The Story of American History Part 31

Just below the forts there stretched from each bank towards the middle a big boom of logs. The s.p.a.ce in the middle of the river between the ends of the booms was filled with hulks of old s.h.i.+ps, first firmly anch.o.r.ed, then heavily chained to each other, and lashed to the booms with huge cables, making almost a bridge. Above this formidable barrier was a fleet of iron rams and gunboats.

Besides all this, there were a number of fire rafts, loaded with cotton and hay, ready to be set in a blaze and float down on any Union craft that would dare to come up. How was it possible for the Union vessels to force their way up the river in the face of these obstructions?

[Ill.u.s.tration: ADMIRAL FARRAGUT.]

=330. Farragut prepares for the Attack.=--Farragut had about fifty vessels all told: frigates, s.h.i.+ps, sloops, gunboats, and mortar vessels. He anch.o.r.ed the mortar boats around a point of land nearly two miles below the forts, and dressed them with evergreens and foliage of trees disguising their position. Then the great thirteen-inch bombs burst inside and around the forts all day, all night, for six days.

Meanwhile two small gunboats went one night up to the chained hulks to break the barrier; and though detected and fired on, the officers worked calmly and persistently. They contrived to get a gunboat through, then steamed up the river, turned and rushed down on the cable with such force as to break it! Daylight showed a wide opening for the Union fleet.

=331. The Grand Work done by Farragut and his Fleet.=--The next morning at two o'clock, April 24, 1862, the fleet steamed up. The forts fired and the s.h.i.+ps fired, but the fleet kept moving in the darkness. Soon one pa.s.sed through, then another, the swift ones das.h.i.+ng ahead.

But the flags.h.i.+p Hartford, on which was Farragut, having pa.s.sed through, turned aside to avoid a blazing fire raft, when she ran aground! Then the Confederates, seeing the Hartford stuck fast, pushed a fire raft up against it. Instantly the flames flashed along the rigging and the ports, the big guns of the fort meanwhile pounding her. But the gun crews kept working their cannon as steadily as if on practice, and the rest fought the flames, and soon subdued them. The flags.h.i.+p was saved.

Other s.h.i.+ps pa.s.sed up, all fighting, some surviving by hairbreadth escapes; a few were lost.

When the morning sun rose, the astounding work had been done, the gates of fire had been pa.s.sed, and the Union fleet under Farragut was triumphant. New Orleans was captured and the control of the river secured nearly up to Vicksburg.

=332. The Merrimac and the Monitor.=--When the war for the Union began, and just before the Confederates seized the navy yard at Norfolk, the commanding officer there contrived to burn or sink all the s.h.i.+ps; but the best one, the Merrimac, was soon raised and rebuilt as a powerful ironclad.

When the fine old frigate had been remodeled her entire appearance was changed. She had no longer the appearance of a s.h.i.+p, but seemed like a house afloat. The story is told that an old sailor on board the c.u.mberland, who first sighted her, reported gravely to the officer of the deck, "Quaker meeting-house floating down the bay, sir."

In antic.i.p.ation of what harm it might do, the government engaged Captain Ericsson, a Swedish inventor in New York, to build as quickly as possible, after his own plans, an ironclad, a new and very odd-shaped kind of wars.h.i.+p--the now famous Monitor. The construction was pushed day and night without an hour of delay.

=333. Attack of the Merrimac on the Union Fleet.=--Before long the dreaded Merrimac was finished, and on March 8, 1862, the ponderous black monster steamed slowly out to attack the Union s.h.i.+ps in Hampton Roads. She made straight for the fine frigate c.u.mberland, the solid shot of whose broadside fell like pebbles into the sea from the slopes of the huge ironclad. On, on came the ponderous monster, and cras.h.i.+ng into the wooden side of the c.u.mberland, opened a hole "wide as a church door."

The sinking s.h.i.+p went down with her flag flying and her guns booming to the last!

