My Days and Nights on the Battle-Field Part 22

They resolved to build a fleet of gunboats, which would ascend the river to St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Pittsburg, and compel the people of those cities to pay tribute, for the privilege of navigating the river to the Gulf.

The entire population engaged in the enterprise. The ladies held fairs and gave their jewelry. The citizens organized themselves into a gunboat a.s.sociation. When the boats were launched, the ladies, with appropriate ceremonies, dedicated them to the Confederacy. They urged their husbands, brothers, sons, and friends to enlist in the service, and the young man who hesitated received presents of hoop-skirts, petticoats, and other articles of female wearing apparel.

Eight gunboats were built. Commodore Hollins, as you have seen, commanded them. He attempted to drive back General Pope at New Madrid, but failed. He went to New Orleans, and Captain Montgomery was placed in command.

When Commodore Foote and General Pope took Island No. 10, those that escaped of the Rebels fell back to Fort Pillow, about forty miles above Memphis. It was a strong position, and Commodore Foote made but little effort to take it, but waited for the advance of General Halleck's army upon Corinth. While thus waiting, one foggy morning, several of the Rebel gunboats made a sudden attack upon the Cincinnati, and nearly disabled her before they were beaten back. Meanwhile, Commodore Foote, finding that his wound, received at Donelson, was growing worse, was recalled by the Secretary of the Navy, and Commodore Charles Henry Davis, of Cambridge, Ma.s.sachusetts, was placed in command.

Besides the gunboats on the Mississippi, was Colonel Ellet's fleet of rams,--nine in all. They were old steamboats, with oaken bulwarks three feet thick, to protect the boilers and engines. Their bows had been strengthened with stout timbers and iron bolts, and they had iron prows projecting under water. They carried no cannon, but were manned by sharpshooters. There were loop-holes through the timbers for the riflemen. The pilot-house was protected by iron plates. They joined the fleet at Fort Pillow.

The river is very narrow in front of the fort,--not more than a third of its usual width. It makes a sharp bend. The channel is deep, and the current rushes by like a mill-race. The Tennessee sh.o.r.e was lined with batteries on the bluff, which made it a place much stronger than Columbus or Island No. 10. But when General Beauregard was forced to evacuate Corinth, the Rebels were also compelled to leave Fort Pillow.

For two or three days before the evacuation, they kept up a heavy fire upon the fleet.

On the 3d of June,--a hot, sultry day,--just before night, a huge bank of clouds rolled up from the south. There had been hardly a breath of air through the day, but now the wind blew a hurricane. The air was filled with dust, whirled up from the sand-bars. When the storm was at its height, I was surprised to see two of the rams run down past the point of land which screened them from the batteries, vanishing from sight in the distant cloud. They went to ascertain what the Rebels were doing. There was a sudden waking up of heavy guns. The batteries were in a blaze. The cloud was thick and heavy, and the rams returned, but the Rebel cannon still thundered, throwing random shots into the river, two or three at a time, firing as if the Confederacy had tons of ammunition to spare.

The dust-cloud, with its fine, misty rain, rolled away. The sun shone once more, and bridged the river with a gorgeous arch of green and gold, which appeared a moment, and then faded away, as the sun went down behind the western woods. While we stood admiring the scene, a Rebel steamer came round the point to see what we were about. It was a black craft, bearing the flag of the Confederacy at her bow. She turned leisurely, stopped her wheels, and looked at us audaciously. The gunboats opened fire. The Rebel steamer took her own time, unmindful of the shot and sh.e.l.l falling and bursting all around her, then slowly disappeared beyond the headland. It was a challenge for a fight. It was not accepted, for Commodore Davis was not disposed to be cut up by the sh.o.r.e-batteries.

The next day there were lively times at the fort. A cannonade was kept up on Commodore Davis's fleet, which was vigorously answered. We little thought that this was to blind us to what was going on. At sunset the Rebels set fire to their barracks. There were great pillars of flame and smoke in and around the fort. The southern sky was all aglow.

