Part 17

After the war with Mexico was over, Captain Lee made a visit home. In 1852 he was made superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point. Thence he was sent to Texas to fight against the Indians. He was in Virginia in 1859 and he was sent to suppress John Brown’s raid. He performed his duty at Harper’s Ferry in soldierly fashion, treated his prisoners kindly, and turned them over to the civil authorities to be punished for breaking the laws. In 1860 he was again in Texas, but the next spring he returned to Virginia. The period of disunion and secession was a sad one for Colonel Lee. He loved dearly the Union which his father had aided to establish. He had entered its army expecting to devote his life to its service. He believed, indeed, in the supreme authority of the state, but he thought secession unwise and was confident that in the Union the vexing questions about slavery and the tariff could be settled.

“If the four million slaves in the South were mine,” he said, “I would give them all up to keep the Union.”

But dearly as he loved the Union he thought that his first duty was to his native state, Virginia, his second to the Union of which he was a part. When Lincoln issued his call for troops, by General Scott’s advice the command of the Union army was offered to Lee. He declined, resigned his commission in the army, and accepted the command of the Virginia forces. It was a sad day when he and his family left beautiful Arlington which was never again to be a home. It fell into the hands of the Union soldiers and is now the site of a great national cemetery.

Lee fought at first in western Virginia; then he was sent to aid in fortifying the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. Afterwards he was put in charge of the army in Virginia, and there he remained, as general and commander-in-chief of the southern army until the end of the war. The southern army was small but it was commanded by brave and able generals. Lee’s “right hand” was Stonewall Jackson, a fearless soldier and earnest Christian, one of the greatest military leaders the world has ever known. A famous cavalry-leader was J. E. B. Stuart, a dashing cavalier who loved battle as a boy loves play. Both Jackson and Stuart were killed before the war was over.

As you have been told, it was the great aim of the northern armies to capture Richmond; it was the aim of Lee and his little army to defend the city. Lee led his soldiers with masterly skill in the Seven Days’ Fight about Richmond. Then he marched north; having defeated Pope at the second battle of Manassas, he advanced into Maryland and fought a great drawn battle at Antietam, or Sharpsburg. Lee then returned to Virginia. He fought at Fredericksburg against Burnside who had supplanted McClellan in command. The next spring “Fighting Joe” Hooker was defeated at Chancellorsville, but in the death of Jackson, the Confederates sustained a greater loss than that of many battles.

Lee marched north again, and a great battle was fought at Gettysburg. General Longstreet failed to advance as ordered, the Confederates who had charged fell unsupported, and the day was lost. General Lee led his crippled army back to Virginia. At Gettysburg the tide had turned against the Confederates. From that day defeat and surrender were but a question of time. For a long time Lee’s little army held its own in defence of Richmond. Grant, the victor of the West, was sent against it. It cost him a month and sixty thousand men to march seventy-five miles. With masterly skill, Lee opposed him in the great battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor, but the Confederate line was broken at last.

Forced to give up the defense of Richmond, General Lee endeavored to withdraw his army, but Grant followed, and the little army was surrendered at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865. As Lee bade farewell to his soldiers, they sobbed aloud and tears were in his eyes. He said with a broken voice, “Men, we have fought the war together. I have done my best for you. My heart is too full to say more.”

Great as had been Lee’s work in war, it was no less great in peace. Bravely and uncomplainingly he accepted the results of defeat, and endured the horrors of the reconstruction days. No word of bitterness was ever heard to pass his lips. Nor would he in their hour of woe and poverty desert his people. Wealth and position were offered him abroad, and at home he might have had affluence by lending his name to business enterprises. But he steadfastly refused all such offers. “I think it better to do right,” he said, “even if we suffer in so doing, than to incur the reproach of our consciences and posterity.”

He set himself to aid in the upbuilding and restoring of the South. At a salary of a few hundred dollars, he became president of Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, in Lexington, Virginia. Wisely and conscientiously he performed his duties until the autumn of 1870. One evening at tea his voice failed as he was about to ask a blessing and he sank back in his chair. After lingering a few days, he died October 12, 1870.

David G. Farragut

Our First Admiral

David Glasgow Farragut, the first admiral of the American navy, was born near Knoxville, Tennessee, July 5, 1801. He was the son of a Spaniard, a native of the island of Minorca, who came to America in 1776 and after helping the country fight for its rights settled here to enjoy them. At the end of the eighteenth century, Tennessee was a sparsely-settled region, occupied by a few hardy pioneers and by roaming Indians. One day when Mrs. Farragut was alone at home with her two little sons a band of Indians attacked the cabin. The brave mother sent her children to hide in the loft and guarded the door with an ax till help came.

