GENERAL BUTLER'S PART IN THE ACTION. 393 pose it. General Butler having thus established himself, with about 3,000 men, in the rear of the fort, and having, in concert with the movements of Captain Porter, already described, got General Phelps in the river below with two regiments, thus effectually blocking the escape of the enemy from the gunboats in front, they despaired of further resistance. On the night of the 27th, as related by General Butler, "the larger portion of the garrison of Fort Jackson mutinied, spiked the guns bearing up the river, came up and surrendered themselves to my pickets, declaring that as we had got in their rear resistance was useless, and they would not be sacrificed. No bomb had been thrown at them for three days, nor had they fired a shot at us from either fort. They averred that they had been impressed, and would fight no longer." The next day the formal surrender was made to Captain Porter, and General Butler, leaving the 26th Massachusetts to garrison the forts, proceeded with the remainder of his troops to take possesion of New Orleans."* opportunity to coöperate with the fleet. On the morning of the grand action he was in the immediate vicinity of the conflict. "I witnessed," says he, in his report to the Secretary of War," this daring exploit from a point about eight hundred yards from Fort Jackson, and unwittingly under its fire, and the sublimity of the scene can never be exceeded." It was arranged that in case the forts were not immediately reduced by the fleet, General Butler should leave the river by the South West Pass, and make a landing from the Gulf side of the narrow strip of marshy ground through which the Mississippi here ran, and attempt St. Philip on the eastern side of the river by storm and assault. For this purpose he now proceeded with the transports to Sable island, in the Gulf, the nearest practicable point of approach to the fort for the ships, being twelve miles in its rear. A delay occurred of twenty-four hours, in consequence of the Miami, a vessel of light draught, sent to aid the landing of the troops, grounding at the mouth of the Mississippi. When the troops were. brought to within six miles of the fort Immediately on his arrival before New the Miami grounded, compelling "a most Orleans on the 25th, Commodore Farrafatiguing and laborious row," some four gut, as we have seen, sent Captain Bailey and a half miles further. General But-to the mayor of the city, Mr. John T. ler, foreseeing the necessity, had proyided some thirty boats for the move"A large portion of this passage was against a heavy current, through a bayou. At the entrance of Mameel's canal, a mile and a half from the point of landing, rowing became impossible, as well from the narrowness of the canal as the strength of the current, which ran like a mill race. Through this the boats could only be impelled by dragging them singly, with the men up to their waists in water." The troops engaged in this arduous operation were the 26th Massachusetts, a portion of the 4th Wisconsin, and 21st Indiana Volunteers. So difficult was the enterprise that no preparations had been made, as might easily have been done, by the enemy to op ment. Monroe, to demand its surrender, when the latter, disinclined to act, referred to the military commander, General Lovell, who announced his intention to retire, leaving the conduct of affairs with the civil authorities. Upon this Commodore Farragut, on the 26th, while he announced that the rights of persons and property would be secure, peremptorily demanded "the unqualified surrender of the city, and that the emblem of sovereignty of the United States be hoisted over the city hall, mint, and custom house, by meridian this day, and that all flags and other emblems of sovereignty other than those of the United States, Department of the Gulf, Forts Jackson and St. Philip, * General Butler to Secretary Stanton Headquarters April 29, 1862. shall be removed from all public buildings by that hour." In reference to a scene which had been witnessed on the previous day he added, he particularly demanded that no person should be molested in person or property for professing sentiments of loyalty to their government. I shall speedily and severely punish," he said, "any person or persons who shall commit such outrages as were witnessed yesterday, armed men firing upon helpless women and children for giving expression to their pleasure at witnessing the old flag." could I find in my entire constit...ency so wretched and desperate a renegade as would dare to profane with his hand the sacred emblem of our aspirations. Sir, you have manifested sentiments which would become one engaged in a better cause than that to which you have devoted your sword. I doubt not but that they spring from a noble though deluded nature, and I know how to appreciate the emotions which