Showing posts with label USS St Louis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USS St Louis. Show all posts

Friday, February 28, 2020

Report of Flag-Officer Andrew H. Foote, U. S. Navy, February 7, 1862

CAIRo, ILL., February 7, 1862.

SIR: I have the honor to report that on the 6th instant, at 12:30 p.m., I made an attack on Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River, with the ironclad gunboats Cincinnati, Commander Stembel; the flagship Essex, Commander Porter; Carondelet, Commander Walke, and St. Louis, Lieutenant Commanding Paulding; also taking with me the three old gunboats, Conestoga, Lieutenant Commanding Phelps; the Tyler, Lieutenant Commanding Gwin, and the Lexington, Lieutenant Commanding Shirk, as a second division, in charge of Lieutenant Commanding Phelps, which took position astern and inshore of the armored boats, doing good execution there in the action, while the armored boats were placed in the first order of steaming, approaching the fort in a parallel line.

The fire was opened at 1,700 yards distant from the flagship, which was followed by the other gunboats and responded to by the fort. As we approached the fort under slow steaming, till we reached within 600 yards of the rebel batteries, the fire both from the gunboats and fort increased in rapidity and accuracy of range. At twenty minutes before the rebel flag was struck, the Essex, unfortunately received a shot in her boilers, which resulted in the wounding, by scalding, of 29 officers and men, including Commander Porter, as will be seen in the enclosed list of casualties. The Essex, then necessarily dropped out of line, astern, entirely disabled and unable to continue the fight, in which she had so gallantly participated until the sad catastrophe. The firing continued with unabated rapidity and effect upon the three gunboats as they continued still to approach the fort, with their destructive fire, until the rebel flag was hauled down, after a very severe and closely contested action of one hour and fifteen minutes.

A boat containing the adjutant-general and captain of engineers came alongside after the flag was lowered and reported that General Lloyd Tilghman, the commander of the fort, wished to communicate with the flag-officer, when I dispatched Commander Stembel and Lieutenant Commanding Phelps, with orders to hoist the American flag where the secession ensign had been flying, and to inform General Tilghman that I would see him on board the flagship. He came on board soon after the Union had been substituted by Commander Stembel for the rebel flag on the fort, and possession taken.

I received the general, his staff, and some 60 or 70 men as prisoners, and a hospital ship containing 60 invalids, together with the fort and its effects, mounting twenty guns, mostly of heavy caliber, with barracks and tents capable of accommodating 15,000 men, and sundry articles, which, as I turned the fort and its effects over to General Grant, commanding the army, on his arrival in an hour after we had made the capture, he will be enabled to give the Government a more correct statement than I am enabled to communicate from the short time I had possession of the fort.

The plan of attack, so far as the army reaching the rear of the fort to make a demonstration simultaneously with the navy, was frustrated by the excessively muddy roads and high stage of water preventing the arrival of our troops until some time after I had taken possession of the fort.
On securing the prisoners and making necessary or preliminary arrangements, I dispatched Lieutenant Commanding Phelps with his division up the Tennessee River, as I had previously directed, and as will be seen in the enclosed orders to him to remove the rails and so far render the bridge incapable of railroad transportation and communication between Bowling Green and Columbus, and afterwards to pursue the rebel gunboats and secure their capture if possible.

This being accomplished, and the army in possession of the fort, and my services being o at Cairo, I left Fort Henry in the evening of the same day with the Cincinnati, Essex, and St. Louis, and arrived here this morning.

The armored gunboats resisted effectually the shot of the enemy when striking the casemate. The Cincinnati, flagship, received 31 shot; the Essex, 15; the St. Louis, 7; and Carondelet, 6; killing 1 and wounding 9 in the Cincinnati and killing 1 in the Essex, while the casualties in the latter from steam amounted to 28 in number. The Carondelet and St. Louis met with no casualties.

The steamers were admirably handled by their commanders and officers, presenting only their bow guns to the enemy to avoid exposure of the vulnerable parts of their vessels. Lieutenant Commanding Phelps, with his division, also executed my orders very effectually, and promptly proceeded up the river in their further execution after the capture of the fort. In fact, all the officers and men gallantly performed their duty, and, considering the little experience they o had under fire, far more than realized my expectations.

Fort Henry was defended with the most determined gallantry by General Tilghman, worthy of a better cause, who, from his own account, went into the action with eleven guns of heavy caliber bearing upon our boats, which he fought until seven of the number were dismounted or otherwise rendered useless.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. H. Foote,                       
Flag-Officer.
Hon. GIDEoN WELLEs,
Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C.

[Report of same date and like tenor to Major-General Halleck.]

SOURCE: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, Series I, Volume 22, p. 537-9

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Flag-Officer Andrew H. Foote to Gideon Welles, February 6, 1862

U. S. Flag Steamer “Cincinnati,”                          
Off Fort Henry, Tennnesee River,             
February 6th, 1862.
sir:

The gunboats under my command—the “Essex,” Commander Porter; “Carondelet,” Commander Walke; “Cincinnati,” Commander Stemble; “St. Louis,” Lieut. Commander Paulding; 'Conestoga,' Lieut. Commander Phelps; 'Taylor,' Lieut. Commander Gwin; and the “Lexington,” Lieut. Commanding Shirk,—after a severe and rapid fire of one hour and a quarter, have captured Fort Henry, and taken General Lloyd Tilghman, and staff, with sixty men, as prisoners. The surrender to the gunboats was unconditional, as we kept an open fire upon the enemy until the flag was struck.

In half an hour after the surrender, I handed the fort and prisoners over to General Grant, commanding the army, on his arrival at the fort in force.

The “Essex” had a shot in her boilers after fighting most effectively for two-thirds of the action, and was obliged to drop down the river. I heard that several of the men were scalded to death, including the two pilots. She, with the other gunboats, officers, and men, fought with the greatest gallantry.

The “Cincinnati” received thirty-one shots, and had one man killed and eight wounded, two seriously.

The fort, with twenty guns and seventeen mortars, was defended by General Tilghman with the most determined gallantry.

Very Respectfully,
Your Ob't Servant,
A. H. Foote.
Hon. Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy.

SOURCE:  Henry Walke, Naval Scenes and Reminiscences of the Civil War in the United States, p. 56

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Details of the Bombardment and Capture of Fort Henry. Incidents, &c., February 10, 1862

The Cincinnati Gazette and Commercial’s Cairo correspondence give the following account of the bombardment and capture of Fort Henry:

Yesterday, (February 6,) at 12½ p. m. the gunboats Cincinnati, St. Louis, Carondelet, and Essex, the Tyler, Conestoga and Lexington bringing up the rear, advanced boldly against the rebel works, going to the right of Painter Creek Island, immediately above where, on the east shore of the river, stands the fortifications, and keeping out of range till at the head of the island, and within a mile of the enemy, passing the enemy in full view of the rebel guns.  We steadily advanced, every man at quarters, ever ear strained to catch the flag-officer’s signal-gun for the commencement of the action.

Our line of battle was on the left, the St. Louis next, the Carondelet next, the Cincinnati, (for the time being the flag ship, having on board Flag officer Foote,) and the next the Essex.  We advanced in line, the Cincinnati a boat’s length ahead, when at 11:30 the Cincinnati opened the ball, and immediately the three accompanying boats followed suit.  The enemy was not backward, and gave an admirable response, and the fight raged furiously for half an hour.  We steadily advanced, receiving and returning the storm of shot and shell, when getting within three hundred yards of the enemy’s works we came to a stand, and poured into him right and left.  In the meantime the Essex had been disabled, and drifted away from the scene of action, leaving the Cincinnati, Carondelet and St. Louis alone engaged.

As precisely forty minutes past one, the enemy struck his colors—and such cheering, such wild excitement, as seized the throats, arms, or caps, of the four or five hundred sailors of the gunboats can be imagined.  After the surrender, which was made to Flag-officer Foote by Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, who defended the fort in a most determined manner, we found that the rebel infantry encamped outside the fort, numbering four or five thousand, had cut and run, leaving the rebel artillery company in command of the fort.

The fort mounted seventeen guns, most of them 32-pounders, one being a magnificent 10-inch columbiad.  Our shots dismounted two of their guns, driving the enemy into the embrasures.  One of their rifled 32-pounders burst during the engagement, wounding some of their gunners.  The rebels claimed to have but eleven effective guns worked by fifty-four men—the numbers all told of our prisoners.  They lost five killed and ten badly wounded.  The infantry left everything in their flight.  A vast deal of plunder has fallen into our hands, including a large and valuable quantity of ordnance stores.

Gen. Tilghman is disheartened.  He thinks it one of the most damaging blows of the war.  In surrendering to Flag-officer Foote, the rebel General remarked, “I am glad to surrender to so gallant an officer.”  Flag-officer Foote replied, “You do perfectly right, sir, in surrendering; but you should have blown my boat out of the water before I would have surrendered to you.”

