in all difficulties in his line of duty. 66 and several of her port-shutters jammed and to whom I would call the notice of by the fire from the different ships. the department, is not the least in imThe Hartford, my flagship, was com- portance. I mean Pilot Martin Freemanded by Captain Percival Drayton, man. He has been my great reliance who exhibited throughout that coolness and ability for which he has been long known to his brother officers. But I must speak of that officer in a double capacity. He is the fleet captain of my squadron, and one of more determined energy, untiring devotion to duty, and zeal for the service, tempered by great calmness, I do not think adorns any navy. I desire to call your attention to this officer, though well aware that in thus speaking of his high qualities I am only communicating officially to the department that which it knew full well before. To him, and to my staff in their respective positions, I am indebted for the detail of my fleet. Lieutenant J. Crittenden Watson, my flag-lieutenant, has been brought to your notice in former dispatches. During the action he was on the poop attending to the signals, and performed his duties, as might be expected, thoroughly. He is a scion worthy the noble stock he sprang from, and I commend him to your attention. My Secretary, Mr. McKinley, and Acting Ensign L. H. Brownell, were also on the poop, the latter taking notes of the action, a duty which he performed with coolness and accuracy. Two other acting ensigns of my staff (Mr. Bogart and Mr. Heginbotham) were on duty in the powder division, and, as the reports will show, exhibited zeal and ability. The latter, I regret to say, was severely wounded by a raking shot from the Tennessee, when we collided with that vessel, and died a few hours after. Mr. Heginbotham was a young married man, and has left a widow and one child, whom I commend to the kindness of the department. Lieutenant A. R. Yates, of the Augusta, acted as an additional aid to me on board the Hartford, and was very efficient in the transmission of orders. The last of my staff, 'It gives me pleasure to refer to several officers who volunteered to take any situation where they might be useful, some of whom were on their way North, either by orders of the department or condemned by medical survey The reports of the different commanders will show how they conducted themselves. I have already mentioned Lieutenant-Commander Perkins, of the Chickasaw, and Lieutenant Yates, of the Augusta. Acting Volunteer Lieutenant William Hamilton, late commanding officer of the Augusta Dinsmore, had been invalided by the medical survey, but he eagerly offered his services on board the iron-clad Chickasaw, having had much experience in our monitors. Acting Volunteer Lieutenant P. Giraud, another experienced officer in iron-clads, asked to go in one of these vessels, but as they were all well supplied with officers, I permitted him to go on the Ossipee, under Commander Le Roy. After the action he was given temporary charge of the ram Tennessee. Before closing this report there is one other officer of my squadron of whom I feel bound to speak-Captain being engaged at the National Observatory, and particularly in the operations of the Coast Survey in New York harbor and elsewhere. At the outbreak of the rebellion, Captain Craven, whose instinctive loyalty was keenly alive to the necessities of the situation, was of great service to the country in preserving the posts at Key West and the Tortugas, where he was stationed with his vessel on coast duty. He was subsequently in command of the gunboat Tuscarora, in which his active pursuit of the rebel Alabama will be remem T. A. Jenkins of the Richmond, who was formerly my chief of staff, not because of his having held that position, but because he never forgets to do his duty to the Government, and takes now the same interest in the fleet as when he stood in that relation to me. He is also the commanding officer of the Second Division of my squadron, and as such has shown ability and the most untiring zeal. He carries out the spirit of one of Lord Collingwood's best sayings: 'Not to be afraid of doing too much; those who are, seldom do as much as they ought.' When in Pensa-bered by the reader. Early in 1864 cola he spent days on the bar, placing the buoys in the best positions; was always looking after the interest of the service, and keeping the vessels from being detained one moment longer in port than was necessary. The gallant Craven told me only the night before the action in which he lost his life: 'I regret, Admiral, that I have detained you, but had it not been for Captain Jenkins, God knows when I should have been here. When your order came, I had not received an ounce of coal!' I feel that I should not be doing my duty did I not call the attention of the Department to an officer who has performed all his various duties with so much zeal and fidelity." The total casualties in this action, exclusive of those lost in the Tecumseh, were 52 killed and 170 wounded; 20 officers, including Admiral Buchanan, and about 170 men were captured in the Tennessee, and 90 officers and men in the Selma.* Captain Tunis Augustus McDonough Craven, whose loss, thus deplored by Admiral Farragut, was the heaviest price paid for this great victory, had for thirty-five years been in the service of his country. A native of New Hampshire, he entered the Navy as midshipman in 1829. He was early distinguished by his scientific attainments, * Annual Report of Secretary Welles, December 5, 1864. he was put in command of the monitor Tecumseh, with which it was his fate to perish. "No braver, or better, or more loyal officer," says an obituary notice, "is left in our great Navy than Captain Craven; whose steady goodness and bravery and sense were joined with a modesty so sensitive, that when called on for a speech on a public occasion, he could not say a word, and when at the Sanitary Fair he was called out that he might furnish his autograph, was absolutely so discomposed at the attention as to be unable to write."