By J.
T. Headley
Comprising the early life and
public services of the prominent naval commanders who, with Grant and Sherman
and their generals, brought to a triumphant close the great rebellion of
1861-1865. (First edition 1867)
(Return to table of contents of this book)
CHAPTER
XX
REAR-ADMIRAL
HENRY KNOX THATCHER
RANK
A TEST OF MERIT AS WELL AS VICTORIES—THATCHER’S BIRTH AND EARLY
EDUCATION—ENTERS THE NAVY—FIRST CRUISES—CRUISE TO SUPPRESS THE
SLAVE-TRADE—PROMOTION—BREAKING OUT OF THE REBELLION—COMMANDS IN THE GULF
BLOCKADING SQUADRON—HIS GALLANTRY IN THE BOMBARDMENT OF FORT
FISHER—PORTER’S EULOGY OF HIM—COMMANDS THE SQUADRON IN MOBILE
BAY—SINKING OF VESSELS BY TORPEDOES—CAPTURE OF MOBILE— HIS AFTER SERVICES
ON THE MISSISSIPPI AND AT GALVESTON—DESTRUCTION OF THE REBEL VESSEL
WEBB—COMMANDS THE GULF SQUADRON.
Many of our accomplished
commanders had no opportunity during the war of performing any isolated
brilliant action, they either being kept on stations at points where it was
necessary to have a portion of our navy, or on blockading duty, where no
opportunity occurred of meeting the enemy. Others were very little known outside
of the navy until their names suddenly appeared near the close of the war, they
then for the first time having an opportunity to show their capacity for
commanding a fleet, and conducting active operations. Their services, however,
were none the less valuable because not connected with any brilliant action.
These may be known from the high rank which was given them. Among the latter is
Rear-Admiral Thatcher. Born in Maine, he received his education in the schools
of Boston, and in 1823 entered the naval service as midshipman.
He made two cruises in the
Pacific Ocean, the West Indies, and the Gulf of Mexico. He afterwards made three
cruises in the Mediterranean, and one on the coast of Africa to suppress the
slave-trade. He also, as lieutenant and captain, saw much duty on shore in our
navy yards and recruiting stations.
After the breaking out of the
rebellion he was engaged in active service, being promoted to commodore, in
July, 1862.
In 1863, he commanded the Colorado,
and under Commodore Bell, commanding for the time the Western Gulf Blockading
Squadron, he endeavored to destroy a blockade-runner, which had got aground
directly under the guns of Fort Morgan, Mobile bay. It was on the 12th of
October, a dark and rainy morning, when he saw her aground, and instantly
dispatched his executive officer, Lieutenant Miller, in his tender—a boat of
scarcely a hundred tons burden—to reconnoiter. The Kanawha,
under Lieutenant Commander Mayo, observed the blockade-runner at the same time,
and instantly steamed in and boldly attacked her. The fort opened a tremendous
fire upon the Kanawha, and soon sent
an eight-inch shell through her. She still, however, maintained her fire, while
the little tender, disdaining to be outdone in boldness, though the shot and
shells of the fort rained around her, kept up a vigorous fire with her
howitzers, and retired only with the Kanawha.
Though the attempt to destroy the blockade-runner failed, it was gallantly
executed. The first important action in which Thatcher was engaged was the
bombardment of Fort Fisher, under Porter. In this attack he carried his ship
gallantly into action, and on the first day fired fifteen hundred and sixty-nine
projectiles, his ship being hulled several times. The cool and deliberate manner
in which he handled his ship and fought her to the close, received the warm
commendations of his commander. In the second attack, the Colorado,
in the second line, was directed to advance next to the leading ship, Minnesota, under Commodore Lanman. The latter, however, while moving
up, got her propeller foul with a hawser, and Thatcher took the lead and led the
line, and for an hour lay abreast of the formidable batteries, raining shot and
shell in an incessant shower on the fortifications. Now, a hundred and fifty
pound shot went crashing through his berth deck, soon another tore through his
gun-deck, making an ugly opening. A third pierced the port side of his ship,
above the water line; two more struck the sheet chain, cutting it through, while
shells were incessantly exploding above and around him. But though under such an
awful fire, and receiving such a terrible pounding, Thatcher fought on as coolly
as though only testing the range of his guns. In the midst of the fire, he
ordered Lieutenant M. L. Johnson to carry a hawser to the Ironsides,
to warp round his vessel so as to bring all his guns from the port battery to
bear. This gallant officer, with a crew of volunteers, rowed away, and for half
an hour was the target of the guns of the enemy, who had observed his movements.