Next the Merrimac attacked the Congress, whose captain and three-fourths of her crew were killed or wounded. Hot shot were used, which soon set the Congress in a blaze. Then the ironclad, as if she had done enough for one day, went grimly back to Norfolk, intending to continue her destruction the next day.

Everywhere in that region is alarm. The sh.o.r.es are thronged with anxious thousands. The city of Was.h.i.+ngton is almost in a panic. The grim monster may steam up here on the next day, and hurl its exploding sh.e.l.ls into the Capitol or the White House. Philadelphia, Baltimore, and all the seacoast cities of the country are exposed to destruction. What is to be done? Can the danger be averted?

=334. Timely Arrival of the Monitor.=--That very night, as if by a special providence, the Monitor arrived from New York! Early next morning, when the naval Goliath of yesterday came out in his iron armor, victorious and confident, a young David stood up to defy him!

A strange craft indeed was the Monitor. Her rail was but little above the water, and nothing was to be seen on her deck but a kind of round iron box in the middle, a pilot house forward, and a small smokestack aft. At a mile's distance she might be taken for a raft. Indeed, the Confederates well described her when they called her a "Yankee cheese-box on a raft."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FAMOUS CONTEST BETWEEN THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC.]

=335. Famous Battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac.=--It was a Sunday morning, and the sun rose in a cloudless sky. The batteries on both sides of the bay were crowded with men waiting for the coming contest. At the first sign of life on board the Merrimac, the Monitor began her preparations for the battle.

Slowly the Confederate ram came down the bay. She opened fire on the Minnesota, which was still aground. The frigate responded with a mighty broadside, but the cannon b.a.l.l.s rattled off the iron flanks of the huge ram like so many peas. Clearly everything depended upon the little Monitor.

The battle now began, and the huge sh.e.l.ls and heavy shot crashed like loudest thunder. It was a strange, an awful battle. At times the two vessels were in actual contact. The dense smoke, the deafening roar of explosions, the shouts of officers' orders, the crews often hurled off their feet by the terrific blows smiting the iron armor--all made it beyond description fearfully sublime. The Merrimac's plates were split and torn. One shot, entering her port, did terrible havoc.

Just as Lieutenant Worden of the Monitor was looking through the slit in the turret to take aim, a sh.e.l.l struck outside and filled his face and eyes with powder and iron splinters! He was insensible for some time.

When he came to himself, his first question was, "Have I saved the Minnesota?"

"Yes," was the reply, "and whipped the Merrimac."

"Then I don't care what becomes of me," he answered.

After more than three hours of this frightful combat, the humbled Merrimac steamed back to Norfolk, the victorious little Monitor giving a series of farewell shots as she sailed away.

Thus ended this marvelous battle, the first in the world's history between ironclad vessels. All Was.h.i.+ngton retired to sleep that night with a sense of relief, for it seemed as if the nation had been saved.

The brave Worden shortly after the famous battle went to Was.h.i.+ngton.

President Lincoln was at a cabinet meeting when he heard of the lieutenant's arrival. He rose hastily and said, "Gentlemen, I must go to that fellow."

When Lincoln entered his room, Worden was lying on a sofa with his eyes and head heavily bandaged.

"Mr. President," said he, "you do me great honor by this visit."

"Sir," said Mr. Lincoln, with tears in his eyes, "I am the one who is honored by this interview."

=336. Confederate Privateers attack Union Merchantmen.=--When the North began blockading the Southern ports, the South of course used all its energies to break the blockade by aiding s.h.i.+ps to pa.s.s in or out, and also to destroy our commerce wherever it might be found.

The first craft that went out on this errand of destruction was an ocean steamer then at New Orleans. It had been speedily altered into a wars.h.i.+p and named the Sumter. She slipped through the blockade in June, 1861, and did a lively business capturing and burning our merchantmen.

Then the South, as it had no navy of its own, had to seek aid abroad.

England seemed to be very willing that her s.h.i.+pbuilders should furnish s.h.i.+ps for the use of the Confederacy in seizing and destroying Union vessels.

