[Footnote: General Steele, who commanded in Arkansas, had moved from Little Rock to cooperate in this advance, but on nearing Shreveport, learned of Banks's retreat. He immediately turned around, and with great difficulty and severe fighting, managed to escape back to Little Rock. This disaster enabled ihe Confederates to recover half of the State.]
THE WAR ON THE SEA AND ON THE COAST.
THE EXPEDITION AGAINST MOBILE (August 5) was under the command of Admiral Farragut. That he might oversee the battle more distinctly, he took his position in the maintop of his flag-ship—the Hartford. The vessels, lashed together in pairs for mutual assistance, in an hour fought their way past the Confederate forts, and engaged the iron-clad fleet beyond (map, p. 280). After a desperate resistance, the great iron ram Tennessee was taken, and the other vessels were captured or put to flight. The forts were soon after reduced, and the harbor was closed to blockade runners.
[Footnote: The city of Mobile was not captured until the next year, when Generals Granger's, Steele's, and A. J. Smith's commands, making a force of about forty-five thousand men, were collected for this purpose by Gen. Canby. The forts were gallantly defended by General Maury, but were taken within less than two weeks. The city itself was evacuated April 11. The Union troops entered the next day, ignorant that Lee had surrendered three days before, and that the Confederacy was dead.]
THE EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT FISHER, which defended the harbor of Wilmington, N. C., was commanded by Commodore Porter. It consisted of seventy vessels and a land force under General Butler. After a fierce bombardment (December 24, 25) Butler decided that the fort could not be taken by assault, and the army returned to Fortress Monroe. Commodore Porter, dissatisfied with the result, lay off the place, and asked for a second trial. The same troops, with fifteen hundred additional men, were sent back under General Terry. Protected by a terrible fire from the fleet, a column of sailors and one of soldiers worked their way, by a series of trenches, within two hundred yards of the fort. At the word, the former leaped forward on one side and the latter on another. The sailors were repulsed, but the soldiers burst into the fort. The hand-to-hand fight within lasted for hours. Late at night the garrison, hemmed in on all sides, surrendered (January 15, 1865). One knows not which to admire the more, the gallantry of the attack or the heroism of the defence. In such a victory is glory, and in such a defeat, no disgrace.
THE BLOCKADE was now so effectual that the prices of all imported goods in the Confederate States were fabulous.
[Footnote: Flour brought, in Confederate currency, $40 per barrel; calico, $30 per yard; coffee, $50 per pound; French gloves, $150 per pair; and black pepper, $300 per pound. Dried sage, raspberry, and other leaves were substituted for the costly tea. Woolen clothing was scarce and the army depended largely on captures of the ample Federal stores. "Pins were so rare that they were picked up with avidity in the streets." Paper was so expensive that matches could no longer be put in boxes. Sugar, butter, and white bread became luxuries even for the wealthy. Salt being a necessity, was economized to the last degree, old pork and fish barrels being soaked and the water evaporated so that not a grain of salt might be wasted. Women appeared in garments that were made of cloth carded, woven, spun, and dyed by their own hands. Large thorns were fitted with wax heads and made to serve as hair-pins. Shoes were manufactured with wooden soles to which the uppers were attached by means of small tacks. As a substitute for the expensive gas, the "Confederate candle" was used. This consisted of a long wick coated with wax and resin, and wound on a little wooden frame, at the top of which was nailed a bit of tin. The end of the wick being passed through a hole in the tin, was lighted and uncoiled as needed.]
Led by the enormous profits of a successful voyage, foreign merchants were constantly seeking to run the gauntlet. Their swift steamers, making no smoke, long, narrow, low, and of a mud color, occasionally escaped the vigilance of the Federal squadron. During the war, it is said, over fifteen hundred blockade runners were taken or destroyed. With the capture of Fort Fisher, the last Confederate port of entry was sealed.
[Illustration: THE ALABAMA]
CONFEDERATE CRUISERS had now practically driven the American commerce from the ocean. They were not privateers, like those named on p. 222, for they were built in England and manned by British sailors, and were only officered and commissioned by the Confederate government. They sailed to and fro upon the track of American ships, plundering and burning, or else bonding them for heavy sums. The Alabama was the most noted of these British steamers. Against the urgent remonstrances of the United States Minister at the Court of England, she was allowed to sail although her mission was well known. An English captain took her to the Azores, where other English vessels brought her arms, ammunition, and the Confederate Captain Semmes with additional men. Putting out to sea, he read his commission and announced his purpose. After capturing over sixty vessels, he sailed to Cherbourg, France. While there, he sent out a challenge to the national ship-of-war Kearsarge (keer'-sarj). This was accepted, and a battle took place off that harbor. Captain Winslow, of the Kearsarge, so manoeuvred that the Alabama was compelled to move round in a circular track, while he trained his guns upon her with fearful effect. On the seventh rotation, the Confederate vessel ran up the white flag and soon after sank. Captain Winslow rescued a part of the sinking crew, and others were picked up, at his request, by the Deerhound, an English yacht; but this vessel steamed off to the British coast with those she had saved, among whom was Captain Semmes.