Stories of Our Naval Heroes Part 22

"Not after fighting fifty years for the old flag," he said. "And mind what I tell you; you fellows will catch much more than you want before you get through with this business."

And so Farragut reported for duty under the old flag.

Very soon the ships of the government were busy all along the coast, blockading ports and chasing blockade runners, and fighting wherever they saw a chance.

One such chance, a big one, came away down South. For there was the large City of New Orleans, which the British had tried to take nearly fifty years before; and there was the Mississippi River that led straight to it. But strong forts had been built along that river and armed boats were on its waters, and the Yankees of the North might find it as hard to get there as the British did.

Now I have to speak of another brave man and good seaman, David D.

Porter. He was a son of the captain of the old _Ess.e.x_, and a life-long friend of David G. Farragut.

Porter was sent down to help blockade the Mississippi in the summer of 1861, and while there he found out all about the forts and the ships on the river. Then he went to Washington and told the Secretary of the Navy all he had learned, and asked him to send down a fleet to try to capture the city.

"Where can I find the right man for a big job like that?" asked the Secretary.

"Captain Farragut is your man," said Porter. "You have him now on committee work, where a man like him is just wasted, for you have not half as good a seaman on any of your ships."

And in that way the gallant Farragut was chosen to command the fleet to be sent to capture the great city of the South. Porter, you see, did not ask for a command for himself, but for his friend.

When the fleet was got ready it numbered nearly twenty vessels, but most of them were gunboats, and none of them were very large. The Mississippi was not the place for very large ships. Farragut chose the sloop-of-war _Hartford_ for his flagship and sailed merrily away for the mighty river. He did not forget his friend Porter. For twenty mortar boats were added to the fleet, and Porter was given command of these.

A mortar, you should know, is a kind of a short cannon made to throw large sh.e.l.ls or b.a.l.l.s. It is pointed upward so as to throw them high up into the air and then let them fall straight down on a fort. Porter's mortar boats were schooners that carried cannons of this kind.

When Farragut had sailed his fleet into the river, he made ready for the great fight before him. Of course, he had no iron-clads, for the _Monitor_ had just fought its great battle and no other iron-clads had been built. So he stretched iron chains up and down the sides of his ships to stop cannon b.a.l.l.s. Then bags of coal and sand were piled round the boilers and engines to keep them safe, and nets were hung to catch flying splinters, which, in a fight at sea, are often worse than bullets.

But the most interesting thing done was to the mortar boats. These were to be anch.o.r.ed down the stream below the forts, and limbs of trees full of green leaves were tied on their masts, so they could not be told from the trees on the river-bank. As they went up the river they looked like a green grove afloat.

Now let us take a look at what the Confederates were doing. They were not asleep, you may be sure. They had built two strong forts, one on each side of the river, just where it made a sharp bend. One of these was named Fort Jackson and the other Fort St. Philip. There were more than a hundred cannon in these forts, but most of them were small ones.

They had also stretched iron cables across the river, with rafts and small vessels to hold them up. These were to stop the fleet from going up the river, and to hold it fast while the forts could pour shot and sh.e.l.l into it. They had also many steamboats with cannon on them. One of these, the _Louisiana_, was covered with iron. Another was a ram, called the _Mana.s.sas_. This had a sharp iron beak, to ram and sink other vessels. And there were great coal barges, filled with fat pine knots.

These were meant for fire-ships. You will learn farther on how these were to be used.

You may see from this that Farragut had some hard work before him. Even if he got past the chains and the forts, all his ships might be set on fire by the fire-ships. But the bold captain was not one of the kind that mind things like that. Now let us go on to the story of the terrible river fight, which has long been one of the most famous battles of the war.

Porter's mortar boats were anch.o.r.ed under the trees on the river-bank, two miles below the forts. With their green-clad masts they looked like trees themselves. At ten o'clock in the morning of April 18, 1862, the first mortar sent its big sh.e.l.l whizzing through the air. And for six days this was kept up, each of the mortars booming out once every ten minutes. That made one shot for every half-minute.

Two days after the mortars began, a bold thing was done. The gunboat _Itasca_ set out in the darkness of the night and managed to get between the sh.o.r.e and the chain. Then it ran up stream above the chain till it got a good headway. It now turned round and came down at full speed before the strong current.

Fort Jackson was firing, and b.a.l.l.s were rattling all about the bold _Itasca_, but she rushed on through them all. Plump against the chain she came, with a thud that lifted her three feet out of the water. Then the chain snapped in two and away went the _Itasca_ down stream. The barrier was broken and the way to New Orleans lay open before the fleet.

On the 23d of April Farragut gave his orders to the captains of the fleet. That night they were to try to pa.s.s the forts and fight their way to New Orleans. At two o'clock in the morning came the welcome order, "All hands up anchor!" and at three o'clock all was ready for the start.

The night was dark, but on the banks near Fort Jackson there was a blazing wood fire, that threw its light across the stream. And Porter's bombs were being fired as fast as the men could drop the b.a.l.l.s into them, so that there was a great arch of fiery sh.e.l.ls between the mortar boats and the forts.

The gunboat _Cayuga_ led the way through the broken barrier. After her came the _Pensacola_, one of the large vessels. All this time the forts had kept still, but now they blazed out with all their guns, and the air was full of the booming of cannon and the screeching of sh.e.l.ls from forts and ships.

Great piles of wood were kindled on the banks, and the fire-ships up stream were sent blazing down the river as the steam vessels came rushing up into the fire of the forts. Never had the Mississippi seen so terrible a night. The blazing wood and flashing guns made it as light as day, and the roar was like ten thunderstorms.

