Hearts Touched by Fire

by Harold Holzer

  BATTLE OF GRAND GULF (SECOND POSITION).

  During Grant’s assault on the 22d of May, the fleet below Vicksburg kept up a heavy fire on the hill and water batteries, and during the siege the mortar-boats were incessantly at work, shelling the city and the batteries. From time to time the gun-boats joined in the bombardment, notably on May 27th and June 20th. On the first of these occasions, the Cincinnati, Lieutenant George M. Bache, engaged alone the battery on Fort Hill, the principal work above Vicksburg, while the other iron-clads, under Commander Woodworth, were similarly occupied below. The fire from the upper battery was too much for the Cincinnati, which sank not far from the shore, losing a considerable number of her crew. On the second occasion three heavy guns mounted on scows were placed in position on the point opposite Vicksburg, where they did good execution under Lieutenant-Commander F. M. Ramsay, enfilading the rifle-pits in front of Sherman’s position and rendering them untenable. The lower squadron also took part in this bombardment. In addition to the work of the squadron afloat, when the army called for siege-guns thirteen heavy cannon were landed from the gun-boats and placed in position in the rear of Vicksburg, where they were constantly and efficiently worked by naval crews, first under Selfridge, and later under Walker. At the same time the squadron was engaged in the duty of patrolling the rivers, keeping open lines of communication, convoying transports, and coöperating with troops in beating off the enemy at detached points.

  On the 25th of May Banks, who had returned with his army from Alexandria, had invested Port Hudson, which had been subjected for several nights previous to a bombardment from the Essex and the mortar flotilla, under Commander Caldwell. During the month of June a naval battery of 9-inch guns, under Lieutenant-Commander Edward Terry of the Richmond, rendered efficient service in the siege operations. On the 9th of July Port Hudson surrendered and the Mississippi was now clear of obstructions to its mouth.

  Besides the main operations at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the navy had been occupied from time to time in detached bodies at other points. A cut-off, at the mouth of the Arkansas, ingeniously made by Selfridge in April, had contributed materially to the facility of operations at that place. In May Lieutenant-Commander Wilson in the Mound City effectually destroyed a water-battery at Warrenton. In June an attack was made on Milliken’s Bend by Confederate troops from Arkansas under Taylor, and the garrison was driven from their works to the levee. At this critical moment Ramsay, in the Choctaw, turned his guns on the successful assailants, and though unable to see the enemy on account of the intervening bank, he hailed the troops on shore to ascertain their position; and so well placed were the hundred or more shell and shrapnel that he fired that the Confederates were soon in full retreat.

  Finally, on the 4th of July, the day of the fall of Vicksburg, General Holmes made his attack on Helena with a force of about 8000 men, then garrisoned by 4000 under B. M. Prentiss. The enemy had placed batteries in opposition above and below the town, and, making a spirited attack in front, succeeded in carrying a portion of the outlying works. The garrison fought stubbornly, but were heavily outnumbered. The wooden gun-boat Tyler, under Lieutenant-Commander James M. Prichett, had been covering the approach by the old town road, but seeing the strategic points of the enemy’s position, Prichett with masterly skill placed his vessel where her bow and stern guns could reach the batteries above and below, while her broadside enfiladed the ravines down which the enemy was pouring in masses. The gun-boat’s rapid discharge of shrapnel and shell told heavily upon the Confederates, who, after sustaining it for a time, fled in disorder, Prentiss’s men pursuing them with the bayonet. The destructive fire of the Tyler caused an unusually severe loss.

  The fall of Vicksburg was followed by successful gun-boat raids, one in July under Selfridge in the Red, Black, and Tensas rivers, the other in August under Bache in the White River. General Herron and Lieutenant-Commander Walker also proceeded up the Yazoo and retook Yazoo City, but with the loss of the De Kalb, destroyed by torpedoes near Yazoo City. The vessel sank in fifteen minutes, but all hands were saved. Porter accepted the misfortune with that true understanding of the business of war which had been the secret of so much of his success—that without taking risks you cannot achieve results.

  * * *

  1 Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred W. Ellet soon after received a brigadier-general’s commission, with instructions to organize and equip the Mississippi Marine Brigade for future work in patrolling the river. He also received commissions for such of his men as he chose to recommend. Charles Rivers Ellet, though but nineteen years of age, received a colonel’s commission, and succeeded to the command of the ram fleet which his father, Charles Ellet, Jr., had created.—EDITORS.