In the engagement the Cincinnati was in the lead, and flying the flag officer’s pennant, was the chief mark.  Flagg-officer Foote and Capt. Stembel crowded her defiantly into the teeth of the enemy’s guns.  She got thirty-one shots, some of them going completely through her.

The Essex was badly crippled when about half through the fight, and crowding steadily against the enemy.  A ball went into her side-forward port, through the heavy bulkhead, escaping steam scalding and killing several of the crew.  Captain Porter, his aid, L. P. Britton, Jr[.], and Paymaster Lewis, were standing in a direct line of the balls passing, Mr. Britton being in the centre of the group.  A shot struck Mr. Britton on the top of his head, scattering his brains in every direction.  The escaping steam went into the pilot-house, instantly killing Mr. Ford and Mr. Bride, pilots.  Many of the soldiers, at the rush of steam, jumped overboard and were drowned.

The Cincinnati had one killed and six wounded.  The Essex had six seamen and two officers killed, seventeen men wounded and five missing.  There were no casualties on the St. Louis or Carondelet, though the shot and shell fell upon them like rain.

The St. Louis was commanded by Leonard Paulding, who stood upon the gunboat and wrought the guns to the last.  Not a man flinched, and with cheer upon cheer sent the shot and shell among the enemy.

THE REBELS NOT TRUE.—It is reported, and believed at Paducah, that the rebel troops at Fort Henry were not true to the rebel cause and took advantage of the opportunity offered by an attack to run away from a fight that was distasteful to them.

IT WAS A NAVAL VICTORY.—It appears that this victory was entirely a navel one—the troops of the expedition not having come up to the scene of action until the rebels had surrendered.  The gunboats engaged are a part of those strong iron-clad river boats, or turtles, which were built within the last few months, at, St. Louis, Carondelet and other points and which were originally destined for Gen. Fremont’s expedition down the Mississippi.  Commodore Foote mentions nine of these vessels as having been in the engagement.

ARMAMENT OF THE GUNBOATS.—The Essex, 9 guns, Commander H. [sic] D. Porter, U. S. N.; Carondelet, 13 guns, Commander H. Walke, U. S. N.; Cincinnati, 13 Guns, Commander R. N. Stembel, U. S. N.; St. Louis, 13 guns, Lieutenant Commanding Leonard Paulding, U. S. N.; Conestoga, 9 guns, Lieutenant Commanding Phelps, U. S. N.; Taylor [sic], 9 guns, Lieutenant Commanding W. Gwin, U. S. N.; Lexington, 9 guns, Lieutenant Commanding J. W. Shirk, U. S. N.

The boats are built very wide, in proportion to their length, giving them almost the same steadiness in action that a stationary land battery would possess.  They are constructed upon the same principle as the famous iron battery at Charleston, the sides sloping both upward and downward from the water line, at an angle of 45 degrees.  The bow battery on each boat consists of solid oak timber 26 inches in thickness, plated on the exterior surface with iron 2½ inches thick.  The side and stern batteries are somewhat thinner, but have the same thickness of iron over that portion covering the machinery.  The boats are not plated on the roof which consists of a 2½ inch plank.

The most dreadfully savage contrivance upon these boats is that to prevent boarding.  Each boat is supplied with a number of large hose-pipes for throwing hot water from the boilers with a force of 200 pounds pressure to the square inch.  Any human being who shall encounter this terrible stream of hot water will be boiled in an instant.

The Conestoga, Taylor [sic] and Lexington are not of the same model or character as the others, being simply Mississippi River steamboats rebuilt with perpendicular bulwarks and pierced for guns.

VALUE OF THE VICTORY.—There is another and stronger rebel fort on the Cumberland, a few miles eastward of the scene of our present victory; but considering the fact that our troops are now in the rear of that fort, and learning, as we do, from the West, the movement that is on the lapis to bring it down as suddenly as Fort Henry has been brought down, we look upon the victory we have gained as being full and complete, as regards the object in view.  Look at the map at that part of Tennessee where Fort Henry is located, and at that point of the Memphis and Ohio railroad which our troops now hold, and see how far we have penetrated in the rear of Bowling Green—see how far in the rear of Columbus—how convenient we are for sweeping down on the railroad to Memphis—see how near we now are to Nashville—and how Nashville is located to the whole State of Tennessee, and that again to the whole of the rebel States of the Southwest, and some idea will be had of the value of the present advance and victory.

COMMODORE FOOTE has been in the naval service over forty years.  He is known in the navy as one of its most efficient officers, and distinguished himself greatly in China by the bombardment and breaching of a Chinese fort, the fort, in all respects, a superior work of masonry.  The feat called forth the praise of all foreign naval officers on that coast.  Commodore Foote is an affable gentleman, and as will be seen by his reply to the rebel Tilghman, never surrenders.

CAPT. PORTER.—Capt. Porter, of the gunboat Essex, who is reported as badly scalded by the bursting of his boat’s boiler, is a native of Louisiana, but entered the navy from Massachusetts in 1823.  He is a son of the renowned Commodore Porter, who figured so prominently in the war of 1812.  He has been thirty-eight years in the service, and has seen twelve years sea duty.  When the Mississippi flotilla was projected, he was detailed to the command of a gunboat.  The Captain christened his boat the Essex, after his father’s renowned vessel, and judging from precedent, Capt. Porter is the “bull-dog,” or fighting man of this expedition.  He has Dahlgren guns for his armament, and delights in “shelling.”  He worked prodigiously getting his boat ready, and since then he has been cruising around, stirring up the rebels wherever he could find them.

GEN. TILGHMAN, the traitor who commanded at Fort Henry, was graduated at West Point, and made brevet second Lieutenant in the First dragoons in 1836, but shortly after resigned, and became division engineer on the Baltimore and Susquehanna railroad, and afterward on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.  In the Mexican war, he re-entered the service as volunteer aid-de-camp to Colonel Twiggs, and was present at the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de Palma.  He commanded a volunteer regiment  till October, 1846, and in January, 1847, was made superintendent of the defences of Matamoras; finally he acted as captain of volunteer artillery in Hughes’ regiment from August, 1847, till July, 1848.  At the close of the war he again entered civil live, and was chosen principal assistant engineer in the Panama Isthmus railroad.  On the breaking out of the war, he was acting railroad engineer, but joined the rebels, and was appointed to command at Fort Henry, where he has been ingloriously captured.

SOURCE: The National Republican, Washington, D.C., Monday, February 10, 1862, p. 2

Friday, October 18, 2019

Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote to Gideon Welles, February 15, 1862

U. S. Flagship St. Louis,                     
Near Fort Donelson (via Paducah), February 15,1862.       
(Received February 16, 1802.)

I made an attack on Fort Donelson yesterday at 3 o'clock p. m., with four ironclad gunboats and two wooden ones, and after one hour and a quarter severe fighting, the latter part of the day within less than 400 yards of the fort, the wheel of this vessel and the tiller of the Louisville were shot away, rendering the two boats unmanageable. They then drifted down the river. The two remaining boats were also greatly damaged between wind and water, this vessel alone having received 59 shots and the others about half that number each. There were 54 killed and wounded in this attack, which we have reason to suppose would, in fifteen minutes more, could the action have been continued, have resulted in the capture of the fort bearing upon us, as the enemy was running from his batteries when the two gunboats helplessly drifted down the river from disabled steering apparatus, as the relieving tackles could not steer the vessels in the strong current, when the fleeing enemy returned to the river battery guns from which they had been driven and again hotly poured fire upon us. The enemy must have brought over twenty guns to bear upon our boats from the water battery and the main fort on the hill, while we could only return the fire with twelve bow guns from the four boats. One rifled gun aboard the Carondelet burst during the action.

The officers and men in this hotly contested but unequal fight behaved with the greatest gallantry and determination, all deploring the accident rendering two of our gunboats suddenly helpless in the narrow river and swift current. On consultation with General Grant and my own officers, as my services here until we can repair damages by bringing up a competent force from Cairo to attack the fort, are much less required than they are at Cairo, I shall proceed to that place with two of the disabled gunboats, leaving the two others here to protect the transports and with all dispatch prepare the mortar boats and the Benton with other boats to make an effectual attack upon Fort Donelson.

I have sent the Tyler to the Tennessee River to render impassable the bridge, so as to prevent the rebels at Columbus reinforcing their army at Fort Donelson.

A. H. Foote,                       
Flag-Officer, Comdg. Naval Forces, Western Division.
Hon. Gideon Welles,
Secretary Navy.

SOURCE: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Volume 22, p. 584-5

Commander Benjamin M. Dove to Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote, February 16, 1862

U. S. Gunboat Louisville,    
Off Dover, February 16,1862.

Sir: At 2:30 p. m. yesterday, shortly after your departure, I received the enclosed dispatch (No. 1) from General Grant.

It seemed of so much importance for us to keep up a show of force that I decided not to accompany the Pittsburg down the river.

I immediately went on board the Carondelet and St. Louis to see their condition and consult with their commanders.

