The Civil War in America Part 4

The waters of two rivers fall into the head of the Bay of Mobile, which is, in fact, a narrow sea creek between low, sandy banks, covered with pine and forest trees, broken here and there into islands, and extending some thirty miles inland, with a breadth varying from three to seven miles. No attempt has been made apparently to improve the waters or to provide docks or wharf.a.ge for the numerous cotton ships which lie out at the mouth of the bay, more than twenty-five miles from Mobile. All the cotton has to be sent down to them in lighters, and the number of men thus employed in the cotton season in loading the barges, navigating and transferring the cargoes to the ships, is very considerable, and their rate of wages is high.

The horror entertained by a merchant captain of the sh.o.r.e is well known, and skippers are delighted at an anchorage so far from land, which at the same time detains the crews in the ships and prevents absenteeism and "running." At present there are but seven ships at the anchorage, nearly all British, and one of the latter appears in the distance hard and fast ash.o.r.e, though whether she got there in consequence of the light not being burning or from neglect, it is impossible to say. Fort Gaines, on the right bank of the channel, near the entrance, is an unfinished sh.e.l.l of a fort, which was commenced by the United States engineers some time ago, and which it would not be easy to finish without a large outlay of money and labor. It is not well placed to resist either a land attack or an a.s.sault by boats. A high sand-bank in front of one of the faces screens the fire, and a wood on another side, if occupied by riflemen, would render it difficult to work the barbette guns. It is not likely, however, that the fort will be attacked. The channel it commands is only fit for light vessels. From this fort to the other side of the channel, where Fort Morgan stands, the distance is over three miles, and the deep water channel is close to the latter fort. The position at Gaines is held by a strong body of Alabama troops--stout, st.u.r.dy men, who have volunteered from farm, field, or desk. They are armed with ordinary muskets of the old pattern, and their uniform is by no means uniform; but the men look fit for service. The fort would take a garrison of five hundred men if fully mounted, but the parapets are mere part.i.tion walls of brickwork crenelled; the bomb-proofs are unfinished, and but for a few guns mounted on the sand-hills, the place is a defenceless sh.e.l.l-trap. There are no guns in the casemates, and there is no position ready to bear the weight of a gun in barbette. The guns which are on the beach are protected by sand-bags traversed, and are more formidable than the whole fortress.

The steamer proceeded across the channel to Fort Morgan, which is a work of considerable importance, and is a.s.suming a formidable character under the superintendence of Colonel Hardee, formerly of the United States army. It has a regular trace, bastion, and curtain, with a dry ditch and drawbridge, well-made casemates and bomb-proofs, and a tolerable armament of columbiads, 42 and 32-pounders, a few 10-inch mortars, and light guns in the external works at the salients. The store of ammunition seems ample. Some of the fuses are antiquated, and the gun-carriages are old-fashioned. The open parade and the unprotected gorges of the casemates would render the work extremely unpleasant under a sh.e.l.l fire, and the buildings and barracks inside are at present open to the influence of heat. The magazines are badly traversed and inadequately protected. A very simple and apparently effective contrivance for dispensing with the use of the sabot in sh.e.l.ls was shown to me by Colonel Maury, the inventor. It consists of two circular grummets of rope, one at the base and the other at the upper circ.u.mference of the sh.e.l.l, made by a simple machinery to fit tightly to the sphere, and bound together by thin copper wire. The grummets fit the bore of the gun exactly, and act as wads, allowing the base of the sh.e.l.l to rest in close contact with the charge, and breaking into oak.u.m on leaving the muzzle. Those who know what mischief can be done by the fragments of the sabot when fired over the heads of troops will appreciate this simple invention, which is said to give increased range to the horizontal sh.e.l.l. There must be about sixty guns in this work; it is over-garrisoned, and, indeed, it seems to be the difficulty here to know what to do with the home volunteers. Rope mantlets are used on the breeches of some of the barbette guns. At night the harbor is in perfect darkness. Notwithstanding the defences I have indicated, it would be quite possible to take Fort Morgan with a moderate force well supplied with the means of vertical fire.

"Are there any mosquitoes here?" inquired I of the waiter, on the day of my arrival. "Well, there's a few, I guess; but I wish there were ten times as many." "In the name of goodness why do you say so?" asked I, with some surprise and indignation. "Because we'd get rid of the ---- Black Republicans out of Fort Pickens all the sooner," replied he. There is a strange unilateral tendency in the minds of men in judging of the operation of causes and results in such a contest as that which now prevails between the North and the South. The waiter reasoned and spoke like many of his betters. The mosquitoes, for whose aid he was so anxious, were regarded by him as true Southerners, who would only torture his enemies. The idea of these persecuting little fiends being so unpatriotic as to vex the Confederates in their sandy camp never entered into his mind for a moment. In the same way a gentleman of intelligence, who was speaking to me of the terrible sufferings which would be inflicted on the troops at Tortugas and at Pickens by fever, dysentery, and summer heats, looked quite surprised when I asked him "whether these agencies would not prove equally terrible to the troops of the Confederates?"

LETTER X.

FORT PICKENS AND PENSACOLA--A VISIT TO BOTH CAMPS.

MOBILE, May 16, 1861.

