The Capture of New Orleans 1862

TWELVE: Recipe for Disaster

TWELVE Recipe for Dutajter On April 18, Good Friday, runwrj of Porter',) bombardment began tofilter upriver to New Orleans, seventy miles away by river and fifty by air, where people crowded into their churches and offered fervent prayers. From the foot of Canal Street they listened for the rumble of distant cannon, but all they could hear was the gurgle of high water lapping against the levee. On St. Charles Street another crowd gathered, pressing each other for the latest news. As anxietybuilt, men began to appear on the levee armed with old squirrel guns and shotguns. When eveningcame, the crowds were still millingabout the town, shuffling back and forth from the riverfront , swinging lanterns, asking questions, and offering opinions. Most agreed—New Orleans -was in serious peril. "The defense of the river," reported the Delta on April 19, "should at this conjuncture be the paramount ... concern. Upon its defense hangs the fate of New Orleans and theValley of the Mississippi."1 On Ship Island, sixty miles to the northeast across Chandeleur Sound, Mrs. Benjamin F. Butler detected the "distant sound of heavy artillery." The general had left with his men, and Mrs. Butler could not be certain whether the firing came from the Mississippi or Mobile Bay. In a letter to her daughter, she •wrote, "I think the "firing must be at Mobile, some vessels, maybe, trying to run the blockade. It would seem impossiblethat the soundwould reach us from the Mississippi."2 By Easter Sunday, the third day of the bombardment,the citizens of New Orleans began to gird themselvesfor the worst. In the quietmorning 1. New Orleans Daily Delta, April 19, 1862. 2. Benjamin F. Butler, Private ani Official Correspondence of GeneralBenjamin F. Batter During the Period of the Civil War (5 vols.; Norwood, Mass., 1917), I, 416. 188 The Capture of New Orleans, 1862 hours the sounds of deep-throated distant firing was heard at Chalmette, a few miles south of the city. Refugeesfrom around Quarantine dribbled into New Orleans, bringing with them a fewpossessions and words of despair . By now, jittery New Orleans was asking itself why there was no news from the forts. On April 19,a small crowd watched Louisiana leave the levee and start downriver, towed by two tenders. They questioned the effectiveness of the ironclad, which had no motive power, but they prayed their naval officers would use her well. With her heavy casemate and powerful guns, Louisiana looked ugly and awesome, but impregnable. The followingday, after a longargument between the Tift brothers and the Committee of Public Safety,Mutjuuippi finally splashed into the river. At this stage she was still a partially finished hulkwithout an engine, and some of her machinery still lay in local shops. Port frames and doors had not been fitted, iron cladding would not be completed before the end of the month,and the shaft and propellers were still on the ground, waiting to be rigged and set in the vessel. Her guns had not arrived, and on April 17 the Tifts wired Mallory asking, as they had so many times before, "When shall we get them? We still hope to have the vessel ready for service by the end of the month."3 With the Unionnavy poundingthe forts with heavy shellsaround the clock, the citizens of New Orleans expressed little optimismas they watched MtMiMippi slide down the bank and splash into the river, but they still had hope. From an allegedly reliable source at Fort Jackson, the True Delta reported that the enemyhad expended 370,000 pounds ofgunpowder and one thousand tons of metal, but had "accomplished nothing." New Orleans could relax, the reporter implied;there was nothing to fear from the mortar boats. Their shellshad upset a little earth in Fort Jackson, but no damage had been done to Fort St. Philip, and Confederateability to resist an invasion had not been reduced by the bombardment. In fact, the Commercial Bulletin reported, "the enemy has made very little progress .. .while we have sunk or disabled quite a number of his boats.""1 The source of that information was not published, but intoxication ran rampant among the crews of the River Defense boats. For a few more days the city's populace and public officials still speculated with frail optimismthat everything would turn out for the best. After all, General Lovell had given his word that the forts wereimpregnable, 3. ORN, Ser.2, I, 597-98, N. and A. F. Tift to Mallory. 4. New Orleans...