Lincoln's Admiral

by James P. Duffy

  The arrival of the tall ship, enemy or not, drew a crowd to the Natchez waterfront. Farragut dropped anchor opposite the town and sent a boat with a party of men to locate the town’s mayor. Led by Captain Jenkins, they delivered the following message to the mayor:

  Sir:

  I trust that it is unnecessary to remind you of my desire to avoid the necessity of punishing the innocent for the guilty, and to express to you the hope that the scene of firing on the United States’ boats will not be repeated by either the lawless people of Natchez or the guerrilla forces; otherwise, I shall be compelled to do the act most repugnant to my feelings, by firing on your town in defense of my people and the honor of my flag.

  I shall be most happy to see his honor the Mayor on board.

  Very respectfully, D. G. Farragut, Rear-Admiral

  Although such communiqués to local officials along the river were not uncommon, they were usually preceded by reports of gunfire aimed at Union vessels. In this case, there was apparently no such report. Even Farragut’s son, Loyall, who was still aboard the Hartford at the time and described the ship’s arrival at Natchez, did not report any such firing. The note was most likely intended to convince Natchez officials that the Federal vessels planned on remaining at their city for at least several days. As loyal Confederates, they could be counted on to pass this intelligence along to nearby military commanders, which they evidently did. Farragut’s invitation to the mayor to visit him aboard the ship, something that could not take place until the following day because of the lateness of the hour, further supports the belief that the whole affair was a subterfuge designed to convince rebel authorities upriver that the two vessels posed no immediate threat to their positions.

  Before dawn the following day, both vessels were underway. They continued their passage north toward Vicksburg, where Farragut hoped to contact Major General Ulysses S. Grant, who was preparing his second campaign against that rebel stronghold.

  The night of March 18 was spent in the middle of the river just below Grand Gulf, which is thirty miles south of Vicksburg by land, but sixty miles by boat. During the previous spring and summer, Confederate forces had erected an earthwork fortification on the high bluffs at Grand Gulf. It was now occupied by a strong gun battery that, like those at Port Hudson and Vicksburg, had a dominating view of the river. The position at Grand Gulf formed the extreme left, or southerly, flank of the Vicksburg defenses.

  On the morning of March 19, Farragut watched the eastern shore as his two vessels neared Grand Gulf. What drew his notice was a group of blacks who were waving their arms in the air, trying to draw the attention of the Union sailors. Once they were sure they had succeeded, they began pointing in the direction of the high bluffs the ships were at that moment approaching. The men and women along the shore were doing their best to warn the vessels of the presence of a battery of rifled fieldpieces that awaited them atop the Grand Gulf cliffs. As the ships came within range, the battery fired a round, then the guns disappeared behind the pile of earth forming their protection.

  Farragut signaled the gunboat Albatross to close in under the Hartford’s port side for protection. The two vessels then ran under the bluffs with a full head of steam while the flagship’s starboard guns returned the enemy’s fire. Unfortunately, against the river’s current, full speed was not fast enough to prevent the deaths of two men and the wounding of six others aboard the Hartford. And the return fire did little damage to the battery, owing to the elevation of the bluffs. While the Albatross was undamaged by the fire, the Hartford suffered several shots into her hull, and sections of her rigging were cut away.

  Just as she reached the extremity of the enemy’s range, Captain Jenkins, who was standing near Farragut on the quarterdeck, turned to him and said, “Admiral, this ship goes entirely too slow.” Seconds later an enemy shell exploded in the water almost below the quarterdeck. Farragut watched the eruption of water rise into the air above him and crash back into the river. “I should think she was,” he replied calmly, “just at this moment.”

  Once they were far enough from the rebel batteries, the two vessels stopped to assess the damage to the flagship and begin making repairs. As was the custom, the bodies of the two dead sailors were laid in a place of honor on the quarterdeck. Each was covered with an American flag. Returning from an errand, Loyall found his father pacing back and forth near the corpses, “not ashamed to show his deep emotion.” The men who sailed under Farragut knew that the admiral suffered personally at the loss of every life aboard his ship.