OUR little schooner lay quietly at the wharf all night, but no one was allowed to come on board without a pa.s.s, for these wild-looking sentries are excellent men of business, and look after the practical part of soldiering with all the keenness which their direct personal interest imparts to their notions of duty. The enemy is to them the incarnation of all evil, and they hunt his spies and servants very much as a terrier chases a rat--with intense traditional and race animosity. The silence of the night is not broken by many challenges, or the "All's well" of patrols; but there is warlike significance enough in the sound of the shot which the working parties are rolling over the wooden jetty, with a dull, ponderous thumping on board the flats that are to carry them off for the food and _nourriture_ of the batteries. With the early morning, however, came the moral signs of martial existence. I started up from among my c.o.c.kroaches, knocked my head against the fine pine beams over my hammock, and then, considerably obfuscated by the result, proceeded to investigate all the grounds that presented themselves to me as worthy of consideration in reference to the theory which had suddenly forced itself upon my mind that I was in the Crimea. For close at hand, through the sleepy organs of the only sense which was fully awake, came the well-known _reveillee_ of the Zouaves, and then French clangors, rolls, ruffles, and calls ran along the line, and the Volunteers got up, or did not, as seemed best to them. An ebony and aged Ganymede, however, appeared with coffee, and told me, "the Cap'n wants ask weder you take some bitters, Sir;" and, indeed, "the Captain" did compound some amazing preparation for the Judges and Colonels present on deck and below, that met the approval of them all, and was recommending it for its fortifying qualities in making a Redan and Malakhoff of the stomach. Breakfast came in due time; not much Persic apparatus to excite the hate of the simple-minded, but a great deal of substantial matter, in the shape of fried onions, ham, eggs, biscuit, with accompaniments of iced water, Bordeaux, and coffee. Our guests were two--a broad, farmer-like gentleman, weighing some sixteen stone, dressed in a green frieze tunic, with gold lace and red and scarlet worsted facings, and a felt wide awake, who, as he wiped his manly brow, informed me he was a "rifleman."

We have some Volunteers quite as corpulent, and not more patriotic, for our farmer was a man of many bales, and, in becoming an officer in his company of braves, had given an unmistakable proof of devotion to his distant home and property. The other, a quiet, modest, intelligent-looking young man, was an officer in a different battalion, and talked with sense about a matter with which sense has seldom anything to do--I mean uniform. He remarked that in a serious action and close fighting, or in night work, it would be very difficult to prevent serious mistakes, and even disasters, owing to the officers of the Confederate States' troops wearing the same distinguishing marks of rank and similar uniforms, whenever they can get them, to those used in the regular service of the United States, and that much inconvenience will inevitably result from the great variety and wonderful diversity of the dresses of the immense number of companies forming the different regiments of Volunteers.

The only troops near us which were attired with a regard to military exactness, were the regiment of Zouaves from New Orleans. Most of these are Frenchmen or Creoles, some have belonged to the battalions which the Crimea first made famous, and were present before Sevastopol and in Italy, and the rest are Germans and Irish. Our friends went off to see them drill, but, as a believer in the enchanting power of distance, I preferred to look on at such of the manuvres as could be seen from the deck. These Zouaves look exceedingly like the real article. They are, perhaps, a trifle leaner and taller, and are not so well developed at the back of the head, the heels, and the ankles, as their prototypes.

They are dressed in the same way, except that I saw no turban on the fez cap. The jacket, the c.u.mmerbund, the baggy red breeches, and the gaiters, are all copies of the original. They are all armed with rifle-musket and sword-bayonet, and their pay is at the usual rate of $11, or something like 2 6s. a month, with rations and allowances. The officers do their best to be the true "chacal." I was more interested, I confess, in watching the motions of vast shoals of mullet and other fish, which flew here and there, like flocks of plover, before the red fish and other enemies, and darted under our boat, than in examining Zouave drill. Once, as a large fish came gamboling along the surface close at hand, a great gleam of white shot up in the waves beneath, and a boiling whirl marked with a crimson pool, which gradually melted off in the tide, showed where a monster shark had taken down a part of his breakfast. "That's a ground-sheark," quoth the skipper. "There's quite a many of them about here." Porpoises pa.s.sed by in a great hurry for Pensacola, and now and then a turtle showed his dear little head above the enviable fluid which he honored with his presence. Far away in the long stretch of water toward Pensacola are six British merchantmen in a state of blockade; that is, they have only fifteen days to clear out, according to the reading of the law adopted by the United States officers.

