Most people generally prefer to gather their historical lore from popular rumor rather than to laboriously search official records for their facts. For instance ; the public press at the present time (1916) is full of patriotic suggestions as to where a suitable place would be at which to enshrine and preserve for the admiration of future generations the once scrapped hull of the first (?) submarine boat, the one built by "Holland," the writers seemingly convinced that she was the original under-water craft despite the fact recorded in naval annals that 30 years or more before Holland designed her the Confederates not only built the little submarine Hunley, which bore the name of her inventor, but with her they sank the U. S. sloop-of-war Housatonic off Charleston, S. C., on February 17, 1864.
A similar erroneous idea prevails, among the misinformed, that the Merrimac, the famous adversary of the Monitor, was the first ironclad ever engaged in battle when she attacked the wooden frigate Congress and the sloop-of-war Cumberland in Hampton Roads in March, 1862, while the fact is indisputable that five months prior to that fight (October 12, 1861) the Confederate ironclad ram Manassas was engaged in an attack on the Federal fleet at the head of the passes of the Mississippi River, in which engagement she rammed the U. S. S. Richmond carrying twenty-two 9-inch guns (at that time).
There are two participants in that affair known to be still living. One of them is Captain H. H. Marmaduke and the other is the writer of this account; both of them were midshipmen on board of the Confederate flagship McRae at the time, and Marmaduke was severely wounded while on the Merrimac during the battle of Hampton Roads.
In 1861 Flag Officer George N. Hollins was ordered by the Confederate authorities to the command of the naval defences on the Mississippi River. He had been a midshipman on the U. S. frigate President when she was captured by the British in 1812. In 1854 while in command of the U. S. S. Cyane he bombarded the Nicaraguan port of Greytown (San Juan). He laughingly described his experience by saying that "while some people wanted to have him court-martialed for his act, others thought he ought to be made president, and as his conduct on that occasion was becoming a political question, politicians settled the matter by getting him the command of a better ship, and having him sent as far as possible from temptation."
At the outbreak of the Civil War the commodore was in the Mediterranean flying his flag on the side-wheel frigate Susquehanna. He brought his ship home to a northern port, turned her over to the U. S. Government, resigned his commission, and went south. His first adventure in the Confederate service was to board the St. Nicholas, a steamer plying between Baltimore and Washington, and with several other southern sympathizers register themselves as passengers, and then forcibly capture the boat as soon as she was fairly out in the stream. With the St. Nicholas he took several small prizes.
Lying at New Orleans in 1861 was an ocean-going tug called the Enoch Train. This boat had been purchased by a small company of speculators whose love of dollars was greater than their affection for the Confederacy. They caused the upper works of the tug to be removed and then had built a turtleback of 12-inch oak which completely covered her. This wooden protection was made the backing for a light armor of railroad iron, the "T" rails being dovetailed into each other and forming a metal protection about four inches thick and almost solid. She carried one 32-pounder mounted in her bows. The port was so small the gun could neither be elevated nor depressed, and as there was not sufficient room, there were no traverses or other means of training the weapon except by the helm. The gun was only expected to be used at the moment of collision with an enemy vessel.
When ready to be put into commission the Enoch Train was rechristened Manassas, and her patriotic owners proposed that the Confederate authorities enter into a contract to pay many thousands of dollars for each Federal warship destroyed. The Richmond Government refused the offer, and the ram, manned by a loud-mouthed set of toughs, lay idly at her anchor on the Algiers side of the river, opposite Jackson Square and the old St. Louis Cathedral.
The distance from the Passe a l'outre to the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi is some 27 miles, and the river has four principal mouths, widely separated from each other, necessitating a large number of war vessels to make an effective blockade. The Confederate cruiser Sumter had recently escaped to sea. To shorten the blockade line Flag Officer W. W. McKean, U. S. N., ordered Captain Pope to proceed up the Southwest Pass with the sloops-of-war Richmond, Vincennes, and Preble, and the gunboat Water Witch, and take possession of that part of the river immediately above the wide sheet of water known as "The Head of the Passes " and thus make it impossible for either the McRae (which cruiser was ready to put to sea) or any commercial blockade runner to get by, as the river was only about a mile wide where the fleet took up its station. New Orleans was in this way not only bottled up but the cork was squeezed in.
Commodore Hollins determined, if possible, to drive the Federal fleet away from their position of vantage, and to effect this purpose the only vessel he had under his command which bore the slightest resemblance to a war ship was a small bark-rigged steamer carrying seven guns called the McRae. This steamer under the name of Marquis de la Habana, and her consort, the General Miramon, were the property of General Miramon, a Mexican revolutionary leader. They were captured near Vera Cruz by the U. S. sloop-of war Saratoga in 1860 after quite a lively fight in which some 22 men were killed and wounded. The prizes were sent to New Orleans, the Marquis de la Habana under the command of Lieutenant R. T. Chapman, with instructions to deliver them into the custody of the United States Court and prefer the charge against them "that they belonged to an unrecognized revolutionary government and were pirates upon the high seas." In less than a year from that time Chapman was an officer on the Confederate cruiser Sumter, "belonging to an unrecognized revolutionary government and (branded as) a pirate on the high seas."