  After setting carpenters to work repairing the damage caused by the Grand Gulf batteries, the two Union vessels continued up the Confederate river. Closer to Vicksburg, they came upon what was first believed to be the wreck of the Federal gunboat Indianola, but on closer inspection proved to be the mock ironclad Black Terror, resting quietly where it had run aground along the eastern bank of the river. The logs that had served as her “guns,” and the stacked pork barrels that were her “funnels,” brought laughs to the crews of the Hartford and the Albatross. Forgetting for a moment that they were deep within rebel territory, the men joked about the damage done to the enemy by the abandoned vessel’s imitation guns.

  It was almost four in the afternoon of March 19 when the Hartford and her gunboat companion dropped anchor. They were twelve miles below Vicksburg, and three miles below the village of Warrenton. Farragut brought both vessels in close to the Mississippi side of the river, where a stretch of high cliffs reached out over it. They served as protection from riflemen who might be moving along the shore looking for convenient targets.

  Soon after their arrival, a small boat approached from the western bank, carrying several Union soldiers. Among them was the commanding officer of the southernmost pickets on guard duty protecting the right flank of the Federal army facing Vicksburg. Farragut was overjoyed at meeting these men, since it meant he had achieved his objective of making contact with General Grant’s forces. The officer informed Farragut that the main body of the Federal army was on the opposite side of the river, along the peninsula facing Vicksburg known as Young’s Point. It was at Young’s Point during the previous year that General Williams had struggled gallantly and in vain to dig a canal across the peninsula. Large portions of Grant’s army were bogged down in a quagmire of mud that covered almost the entire peninsula. The river had risen above the long-neglected levees that protected the low peninsula, and the muddy waters were pouring in at hundreds of sites. Dry land was a premium few of the Union soldiers enjoyed.

  That evening, Farragut took advantage of the lull in activity to send a telegram to Secretary Welles advising him of his arrival below Vicksburg. He also wrote a letter to his wife, the first since running the Port Hudson batteries. “We came through in safety,” he told Virginia. “Your dear boy and myself are well.” Then, explaining how it was that Hartford alone among the big ships had passed Port Hudson, he told her, “You know my creed, I never send others in advance when there is a doubt and being the one on whom the country has bestowed its greatest honors, I thought I ought to take the risks which belong to it; so I took the lead. I knew they would try to destroy the flag ship and I was determined to follow out my idea that the best way to prevent it was to hurt them the most.” The admiral concluded his letter with the heartfelt comment that one of his “greatest troubles on earth is the pain and anxiety I inflict upon one of the best wives and most devoted of women. Oh, that it yet be in my power to compensate you for the pain I have caused you.”

  Early on the morning of March 20, Farragut moved the vessels upriver, intending to tie up at the deserted village of Warrenton. From there he hoped to facilitate communications with the Federal forces above Vicksburg. Unfortunately, the village was not as deserted as it appeared. As soon as the Hartford came within range, Confederate gunners manning a casement battery in the center of Warrenton opened fire. They were quickly dispersed by a broadside from the great ship. Neither the Hartford nor the Albatross suffered an
y damage from the attack. Wishing to avoid another such ambush, Farragut had both vessels drop anchor near the western shore, and Captain Jenkins and a party of marines rowed across the river to conduct a reconnaissance of the village. They returned with news that preparations for additional batteries were being made by Confederate forces. The rebels evidently intended to fortify the village. This intelligence gave the admiral the idea that a force of Federal infantry could feasibly be ferried across the river under the protection of his guns. They could capture Warrenton with little effort, since only a small number of Confederates were in the village at the time. Grant would then have a foothold on the Mississippi side of the river, south of Vicksburg.

