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362

SUFFERINGS OF THE WOUNDED.

supplies and efforts of the commission were not so imperatively demanded. But here, all the ordinary means of relief were wholly inadequate, and its whole force was called into active service. Yet even this was not sufficient, and the western cities poured forth their stores for the wounded, and loaded steamboats with nurses and physicians and dispatched them to the scene of suffering. But such wholesale slaughter was new to our people, and they were unprepared for it, and many of the wounded suffered from unavoidable neglect. If, with our means, facilities, and wealth, our wounded suffered for want of proper care, it is easy to imagine that those of the enemy must have endured untold privations.

Our entire loss in killed, wounded, and missing, was nearly fourteen thousand. This included the three thousand prisoners. The loss of the enemy, with the exception of prisoners, of which we took but few, was probably about the

same.

This battle was severely criticised, for it was well nigh lost; and if it had been, the whole west up to the Ohio would have been once more in the hands of the rebels, and at least another year added to the war. Hence, the first question in every one's mouth was: why, when such momentous events hung on this battle, was it allowed to take place before we were prepared for it? A single severe storm that would have kept Buell back for twenty-four hours, would have annihilated our army, and brought about this disastrous result, that one even now trembles to contemplate. There seemed no necessity for running such a terrible risk, and the feeling was universal that there was bad management somewhere. Again it was asked, if it seemed necessary to hold the west bank of the Tennessee with only a part of our force, while the enemy was in striking distance with the whole of his, why was our army allowed to be surprised? The friends of Grant, feeling that this implied condemnation of him, denied

MITCHELL IN ALABAMA.

363

that it was a surprise. But if sweeping the camp of one entire division before the men could fall into rank, and the storming of another so suddenly, that only a portion of the troops could be rallied, while even those were captured with their commander, does not constitute a complete surprise, then it is hard indeed to define one. Whether the blame rests on Grant or on the commanders of the front divisions, is a question it may not be easy at present to decide; but that there was negligence or ignorance somewhere, is indisputable. The rebel army on the first day was handled with consummate skill; while on our side there seemed but little done by our Generals, except to hold their troops as steady as possible under fire, and delay the catastrophe that appeared inevitable, as long as possible. That we were not completely overthrown is due alone to the merciful interposition of Providence.

Of course this battle stopped for the time being, all farther movements in that locality. The remainder of Buell's division was brought up, and Halleck hastened to the field to take command in person, and reorganize the army.

In the mean time, the enemy began to fortify himself in Corinth, and prepare for the next grand struggle for the valley of the Mississippi; while Foote appeared before fort Wright to repeat the bombardment that had accomplished so little at Island Number Ten. During this interval, General Mitchell, with his brigade had been detached from Buell's army, and by a rapid, masterly march on Huntsville, Alabama, seized it without any loss, and captured two hundred prisoners. In the telegraph office, he found and deciphered a dispatch from Beauregard, asking for reinforcements and giving the effective force of his army. He also seized the rail road for fifty miles on either side, capturing some fifteen locomotives and other rolling stock.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

APRIL, 1862.

EXPEDITION AGAINST NEW ORLEANS THE FORTS AND OBSTRUCTIONS IN THE MISSISSIPPI TO BE OVERCOME-THE BOMBARDMENT OF THE FORTS-FIRE

RAFTS-FARRAGUT DETERMINES TO RUN THE BATTERIES-A DESPERATE BATTLE-CAPTAIN BOGGS OF THE VARINA-A GALLANT BOY-NEW ORLEANS SURRENDERED-STATE OF FEELING THERE-FARRAGUT'S ORDER DIRECTING THANKS TO BE OFFERED TO GOD FOR SUCCESS-BUTLER OCCUPIES THE CITY -PORTER'S LETTER CONCERNING THE BOMBARDMENT, AND THE RAMS.

HE month of April closed gloriously for the national

T cause in the valley of the Mississippi; for it gave us

New Orleans, the most important city of the southern confederacy, and thus made certain to us the final possession of the entire river.

