Number Ten and the battle of Shiloh, and attended out by our victorious cannon before New Orleans, others, though not so startling, yet equally important characterized the month at the east. CHAPTER XXIX. APRIL, 1862. SUCCESS ALONG THE ATLANTIC COAST-MC CLELLAN WITH HIS ARMY AT FORTRESS MONROE-HOW THE NEWS WAS RECEIVED BY THE PUBLIC-GENERAL PLAN OF THE WAR-PLAN OF THE PENINSULA CAMPAIGN-HOW BROKEN UP -THE ARMY ADVANCES TO YORKTOWN-ESCAPE OF THE NASHVILLE-THE SUMTER BLOCKADED AT GIBRALTAR-VESSELS RUNNING THE BLOCKADE AT CHARLESTON-PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE AT YORKTOWN-FREMONT IN THE MOUNTAIN DEPARTMENT-AUGUR ADVANCES TO FREDERICKSBURGH-THE SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF FORT PULASKI-BATTLE OF APACHE PASS-RENO SENT TO ELIZABETH CITY-DEFEATS THE ENEMY. WHILE WHILE the month of April was bringing us such a succession of victories west, every thing was prosperous on the Atlantic slope. Dupont was successful in every enterprise on the Florida coast, while the news from forts Pulaski and Macon, made it certain that Sherman and Burnside would soon place those two strongholds in our possession. The only drawback on these bright prospects east, was the consciousness that we were frittering away our strength too much on isolated points, and dividing our forces to seize places that would fall of themselves, were the great armies in the field defeated. We needed more concentration, as events soon showed. But the most exciting news was, that the Army of the Potomac had suddenly arrested its onward movement, and a mighty host of over a hundred thousand men were anchored in transports off fortress Monroe. The country had learned, weeks previous, though the news was scrupulously kept out of the press, that every thing in the vicinity of New York which could carry troops, had been chartered by the gov ernment, and knew that a large transfer of force was in con |