Stories of Our Naval Heroes Part 23

The gallant admiral then used a strong word. It was not a word to be used in polite society. But we must remember that battle was raging about him and he was in a fury.

"d.a.m.n the torpedoes!" he cried. "Follow me!"

Straight on the good ship sailed, right for the nest of torpedoes, with the admiral in the shrouds.

In a minute more the _Hartford_ was among them. They could be heard striking against her bottom. Their percussion caps snapped, but not one went off. Their tin cases had rusted and they were spoiled. Only one of them all went off that dreadful day of battle. That saved many of the ships.

The fort and the torpedoes were pa.s.sed, but the Confederate ships remained. It did not take long to settle for the gunboats, but the iron-clad _Tennessee_ remained. Putting on all steam, this great ship ran down on the Union fleet. Through the whole line it went and on to the fort. But it was as slow as a tub and the ships were easily kept out of its way.

Then, when the men were at breakfast, back again came the _Tennessee_.

They left their coffee and ran to their guns. It was like the old story of the _Merrimac_ and the wooden ships in Hampton Roads.

But Farragut did not wait to be rammed by the _Tennessee_. If ramming was to be done he wanted to do it himself. So all the large vessels steamed head on for the iron-clad, b.u.t.ting her right and left. They hit one another, too, and the _Hartford_ came near being sunk. Then came the monitors, as the first _Monitor_ had come against the _Merrimac_. There were three of these left, but one did the work, the _Chickasaw_. She clung like a burr to the _Tennessee_, pouring in her great iron b.a.l.l.s, and doing so much damage that soon the great ship was like a floating hulk. It could not be steered nor its guns fired.

For twenty minutes it stood this dreadful hammering, and then its flag came down. The battle was won.

"It was the most desperate battle I ever fought since the days of the old _Ess.e.x_," said Farragut.

The figure of the brave admiral in the rigging, fighting his ship amid a cyclone of shot and sh.e.l.l, made him the hero of the American people.

It was like Dewey on the bridge in Manila Bay in a later war. There was no rank high enough in the navy to fit the glory he had won, so one was made for him, the rank of admiral. There was rear-admiral and vice-admiral, but admiral was new and higher still. Only two men have held this rank since his day, his good friend and comrade, David D.

Porter, and the brave George Dewey.

CHAPTER XXIV

A RIVER FLEET IN A HAIL OF FIRE

ADMIRAL PORTER RUNS BY THE FORTS IN A NOVEL WAY

OF course you know what a tremendous task the North had before it in the Civil War. The war between the North and the South was like a battle of giants. And in this vast contest the navy had to do its share, both out at sea and on the rivers of the country. One of its big bits of work was to cut off the left arm of the Confederacy, and leave it only its right arm to fight with.

By the left arm I mean the three states west of the Mississippi River, and by the right arm, the eight states east of that great river. To cut off this left arm the government had to get control of the whole river, from St. Louis to the Gulf, so that no Confederate troops could cross the great stream.

You have read how Farragut and Porter began this work, by capturing New Orleans and all the river below it. And they went far up the river, too.

But in the end such great forts were built at Vicksburg and Port Hudson and other points that the Confederate government held the river in a tight grasp.

In this way the Confederacy became master of the Mississippi for a thousand miles. We are to see now how it was taken from their grasp.

James B. Eads, the engineer who built the great railroad bridge over the Mississippi at St. Louis, made the first iron-clads for the West. There were seven of these. They were river steamers, and were covered with iron, but it was not very thick. Two others were afterward built, making nine in all.

Each of these boats had thirteen guns, and they did good work in helping the army to capture two strong Confederate forts in Kentucky. Then they went down the Mississippi to an island that was called Island No. 10. It was covered with forts, stretching one after another all along its sh.o.r.e.

A number of mortar boats were brought down and threw sh.e.l.ls into the forts till they were half paved with iron. But all that did no good.

Then Admiral Foote was asked to send one of the boats down past the forts.

That was dreadfully dangerous work, for there were guns enough in them to sink twenty such boats. But Captain Walke thought he could take his boat, the _Carondelet_, down, and the admiral told him he might try.

What was the _Carondelet_ like, do you ask? Well, she was a long, wide boat, with sloping sides and a flat roof, and was covered with iron two and a half inches thick. Four of her guns peeped out from each side, while three looked out from the front door, and two from the back door of the boat.