The Carondelet could not well be moved, but I ordered up the St. Louis and followed up with this vessel. The St. Louis threw a few shells, and toward dark both vessels returned to their former anchorage.

At 8:30 p. m. yesterday I received the dispatch marked No. 2, and early this morning went on board the vessels to give instructions.

The condition of the Carondelet’s wounded would not allow them to be moved or the guns to be used. I sent my own and those of the St. Louis on board of one of the transports and got underway, steaming up toward the batteries at Fort Donelson, both vessels cleared for action.

On approaching near enough two white flags were seen flying from the upper one. I then stopped the gunboats and proceeded in the tug with a white flag flying, and landed at the foot of the hill below the fort. I was met by a major, who offered me his sword, which I declined to receive, thinking it most proper to consult with General Grant. I took the major on board the tug and proceeded up to General Buckner's headquarters, where I found General Wallace and his aids. General Grant arrived about a half hour afterwards. The fort had surrendered, but what were the conditions I was not officially informed.

The transports are all up at Dover to receive the prisoners. The Carondelet, being most disabled of the gunboats, will go down this afternoon.

I will remain here with this vessel and the St. Louis until further orders, or until the fall of the river compels me to go down. The St. Louis will make a short reconnoissance up the river, at General Grant's suggestion, this afternoon. This vessel will remain off the town.

The Graham arrived to-day with the mortar and gunboat ammunition.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Benj. M. Dove,     
Commander.
Flag-Officer A. H. Foote,
Commanding Mississippi Flotilla.

SOURCE: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Volume 22, p. 588-9

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Flag-Officer Andrew H. Foote to Brigadier-General Ulysses S. Grant, February 14, 1862

FLAGSHIP “ST. Louis,” Feb. 14, 1862.

Gen. GRANT, commanding United-States Forces.

DEAR GENERAL, —Will you do me the favor to come on board at your earliest convenience? As I am disabled from walking, from a contusion, I cannot possibly get to see you about the disposition of these vessels, all of which are more or less disabled.

A. S. [sic] Foote, Flag-Officer.

SOURCE: Charles A. Phelps, Life and Public Services of General Ulysses S. Grant, p. 36-7

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Gen. Grant’s Expedition

PADUCAH, February 4, 1862

The transports which left Cairo yesterday with troops on board, came straggling in here one at a time during all of last night, and immediately proceeded up the Tennessee.

We reached a point ten miles this side of Fort Henry about daylight, where we found the gun boats St. Louis, Essex, Carondelet and St. Louis [sic] lying at anchor.  The troops on board the new Uncle Sam, Illinois and Aleck Scott, were disembarked and again re-embarked, and landed four miles above, where the balance of the troops were also landed as fast as they arrived.

The gunboats weighed anchor upon our arrival, and steamed up to within gunshot range of the Fort, where an interchange of shot and shell was had between our boats and the Fort, about twenty shots being fired on each side.  The shooting was very accurate on both sides.  One shot from the Fort struck the upper wooden cabin of the Essex, and tore a hole in her.  The damage was, however, but trifling, as the cabin was but a temporary affair.  Several of our shells burst in the fort, and immense damage is supposed to have been done.

At intervals between shots a rebel steamer was seen maneuvering about.

A powerful Union force is now encamped on the heights of the east bank of the Tennessee River, just beyond the range of the enemy’s guns.

The transports, after landing their human cargoes, returned to Paducah, where they will take on reinforcements, and proceed as speedily as possible to the point of debarkation, near Fort Henry.

The New Uncle Sam met with an accident in returning here this afternoon.  About twenty miles up the river, while running close to the shore, she ran into a large tree, tearing away her railings and escape pipe, and damaging her wheel house and barber shop, the latter to the great consternation of the proprietor of the last named establishment.

Heavy re-enforcements will be landed near Fort Henry to-morrow, to co-operate with the force now there, and ere many days shall elapse, the clash of arms will be heard in this quarter that will shake secessionism to its foundation.

I have not been able to learn what, if anything, has been done on the Cumberland from Smithland.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 8, 1862, p. 2

Friday, October 12, 2012

The Battle at Island 10

FOURTH DAY.

Monday, March 17. – Last night was one of unusual clearness and the river and shores were bathed in the most delicious moonlight.  If painters need any business, when the grim dogs of war are baying, they would have reveled in the scene.  Although I was surrounded by all the fearful paraphernalia of war, there was nothing to disturb the serenity of the night.  No sounds were audible save the plash of the water, the snarling trumpet calling our pickets afar off, and the sound of the bells upon the gunboats as they called the hours.  The forenoon was consumed until 10 o’clock in supplying the mortar rafts with shells and powder from the ammunition boats.  About half-past ten the mortars commenced practice, occupying the same position as the day before excepting two, which were moored on the left bank about three miles below the upper battery.  Two of the mortars shelled the rebel encampments round the point, the fire of the others concentrating upon the upper battery.  About 11 o’clock, the gunboats took position.  The Benton, Cincinnati and St. Louis lashed together, slowly dropped down the river and opened fire upon the same battery. – The scene now became animated in the extreme, the ball being fairly opened.  I took a position on shore, near the point and alongside the mortars, to witness their practice.  The firing of a mortar is the very poetry of a battle.  A bag of powder weighing from eighteen to twenty pounds is dropped into the bore of the huge monster.  The derrick drops the shell in; the angle is calculated; a long cord is attached to the primer; the gunner steps out upon the platform, and the balance of the crew upon the shore.  The Captain gives the word, the gunner gives his cord a sudden jerk, a crash like a thousand thunders follows, a tongue of flame leaps from the mouth of the mortar, and a column of smoke rolls up in beautiful fleecy spirals, developing into rings of exquisite proportions.  One can see the shell as it leaves the mortar flying through the air, apparently no larger than a marble.  The next you see of the shell, a beautiful cloud of smoke bursts into sight, caused by the explosion.  Imagine ten of these monsters thundering at once, the air filled with smoke clouds, the gunboats belching out destruction and completely hidden from sight in whirls of smoke, the shell screaming through the air with the enemy sending their solid shot and shell above and around us, dashing the water up in glistening columns and jets of spray, and you have the sublime poetry of war.  An incident, however, will show how completely the battle may lose its poetry and develop into a stern and suggestive reality.


FIFTH DAY.

TUESDAY, March 18, 1862. – The firing of our boats yesterday very seriously damaged the upper fort, and at an early hour this morning some two or three hundred men could be discovered busily at work repairing the breaches.  The Benton at once dropped down and commenced using her bow rifles with the happiest effect, causing a complete suspension of labor upon the works, the laborers running pell-mell to the nearest shelter.  The Benton continued her practice until the mortars commenced, when she ceased firing.  The gunboats have been idle to-day, the mortars occupying the time exclusively and making some excellent shots.  Several shells have been lodged in the head of the Island.  The mortar practice is rapidly improving, and at the present rate of improvement will warm up the rebel encampment and fortifications to a degree which must cause a speedy evacuation.

This morning I visited Com. Foote.  He expressed himself confident of reducing the place, but says it will take time.  He is fighting the battle at fearful odds.  The gunboats are too unwieldy and unmanageable to fight down stream in the mad current, which sweeps round the point with irresistible fury.  Should one of them become crippled, no power could save her from falling into the hands of the rebels, or being entirely destroyed by their floating battery.  Still the Flag Officer is hopeful.  Undaunted by the difficulties which stare him in the face, by the mean, despicable lack of sympathy with his plans upon the part of certain army officers and others high in power, thus thwarting him in his endeavors to expedite matters to a successful issue.  He will yet cut the Gordian knot by a splendid victory, and clear the river to Memphis and thence sweep triumphantly to the Balize.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 29, 1862, p. 1

Monday, August 27, 2012

From Island No. 10


CAIRO, March 18. – A messenger just from Island No. 10, says that our boats kept up a short range fire on the enemy’s works all day yesterday.  The rebels have six batteries on the Tennessee shore.  Our mortar boats kept firing every half hour during the night.  One shell from a rebel battery struck the Benton, killing one and wounding seven others.

A rifled gun on the St. Louis bursted killing one of the crew.  The St. Louis was struck several times.

The enemy is very strongly fortified and have a large number of batteries on the main land.

The shells from the mortars fall in the enemy’s batteries on the Island every time.

All the mortar boats here are to leave for the Island.

The gunboat Cincinnati received a shot which is said to have done some damage to her machinery.

The bursting of the gun on the St. Louis killed one, mortally wounded two and severely wounded several others.

The previous report that one was killed and several wounded on the flag ship is contradicted.  No damage was done to any other of the boats.

Nothing has been heard from the land forces at New Madrid yet.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 22, 1862, p. 3

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Speech Of Senator Grimes


On the Joint Resolution tendering the thanks of Congress to Commodore Foote and his officers and men.

