1895 ] 375 [Frazer. 



published. Yet had it not been for the vigilance, the self-sacrifice and 

 coviras;e of the commanders of these small vessels, the more brilliant ex- 

 ploits of the larger ones would have been in vain. 



On September 14, 1864, he received orders to the Mississippi Squadron, 

 then temporarily under the command of Capt. Pennock, after the transfer 

 of Admiral Porter to the Atlantic coast and before the arrival of Admiral 

 Lee to replace him, and was assigned by the acting Admiral to the com- 

 mand of the Fifth Division of the Mississippi Squadron, embracing that 

 river from Grand Gulf to a short distance below Natchez. The writer 

 followed the then Lieutenant Commander to Mound City, 111., from Phil- 

 adelphia, and later accompanied him thence to Natchez, serving under 

 his command to the end of the war. 



This territory had been conquered by the brilliant victories of the 

 EUets, Admirals Farragut, Foote and Porter, and of the army, but it was 

 filled with wealthy and influential rebels who were especially numerous 

 in all the large towns ; and it was subjected to continual raids from flying 

 rebel squadrons of all arms, which held up the passing transports, raided 

 the military posts, and even inflicted considerable damage on the light 

 armored gunboats when in the course of their patrol duty the latter ap- 

 proached too near the site of a masked battery. In view of the great im- 

 portance to the U. S. Government of the maintenance of this river as a 

 means of transporting material and reinforcements to the trans-Ap- 

 palachian armies and the Mississippi and Gulf Squadrons a great deal of 

 responsibility rested upon the Navy ofiicers, and the difficulty of their 

 task was much increased by the plots of those citizens who were claiming 

 and receiving their protection. In order to understand the situation 

 it must be borne in mind that at this date, 1864-1865, the people of the 

 North, and for that matter the sensible people everywliere North and 

 South, were convinced tbat the triumph of the lawful Government of 

 the United States was merely a question of time. The loyal adherents 

 of the Government had grown so accustomed to the receipt of cheering 

 news from the seat of war every lime they sat down to breakfast, that a 

 serious defeat would have produced more discouragement then than in the 

 early years of the great war, before either public or combatants had been 

 educated to the point of knowing just what could be expected of a great 

 Army and Navy judiciously handled. It was a necessary policy, there- 

 fore, to hold on to every inch of ground which had been gained, and to 

 risk less and less for further acquisitions as the extent of acquired territory 

 increased. 



Strenuous and in part honest efforts had been made and were con- 

 tinually being repeated to end the war by negotiations with rebel com- 

 missioners. The price of gold was fabulously high, though destined to go 

 much higher; foreign nations were impatient of maintaining their attitudes 

 of neutrality while submitting to the inconvenience of the loss of their 

 American markets and the scarcity of cotton, and just this demand for 

 cotton made the course of an officer of the U. S. Navy in command of a 



PROC. AMEB. PfllLOS. SOC. XXXIV. 149. 2 V. PRINTED DEC. 6, 1895. 