The Navy Yard looks clean and neat in the early morning, and away on the other side of the channel Fort Pickens--_teterrima causa_--raises its dark front from the white sand and green sward of the glacis, on which a number of black objects invite inspection through a telescope, and obligingly resolve themselves into horses turned out to graze on the slope. Fort M'Rae, at the other side of the channel, as if to irritate its neighbor, flings out a flag to the breeze, which is the counterpart of the "Stars and Stripes" that wave from the rival flagstaff, and is at this distance identical to the eye until the gla.s.s detects the solitary star in its folds instead of the whole galaxy. On the dazzling snowy margin of sand that separates the trees and brushwood from the sea, close at hand, the outline of the batteries which stud the sh.o.r.e for miles is visible. Let us go and make a close inspection. Mr. Ellis, a lieutenant in the Louisiana regiment, who is aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General Bragg, has just arrived with a message from his chief to escort me round all the works, and wherever else I like to go, without any reservation whatever. He is a handsome, well-built, slight young fellow, very composed and staid in manner, but full of sentiment for the South. Returned from a tour in Europe, he is all admiration for English scenery, life, and habits. "After all, nature has been more bountiful to you than to us." He is dressed in a tight undress cavalry jacket and trowsers of blue flannel, with plain gold lace pipings and b.u.t.tons, but on his heels are heavy bra.s.s spurs, worthy of the heaviest of field officers. Our horses are standing in the shade of a large tree near the wharf, and mine is equipped with a saddle of ponderous bra.s.s-work, on raised pummel and cantle, and housings, and emblazoned cloth, and mighty stirrups of bra.s.s fit for the stoutest marshal that ever led an army of France to victory; General Braxton Bragg is longer in the leg than Marshal Pelissier or Canrobert, or the writer, and as we jogged along over the deep, hot sand, my kind companion, in spite of my a.s.surances that the leathers were quite comfortable, made himself and me somewhat uneasy on the score of their adjustment, and, as there was no implement at hand to make a hole, we turned into the General's court yard to effect the necessary alterations. The cry of "Orderly" brought a smart, soldierly young man to the front, who speedily took me three holes up, and as I was going away he touched his cap and said, "I beg your pardon, Sir, but I often saw you in the Crimea." His story as he told it was brief. He had been in the 11th Hussars, and on the day of the 25th of October he was following, as he said, close after Lord Cardigan and Captain Nolan, when his horse was killed under him. As he tried to make his escape, the Cossacks took him prisoner, and for eleven months he was in captivity, but was exchanged at Odessa. "Why did you leave the service?" "Well, Sir, I was one of the two sergeants that was permitted to leave in each regiment on the close of the war, and I came away." "But here you are soldiering again?" "Yes, Sir; I came over here to better myself, as I thought, and I had to enter one of their cavalry regiments, but now I am an orderly." He told me further, that his name was Montague, and that he "thought his father lived near Windsor, twenty-one miles from London;" and I was pleased to find his superior officers spoke of him in very high terms, although I could have wished those who spoke so were in our own service.

I do not think that any number of words can give a good idea of a long line of detached batteries. I went through them all, and I certainly found stronger reasons than ever for distrusting the extraordinary statements which appear in the American journals in reference to military matters, particularly on their own side of the question.

Instead of hundreds of guns, there are only ten. They are mostly of small calibre, and the gun-carriages are old and unsound, or new and rudely made. There are only five "heavy" guns in all the works, but the mortar batteries, three in number, of which one is unfinished, will prove very damaging, although they will only contain nine or ten mortars. The batteries are all sand-bag and earthworks, with the exception of Fort Barrancas. They are made after all sorts of ways, and are of very different degrees of efficiency. In some the magazines will come to speedy destruction; in others they are well made. Some are of the finest white sand, and will blind the gunners, or be blown away with sh.e.l.ls; others are cramped, and hardly traversed; others, again, are very s.p.a.cious, and well constructed. The embrasures are usually made of sand-bags, covered with raw hide, to save the cotton bags from the effect of the fire of their own guns. I was amused to observe that most of these works had galleries in the rear, generally in connection with the magazine pa.s.sages, which the constructors called "rat-holes," and which are intended as shelter to the men at the guns, in case of sh.e.l.ls falling inside the battery. They may prove to have a very different result, and are certainly not so desirable in a military point of view as good traverses. A rush for the "rat-holes" will not be very dignified or improving to the _morale_ every time a bomb hurtles over them; and a.s.suredly the damage to the magazines will be enormous if the fire from Pickens is accurate and well sustained. Several of the batteries were not finished, and the men who ought to have been working were lying under the shade of trees, sleeping or smoking--long-limbed, long-bearded fellows in flannel shirts and slouched hats, uniformless in all save bright, well-kept arms, and resolute purpose. We went along slowly from one battery to the other. I visited nine altogether, not including Fort Barrancas, and there are three others, among which is Fort M'Rae.

Perhaps there may be fifty guns of all sorts in position for about three miles, along a line exceeding 136 deg. around Fort Pickens, the average distance being about 1-1/3 mile. The mortar batteries are well placed among brushwood, quite out of view to the fort, at distances varying from 2,500 to 2,800 yards, and the mortars are generally of callibres nearly corresponding with our 10-inch pieces. Several of the gun batteries are put on the level of the beach; others have more command, and one is particularly well placed, close to the White Lighthouse, on a raised plateau, which dominates the sandy strip that runs out to Fort M'Rae. Of the latter I have already spoken. Fort Barrancas is an old fort--I believe of Spanish construction, with a very meagre trace--a plain curtain-face toward the sea, protected by a dry ditch and an outwork, in which, however, there are no guns. There is a drawbridge in the rear of the work, which is a simple parallelogram, showing twelve guns mounted _en barbette_ on the sea-face. The walls are of brick, and the guns are protected by thick merlons of sand-bags. The sole advantage of the fort is in its position; it almost looks down into the casemates of Pickens opposite, at its weakest point, and it has a fair command of the sea entrance, but the guns are weak, and there are only three pieces mounted which can do much mischief. While I was looking round there was an entertaining dispute going on between two men, whom I believe to have been officers, as to the work to be done, and I heard the inferior intimate pretty broadly his conviction that his chief did not know his own business in reference to some orders he was conveying.