The joint resolution is as follows:

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the thanks of Congress and of the American people are due, and are hereby tendered to Captain A. H. Foote, of the United States Navy, and to the officers and men of the western flotilla under his command, for the great gallantry exhibited by them in the attacks upon Forts Henry and Donelson, for their efficiency in opening the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Mississippi rivers to the pursuits of lawful commerce and for their unwavering devotion to the cause of the country in the midst of the greatest difficulties and dangers.

Sec. 2.  And be it further resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to cause this resolution to be communicated to Captain Foote, and through him to the officers and men under his command.


Mr. GRIMES.  Mr. President, I conceive it to be my duty, and it certainly is a great pleasure to be, to call the special attention of the Senate to the achievements of the newly created naval flotilla on the western waters, and to the gallant part borne by its officers and men against the armed rebels in Kentucky and Tennessee.  Surely no one could more properly be proud of the deeds of our Army in that quarter than a Senator from Iowa.  Yet, I know that whatever adds to the glory of our Navy in the recent conflicts in the West, adds also to the glory of the Army, and that the two branches of the service have been and are so conjoined that no rivalry ought to exist between them, except a virtuous emulation in the performance of patriotic duty.  No examples can be found in the history of any country of more important results attained in an equal time, in an untried field of naval enterprise, than those we have lately witnessed on the Ohio, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Cumberland rivers; and I feel assured that the successes that have thus far been achieved, will be surpassed by the same forces whenever they can find an enemy with whom to cope between Cairo and New Orleans.

On the 16th day of May last, Commander John Rodgers was ordered by the Secretary of the Navy to proceed to Cincinnati and to purchase or commence the construction of several gunboats for service on the western rivers.  Under his auspices the three boats, Taylor, Lexington and Conestoga, were purchased and fitted up for war purposes.  They were put in commission and reached Cairo, after some delay arising from the low stage of water on the Ohio river, on the 12th of August, Commander Rodgers taking command of the Taylor, and assigning Commander Stembel to the Lexington and Lieutenant Phelps to the Conestoga.  The Taylor carried seven guns, of large caliber, the Lexington six, and the Conestoga four.  Here was the beginning of the western flotilla.  We all remember the unfavorable criticisms indulged in when these three stern-wheel steamers, with oak casings, arrived at that military post.  Some said they would be shake to pieces by the recoil of their own guns’ others that they would be speedily sunk by the shore guns of the rebels; while not a few were alarmed by visions of Hollins’ ram butting them to pieces with impunity.  From the day they reached their destinations to the present no rebel craft has shown itself ten miles above Columbus and no rebel force of any description has harbored on the two rivers in proximity which could be deemed threatening to their navigation or to the two cities of St. Louis and Cairo.  A few experimental trips dispelled all doubts of their efficiency; and when the people became assured that they would do the work they were intended for, all fear of rebel incursion into any of the northwester States, other than Missouri, was also dispelled.  A band of Jefferson Thompson’s robbers did, indeed, make a demonstration of crossing the Mississippi river, in August last, from the town of Commerce, Missouri; but at the first intimation that the gunboats were coming, they fled with what booty they could lay their hands on, pillaged impartially from friends and foes on the Missouri shore.  The boon of security to the people of the northwestern States is a debt due, in no small degree, to these wooden gunboats, for  however numerous and brave our armies, it would have been impossible with them alone to have guarded all points on our river line.  Thus, our people were not only protected from danger of invasion but they were enabled to give all their time and energies to preparation for those offensive movements which have reclaimed so much important territory from the domination of the enemy.

On the 23d of September, Commander Rodgers was detached from service in the West, and Capt. A. H. Foote was ordered to take command as flag officer.  Since that time the following boats, with iron-clad bows, have been built or prepared for service, and added to the flotilla under his command; St. Louis, thirteen guns, Lieut. Paulding; Carondelet, thirteen guns, Commander Walk; Pittsburg, thirteen guns, Lieut. Thompson; Louisville, thirteen guns, Commander Dove; Cincinnati, thirteen guns, Commander Stembel; Essex, five guns, Commander Porter; Mound City, thirteen guns.

The first engagement of the gunboats with the enemy took place on the 9th of September at Lucas Bend, in the Mississippi river, a short distance above, and in full view of the rebel stronghold at Columbus.  In that engagement, the Lexington, Commander Stembel, and the Conestoga, Lieut. Phelps, silenced two shore batteries, dispersed a large body of rebel Cavalry, and so disabled the rebel gunboat Yankee that she has not been heard of since.

On the 29th of October, the Conestoga, Lieut. Phelps, proceeded with three companies of Illinois volunteers, sixty-two miles up the Tennessee river to Eddyville, Kentucky, where they jointly attacked and routed a rebel encampment, bringing away their horses, arms, camp equipage, and negro slaves.

There could hardly have been an occasion where the presence of an efficient naval support was more necessary than at the battle of Belmont, fought on the 7th day of November last; and there has been no conflict during the war where this support, when finally called into requisition, was more effectively and opportunely rendered.  Nothing but the well directed fire of grape and canister from the guns of the Taylor and Lexington saved our land forces from being utterly cut to pieces while retiring on board their transports.  Every effort of the enemy to bring his artillery to bear on our columns was defeated by the storm of iron that assailed him from the boats.  His pieces were dismounted and his horses and men swept down as fast as they were placed in position.

A great [deal] has been said about the origin of the proposition to take possession of the Tennessee river.  The credit of originating the idea of a military campaign in that direction has been claimed, first by one, and then for another military commander.  I desire that impartial justice should be done to every man; and acting upon the intention to do justice, I must be permitted to say, that so far as I can learn, the project of turning the enemy’s flanks by penetrating the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, originated with Commodore Foote.  The great rise of water in those rivers was providential, and with the quick eye of military genius he saw at once the advantage that it might secure to our arms.  Accordingly he sent to Gen. Halleck, at St. Louis the following dispatch:


CAIRO, January 28, 1862.

General Grant and myself are of the opinion that Fort Henry and the Tennessee river can be carried with four iron-clad gunboats and troops, and be permanently occupied.  Have we your authority to move for that purpose when ready?

A. H. FOOTE.


To this despatch no reply was vouchsafed, but an order was subsequently sent to General Grant to proceed up the Tennessee river with his troops under convoy of the armed flotilla, and attack Fort Henry, directing General Grant to show to Commodore Foote his orders to this effect.  Commodore Foote was at once ready for the expedition, and advised the Department to that effect, in the following despatch:


PADUCAH, February 3, 1862.

SIR:– I have the honor to inform you that I left Cairo yesterday with this vessel, having ordered the armored gunboats Essex, Carondolet, Cincinnati and St. Louis to precede me to Paducah, and arrived here last evening.

To-day I propose ascending the Tennessee river with four new armored boats and the old gunboats Taylor, Conestoga and Lexington, in convoy of the troops under General Grant, for the purpose of conjointly attacking and occupying Fort Henry and the railroad bridge connecting Bowling Green with Columbus.  The transports have not yet arrived, although expected last night from Cairo, which causes detention, while in the mean time, unfortunately the river is falling.  I am ready with seven gunboats to act offensively whenever the Army is in condition to advance, and have every confidence, under God, that we shall be able to silence the guns at Fort Henry and its surroundings, notwithstanding I have been obliged, for want of men, to take from the five boats remaining at Cairo all the men except a sufficient number to man one gunboat for the protection of that important post.

I have Commander Kitly, as senior officer in charge of the guns and mortar boats.  It is peculiarly unfortunate that we have not been able to obtain men for the flotilla, as they only are wanting to enable me to have at this moment, eleven full-manned instead of seven partially-manned gunboats ready for efficient operations at any point.  The volunteers for the Army to go in the gunboats exceed the number of men required; but the derangement of companies and regiments in permitting them to leave, as the reason assigned for not more than fifty of the number having been thus far transferred to the flotilla.

I inclose a copy of my orders to the Commanders of the gunboats, in anticipation of the attack on Fort Henry; also a copy of the orders to Lieutenant Commanding Phelps, who will have more especial charge of the old gunboats, and operate in a less exposed condition than the armored boats.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. H. FOOTE, Flag Officer,
Com’g Naval Forces on the Western Waters.

Hon. GIDEON WELLES.
Sec’y of the Navy, Washington, D. C.

P. S.  – Several transports with the troops have just arrived.  A. H. F.

I proceed up the Tennessee early in the morning, and there make the Cincinnati my flagship.  A. H. F.


On the preceding day he had issued the following order to Lieutenant Phelps:


[Special Orders, No. 3.]

UNITED STATES GUNBOAT TAYLOR,
PADUCAH, February 2, 1862.

Lieutenant Commanding Phelps, will, as soon as the fort shall have surrendered, and upon signal from the flag ship, proceed with the Conestoga, Taylor, and Lexington, up the river to where the railroad bridge crosses, and if the army shall not already have got possession, he will destroy so much of the track as will entirely prevent its use by the rebels.

He will then proceed as far up the river as the stage of the water will admit, and capture the enemy’s gunboats and other vessels which might prove available to the enemy.

