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
XXIV
REAR-ADMIRAL
HIRAM PAULDING
A
NAVY-YARD IN TIME OF WAR—PAULDING’S BIRTH AND PARENTAGE—ENTERS THE
NAVY—SWORD VOTED HIM BY CONGRESS FOR HIS GALLANTRY IN THE BATTLE OF LAKE
CHAMPLAIN—CRUISE AFTER MUTINEERS IN THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC—PUBLISHES A
JOURNAL OF IT—PROMOTION—BREAKS UP WALKER’S FILIBUSTERING EXPEDITION TO
NICARAGUA—HIS ACTION NOT WHOLLY APPROVED BY GOVERNMENT—THE PRESIDENT OF
NICARAGUA PRESENTS HIM WITH A SWORD—NOT ALLOWED TO ACCEPT A TRACT OF LAND—AT
THE BREAKING OUT OF THE REBELLION SENT TO DESTROY THE NAVY- YARD AT
NORFOLK—DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENE—APPOINTED COMMANDANT OF THE NAVY-YARD AT
NEW YORK—CONTRACTS FOR THE FIRST ARMORED VESSELS.
The commander of the chief
navy-yard of a country, in time of war, holds a post of great responsibility,
and is compelled to do much hard work. Hence one of the ablest officers of the
navy is usually selected to fill it. His work, however, is of a kind that
neither interests nor attracts the public. He is aware of this, and therefore
much prefers to be afloat and in active service. The daily routine of a
navy-yard, and the superintending the repairs or building of ships, furnish tame
employment compared with the bold cruise in search of an enemy, or the stern
conflict, in which fame and glory may be won. But he has no choice in the
matter; he must stay where the Government places him, and perform those duties
which bring no renown, but yet are as essential in time of war to the welfare of
the nation as those which command the public eye.
Admiral Paulding, though
ranking as one of our ablest officers, was doomed during the war to this
monotonous life, as Commander of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
He was born in Westchester
County, about the year 1800, and entered the navy in September, 1811. His father
was John Paulding, one of the captors of Major Andre. A young midshipman, in the
second war with England, he early saw some hard fighting with McDonough, in the
battle on Lake Champlain, and so distinguished himself by his bravery, that
Congress voted him a sword.
After the war he made several
cruises, possessing no especial interest, until 1825. In 1824, the crew of the
whale ship Globe, of Nantucket,
mutinied while in the Pacific Ocean, and, murdering the officers, took the ship
to Mulgrave Island, where they proposed to burn her and form a settlement. Here
they landed a great part of the stores and rigging; but, before she was entirely
dismantled, some of the crew—who took no part in the mutiny—cut the cable
one night, just at dark, while the rest were on shore, and, under a fine breeze,
stood out to sea. The mutineers, seeing her moving off, pursued in boats; but
soon, gave up the chase. A11 the nautical instruments had been taken out of her,
so that those on board had nothing but the stars and prevailing winds to guide
them in navigating the broad Pacific. They, however, at length reached
Valparaiso in safety, and reported to the United States Consul there what had
been done. There being no Government ship on hand that could be spared to go
after the mutineers, the matter was reported to Government, which directed
Commodore Hull, then in the Pacific, to send the schooner Dolphin
in search of them, and bring them home as prisoners. Lieutenant Percival was put
in command of her, and Paulding made his chief officer. It was a long cruise,
for the islands of the Pacific were not so well known at that time as now. The
Marquesas and neighboring islands were then almost terra incognita, and, as the
vessel passed from one to another, a new world seemed opening to Paulding. One
day embraced by the dusky wife of a chieftain, in return for some beads that he
had given her; another, carried by an island king on his back to his boat, his
cruise was made up of novel and ever-varying incidents.
At length one mutineer was
discovered on the shore of an island, who warned Paulding off. The latter asked
him his name. He replied, "William Lay." Paulding then told him to
come to the boat; but he refused, saying that the natives would not let him.
