NAVY, UNITED STATES. 



599 



All the officers and crew were brought off safe- 

 .y, except five. On the morning of March 1st 

 the flagship of the squadron, the Harvest Moon, 

 having on board Admiral Dahlgren, was struck 

 by a torpedo while steaming down the bay of 

 Georgetown, and sank soon after. But one 

 life was lost. The operations of the East Gulf 

 Squadron, being far removed from the seat of 

 war, were of comparatively little interest. They 

 were confined chiefly to petty expeditions on 

 the Florida coast, the destruction of salt works, 

 etc. The record of the Mississippi and Potomac 

 flotillas is equally barren of stirring events. 



In the Department of the Gulf, the chief 

 interest centred around the investment and 

 capture of the strong works which defended 

 Mobile. The naval force employed to cooperate 

 with the troops under Gen. Canby in these 

 operations was early in the year increased by 

 several light-draught iron-clads detached from 

 the Mississippi Squadron, and which were well 

 adapted to navigate the shallow waters of the 

 Mobile Bay. A naval reconnoissance on March 

 llth having shown that the enemy had not 

 evacuated their works in the neighborhood of 

 the city, Admiral Thatcher covered the landing 

 of the troops on the left bank of Fish River, and 

 in the latter part of March and the early part 

 of April cooperated in the joint military and 

 naval attack upon Fort Alexis and Spanish 

 Fort. The upper bay was found to be thickly 

 planted with torpedoes, and a large force was 

 employed in dragging for and removing them. 

 In spite of these precautions, however, two 

 river monitors, the Mihvaukee and Osage, and 

 the " tin-clad " Rodolph, were destroyed by 

 torpedoes between March 28th and April 1st, 

 the casualties amounting to twenty-seven. On 

 April 14th the gunboat Sciota was lost by the 

 same means, and during the operations in the 

 bay several small tugs and launches met a simi- 

 lar fate. On the night of April 8th Fort Alexis 

 and Spanish Fort yielded to the joint attack of 

 the army and fleet ; and on the 10th a detach- 

 ment of iron-clads, in consequence of the 

 thorough dragging of the Blakely Kiver, moved 

 up nearly abreast of Spanish Fort, from which 

 point Forts linger and Tracy were so persist- 

 ently shelled that they were evacuated by the 

 enemy on the succeeding day. On the 12th 

 the troops were conveyed across the bay to at- 

 tack Mobile on its west side, but before any dem- 

 onstration could be made the city was surren- 

 dered by the mayor. The Confederate army and 

 fleet, on evacuating the city, retreated up the 

 Tombigbee, whither preparations were making 

 to follow and attack them, when, on May 4th, a 

 proposition was received from Commodore 

 Ferrand, their naval commander, to surrender 

 all the vessels in those waters. This was ac- 

 cepted, and the surrender took place on the 

 10th at Nanna Hubba Bluff, the terms being 

 the same accorded by Gen. Grant to Gen. Lee. 

 Four vessels were surrendered, the Morgan, 

 Baltic, Nashville, and Black Diamond, and four 

 hundred and twenty-one officers and men 



were paroled. The Huntsville and Tuscaloosa, 

 two powerful rams, were sunk in Spanish 

 Kiver before the evacuation of Mobile. Full 

 details of the operations before Mobile will be 

 found under the head of " ABMY OPERATION*." 

 Subsequent to the fall of the city the fleet was 

 employed in occupying the principal forts along 

 the Gulf coast; but no further fighting took 

 place. On the 24th of April the Confederate ram 

 W. H. Webb, having run the blockade of Red 

 River, steamed rapidly down the Mississippi 

 past New Orleans, with the intention of getting 

 out to sea and making for Havana. So unex- 

 pected was her appearance in front of New 

 Orleans, that she received only two shots in her 

 hull while passing. She was immediately pur- 

 sued by a detachment of gunboats, and when 

 about twenty-five miles below the city Wds en- 

 countered by the corvette Richmond, coming 

 up the river. Her commander, seeing escape 

 hopeless, ran her on shore and blew her up. Her 

 cargo consisted of cotton, rosin, and turpentine. 

 The crew dispersed among the swamps, but 

 were eventually nearly all captured. 



Although in 1864 the privateers Alabama, 

 Florida, and Georgia, constituting the chief 

 naval force the enemy then had afloat, were 

 destroyed or captured by national cruisers, 

 their resources were not yet exhausted. The 

 shipyards and foundries of Great Britain 

 still supplied them with vessels and guns, and 

 to the same country they were indebted for 

 trained seamen and gunners in numbers always 

 equal to the demand. Early in 1865 two new 

 vessels, of power superior to those which had 

 already so crippled our commerce, were put 

 into the service, and, but for the vigilance 

 of United States naval officers and the termi- 

 nation of the war, might have wrought serious 

 mischief. One of these was the iron-clad ram 

 Stonewall, Captain Page, originally built for 

 the Danish Government, and subsequently pur- 

 chased by the rebels. Some difficulty in pro- 

 curing an armament and crew was at first ex- 

 perienced, but in January she was met by an 

 English steamer off the coast of France, and 

 her armament, which was made in England, 

 with supplies for a cruise and an English crew, 

 were transferred to her. When fully equipped 

 and manned she was a formidable antagonist, 

 having a heavy ram projecting from her bow, 

 and two turrets, mounting one three hundred 

 pound rifle gun and two others of less calibre. 

 She was easily managed, and could steam at the 

 rate of ten knots an hour. On February 4th 

 the Stonewall arrived at Ferrol, on the north- 

 west coast of Spain, where she received some 

 slight repairs, and probably took in additional 

 supplies. About this time the U. S. vessels 

 Niagara and Sacramento, which had received 

 tidings of her whereabouts, arrived at the neigh- 

 boring port of Corunna, and kept a strict watch 

 over her movements. Notwithstanding their 

 superiority in numbers and guns, so formidable 

 did the iron-clad seem likely to prove in a contest 

 with the wooden vessels, that the two sides were 



