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. The Cayuga had been struck forty-two times during the struggle, and was so much damaged in masts and rigging that Captain Bailey thought it prudent to withdraw from the battle.

The Varuna was now the chief object of the wrath of the foe, and

CHARLES BOGGS.

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."

CAPTURE OF THE QUARANTINE GROUNDS.

337

trees. All that time her guns were at work crippling the Moore, and they did not cease until the water was over the gun-trucks, when Boggs turned his attention to getting the wounded and crew out of the vessel. Just then, the Oneida, Captain Lee, came to the rescue of the Varuna, but Boggs "waved him on" after the Moore, which was then in flames. The latter was surrendered to the Oneida by her second officer. She had lost fifty of her men, killed and maimed; and Kennon, her commander, had set her on fire and fled, leaving his wounded to the cruelty of the flames.1

Thus ended one of the most desperate combats recorded in the history of the war. It was "short, sharp, and decisive." Within the space of an hour and a half after the National vessels left their anchorage, the forts were passed, the struggle had occurred, and eleven of the Confederate vessels, or nearly the whole of their fleet, were destroyed. The National loss was thirty killed and not more than one hundred and twenty-five wounded.

When Captain Bailey withdrew with the crippled Cayuga, and left the

Varuna to continue the fight, he moved up the river to the Quarantine Station, a short distance above Fort St. Philip. On the west bank of the river opposite was a battery, in charge of several companies of Confederate sharpshooters of the Chalmette (Louisiana) regiment, commanded by Colonel Szymanski, a Pole. On the approach of the Cayuga they attempted to flee, but a volley of canister-shot from her guns made them halt, and they became

1 Report of Captain Charles Boggs to Commodore Farragut, April 29th, 1862. In his report, Captain Boggs warmly commended a powder-boy named Oscar Peck, only thirteen years of age, whose coolness and bravery were remarkable. Seeing him pass quickly, Boggs inquired where he was going in such a hurry. "To get a passing-box, Sir," he replied: "the other was smashed by a ball." When the Varuna went down, the boy was missed. He had stood by one of the guns, and had been cast into the water. In a few minutes he was seen swimming toward the wreck. When he got on the part above water, on which Boggs was standing, he gave the usual salute and said, "All right, Sir; I report myself on board."

This is a view of the quarantine grounds, its buildings, and a store-house, built of brick, belonging to the Government, and situated on the east or left bank of the Mississippi, just above the forts. This was the first Government property in Louisiana "repossessed" by the Government. The store-house is seen on the right. The next building was a hospital, and the small house next to it was General Butler's head-quarters when he took possession of the grounds.

VOL. II.-22

338

THE LAND TROOPS ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

prisoners of war. The battle was now over, and all of Farragut's ships, twelve in number, that had passed the forts joined the Cayuga. Then the dead were carried ashore and buried.

While this desperate battle was raging, the land troops, under General Butler, had been preparing for their part in the drama. They were in the transports at the Passes, and had distinctly heard the booming of the guns and mortars. The General and his staff, as we have observed, were on the Saxon. She followed close in the rear of Bailey's division, until the plunging of shells from the forts into the water around her warned the commanding General that he had gone far enough. So eager had been his interest in the scenes before him, that he had entered the arena of imminent danger without perceiving it. He ordered the Saxon to drop a little astern, to the great relief of her Captain, to whom a flaming shell would have been specially unwelcome, for his vessel was laden with eight hundred barrels of gunpowder. Almost at the same moment the Manassas, that had been terribly

ing, for she was on fire. In a few minutes her only gun went off, and the flames burst out from her bow-port and stern trap-door. Giving a plunge, like some huge monster, she went hissing to the bottom of the Mississippi.

Farragut had now thirteen of his vessels in safety above the forts, and he prepared to move up to New Orleans, while Porter, with his mortar-fleet, was still below them, and they were yet firmly held by the Confederates. The time for Butler to act had arrived. Half an hour after Farragut had reached the Quarantine, he sent Captain Boggs in a small boat, through shallow bayous in the rear of Fort St. Philip with dispatches for Butler and Porter. The former had already procured the light-draft steamer Miami from Porter, and had hastened to his transports. These were taken to Sable Island, twelve miles in the rear of Fort St. Philip, and from that point the troops made their way in small boats through the narrow and shallow bayous with the greatest fatigue, under the general pilotage of Lieutenant Weitzel. Sometimes the boats were dragged by men waist deep in cold and muddy water; but the work was soon and well accomplished, and on the night of the 27th Butler was at the Quarantine, ready to begin the meditated assault on Fort St. Philip the next day. His troops were landed a short distance above the fort, under cover of the guns of the Mississippi and Kineo. A small force was sent across the river to a position not far above Fort Jackson.

CAPTURE OF FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP.

