CHAPTER XXV. Biographical Sketch of Admiral Foote. His Adventures, Battles, and Death. -Banks's Surrender of Port Hudson. Our ONNECTICUT lost an illustrious son during the summer of 1863 in Rear Admiral Foote, the hero of Island Number Ten and of Forts Henry and Donelson. Andrew Hull Foote was born Sept. 12, 1806, in what is now called "the Buddington House," corner of Union and Cherry Streets, New Haven. His paternal grandfather, Rev. John Foote, was pastor of the Congregational church of Cheshire for forty-six years. His maternal grandfather, Gen. Andrew Hull of Cheshire, was for many years a prosperous West-India merchant in New Haven. His father, Samuel A. Foote, was a graduate of Yale of the class of 1797, and studied law at the famous school in Litchfield. He frequently represented Cheshire in the General Assembly, and was speaker of the House. He afterwards represented the State in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Congresses, and in the United-States Senate for six years. From his seventh year, the beautiful village of Cheshire was the home of young Andrew; and to his seventeenth year he was trained by his excellent mother Eudocia in right principles and moral habits, yet accustomed to the out-door activities of rural life, under the inspiring and restraining influences of an old-fashioned Puritan household. He grew up a bright, strong-willed, amiable boy, with a full share of that adventurous spirit which sends so many boys to sea at sixteen years of age. His father permitted him to choose his vocation; and he entered the navy as a midshipman in 1822. His first voyage was under the command of a lieutenant who had gained experience and honorable distinction in the War of 1812, and who, having had the privilege of training him for the service of his country, and having shared with him the perils of sea and of battle, survived in a vigorous old age to share in a nation's grief at the death of his illustrious pupil. The intimate and affectionate friendship of forty-one years, between Admiral Gregory and Admiral Foote, was honorable to both. Midshipman Foote's first voyage was in the expedition against the pirates of the West Indies. In the course of it, he distinguished himself by courage and enterprise as well as by diligence in the duties of his position. His second cruise was under Commodore Hull in the Pacific. After this he made successive voyages in all parts of the world, followed by slow and well-earned promotion. His commission as lieutenant was dated eight years after he entered the service; and in the mean time he had been almost continually at sea. Twenty-five years more of arduous service made him a commander; when he was assigned to duty at the Naval Asylum in Philadelphia. Even here, among pensioners, he found a good work to do. Devoting himself with characteristic zeal and kindness to the welfare of the pensioners under his command, he succeeded in winning their affectionate confidence; he obtained a high and beneficial moral influence over them; he became a moral and religious teacher among them without impairing the dignity of his position as an officer, and persuaded many of them to give up their spirit ration, and pledge themselves to total abstinence from intoxicating drinks. On his next cruise, he further advanced this principle. As first lieutenant and executive officer of the Cumberland, in the Mediterranean, he persuaded the entire crew to forego their immemorial "grog." At the same time he became a ACHIEVEMENTS OF ADMIRAL FOOTE. 399 volunteer chaplain to them, giving a lecture every Sunday on the berth-deck to as many as chose to attend, and having a congregation of nearly two hundred willing hearers; the lecture being followed by a meeting for prayer in a more retired part of the ship. The Cumberland became as worthy of honorable memory from her association with that experiment of free moral and religious influence among the seamen of our navy as she afterwards became, when with her flag still flying, and her sighted guns exploding at the water's edge, she went down heroically in that conflict. which changed in an hour the entire system of maritime warfare till wars shall be no more. After this he was for some years on duty at the Charlestown Navy Yard, afflicted with a disease of the eyes. Recovering, he was attached to the African squadron, in command of the Perry; and that service was rendered doubly valuable by his strenuous activity against the piratical slave-traders. He did much to break up a shameful traffic which had found safety under our flag, and upon which many of our politicians still looked with favor. Among the honors of that cruise, also, was the fact, that through many months of exposure along the unwholesome coast, so often fatal to life, the liquor-ration was voluntarily banished from the Perry; and among her officers and crew there was not a death, nor a man disabled. Soon after, he published a book entitled, Africa and the