It was a bold and hazardous act, and highly complimented by Thatcher.
Ensign Perry, after assisting
in landing the troops, and though worn out with fatigue and drenched to the
skin, took up his position, and in the language of Thatcher, "fought his
guns splendidly through the action." Strange to say, that, although the
vessel was hulled six times, and received several other shots, only three were
killed or wounded. Of the force spared from his ship to compose the assaulting
party, twenty-three were reported killed, wounded and missing. In his report of
the action, Porter says: "First and foremost on the list of commodores is
Commodore H. K. Thatcher. Full of honest zeal and patriotism, his vessel was
always ready for action, and when he did go into it his ship was handled with
admirable skill; no vessel in the squadron was so much cut up as the Colorado;
for some reason the rebels selected her for a target. I believe Commodore
Thatcher would have fought his ship until she went to the bottom, and went into
the fight with a full determination to conquer or die. There is no reward too
great for this gallant officer; he has shown the kind of ability naval leaders
should possess, a love of fighting and an invincible courage." Fort Fisher
having fallen, Thatcher was detached from Porter’s fleet and placed in command
of the squadron in Mobile Bay, to cooperate with Canby and Granger, commanding
the land forces, in the reduction of this last port that still acknowledged the
authority of the Confederate Government. After landing the troops under General
Canby at Danby’s Mills, and shelling the woods along the shore in the
vicinity, to clear them of the enemy, he advanced upon the rebel forts
commanding the inner bay of Mobile. Before sending his monitors over the shallow
bar into the river, he had it thoroughly dragged for torpedoes, for it was well
known that the enemy had lined the bottom with these hideous engines of
destruction. Having dragged till no more could be found, the Milwaukee,
Lieutenant commander E. H. Gibbs, was sent up the Blakely River, to shell a
rebel transport supposed to be conveying supplies to the lower fort. Having
caused the steamer to retreat up the river, he was slowly dropping down, stern
first, to avoid accident—for in turning he would sweep over more ground. He
had reached, as it was supposed, a place of safety, as the iron-clad Winnebago
had turned there not ten minutes before, and the boats had dragged for
torpedoes, when a sudden shock was felt, and the next moment the water came
pouring through the bottom of the vessel. At first there was some confusion on
board, for the hatches were down. But Gibbs promptly restored order, the hatches
were pried open, when the men rushed on deck; and though but three minutes
elapsed from the time the torpedo exploded, before the vessel went down, the
entire crew was saved.
The very next day the
iron-clad Osage, Lieutenant Wm. M.
Gamble commanding, was also sunk inside of Blakely bar. The vessel was anchored
alongside three other iron-clads in a heavy gale. Gamble, seeing that the Winnebago
was dragging her anchor, drifting slowly against him, weighed anchor and moved
off to a safe distance, and stopped in two fathoms water. He then ordered three
bells, the signal to back, and the crew to stand ready to drop anchor, when
suddenly a torpedo exploded under the bow, and in an instant the vessel began to
settle in the water. Gamble immediately sent a portion of the crew to search for
the killed and wounded, and ordered all the rest on the hurricane deck, except
two to each boat to haul them alongside.
Two were killed and eight
wounded. The latter were quickly lifted into the boats, but were scarcely safe
aboard, before the vessel went down. As the spot had been thoroughly dragged, it
was supposed that the torpedo was a floating one. Three days after this sad
accident, the United States steamer Rodolph
was also sunk. This vessel was on its way to help raise the Milwaukee,
sunk a few days before, when a torpedo exploded under the bow, staving a hole
ten feet in diameter, and killing and wounding twelve men. Sinking in only
twelve feet of water, the most valuable part of her armament, &c., was
saved.