The United States Court decided that the Mexican ships were not lawful prizes, but the decision was made too late to benefit their owners as the outbreak of the Civil War caught them at New Orleans. The Marquis de la Habana was immediately taken possession of by the Confederates who fitted her out as a commerce destroyer. But she never succeeded in getting to sea and finished her exciting career at the bottom of the Mississippi River when Admiral Farragut captured New Orleans.
Besides the McRae, with her seven guns, Commodore Hollins' flotilla (?) was composed of three side-wheel tow boats, the Ivy, Calhoun, and Jackson, and the screw river tug Tuscarora, each carrying two 32-pounders.
The commodore was a man of decided character, and he decided that he needed the ram Manassas in his business. A polite invitation to her owners that she be allowed to participate in the proposed adventure was contemptuously declined, but a little rebuff like that did not phaze the "old salt" who knew what he wanted, and meant to have it, too. He informed the owners that he would take possession of the ram with or without their consent. They defied him. He had the McRae, with her crew at quarters, ranged up alongside the Manassas whose crew, composed of some 30 odd men, were standing on the turtleback hurling defiance at the navy men whom they pretended to hold in the greatest contempt. The McRae lowered a boat manned by an armed crew of eight men under the command of Lieutenant A. F. Warley (the same who afterwards commanded the ironclad Albemarle when Lieutenant Cushing, U. S. N., sunk her with a torpedo). The only other officer in the boat was the writer of this account, who was at the time a midshipman in his 16th year, and very small for his age.
As the boat approached the ram her crew ceased their defiant billingsgate and stood on the turtleback in speechless, as well as helpless, amazement. There was a makeshift Jacob's ladder over the armor, reaching from its apex to the water-line, and, under orders, the small midshipman steered for it. Arriving alongside, Mr. Warley ordered the midshipman to keep the boat's crew in their seats until he called for them, and then, revolver in hand, he lightly tripped up the ladder. The crew of braggarts, who had a few moments before hurled defiance at him, took to their heels and disappeared down a small hole forward which served the purpose of a hatchway. Mr. Warley followed them below and soon they scampered up on deck again through a similar hole aft, some of them being so badly scared that they jumped overboard and swam to shore which, fortunately, was not far away.
It was in this way that the first ironclad built in America became a part of the Confederate Navy.
The large Mississippi River flatboats were also commandeered. The boats, like Noah's Ark, were built without iron nails, their timbers being pinned together by wooden tree-nails. These boats when loaded with seasoned cord wood, pine knots, and barrels of turpentine, made very good fireships. Two very small tugs, the Mosher and another called the Music furnished the motive power.
This Confederate armada (?), when ready, went down the river to forts Jackson and St. Philip and waited there until near midnight of October 11, when it again started down stream to attack the United States fleet of three sloops-of-war and a gunboat, mounting, in all, some 57 guns.
The night was very dark. The Manassas led the flotilla followed by the fireships. The McRae (the flagship) came next, and then the Ivy and Tuscarora in order. The powerful towboat Jackson had high-pressure engines and the noise, made by her escape pipes, could be heard for miles, necessitating that she remain far behind if a surprise attack was to be successful. The other tow-gunboat Calhoun, whose machinery was very much exposed, kept the Jackson company.
At 3.45 a. m. (October 12) a rocket went up from the Manassas. That was the agreed upon signal to let the Confederates know she had succeeded in ramming one of the ships of the Federal fleet. Instantly the broadsides of the big sloops-of-war shook the atmosphere and the fireships bursting into flames added to the grandeur of the spectacle.
The Manassas had struck the Richmond abreast the port fore channels, with the result that three planks of the wooden ship were stove in about two feet below the water-line making a small hole some five inches in circumference. But the ram had done more mischief than this to herself. The Richmond had a coal schooner alongside which the pilot of the ram did not see, owing to the darkness of the night. The Manassas tore the schooner away from her fastenings and at the same time the latter's hawser shaved off the former's smokestack even with her turtleback, causing the little vessel to soon be filled with her own smoke, compelling her crew to seek air outside. Besides this disaster, the force of the impact, when she struck the solid wooden side of the big Richmond, had jarred her engines and boilers out of position and rendered them useless. In that condition she was carried by the current past the Richmond while under a terrific, but harmless fire. The ram lay so low in the water that the projectiles passed over her, and she helplessly drifted into the marsh grass growing on the muddy bank of the river where she was found at daylight by her consorts.