When David was about seven, Mr. Farragut was put in charge of a gunboat on the Mississippi. His family moved near New Orleans, and there Mrs. Farragut died of yellow fever about a year later. Just before her illness, a stranger, an old man who had had a sunstroke, had been taken into her home and cared for. This stranger was the father of Commodore David Porter. The grateful naval officer offered to adopt and educate one of the Farragut boys. After the mother’s death, this offer was accepted for David. The little fellow was sent to school and at the age of ten he became a midshipman in the navy. He was very small for his age, and once when he went ashore a group of idlers gathered around and made sport of “the baby officer.” One waggish fellow sprinkled him with water from a watering pot to “make him grow.” This led to a fight between David’s tormentors and the sailors in which David took active part. After it was over, someone remarked that “the baby officer was three pounds of uniform and seventy pounds of fight.”

In October, 1812, David sailed with Captain Porter on the Essex. Captain Porter was ordered to join the squadron in the Atlantic if he could: if not, to use his own discretion. He cruised about the Atlantic several months, capturing several British merchant-vessels, but not finding the American squadron. He then decided to make a cruise in the Pacific. There he captured several British vessels and gave timely warning to American ships that had not heard of the war. At one time provisions were scarce, and David, like the others, was on a short allowance of bread and water. In May, 1813, David, then twelve years old, was put in charge of a captured English vessel to take it to port. The English captain was very angry at having to take orders from the “baby commodore,” as Farragut was often called, but Farragut executed his orders with exactness and dignity.

In March, 1814, the Essex, off the coast of South America, was attacked by two English vessels and captured after a desperate fight in which the Americans lost one hundred and twenty-four men. Farragut was “a man on occasions,” and Captain Porter commended his battery in this action. The American sailors were made prisoners on parole and they were exchanged only a few weeks before the treaty of peace was made. The time was improved by Farragut in attending school. Between his cruises he was generally at school studying diligently, and at eighteen he stood the examinations required for a lieutenant, though he did not receive his promotion till several years later.

In 1822 Farragut went with his friend, Commodore Porter, to fight against the pirates which thronged the West Indian waters. The American fleet was composed of small fast-sailing vessels and of boats called the “mosquito fleet.” They had some exciting adventures and encounters with the pirates, whom they succeeded in driving from most of their haunts. A more formidable foe than the pirates was yellow fever. Twenty-five officers were attacked and of those twenty-three died; Farragut was one of the two who recovered. Soon after his return to America, Lieutenant Farragut was put in charge of the Brandywine to carry Lafayette to France.

In 1833 he went to Charleston under orders to uphold the revenue laws of the United States which South Carolina had threatened to nullify. The danger was averted and for the present he was not called upon to serve against his countrymen. During the years which followed he made many cruises but saw no active service. He was an excellent officer. One who knew him said, “Never was the crew of a man-of-war better disciplined or more contented and happy. The moment all hands were called and Farragut took the trumpet, every man under him was alive and eager for duty.”

In 1850 Farragut and three other officers were appointed to draw up a book of regulations for the navy. They devoted eighteen months of hard work to the task and made an excellent manual. A few years later the book appeared with a few changes; the names of the four men who had prepared it were omitted and the credit was given to men who had really done none of the work. The fair-minded and hard-working young officer was naturally indignant at this injustice.

Later, he was sent to California and spent four years establishing navy-yards near San Francisco. He was now captain, which was then the highest rank in the American navy. On his return to Washington in 1858, he was put in charge of a new vessel, the Brooklyn. This was very different from the old sailing-ships on which he had served, being one of the first steam war-vessels in our navy.

The clouds of the War between the States were now gathering over the country, greatly to Farragut’s distress. He was a southerner by birth but from boyhood he had been in the nation’s service and his strongest affections were for the American navy.

“God forbid that I should raise my hand against the South,” he said.

Yet when the war broke out he felt that he must choose the national cause. In January, 1862, he was sent in charge of a squadron to secure the Mississippi River for the Union. He was to capture Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip which defended New Orleans, then take the city, and afterwards sail up the river, subjecting the forts along the banks. He was in charge of the largest and best-equipped fleet that had ever been led by an American commander. It consisted of forty-eight vessels. An army of fifteen thousand soldiers under General Butler was sent to aid in the capture of New Orleans. Below the forts commanding the city, was a barricade of old vessels and logs fastened together with iron chains; above these was the Confederate fleet of fifteen vessels. For a week Captain Farragut’s mortar boats rained shells on the forts, then his gunboats broke the barricade. At four o’clock on the morning of April the twenty-fourth, his squadron passed the forts which had held back the British in 1815. Then they engaged in a desperate battle with the little Confederate fleet. Every vessel of it was captured or wrecked. Four days later the besieged forts surrendered, and on the first of May the Union troops under Butler took possession of New Orleans. Farragut was ordered to “pass or attack and capture” the Confederate forts between New Orleans and Memphis. He accordingly went to Vicksburg, but his expedition failed for lack of land-forces to support the attack. July 4, 1863, Vicksburg was taken by General Grant, and a few days later, Port Hudson was surrendered. This gave the Union forces entire control of the river. For his valiant and efficient service, Farragut was rewarded in 1862 with the rank of rear-admiral, created for his benefit. Thus he was the first admiral in the United States navy. Later he was made vice-admiral, and in 1866 he became admiral, each of the three ranks being created in his honor.