A. H. FOOTE, Flag Officer,
Command’g Naval Forces on Western Waters.


The fleet, consisting of the iron-clad boats, Essex, Carondelet, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, and the three wooden boats Taylor, Lexington, and Conestoga proceeded to Fort Henry and reduced it in one hour and twenty minutes, Commodore Foote being, as is his wont, in the forefront of the battle.  It appears from the order to Lieutenant Phelps, (which that gallant officer promptly executed,) that Commodore Foot knew before leaving Paducah that he should take Fort Henry, no matter what might be the force or the resistance he should meet there. – He was thoroughly inspired by the great idea of victory.  The contingency of failure did not enter into his calculations.  He, therefore, addressed himself to plans for reaping the fruits of victory, rather than to pans for repairing the consequences of defeat.  It will be observed from the foregoing letter to the Secretary of the Navy written before the battle of Fort Henry, that the efficiency of the flotilla was much impaired by the want of seamen, or by a neglect in some quarter to have those transferred from the military service who had been selected for that purpose.

After reducing Fort Henry and sweeping the Tennessee river as far up as Florence, in Alabama, Commodore Foote returned to Cairo to prepare the mortar boats for operations against Fort Donelson.  He was aware of the formidable character of the rebel works at Donelson, and he desired to delay a few days to complete the mortar boats, by which he believed the garrison, however extensive, could be shelled out without much loss of life on our side.  General Halleck believed an immediate attack to be a military necessity.  In this, I doubt not, he was right, and I only refer to it to show that the crippled condition of the fleet and the heavy loss of life on our side are not to be attributed to rashness or bad management on the part of the flag officer.  Of the gallant attack on Fort Donelson no one need be reminded.  Subjected, as our vessels were, to a long-continued and hot fire of three rebel batteries at four hundred yards’ distance, they continued the fight for one hour and thirty minutes, and not until the wheel of one and the tiller ropes of another of his boats were shot away, did the well managed guns of the commodore cease to scatter death and consternation among the foes of this country.  Although wounded himself, and his gunboats crippled, but with the glory of the combat on his brown, he indulged in no repinings for his personal misfortunes or laudations of his successes; but like a true Christian hero, he thought only of his men.  In a letter written the morning after the battle to a friend, he said:


“While I hope ever to rely on Him who controls all things, and to say from the heart, ‘Not unto us, but unto Thee, O Lord, belongs the glory,’ yet I feel sadly at the result of our attack on Fort Donelson.  To see the brave officers and men who say they will go wherever I lead them fall by my side, makes me feel sad to lead them to almost certain death.”


But he obeyed what was believed to be the military necessity of the situation.

The Senator from Massachusetts nearest me has this morning kindly furnished me with a letter from a trustworthy friend of his who has from the beginning been with the army of the West, from which I am permitted to read the following extracts:


“When Fort Henry surrendered, the gate was opened by which the rebellion will be finally and utterly crushed.  In a few days Com. Foote will open the Mississippi, provided he is not hampered, and also provided he is properly supported by Government.  He has done a great work for his country – a work which, I am sorry to say, has not been properly appreciated.  He has improvised a navy with almost insurmountable obstacles against him.  I see it stated in the papers that the gunboats did but little service at Donelson, which is a monstrous mistake.  The silenced nearly all the enemy’s guns, and had not the wheel of one boat and the tiller ropes of another been shot away, in fifteen minutes more the batteries would have been flanked and the entire rebel army exposed to the broadsides of the fleet.  He would have mowed them down like grass.”  * * * * * * *

“As it was, he made the work of the army in the fight of Saturday much easier than it would otherwise have been.  Several of the Mississippi officers (prisoners) informed me that the shells of the gunboats had a demoralizing effect upon their men.  The Memphis Appeal sys it dispirited them.”  * * * *  “I have had a fair opportunity to observe the operations of both army and navy, and I can say with emphasis that there are no more self-denying, patriotic hard working, faithful men than the flag officer and his captains, Stembel, Pennock, Phelps, and others.”  * * * *  “I make these statements from my own sense of justice and honor, and not from any man’s prompting or request.”


The next movement of Commodore Foote with his floatilla, was to take possession of Clarksville, where he arrived on the 19th day of February, and issued his proclamation to the inhabitants three days before the arrival of the land forces, though that fact, from some unexplained cause, nowhere appears in the official reports of the military commander of that department.

On the 21st of February, 1862, Commodore Foote telegraphed to General Cullum, the chief of General Halleck’s staff, then at Cairo, as follows:


PADUCAH, February 21, 1862.

General CULLUM, Cairo:

General Grant and myself consider this a good time to move on Nashville; six mortar boats and two iron-clad steamers can precede the troops and shell the forts.  We were about to moving for this purpose when General Grant, to my astonishment, received a telegram from General Halleck, “not to let the gunboats go higher than Clarksville;” no telegram sent to me.

The Cumberland is in a good stage of water and General Grant and I believe that we can take Nashville.  Please ask General Halleck if we shall do it.  We will talk per telegraph – Captain Phelps representing me in the office as I am still on crutches.

A. H. FOOTE, Flag Officer.


It may be that there was some great military reason why General Grant was directed “not to let the gunboats go higher than Clarksville,” but up to this time it is wholly unappreciable by the public.  Had they been permitted to go, as was proposed by Commodore Foote, Nashville would undoubtedly have capitulated some days earlier than it did, and an immense amount of rebel stores been captured, which were destroyed or removed before the army reached there, the value of which has been estimated at $2,000,000, and would probably have intercepted a part of the rebel Johnston’s army.

I ought not to omit to mention the gallant attack by a part of the Western flotilla under Lieutenant Gwinn, upon the enemy at Pittsburg on the Tennessee river, where fifteen hundred rebel infantry and cavalry were completely routed, with a loss of twenty killed and one hundred wounded.

The next fact of importance in the campaign at the West, and indeed the most important of all, was the evacuation of Columbus.  Why was this stronghold, which cost so much labor and expense, abandoned without firing a shot?  It is not for me to underrate the advantages of position secured by the valor of our troops at Fort Donelson; yet I undertake to say, from the knowledge I have been able to obtain of the defenses of Columbus, that there was nothing in the mere fact of the capture of Donelson and Nashville, and exclusive of our command of the river, which need have caused the evacuation except after a long and bloody siege.  From the letter of a correspondent writing on the spot, I obtain the information that the forts at Columbus

“Were so located and construct as to be almost impregnable to an assault by storm.  The capture of one by no means involved the capture of the balance.  A fresh assault must be made in each instance.  At the main fort, and many of the earthworks, stockades, crossed the trenches, exposing the assaulting party to a storm of bullets from riflemen firing through loop-holes.  Every ravine and ditch was thoroughly protected, and the various approaches of the river commanded for a long distance in every direction.  It is sufficient to say, that an unusually strong natural position was seized upon, and so improved by rare engineering skill, that the equal of the Columbus fortifications, in extent and perfection of detail combined, can hardly be found in the United States.”


Another correspondent, describing the fortifications after the evacuation says:


“The fortifications were strong – perhaps stronger than any other in the South – but they were injudiciously constructed, and could not have stood an hour’s bombardment by the gunboats and mortar fleet.  The water battery stood out in such relief from the bluff that a well-directed mortar shell would have buried it under a hundred tons of earth from above.  There were no casemates to protect the artillery from the galling fire of seven gunboats; and how long could men, unsheltered, have stood a continuous hail from twenty-one guns, throwing eight-inch shell?”


It is well understood that Commodore Foote was opposed to giving the rebels an opportunity to leave Columbus.  He felt sure of his ability, with his gun and mortar boats, to shell them into a speedy surrender, but was compelled to give way to counsels of military commanders.

When we couple the strategic position acquired by our occupation of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers with the completion of the mortar boats and the absolute command of the river given us by the armored gunboats, there remains no mystery about the evacuation of Columbus.  The two arms of the public service are equally entitled to the credit of frightening the rebels from their strongest position on the Mississippi river, if not the strongest in their whole military jurisdiction.

Yesterday the intelligence reached us that the western floatilla, composed of ten gunboats and ten mortar boats had started for new scenes of conflict and to achieve, I doubt not, new and greater triumphs.  The country is assured that whatever can be accomplished by gallantry and nautical experience will be performed by Commodore Foote and the brave officers and men under his command.  We await the announcement of new victories.

I have thought it proper, Mr. President, as a western Senator, in some degree charged with the examination of naval affairs by this body, to bear this testimony to the worth of that branch of the public service in the western campaign, and to the noble deeds of the flag officer in that command.  On one can over-estimate their services to the country, and to the Northwest in particular; and in the name of that great section and of the whole country I thank them one and all, officers and men.