inspire them. You will have a gallant people to administer during your occupation of this city; a people sensitive of all that can in the To this Mayor Monroe sent an extra- least affect its dignity and self-respect. ordinary reply, the tone and temper of Pray, sir, do not allow them to be inwhich little befitted the necessities of sulted by the interference of such as the situation, to say nothing of the pen- have rendered themselves odious and itence properly due from the discomfited contemptible by the dastardly desertion rebellion. It was, in fact, arrogant and of the mighty struggle in which we are insulting throughout, and cruelly aimed, engaged, nor of such as might remind by its false appeal, to inflame the South-them too painfully that they are the conern mind, and to perpetuate the wan-quered and you the conquerors. Peace ton and ruinous hostilities of the insurrection. The city was declared to be "without means of defence, and utterly destitute of the force and material that might enable it to resist the overpowering armament displayed in sight of it. I am no military man, and possess no authority beyond that of executing the municipal laws of the city of New Orleans. It would be presumptuous in me to attempt to lead an army to the field, if I had one at my command, and I know still less how to surrender an undefended place, held as this is at the mercy of your gunners and mouths of your mortars. To surrender such a place were an idle and unmeaning ceremony. The city is yours by the power of brutal force, and not by any choice or consent of its inhabitants. It is for you to determine what shall be the fate that awaits her. As to the hoisting of any flag than the flag of our own adoption and allegiance, let me say to you, sir, that the man lives not in our midst whose hand and heart would not be palsied at the mere thought of such an act, nor and order may be preserved without a On the morning of this day, the 26th, at six o'clock, Commodore Farragut sent THE CITY AUTHORITIES. to Captain Morris, whose ship, the Pensacola, commanded the mint, to "take possession of it, and hoist the American flag thereon, "which was done, and the people cheered it."* The flag thus erected was pulled down by one of the desperadoes with which New Orleans abounded, one William B. Mumford, who, a month or so after, under the administration of General Butler, was tried for the offence by a military commission, and having been condemned to death, was executed on the 7th of June on a gallows projecting from a window of the second story of the very building beneath the flagstaff from which he had torn the national colors. In consequence of the removal of the flag from the Mint, the insults shown to his officers and men when they were sent to communicate with the authorities, and the continued display of the flag of Louisiana on the court-house, Commodore Farragut, on the 28th, threatened the bombardment of the city within fortyeight hours, "if" as he wrote to the Mayor, "I have rightly understood your determination." To this Mayor Monroe again replied in effect that the city was at the disposal of the superior force, but that it must not be humbled and disgraced by the performance of an actthe substitution of the national for the local or Confederate flags-"against which our nature rebels. This satisfaction you cannot expect to obtain at our hands. We will stand your bombardment, unarmed and undefended as we are. The civilized world will consign to indelible infamy the heart that will conceive the deed, and the hand that will dare to consummate it.' 11 Commodore Farragut the next day, the 29th, enforcing his requisition, with the view of the surrender of the forts, repeated his demand, and announced his intention to raise the flag of the United States on the Custom-house. In reply to the letter of * Letter of Commodore Farragut to Assistant Secretary of Navy, G. V. Fox. New York Tribune, May 10, 1862. 395 the Mayor, touching the bombardment which he had threatened under certain conditions, "This," he wrote on the 30th, "you have thought proper to construe into a determination on my part to murder your women and children, and made your letter so offensive that it will terminate our intercourse; and so soon as General Butler arrives with his forces I shall turn over the charge of the city to him, and assume my naval duties." The coming of General Butler, indeed, quite altered the aspect of the rebellion in New Orleans. "I find the city under the dominion of the mob," he wrote on his arrival to the Secretary of War :— "They have insulted our flag-torn it down with indignity. This outrage will be punished in such manner as in my judgment will caution both the perpetrators and abettors of the act, so that they shall fear the stripes if they do not reverence the stars of our banner." There proved, however, to be