  That day, Farragut sent his secretary to Grant’s headquarters with news of his arrival. He told Grant the reason he had run the Port Hudson batteries was to close the Red River to enemy traffic and attempt the recapture of the two Federal boats lost on the Mississippi, the Queen of the West and the Indianola. He offered to assist Grant and Porter. The latter commanded naval forces north of Vicksburg and was operating in cooperation with Grant, in whatever way possible. Farragut requested a supply of badly needed coal to power his vessels, and the loan of one ironclad gunboat and two rams to assist with the Red River blockade.

  When Farragut’s communiqué arrived at Union headquarters, Porter was away on an expedition aimed at Yazoo City, so Grant replied on both their behalves. While unable to supply the gunboat or rams, he could provide Farragut with coal.

  The following night a large coal barge was set adrift in the river. Writing back on March 22, Farragut expressed his gratitude for the fuel and told Grant of the situation at Warrenton, suggesting that the place be taken before a larger rebel force arrived. Grant decided to take advantage of Farragut’s offer of transporting troops from Young’s Point to Warrenton, and ordered two regiments from the far side of the peninsula to march immediately across the marshy stretch of land and await Farragut’s instructions to embark and attack the village. Unfortunately, the troops were too late. By the time they arrived, a large and heavily armed force from Vicksburg had arrived and taken control of Warrenton.

  Desperate for news of the remainder of his fleet, Farragut had to wait until March 25 before he learned of their fate. Writing home, he told his wife, “You can imagine the pleasure I have received today by a New Orleans paper which gives an account of the fleet below - to learn that Alden and Smith escaped unhurt. McKinstry, it is said, will lose his leg. I sincerely hope not. Poor Cummings, they say, is mortally wounded; he is a fine fellow and a noble officer. The list of killed and wounded was small, compared to what I imagined.”

  Before preparing to steam down the Mississippi to the mouth of the Red River, Farragut decided it was time Loyall returned to New York and his mother. He sent him to Porter’s headquarters via the Young’s Point route. To Virginia he wrote, “I am too devoted a father to have my son with me in troubles of this kind. God grant that he may be as great a comfort all the days of your life as he has been to me.”

  Meanwhile, Porter was stuck with a force of ironclads and mortar boats in a Mississippi waterway called Steele’s Bayou, where he was under attack by rebel snipers. With Federal troops trailing along behind, his objective had been to traverse the bayous into the Big Sunflower River, then into the Yazoo River. Once there, he planned to attack and capture a place known as Hayne’s Bluff. From this vantage point, Union forces could launch an attack against Vicksburg’s rear. It was a good plan, but failed to take into account how easily even a small group of rebel soldiers could trap the boats. They accomplished this by felling numerous trees and dropping them across the waterways, effectively closing the bayou to Porter. Sailors who struggled to remove the trees were constantly harassed by sniper fire. Felled trees even prevented Porter from backing out to safety. When word reached Porter that Confederate infantry units were rushing toward him with a battery of artillery, he knew his fate was almost sealed. It was only the quick action of General William Tecumseh Sherman that saved Porter’s expedition from capture. Sherman rushed his troops through the swamps in the middle of the night to beat off the enemy before they were able to organize themselves for a concerted attack on the boats. Finding it impossible to advance or turn around, Porter’s gunboats took three days to back out the thirty miles they had traveled up Steele’s Bayou.

  Hearing of Admiral Farragut’s request for two rams, Brigadier General Alfred Ellet, commander of the Marine Brigade and the Ram Fleet, visited Farragut on board the Hartford and offered to send two of his army rams below Vicksburg. Farragut was pleased with the offer, but expressed concern that Ellet should first clear his intentions with Porter, trapped in Steele’s Bayou. Although Ellet was an army officer, and his troops and ram crews were all army soldiers, they were a component part of Porter’s Mississippi Squadron. Neither Ellet nor his officers were happy to be taking orders from navy officers, and as a result, Ellet’s relationship with Porter was strained at the best of times.