But I would avail myself of this occasion to accomplish another purpose.  I am anxious that the people of this entire country may feel that the exploits of the Navy wherever performed are their exploits, that its glory, and that while they are taxing themselves to support it, they are supporting the right arm of the national defense.  I desire the citizen of the most remote frontier to feel that he is equally protected and equally honored by the brave deeds of our naval officers with the citizen of the Atlantic coast.  I wish the men of Iowa and Minnesota to know that they are as effectually defended in their liberties at home and in their honor abroad, by the achievements of Du Pont and Goldsborough and Stringham and Foote on the water, as they can be by any victories won by our armies on the land.

Mr. President, ours must be a great maritime nation.  Heaven has ordained that it should be such, and we could not make it otherwise if would.  We have a coast, both on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which, with its numerous indentations, is many thousand miles in extent, occupied by a hardy, nautical population, and flanked on either side by soils and climates that furnish the most valuable productions of the globe, and which must be supplied to other nations.  On the north we have a succession of great lakes already bearing upon their bosoms a registered commercial tonnage of nearly half a million, and navigated by a race of daring, industrious, northern seamen.  Unlike any other maritime nation, ours is traversed by navigable rivers, thousands of miles in length, floating an inland commerce unequalled by that of any other country in the world, except, possibly, that of China, and capable of navigation by armed vessels of great capacity.  With a country of such extent, a soil and climate furnishing such productions, and a population along our ocean, gulf, bay, lake and river coasts, accustomed to navigation, who does not see that ours must, from the very necessities of our geographical position, and the conformation of our continent, become a great commercial people?  Our products must be borne to remote nations in our own ships, navigated by our own seamen, and protected wherever they may go by our vessels of war.

I know not with whom originated the phrase that the “Navy is the right arm of the public defense;” but I know that a truer sentiment was never uttered.  In my conviction it will always be in this country the most efficient and far least dangerous arm of the public service by which to maintain the national integrity and to defend the national honor.  History teaches us that every nation that has depended upon a navy for protection has been comparatively free by the side of those which placed their reliance upon armies.  I need not go back to antiquity to prove this.  I point to Holland and England in modern times.  The former, while she continued to be the greatest naval power on earth, was the freest Government on earth, and only began to be shorn of her liberties and of her territory when she neglected to maintain her fleets. – England, the most liberal all Governments save our own, is in no small degree indebted for her present position to the fact that she maintains only a small military force in the British Islands, and relies upon her wooden walls as a means of attack and defense.  She puts no faith in large standing armies, and will not until her people shall be prepared to surrender their freedom.  With her garrisoned possessions encircling the globe, her entire military establishment does not exceed one hundred and twenty thousand men.  France, Austria, Russia, Prussia maintain large standing armies on their soil; and in those countries the liberties of the people is measured by the will of the sovereign.  The freedom they enjoy is the gratuity of the emperors and kings; the servitude they endure is enforced by the presence of standing armies.  The people of this country can never accept the rights which they enjoy as the gift of any being inferior to their creator.

I do not believe that anybody but the public enemy has had anything to fear from the numerous and well appointed armies we have raised, yet no one of us is prepared to say that with an army much longer isolated from home scenes and home ideas, concentrated in large bodies, and taught the duty of most implicit obedience, danger to our free institutions may not arise.  No such danger can arise from the existence of a navy, however, large or however commanded.  Seamen are cosmopolitans.  Always employed and generally afloat, they never become, as armies sometimes do, as dangerous to friends in time of peace as to enemies in time of war.

I might go on and show that situated as all of our large cities are, upon arms of the sea or upon navigable rivers, the Navy might be made more efficient in suppressing domestic insurrections, as well as in repelling a foreign invasion, than the Army.  I might show, too, that, notwithstanding what is said by professed statisticians, the support of a navy is less expensive, in comparison with the service it renders to a maritime nation, than that of an army; but I shall not detain the Senate by attempting to enter upon such an exposition at this time.

As I said at the outset, Mr. President, my purpose in rising to address the Senate at this time was to call the attention of the country to the successful operations of the western flotilla; but I cannot refrain from alluding, for one moment before I close, to the success of our Navy elsewhere in this war.  The whole south-western Atlantic coast has been swept by the fleet of the gallant Du Pont, and is now effectually held by both and inside and outside blockade.  The enemy have been driven from the waters of North Carolina by Goldsborough, their whole navy in that quarter destroyed, and their coast towns occupied.  Such progress has been made in the Gulf of Mexico, that I venture to predict that in a few days at furthest intelligence will reach us that the forts at the mouth of the Mississippi river have been captured, and that Farragut and Porter are now or soon will be in possession of New Orleans.  But the startling events that have recently occurred in Hampton Roads attract, as they ought, the attention of all.  It would be well for us to reflect upon what those events have clearly demonstrated.  They are – first, that in modern naval warfare, wooden sailing vessels of war are perfectly harmless and helpless; second, that the strongest stone fortifications can be no obstruction to the entrance of iron clad vessels of war into any of our harbors, and that one or two such vessels, unopposed by vessels of a similar character can hold any commercial city on the continent at their mercy; third, that we can now commence the creation of a proper navy upon a footing of comparative equality with all of the naval Powers of the world.

Mr. President, no man sympathizes with the relatives and friends of the gallant dead who perished on the Congress and Cumberland more deeply that I do.  Perhaps, however their loss was necessary to teach us that our true path of duty to the country.  Let us not suffer more valuable lives to be periled upon such worthless vessels; and while we deplore the loss of so many brave men, let us rejoice that so many more are left to the service who are willing to do and die for their country.  Especially let us give thanks for the brilliant example of courage, seamanship, and patriotism furnished to the country and to the world by that matchless officer, Lieutenant John L Worden, and the officers and men under his command on board the Monitor.  In that unexampled engagement of Sunday last, after a terribly suffocating and dangerous passage from New York, without having slept, with an undrilled crew and handling an untried experiment, Lieut. Worden and his crew performed prodigies of skill and valor that will render all on board the Monitor immortal.  They will be immortal not for their valor alone.  Who shall undertake to estimate the influence that ballet will exert upon all of the maritime powers of the earth?  Who shall undertake to tell the number of homes to which the news of its successful result carried quiet on that eventual evening, which had been for hours disturbed by the most distracting fears?  Is it too much to say that it rescued our commerce and our commercial cities from ravage, and in one hour completely revolutionized all systems of naval architecture and naval warfare?  Captain Ericsson, too, may well be proud of the place his name will henceforth occupy in the history of nautical science, and we may well be proud that the country of our birth is the country of his adoption.

But, Mr. President, while I would thus honor the gallant living, I would bear my tribute of affectionate respect for the memory of the heroic dead who fell in the engagement in Hampton Roads.  Let the remembrance of that brave young officer, whose obsequies are now being performed in another part of this city, who, when his vessel was sinking beneath his feet, replied to a summons to surrender, that he would never give up the flag [entrusted] to his keeping, and the next moment met death with composure, be cherished by his countrymen. – The name of Smith, already illustrious in the annals of the American Navy, will be added to the bright galaxy of those who have freely laid down their lives at the call of their country.

Mr. President, the nation has cause to be proud of the Navy; let it be honored and maintained.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 22, 1862, p. 1

Sunday, March 11, 2012

The Seige Of Donelson

The Bombardment by the Fleet.

THE FIGHT AND THE SURRENDER.

(Correspondence of the Chicago Tribune.)

FT. DONELSON, Feb. 17, 1862.

The Stars and Stripes wave over Donelson. – I can only give you an outline of what has taken place to accomplish its reduction.  The telegraph has given you a few facts, but a few only.  Let me give a general review, leaving out a thousand incidents which would be of great interest, had I the time to give them.  First, let me try to give a description of the defences, for without some such attempt, all the features of the battle field will not be understood.

The current of the Cumberland river at Dover runs nearly north, but immediately at the town as you ascend the stream, it leads towards the east, not in an abrupt bend but a gentle curve.  The banks on the west side are quite elevated, but the hills are cut by numerous ravines.  The hills are about one hundred feet high, just such elevations as are to be seen in Egypt or along the Ohio.  About one half mile below or north of the town, there is a round knob cleared, and planted with corn the past season.  It is fully one hundred feet high, and the ascent on the north side is very steep – to steep to be plowed.  It was covered with a forest, which was cleared when the work of entrenching began.  There the rebels set up their batteries for the defence of the river.

Before describing these, I may say that there are three separate works – the water batteries, the fort, and the rear line of the entrenchments.  Commanding with the water batteries, low down close upon the bank, you see, as you stand in front of them, what appears to be a hole in the side of the hill.  Upon examination you find it to contain one 128-pound rifled gun from the Tredegar works at Richmond, and two 32-pounder howitzers.  The rifled gun is a fair piece of workmanship, as you  run your eye along the sights, you can easily imagine that it will sent a ball straight down the stream a mile and a half to the distant level, plump into any boat.  It is in an admirable position.

Right above it commences a trench which is dug to the side of the hill, or rather which runs up it in a diagonal, as if an attempt was being made to construct a road.  The hill is so steep that in ten rods’ distance there is room for eight 32-pounders.  At the upper end of the trench is a second 128-pounder.

