My Days and Nights on the Battle-Field Part 24

he says.

The crews of the Benton and Carondelet rush to their boats. So eager are they to save the struggling men that one of the boats is swamped in the launching. Away they go, picking up one here, another there,--ten or twelve in all. A few reach the sh.o.r.e and are helped up the bank by lookers-on; but fifty or sixty sink to rise no more. How n.o.ble the act!

How glorious! Bright amid all the distress, all the horror, all the infamous conduct of men who have forsworn themselves, will s.h.i.+ne forever, like a star of heaven, this act of humanity!

The General Price, General Beauregard, Little Rebel, and General Lovell--one half of the Rebel fleet--were disposed of. The other vessels attempted to flee. The Union fleet had swept steadily on in an unbroken line. Amid all the appalling scenes of the hour there was no lull in the cannonade. While saving those who had lost all power of resistance, there was no cessation of effort to crush those who still resisted.

A short distance below the Little Rebel, the Jeff Thompson, riddled by shot, and in flames, was run ash.o.r.e. A little farther down-stream the General Bragg was abandoned, also in flames from the explosion of a nine-inch sh.e.l.l, thrown by the St. Louis. The crews leaped on sh.o.r.e, and fled to the woods. The Sumter went ash.o.r.e, near the Little Rebel. The Van Dorn alone escaped. She was a swift steamer, and was soon beyond reach of the guns of the fleet.

The fight is over. The thunder of the morning dies away, and the birds renew their singing. The abandoned boats are picked up. The Jeff Thompson cannot be saved. The flames leap around the chimneys. The boilers are heated to redness. A pillar of fire springs upward, in long lances of light. The interior of the boat--boilers, beams of iron, burning planks, flaming timbers, cannon-shot, sh.e.l.ls--is lifted five hundred feet in air, in an expanding, unfolding cloud, filled with loud explosions. The scattered fragments rain upon forest, field, and river, as if meteors of vast proportions had fallen from heaven to earth, taking fire in their descent. There is a shock which shakes all Memphis, and announces to the disappointed, terror-stricken, weeping, humiliated mult.i.tude that the drama which they have played so madly for a twelvemonth is over, that retribution for crime has come at last!

Thus in an hour's time the Rebel fleet was annihilated. Commodore Montgomery was to have sent the Union boats to the bottom; but his expectations were not realized, his promises not fulfilled. It is not known how many men were lost on the Rebel side, but probably from eighty to a hundred. Colonel Ellet was the only one injured on board the Union fleet. The gunboats were uninjured. The Queen of the West was the only boat disabled. In striking contrast was the damage to Montgomery's fleet:--

Sunk, General Price, 4 guns.

" General Beauregard, 4 "

" General Lovell, 4 "

Burned, Jeff Thompson, 4 "

Captured, General Bragg, 3 "

" Sumter, 3 "

" Little Rebel, 2 "

-- 24

The bow guns of Commodore Davis's fleet only were used in the attack, making sixteen guns in all brought to bear upon the Rebel fleet. The Cairo and St. Louis fired broadsides upon the crews as they fled to the woods.

The retreating of the Rebel fleet carried the Union gunboats several miles below the city before the contest was over. At ten o'clock Commodore Davis steamed back to the city. There stood the mult.i.tude, confounded by what had taken place. A boat came off from the sh.o.r.e, pulled by two oarsmen, and bringing a citizen, Dr. d.i.c.kerson, who waved a white handkerchief. He was a messenger from the Mayor, tendering the surrender of the city. There were some men in the crowd who shook their fists at us, and cried, "O you blue-bellied Yankees! You devils! You scoundrels!" We could bear it very well, after the events of the morning. A few hurrahed for Jeff Davis, but the mult.i.tude made no demonstration.

A regiment landed, and marched up Monroe Street to the court-house. I had the pleasure of accompanying the soldiers. The band played Yankee Doodle and Hail Columbia. How proudly the soldiers marched! They halted in front of the court-house. An officer went to the top of the building, tore down the Rebel flag, and flung out the Stars and Stripes.

Wild and hearty were the cheers of the troops. The buried flag had risen from its grave, to wave forevermore,--the emblem of power, justice, liberty, and law!

Thus the Upper Mississippi was opened again to trade and the peaceful pursuits of commerce. How wonderfully it was repossessed. The fleet lost not a man at Island No. 10, not a man at New Madrid, not a man at Fort Pillow, not a man at Memphis, by the fire of the Rebels! How often had we been told that the strongholds of the Rebels were impregnable! How often that the Union gunboats would be blown up by torpedoes, or sent to the bottom by the batteries or by the Rebel fleet! How often that the river would never be opened till the Confederacy was recognized as an independent power! General Butler was in possession of New Orleans, Memphis was held by Commodore Davis, and the mighty river was all but open through its entire length to trade and navigation. In one year this was accomplished. So moves a nation in a career unparalleled in history, rescuing from the grasp of pirates and plunderers the garnered wealth of centuries.

In 1861, when Tennessee seceded, the steamer Platte Valley, owned in St.

Louis, belonging to the St. Louis and Memphis Steamboat Company, was the last boat permitted to leave for the North. All others were stolen by the secessionists, who repudiated the debts they owed Northern men. The Platte Valley, commanded by Captain Wilc.o.x, was in Commodore Davis's fleet of transports. Captain Wilc.o.x recognized some of his old acquaintances in the crowd, and informed them that in a day or two he would resume his regular trips between St. Louis and Memphis! They were ready to send up cargoes of sugar and cotton. So trade accompanies the flag of our country wherever it goes.

This narrative which I have given you is very tame. Look at the scene once more,--the early morning, the cloudless sky, the majestic river, the hostile fleets, the black pall of smoke overhanging the city, the forest, the stream, the moving of the boats, the terrific cannonade, the a.s.sembled thousands, the glorious advance of the Queen and the Monarch, the cras.h.i.+ng and splintering of timbers, the rifle-shots, the sinking of vessels, the cries of drowning men, the gallantry of the crews of the Benton and Carondelet, the weeping and wailing of the mult.i.tude, the burnings, the explosions, the earthquake shock, which shakes the city to its foundations! These are the events of a single hour. Remember the circ.u.mstances,--that the fight is before the city, before expectant thousands, who have been invited to the entertainment,--the sinking of the Union fleet,--that they are to see the prowess of their husbands, brothers, and friends, that their strength is utter weakness,--that, after thirteen months of robbery, outrage, and villany, the despised, insulted flag of the Union rises from its burial, and waves once more above them in stainless purity and glory! Take all under consideration, if you would feel the moral sublimity of the hour!

In these pages, my young friends, I have endeavored to make a contribution of facts to the history of this great struggle of our beloved country for national life. It has been my privilege to see other engagements at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg, and if this book is acceptable to you, I hope to be able to tell the stories of those terrible battles.

THE END