  General Ellet asked Farragut if having two of his rams below Vicksburg would “benefit the country and the cause.” Farragut answered “certainly,” but again expressed reservations concerning Porter. He was unsure of the relative positions of Porter and Ellet, and did not want to do anything that might give the appearance he was undermining Porter’s command. Ellet apparently waved off the concern. Before leaving, Farragut gave Ellet, probably at the general’s request, a letter saying, in part, “I have written to Admiral Porter to the effect that I am most desirous of having an ironclad gunboat and two rams below Vicksburg to maintain control of the river between this place [Vicksburg] and Port Hudson. I am unwilling to interfere with [Porter’s] command in any way, but I feel sure that if he was here he would grant the assistance I so much need to carry on this object. I beg to assure you that nothing would be more gratifying to me than to have two of your rams.”

  General Ellet left the Hartford after assuring Farragut that he would send two rams downriver after dark. The crews on board both the Hartford and the Albatross waited that night for the sound of the Vicksburg batteries opening fire, a sure sign that the rams were coming down, but nothing happened.

  When Ellet had returned to his headquarters above Vicksburg, he had ordered that two rams, the Switzerland and the Lancaster, be prepared to run the batteries. His attempts to get the navy to assign an ironclad to join his boats failed. Because Porter was still beyond the reach of normal channels of communication, the ranking naval officer in Porter’s command decided it was prudent to await his commander’s arrival before taking any action.

  The rams were delayed until nearly daybreak by coaling operations and the loading of extra provisions. As was the habit with the entire Ellet clan, the general decided against the prudent course of waiting another day and sent the rams down as soon as they were ready. He may have been provoked to this action because he feared Porter would arrive at any moment and stop him. It proved to be a disastrous decision.

  It was already daylight when the rams reached the northern limits of the Vicksburg batteries. This meant they had to make the six-mile-long run past the batteries in full view of enemy gunners. As the batteries opened fire, the rams counted on their speed to get them safely through the rain of shot and shell. The Lancaster, an old boat in poor condition, was hit at least three times. Her steam drum was burst, her steering mechanism destroyed, and a large portion of her bow blown off before she sank. Most of the crew managed to escape in small boats or by clutching cotton bales that floated them to the western shore.

  The Switzerland fared better. Her boilers were disabled, but she managed to drift with the swift current until she was out of range of the batteries. She would have drifted right past the waiting Union ships, had it not been for the timely work of the Albatross in getting lines to her and taking her in tow. After four days of hard work, the ram’s boilers were repaired, and she joined Admiral Farragut’s river navy.

  When Porter finally arrived back at his headquarters sev
eral days later, he was furious with Ellet over the incident. The general exacerbated matters when he informed Porter that the Marine Brigade would prefer to serve under army command. Porter exploded in a rage and ordered Ellet’s arrest. Ellet was forced to withdraw his request before Porter would order his release. The loss of the two rams from his command, and the impudence of Ellet in requesting a transfer, was the last straw for Porter. He banished General Ellet and the entire Marine Brigade to Tennessee to combat rebel guerrillas operating there. It was as far away from his headquarters as he could send them.

  Soon after, Porter and Farragut began a correspondence that lasted several days. Farragut asked for one or two ironclads to help blockade the Red River and patrol the Mississippi. Porter, whose letters were a little defensive because of the ram incident, declined the request, claiming he had none to spare. He did, however, promise to send a force of ironclads and rams down the Bayou Macon, which runs parallel to the Mississippi several miles to the west, as soon as he could. Bayou Macon empties into the Red River a short distance north of the point where that river enters the Mississippi. If such a force could reach the Red River, all enemy traffic would cease immediately.

  In the predawn hours of March 28, the flagship Hartford, accompanied by the gunboat Albatross and the ram Switzerland, left the Vicksburg vicinity and headed downriver to take up station at the Red River. Passing Warrenton, the vessels came under fire from several new batteries the Confederates had located in the village. The Hartford returned the fire with a broadside, but Farragut expected it caused little damage to the hidden enemy.