* The enemy's fleet having thus been effectually disposed of in the action of the 5th of August, the reduction of the forts at the entrance to the harbor was speedily secured. Fort Powell, protecting Grant's Pass, was evacuated and dismantled the night following, the garrison escaping, but leaving all the guns, eighteen in number, in excellent condition for immediate service. Fort Gaines, on Dauphin Island, after a bombardment by one of the iron-clads, was unconditionally surrendered on the 6th. The articles of capitulation were signed on board the flag-ship Hartford by Admiral Farragut and General Granger on the part of the Union forces, and by Colonel Anderson, the rebel officer in command of the post. By this surrender, 818 prisoners of war were captured, includ * N. Y. Tribune, August 18, 1864. ing 46 commissioned officers; 26 guns, a large amount of ordnance stores and ammunition, and subsistence stores for a garrison of about 800 men for twelve months. All that now remained to obtain full possession of the harbor was the reduction of Fort Morgan. A fortnight was passed in the necessary preparations by the fleet and the land forces of General Granger, the latter having landed on Mobile Point and constructed powerful batteries at short range in the rear of the fort. The attack commenced with a terrific bombardment from the combined forces at dawn on the morning of the 22d. The fire was steadily kept up during the day from the shore batteries, the monitors and ships inside, and the vessels outside the bay. Between 9 and 10 in the evening, a shell from one of the land batteries exploded in the citadel and set it on fire. The bombardment was kept up slowly but steadily through the night, and again became general with the daylight. An hour afterward, at 6 A. M., a white flag was hoisted in the fort, and at 2 in the afternoon the fort was unconditionally surrendered by its commander, Brigadier-General R. L. Page. By this surrender, Major-General Canby reported to the Department at Washington, "We have about 600 prisoners, 60 pieces of artillery, and a large quantity of material. In the twelve hours preceding the surrender, about 3,000 shell were thrown into the fort. The citadel and barracks are entirely destroyed, and the works generally much injured. Many of the guns were spiked, the carriages burned, and much of the ammunition destroyed by the rebels. The losses in the army were one man killed and seven wounded." In his dispatch to Secretary Welles, Admiral Farragut thus commented on certain circumstances attending the surrender: "I regret," says he, "to state that after the assembling of the rebel . officers at the appointed hour, 2 P. M., for the surrender outside the fort, it was discovered on an examination of the interior, that most of the guns were spiked, many of the gun-carriages wantonly injured, the arms, ammunition, provisions, etc., destroyed, and there was every reason to believe this had been done after the white flag had been raised. It was also discovered that General Page and several of his officers had no swords to deliver up, and further, that some of those which were surrendered had been broken. The whole conduct of the officers. of Fort Gaines and Fort Morgan presents such a striking contrast in moral principle, that I cannot fail to remark upon it. Colonel Anderson, who commanded the former, finding himself in a perfectly untenable position and encumbered with a superfluous number of conscripts, many of whom were mere boys, determined to surrender a fort which he could not defend, and in this determination was supported by all his officers, save one. But from the moment he hoisted the white flag he scrupulously kept every thing intact, and in that condition delivered it over; whilst General Page and his officers, with a childish spite, destroyed guns which they said they would defend to the last, but which they never defended at all, and threw away or broke those weapons which they had not the manliness to use against their enemies; for Fort Morgan never fired a gun after the commencement of the bombardment and the advance pickets of our army were actually on its glacis. As before stated, the ceremony of surrender took place at 2 P. M., and that same afternoon all the garrison were sent to New Orleans in the United States steamers Tennessee and Bienville, where they arrived safely." The object of the expedition was now fully secured. The city of Mobile, indeed, was not captured, but the pos MILITARY AFFAIRS IN VIRGINIA. 425 session of the bay effectually suppressed in another order he thus congratulated every attempt to use the harbor as heretofore by blockade-runners, or for the fitting out of confederate piratical cruisers. The country rejoiced in the result, and cheerfully awarded to Admiral Farragut the honors of his continued exploits which, in the judgment of a competent foreign critic, placed him at the head of the living naval commanders of the world.* By an order of President Lincoln, dated at the Executive Mansion, September 3, salutes of one hundred guns were ordered to be fired at the national arsenals and navy yards in commemoration of these "brilliant achievements," while “The doughty Admiral's feats of arms place him at the head of his profession, and certainly constitute him the first naval officer of the day, as far as actual reputation, won by skill, courage and hard fighting goes.”