NAVAL BATTLE IN MOBILE BAY. 441 her having four chase-guns, peculiarly adapted for the work in hand, Farragut had allowed the Brooklyn and her tethered companion, the Octorara, to lead the wooden ships. When F: POWELL GRANT'S PASS AUPHIN GAINES TO MOBILED CHANNEL CONFEDERATE ❤TENNEGGEL MOBILE FORT MORGAN PT that vessel was within range of the fort, whose guns were trained upon the Hartford (which, with the Metacomet, was close following), she opened a heavy fire of grape-shot, that almost instantly drove the gunners from the more exposed batteries. Just then the Tecumseh, about three hundred yards ahead of the Brooklyn, was seen to be suddenly uplifted, and then to disappear almost instantly beneath the waters. She had struck a sensitive torpedo,' which exploded directly under her turret, making a great chasm, into which the water rushed in such volume that she sunk in a few seconds, carrying down with her commander Craven and nearly all of his officers and crew. Only seventeen, of one hundred and thirty, were saved. CHO RON WOODEN OLADS ENTRANCE TO MOBILE BAY. The Brooklyn recoiled at the appalling apparition before her, when Farragut ordered Captain Drayton to push on the Hartford, unmindful of torpedoes and every thing else, and directed the rest of the vessels to follow. But no more mines were met. The storm of grape-shot which the ships poured upon the fort, imposed almost absolute silence upon its guns; but, as the National fleet passed in, the Confederate vessels opened upon them. The ram Tennessee, rushed at the Hartford, but missed her, when the latter returned the fire given by her adversary, and calmly passed on. Then the fire of the three gun-boats was concentrated upon the flag-ship. The Selma raked her at a disadvantage, when Farragut directed the Metacomet to cast off, and close upon the annoying vessel. This was done, and, at the end of an hour's contest, the Selma, armed with four heavy pivot guns, and with a force of ninety-seven men, was a prize to the Metacomet. She had lost, in the fray, fourteen men, killed and wounded. Among the latter was her commander, P. N. Murphy. The other two gun-boats sought safety under the cannon of the fort; and that night, shielded by darkness, the Morgan escaped and hastened to Mobile. The Gaines, badly injured, was run ashore and burned. Believing the contest to be over, Farragut now ordered most of his vessels to anchor; when, at a quarter before nine o'clock, the Tennessee, which had run some distance up the bay, came down under a full head of steam, and made directly for the Hartford. A signal was at once given for the National vessels, armored and unarmored, to close in upon and destroy the monster. It seemed invulnerable, even to the heaviest shot and shell, at closest range. The Monongahela first struck it a blow square in the side, 1 See page 194. 442 DESTRUCTION OF THE CONFEDERATE SQUADRON. and poured 11-inch shot upon it with very little effect. Giving the Tennessee another blow, the Monongahela lost her own beak and cut-water. The Lancaster then, running at full speed, struck the ram heavily, but crushed her own stem without much injuring her adversary. The Hartford now tried her power upon the sea-giant. She gave the Tennessee a glancing blow and a broadside of 10-inch shells at ten feet distance. Then the armored Chickasaw ran under its stern, and at about the same time the Manhattan, approaching the same point, sent a solid 15-inch bolt that demolished its stearing-gear, and broke square through the iron plating of its hull, and the thick wood-work behind it. Meanwhile, Farragut ordered Drayton to strike the ram another blow with the Hartford, and he was about to do so, when the crippled Lackawanna, in making another attempt to bruise the foe, came in collision with the flag-ship, and damaged her severely. Both vessels then drew off, and started at full speed to give the Tennessee a deadly stroke by each. At the same time the Chickasaw was pounding away at its stern, and the Ossipee was running at full speed to strike. Thus beset, and now badly wounded, the Tennessee hauled down its flag, and flung out a white one in token of surrender. The Ossipee, then near, tried to avoid the victim, and gave it only a harmless glancing blow, in passing. So ended the desperate struggle, at about 10 o'clock in the morning, in which the Confederate squadron was virtually destroyed. In that fight the Tennessee had depended more upon its invulnerability and its power as a ram, than upon its guns-not one of which was fired after the Hartford gave her first blow. It became so crippled, that it could no longer work. Its smoke-stack was shot away; its steering apparatus was gone, and several of its port-shutters were so battered by shot, that they could not be opened. Admiral Buchanan was found with his leg so badly injured, that he lost it, and six of his crew were dead or wounded.' So the Tennessee, August 5, perhaps one of the most powerful vessels ever built, and its officers and men, became captives to Admiral Farragut." 