1862 otherwise poorly equipped, knee-deep in water and with a garrison of 700 mutinous men. On April 16 Farragut's fleet crossed the bar at the mouth of the river and slowly steamed up the channel prepared to run the fire of the Confederate forts. The Confederate commanders were ready for the attack and confident of victory. For nearly a week, beginning on the 18th, Farragut's gunboats poured a deadly fire upon the forts, throwing upon them altogether over 16,000 shells. The reply of the forts was equally vigorous, but ineffective as well. With his vessels painted dark and their sides protected with chains, Farragut slowly steamed up the river past the forts at three o'clock in the morning of April 24. As soon as the ships were descried abreast the forts a heavy fire from the batteries was turned loose upon them, but without effect. Burning rafts floating down against the ships and shells bursting in mid-air afforded a spectacle of terrible grandeur. With Farragut leading in the Hartford the fleet kept on its course through the awful storm of shot and shell. Once above the forts the vessels encountered the Confederate fleet of seventeen vessels, which gave battle and fought with desperation until every one was driven ashore or scuttled by its commander. Farragut's fleet now steamed up the river, and, after silencing the Chalmette batteries, proceeded to New Orleans.10 The approach of the fleet caused great excitement and confusion in the city. It was popularly believed that no fleet could run the fire of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, and consequently the people of New Orleans had felt no apprehension and had done little or nothing toward erecting defenses. When at last they realized that the Federal fleet was approaching they were amazed and excited beyond description. Seized with a panic, women and children ran about the streets screaming and wringing their hands in despair. It was immediately decided to destroy all public property of value which was liable to fall into the enemy's hands; accordingly the shipyards at Algiers across the river were fired; unfinished vessels were destroyed; ammunition sunk in the river. Thousands of bales of cotton were rolled out of the compresses and burned, the conflagration affording a spectacle never to be forgotten by those who witnessed it. Great wooden ships, rafts of cotton bales and of other combustible material wrapped in flames, were sent 10 See Admiral D. P. Porter's account in "Battles and Leaders," vol. ii. pp. 1862 floating down the river in the hope of setting fire to the Federal fleet. The tolling of alarm bells during the excitement of the hour added solemnity to the scene. On the morning of the 25th Farragut's fleet was seen approaching the city. Some were in favor of burning the place rather than allow it to fall into the hands of the Federals. But cooler heads prevailed and the city was spared. The small Confederate force which occupied the city, being less than 3,000 men, at once withdrew to a point fifteen miles above to avoid a bombardment and to be within easy call in case of an emergency. Anchoring his boats along the levees, Farragut opened communication with the mayor and demanded the surrender of the city. After a protracted correspondence lasting three days, in the course of which Farragut demanded the removal of a State flag on the town hall and threatened to bombard the city if his request were not complied with, the mayor gave way and formally surrendered the place. A body of 200 marines were sent on shore to remove the objectionable flag and this was done in the presence of thousands of citizens. Already the Stars and Stripes had been hoisted over the customs house, and thus the metropolis of the South passed forever from the jurisdiction of the Confederacy. The fall of New Orleans was a terrible disaster to the South. Besides its strategical value, it was their commercial emporium and one of the largest exporting centers of the world. Its downfall meant the annihilation of Confederate power in Louisiana, closed an important gateway to the rich grain and cattle country of Texas, prevented further recruiting in the Trans-Mississippi department, marked a further step in the opening of the Mississippi River, and destroyed the prospects of the Confederacy for securing foreign recognition. While Farragut was corresponding with the mayor, Forts Jackson and St. Philip surrendered, and a couple of days after the fall of New Orleans General Benjamin F. Butler, with a land force, arrived from Biloxi and Mississippi City, took possession of the city and proceeded to govern it effectively, but in a manner that has made his name forever odious to the people of the South. At the outbreak of the war General Butler was a practicing lawyer in Massachusetts, and as a Democratic delegate to the Charleston Convention of 1860 he had voted forty times for Jefferson Davis as his party's nominee for President of the United States. He was, however, one of the first men to respond to Lincoln's call for 66 1862 volunteers, and during the troubles in Maryland arising from the hostility of the citizens to the passage of Union troops through the State he was conspicuous for his rather drastic methods of dealing with those whose loyalty was open to question. He inaugurated his rule in New Orleans by issuing an order on May 15 warning all women who should by gesture or otherwise insult any soldier of the United States that they would be treated as women of the town plying their avocation." The mayor and other prominent citizens who protested against this order were arrested and imprisoned many months in Fort Jackson.11 No distinction was made between males and females: all were treated with the utmost severity. An incident of his rule was the execution of William B. Mumford for removing the Federal flag from the United States Mint. No amount of pleading could move the inexorable general, and he sent the humble offender to the gallows as an example to others. 11 General Butler, while in command at New Orleans, engaged extensively in cotton speculation and trade with the enemy, by which he acquired a large fortune. His conduct in this particular is said by Rhodes to have been thoroughly disreputable, as his rule was arbitrary and severe. See Rhodes, "History of the United States," vol. v. p. 312. Chapter XXXI OPERATIONS IN THE EAST. 1861-1863 I BATTLE OF THE IRONCLADS MONTH before the capture of New Orleans by Farragut's fleet a famous navel duel of world-wide significance occurred in Hampton Roads near the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. This was the fight between the Monitor and the Merrimac on March 9. The Merrimac was one of the vessels that had been scuttled and sunk by the Federals upon the abandonment of the Norfolk Navy Yard in April, 1861. She had been raised by the Confederate authorities and upon her hull had been built a powerful ironclad house with submerged eaves and a great iron ram. Her armament consisted of ten heavy guns, eight broadside and one at each end. The vessel was completed in the spring of 1862 and rechristened the Virginia. On the morning of March 8 she steamed out of the Gosport navy yard to engage the Federal fleet which lay near the entrance to Hampton Roads. As she made her way slowly up the channel the Cumberland, carrying thirty guns, opened fire upon her, which was soon followed by volleys from the Congress, which carried fifty guns. The shots from neither made any effect upon the iron sides of the Merrimac, and she pursued her course without returning a ball. Finally, coming within range, she began to pour a heavy fire into both vessels, all the time steering directly for the Cumberland. Presently her iron beak struck the side of the Cumberland, which in the meantime had swung across the channel in order to bring her full broadside to bear upon her formidable antagonist. The ram made a hole in the side of the Cumberland through which water rushed, while the Merrimac, backing off, proceeded to rake the Cumberland's decks with broadside after broadside. But the gallant crew showed no sign of surrender and kept on working their guns until the ill-fated vessel canted over and |