The fireships (?) had also floated harmlessly on to the marsh where they consumed themselves without having done the slightest damage to anything else. The captains of the tugs claimed that they did not have sufficient power to control their heavy tows while going down stream.
While the broadsides of the Federal ships were tearing holes through the air, the McRae, Ivy, and Tuscarora were being carried by a five-knot current toward them, and had they remained at their anchorage they would certainly have captured the Manassas, and most probably the rest of the Confederate flotilla, but fortunately for the latter, while the big guns of the sloops were roaring, they slipped their cables and made for the open sea via the Southwest Pass with the Preble leading, followed by the Vincennes, Richmond, and Water Witch in the order named; the sailing ships with all sail set, and helped by a fresh and favoring breeze. The Confederates followed at a respectful distance.
The Preble and Water Witch, being of lighter draft, passed over the bar and out into the gulf safely, but the heavier Richmond and Vincennes grounded, the Vincennes with her stern and the Richmond with her broadside pointing up stream.
The light-draft and speedy Ivy, under the command of Lieutenant Joseph B. Fry, formerly an officer of the U. S. Navy, quickly took advantage of the uncomfortable position in which the Vincennes found herself. Running down to within easy range, he commenced to throw shot at her cabin windows (after ports) in which there were two guns that should have been sufficient to destroy the Ivy, with her towering walking-beam and huge paddle-boxes making an ideal target, and besides, the Ivy could only use her forward gun.
The McRae, with the object of diverting the attention of the Richmond from the Ivy, engaged the heavy sloop at long range, keeping under way, and making circles during the entire action; the little converted tug Tuscarora under the command of Lieutenant Beverly Kennon, following the McRae, firing her two little guns with great rapidity.
While the action was going on the Jackson and Calhoun came down the pass and tied up at the pilot station, but neither of them fired a shot.
The action had not lasted two hours when the Confederates were astounded to see the crew of the Vincennes abandon their ship, and row over to the Richmond and Water Witch! Commodore Pope, in his official report of the affair says: " . . . . we returned the fire from our port battery and rifled gun on the poop, our shot, however falling short of the enemy, while their shell burst on all sides of us and several passed directly over the ship. At about 9.30 Commander Handy, of the Vincennes, mistaking my signal to the ships outside the bar ‘to get underway' for a signal for him to abandon his ship' came on board the Richmond with all his officers and a large number of the crew, the remainder having gone on board the Water Witch. Commander Handy before leaving his ship had placed a lighted slow match at the magazine. Having waited a reasonable time for an explosion, I directed Commander Handy to return to his ship with his crew. . . . .”
Commodore Pope was mistaken about all of his shot "falling short," as many of them passed over the McRae and Tuscarora, and other projectiles from his ship threw so much spray over the Ivy that as soon as the Vincennes was abandoned Commodore Hollins signaled the little "tow-gunboat" to withdraw, as the Vincennes was under the protection of the guns of the Richmond and it would have been useless to attempt to take possession of her, and thus ended the first fight in which an ironclad was ever engaged.
The news of the fight was first proclaimed a great victory by the citizens of New Orleans, but a newspaper admiral soon discovered that Commodore Hollins was much to blame in that he had not towed the whole United States fleet up to the city as prizes of war, the press expert not taking into account the fact that the Richmond alone could have whipped the Gulf of Mexico full of just such craft as composed the Confederate flotilla. Unfortunately for the commodore he had laid himself open to ridicule by a telegram he sent to the city, of which the following is a copy:
Fort Jackson, 2 p. m., Oct. 12. Last night I attacked the blockaders with my little fleet. I succeeded, after a very short struggle, in driving them all aground on the Southwest Pass bar, except the Preble, which I sunk, I captured a prize (the coal schooner) from them, and after I got them fast on the sand I peppered them well. There were no casualties on our side. It was a complete success.
The Manassas having reported that she had rammed one of the warships, and the Preble not being in sight at daylight, it was taken for granted that she had been sunk.
The end of the Manassas was spectacular, to say the least. When Admiral Farragut passed the forts below New Orleans on the night of the 24th of April, 1862, the ram "ran amuck" through his fleet. She took the broadsides of his heavy ships one after the other and sometimes all together. Among others she rammed the Brooklyn and Mississippi (Admiral Dewey being the executive officer of the latter vessel), and she also had the temerity to tow a fireship alongside the Hartford and succeeded in setting the flagship on fire. Under a hail of shot she burst into flames and shortly afterwards went to the bottom of the "father of waters." The credit for her final destruction being awarded to the Mississippi.
It may be of interest to add to this account of "the affair at the head of the passes" that the Lieutenant Joseph B. Fry, who with the Ivy so daringly attacked the Vincennes, was the same man who was captured by the Spaniards (while he was in command of the blockade runner Virginius) and so cruelly done to death at Santiago, Cuba.1
1See Naval War Records, Vol. 16.