636 



NAVY, U. S., OPERATIONS OF. 



Lovell has evacuated it with his troops, and restored 

 back to me the administration of its government and 

 the custody of its honor. 



I have, in council with the City Fathers, considered 

 the demand you made of me yesterday of an uncondi- 

 tional surrender of the city, coupled with a requisition 

 to hoist the flag of the United States on the public 

 edifices and haul down the flag that still floats upon 

 the breeze from the dome of this hall. 



It becomes my duty to transmit to you an answer 

 which is the universal sentiment of my constituents, 

 no less than the promptings of my own heart on this 

 sad and solemn occasion. 



The city is without the means of defence, and is ut- 

 terly destitute of the force and material that might en- 

 able it to resist the overpowering armament displayed 

 in sight of it. 



I am no military man, and possess no authority be- 

 yond that of executing the municipal laws of the city 

 of New Orleans. It would be presumptuous in me to 

 attempt to lead an army to the field, if I had one at 

 command, and I know still less how to surrender an 

 undefended place, held as this is at the mercies of your, 

 gunners and your mortars. 



To surrender such a place were an idle and unmean- 

 ing ceremony. The city is yours by the power of 

 brutal force, not by my choice or the consent of the 

 inhabitants. It is "for you to determine the fate that 

 awaits her. As to hoisting any flag not of our own 

 adoption or allegiance, let me say to you that the man 

 lives not in our midst whose hand and heart would not 

 be paralyzed at the mere thought of such an act ; nor 

 could I find in my entire constituency so desperate 

 and wretched a renegade as would dare to profane 

 with his hand the sacred emblem of our aspirations. 



Sir, you have manifested sentiments which would 

 become one engaged in a better cause than that to which 

 you have devoted your sword. I doubt not that they 

 spring from a noble though deluded nature, and I 

 know how to appreciate the emotions which inspired 

 them. You hav a gallant people to administrate 

 during your occupancy of this city a people sensitive 

 to all that can in the least affect their dignity and self- 

 respect. 



Pray, sir, do not fail to regard their susceptibilities. 

 The obligations which I shall assume in their name 

 will be religiously complied with. You may_ trust 

 their honor, though you might not count on their sub- 

 mission to unmerited wrongs. 



In conclusion, I beg you to understand that the peo- 

 ple of New Orleans, while unable to resist your force, 

 do not allow themselves to be insulted by the inter- 

 ference of such as have rendered themselves odious 

 and contemptible by their dastardly desertion of our 

 cause in the mighty struggle in which we are engaged, 

 or such as might remind them too forcibly that they 

 are the conquered and you the conquerors. 



Peace and order may be preserved without resort to 

 measures which I could not at this moment prevent. 



Your occupying the city does not transfer allegiance 

 from the government of their choice to one which they 

 have deliberately repudiated, and that they yield the 

 obedience which the conqueror has a right to extort 

 from the conquered. Yours, respectfully, 



JOHN F. MONROE, Mayor. 



U. S. FLAG SHIP HARTFORD, at anchor of the City | 

 of New Orleans, April 28, 1S62. f 



To His Honor the Mayor and City Council of the City 

 of New Orleans : 



Your communication of the 2Cth instant has been 

 received, together with that of the City Council. 



I deeply regret to see both by their contents, and 

 the continued display of the flag of Louisiana on the 

 court bouse, a determination on the part of the city 

 authorities not to haul it down. Moreover, when my 

 officers and men were sent on shore to communicate 

 with the authorities, and to hoist the United States 

 flag on the Custom House, with the strictest order not 

 to use their arms unless assailed, they were insulted in 

 the grossest manner, and the flag which had been 



hoisted by my orders on the Mint was pulled down and 

 dragged through the streets. 



All of which goes to show that the fire of this fleet 

 may be drawn upon the city at any moment, and in 

 such an event the levee would, in all probability, be 

 cut by the shells, and an amount of distress ensue to 

 the innocent population, which I have heretofore en- 

 deavored to assure you that I desire by all means to 

 avoid. 



The election, therefore, is with you. But it becomes 

 my duty to notify you to remove the women and 

 children from the city within forty-eight hours, if I 

 rightly understood your determination. 



Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



(Signed) D. G. FARRAGUT, 



Flag-Officer, Western Gulf Blockading Squadron. 



CITY HALL, April 2S, 1862. 

 To Flag-Officer D. G.Farragut, United States Flag Ship 



Hartford : 



Your communication of this morning is the first in- 

 timation I ever had that it was by your strict orders 

 that the United States flag was attempted to be hoisted 

 upon certain of our public edifices, by officers sent on 

 shore to communicate with the authorities. The offi- 

 cers who approached me in your name disclosed no 

 such orders and intimated no such design on your 

 part, nor would I have for a moment entertained the 

 remotest suspicion that they could have been invested 

 with power to enter on such an errand while the nego- 

 tiations for a surrender between you and the city au- 

 thorities were still pending. The 'interference of any 

 force under your command, as long as those negotia- 

 tions were not brought to a close, could not be viewed 

 by us otherwise than as a flagrant violation of those 

 courtesies, if not of the absolute rights, which prevail 

 between belligerents under such circumstances. My 

 views and sentiments with reference to such conduct 

 remain unchanged. You now renew the demand 

 made in your former communication, and you insist 

 on their being complied with unconditionally, under a 

 threat of bombardment within forty-eight hours ; and 

 you notify me to remove the women and children from 

 the city, that they may be protected from your shells. 



Sir, you cannot but know that there is no possible 

 exit from this city for a population which still exceeds 

 in number one hundred and forty thousand, and you 

 must therefore be aware of the utter inanity of such a 

 notification. Our women and children cannot escape 

 from your shells, if it be your pleasure to murder 

 them on a question of mere etiquette. But if they 

 could, there are but few among them who would con- 

 sent to desert their families and their homes, and the 

 graves of their relatives, in so awful a moment. They 

 would bravely stand the sight of your shells tearing 

 up the graves of those who are so dear to them, and 

 would deem that they died not ingloriously by the side 

 of the tombs erected by their piety to the memory of 

 departed relatives. 



You sfre not satisfied with the possession of an un- 

 defended city, opposing no resistance to your guns, 

 because of its bearing its hard fate with something of 

 manliness and dignity, and you wish to humble a,nd 

 disgrace us by the performance of an act against which 

 our natures rebel. This satisfaction you cannot expect 

 to obtain at our hands. 



We will stand your bombardment, unarmed and un- 

 defended as we are. The civilized world will consign 

 to indelible infamy the heart that will conceive the deed 

 and the hand that will dare to consummate it. 

 Respectfully, JOHN T. MONROE, 



Mayor of the City of New Orleans. 



USITBD STATES FLAG-SHIP HARTFORD, At Anchor ) 



off the City of New Orleans, April 29, 1862. 

 To His Honor the Mayor of the City of New Orleans : 



SIR : The Forts St. Philip and Jackson having sur- 

 rendered, and all the military defences of the city be- 

 ing either captured or abandoned, you are required, as 

 the sole representative of any supposed authority in 

 the city, to haul down and suppress every ensign and 