—British Army and Navy Gazette. the officers and men engaged in this CHAPTER CIV. MILITARY AFFAIRS IN VIRGINIA-GENERAL SHERIDAN'S CAMPAIGN IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHENANDOAH-THE ARMY OF THE JAMES-SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER, 1864. In a previous chapter the narration | burg, skirmishing with the rear-guards of military movements in Virginia was of General Early's force by the way. brought down to General Sheridan's General Averill had already, on the appointment in August to the command 7th, gained an important victory over of the Middle Division (including the the enemy's cavalry to the west of protection of Washington and the north- Moorefield, inflicting a heavy loss, and ern portions of Virginia), and the sub- capturing several hundred prisoners, sequent operations of General Warren with four cannon. A flank attack by a in General Grant's army to the south party of Moseby's troops on the night of of Petersburg. We resume the record the 13th of August, capturing a supplywith an account of General Sheridan's train at Berryville, with a threatened stirring campaign in the Valley of the movement of Longstreet's corps on the Shenandoah. Immediately after his east of the Blue Ridge, determined assumption of the chief command in this Sheridan to return to the neighborhood quarter on the 8th of August he pushed of the Potomac. This movement was forward a column from Harper's Ferry facilitated by the defeat of a cavalry up the valley to Winchester and be- advance of Longstreet's corps by Genyond to the strong position of the enemy eral Merritt at Thoroughfare Gap on at Fisher's Hill, in the vicinity of Stras- the 16th. The enemy, however, pur sued Sheridan in his retreat, and a rear. Every preparation was made on sharp engagement was fought on Sunday, the 21st, in the vicinity of Charlestown, covering the withdrawal of the Union troops to Harper's Ferry. Early was left in possession of the valley, Sheridan's efforts being, for the present, confined to the protection of the line of the Potomac. Affairs continued in this position for nearly a month, varied at the end of August and the beginning of September with important reconnoissances, conducted with spirit by our cavalry forces, disclosing the enemy in force from Martinsburg and Charlestown to Winchester. At length, on the 13th of September, after a visit from General Grant at Harper's Ferry, General Sheridan began a decided offensive movement with an important reconnoissance to the crossing of the Summit Point and Winchester road over the Opequan Creek, disclosing the presence of the enemy in force on the west bank of that stream, while Generals Wilson and McIntosh's brigades of cavalry, dashing up the Winchester pike, came in contact with Kershaw's rebel division, charged it, and captured the Eighth South Carolina regiment (sixteen officers and 145 men), its battle-flag, and Colonel Hennegan, commanding brigade, with a loss of only two men killed and two wounded.* In the reconnoissances which followed it was ascertained that the main body of General Early's forces were stationed in the neighborhood of Bunker's Hill and Stephenson's Depot. On the 18th, Gordon's division of infantry was sent by Early to occupy Martinsburg, whence they were speedily driven by Averill's cavalry to Darkesville. This position of the enemy's forces gave General Sheridan an opportunity to strike an effective blow. He determined by a rapid movement to mass his forces on the Winchester and Berryville pike, and attack Early in his Major-General Sheridan to Lieutenant-General Grant, near Berryville, September 13. Sunday, the 18th. The movement began at dawn of the following day, when General Wright's Sixth Corps moved out on the Winchester and Berryville pike, followed by General Emory's Nineteenth Corps and the army of Western Virginia, under General Crook, from Summit Point. A concentration of these forces was effected at the crossing of the Opequan. The way was cleared for a passage of the stream by a gallant charge of Wilson's cavalry, which, having crossed, carried the enemy's fieldworks on the opposite side at the point of the sabre. The Sixth Corps now followed, and took up a position a mile and a half beyond, awaiting the arrival of the Nineteenth Corps to attack the enemy, who were protected by the woods in front. As a diversion, a portion of the Union cavalry, under Torbert and Averill, was employed in a demonstration on the line of the Opequan, twelve miles distant, at Burn's Ford. Previous to the appearance of the Nineteenth Corps on the field, General Early had moved Gordon's division from Bunker Hill in time to unite with Breckinridge's, Ramsour and Rhode's commands, by which Sheridan's force was now confronted. At noon the advance was sounded, and the action became general. The Sixth and Nineteenth Corps advanced together to the attack, General Crook's command being held in reserve. On their close approach to the enemy's position, the first line was driven back by a cannonade of grape and canister upon the second, and the advance checked till counter batteries were opened, and the reserve was brought up, with the addition of a body of Averill's and Merritt's cavalry, under General Torbert, on the right, when, about 3 o'clock, General Sheridan, who was actively engaged on the field throughout the day, ordered a final charge. The encounter was a desperate one, the infantry fighting with |