American Flag, -a volume full of condensed information, and valuable for its practical suggestions. In 1856, he sailed for China in the sloop-of-war Portsmouth, and returned two years thereafter; having in the mean time distinguished himself by bombarding and storming the barrier forts in the Canton River. When the Great Rebellion broke out, he was in charge of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, from which duty he was soon summoned to the more arduous service of creating and commanding an inland navy on the waters of the Mississippi. What he did in achieving the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson is well known; but quite as laborious was the exhausting work of brain and hand by which, under all sorts of embarrassments and discouragements, those victories were prepared in the creation of the resistless flotilla at St. Louis. After the fall of these strongholds, he swooped down upon Island Number Ten. The island shores were lined with heavy forts, and the banks adjacent were fortified in all directions, and held by a strong force; while lying in the river was a floating battery carrying twelve 32-pounders. In this situation, it was proposed to cut a canal twelve miles around, through swamp and forest. In nineteen days the herculean work was completed. The channel was fifty feet wide, and passed for two miles through thick timber; the trees being sawed off four feet below the water. While the rebels were proclaiming their position impregnable, the gunboats appeared simultaneously below the island and above it, and advanced to take the batteries; when the island surrendered to Flag-officer Foote, with two thousand prisoners, a hundred heavy guns, and a large quantity of ammunition. "No single battlefield had yet afforded to the North such visible fruits of victory as were gathered at Island Number Ten." 2 Foote was now promoted to be admiral, and recalled to the East, where he again mingled with his friends, and again showed his zeal in every good work; now presiding at a war-meeting at New Haven; now assisting some great reform in aid of seamen; now accepting the presidency of the Connecticut Soldiers'-Aid Society at Washington. He had received a painful wound, and he was pale and feeble; but his indomitable spirit would not succumb to the depressing influence of bodily weakness or disease. His medical advisers commanded him to rest; but he went to Washington, and his great abilities were employed in organizing a new bureau in the Navy Department. He soon asked for more arduous service, and was assigned to the South-Atlantic squadron, to relieve Dupont. He accepted the assignment, and in that command he expected 1 This great labor was performed by "the Engineer Regiment of the West," commanded by Col. J. W. Bissell of this State, a brother of Col. G. P. Bissell of the Twenty-fifth Connecticut. 2 Pollard's Southern History. GEN. BANKS PREPARING TO MOVE. 401 to die. It was in vain that friends and physicians entreated. him to spare himself, and to ask from the government the relief which would have been granted to the slightest expression of his wishes. He was determined to do his utmost for the nation, at whatever sacrifice. His life, he said, was not his own, and should be freely surrendered at his country's call. His preparations for going were nearly completed, and he had parted with his family in New Haven, when the disease which his vigorous constitution had so long resisted overcame him; and, after great suffering, he died at the Astor House, New York, June 26, 1863. He had expected to die in the malaria of the Carolina Islands, tended by the rough but loving hands of fellow-warriors on the sea; or in the roar and fiery storm of battle. Where he should die, or how, was to him a question of little moment. Yet, when he found his time had come, he could not but be thankful for the opportunity of dying surrounded by his family and friends; by his wife and children and brothers; by old comrades, the heroes of many a conflict, whose voices had rung out, and were soon to ring again, loud and clear in the tempest of battle; now confessing by silent tears how much they loved him. Assured that death was near, he waited calmly for the end; and his last intelligible words were, "I thank God for his loving-kindness to me. Praise the Lord, O my soul! and forget not all his benefits." During the month of February, 1863, Gen. Banks arrived, and took command of the troops at Baton Rouge, which was made the rendezvous of the column for the projected assault on Port Hudson, a rebel stronghold in Louisiana, twenty-five miles up the river. The army gathered; Farragut's fleet of mortar-schooners and gunboats was assembled; and during the first week in March the regiments were under marching orders. At this juncture, a meeting of Connecticut regiments was held to consider the approaching State election; and Col. Bissell of the Twenty-fifth and Capt. Sprague of the Thirteenth were |