332

BOMBARDMENT OF FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP.

ford, when that measure was decided upon. General Butler, who had arrived with his staff, had been up in a tug to take a look at the obstructions, and had reported that they must be opened before any vessels could pass,

intended to destroy.

especially when under fire. So, at ten o'clock that night, under cover of intense darkness, the wind blowing fiercely from the north, Commander Bell, with the Pinola and Itaska, supported by the Iroquois, Kennebec, and Winona, ran up to the boom. The Pinola ran to the hulk under the guns of Fort Jackson, and an attempt was made to destroy it by a petard, but failed. The Itaska was lashed to the next hulk, when a rocket thrown up from Fort Jackson revealed her presence, and a heavy fire from the fortress was opened upon her. The vigorous application of chisels, sledges, and saws for half an hour parted the boom of chains and logs, and the hulk to which the Itaska was lashed swung round and grounded the latter in the mud, in shallow water. The Pinola rescued her. Two hours afterward an immense fire-raft came roaring down the stream like a tornado, and, like its predecessors on similar errands, it was caught, and rendered harmless to the vessels it was

Day after day the bombardment was continued, and night after night the fire-rafts were sent blazing down the stream. Fort Jackson, the principal object of attack, still held out. On the first day of the assault, its citadel was set on fire by Porter's shells and destroyed, with all the clothing and commissary stores, the garrison suffering severely for several hours from the intense heat of the conflagration. On the 19th, the mortar-schooner Maria J. Carleton was sunk by a rifle-shell from Fort Jackson, and, at the same time, the levee having been broken in scores of places by exploding shells, the waters of the Mississippi had flooded the parade-ground and casemates of the fort. For six days the bombardment continued, with such slight effect that Duncan reported that he had suffered very little, notwithstanding his barbette guns had been disabled at times, and that twenty-five thousand heavy shells had been hurled at him, of which one thousand had fallen within the fort. "God is certainly protecting us," he said. "We are still cheerful, and have an abiding faith in our ultimate success."

April, 1862.

At sunset on the 23d," Farragut was ready for his perilous forward movement. The mortar-boats, keeping their position, were to cover the advance with their fire. Six gun-boats (Harriet Lane, Westfield, Owasco, Clinton, Miami, and Jackson, the last towing the Portsmouth) were to engage the water-battery below Fort Jackson, but not to make an attempt to pass it. Farragut, with his flag-ship Hartford, and the equally large ships Richmond and Brooklyn, that formed the first division, was to keep near the right bank of the river, and fight Fort Jackson, while Captain Theodorus Bailey, with the second division, composed of

1 Duncan was not singular among Confederate officers in making other than the most exaggerated reports for the public. The number of shells thrown was about five thousand, and the number that entered the fort about three hundred.

THE WAR VESSELS PASS THE FORTS.

333

the Pensacola, Mississippi, Oneida, Varuna, Katahdin, Kineo, Wissa hickon, and Portsmouth, was to keep closely to the eastern bank, and fight Fort St. Philip. To Captain

Bell was assigned the duty of attacking the Confederate fleet above the forts. He was to keep in the channel of the river with the Sciota, Winona, Iroquois, Pinola, Itaska, and Kennebec, and push right on to his assigned work without regard to the forts. General Butler and his staff went on board the Saxon, and at eleven o'clock at night a signal from the Itacka, that had run up to the boom, announced the channel clear of obstructions, excepting the hulks, which, with care, might be passed. The night was very dark, owing to a heavy fog; and the smoke from

THEODORUS BAILEY.

the steamers settled upon the waters, and shrouded every thing in almost impenetrable gloom.

a April 24, 1862.

At one o'clock in the morning, everybody was called to action. There was an ominous silence at the forts, which the inexperienced thought indicated their evacuation. It was not so. Energetic preparations for a more formidable assault were going on there. The fleet, now in command of Commodore Whittle, was summoned to a rendezvous near the fort; and other preparations indicated that a knowledge of the movement about to take place below had been communicated to the Confederate commanders.