The amount of ammunition which I saw did not appear to me to be at all sufficient for one day's moderate firing, and many of the shot were roughly cast and had deep f.l.a.n.g.es from the moulds in their sides, very destructive to the guns as well as to accuracy. In the rear of these batteries, among the pine woods and in deep brush, are three irregular camps, which, to the best of my belief, could not contain more than 2,700 men. There are probably 3,000 in and about the batteries, the Navy Yard, and the suburbs, and there are also, I am informed, 1,500 at Pensacola, but I doubt exceedingly that there are as many as 8,000 men, all told, of effective strength under the command of Gen. Bragg. It would be a mistake to despise these Irregulars. One of the Mississippi regiments out in camp was evidently composed of men who liked campaigning, and who looked as though they would like fighting. They had no particular uniforms--the remark will often be made--but they had pugnacious physiognomies, and the physical means of carrying their inclinations into effect, and every man of them was, I am informed, familiar with the use of arms. Their tents are mostly small and bad, on the ridge-pole pattern, with side flys to keep off the sun. In some battalions they observe regularity of line, in others they follow individual or company caprice. The men use green boughs and bowers, as our poor fellows did in the old hot days in Bulgaria, and many of them had benches and seats before their doors, and the luxury of boarded floors to sleep upon.

There is an embarra.s.sing custom in America, scarcely justifiable in any code of good manners, which in the South at least is too common, and which may be still more general in the North; at all events, to a stranger it is productive of the annoyance which is experienced by one who is obliged to inquire whether the behavior of those among whom he is at the time is intentional rudeness or conventional want of breeding.

For instance, my friend and myself, as we are riding along, see a gentleman standing near his battery or his tent--"Good-morrow, Colonel,"

or "General" (as the case may be), says my friend--"Good-morrow (imagining military rank according to the notion possessed by speaker of the importance of the position of a General's A. D. C.), Ellis."

"Colonel, &c., allow me to introduce to you Mr. Jones of London." The Colonel advances with effusion, holds out his hand, grasps Jones's hand rigidly, and says warmly, as if he had just gained a particular object of his existence, "Mr. Jones, I am very glad to make your acquaintance, Sir. Have you been pretty well since you have been in this country, Sir?" &c. But it is most likely that the Colonel will just walk away when he pleases, without saying a word to or taking the least notice of the aforesaid Jones, as to whose acquaintance he had just before expressed such friendly feelings, and in whose personal health he had taken so deep an interest; and Jones, till he is accustomed to it, feels affronted. The fact is, that the introduction means nothing; you are merely told each other's names, and if you like you may improve your acquaintance. The hand shaking is a remnant of barbarous times, when men with the same colored skin were glad to see each other.

The country through which we rode was most uninteresting, thick brushwood and pine trees springing out of deep sand, here and there a nullah and some dirty stream--all flat as ditchwater. On our return we halted at the General's quarters. I had left a note for him, in which I inquired whether he would have any objection to my proceeding to Fort Pickens from his command, in case I obtained permission to do so, and when I entered General Bragg's room he was engaged in writing not merely a very courteous and complimentary expression of his acquiescence in my visit, but letters of introduction to personal friends in Louisiana, in the hope of rendering my sojourn more agreeable. He expressed a doubt whether my comrades would be permitted to enter the fort, and talked very freely with me in reference to what I had seen at the batteries, but I thought I perceived an indication of some change of purpose with respect to the immediate urgency of the attack on Fort Pickens, compared with his expressions last night. At length I departed with many thanks to General Bragg for his kindness and confidence, and returned to a room full of Generals and Colonels, who made a levee of their visits.

On my return to the schooner I observed that the small houses on the side of the long sandy beach were filled with men, many of whom were in groups round the happy possessors of a newspaper, and listened with the utmost interest to the excited delivery of the oracular sentences. How much of the agony and bitterness of this conflict--nay, how much of its existence--may be due to these same newspapers, no man can say, but I have very decided opinions, or rather a very strong belief, on the subject. There were still more people around the various bar-rooms than were attracted even by the journalists. Two of our companions were on board when I got back to the quay. The Mobile gentlemen had gone off to Pensacola, and had not returned to time, and under any circ.u.mstances it was not probable that they would be permitted to land, as undoubtedly they were no friends to the garrison or to the cause of the United States.

Our skipper opened his eyes and shook his rough head when he was ordered to get under way for Fort Pickens, and to anchor off the jetty. Up went the flag of truce to the fore once more, but the ever-watchful sentry, diverted for the time from his superintendence of the men who were fishing at our pier, forbade our departure till the corporal of the guard had given leave, and the corporal of the guard would not let the fair Diana cast off her warp till he had consulted the sergeant of the guard, and so there was some delay occasioned by the necessity for holding an interview with that functionary, who finally permitted the captain to proceed on his way, and with a fair light breeze the schooner fell round into the tideway and glided off towards the fort. We drew up with it rapidly, and soon attracted the notice of the look-out men and some officers who came down to the jetty.

We anch.o.r.ed a cable's length from the jetty. In reply to the sentry's hail, the skipper asked for a boat to put off for us. "Come off in your own boat." Skiff of Sharon! But there was no choice. With all the pathos of that remarkable structure, it could not go down in such a short row.

And if it did? Well, "there is not a more terrible place for sharks along this coast," the captain had told us incidentally _en route_. Our boat was inclined to impartiality in its relation with the water, and took quite as much inside as it could hold, but we soused into it, and the men pulled like Doggett's Badgers, and soon we were out of shark depth and alongside the jetty, where were standing to receive us Mr.