Standing at any gun, you can see that all can be brought to bear upon any object down the river, that a gunboat approaching can be raked from stem to stern, and that shot can be poured straight into her bows, point blank from the lower guns, and upon her decks, a plunging fire from the big gun at the top of the trench.  The embankment is well constructed and from the nature of the ground it is almost a casemate. – A shot striking below or above would do no damage.

Now, transferring yourself to a gunboat, you would see that it would be next to an impossibility to reach the big gun at the upper end of this trench, for, turn your bow’s head on to avoid the shot, you would still be raked by some of the rebel guns.  This was the river defense, and a most admirable defense it was – almost impregnable, as we found, in the attempt to bombard it.

Ascending the crest of the ridge, you see Ft. Donelson – enclosing about five or six acres – an embankment with a ditch outside.  The ditch is narrow and the embankment thin.  It has a vast number of angles – nearly fifty, I should judge – the most irregular thing imaginable. – It’s like was never before constructed.  A little creek runs in rear of the hill, and on its southern side, a spring bubbles from the ground which supplied the surrounding camp with water.  At the northwest angle, a curtain extended to the southwest, running along a ridge of land, conforming to the undulations and variations of the ground, to a creek which empties into the river above the town of Dover.  It is simply a breastwork with a shallow ditch inside.  It runs through a forest all the way.  Still farther to the rear, is a second ridge upon which the rebels erected rifle pits near the creek, in the rear of the town, and protecting the road which comes in from the southwest on a river line – simply a breastwork.

It will be seen that the line was very extensive, and it needed but a glance to see that there had been defective engineering.  With the force they had there was too much ground to look after.  A more skillful engineer would have selected commanding points on the ridge and thus concentrated strength.  The creek defended the south side, although when they found it convenient to leave the place, it was in the way.  With this view we are ready to look at the operations.

After the capture of Fort Henry, Gen. Grant as soon as possible moved across the twelve mile strip of land between the rivers and invested the place by throwing McClernand’s division upon the right, at the creek – extending his pickets down to the river beyond.  Gen. Wallace occupied the centre, while Gen. Smith closed up all communications with the outside world to the north.  Our forces occupied a range of hills almost one mile distant from the enemy’s outer works – Gen. Grant’s headquarters being between Smith’s and Wallace’s commands.  The rebels still had communication with Clarksville by the river, and daily received reinforcements and supplies by steamers.

Passing over all the skirmishing of Tuesday and Wednesday, we briefly notice the gunboat fight.


THE GUNBOAT FIGHT.

Thursday, Feb. 6th, had been marked by the successful bombardment of Fort Henry, an event that will live in the history in the list of brilliant naval achievements to the lasting fame of Com. Foote.

The gunboats which participated in this splendid action were the Cincinnati, St. Louis, Carondolet, and Essex; the Taylor, Conestoga and Lexington.  These came out of the engagement well nigh unscathed and ready for another encounter which has not been long delayed.

The Gunboats St. Louis, Louisville and Pittsburg, left Cairo on the night of the 11th inst. for the Cumberland river.  The St. Louis was the flag ship – the vessel on board which Commodore Foote remained.  On the way the Conestoga was met coming down the Ohio as a convoy to the Lexington, which had been the most damaged in the Tennessee river affair.  She was hailed and added to the fleet.  From Paducah the gunboats acted as a convoy to the sixteen transport vessels laden with troops for the reinforcement of Gen. Grant.

Thirty-five miles from Fort Donelson the fleet was met by an express steamer coming down to hurry up the transports, Gen. Grant’s dispatch stating that the fighting had commenced and re-enforcements were needed.  The fleet arrived within two miles of the Fort at 12 o’clock on Thursday night.  The Carondolet had been ordered to open the ball at 9 o’clock on Thursday morning.  She advanced within a mile of the Fort and opened fire.  She was quickly responded to, and after firing 188 shots was obliged to retire, having received a 42-pound ball through her port side, striking the main steam pipe. – She retired down stream a couple of miles.  In the afternoon, after repairing the damage sustained in the first sally, she was again ordered to attack.  She fired a number of shots, but without effect.

During Thursday night Gen. Grant had a conference with Com. Foot, and it was decided to make a more general bombardment the next day, Friday.  The gallant Commodore did not hesitate to declare to his fellow officers that a far more difficult task was before him than had been presented in the taking of Fort Henry. – Our readers will understand from the description of localities, elsewhere given, what these increased difficulties were.  Instead of the low batteries on the flanks of the Tennessee, scarcely higher above the water than the decks of the gunboats, the upper batteries of Fort Donelson frowned down from the bluff one hundred feet above the river.

Nevertheless, there was no hanging back, and Commodore Foote and his officers were called upon to restrain by stringent orders the ardor of their men, who burned to open the conflict.  On steamed the boats, and while at long range the enemy opened fire from their middle batteries – their first shots falling short – first a thirty-two, then a sixty-four.  Still all was silence on board of the gunboats, the dip of whose paddles alone broke the stillness of their approach.  Thus fifteen minutes passed, which seemed a tardy hour to the impatient gunners. – At last the point was reached, and precisely at ten minutes to 3 o’clock P. M., a puff of white smoke and the boom of her sixty-four came from the bow port of the St. Louis.  The other boats quickly followed suit.  Such was the difficulty of getting accurate range that our first shots fell wide of the mark; but this was remedied speedily, and the engagement became terrific.  The enemy poured their 32 and 64-pounders into our vessels with great effect, and our gunners returned with 8 inch shell and 65-pound rifle balls, with admirable precision, cheering as they fought their guns, and doing great execution to the enemy’s works, dismounting their guns on the lower batteries, and driving the rebels like frightened sheep from their pens.  But the diagram will tell our readers what the first glance at the locality itself declared to the experienced eye of Commodore Foote.  The gunboats were fighting against fearful odds, the long oblique middle range of heavy guns raked the fleet terribly as they came on, the angle giving them the least advantage from the plating and defenses.  At Fort Henry the boats came up, exposing only their bows as the smallest mark to the enemy, here their broadsides were exposed.  Soon after the fight commenced, a shot from the enemy’s water battery carried away the flag-staff of the St. Louis; almost the next shot took the chimney guys of the same boat.  But it was flag-staff or no flag-staff; a few minutes later away went the rebel bunting from the fort, its staff cut by a ball from the St. Louis, who thus avenged the indignity offered to herself.

A little later the Louisiana was struck by a 64-pound shot from the right of the middle tier of batteries, which broke her rudder post, rendering her unmanageable.  At this time the boats were all held under heavy steam, just stemming the current to prevent drifting.  Another shot killed William Hinton, the pilot, in the pilot house of the Carondolet, and a 32, nearly the same instant, came crashing into the pilot-house of the St. Louis, mortally wounding one of the pilots, F. A. Riley, injuring two other pilots, and also wounding the brave Commodore himself, across whose left foot a large fragment of a splintered oaken beam fell, severely crushing and bruising it.  Of the four in the pilot-house at the time only one escaped injury.

I will add here that Commodore Foote’s injury is of such a nature that care for the wounded member requires him to use a crutch, which the brave officer regrets, saying that but for this needed exposure no one would learn that he was hurt.  He will soon be on both pins again however.  This mischievous shot passed through the pilot house and knocked into pi one of the wheel of the St. Louis, which, like a sea bird with a broken wing, swung round and became unmanageable in the current.  Here then, were three vessels disabled – the Louisiana with her rudder post shattered, the Carondolet pilotless, and the St. Louis with her wounded wheel – all in a swift current under the fire of the rebel batteries.  To continue the fight longer was useless, and the rudderless boat must be called out of the fight.  The brave crews saw this necessity unwillingly and burned to continue their advantage gained.  Said commodore Foote, “If they had not crippled my boats, I should have had possession of the fort in ten minutes more.”  The gunboats had passed up to within two hundred yards of the fort.  The enemy had been driven from the lower battery, and their fire had slackened perceptibly.  But when disabled, the engines were stopped and the boats floated from their position.  The enemy saw what had happened, and they rushed back to their guns with the same speed with which they had deserted them, which is saying a great deal.  Their fire was redoubled, but our gunners did not leave without a parting shot.  One heavy shell from the Carondolet was seen to alight in the middle battery, and with its explosion away from its carriage went a gun, and into the air went dust, splinters and fragments of rebel gunners, and the spot of the carnage was distinctly to be traced when two days later the star[s] and stripes floated over the captured fort.

The fleet retired in good order and anchored a little over a mile and a half below the fort.  Old man-of-war’s men say the fight was the hottest they had ever seen.  Commodore Foote, who is no chicken, says the firing was the most terrific he had ever seen.

The army made no movement on Friday of consequence, but waited any demonstration the rebels might make.  They were elated with the repulsed of the gun-boats, and undoubtedly concluded that, they would either repulse the army or if not that they would cut their way through and escape to Clarksville.

Prepared to do either, as circumstances might decide, at six o’clock on Saturday morning they appeared in solid column upon the road, which seems partly parallel to the creek, at McClernand’s right.  It was a few minutes past six when our pickets exchanged shots with their skirmishers.