The fleet moved at two o'clock, and at half-past three the divisions of Farragut and Bailey were going abreast up the swift stream, at the rate of four miles an hour. Then the mortars (the vessels still at their moorings), which were prepared for the most rapid firing, opened a terrible storm on Fort Jackson. Not less than half a dozen enormous shells were screaming through the thick night air, with their fiery trails, at the same moment. Steadily the fleet moved on, when the discovery of the Cayuga, Captain Bailey's ship, just as she had passed the opening in the boom, caused the forts to break their long silence, and bring heavy guns to bear upon her. She did not reply until she was close under those of Fort St. Philip, when she gave that work heavy broadsides of grape and canister as she passed by. The Pensacola, Mississippi, Varuna, and Portsmouth were following close in the wake of the Cayuga, and in all respects imitated her example; and the whole of Bailey's division passed the forts almost unharmed, excepting the sailing vessel Portsmouth, which, on firing a single broadside, lost her tow and drifted down the river.

Captain Bell was less fortunate. The Sciota, Iroquois, and Pinola passed the forts, but the Itasca was disabled by a storm of shot, one of which pierced her boiler, and she drifted helplessly down the river. From that storm the Winona recoiled, and the Kennebec, becoming entangled in the

334

SHIPS AND FORTS IN CONFLICT.

obstructions, lost her way in the intense darkness, and finally returned to her moorings below.

The waning moon was now just above the horizon, and the mist and smoke had become less dense. Farragut, in the fore-rigging of the Hartford, had been watching the movements of Bailey and Bell through his nightglass with the greatest interest, while the vessels under his immediate command were slowly approaching Fort Jackson. When he was within a mile and a quarter of it, the heavy guns of that fortress opened with a remarkable precision of aim, and the Hartford was struck several times. Farragut had mounted two guns upon the forecastle, and with these he promptly replied, at the same time pushing ahead directly for the fort. When he was within half a mile of it, he sheered off and gave the garrison such broadsides of grape and canister that they were driven from all their barbette guns. But the casemate guns were kept in full play, and the conflict became very severe. The Richmond soon joined in the fight; but the Brooklyn lagged behind, in

lyn's smoke-stack, which fortunately lodged in some sand-bags that protected her steam-drum. The next moment the ram butted into the ship's starboard gang-way, but the chain armor that had been formed over the sides of the Brooklyn so protected it that the Manassas glanced off and disappeared in the gloom.

The Brooklyn had been exposed to a raking fire from Fort Jackson while entangled in the boom and encountering the Manassas. She had just escaped the latter, when a large Confederate steamer assailed her. She gave it a broadside that set it on fire and consigned it to swift destruction. Then pushing slowly on in the dark she suddenly found herself abreast Fort St. Philip, and very close to it. She was in a position to bring all her guns to bear upon it in the course of a few minutes. This was done with powerful effect. "I had the satisfaction," said Captain Craven in his report, "of completely silencing that work before I left it, my men in the tops witnessing, in the flashes of the bursting shrapnel,' the enemy running like sheep for more comfortable quarters."

SHRAPNEL

SHELL.

1 A Shrapnel shell is sometimes spherical and sometimes conical, like that represented in section in the engraving. They are hollow spheres or cones of iron, filled with musket-balls or grape-shot, with sufficient gunpowder to explode them when ignited by a fuse. The balls are then scattered and are very destructive.

A HEAVY BOMBARDMENT.

335

Commodore Farragut, in the mean time, "was having a rough time of it," as he said. While battling with the forts, a huge fire-raft, pushed by the Manassas, came suddenly upon him, all a-blaze. In trying to avoid this, the Hartford was run aground, and the incendiary came crashing alongside of her. "In a moment," said Farragut, "the ship was one blaze all along the port side, half way up to the main and mizzen tops. But thanks to the good organization of the fire department, by Lieutenant Thornton, the flames were extinguished, and at the same time we backed off and got clear of the raft. All this time we were pouring shells into the forts, and they into us, and now

and then a rebel steamer would get under our fire and receive our salutation of a broadside."