Brown, our friend of yesterday, Captain Vogdes, and Captain Berry, commanding a United States battery in the fort. The soldiers of the guard were United States regular troops of the artillery, wore blue uniforms with bra.s.s b.u.t.tons and remarkably ugly slouched hats, with an ornament in the shape of two crossed cannons. Captain Vogdes informed me that Col. Moore had sent off a reply to my letter to the fleet, stating that he would gladly permit me to go over the fort, but that he would not allow any one else, under any circ.u.mstances, whatever, to visit it.

My friends were, therefore, constrained to stay outside; but one of them picked up a friend on the beach, and got up an impromptu ride along the island.

The way from the jetty to the entrance of the fort is in the universal deep sand of this part of the world; the distance from the landing place to the gateway is not much more than two hundred yards, and the approach to the portal is quite unprotected. There is a high ramp and glacis on the land side, but the face and part of the curtain in which the gate is situate are open, as it was not considered likely that it would ever be attacked by Americans. The sharp angle of the bastion on this face is so weak that men are now engaged in throwing up an extempore glacis to cover the base of the wall and the casemates from fire. The ditch is very broad, and the scarp and counterscarp are riveted with brick-work.

The curvette has been cleared out, and in doing so, as a proof of the agreeable character of the locality, I may observe, upwards of sixty rattlesnakes were killed by the workmen. An abattis has been made along the edge of this part of the ditch--a rough inclined fence of stakes and boughs of trees. "Yes, Sir; at one time when those terrible fire-eating gentlemen at the other side were full of threats, and coming to take the place every day, there were only seventy men in this fort, and Lieut.

Slemmer threw up this abattis to delay his a.s.sailants, if it were only for a few minutes, and to give his men breathing time to use their small arms."

The casemates here are all blinded, and the hospital is situated in the bomb-proofs inside. The gate was closed. At a talismanic knock it was opened, and from the external silence we pa.s.sed into a scene full of activity and life, through the dark gallery which served at first as a framework to the picture. The parade of the fort was full of men, and at a _coup d'il_ it was obvious that great efforts had been made to prepare Fort Pickens for a desperate defence. In the parade were several tents of what is called Sibley's pattern, like our bell tents, but without the lower side wall, and provided with a ventilating top, which can be elevated or depressed at pleasure. The parade ground has been judiciously filled with deep holes, like inverted cones, in which sh.e.l.ls will be comparatively innocuous; and, warned by Sumter, everything has been removed which could prove in the least degree combustible. The officer on duty led me straight across to the opposite angle of the fort. As the rear of the casemates and bomb-proofs along this side will be exposed to a plunging fire from the opposite side, a very ingenious screen has been constructed by placing useless gun platforms and parts of carriages at an angle against the wall, and piling them up with sand and earth for several feet in thickness. A pa.s.sage is thus left between the base of the wall and that of the screen through which a man can walk with ease.

Turning into this pa.s.sage we entered a lofty bomb-proof, which was the bed-room of the commanding officer, and pa.s.sed through into the casemate which serves as his headquarters. Colonel Harvey Brown received me with every expression of politeness and courtesy. He is a tall, spare, soldierly-looking man, with a face indicative of great resolution and energy, as well as of sagacity and kindness, and his attachment to the Union was probably one of the reasons of his removal from the command of Fort Hamilton, New York, to the charge of this very important fort. He has been long in the service, and he belonged to the first cla.s.s of graduates who pa.s.sed at West Point after its establishment in 1818.

After a short and very interesting conversation, he proceeded to show me the works, and we mounted upon the parapet, accompanied by Captain Berry, and went over all the defences. Fort Pickens has a regular bastioned trace, in outline an oblique and rather narrow parallelogram, with the obtuse angles facing the sea at one side and the land at the other. The acute angle, at which the bastion toward the enemy's batteries is situated, is the weakest part of the work; but it was built for sea defence, as I have already observed, and the trace was prolonged to obtain the greatest amount of fire on the sea approaches. The crest of the parapet is covered with very solid and well-made merlons of heavy sand-bags, but one face and the gorge of the bastion are exposed to an enfilading fire from Fort M'Rae, which the Colonel said he intended to guard against if he got time.

All the guns seemed in good order, the carriages being well constructed, but they are mostly of what are considered small calibres now-a-days, being 32-pounders, with some 42-pounders and 24-pounders. There are, however, four heavy columbiads, which command the enemy's works on several points very completely. It struck me that the bastion guns were rather crowded. But, even in its present state, the defensive preparations are most creditable to the officers, who have had only three weeks to do the immense amount of work before us. The brick copings have been removed from the parapets, and strong sand-bag traverses have been constructed to cover the gunners, in addition to the "rat-holes" at the bastions. More heavy guns are expected, which, with the aid of a few more mortars, will enable the garrison to hold their own against everything but a regular siege on the land side, and so long as the fleet covers the narrow neck of the island with its guns, it is not possible for the Confederates to effect a lodgment. If Fort M'Rae were strong and heavily armed, it could inflict great damage on Pickens; but it is neither one nor the other, and the United States officers are confident that they will speedily render it quite untenable.