The first of the cruisers secretly built in a British s.h.i.+pyard to destroy our commerce was the Florida. She burned or sank over forty vessels before she was captured.

=337. The Famous Alabama makes Sad Havoc.=--The Alabama was the most famous of the Confederate cruisers. She was built under false pretenses and with a false name, in an English port, of English material, armed with English cannon, and manned by English sailors.

The Alabama, once fairly at sea under Captain Semmes, skillfully avoided our men-of-war sent to capture her, and continued in her two years'

cruise till she had burned or captured sixty-seven of our merchant s.h.i.+ps.

=338. The Alabama destroyed by the Kearsarge.=--At last the Alabama went into the harbor of Cherbourg, in France. Captain Winslow of the United States wars.h.i.+p Kearsarge, then searching for her, heard of this and at once challenged her, and then waited outside. On the nineteenth day of June, 1864, the Alabama was compelled by law to leave the port. The battle began, and was watched by thousands from the sh.o.r.es.

The Kearsarge swept around in great circles, compelling the Alabama, about half a mile distant, to do the same. The men on the Alabama fired fast and wild. Their shots flew over, or fell short; but the Kearsarge fired carefully and with true aim. Nearer drew the Kearsarge, circling still. Its two eleven-inch guns made frightful havoc, tearing great rents in the Alabama's sides. She was sinking, and started for the sh.o.r.e. Winslow now steamed in front and headed her off. Then down came the Confederate flag.

Soon the far-famed and dreaded cruiser sank to her watery grave. The names Winslow and Kearsarge long rang through this country with plaudits of enthusiastic praise.

"I would rather have fought that fight," said brave old Admiral Farragut, "than any ever fought on the ocean."

=339. England pays for the Damage done by the Alabama.=--After the war England refused for years to make compensation for the damage the Alabama had done to our commerce. But seeing that the same course might some day injure herself, and sensible of the injustice, she at last consented to make amends. In 1872 a Board of Arbitrators met at Geneva, and agreeably to its decision "John Bull" promptly paid $15,500,000 to "Uncle Sam" to distribute among those who had suffered by the depredations.

=340. Preparations for the Capture of Mobile.=--In the summer of 1864 a prominent Southern port, Mobile, was yet uncaptured. Its defenses were strong. Two splendid forts stood sentry at the gateway. Long lines of piles narrowed the channel to about three hundred feet, and a triple row of torpedoes threatened any approach. In the harbor the Confederates had a small fleet of gunboats and one tremendous ram, the Tennessee.

Admiral Farragut determined to capture Mobile. He had four monitors and fourteen wooden s.h.i.+ps. All the preparations were made with the utmost care. The officers and men of the fleet regarded the admiral with staunch loyalty and absolute trust. The attack was made early on the morning of August 5.

=341. Farragut's Crowning Victory at Mobile.=--The fleet pa.s.sing through the channel, rained shot and sh.e.l.l so furiously upon the forts that the Confederates could not well serve their guns. But our finest ironclad, the Tec.u.mseh, was struck by a torpedo, and she sank with over a hundred of her brave men!

Her captain, the gallant Craven, was at the time in the pilot-house with the pilot. As the huge ironclad lurched heavily over and began to sink, both rushed to the narrow door, but there was only room for one to pa.s.s at a time. Craven stepped to one side, saying, "After you, pilot." The pilot leaped to a place of safety, but the n.o.ble captain went to the bottom in his iron coffin.

The fleet now fought a desperate battle with the Confederate ironclads.

The armored vessels were soon sunk or scattered. The Tennessee tried to ram our s.h.i.+ps, but with little success. Then our ironclads gathered around our "wooden walls," steamed straight for the ram, and there was fought one of the most desperate naval fights of the war.

Sharpshooters fired into the ram's ports, our s.h.i.+ps successively poured in a terrific fire, and hammered at close range with huge solid shot and fifteen-inch bolts of iron, till the white flag went up, and once more the stars and stripes waved triumphantly over the harbor of Mobile.