Occasionally there were flashes and explosions, sudden puffs of smoke, spreading out like flakes of cotton or fleeces of white and crimson wool. It was a gorgeous sight.

In the morning we found that the Rebels had gone, spiking their cannon and burning their supplies. That which had cost them months of hard labor was abandoned, and the river was open to Memphis.

On the 5th of June, Commodore Davis's fleet left Fort Pillow for Memphis. I was sitting at dinner with the Commodore and Captain Phelps, on board the Benton, when an orderly thrust his head into the cabin, and said, "Sir, there is a fine large steamer ahead of us."

We are on deck in an instant. The boatswain is piping all hands to quarters. There is great commotion.

"Out with that gun! Quick!" shouted Lieutenant Bishop. The brave tars seize the ropes, the trucks creak, and the great eleven-inch gun, already loaded, is out in a twinkling. Men are bringing up shot and sh.e.l.l. The deck is clearing of all superfluous furniture.

There she is, a mile distant, a beautiful steamer, head up-stream. She sees us, and turns her bow. Her broadside comes round, and we read "Sovereign" upon her wheelhouse. We are on the upper deck, and the muzzle of the eleven-inch gun is immediately beneath us. A great flash comes in our faces. We are in a cloud, stifled, stunned, gasping for breath, our ears ringing; but the cloud is blown away, and we see the shot throw up the water a mile beyond the Sovereign. Glorious! We will have her. Another, not so good. Another, still worse.

The Louisville, Carondelet, and Cairo open fire. But the Sovereign is a fast sailer, and is increasing the distance.

"The Spitfire will catch her!" says the pilot. A wave of the hand, and the Spitfire is alongside, running up like a dog to its master.

Lieutenant Bishop, Pilot Bixby, and a gun crew jump on board the tug, which carries a boat howitzer. Away they go, the tug puffing and wheezing, as if it had the asthma.

"Through the _chute_!" shouts Captain Phelps. _Chute_ is a French word, meaning a narrow pa.s.sage, not the main channel of the river. The Sovereign is in the main channel, but the Spitfire has the shortest distance. The tug cuts the water like a knife. She comes out just astern of the steamer.

Bang! goes the howitzer. The shot falls short. Bang! again in a twinkling. Better. Bang! It goes over the Sovereign.

"Hurrah! Bishop will get her!" The crews of the gunboats dance with delight, and swing their caps. Bang! Right through her cabin. The Sovereign turns towards the sh.o.r.e, and runs plump against the bank. The crew, all but the cook, take to the woods, and the steamer is ours.

It would astonish you to see how fast a well-drilled boat's-crew can load and fire a howitzer. Commodore Foote informed me that, when he was in the China Sea, he was attacked by the natives, and his boat's-crew fired four times a minute!

The chase for the Sovereign was very exciting,--more so than any horse-race I ever saw.

The crew on board the Sovereign had been stopping at all the farm-houses along the river, setting fire to the cotton on the plantations. They did it in the name of the Confederate government, that it might not fall into the hands of the Yankees. In a great many places they had rolled it into the river, and the stream was covered with white flakes. The bushes were lined with it.

As soon as the people along the banks saw the Federal steamboats, they went to work to save their property. Some of them professed to be Union men. I conversed with an old man, who was lame, and could hardly hobble round. He spoke bitterly against Jeff Davis for burning his cotton and stealing all his property.

While descending the river, we saw a canoe, containing two men, push out from a thick canebrake. They came up to the Benton. We thought they were Rebels, at first, but soon saw they were two pilots belonging to the fleet, who had started the day before for Vicksburg, to pilot Commodore Farragut's fleet to Memphis. They had been concealed during the day, not daring to move. The evacuation of Fort Pillow rendered it unnecessary for them to continue the voyage. They said that eight Rebel gunboats were a short distance below us.

We moved on slowly, and came to anchor about nine o'clock, near a place called by all the rivermen Paddy's Hen and Chickens, about two miles above Memphis.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE NAVAL FIGHT AT MEMPHIS.