Captain Walke did not half expect to get through the iron storm from the forts. To make his boat stronger, extra planks were laid on her deck and chain cables were drawn tightly across it. Then lumber was heaped thickly round the boiler and engines, and ropes were wrapped round and round the pilot-house till they were eighteen inches thick.

After that a barge filled with bales of hay was tied fast to the side that would catch the fire of the forts. Something was done also to stop the noise of the steam pipes, for Captain Walke thought he might slip down at night without being seen or heard.

On the night of April 10, 1862, the boat made its dash down stream. It started just as a heavy thunderstorm came on. The wind whistled, the rain poured down in sheets, and the men in the forts hid from the storm.

They were not thinking then of runaway gunboats.

But something n.o.body had thought of now took place. The blazing wood in the furnaces set fire to the soot in the chimneys, and in a minute the boat was like a great flaming torch. As the men in the forts sprang up, the lightning flashed out on the clouds, and lit up "the gallant little ship floating past like a phantom."

The gunners did not mind the rain any more. They ran in great haste to their guns, and soon the batteries were flaming and roaring louder than the thunder itself.

Fort after fort took it up as the _Carondelet_ slid swiftly past. The lightning and the blazing smoke-stack showed her plainly to the gunners.

But the bright flashes blinded their eyes so that they could not half aim their guns. And thus it was that the brave little _Carondelet_ went under the fire of fifty guns without being harmed.

Soon after that Island No. 10 was given up to the Union forces. Then the gunboats went farther down the river, and had two hard fights with Confederate boats, one at Fort Pillow and one at Memphis. Both these places were captured, and in that way the river was opened all the way from St. Louis to Vicksburg.

The City of Vicksburg is in the State of Mississippi, about two hundred miles above New Orleans. Here are high river banks; and these were covered thick with forts, so that Vicksburg was the strongest place along the whole stream.

There were also strong forts at Port Hudson, about seventy-five miles below Vicksburg; and these seventy-five miles were all the Confederates now held of the great stream. But they held these with a very strong hand and were not to let go easily.

There were some great events at Vicksburg; and I must tell about a few of these next.

After New Orleans was taken Farragut took his ships up the river, running past the forts. He could easily have taken Vicksburg then, if he had had any soldiers. But he had none, and it took a great army of soldiers, under General Grant, to capture it a year afterward.

David D. Porter, who had helped Farragut so well in his great fight, was put in command of the Mississippi fleet. He had a number of iron-clad boats under him, some of them having iron so thin that they were called tin-clads.

Commodore Porter had plenty to do. Now he sent his boats up through the Yazoo swamps, then they had a fight on the Arkansas River; and in this way he was kept busy.

In February, 1863, he sent two of his boats, the _Queen of the West_ and the _Indianola_, down past the Vicksburg forts. That was an easy run.

There was plenty of firing, but n.o.body was hurt. But after they got below they found trouble enough.

First, the _Queen of the West_ ran aground and could not be got off.

Then the _Indianola_ had a hole rammed in her side by a Confederate boat and went to the bottom. So there wasn't much gained by sending these two boats down stream.

But a curious thing took place. The Confederates got the _Queen of the West_ off the mud, and tried to raise the _Indianola_ and stop its leaks.

While they were hard at work at this they heard a frightful roar from the Vicksburg batteries. Looking up stream they saw a big boat coming down upon them at full speed. When they saw this they put the two big guns of the _Indianola_ mouth to mouth, fired them into each other to ruin them, and then ran away. But weren't they vexed afterward when they learned that the boat that scared them was only a dummy which Porter's men had sent down the river in a frolic.

After that, the river batteries did not give the ships much trouble.

When the right time came Porter's fleet ran down the river through the fire of all the forts. One boat caught fire and sank, but all the rest pa.s.sed safely through. This was done to help General Grant, who was marching his army down, to get below Vicksburg.

I suppose all readers of American history know about the great event of the 4th of July, 1863. On that day Vicksburg was given up to the Union forces, with all its forts and all its men. Five days afterward Port Hudson surrendered. Porter and his boats now held the great river through all its length.

But there is something more to tell about Admiral Porter, who was a rear-admiral now.

In the spring of 1864 General Banks was sent with an army up the Red River. He was going to Shreveport, which is about four hundred miles above where the Red River runs into the Mississippi. Porter went along with his river fleet to help.