Captain Farragut, with a fleet of gun boats, and Porter, with a mortar fleet, had long since left our northern waters for some unknown point. Much anxiety had been felt for its success; and when at length news was received that it had left Ship island, where it was known to have rendezvoused, for New Orleans, accompanied by a land force under Butler, great fears were entertained of its ability to force the formi dable barriers that blocked the river below the city.

Two forts, Jackson and St. Philip, nearly opposite each other, the former very strong and casemated, the two mounting in all two hundred and twenty-five guns, commanded the approach. In addition to these, a heavy chain had been stretched across the channel, buoyed upon schooners, and directly under the fire of the batteries, so any vessels attempting to remove it, could be sunk. There were besides, heavily mounted iron-clad gun boats, ponderous rams,

that

BOMBARDMENT COMMENCED.

365

before whose onset the strongest ship would go down, and fire rafts and piles of drift wood, ready to be launched on our advancing vessels. It was believed by the rebels, that nothing that ever floated, could safely pass all these obstructions, but should some few by a miracle succeed, bands of young men were organized in New Orleans, to board them at all hazard, and capture them.

Such were the obstacles that presented themselves to Farragut and Porter, as they, in the middle of April, slowly steamed up the mighty river.

It was laborious work getting the fleet over the bars at the mouth of the Mississippi, and up the rapid stream, to the scene of action, for the mortar boats were not steamers. Weeks were occupied in it, and the north almost began to despair of hearing any good report of the expedition, and eventually it was quite lost sight of in the absorbing news from the upper Mississippi, and the Tennessee. But though shut out from the world, its gallant commanders were quietly, but energetically preparing for the herculean task assigned them.

Six war steamers, sixteen gun boats, twenty-one mortar vessels, with five other national vessels, among them the Harriet Lane, Porter's flag-ship, making in all nearly fifty armed vessels, constituted the entire force. It was a formidable fleet, but it had formidable obstacles to overcome.

On the eighteenth the bombardment commenced, and the first day nearly two thousand shells were thrown into the forts. Some burst beyond them, others in mid air, and some not at all, while hundreds fell with a thundering crash inside the works, cracking the strongest casemates in their ponderous descent. On one side of the river, the mortar vessels lay near some trees on the bank, and the men dressed the masts in green foliage to conceal their position. Decked out as for a Christmas festival, they could not be distinguished at the

366

SURVEYORS-ROW BOAT FLEET.

distance of the forts from the trees, so that the enemy had only the smoke that canopied them for a mark to aim at. On the other side, tall reeds fringed the banks, and the vessels in position there were covered with rushes and flags, and daubed with Mississippi mud, which sadly confused the artillerists in the forts. The exact distance from the spot where they lay anchored, to the forts, had been determined by triangu lation, conducted by the coast survey party under Captain Gurdes. The surveys to accomplish this, had been performed under the fire of the enemy, and great coolness and daring were shown by the party. The sailors had wondered at the presence of a coast survey vessel, carrying a crew armed with nothing more formidable than surveying instruments, save a few pocket revolvers, but it was now seen that science must first prepare the way, before the heavy shells could perform their appropriate work.

Early in the morning of the day on which the bombardment commenced, the rebels set adrift a huge flat boat, piled with pitch pine cord wood in a blaze. As it came down the stream, the flames roared and crackled like a burning forest, while huge columns of black smoke rose in swift, spiral columns, sky-ward. As it drifted near, two of our advanced vessels hastily slipped their cables and moved down stream. At first it was feared the blazing structure might contain torpedoes or explosive machines of some kind, and rifled shot were thrown into it. But it floated harmless by, lighting up the muddy stream as it receded. In order to be prepared for another, Captain Porter ordered all the row boats of the flotilla to be prepared with grapnels, ropes, buckets and At sunset, this fleet of a hundred and fifty boats was reviewed, passing in single line under the Harriet Lane, each answering to the hail of the commander, "Fire buckets, axes and ropes?" "Aye, aye, Sir."

axes.

About an hour afterward, just as night had set in, a huge

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