On the evening of the 5th of June, while we were lying above Memphis, Commodore Montgomery, commanding the fleet of Rebel gunboats built by the citizens and ladies of Memphis, was making a speech in the Gayoso Hall of that city. There was great excitement. It was known at noon that Fort Pillow was evacuated. The stores were immediately closed. Some people commenced packing up their goods to leave,--expecting that the city would be burned if the Yankees obtained possession. Commodore Montgomery said:--

"I have no intention of retreating any farther. I have come here, that you may see Lincoln's gunboats sent to the bottom by the fleet which you built and manned."

The rabble cheered him, and believed his words. On the morning of the 6th, one of the newspapers a.s.sured the people that the Federal fleet would not reach the city. It said:--

"All obstructions to their progress are not yet removed, and probably will not be. The prospect is very good for a grand naval engagement which shall eclipse anything ever seen before. There are many who would like the engagement to occur, who do not much relish the prospect of its occurring very near the city. They think deeper water and scope and verge enough for such an encounter may be found farther up the river. All, however, are rejoiced to learn that Memphis will not fall till conclusions are first tried on water, and at the cannon's mouth."[28]

[Footnote 28: Memphis Avalanche, June 6, 1862]

I was awake early enough to see the brightening of the morning. Never was there a lovelier daybreak. The woods were full of song-birds. The air was balmy. A few light clouds, fringed with gold, lay along the eastern horizon.

The fleet of five gunboats was anch.o.r.ed in a line across the river. The Benton was nearest the Tennessee sh.o.r.e, next was the Carondelet, then the Louisville, St. Louis, and, lastly, the Cairo. Near by the Cairo, tied up to the Arkansas sh.o.r.e, were the Queen City and the Monarch,--two of Colonel Ellet's rams. The tugs Jessie Benton and Spitfire hovered near the Benton, Commodore Davis's flag-ship. It was their place to be within call, to carry orders to the other boats of the fleet.

Before sunrise the anchors were up, and the boats kept their position in the stream by the slow working of the engines.

Commodore Davis waved his hand, and the Jessie Benton was alongside the flag-ship in a moment.

"Drop down towards the city, and see if you can discover the Rebel fleet," was the order.

I jumped on board the tug. Below us was the city. The first rays of the sun were gilding the church-spires. A crowd of people stood upon the broad levee between the city and the river. They were coming from all the streets, on foot, on horseback, in carriages,--men, women, and children--ten thousand, to see Lincoln's gunboats sent to the bottom.

Above the court-house, and from flagstaffs, waved the flag of the Confederacy. A half-dozen river steamers lay at the landing, but the Rebel fleet was not in sight. At our right hand was the wide marsh on the tongue of land where Wolfe River empties into the Mississippi. Upon our left were the cotton-trees and b.u.t.ton-woods, and the village of Hopedale at the terminus of the Little Rock and Memphis Railroad. We dropped slowly down the stream, the tug floating in the swift current, running deep and strong as it sweeps past the city.

The crowd increased. The levee was black with the mult.i.tude. The windows were filled. The flat roofs of the warehouses were covered with the excited throng, which surged to and fro as we upon the tug came down into the bend, almost within talking distance.

Suddenly a boat came out from the Arkansas sh.o.r.e, where it had been lying concealed from view behind the forest,--another, another, eight of them. They formed in two lines, in front of the city.

Nearest the city, in the front line, was the General Beauregard; next, the Little Rebel; then the General Price and the Sumter. In the second line, behind the Beauregard, was the General Lovell; behind the Little Rebel was the Jeff Thompson; behind the General Price was the General Bragg; and behind the Sumter was the Van Dorn.

These boats were armed as follows:--

General Beauregard, 4 guns Little Rebel (flag-ship), 2 General Price, 4 Sumter, 3 General Lovell, 4 General Thompson, 4 General Bragg, 3 General Van Dorn, 4 -- Total, 28

The guns were nearly all rifled, and were of long range. They were pivoted, and could be whirled in all directions. The boilers of the boats were casemated and protected by iron plates, but the guns were exposed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NAVAL FIGHT AT MEMPHIS, June 6, 1862.

1 Federal Gunboats.

2,2 General Beauregard.