While Farragut’s squadron was striving to gain control of the Mississippi, a battle took place on the Atlantic coast which marked the beginning of a new era in naval warfare, the end of wooden war-ships and the use of iron vessels. The Confederates captured a United States vessel, the Merrimac, removed its masts, covered it with iron, and fitted it with an iron prow. This iron-clad vessel attacked and destroyed several Union vessels. It was attacked by the Monitor, an iron-covered vessel designed by Captain John Ericsson and commanded by Lieutenant Worden. It carried larger guns than had ever before been used on a vessel. A fierce battle was fought in which neither of the iron-clads was seriously injured, and the Merrimac finally withdrew.

Leaving the Mississippi squadron in charge of Porter, who was also a rear-admiral now, Farragut went to the Atlantic coast. As soon as vessels could be refitted, he set forth in the summer of 1864 to capture Mobile, an important seaport of the South. With twenty-four war-ships and four iron-clads he entered Mobile Bay which was commanded by two strong forts. In order to overlook the fleet and direct its action, the admiral stationed himself in the rigging of his vessel, despite the protests of his men against his occupying a place of such danger. A submarine mine sunk one of his vessels with almost its entire crew; at this disaster the vessel which was leading the fleet stopped. Admiral Farragut ordered his own vessel, the Hartford, “full speed” in the van and led the way into the bay. The entire Confederate fleet was destroyed, and the forts were taken in a few days, thus giving the Federals control of the Gulf. Of the battle of Mobile Bay Farragut said, “It was one of the hardest-earned victories of my life, and the most desperate battle I ever fought since the days of the Essex.”

While Farragut was in the Gulf making ready to attack Mobile, in June, 1864, a brilliant naval battle was fought off the coast of France. This was between the Federal Kearsarge, commanded by Captain Winslow, and the Confederate Alabama under Captain Semmes. After an hour’s desperate battle, the Alabama was sunk.

A few months later, occurred one of the most daring deeds of the war. The Confederate vessel, the Albemarle, was destroyed at night by a torpedo from a little boat commanded by Lieutenant Cushing. Lieutenant Cushing had volunteered for the service, fully recognizing the danger to which he would be exposed. His boat was sunk, and only he and one of the crew escaped by swimming.

Clara Barton

The President of the American Red Cross Society

War at best brings with it terrible suffering, hardship and sickness, wounds and death. Gratitude is due those who labor to alleviate such sufferings. Among these, women have ever been foremost. During the Crimean War in Europe, Florence Nightingale and other noble Englishwomen went to the Crimea to nurse the sick and wounded soldiers.

In our War between the States a few years later, similar services were rendered by many self-sacrificing women, both North and South. Two great organizations, the Sanitary Commission and the Christian Commission, were formed in the North to collect supplies and forward them to the needy and suffering soldiers. Mary Livermore, who was at the head of the Sanitary Commission, wrote an interesting account of its work.

While these were busy at home, other women were at work in the hospitals and on the battle-fields, caring for sick and wounded soldiers. One of these nurses was Dorothea Dix. During the war, she was a superintendent of hospital nurses; after the war, she devoted herself to improving the conditions of prison life.

Another hospital nurse was Clara Barton, afterwards so prominently identified with the Red Cross movement. She was born in Massachusetts in 1830. In young womanhood she taught several years, then she secured a clerkship in Washington. At the beginning of the War between the States, she resigned her position to work in army-hospitals, where she was called “an angel of mercy.”

After the war, broken down in health, she went abroad. In Europe she became interested in the work of the Red Cross societies, which were doing a noble work and had already secured the co-operation of twenty-two nations. These organizations were due to the efforts of a Swiss gentleman who in 1859 visited the field of Solferino where, in a battle between the Austrians and the French, thousands of soldiers were killed and thousands were wounded. The medical aid at hand was pitifully inadequate; the sight of the sufferings of the wounded soldiers led this Swiss to plan the formation of societies for the relief of wounded soldiers. Such a society was formed at Geneva in 1864, and a badge, a red cross on a white ground, was adopted which was to be worn by those in its service.

By the efforts of Miss Barton, in 1881 the United States co-operated in this work. A Red Cross society was formed of which Miss Barton became president. In 1896 its members helped in the relief of the Armenians; they did noble work in the Spanish-American War in 1898, and in the Boer War the next year.