  2 In a note to the editors Admiral Walke states:

  “When the Tyler was passing the Carondelet, I hailed the commander of the Tyler, and ordered him to go down to our fleet and report the arrival of the Arkansas; but the Tyler ran under the protection of the Carondelet. The latter, while advancing, fired several rounds of her bow-guns and all her starboard broadside guns at the Arkansas, which, returning the fire, raked the Carondelet from stem to stern, striking her forward three times. One shot glanced on the forward plating, one went through it and broke up, one from forward passed through the officers’ rooms on the starboard side, and through the captain’s cabin. Being a stern-wheel boat, the Carondelet required room and time to turn around. To avoid being sunk immediately, she turned and retreated. I was not such a simpleton as to ‘take the bull by the horns,’ to be fatally rammed, and sacrifice my command through fear of the criticisms of any man, or the vaunting opinion of much less experienced officers. If I had continued fighting, bows on, in that narrow river, a collision, which the enemy desired, would have been inevitable, and would have sunk the Carondelet in a few minutes.”

  3 In a letter to the editors Rear-Admiral T. A. Jenkins says, in reference to Farragut’s plan of an attack on Port Hudson:

  “The great importance, not to say necessity, of coöperation by a part of the military forces, in so far, at the least, as to cause a diversion upon the enemy’s rear, was decided upon, whereupon the commanding general (Banks) was conferred with with great frequency, until at last in the early part of March, 1863, it was arranged that a considerable force (8000 or 10,000) of all arms should rendezvous at Baton Rouge, preparatory to moving to the rear of the Port Hudson works, a little time before the vessels should move from Poplar Island, which lay just out of range of the Port Hudson heavy guns. After a review of the military forces at Baton Rouge, and after Admiral Farragut had attended to the minutest details of inspection of the vessels,—the removal of the sick, the necessary changes of officers and men, and last, but most difficult at that time, the employment of a sufficient number of competent river pilots,—the vessels got under way in their usual order of steaming, led by the Hartford, and stood up to Poplar Island, where the Essex and the bomb-vessels were lying. During a brief stay here, the commanders of the vessels were called on board and their instructions were repeated to them. Every contingency, even the most minute, every casualty that could or might happen, was discussed, and proposed remedies pointed out. On the night of the 14th of March, at dark, everything was prepared for a quiet, and it was hoped unperceived, movement of the vessels up the river. Near the last moment before the actual firing commenced, Admiral Farragut’s attention was called to an approaching river steamer with flaring lights and steam-whistles blowing. He was calm, but the lights and noise of the little steamer ruffled him a good deal. He saw at once that the enemy’s attention had been specially called to him and his little squadron. The commander of the steamer came within speaking distance, reporting that General Banks’s army was within ‘five miles of the rear of the Port Hudson works.’ That was all. The Hartford moved up against a current of three to five knots, while her greatest speed was not exceeding seven knots. The noise and flaring lights of the messenger steamer had evidently put the enemy on both sides of the river on th
e alert, for a shot from one of the enemy’s lower batteries soon whistled harmlessly overhead, and, as if by magic, at the next moment the piles of pine-knots placed on the right bank of the river blazed up, illuminating for a time the entire breadth of the river, making the dark hulls of the vessels as they passed between the immense piles of burning pine a target for the Port Hudson gunners. The smoke of the guns in battery and on shipboard soon obscured these lights, and the darkness of Erebus and the noises of Prandemonium followed and continued, until the Hartford, with her little cockle-shell consort (the Albatross) anchored out of range of the enemy’s guns, abreast of a huge pine-knot fire, to which the rebels before leaving added a small wooden building.”

  4 The Mississippi passed the lower batteries, but, running at high speed, struck on the spit opposite Port Hudson. Failing after half an hour to get her off, and being under fire of three batteries, Captain McIaneton Smith had the sick and wounded taken off with the crew, and then set fire to the ship. At 3 A.M. she floated off, drifting through the fleet, and half an hour later blew up.—EDITORS.