The _bouches a feu_ of the fort may be put down at forty, including the available pieces in the casemates, which sweep the ditch and the faces of the curtains. The walls are of the hardest brick, of nine feet thickness in many places, and the crest of the parapets on which the merlons and traverses rest are of turf. From the walls there is a splendid view of the whole position, and I found my companions were perfectly well acquainted with the strength and _locus_ of the greater part of the enemy's works. Of course I held my peace, but I was amused at their accuracy. "There are the quarters of our friend, General Bragg." "There is one of their best batteries just beside the lighthouse." The tall chimney of the Warrington Navy Yard was smoking away l.u.s.tily. The Colonel called my attention to it. "Do you see that, Sir? They are casting shot there. The sole reason for their 'forbearance' is that Navy Yard. They know full well that if they open a gun upon us we will lay that yard and all the work in ruins." Captain Vogdes subsequently expressed some uneasiness on a point as to which I could have relieved his mind very effectually. He had seen something which led him to apprehend that the Confederates had a strong intrenched camp in the rear of their works. Thereupon I was enabled to perceive that in Captain Vogdes' mind there was a strong intention to land and carry the enemy's position. Why, otherwise, did you care about an intrenched camp, most excellent engineer? But now I may tell you that there is no intrenched camp at all, and that your vigilant eye, Sir, merely detected certain very absurd little furrows which the Confederates have in some places thrown up in the soft sand in front of their camps, which would cover a man up to the knee or stomach, and are quite useless as a breastwork. If they thought a landing probable, it is unpardonable in them to neglect such a protection. These furrows are quite straight, and even if they are deepened the a.s.sailants have merely to march round them, as they extend only for some forty or fifty yards, and have no flanks. The officers of the garrison are aware the enemy have mortar batteries, but they think the inside of the fort will not be easily hit, and they said nothing to show that they were acquainted with the position of the mortars.

From the parapet we descended by a staircase into the casemates. The Confederates are greatly deceived in their expectation that the United States troops will be much exposed to the sun or heat in Pickens. More airy, well-ventilated quarters cannot be imagined, and there is quite light enough to enable the men to read in most of them. The plague of flies will infest both armies, and is the curse of every camp in summer.

As to mosquitoes, the Confederates will probably suffer, if not more, at least as much as the States' troops. The effect of other tormentors, such as yellow fever and dysentery, will be in all probability felt on both sides; but, unless the position of the fort is peculiarly unhealthy, the men, who are under no control in respect to their libations, will probably suffer more than those who are restrained by discipline and restricted to a regular allowance. Water can always be had by digging, and is fit to use if drunk immediately. Vegetables and fresh provisions are not of course so easily had as on sh.o.r.e, but there is a scarcity of them in both camps, and the supplies from the store-ships are very good and certain. The bread baked by the garrison is excellent, as I had an opportunity of ascertaining, for I carried off two loaves from the bakehouse on board our schooner.

Our walk through the casemates was very interesting. They were crowded with men, most of whom were reading. They were quiet, orderly-looking soldiers--a mixture of old and young--scarcely equal in stature to their opponents, but more to be depended upon, I should think, in a long struggle. Everything seemed well arranged. Those men who were in bed had mosquito curtains drawn, and were reading or sleeping at their ease. In the casemates used as a hospital there were only some twelve men sick out of the whole garrison, and I was much struck by the absence of any foul smell, and by the cleanliness and neatness of all the arrangements.

The Colonel spoke to each of the men kindly, and they appeared glad to see him. The dispensary was as neat as care and elbow-grease could make it, and next door to it, in strange juxtaposition, was the laboratory for the manufactory of fusees and deadly implements, in equally good order. Everything is ready for immediate service. I am inclined to think it will be some time before it is wanted. a.s.suredly, if the enemy attack Fort Pickens, they will meet with a resistance which will probably end in the entire destruction of the Navy Yard and of the greater part of their works. A week's delay will enable Colonel Brown to make good some grave defects; but delay is of more advantage to his enemy than it is to him, and if Fort Pickens were made at once _point d'appui_ for a vigorous offensive movement by the fleet and by a land force, I have very little doubt in my mind that Pensacola must fall, and that General Bragg would be obliged to retire. In a few weeks the att.i.tude of affairs may be very different. The railroad is open to General Bragg, and he can place himself in a very much stronger att.i.tude than he now occupies.

At last the time came for me to leave. The Colonel and Captain Berry came down to the beach with me. Outside we found Captain Vogdes kindly keeping my friends in conversation and in liquid supplies in the shade of the bakehouse shed, and, after a little more pleasant conversation, we were afloat once more. Probably no living man was ever permitted to visit the camps of two enemies within sight of each other before this under similar circ.u.mstances, for I was neither spy nor herald, and I owe my best thanks to those who trusted me on both sides so freely and honorably. A gentleman who preceded me did not fare quite so well. He landed on the island and went up to the fort, where he represented himself to be the correspondent of an American journal. But his account of himself was not deemed satisfactory. He was sent off to the fleet.

Presently there came over a flag of truce from General Bragg, with a warrant signed by a justice of the peace, for the correspondent, on a charge of felony; but the writ did not run in Fort Pickens. The officers regarded the message as a clever ruse to get back a spy, and the correspondent is still in durance vile, or in safety, as the case may be, on board the squadron.

All sails filled, the Diana stood up toward the Navy Yard once more in the glare of the setting sun. The sentinels along the battery and beach glared at us with surprise as the schooner, with her flag of truce still flying, ran past them. The pier was swept with the gla.s.s for the Mobile gentlemen; they were not visible. "Hollo! Mr. Captain, what's that you're at?" His mate was waving the Confederate flag from the deck.

"It's only a signal, Sir, to the gentlemen on sh.o.r.e." "Wave some other flag, then, while there's a flag of truce flying, and while we are in these waters." After backing and filling for some time, the party were descried in the distance. Again, the watery skiff was sent off, and in a few minutes they were permitted, thanks to their pa.s.ses, to come off.

