FOOTE, ANDREW HULL. 



415 



mand. A temporary reappearance in the field 

 in the succeeding summer, under State author- 

 ity, resulted in no practical success, and he died 

 in retirement. 



FOOTE, ANDREW HULL, an American rear-ad- 

 miral, born in New Haven, Ct., Sept. 12th, 1806, 

 died in New York, June 26th, 1863. At sixteen 

 years of age, he entered the navy as acting mid- 

 shipman, and made his first cruise in the schoon- 

 er Grampus, which formed part of the squadron 

 operating, in 1823, under Commodore Porter, 

 against the pirates of the West Indies. In the 

 succeeding year he obtained a midshipman's 

 warrant; in 1830 he was commissioned a lieu- 

 tenant, and in 1838 he accompanied Commo- 

 dore Head in his voyage of circumnavigation, 

 as first lieutenant of the sloop John Adams, 

 participating in the attack of the squadron upon 

 the pirates of Sumatra. In 1841-'43, while 

 stationed at the Naval Asylum in Philadelphia, 

 he prevailed upon many of the inmates to take 

 the temperance pledge, and was thus one of 

 the first to introduce into the navy the princi- 

 ple of total abstinence from spirituous liquors. 

 In his next cruise, as first lieutenant of the 

 frigate Cumberland, he induced the crew to 

 give up their spirit rations, to the manifest im- 

 provement of health and discipline ; and he 

 also personally superintended their religious 

 instruction, often preaching on the berth deck 

 to officers and men. In 1849-'52, he com- 

 manded the brig Perry of the African squad- 

 ron, and showed great vigilance in suppressing 

 the slave trade ; and it is worthy of note that 

 during the cruise not a drop of grog was served 

 out to the crew, and not an officer or man was 

 lost or disabled, or for any considerable period 

 on the sick list, although the station is notori- 

 ously unhealthy. 



In 1852 he was promoted to be a com- 

 mander, and after serving on the " Naval Re- 

 tiring Board," and in other capacities, he sailed 

 in 1856 in command of the sloop Portsmouth, 

 for the China station. At the time of his ar- 

 rival, hostilities were imminent between the 

 British and Chinese, and the latter, with a reck- 

 lessness which subsequently cost them dear, 

 fired from the Canton barrier forts upon a boat 

 from the Portsmouth, at the stern of which 

 the American flag was displayed. Receiving 

 permission, after urgent solicitation, from his 

 commanding officer, Commodore Armstrong, 

 to resent this indignity, he anchored his ship 

 opposite the largest of the forts, and on No- 

 vember 21st, with partial assistance from the 

 sloop Levant, effected a practicable breach 

 in its walls. Immediately a force of marines 

 and sailors were landed, and the work carried 

 by assault, Commander Foote being one of the 

 first to enter with the stormers. The remain- 

 ing forts, three in number, yielded successively 

 to his attacks, and on the 24th the American 

 flag waved over all of them. In view of the 

 disparity of strength between the contending 

 forces, the forts being massive granite struc- 

 tures, mounting 176 guns, and manned by 



5,000 Chinese, the engagement was justly es- 

 teemed one of the most brilliant in the annals 

 of the American navy, and Commander Foote 

 received abundant congratulations and com- 

 pliments from foreign officers on the station, 

 who had been witnesses of his gallantry. 



At the outbreak of the rebellion, Commander 

 Foote was executive officer at the Brooklyn 

 navy yard. In July, 1861, he was commis- 

 sioned a captain, and in the September follow- 

 ing was appointed flag officer of the flotilla 

 fitting out in the Western waters. He entered 

 upon his duties with great energy, and by the 

 commencement of 1862, his vessels were com- 

 pleted and awaiting their crews and arma- 

 ments, the work having been, in his own 

 words, "the most difficult and arduous" of 

 his life. Early in February the combined ad- 

 vance of the gunboats and land forces against 

 the enemy in Kentucky and Tennessee was 

 commenced, and on the 6th, Foote, without 

 waiting for the arrival of the cooperating land 

 forces under Gen. Grant, attacked, with seven 

 gunboats, the strong works at Fort Henry, on 

 the Tennessee river, and in two hours compelled 

 an unconditional surrender. With the least pos- 

 sible delay, he transferred his fleet to the Cum- 

 berland river, and on the 14th opened fire upon 

 Fort Done! son. The contest was maintained 

 with great vigor on both sides for an hour and 

 a quarter, and resulted in silencing- the heavy 

 water batteries of the enemy. The flag-ship 

 St. Louis, and the Louisville, having at this 

 juncture become unmanageable by injuries to 

 their steering apparatus, drifted out of the fire, 

 and the fleet was obliged to haul off, leaving 

 the capture of the fort to the land forces. 



Foote, though injured in the ankle by the 

 fragment of a shot and compelled to move 

 upon crutches, proceeded up the river imme- 

 diately after the surrender of the fort, and de- 

 stroyed the Tennessee iron works at Clark s- 

 ville. Then, after a brief respite at Cairo, he 

 sailed with his fleet, considerably increased in 

 efficiency, down the Mississippi ; the Confed- 

 erates evacuating their strong positions at Co- 

 lumbus and Hickman at his approach. He re- 

 mained at his post during the tedious siege of 

 Island No. Ten, but after the reduction of that 

 place, was reluctantly compelled by intense 

 suffering from his unhealed wound to apply for 

 leave of absence, and early in May turned over 

 his command to Commodore Davis. Upon be- 

 ing restored to health, he was placed in charge 

 of the bureau of equipment and recruiting un- 

 der the new organization of the navy, and in 

 July the President appointed him one of the 

 nine rear-admirals on the active list. In June, 

 1863, he was ordered to relieve Admiral Du- 

 pont in command of the South Atlantic block- 

 ading squadron, and died while making prepa- 

 rations for his departure for Charleston. 



Apart from his professional career, Admiral 

 Foote was noted as an active friend of relig- 

 ious and philanthropic enterprises, and when 

 not absent on sea duties, frequently participa- 





