The Capture of New Orleans 1862

TEN: Out of the Mud

TEN Out of the Mud Farragut felt vulnerable. It wa the middle of March, and half hi) fleet waj in the river and the other half still outside the bar. At any hour he expected to hear the guns of Confederate gunboats, led by Mana or perhaps the two new ironclads about which he had heard so much, all steamingdownriver to contest his possession of the passes. He had just received news from the East that on March 8 the Confederate ironclad Virginia (Merrimack ) had sunk USS Congress and USS Cumberland in Hampton Roads and on the following day fought an inconclusive engagement with USS Monitor. Farragut detested the idea of a navy composed of floating iron, but if New Orleans was about to launch two more Virginias, he had no monitors to protect his wooden vessels.' He must be vigilant. He posted fast picketboats several miles above Head of Passes, but all was strangely quiet. The only sign of Confederate activity occurred on March 12 when Winona, Kineo, and Kennebec sighted a steamer coming downriver and gave chase. The cotton-carrying sidewheeler sheered back upriver and was joined by another,whichhad been following about three miles behind. Both vessels backtracked to the protection of Fort Jackson's guns. At two and one-halfmiles, Winona and Kennebec tried the range of their 20-pounder Parrotts, firing two rounds each, but could not see where the shots fell. Aside from this occurrence, Farragut could not understand why the Confederate navy allowed him to bring his heavy vessels into the river without a show of resistance. Perhaps they were waiting for the Union ships to concentrate in the river where they could be boxed in and destroyed , or maybe he had underestimated the strength of the forts where 1. ORN, XVIII, 59, Welles to Farragut, March 12, 1862. 152 The Capture of New Orleans, 1862 a special kind of hell awaited his fleet. He knew that the raft barricade strung across the river had broken and been repaired. Topass the forts he would have to break it again. But in mid-March, with half his squadron stranded outside the bar, the enemy was too quiet, almost smugly indifferent to his presence. To Farragut, a fighting man, the quiet was worrisome , but before he could battle Confederates he had to fight another enemy — mud.2 In other years the bars had been deeper, but without the steady flow of maritime traffic to keep the passes open, dredging had stopped and the channels filled with mud. Heavy ships like Brooklyn, which drew fifteen feet of water, and Hartford, which drew about the same, had to steam around to Southwest Pass where the channel was deepest. At Head of Passes was Pilottown, a small village of fisherfolk who lived in a dozen shacks built on poles above the river. A company of marines occupied the town and paroled the inhabitants, whom Farragut found "illtreated by both parties." They had no way to send their catches to market and complained that "to sell to [Yankees] is death by the law of Louisiana." The village, although infested with mosquitoes and midges, provided a handy storage place for sails, spars, and other supplies. On the lone flagpole at Pilottown, Farragut raised the Stars and Stripes and said, "Our flag is now, I hope, permanently hoisted on Louisiana soil."3 If the words "I hope" sounded tentative, Farragut had good reasons. He did not want to engage the forts without the heavy broadsides oiPenjacola ,Mitttitjippi, Richmond, and Colorado, and none of those vesselscould get over the bar. He ordered them all back to Ship Island to belightened, which created another delay. As each vessel finally came into the river,all her guns, carriages, shot, shell, and coal had to be restored before the ships could protect themselves from attack. Of the four big warships, Farragut doubted whether Colorado could be lightened enough. She drew twenty-three feet, compared with Brooklyn's sixteen, and in crossing the bar Brooklyn grounded and had to be pulled off by Hartford. Farragut decided not to waste time trying to lighten Colorado , but James Alden, captain of Richmond, claimed it could be done. Theodorus Bailey, captain of Colorado, disagreed. "If I thought it possible to lighten this ship sufficiently to cross the bar," he said to Farragut, "I [would] have asked . . .permissionto do so long since. If Captain Alden thinks that he can lighten the Colorado and take her over the bar, I beg...