Volume 2 — NAVAL OPERATIONS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. May to December, 1862.

Commander Palmer of the Iroquois, took possession of Baton Rouge on May 7th, which place was subsequently occupied by the military forces under General Williams.

After the brilliant operations of the United States naval forces under Commodore Farragut which resulted in the capture of New Orleans, immediate steps were taken by that commander to ascend the river, and occupy such positions as would enable him to cooperate with important army movements then in contemplation. Seven vessels were sent up the Mississippi under Captain Craven, while the smaller steamers under Captain Lee were ordered to ascend as high as Vicksburg.

Commander S. P. Lee, with the advance of the squadron, arrived near Vicksburg, May 18, and in reply to his demand for surrender, received a defiant refusal. Flag-Officer Farragut arrived a few days afterwards, accompanied by a column of troops under General Williams. Additional naval forces soon afterwards arrived, including Commodore Porter’s mortar fleet, which had done much effective service in the reduction of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, at the mouths of the river. Porter opened the bombardment on the night of June 26–27, directing fire partly against the town and partly against some formidable batteries on the heights. On the morning of the 27th, the Owasco, Lieutenant Guest, ran up abreast of the town and threw in some incendiary shells, which failed to explode. At three o’clock on the morning of the 28th the squadron made a move to pass the batteries, the mortar fleet supporting them as at the battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip. The Hartford and several other vessels succeeded in passing the range of batteries, which extended full three miles, and did this too in the face of a strong current, but as there was not a sufficient land force to cooperate in the attack, no substantial benefit resulted from the movement. The enemy 128were several times driven from their batteries, but returned to their guns as soon as the ships had passed.

Forming a junction with the western gunboat flotilla of Flag-Officer C. H. Davis, Farragut concerted with that officer and General Williams an expedition up the Yazoo River, consisting of the gunboats Carondelet and Tyler, and the ram Queen of the West, strengthened by sharpshooters from the army. They started on the morning of July 15, and near the mouth of the river encountered the Confederate ram Arkansas. A severe fight ensued, in which both the Carondelet and the Tyler were partially disabled, and the Arkansas then entered the Mississippi and passing boldly through the surprised fleets of Farragut and Davis, took refuge under the guns of Vicksburg.

Farragut now determined to repass the batteries for the double purpose of supporting the rest of his squadron and destroying the Arkansas in passing; to assist in which Flag-Officer Davis added to his force the ram Sumter, Lieutenant Commanding Erben. Toward evening, Davis opened a bombardment, for the purpose of covering the movement, and Captain Farragut succeeded in getting below Vicksburg again with little loss of life, but his designs against the Arkansas were defeated by the darkness of the night.

On the 22d, Commander W. D. Porter, with the iron-clad gunboat Essex, and Lieutenant-Colonel Ellet, with the ram Queen of the West, made another attempt to destroy the Confederate vessel, but the attack though executed with great gallantry under the fire of the batteries, did not succeed. The Essex ran down to Farragut’s fleet, and Farragut having been instructed by the navy department to drop down the river before the water got too low, it was arranged that Commander W. D. Porter should remain below Vicksburg with the Essex and Sumter.

On the 28th of July, Farragut arrived at New Orleans, leaving the Katahdin and Kineo at Baton Rouge. On the 5th of August, the Confederates made a vigorous land attack upon the latter place, which was repulsed after a severe contest. The gunboats were not able to assist until toward the close of the action, when they threw their shells directly into the midst of the enemy with great effect. The Arkansas had dropped down the river to take part in the attack, but was not brought into action, one of her engines having broken down. The next morning, Porter, who was then at Baton Rouge with the Essex, moved up to attack her, but before the fight had fairly begun her other engine gave way, and she was run ashore, abandoned, and set on fire by the crew. About an hour afterward she blew up. On the 11th, Farragut sailed for Ship Island and Pensacola, which latter place, having been evacuated by the Confederates, was now made the depot of the Western Gulf Squadron.

Commander W. D. Porter remained at Baton Rouge until August 23, 129when, the town having been evacuated by the Federal troops, he proceeded up the river to reconnoitre batteries reported in progress at Port Hudson, and thence ascended to Bayou Sara to obtain coal, where his boat’s crew was fired upon by guerrillas. Some of the buildings were thereupon burned, and a few days afterward, as the firing was repeated, the rest of the place was destroyed. Afterwards a boat’s crew from the Essex, sent ashore at Natchez to procure ice for the sick, was attacked, by some two hundred armed citizens, one of the sailors being killed, and an officer and five men wounded. Commander Porter immediately opened fire on the town, set a number of houses in flames, and continued the bombardment for an hour, after which the mayor surrendered. On her way down to New Orleans, the Essex had a brisk engagement, on September 7th, with the Port Hudson batteries.

In the mean time, several vessels of Captain Farragut’s squadron had been employed on the coast of Texas, where acting volunteer Lieutenant J. W. Kittredge, with the bark Arthur, the little steamer Sachem, and a launch, captured Corpus Christi, after several spirited engagements with the enemy’s batteries, but was unable to hold the town, and was himself made prisoner, September 14, while on shore exploring.

On September 26, Acting Master Crocker, with the steamer Kensington and schooner Rachel Seaman, and Acting Master Pennington, with the mortar schooner Henry Janes, captured Sabine Pass, taking a battery of four guns without loss.

On the 4th of October, Commander W. B. Renshaw, with the steamers Westfield, Harriet Lane, Owasco, and Clifton, and the mortar schooner Henry Janes, captured the defences of the harbor and city of Galveston without the loss of a man. The resistance was feeble: the first shell from the Owasco burst immediately over a heavy 10-inch Columbiad mounted on Fort Point, causing a panic in the fort, and depriving the defenders of their main reliance.

Toward the end of October, Lieutenant Commander T. McKean Buchanan, with the steamers Calhoun, Estrella, Kinsman, and Diana, and the transport St. Mary’s, having on board the Twenty-first Indiana regiment, was sent to the Atchafalaya river, La., to cooperate with a land force under General Weitzel. On Nov. 1, near Brashear City, he captured the Confederate despatch boat A. B. Seger, and the next day had an engagement with an iron-clad gunboat and some land batteries on the Bayou Teche. The batteries were silenced, but the gunboat, being behind a row of obstructions across the channel, escaped up the river. Lieutenant Commander Buchanan then returned to Brashear City to repair damages. On the 6th, the Kinsman discovered and burned two steamers in one of the small bayous in the neighborhood.

Early in August, an expedition was concerted between Flag-Officer 130Davis and General Curtis, which moved up the Yazoo, and captured a battery of heavy guns, field pieces, munitions of war, &c., besides taking the Confederate transport Fairplay, loaded with one thousand two hundred Enfield rifles, four thousand new muskets, four field guns, mounted howitzers, small arms, a quantity of fixed ammunition, &c.

On the 26th of September, the ram Queen of the West and two transports having been fired into by the Confederates at Prentiss, Miss., the town was shelled and burned.

On December 13th the gunboat Cairo, while ascending the Yazoo, was blown up by a torpedo, and sank in fifteen minutes after the explosion. It is remarkable that none of the crew were killed, or even seriously hurt.