Soon the _Hartford_ came on, with Farragut on her deck. So thick was the smoke that she ran aground, and before she could get off a fire-ship came blazing down against her side, pushed by a tug-boat straight on to her. In a minute the paint on the ship's side was in a blaze and the flames shot up half as high as the masts. The men at the guns drew back from the scorching heat.

"Don't flinch from that blaze, boys," cried Farragut. "Those who don't do their duty here will find a hotter fire than that."

For a brief time the good ship was in great danger. But a shower of sh.e.l.ls sent the daring tug-boat to the bottom, and the fire-ship floated away. Then a hose-pipe spurted water on the flames. The fire was put out and the _Hartford_ was saved.

That was only the beginning of the great battle. From that time on, fire and flame, boom and roar, death and destruction, were everywhere. The great sh.e.l.ls from the mortars dropped bursting into the forts. The huge wood piles blazed high on the banks. Ships and forts hurled a frightful shower of sh.e.l.ls at each other. Blazing fire-ships came drifting down.

The foremost boats were fiercely fighting with the Confederate craft.

The hindmost boats were fighting with the forts. The uproar seemed enough to drive the very moon from the sky.

But soon victory began to hold out her hand to the Union fleet. For all the ships pa.s.sed the forts, some of the Confederate vessels were driven ash.o.r.e and others fled up stream; and in a little while only three of them were left, and these were kept safe under the guns of the fort. The battle had been fought and won, and the triumphant fleet steamed up the river to New Orleans. The forts were still there, but what could they do, with Union forces above and below? Four days after the fight they were surrendered to Porter and his mortar fleet.

There was one final act to the great Mississippi battle. For as Commander Porter, in his flagship, lay near Fort Jackson, down on him came the iron-clad _Louisiana_, all in a blaze. But just before she reached his vessel she blew up; and that was the end of the _Louisiana_ and the fight. The river was open and New Orleans was captured. Thus ended the greatest naval battle of the Civil War.

Two years and more afterward Farragut fought another great battle. This was in the Bay of Mobile, then a great place for blockade-runners. These were swift vessels that brought goods from Europe to the South. The Union fleet did all it could to stop them, but they could not be stopped at Mobile from outside, so Farragut was told to fight his way inside the bay. And that is what he did.

Mobile Bay is like a great bell, thirty miles long and fifteen miles wide. There are two islands at the mouth, so that the entrance is not more than a mile wide. And on each of these islands was a strong fort, which had been built by the government before the war. The Confederates had taken possession of these forts and had big guns in them.

The first thing to do was to pa.s.s the forts. No chain could be put across the channel here, but there was something worse, for nearly two hundred torpedoes were planted in the water near the forts. Some of these were made of beer-kegs and some of tin; and they were planted so thickly that it was not easy to get in without setting them off. Then, when the fort and the torpedoes were pa.s.sed, there were the ships. Three of these were small gunboats, of not much account. But there was a great iron-clad ship, the _Tennessee_, which was twice as strong as the _Merrimac_. It was covered with iron five or six inches thick, and carried a half-dozen big guns.

Franklin Buchanan, who had been captain of the _Merrimac_, was admiral of the _Tennessee_.

But Admiral Farragut--he was an admiral now--had his iron-clad vessels, too. Four monitors like the old _Monitor_ of Hampton Roads, had been built and sent him, and these, with his wooden vessels, made nearly twenty ships.

Such was the fleet with which Farragut set out for his second great victory, early in the morning of August 5, 1864. It was six o'clock when the ships crossed the bar and headed in for Fort Morgan.

On they went, bravely, firing at the fort. But not a shot came back till the leading ships were in front of its strong stone walls. Then there began a terrible roar, and a storm of iron b.a.l.l.s poured out at the ships. If the guns had been well aimed, dreadful work might have been done, but the b.a.l.l.s went screaming through the air and hardly touched a ship. And the fierce fire from the ships drove many of the men in the fort from their guns.

But now there is a terrible tale to tell, a tale of death and destruction, of the sinking of a ship with her captain and nearly all her crew on board.

This was the monitor _Tec.u.mseh_. It was steered straight out where the torpedoes lay thick. Suddenly there came a dull roar. The bow of the iron-clad was lifted like a feather out of the water. Then it sank till it pointed downward like a boy diving, and the stern was lifted up into the air. In a second more the good ship went down with a mighty plunge.

But with this there is also one fine story, the story of a gallant man.

This was Captain Craven, of the _Tec.u.mseh_. He and the pilot were in the pilot-house and both sprang for the opening. But there was room only for one. The brave captain drew back.

"After you, pilot," he said.

The pilot escaped, but the n.o.ble captain, with ninety-two of his men, sank to the depths.

A boat was sent to pick up the swimmers, with a gallant young ensign, H.

C. Neilds, in charge. Out they rowed where the waters were being torn and threshed with shot and sh.e.l.l. The ensign was only a boy, but he had the spirit of a Perry. He saw that his flag was not flying, and he coolly raised it in the face of the foe, and then sat down to steer.

Brave men were there by the hundreds, but none were braver than their admiral, their immortal Farragut. The smoke blinded his eyes on deck, so he climbed to the top of the mainmast, and there, lashed to the rigging, he went in through the thick of the fire. Sh.e.l.ls screeched past him, great iron b.a.l.l.s hustled by his ears, but not a quiver came over his n.o.ble face. He had to be where he could see, he said. Danger did not count where duty called.

On past the forts went ships and monitors, heedless of torpedoes or of the fate of the _Tec.u.mseh_. Only one captain showed the white feather.

The _Brooklyn_ held back.

"What is the matter?" screamed Farragut.

"Torpedoes," was the only word that reached his ears.