NAVY, U. S., OPERATIONS OF. 



C37 



symbol of Government, whether State or Confederate, 

 except that of the United States. I atn now about to 

 raise the flag of the United States upon the Custom 

 House, and you will see that it is respected with all 

 the civil power of the city. 



I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obe- 

 dient servant, D. G. FARRAGUT, 

 Flag-Officer, Western Gulf Blockading Squadron. 



UNITED STATKS FLAG SHIP HARTFORD, At Anchor | 

 off the City of New Orleans, April 30, 1862. ( 



GENTLEMEX : I informed you in my communication 

 of the 26th of April, that your determination, as I un- 

 derstood it, was not to haul down the flag of Louisiana 

 on the City Hall, and that my officers and men were 

 treated with rudeness when they landed, even with a 

 flag of truce, to communicate with the authorities, <fec., 

 and, if such was to be the determined course of the 

 people, the fire of the vessels might at any moment be 

 drawn upon the city. This you have thought proper 

 to construe into a determination on my part to murder 

 your women and children, and made your letter so of- 

 fensive that it will terminate our intercourse ; and so 

 soon as General Butler arrives with his forces I slwll 

 turn over the charge of the city to him and assume my 

 naval duties. Very respectfullv, &c., 



" D. G. FARRAGUT, 



Flag-Officer Western Gulf Blockading Squadron. 

 His Honor the Mayor and City Council of New Orleans- 

 Captain Farragut then seized all the steam- 

 boats which had not been destroyed, among 

 them the famous Tennessee, for which the 

 blockaders had long been watching and sent 

 them down to Quarantine for General Butlers 

 forces. There were several iron-clad rams 

 building, at the time of the capture of the 

 city, the principal one of which, the Missis- 

 sippi, soon came floating by in flames. An- 

 other was sunk in front of the custom house, 

 and there were others at Algiers, opposite 

 Xe\v Orleans, just begun. 



" I next went above the city eight miles, to 

 Carrolton," writes Captain Farragut, ' where I 

 learned there were two other forts ; but the 

 panic had gone before me. I found the guns 

 spiked, and the gun carriages in flames. The 

 first work, on the right, reaches from the Mis- 

 sissippi nearly over to Pontchartrain, and has 

 29 guns ; the one on the left had 6 guns, from 

 which Commander Lee took some 50 barrels 

 of powder, and completed the destruction of 

 the gun carriages, &c. A mile higher up there 

 were two other earthworks, but not yet armed. 

 ' ; "We discovered here, fastened to the right 

 bank of the river, one of the most Herculean 

 labors I have ever seen a raft and chain to 

 extend across the river to prevent Foote's gun- 

 boats from descending. It is formed by placing 

 three immense logs of not less than three or 

 four feet in diameter, and some thirty feet 

 long : to the centre one a 2-inch chain is at- 

 tached, running lengthwise the raft ; and the 

 three logs and chain are then frapped together 

 by chains from one half to one inch, three or 

 four layers, and there are 96 of these lengths 

 composing the raft. It is at least three quarters 

 of a mile long. * * * 



" I sent on shore and hoisted the American 

 flag on the custom house, and hauled down 

 the Louisiana State flag from the city hall, as 

 the mayor had avowed that there was no man 



in New Orleans who dared haul it down ; and 

 my own convictions are that if such an indi- 

 vidual could have been found he would have 

 been assassinated." 



The operations of Commander Porter below 

 the forts were as follows : As soon as Cap- 

 tain Farragut was ready to proceed, the five 

 steamers attached to the mortar flotilla moved 

 up and took position under the batteries, the 

 leading vessel 500 yards oft , and the others 

 closing up as the fire commenced. As soon as 

 the Hartford, Brooklyn, and Bichmond passed 

 they opened with shrapnell on the water bat- 

 tery and forts, having received the fire ten or 

 fifteen minutes before replying to it. As the 

 fire was high and they were close in shore, 

 nearer the forts than the enemy supposed, they 

 occupied, as it turned out, a safer position than 

 the vessels farther out, there being only one 

 killed and one wounded on board the Harriet 

 Lane, while the other steamers remained un- 

 touched. The mortars meanwhile poured a 

 heavy fire upon Fort Jackson. In one hour and 

 ten minutes from weighing anchor, the fleet 

 had passed the forts, and Commander Porter, 

 having accomplished his part, hung out the sig- 

 nal to retire, and sent Lieutenant Commanding 

 Guest with a flag of truce to demand the sur- 

 render of the forts. The flag was fired upon 

 and put back, but a boat soon came down with 

 an apology and received the summons, to which 

 Lieut.-Col. Higgins, commanding the forts, re- 

 plied that until he received official informa- 

 tion of the fall of New Orleans no proposition 

 for a surrender could be for a moment enter- 

 tained. Giving the men one day to rest, 

 Commander Porter resumed the bombardment 

 on the 26th, but there was no response. Learn- 

 ing that the formidable iron-clad battery Louis- 

 iana, mounting 16 heavy guns, had escaped 

 Captain Farragut, and with three Confederate 

 steamers which the flotilla had also left behind 

 them, was about to make an attack upon the 

 mortar boats, he sent the schooners, which 

 would have been almost defenceless against 

 such an adversary, down the river to refit and 

 prepare for sea, six of them having orders to 

 pass around to the rear of Fort Jackson to pre- 

 vent supplies from getting in, and two being 

 sent to the rear of Fort St. Philip to 

 assist in landing troops. Three of them drifted 

 over to the mouth of Barataria Bay, and re- 

 ceived the surrender of Fort Livingston. On 

 the 27th, the possession of the forts being an 

 urgent necessity, Commander Porter renewed 

 the demand, offering honorable terms, the offi- 

 cers to retain their side arms, and both officers 

 and men to be paroled, private property to be 

 respected, tie arms and munitions of war and 

 public property to be surrendered, and no dam- 

 age to be done by the garrison to the defences. 

 These terms were accepted the next day. part- 

 ly, no doubt, in consequence of the landing of 

 General Butler at Quarantine in the rear of 

 Fort St. Philip, which entirely cut off reen- 

 forcements ; and partly, according to Command- 