  5 Rear-Admiral Henry Walke writes as follows to the editors regarding this engagement, in which he commanded the Lafayette:

  “To one approaching Grand Gulf on the river from the northward, six miles above, Bald Head presents a very formidable appearance. Rising abruptly 180 feet, surrounded by hills higher still, and with the wide gulf beneath, it is not unlike a little Gibraltar, as it is called. Here the river turns due west, and the principal fortification was on the Point of Rocks, a precipitous bluff about fifty feet high, at the foot of Bald Head. Three-quarters of a mile east of it is the mouth of Big Black River, which was defended with two 8-inch Columbiads. Here the gulf is about a mile and a half wide, and two hundred yards north or in front of the Point of Rocks there is a shoal which becomes an island at low water. The lower fort of heavy guns was three-quarters of a mile west of Bald Head and four hundred yards from the river, and sixty feet above the river at its ordinary level. The battery on the Point of Rocks mounted two 100-pounder rifles, one 64-pounder shell gun, and one 30-pounder rifle. A sunken road connected this fort with the batteries below. Seven or eight guns of smaller and various caliber were mounted on high points between them. The lower fort mounted one 100-pounder rifle, two 8-inch shell guns, and two 32-pounders.

  “The fleet, under Rear-Admiral Porter, got into line at 7:30 A.M. of the 29th, steaming down to the Grand Gulf batteries, the Pittsburgh, Lieutenant W. R. Hoel, leading; then the Louisville, Lieutenant-Commander E. K. Owen; Carondelet, Lieutenant J. M. Murphy; Mound City, Lieutenant-Commander Byron Wilson (attacking the lower batteries); Lafayette, Captain Henry Walke; Benton (flag-ship), Lieutenant J. A. Greer, and Tuscumbia, Lieutenant-Commander J. W. Shirk; steaming slowly with a current of five or six knots, 150 yards apart and 100 yards from the shore, except the Lafayette, which rounded to above the fort on the Point of Rocks, ran into the shoal water, and took a flanking position 600 yards north-east from it. The battle was commenced by the leading gun-boat, Pittsburgh, at 7:55 A.M.; the other gun-boats followed in succession four minutes after. All the gun-boats fired into the upper fort with their bow and broadside guns as they passed up or down. The Pittsburgh rounded to opposite the battery of light guns half-way between the upper and lower batteries; the Louisville next below, the Carondelet next, opposite the lower battery, and the Mound City just below the lower battery. The flag-steamer Benton and the Tuscumbia gallantly opened fire close under the Point of Rocks at 8:15 with their bow and broadside guns, rounded to, heading up the river, the enemy firing on them with musketry. At 9 a shell entered the Benton’s starboard quarter, setting her on fire; it was soon extinguished. At 9:05 a shell from No. 5 gun carried away the enemy’s flag-staff; at 10 the admiral made signal for the Lafayette to assist the boats below; at 10:10 the Benton was caught in the eddy; in turning around she dropped fifteen hundred yards and then ran into shore to turn around with her head up stream; continuing the engagement, she steamed up to the batteries on the bluffs again. At 12:25 the Benton went up the river to communicate with General Grant, who was on a tug above with three of McClernand’s divisions on transports.

  “In the engagement the Benton fired 347 shot and shell, and was struck 47 times, nearly every shot penetrating her iron plating. The Tuscumbia, following the Benton, engaged the upper batteries until noon. She was obliged to drop out of action about noon, and landed about four miles below Grand Gulf, having been struck by shot, shell, grape, and shrapnel eighty-one times, two shells having exploded inside her turret. As the Lafayette approached the upper battery at 8:15 A.M., ahead of the Benton and Tuscumbia, she fired 11-inch and 9-inch shell into it, but in turning to take her position on the other side of the port, she was whirled around so quickly between the swift current and the counter-current, that her gunners could not get good aim with broadside guns, but as soon as she turned her 100-pounder rifles on the battery in a flanking position in the eddy, every shell seemed to strike the mark; but even there it was difficult to hold her steady for good aim. After firing 35 rounds, about 9 A.M. her 11-inch bow guns were turned upon the fort and fired with such precision that we expected to silence it, as their fire was dying away. This was the position our whole squadron should have taken, but it was not known that that part of the gulf was navigable. The heaviest guns of the enemy could point to the northward and westward, but not to the eastward, where the Lafayette was exempt from that terrible battering which the Benton and Tuscumbia received, while they were revolving at the mercy of the currents, in constant danger of running ashore.

