網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版
[ocr errors]

New Orleans was in every way a great inexpedient, he continued his cruise to triumph, and was so acknowledged the eastward, in the Harriet Lane, "in throughout the world. At home its im- hopes of picking up some vessel trying to portance could hardly be over-estimated. run the blockade," when at two o'clock On the arrival, at Washington, of Cap- on the morning of the 9th of May he saw tain Bailey, who had been sent north "a brilliant light illuminating the sky,' immediately, on the conclusion of the en- and discovered that the Navy Yard at gagement, as bearer of dispatches, and Pensacola, Fort McRae, the Naval Hoswho bore with him a number of Con- pital, Warrington, and some parts of federate flags as trophies, Secretary Pensacola were in flames. Proceeding Welles issued the following congratula- to the spot, he passed Fort Pickens, and tory orders: entered Pensacola at daylight. It seems that on the previous night the rebels, in greatly diminished numbers, under command of General Thomas Jones,General Bragg, as we have seen, having left the place with most of his forces, in March, for the defence of the Confederacy at the Battle of Shilohhaving heard of the approach of the steamers to Mobile Bay, and fearing the arrival of the naval forces which had wrought such destruction at New Orleans, resolved to destroy all the public works which the previous cannonading had spared, and finally evacuate the place. On perceiving their intention, in the general spreading of the conflagration, the guns at Fort Pickens were opened upon them to arrest the work of destruction, and compel its authors to retire. This final bombardment was continued for five hours, when General Arnold, in command at the Fort, sent his aid, Captain Jackson, to Pensacola, to call upon the town to surrender. On landing, he was met by a number of people of the place, who hailed his arrival with pleasure, and obeyed his directions in extinguishing the flames on the wharf. The negroes, as usual; displayed a great deal of exhilaration. The timely arrival of Commodore Porter in the Harriet Lane gave the authorities at Fort Pickens much needed assistance in transporting troops to the mainland, and the old flag was presently raised amid the ruins of the deserted works. The Confederate soldiers, in number about a thousand, had retired in haste on the road to Mobile.

“Our navy, fruitful with victories, presents no more signal achievement than this, nor is there an exploit surpassing it recorded in the annals of naval warfare. In passing, and eventually overcoming Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the batteries above and below New Orleans, destroying the barriers of chains, steam rams, fire rafts, iron-clad vessels, and other obstructions, capturing from the rebel forces the great southern metropolis, and obtaining possession and control of the lower Mississippi, yourself, your officers, and our brave sailors and marines, whose courage and daring bear historic renown, have won a nation's gratitude and applause. I congratulate you and your command on your great success in having contributed so largely towards destroying the unity of the rebellion, and in restoring again to the protection of the national government and the national flag the important city of the Mississippi valley, and so large a portion of its immediate dependencies. Your example and its successful results, though attended with some sacrifice of life and loss of ships, inculcate the fact that the first duty of a commander in war is to take great risks for the accomplishment of great ends."

Commodore Porter, a fortnight after the surrender of New Orleans and its defences, left Ship island with his mortar fleet for the vicinity of Mobile, with a view to preparations for an entrance at some future time into the harbor. The design, however, proving for the time

[graphic][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.

FORT MACON.

The evacuation had evidently been a settled purpose, most of the heavy guns having been previously removed. Fort McRae was entirely consumed in the interior; Fort Barancas was less injured, the enemy having been driven away from their work of destruction by the fire from Pickens. The Naval Hospital, said to be the finest structure of the kind in the United States, was entirely consumed. The storehouses and workshops at the Navy Yard had suffered the same fate. The Custom House and a few other small buildings were left uninjured, but in general the ruin was complete. It was

397

the boast of a writer from Pensacola, to the Mobile Register, the day after the conflagration, that General Jones had most admirably performed his task of destruction, and that he had left to the Federals but an inhospitable sand-beach. The land, however, and the harbor with its refuge for the Gulf squadron, remained; the Government was freed from the necessity of keeping up a large force with perpetual vigilance, as in previous months at Pickens, and it was much that the United States flag once more waved in its old seat of authority in this important station in Florida.

CHAPTER LXIV.

THE REDUCTION OF FORT MACON, N. C., APRIL 25, 1862.