Some confidential person had informed them the attack was certainly coming off in a very short time. They were anxious to stay. They had seen friends at Pensacola, and were full of praises of "the quaint old Spanish settlement," but mine is, unfortunately, not an excursion of pleasure, and it was imperative that I should not waste time. Everything had been seen that was necessary for my purpose. It was beyond my power to state the reasons which led me to think no fight would take place, for doing so would have been to betray confidence. And so we parted company: they to feast their eyes on a bombardment--and if they only are near enough to see it, they will heartily regret their curiosity, or I am mistaken--and we to return to Mobile.

It was dark before the Diana was well down off Fort Pickens again, and, as she pa.s.sed out to sea, between it and Fort M'Rae, it was certainly to have been expected that one side or other would bring her to. Certainly our friend Mr. Brown, in his clipper Oriental, would overhaul us outside; and there lay a friendly bottle in a nest of ice waiting for the gallant sailor, who was to take farewell of us according to promise.

Out we glided into night, and into the cold sea breeze, which blew fresh and strong from the north. In the distance the black form of the Powhatan could be just distinguished; the rest of the squadron could not be made out by either eye or gla.s.s, nor was the schooner in sight. A lantern was hoisted by my orders, and was kept aft some time after the schooner was clear of the forts. Still no schooner. The wind was not very favorable for running toward the Powhatan, and it was too late to approach her with perfect confidence from the enemy's side. Beside, it was late; time pressed.

The Oriental was surely lying off somewhere to the west-ward, and the word was given to make all sail, and soon the Diana was bowling along sh.o.r.e, where the sea melted away in a fiery line of foam so close to us that a man could, in nautical phrase, "shy a biscuit" on the sand. The wind was abeam, and the Diana seemed to breathe it through her sails, and flew along at an astonishing rate through the phosph.o.r.escent waters with a prow of flame and a bubbling wake of dancing meteor-like streams flowing from her helm, as though it were a furnace whence boiled a stream of liquid metal. "No sign of the Oriental on our lee bow?"

"Nothin' at all in sight, Sir." The sharks and huge rays flew off from the sh.o.r.e as we pa.s.sed and darted out seawards, making their runs in brilliant trails of light. On sped the Diana, but no Oriental came in sight.

I was tired. The sun had been very hot; the ride through the batteries, the visits to quarters, the excursion to Pickens had found out my weak places, and my head was aching and legs fatigued, and so I thought I would turn in for a short time, and I dived into the shades below, where my comrades were already sleeping, and kicking off my boots, lapsed into a state which rendered me indifferent to the attentions no doubt lavished upon me by the numerous little familiars who recreate in the well-peopled timbers. It never entered into my head, even in my dreams, that the Captain would break the blockade if he could--particularly as his papers had not been indorsed, and the penalties would be sharp and sure if he were caught. But the confidence of coasting captains in the extraordinary capabilities of their craft is a madness--a hallucination so strong that no danger or risk will prevent their acting upon it whenever they can.

I was a.s.sured once by the "captain" of a "Billyboy," that he could run to windward of any frigate in her majesty's service, and there is not a skipper from Hartlepool to Whitstable who does not believe his own "Mary Ann," or "Three Grandmothers," is, on certain "pints," able to b.u.mp her fat bows and scuttle-shaped stern faster through the seas than any clipper which ever flew a pendant. I had been some two hours and a half asleep when I was awakened by a whispering in the little cabin. Charley, the negro cook, ague-stricken with terror, was leaning over the bed, and in broken French was chattering through his teeth--"Monsieu, Monsieu, nous sommes perdus! The bateman de guerre nous poursuit. Il n'a pas encore tire. Il va tirer bientot! Oh mon Dieu! mon Dieu!" Through the hatchway I could see the skipper was at the helm, glancing anxiously from the compa.s.s to the quivering reef points of his mainsail. "What's all this we hear, captain?" "Well, Sir, there's been somethin' a runnin'

after us these two hours" (very slowly). "But I don't think he'll keech us up no how this time." "But, good heavens, you know, it may be the Oriental, with Mr. Brown on board." "Ah wall--may bee. But he kep quite close upon me in the dark--it gev me quite a stark when I seen him. May bee, says I, he's a privateerin' chap, and so I draws in on sh.o.r.e close as I cud,--gets mee centerboard in, and, says I, I'll see what yer med of, mee boy. He an't a gaining much on us." I looked, and sure enough, about half or three-quarters of a mile astern, and somewhat to leeward of us, a vessel, with sails and hull all blended into a black lump, was standing on in pursuit. I strained my eyes and furbished up the gla.s.ses, but I could make out nothing definite. The skipper held grimly on. The sh.o.r.e was so close we could have almost leaped into the surf, for the Diana, when her center-board is up, does not draw much over four feet.