Before the fleet had fairly passed the forts, the Confederate gunboats and rams appeared and took part in the .battle, producing a scene at once awful and grand. The noise of twenty mortars and two hundred and sixty great

THE HARTFORD.

guns, afloat and ashore, was terrific. The explosion of shells, sunken deep in the oozy earth in and around the forts, shook land and water like an earthquake; and the surface of the river was strewn with dead and helpless fishes stunned by the concussions. "Combine," said Major Bell, of Butler's staff, "all that you have ever heard of thunder, and add to it all you have ever seen of lightning, and you have perhaps a conception of the scene." And all this noise and destructive energy-the blazing fire-rafts, the floating volcanoes sending forth fire and smoke, and bolts of death, and the thundering forts, and the ponderous rams, were all crowded, in "the greatest darkness just before the dawn," within the space of a narrow river--"too narrow, ," said Farragut, "for more than two or three vessels to act to advantage. My greatest fear was that we should fire into each other; and Captain Wainwright and myself were hallooing ourselves hoarse at the men not to fire into our ships."

We have observed that the fleet had not fairly passed the river obstructions before the Confederate rams and gun-boats appeared.' The Cayuga encountered that flotilla as soon as she passed Fort St. Philip. The ram

There were six rams, named Warrior, Stonewall Jackson, Defiance, Resolute, Governor Moore, and General Quitman, commanded respectively by Captains Stephenson, Philips, McCoy, Hooper, Kennon, and Grant. These were river steamers, made shot-proof by cotton bulk-heads, and furnished with iron prows for pushing. The ram Manassas, then commanded by Captain Warley, was an entirely different affair. She was thus described by an eye-witness: "She is about one hundred feet long and twenty feet beam, and draws from nine to twelve feet water. Her shape above water is nearly that of half a sharply pointed erg-shell, so that a shot will glance from her, no matter where it strikes. Her back is formed of twelve-inch oak, covered with oneand-a-half-inch bar iron. She has two chimneys, so arranged as to slide down in time of action. The pilot

336

A DESPERATE NAVAL BATTLE.

Manassas, the floating battery Louisiana, and sixteen other armed vessels, all under the command of Captain Mitchell of the Louisiana, were, for a few moments, intent upon her destruction. To stand and fight would have been madness in Captain Bailey, for no supporting friend appeared. So he exercised his skill in steering his vessel in a manner to escape the butting of the rams, and the attempts to board her. Thus he saved the Cayuga. He did more. In his maneuvers he was offensive as well as defensive, and compelled three of the Confederate gun-boats to surrender to him before the Varuna, Captain Boggs, and the Oneida, Captain Lee, came to his rescue. Then the Cayuga, which had been struck forty-two times during the struggle, and much damaged in spars and rigging, moved up the river pursuant to Farragut's orders to Bailey as leader of the fleet. The Varuna was now the chief

CHARLES BOGGS.

object of the wrath of the foe, and terribly its vials were poured upon her. Commander Boggs said, in his report, that immediately after passing the forts, he found himself "amid a nest of rebel steamers." His vessel rushed into their midst, and fired broadsides into each as he passed. The first one that received the. Varuna's fire seemed to be crowded with troops. Her boiler was exploded by a shot, and she drifted ashore. Soon afterward the Varuna drove three other vessels (one a gun-boat) ashore, in flames, and all of them. blew up. She was soon afterward furiously attacked by the ram Governor Moore, commanded by Beverly

Kennon, who had abandoned his flag. It raked along the Varuna's port gangway, killing four and wounding nine of her crew. Boggs managed, he said, "to get a three-inch shell into her, abaft her armor, and also several shot from the after rifled gun, when she dropped out of action, partially disabled."

Meanwhile another ram, its iron prow under water, struck the Varuna a heavy blow in the port gangway. The Varuna's shot in return glanced harmlessly from the armored bow of her antagonist. Backing off a short distance, and then shooting forward, the ram gave the Varuna another blow at the same place, and crushed in her side. The ram, becoming entangled, was drawn around nearly to the side of the Varuna, when Boggs gave her five 8-inch shells abaft her armor from his port guns. "This settled her," said Boggs," and drove her ashore in flames." Finding his own vessel sinking, he ran her into the bank, let go her anchor, and tied her bow up to the

house is in the stern of the boat. She is worked by a powerful propeller, but cannot stem a strong current. She carries only one gun, a 68-pounder, right in her bow.

"There is only one entrance to her, through a trap-door in her back. Her port-hole is furnished with a heavily plated trap, which springs up when the gun is run out, and falls down when it is run back. How the crew get their light and air, I cannot pretend to say."