1964. The Confederate squadron was destroyed, but Farragut's work was not done. There stood the forts guarding the entrance to Mobile Bay, almost unharmed, with full armaments and garrisons. These must be captured before the object of the expedition would be accomplished. To that business the admiral now addressed himself, after sending the wounded of both parties to Pensacola, on the Metacomet. General Granger was on Dauphin Island, and had begun the siege of Fort Gaines. Farragut sent the Chickasaw to help him. She August 6. shelled the fort with such effect that, on the following morning,' ⚫ August 7. Col. Anderson, its commander, asked for conditions on which he might surrender. The frightened garrison at Fort Powell, at Grant's Pass, had 1 In this engagement, Farragut took 280 prisoners, 190 of them from the Tennessee, and 90 from the Selma. His total loss in the battle was 165 killed, and 170 wounded; total 335. The number of killed included 118 that went down in the Tecumseh, and others slain by the explosion of a steam boiler on the Oneida that was penetrated by a shell from Fort Morgan. The greatest coolness was exhibited on that vessel. By that explosion, nearly all the firemen and coal-heavers on duty were killed or disabled, and a shell, exploding in her cabin, cut her wheel-ropes. Notwithstanding this, and even while the steam was escaping, her guns were loaded and fired as regularly as if no danger were near. A fire on the top of her magazine, caused by a shell, was quietly extinguished, while the powder was regularly served to the guns. CAPTURE OF FORTS GAINES AND MORGAN. 443 abandoned that fort, and blew up the works, as far as possible, on the night after the capture of the Tennessee. They fled in such haste, that they left the guns behind them. Aware of this, and seeing the National fleet in full possession of the bay, Anderson knew that further resistance would be useless. At nearly 10 o'clock in the morning of the 7th, the fort and its garrison of six hundred men were surren dered, and the National flag was unfurled over the works. It was greeted by cheers from the fleet. Stronger Fort Morgan, on Mobile Point, still held out. It was in charge of General Richard L. Page, a Virginian. Being on the main land, he had hopes of receiving re-enforcements. He had signaled to Anderson to "Hold on," and when that officer surrendered Fort Gaines, Page cried out "Coward!" and the entire Confederacy echoed the slander. Page's turn for a similar trial came, and he met it with less honor than did Anderson. Granger's troops were transferred" from Dauphin Island to the about twenty-four hours. The main LIGHT-HOUSE AT FORT MORGAN. in range of Farragut's guns, was reduced to the condition delineated in the engraving. Page made no resistance after the bombardment was fairly be gun, but simply endured it until the next morning, when he displayed a white flag, and surrendered the post and garrison to Farragut, unconditionally, after damaging the guns and other materials of war to the extent of his ability. With the three forts, the Government came into possession of 1 Farragut had landed four 9-inch guns, and placed them in battery, under the command of Lieutenant H. B. Tyson, of the Hartford. 2 When the Confederate officers were assembled on the outside of the fort, it was discovered that most of the guns within were spiked, many of the gun-carriages wantonly injured, and arms, ammunition, provisions, &c., destroyed. "There was every reason," said Farragut, "to believe that this had been done after the white flag had been raised. It was also discovered that General Page and several of his officers had no swords to deliver up, and further, that some of those which were surrendered, had been broken." Farragut added, that the whole conduct of the officers of Forts Gaines and Morgan presented such a striking contrast in moral principle" that he could not fail to remark it. He mentioned the absolute necessity for a surrender imposed upon Colonel Anderson, and said, "From the moment he hoisted the white flag, he scrupulously kept every thing intact, and in that condition delivered it over; whilst General Page and his officers, with a childish spitefulness, destroyed the guns which they had said they would defend to the last, but which they never defended 444 THE POLITICAL SITUATION. one hundred and four guns, and fourteen hundred and sixty-four men. By this victory the port of Mobile was effectually closed to blockade-runners, and the land operations against the city which occurred some months later, thereby became easier, and were more speedily successful. "July 18, 1864. The victories at Mobile and Atlanta,' following close upon each other, with minor successes elsewhere, and the noble response given to the call of the President a few weeks before," for three hundred thousand men, to re-enforce the two great armies in the field, in Virginia and Georgia, gave assurance that the end of the Civil War and the return of peace were nigh. Because of these triumphs, the President issued'. the proclamation, and also the order for salutes of artillery, mentioned in note 1, on page 395. Sept. 3. Let us now turn for a moment to the consideration of the political affairs of the Republic. While the National armies were struggling desperately, but almost everywhere successfully, during the summer and autumn of 1864, the people in the free-labor States were violently agitated by a political campaign carried on with intense vigor, the object being the election of a President of the Republic, in place of Mr. Lincoln, whose term of office would expire the ensuing spring. The lines between the Administration and the Opposition parties which the Peace Faction of the latter had distinctly drawn the year before, were now as prominent as then, and more clearly defined. The grand topic for consideration remained, and the questions to be answered at the Presidential election were, Shall the war be prosecuted with vigor until the Rebellion shall be suppressed and the life of the Nation secured? Shall the policy of emancipation and universal freedom and justice be sustained? The Administration