The work of the Red Cross society is not limited to the relief of the victims of war. In times of calamity and disaster, it takes speedy relief to those stricken by flood, famine, or pestilence. During the floods of 1884, Miss Barton in a relief-boat traveled thousands of miles up and down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, distributing food, clothing, and supplies. The Johnstown flood of 1889 left four thousand people dead and twenty thousand homeless. The Red Cross Society hastened to the relief of the sufferers. For five months its agents worked amid scenes of want and distress, distributing over two hundred thousand dollars’ worth of food, clothes, furniture, and other supplies. They did similar work at the great flood of Galveston in 1900, and are always ready to extend a helping hand where it is needed.

George B. Dewey

George Dewey, the third admiral of the United States navy, was born in Vermont, December 26, 1837. He was descended from a Puritan who emigrated to Massachusetts about 1633. As a boy, George Dewey was mischievous and daring and not fond of study. His father, however, realizing the importance of education, kept him at school and insisted on his applying himself.

He entered the Naval Academy when he was seventeen and was graduated in 1858, fifth in his large class. His first active service was in Farragut’s attack on New Orleans, and here he showed courage and coolness under fire.

In attempting to pass Port Hudson, his ship, the Mississippi, was riddled with shot and shell. Then it was run ashore and set on fire by Captain Smith and Dewey to prevent its falling into the hands of the Confederates. In his official report of this affair, Captain Smith said, “I consider that I should be neglecting a most important duty should I omit to mention the coolness of my executive officer, Mr. Dewey, and the steady, fearless, and gallant manner in which the officers and men of the Mississippi defended her, and the orderly and quiet manner in which she was abandoned after being thirty-five minutes aground, under the fire of the enemy’s batteries.”

After the war Farragut said to Dewey’s father, “Your son George is a worthy and brave officer and some day will make his mark.”

It was long, however, before the opportunity came for him to do so. Meanwhile he went quietly on, performing the duties of his profession. For two years after the War between the States, he was instructor in the Naval Academy. In 1884 he was promoted captain and in 1897 commodore. He was now sixty years old, and while he was recognized as a brave and able officer, the prospect seemed that he would be retired at sixty-two, according to the rules of the navy, without gaining special fame.

But this was not to be the case. His opportunity was to come, and because he was ready for it, he was to attain a fame equal to that won by any other naval commander of his country. In January, 1898, he was ordered to take command of the Asiatic squadron; that spring while he was on Pacific waters, war was declared between the United States and Spain.

Cuba, one of its first discoveries, had remained subject to Spain while one after another of her New World possessions slipped from her grasp. Instead of ruling the colony wisely, Spain governed it with severity and injustice. The oppressed people made more than one effort to gain freedom. One attempt after another was unsuccessful, but in 1895 there broke out a rebellion so desperate that the Spaniards were not able to suppress it. The cruel General Weyler was put in command of the army in Cuba. In order to keep the natives from taking part in the insurrection, he formed what were called “concentration camps;” towns were surrounded by barbed wire fences and the inclosures were guarded by Spanish soldiers; in these were confined men, women, and children. Foul water, lack of food, and lack of proper sanitary regulations killed thousands in these camps. Through the Red Cross Society, the Americans sent food and supplies to the sufferers.

When our Consul in Havana reported that many Americans were among the starving sufferers, the United States protested; finally, Weyler was recalled and the American prisoners and the helpless natives were released.

In the winter of 1898 the Maine, an American battleship commanded by Captain Sigsbee, was in Havana harbor on a friendly visit. On the fifteenth of February, it was blown up by a submarine mine and two hundred and sixty-six Americans were killed. No one could find out who put the mine there nor who exploded it. This incident excited such indignation in America that Congress authorized President McKinley to use the army and navy to force Spain to give up Cuba. This caused Spain to declare war against the United States.

The war with Spain began, April 21, 1898. Three days later, orders were cabled to Dewey, who was at Hong Kong, China: “Proceed at once to the Philippine Islands. Commence operations, particularly against the Spanish fleet. You must capture or destroy the vessels. Use utmost endeavor.”

As Dewey sailed from Hong Kong, he signalled to his fleet: “Keep cool and obey orders.” The night of April the thirtieth the vessels reached Manila; ignoring the mines and batteries, they steamed in single file between the forts which guard the wide entrance of the bay. A little after five o’clock on the morning of May 1, 1898, began the battle of Manila Bay. The Spanish fleet was commanded by Admiral Montojo, one of the ablest of the Spanish officers. His fleet and the batteries opened fire on the Americans. Two submarine mines were exploded; fortunately, they did no damage and they did not deter Dewey, who had been with Farragut at the battle of Mobile Bay when the brave admiral sailed over torpedoes.