FOLLOWING close upon the capture of Fort Pulaski and the bombardment of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, on the Mississippi, came the reduction of Fort Macon, in North Carolina. The position of this work rendered its possession of no slight importance, were it only to secure the valuable seaport and harbor at Beaufort. Great as were the advantages of the previous conquests of the army and navy at Hatteras, Roanoke island and Newbern, there was still wanting for the fleet a naval station in North Carolina of ready access from the ocean. The capture of Newbern effectually cut off Beaufort from direct communication by land with the interior. General Burnside was in possession of the railway which led to the city, and the enemy had no sufficient force on the spot to resist its capture. Indeed, so obviously appeared the place at his disposal, that within ten days after his occupation of Newbern, it was currently reported that Beaufort was evacuated in advance of the arrival of his troops, Fort Macon, blown up by the

rebel garrison, and the troublesome Confederate steamer Nashville, which, since its successful passage from Southampton, had been blockaded in the harbor, burnt` to escape capture. The news was premature in some of its particulars, and far from prophetic in others; but the main result was speedily attained. So far from being burnt, the Nashville, improving her opportunity while there were but two sailing vessels blockading the harbor, ran by them uninjured on the night of the 17th of March, and escaped to Georgetown, S. C. Fort Macon, named after the Honorable Nathaniel Macon, was a regularly constructed work, hexagonal in form, mounting two tiers of guns-one in casemated bomb-proof, the other en barbette. Its full armament consisted of about sixty guns. When it was taken possession of by the troops of the State of North Carolina, about the middle of April, 1861, it was ungarrisoned, mounted but four 24-pounders, on weak carriages, and was generally out of repair. It is situated on the eastern extremity of

Bogue island, in full command of the channel to Beaufort, distant a mile and three quarters across the bay in a northeasterly direction. Bogue sound separates the island on which the fort is built from the mainland.

The preliminary steps for the capture of Fort Macon were taken by General Burnside immediately after the battle of Newbern. That event occurred on the 14th of March; on the 19th General Parke was ordered, with his brigade, to advance towards Beaufort. The railway being broken up by the rebels, the troops were transported by water to Slocum's creek, their former landing place, and marched thence across the country over swampy roads and long stretches of sand, to Carolina city, on Bogue sound, a few miles west of Morehead city, at the termination of the railway opposite Fort Macon. Both these places, with Beaufort on the opposite side of the Newport river, which here enters the bay, were occupied by the Rhode island troops without opposition. The only rebel force in arms in the neighborhood was the garrison at Fort Macon, commanded by Colonel Moses J. White, a nephew, it was said, of Jefferson Davis. After destroying the railway bridge of Newport and opposing, as far as possible, the advance of the Union army, he awaited, with some five hundred men in the fort, the operations for its reduction. General Parke, from his headquarters at Carolina city, having, on his arrival, offered the garrison liberal terms of surrender, which were refused, lost no time in directing the movement. The siege material, transported with difficulty from Newbern along the route taken by the troops, was brought to Bogue sound, and thence ferried across the shallow water to a point some four or five miles west of Fort Macon, on the island or spit of sand on the eastern termination of which that work was situated. A wide marsh lay between the landing-place and the station for the batteries, which were to be placed

in full command of the fort in its rear. The trouble of effecting this transit was, of course, considerable. When the marsh was passed, the ground was broken by a number of loose sand-hills, which, without greatly diminishing the difficulties of transportation, afforded an excellent protection to the troops sheltered behind them. The ground was cleared of the enemy by laborious picket duty of Colonel Rodman's 4th Rhode Island volunteers, Major Wright's battalion of the 5th Rhode Island, and Major Appleman's 8th Connecticut. "Captain Williamson, topographical engineer of General Burnside's staff, surveyed the vicinity for the purpose of ascertaining the most desirable places for the location of the batteries. In this duty he was assisted by Lieutenant Flagler, ordnance officer of General Burnside's staff; Captain. Lewis O. Morris, Company C, 1st United States artillery (regulars); Lieutenant Prouty, 25th Massachusetts volunteers, (acting assistant ordnance officer), and Captain Ammon, of battery I, 3d New York artillery. The site for the first battery (of four 10-inch mortars), was chosen under the cover of a large sandhill, near the edge of the marshes which line the northern side of the 'spit,' distant 1,400 yards from the fort. working of this battery was particularly allotted to Lieutenant Flagler, by whose name it was known during the siege, though he devoted himself generally to the erection and working of all three. This battery was manned by a portion of battery I, 3d New York artillery. The next battery was placed one hundred yards in advance, and nearly in the centre of the island, It was built and worked by Captain Morris, assisted by Lieutenants Gowan and Pollock. Its armament was three long 30-pound siege Parrott guns, rifled. The shot used in this battery was of a novel character. Each projectile was made of solid cast iron, conically shaped, with a blunt point some three inches in diameter, and the

The

« 上一頁繼續 »