Scarcely ten days elapsed,
before the gunboat Scioto, tug Ida,
and a launch of the Cincinnati, shared
the same fate, losing nearly twenty men. The Althea
had also been previously sunk. It will be seen by these casualties occurring so
rapidly, and that, too, after the water had been thoroughly dragged, and
quantities of torpedoes taken up, what a difficult and dangerous service
Thatcher was called upon to perform. Nothing could be more unpleasant to a naval
commander. Officers and men had rather face any battery, however powerful, or
meet any vessel, however superior in strength, than to be thus constantly
dreading an unseen foe. To be in momentary expectation of feeling the vessel
lifting beneath you, or with one great shudder sink to the bottom, is more
trying to the nerves than the most desperate engagement. The very mystery that
envelops these hidden messengers of death, renders them more terrible.
Thatcher, however, worked his
way steadily forward against all opposition-thanks to the indefatigable exertion
of Commander Pierce Crosby, who dragged Blakely River till he took out one
hundred and fifty torpedoes—and at last got his iron-clads abreast of Spanish
Fort, from whence he shelled Forts Huger and Tracy with such precision, from a
rifled gun under Commander Low, that both were evacuated. Taking possession of
these, he conveyed eight thousand men under Granger, to the west side of Mobile
Bay to attack the city. The rebels retreated, and the two commanders sent in a
formal demand for the surrender of the place. It was granted, and the stars and
stripes were hoisted over the city.
The capture of Fort Alexis and
the Spanish Fort, completed the conquest, and the rebel iron-clad Nashville
and gunboat Morgan retreated up the
Tombigbee River. The two powerful rams Huntsville
and Tuscaloosa had been previously
sunk in Spanish River.
Thatcher immediately went to
work blowing up and removing the obstructions in the main channel.
On the 4th of May, the rebel
naval commander, Farrand, surrendered all the vessels that remained, four in
number, to Thatcher, who had followed him up the Tombigbee River, and was ready
to open on him with his heavy guns.
Admiral Thatcher now proceeded
to New Orleans. Here, on the 24th of April, he was aroused by the startling
intelligence, that the rebel ram Webb,
that had run the blockade of the Red River, was passing the city under a full
head of steam, with the United States flag at half-mast. At first she was
supposed to be an army transport; but as soon as her true character was
discovered, he sent several vessels in hot pursuit.
The Webb kept dashing on at a high rate of speed with a torpedo
suspended at her bow-making for the open gulf. But suddenly she came upon the Richmond,
on her way up, when she turned for the shore and, running her bows into the left
bank of the river, was set on fire by her commander. The crew of forty-five
escaped to the shore with the exception of three, two of whom were captured,
while the third perished with the vessel. Her cargo consisting of cotton, rosin
and turpentine, she was soon a mass of flames shooting through thick clouds of
black smoke, and in a few minutes blew up with a terrific explosion. Detachments
from the navy and land force pursued the fugitives through the swamps into which
they plunged for shelter, capturing two of the crew, and taking the commander
and five other officers prisoners.
Thatcher, in the mean time,
had dispatched several vessels, to convey a force of thirteen thousand men under
General Steele, to Selma and Montgomery. A month later he received a dispatch
from the fleet captain, E. Simpson, at Mobile, announcing that on the afternoon
of the 25th of May, an awful explosion of ordnance stores took place at
Marshall’s warehouse, setting the city on fire, and causing a great
destruction of life. The conflagration, flamed by a fierce south wind, spread
with great rapidity, carrying terror and desolation in its path.
Amid the exploding shells on
every side and the blinding smoke and flames shooting heavenward, quarter-master
John Cowper, belonging to the Brooklyn, seeing a wounded man lying where certain death awaited
him, dashed fearlessly in, at the imminent risk of his life, and lifting him in
his arms, bore him to a place of safety.
The surrender of the defenses
of Sabine Pass followed, and the last stones of the Confederacy crumbled to the
ground.
Admiral Thatcher now proceeded
to Galveston, where Kirby Smith surrendered to our land forces, and the national
flag was soon flying over all the forts of the harbor. Thatcher, not having a
sufficient force to garrison them, laid his light-draught gunboats abreast of
them, until troops could arrive. This being done, he directed Captain Sands to
buoy out the harbor.