The Capture of New Orleans 1862

SIXTEEN: By Land and By Water

SIXTEEN By Land and By Water Two hours after the last ofFarragutsfleetpassed Forts Jackson and St.Philip on the morning of April 24, an uncommonstillnesspervaded the lower Mississippi. The bummers lay on the floor of the bomb boats and slept, the morningsun warm upon their stiff backs. Those on watch dipped water from the river and washed the powder and grime from their faces. Others heated a pot of coffee and nibbledon hardtack, glancing from time to time at the smokerising above the forts, and waited for orders. Ammunition was running low, but they were almost too tired to care. At Fort Jackson, General Duncan assessed his situation with bloodshot eyes. Louisiana still lay against the bank, a formidable-looking hulk •with minordamage, but useless. She had fired but twelve shots during the engagement, Duncan reported caustically.McRae, anchored beside the ironclad, was badly damaged topside by shrapnel and grape, but her machinery was still functional. By some miracle, the River DefenseboatDefiance , \vhose captain -was drunk, survived the battle, but the other vessels were gone, shoved against the bank and burningor floating downriver like so much flotsam. The numberof dead and wounded may never be known, but the New Orleans Daily Crescent pegged the numberat seventy -four killed and seventy-two wounded. The forts had taken six days of constant bombardment and a hailof shot, shell, and shrapnel, but they still had most of their men and almost all their guns. Fort Jackson wasfilledwith craters and debris, but despite the havoc inside, only four guns had been destroyed, and eleven carriages damaged, along with thirty beds and traverses. In and around the fort, all the buildings had burned. Levees had been cut, and water flooded the casemates. The drawbridge over the moat was smashed, and all the cause- 250 The Capture of New Orleans, 1862 •ways leading from the fort blown up by bombshells. In places, the walls were cracked and broken. Of six guns in the water battery, one was still serviceable. Between the fort and the landing, only one small boat had survived to ferry men back and forth. But in the wreck and ruin of Fort Jackson, after being battered by 7,500 13-inch mortar shells, only fourteen men laydead in wet, shallow graves, with another thirty-nine wounded. Across the river, Fort St. Philip had escaped most of Porter's bombardment and was still in.good fighting condition, reporting two dead and four wounded, caused mostly by the passing of Farragut's fleet.1 Porter waited through the morningsilence,watching the Confederate flags still floating above the forts. General Butler left his transports and came up from Head of Passes for a conference.Should he attack head on, or should he wait? Porter asked him to wait and at 9:30A.M. dispatched Owajco, with its commander, Lieutenant John Guest, under a flag of truce to demand the surrender of the forts. Fort Jackson opened with two guns, and Guest sheered across the stream, only to be greeted by a shot from Fort St. Philip. Owcutco steamed for the opening in the barrier and returned undamaged, and Butler got his answer. Before the war, Porter had •worked •with a survey team along the Delta and knew the topography ofthe area better than Butler. He put the general on board Miami and advised him to land troops on the seaward side of Fort St. Philip and to approach it from the rear. Sachem joinedMiami to help move Butler's transports and then take a position in the bay where her guns would discourage the Confederates from trying to escape through the swamps behind Fort St. Philip. An hour later, a boat from Fort Jackson flying a flag of truce hailed Owadco. Guest received the officer in charge, -who apologized for the firing upon the flag. He returned to the fort with Porter's terms but replied an hour later that Colonel Higgins considered the Union demand "inadmis2 sible." Higgins' refusal to surrender caused a resumption ofthe bombardment, •which Porter had hoped to avoid. At n6on the bummers opened, spacing their rounds to conserve powder, and stopped at sundown. Porterworried about Louisiana and erroneously reported to Welles that "Farragut had unknowingly left a troublesome force in his rear, consisting of four 1. New Orleans Daily Cmccnt, April 29, 1862; ORN, XVIII, 372-73, Survey Map,Porter to Welles, April 30, Duncan to Pickett, April 30, 1862. 2. ORN, XVIII, 358, 368-69, 379, Guest to Porter, April...