339

In the mean time Porter had been pounding Fort Jackson terribly with the shells from his mortars. On the 26th, he sent a flag of truce with a demand for its surrender, and saying that he had information that Commodore Farragut was in possession of New Orleans. On the following morning, Colonel Higgins, the commander of the forts, replied that he had no official information of the surrender of New Orleans, and, until such should be received by him, no proposition for a surrender of the works under his command could be entertained for a moment. On the same day, General Duncan, then in Fort Jackson, issued an address to the soldiers, as the commander of the coast defenses, urging them to continue the contest, saying: "The safety of New Orleans and the cause of the Southern Confederacy-our homes, families, and every thing dear to man-yet depend upon our exertions. We are just as capable of repelling the enemy to-day as we were before the bombardment." But the soldiers did not all agree with him in opinion. They saw the blackened fragments of vessels and other property strewing the swift current of the Mississippi, and were satisfied that the rumors of the fall of New Orleans that had reached them were true. They had also heard of Butler's troops in the rear of Fort St. Philip. So that night a large portion of the garrison mutinied, spiked the guns bearing up the river, and the next day sallied out and surrendered themselves to Butler's pickets on that side of the river, saying they had been impressed, and would fight the Government no longer.

Colonel Higgins now saw that all was lost, and he hastened to accept the generous terms which Porter

had offered. While these terms were being reduced to writing in the cabin of the Harriet Lane,' Mitchell towed his battery (the Louisiana), which lay above the forts, out into the strong current, set her on fire, and abandoned her, with her guns all shotted. He expected she would blow up in the midst of the mortar-fleet, but the explosion occurred when she was abreast of Fort St. Philip, when a flying fragment from her killed one of

its garrison. She at once

PLAN OF FORT JACKSON.

ATER

BAT

went to the bottom of the river, and the remaining Confederate steamers surrendered without resist

1 The capitulation was signed on the part of the Nationals by Commanders David D. Porter and W. B Renshaw, and Lieutenant W. W. Wainright, commander of the Harriet Lane; and on the part of the Confederates by General J. K. Duncan, commander of the coast defenses, and Colonel Edwin Higgins, the commander of the forts. The writer was informed by an officer of the navy who was present at the surrender of Fort Jackson, that when the flag-officer of that work was asked for the garrison flag, which was not to be seen, he pretended to be ignorant of its whereabouts. He appeared to be unduly corpulent, and, on a personal examination, it was found that his obesity was caused by the flag, which was wrapped around his body.

340

EXCITEMENT IN NEW ORLEANS.

ance. Commodore Porter turned over the forts and all their contents to General Phelps. Fort Jackson was only injured in its interior works, and Fort St. Philip was as perfect as when the bombardment began. No reliable report of the losses of the Confederates in killed and wounded was ever given. The number of prisoners surrendered, including those of the Chalmette regiment and on board of the gun-boats last taken, amounted to nearly one thousand. The entire loss of the Nationals, from the beginning of the contest until New Orleans was taken, was forty killed and one hundred and seventy-seven wounded.

1862.

Porter told Higgins the truth when he said Farragut was in possession of New Orleans. The city was really lost when the Commodore's thirteen armed vessels were lying in safety and in fair condition at • April 24, the Quarantine. Of this imminent peril of the city General Lovell had been impressed early that morning. He had come down in his steamer Doubloon, and arrived just as the National fleet was passing the forts. He came near being captured in the terrible mêlée on the river that ensued, and sought safety on shore. Then he hastened to New Orleans as fast as courier horses could take him, traveling

MANSFIELD LOVELL.

chiefly along the levee, for much of the country was overflowed. He arrived there early in the afternoon, and confirmed the intelligence of disaster which had already reached the citizens. A

fearful panic ensued. Drums were beating; soldiers were seen hurrying to and fro; merchants fled from their stores; women without bonnets and brandishing pistols were seen in the streets, crying, "Burn the city! Never mind us! Burn the city!" Military officers impressed vehicles into the service of carrying cotton to the levees. to be burned. Specie, to the amount of four millions of dollars, was sent out of the city by railway; the consulates were crowded with foreigners deposit

TWIGGS'S HOUSE,3

1 There seems to have been no kindly co-operation between the forts and the Confederate fleet, and some very spicy correspondence occurred between General Duncan and Captain Mitchell. The former, in his official report, declared that the great disaster was "the sheer result of that lack of cheerful and hearty co-operation from the defenses afloat" which he had a right to expect.

2 Over 1,800 shells fell inside of Fort Jackson, 170 in the water-battery, and about 8,000 in the ditches around the works. For minute particulars of the battle and its results, see the reports of Captains Farragut and Porter, and their subordinate commanders; of General Butler and those under his command; and of General Duncan and Colonel Higgins, of the Confederate forces.

This was the appearance of Twiggs's residence when the writer visited it, in the spring of 1866. It was a