was prepared to say Yes, by the ballot; the Opposition party was prepared to say No, by the same potential, but "still, small voice." There were some in the Administration party, who were impatient because of the considerate and cautious policy of the President, and a few of these men, deprecating Mr. Lincoln's re-election on that account, called a National Convention of "The radical men of the nation." It was held at Cleve land, Ohio, and was composed of about three hundred and fifty May 31. persons, very few of them regularly chosen delegates. They adopted a "platform of principles," consisting of thirteen resolutions, in which the duty of the Government to suppress the Rebellion by force of arms; the right of free speech and the enjoyment of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus; an amendment of the Constitution so as to prevent the re-establishment of slavery; the wisdom of the "Monroe Doctrine;" gratitude to the soldiers and sailors; the policy of restricting the incumbency of the Presidential office to one term; the election of the President and VicePresident directly by the people; the commission of the business of "recon at all, and threw away or broke those weapons which they had not the manliness to use against their enemies; for Fort Morgan never fired a gun after the commencement of the bombardment, and the advanced pickets of our army were actually on its glacis."-Farragut's Additional Report, August 25, 1864. 1 See page 394. 2 At Washington, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Baltimore, Newport (Kentucky), St. Louis, New Orleans, Mobile Bay, Pensacola, Hilton Head, and New Berne. See chapter III. NATIONAL CONVENTIONS. 445 struction" to the people, and not to the President; and the confiscation of the lands of rebels and their division among soldiers and actual settlers were enjoined. General John C. Fremont was nominated for the Presidency, and General John Cochrane for the Vice-Presidency. When, at a little later period, these candidates were satisfied that their nomination might create divisions in the Union ranks, and saw that another Union Convention had taken equally advanced ground, withdrew. • 1864. The other Convention alluded to, assembled at Baltimore, Maryland, on the 7th of June." It was composed of supporters of the Administration, and was termed the Union National Convention. All the States and Territories were represented by chosen delegates, excepting those in which rebellion existed. A "platform of principles" embraced in eleven resolutions was adopted, in which was given a pledge to sustain the Government in its efforts to suppress the Rebellion; an approval of the determination of the Government not to compromise with the rebels; an approval of the acts of Government in relation to slavery, and of an amendment to the Constitution for the prohibition of slavery; a proffer of thanks to the soldiers and sailors who had helped to save their country; an expression of perfect confidence in Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States, and an indorsement of his acts; a declaration that it was the duty of the Government to give equal protection to all persons in its service without regard to color; that foreign emigration should be encouraged; that a speedy completion of a railway to the Pacific Ocean was desirable; that the National faith in relation to the public debt must be kept inviolate; and that the Monroe Doctrine was wise and just. The Convention then nominated Abraham Lincoln for President, and Andrew Johnson, then Military Governor of Tennessee, for Vice-President. At about that time, the Democratic or Opposition party had postponed the assembling of a National Convention to nominate a candidate for the Presidency, which had been appointed for the 4th of July, until the 29th of August, when it was to assemble in the city of Chicago. Meanwhile, there was a notable gathering of emissaries and friends of the Conspirators at the "Clifton House," on the Canada side of Niagara Falls,' partly for the purpose of co-operating with the leaders of the Peace Faction, in shaping the future policy of the Opposition which was to be announced at that Convention. Also, for carrying out a scheme for exciting hostile feelings between the United States and Great Britain through operations in Canada ;* for burning Northern Cities; rescuing Confederate prisoners on and near the borders of Canada; spreading contagious diseases in the National mili 1 The chief agents of the Conspirators in Canada, were George N. Sanders, (see page 340, volume I.), Jacob Thompson (see page 45, volume I.), Clement C. Clay (see page 229, volume I.), J. P. Holcombe, and Beverly Tucker. Oct. 19. 2 They proceeded to organize plundering raids into the border States. One of these, composed of nearly thirty well-armed Confederates, crossed the border into Vermont, penetrated to the village of St. Albans, robbed the bank of $50,000, stole horses enough to mount the whole party, fired upon unarmed citizens, wounding three (one mortally), and setting fire to one of the hotels. Thirteen of them were arrested on their return to Canada, but were released by a sympathizing judge at Montreal. The British minister (Lord Lyons) did all in his power to bring the offenders to justice, but the Canadian authorities threw over them their sheltering arms. 3 See note 2, page 367. 4 Johnson's Island, in Lake Erie, not far from Sandusky, Ohio, was made a prison-camp, chiefly for Confederate officers. Several thousand captives were there in the summer of 1864. The agents and friends of the |