Perhaps a few straight lines, such as the printer can readily set up, will give an idea of the position of our forces.



The lines, of course do not represent exact positions, for you are to remember that it is a broken country – hills and hollows as irregular as waves of Lake Michigan – that a portion of McClernand’s force was on the right and side of the road, a portion east of it, and some troops in it; that when the enemy advanced they were just as they had been lying in their blankets in the open air, or getting ready for breakfast.

Immediately the whole division was astir, waiting for what might turn up.  As the rebels neared our forces they deployed and formed in line of battle making the most furious attack upon the right; also sending their Mississippi sharp shooters, as one of the Captains, now a prisoner informed me, to the left to throw the 11th and the 20th regiments into confusion.

It was about seven o’clock, when the firing began on the right, and in a few minutes it was running like a train of powder on a floor, along the entire line.  The rebels advanced with determination – not in a regular line, but in the guerilla mode – availing themselves of the trees and the undulations of the ground.  Their design was to cut the division at the center, turn the regiments on the right, composing Ogelsby’s brigade up against the creek and capture them.  But their movements to that end were foiled.  The regiments at the center being pressed, after standing a hot fire begun gradually to fall back, which rendered it necessary for Oglesby to do the same as he separated, from the division, and the entire right wing of the division accordingly swung back, slowly at first.  Dresser’s and Schwartz’s batteries were brought into position as soon as possible, and for a while there was a very heavy fire, accompanied by continued rolls of musketry.  If one were to judge by sound alone, all battles would be terrific; but when a fight is waged in a forest, the trees high up the branches usually suffer more.  There, was however, considerable loss on both sides, at this point.

And now occurred one of those blunders common in warfare.  The enemy pressing hard upon our forces, Gen. McClernand sent Major Brayman for reinforcements.  He rode rapidly to the rear and came upon Col. Cruft’s brigade, who moved forward, and crossed the road, and came up in the rear of the 30th and 31st.  These regiments were lying down and firing over the crest of a ridge.  As Col. Cruft came in the rear of them they rose to their feet, not knowing whether the force in their rear was friend or foe.  The 25th Ky., supposing them to be rebels, poured in a volley, which did terrible execution.  It is not possible to ascertain how many fell under the fire, but it was sufficient to throw the entire division into disorder, and at once there was almost panic.  Some of them took to their heels, threw down their guns and equipments, and fled to the rear crying “All is lost!”  We are all cut to pieces!” and similar expressions.  Some of them even fled to Fort Henry, twelve miles distant, and immediately the woods were filled with stragglers.

The enemy improved the opportunity, and advanced upon Dresser’s and Schwartz’s batteries, capturing five guns, taking possession of Gen. McClernand’s headquarters, and driving our forces nearly a mile and a half.  They had opened the gap; and not only that, but had in the joust driven us, captured five guns and had reason to feel that the day was theirs.

But now they committed a fatal mistake.  Instead of adhering to the original plan, to escape, they resolved to follow up their advantage by pursuit, cut us up and capture the entire army.

The fight had lasted nearly four hours, and McClernand’s division was exhausted; besides they were out of ammunition.

At this juncture Gen. Wallace’s division was thrown in front.  They took up a position on a ridge, with Captain Taylor’s battery in the center at the road, commanding it down the ridge to the bottom of a ravine.  McClernand’s division was making up its scattered ranks, ready to support Wallace.  It was now just noon – nearly 1 o’clock.  The rebels formed upon the ridge which Gen. McClernand had occupied through the night.  They were flushed with success and descended the ridge with the expectation of routing the Yankees.  As they came in range, Taylor opened upon them with shell, grape and canister.  They quelled before it, advanced at a slow pace, came to a halt, and as the infantry opened, began to fall back.  Wallace improved the moment, moved on, drove them before him, regained the lost ground, recovered McClernand’s tent and occupied the old ground.

This is only a brief note – conveying a general idea.  I cannot speak of the prowess of the troops, of instances of individual bravery, although it is generally admitted that Taylor’s battery saved the day.

The rebels might have escaped when Wallace was driving them back, but by some faulty neglected the opportunity and were again boxed up.  This made two distinct fights, but the day was not to close.  There was to be a second display of coolness, daring and determined bravery of Union troops, fighting under the Stars and Stripes, resulting in a signal victory.

The Iowa and Indiana boys composing Lauman’s brigade of Smith’s division, were ready to do their part in crushing out rebellion, and Gen. Grant decided that they should have an opportunity to show their valor.  Directly west of Fort Donelson, and beyond the breastworks there was a second ridge of land running parallel to that on which the breastworks were erected.  The distance across from ridge to ridge, as near as I could judge by a somewhat minute survey, as about forty rods.  On this outer ridge were ten rifle pits, made of logs, with a shallow ditch behind and the excavated earth thrown up in front.  The western slope of the ridge was quite steep.  The distance to the base was thirty rods as I judged, opening upon a meadow and cornfield.  The slope had been forest but the rebels had used their axes and cut down the trees, forming an abattis not impassible because the forest was not dead, but a serious obstruction to the advance of an army.  It was desirable that the rebels should be driven out of their pits, for they in part commanded Fort Donelson, lying about sixty rods further east.

The pits were defended by one Mississippi, one Kentucky, and one Tennessee regiment while other regiments were in position in the rear to support them.

Col. Lauman formed his brigade in the meadow, in plain sight of the enemy, just beyond musket range, and advanced.  The following diagram will represent the positions:


The 2d Kentucky held the center, Col. Head’s Tennessee Regiment the rebel right, and the 14th Mississippi the left flank.  The Kentucky regiment was one of the largest, best disciplined and drilled in the rebel army.

Col. Lauman gave the 2nd Iowa the honor of leading the charge.  They moved across to the meadow through a little belt of woods, came to the base of the hill, and met the leaden rain. – But they paused not a moment.  Then they encountered the fallen trees but instead of being disheartened they seemed to feel new life and energy.  Without firing a shot, without flinching a moment or faltering as their ranks were thinned, they rushed up the hill, regardless of the fire in the front or on their flank, jumped upon the rifle pits and drove the rebels down the eastern slope.  They escaped into their inner line of defenses.  Col. Lauman did not deem it prudent to follow, but halted his men and poured a deadly fire upon the foe, in force, with four cannon behind the works.

Then for Ten minutes the fire was exceedingly severe.  I visited the spot on Sunday afternoon and found the ground thick with bullets fired by the rebels.  The trees were scarred but bore the evidence on their limbs that the aim of the rebels had been much too high.  Col. Lauman called his men back to their rifle pits, and there they lay down upon their arms, holding the position through the night, ready with the first flash of dawn to make a breach in the line beyond.

“Oh the wild charge they made
Honor the Lauman brigade!”

I deem it perfectly admissible to alter Tennyson in making this brief note of a brilliant achievement.  Twenty-four hours after the fighting I visited the spot and saw ten of the brave ones whose lives had been given for their country lying upon the slope in front of the rifle pits.  Behind the pits were several of the enemy who had fallen in their attempt to flee.

There were numerous pools of blood upon the crest of the hill where the wounded had fallen but who had been taken to the hospitals.

Col. Lauman was apprised during the night that the rebels were about to surrender, by a negro who escaped his lines.  Soon after daylight an officer, Major Calsbry, appeared, being a white flag and a note from General Buckner to General Grant, proposing a cessation of hostilities and the appointment of Commissioners.  As the telegraph has given you the correspondence that followed, I need not insert it.

The Victory was won, and Fort Donelson was ours, with its seventeen heavy siege guns, its forty-eight field pieces, its fifteen thousand soldiers, with twenty thousand stand of arms, its tents and ammunition – all were unconditionally ours.

Wild were the cheers, loud were the salutes from the fleet and from Taylor’s batteries when the Stars and Stripes, the glorious old flag, was flung to the breeze upon the ramparts of Fort Donelson.

I cannot give you the sights or the incidents.  You must imagine them.  Neither have I time to tell of the appearance of the rebels in their snuff-colored, shabby clothes – their bed-quilts, pieces of carpeting, coverlids, sacking – but there they were, gloomy, downcast, humbled, apprehensive for the future; and yet I think that many of them were not sorry that there was to be no more fighting.  I made myself at home among them, talked with them freely, heard their indignant utterances against Floyd, who had sneaked away with his Virginia regiments, the 36th, 50th and 51st, and a host of stragglers – officers many of them – who did not hesitate to desert their men in the hour of adversity.  They went away at midnight after an angry altercation, as I was informed by a secession officer, between Pillow, Floyd and Buckner.  I am also informed that about five thousand rebels escaped, the boats being loaded to the guards.  Forest’s Louisiana cavalry escaped on their horses along the creek.  But the great bulk of the army is ours.  Fifteen thousand prisoners!  What shall we do with them?  We have indeed drawn an elephant.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 22, 1862, p. 2