"Captain, I think you had better shake your wind, and see who he is. It may be Mr. Brown." "Meester Brown or no I can't help carrine on now. I'd be on the bank outside in a minit if I didn't hold my course." The captain had his own way; he argued that if it was the Oriental she would have fired a blank gun long ago to bring us to; and as to not calling us when the sail was discovered, he took up the general line of the cruelty of disturbing people when they're asleep. Ah! captain, you know well it was Mr. Brown, as you let out when we were safe off Fort Morgan. By keeping so close in sh.o.r.e in shoal water the Diana was enabled to creep along to windward of the stranger, who evidently was deeper than ourselves. See there! Her sails shiver! so one of the crew says; she's struck! But she's off again, and is after us. We are just within range, and one's eyes become quite blinky, watching for the flash from the bow, but, whether privateer or United States schooner, she was too magnanimous to fire. A stern chase is a long chase. It must now be somewhere about two in the morning. Nearer and nearer to sh.o.r.e creeps the Diana. "I'll lead him into a pretty mess, whoever he is, if he tries to follow me through the Swash," grins the skipper. The Swash is a very shallow, narrow, and dangerous pa.s.sage into Mobile Bay, between the sand-banks on the east of the main channel and the sh.o.r.e. Our pursuer holds on, but gains nothing. The Diana is now only some nine or ten miles from Fort Morgan, guarding the entrance to Mobile. Soon an uneasy, dancing motion, welcomes her approach to the Swash. "Take a cast of the lead, John!" "Nine feet." "Good! Again!" "Seven feet." "Good--Charley, bring the lantern." (Oh, Charley, why did that lantern go out just as it was wanted, and not only expose us to the most remarkable amount of "cussin," imprecation, and strange oaths our ears ever heard, but expose our lives and your head to more imminent danger?) But so it was, just at the critical juncture when a turn of the helm port or starboard made the difference perhaps between life and death, light after light went out, and the captain went dancing mad, after intervals of deadly calmness, as the mate sang out, "Five feet and a half! seven feet--six feet--eight feet--five feet--four and a half feet (oh Lord!)--six feet," and so on, through a measurement of death by inches, not at all agreeable. And where was Mr. Brown all this time? Really we were so much interested in the state of the lead-line, and in the very peculiar behavior of the lanterns, which would not burn, that we scarcely cared much when we heard from the odd hand and Charley that she had put about, after running aground once or twice, they thought, as soon as we entered the Swash, and had vanished rapidly in the darkness. It was little short of a miracle that we got past the elbow, for just at the critical moment, in a channel not more than one hundred yards broad, with only six feet water, the binnacle light, which had burned speedily for a minute, sank with a splutter into black night. When the pa.s.sage was accomplished the captain relieved his mind by chasing Charley into a corner, and with a shark which he held by the tail, as the first weapon that came to hand, inflicting on him condign punishment, and then returning to the helm.

Charley, however, knew his master, for he slyly seized the shark and flung his defunct corpse overboard before another fit of pa.s.sion came on, and by the morning the skipper was good friends with him, after he had relieved himself by a series of castigations of the negligent lamplighter with every variety of Rhadamanthine implement.

The Diana had thus distinguished her dirty little person by breaking a blockade, and giving an excellent friend of ours a great deal of trouble (if it was indeed Mr. Brown), as well as giving us a very unenviable character for want of hospitality and courtesy; and for both I beg to apologize with this account of the transaction. But she had a still greater triumph. As she approached Fort Morgan all was silence. The morning was just showing a grey streak in the east. "Why, they're all asleep at the fort," observed the indomitable captain, and, regardless of gun or sentries, down went his helm, and away the Diana thumped into Mobile Bay, and stole off in the darkness toward the opposite sh.o.r.e.

There was, however, a miserable day before us. When the light fairly broke we had got only a few miles inside, a stiff northerly wind blew right in our teeth, and the whole of the blessed day we spent tacking backward and forward between one low sh.o.r.e and another low sh.o.r.e, in water the color of pea-soup, so that temper and patience were exhausted, and we were reduced to such a state that we took intense pleasure in meeting with a drowning alligator. He was a nice-looking young fellow, about ten feet long, and had evidently lost his way, and was going out to sea bodily, but it would have been the height of cruelty to take him on board our ship, miserable as he was, though he pa.s.sed within two yards of us. There was, to be sure, the pleasure of seeing Mobile in every possible view, far and near, and east and west, and in a lump and run out, but it was not relished any more than our dinner, which consisted of a very gamy Bologna sausage pig, who had not decided whether he would be pork or bacon, and onions fried in a terrible preparation of Charley, the cook. At five in the evening, however, having been nearly fourteen hours beating about twenty-seven miles, we were landed at an outlying wharf, and I started off for the Battle House and rest. The streets are filled with the usual rub-a-dubbing bands, and parades of companies of the citizens in grotesque garments and armament, all looking full of fight and secession. I write my name in the hotel book at the bar as usual. Instantly young Vigilance Committee, who has been resting his heels high in the air, with one eye on the staircase and the other on the end of his cigar, stalks forth and reads my style and t.i.tle, and I have the satisfaction of slapping the door in his face as he saunters after me to my room, and looks curiously in to see how a man takes off his boots. They are all very anxious in the evening to know what I think about Pickens and Pensacola, and I am pleased to tell the citizens I think it will be a very tough affair on both sides whenever it comes. I proceed to New Orleans on Monday.

LETTER XI.

FORT PICKENS AND PENSACOLA--A VISIT TO BOTH CAMPS.

MOBILE, May 18, 1861.

I AVAIL myself of the departure of a gentleman who is going to New York by the shortest route he can find, to send you the accompanying letters.

The mails are stopped; so are the telegraphs; and it is doubtful whether I can get to New Orleans by water. Of what I saw at Fort Pickens and Pensacola here is an account, written in a very hurried manner, and under very peculiar circ.u.mstances.