  “At 9:20 A.M. the admiral made a preconcerted signal for the Lafayette to go to the assistance of the gun-boats at the lower batteries, thinking no doubt that his two heaviest vessels could silence the upper fort. This move was not after the lower batteries were silenced (as has been stated), but about two hours before. The Lafayette proceeded immediately with all speed and rounded to about 10 A.M. opposite the lower battery. She joined battle with the gun-boats there, firing her 11-inch shell from her bow guns into it and to bring her head up stream and her starboard side guns to bear on it quickly. The pilot ran her low into the bank of the river under the fort. She continued firing with the starboard broadside guns within five hundred yards of the lower fort, and with the other gun-boats continued firing on the lower batteries, enfilading the upper fort until 11:30, when the lower batteries were silenced, and all the gun-boats, except the Pittsburgh, steamed close to and passed the Point of Rocks (which had not been silenced), raking it with their bow guns. The Benton had just then gone up the river.

  “The remainder of the squadron continued firing on the upper fort. The Lafayette took her former position, flanking the fort. The Louisville, Mound City, and Carondelet steamed around in a circle, firing as they bore in front of the fort. The Pittsburgh remained in her original position, raking it with her bow guns from the west. The enemy, thus involved, fought desperately to the last; their guns, ceasing one by one at long intervals, were at last silent; whereupon the admiral made signal for his squadron to follow his motions. But the fort, as if to give us notice that it was not silenced, fired the last gun after we had started to go up the river.”

  CHAPTER 10

  THE CAPTURE OF PORT HUDSON.

  Richard B. Irwin, Lieutenant-Colonel, Assistant Adjutant-General, U.S.V.

  General Banks arrived in New Orleans on the 14th of December, 1862, with the advance of a fleet of transports from New York and Hampton Roads, bringing reënforcements for the Department of the Gulf.1 On the 15th he took command of the department, Butler then formally taking leave of the troops. His orders were to move up the Mississippi, in order to open the river, in coöperation with McClernand’s column from Cairo. Banks was to take command of the combined forces as soon as they should meet.

  On the 16th General Grover, with 12 regiments and a battery, without disembarking at New Orleans, accompanied by two batteries and two troops of cavalry from the old force, and convoyed by a
detachment of Farragut’s fleet under Captain James Alden, of the Richmond, was sent to occupy Baton Rouge. The next morning the town was evacuated by the small Confederate detachment which had been posted there, and General Grover quietly took possession. The town was held without opposition until the war ended.

  An attempt followed to occupy Galveston, apparently under importunity from Brigadier-General Andrew J. Hamilton, and in furtherance of the policy that had led the Government to send him with the expedition as military governor of Texas. This resulted on the 1st of January in a military and naval disaster in which three companies of the 42d Massachusetts regiment, under Colonel Isaac S. Burrell, were taken prisoners by the Confederates under Magruder.2

  Weitzel, who was occupying the La Fourche, was strengthened so as to enable him to make the district safe in view of the projected operations on the Mississippi; a strong work was constructed at Donaldsonville commanding the head of the bayou; and intrenchments were thrown up at Brashear City to prevent, with the aid of the navy, any approach of the enemy from the direction of Berwick Bay. On the 14th of January, having crossed the bay, Weitzel ascended the Teche, accompanied by the gun-boats Calhoun, Estrella, and Kinsman, under Lieutenant-Commander Buchanan, forced the Confederates to destroy the gun-boat Cotton, and took 50 prisoners, with a loss of 6 killed and 27 wounded. Among the dead was Buchanan, who was succeeded by Lieutenant-Commander A. P. Cooke.

  After providing for the garrisons and the secure defense of New Orleans, Banks organized his available forces in four divisions, commanded by Major-General C. C. Augur and Brigadier-Generals Thomas W. Sherman, William H. Emory, and Cuvier Grover. Each division was composed of three brigades with three field-batteries, and there were also two battalions and six troops of cavalry, numbering about 700 effectives, and a regiment of heavy artillery, the 1st Indiana (21st Infantry) to man the siege train. The veteran regiments that had served in the department from the beginning were distributed so as to leaven the mass and to furnish brigade commanders of some experience; of the eight colonels commanding brigades, all but two belonged to these regiments. The whole force available for active operations was about 25,000. Two-thirds were, however, new levies, and of these, again, half were nine-months’ men; some were armed with guns that refused to go off, others did not know the simplest evolutions, while in one instance (afterward handsomely redeemed) the colonel was actually unable to disembark his men except by the novel command, “Break ranks, boys, and get ashore the best way you can!”