little call for any great severity. General Butler adroitly dispersed the small force which he brought up, 2,000 in all, at the beginning, as guards about the town, marching and maneuvering so as to give the impression of a much larger number, and was speedily employed not in any vindictive exercise of military authority, but in finding ways and means to feed a starving population. With the fall of the forts on the river, Forts Pike and Wood, at the entrance of Lake Pontchartrain, were also surrendered. The capture of New Orleans, so brilliantly executed, and in a great degree an unexpected success to the nation, was hailed in the loyal States with unqualified admiration. By prompt and vigorous action, the designs of the enemy to fortify their position beyond, perhaps, the reach of assault, had been anticipated; their formidable defences, actually constructed, overcome-a result which was not the less thought of when other similar attempts proved afterwards from various causes less successful. The victory at New Orleans was in every way a great inexpedient, he continued his cruise to triumph, and was so acknowledged the eastward, in the Harriet Lane, "in throughout the world. At home its im- hopes of picking up some vessel trying to portance could hardly be over-estimated. run the blockade," when at two o'clock On the arrival, at Washington, of Cap-on the morning of the 9th of May he saw tain Bailey, who had been sent north "a brilliant light illuminating the sky,' immediately, on the conclusion of the en- and discovered that the Navy Yard at gagement, as bearer of dispatches, and Pensacola, Fort McRae, the Naval Hoswho bore with him a number of Con- pital, Warrington, and some parts of federate flags as trophies, Secretary Pensacola were in flames. Proceeding Welles issued the following congratula- to the spot, he passed Fort Pickens, and tory orders: entered Pensacola at daylight. It seems that on the previous night the rebels, in greatly diminished numbers, under command of General Thomas Jones,General Bragg, as we have seen, having left the place with most of his forces, in March, for the defence of the Confederacy at the Battle of Shiloh having heard of the approach of the steamers to Mobile Bay, and fearing the arrival of the naval forces which had wrought such destruction at New Orleans, resolved to destroy all the public works which the previous cannonading had spared, and finally evacuate the place. On perceiving their intention, in the general spreading of the conflagration, the guns at Fort Pickens were opened upon them to arrest the work of destruction, and compel its authors to retire. This final bombardment was continued for five hours, when General Arnold, in command at the Fort, sent his aid, Captain Jackson, to Pensacola, to call upon the town to surrender. On landing, he was met by a number of people of the place, who hailed his arrival with pleasure, and obeyed his directions in extinguishing the flames on the wharf. The negroes, as usual, displayed a great deal of exhilaration. The timely arrival of Commodore Porter in the Harriet Lane gave the authorities at Fort Pickens much needed assistance in transporting troops to the mainland, and the old flag was presently raised amid the ruins of the deserted works. The Confederate soldiers, in number about a thousand, had retired in haste on the road to Mobile. "Our navy, fruitful with victories, presents no more signal achievement than this, nor is there an exploit surpassing it recorded in the annals of naval warfare. In passing, and eventually overcoming Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the batteries above and below New Orleans, destroying the barriers of chains, steam rams, fire rafts, iron-clad vessels, and other obstructions, capturing from the rebel forces the great southern metropolis, and obtaining possession and control of the lower Mississippi, yourself, your officers, and our brave sailors and marines, whose courage and daring bear historic renown, have won a nation's gratitude and applause. I congratulate you and your command on your great success in having contributed so largely towards destroying the unity of the rebellion, and in restoring again to the protection of the national government and the national flag the important city of the Mississippi valley, and so large a portion of its immediate dependencies. Your example and its successful results, though attended with some sacrifice of life and loss of ships, inculcate the fact that the first duty of a commander in war is to take great risks for the accomplishment of great ends." Commodore Porter, a fortnight after the surrender of New Orleans and its defences, left Ship island with his mortar fleet for the vicinity of Mobile, with a view to preparations for an entrance at some future time into the harbor. The design, however, proving for the time |