"Run, then;" said the former. The poor fellow still declined, saying
that the natives would kill him with stones the moment he moved. Paulding then
disembarked, and, with loaded pistols, marched up to the place where Lay was
standing, and, seizing him with the left hand, with the other presented a cocked
pistol to his breast, and sternly demanded, “Who are you?" He replied,
“I am your man," and burst into tears. The natives, thinking violence was
intended, rose angrily, when Paulding leveled his pistol at them, and marched
his prisoner off to the boat.
A few miles to windward of
this island he found another mutineer, by the name of Huzzy, who was stark
naked, like the natives. The latter somehow had got wind of Paulding’s search,
and hence knew what he was after, and planned that very night to board the
vessel and murder the crew. Huzzy, however, dissuaded them from it. Paulding
boldly landed, and, marching up to the chief, leveled a pistol at his breast and
demanded that Huzzy should be delivered up. He yielded, and Paulding took his
prisoner on board, when the latter informed him that all the other mutineers
were dead. Paulding afterwards published a book, entitled "Journal of a
Cruise among the Islands of the Pacific," in which he gave a minute account
of this cruise, describing the various islands that he visited, and the customs
of the inhabitants, &c., which were then new to the public.
In 1844, he was promoted to
Captain. Many years after, in 1857, Paulding figured in the famous filibustering
expedition of Walker. The main body, commanded by Walker in person, landed at
Punta Arenas, in the harbor of Greytown. Commodore Paulding, commanding the Home
Squadron, arrived in the Wabash the next month, when Walker, with one hundred and thirty-two
men, surrendered to him.
Paulding acted in the matter
without specific instructions, and his conduct was not fully approved by the
government, especially in arresting Walker on foreign soil.
Subsequently, the President of
Nicaragua presented him with a sword, and offered him a large tract of land as a
reward for his services, but the government would not allow him to accept the
latter gift.
At the breaking out of the
rebellion, Commodore Paulding was ordered to supersede Captain McCauley, in the
command of the Navy Yard at Norfolk, then threatened by the rebels, but, as it
turned out, not to save it but to superintend its destruction. This Navy Yard
was one of the most extensive in the United States, being three quarters of a
mile long, a quarter of a mile wide, and covered with machine shops and
buildings of various kinds. In the harbor were the new steam frigate Merrimac,
the line-of-battle-ship Pennsylvania,
the Germantown, the Dolphin,
and other vessels. Nine millions of property were supposed to be in the yard,
and among it three thousand cannon. All this the rebels expected to have, and
troops were assembled to seize it. On the night of the 16th of April a large
number of boats loaded with stones, were towed into the channel and sunk, so
that the large vessels could not be towed out, and two days after, the rebel
general Taliaferro arrived to take charge of the troops, when the federal naval
officers resigned their commissions, and passed over to the confederate
government. This state of things being reported at Washington, it was determined
to destroy the yard and all its material, to prevent it from falling into the
hands of the rebels. The Pawnee,
Captain Rowan commanding, had just arrived front its fruitless endeavor to
reinforce Sumter, and six hundred men were immediately put on board the vessel
with Paulding as flag officer, and she ordered down to the yard. She started on
the night of the 21st, with a bright moon to guide her on her course, and
steamed down the Potomac. The next evening at eight o’clock she reached the
wharf, and was received with thundering cheers by the loyal gallant crews, while
the traitors were seized with alarm, lest the Pawnee should open her broadsides on everything within reach.
Whether the government could have saved the yard, had it possessed more
confidence and boldness, it is impossible to say, but the attempt was not made.
Paulding ordered the troops,
as soon as the Pawnee was made fast to
the dock, to land and seize all the gates of the yard. He thought the Cumberland
might be saved, and determined to try and tow her out. Everything that could be
carried and was valuable, was taken out of the Pennsylvania
and the other vessels, and then the work of destruction began. Some three
thousand men sprang to their task with a will, and shot and shells and stacks of
arms were thrown overboard, while the heavy guns could only be spiked. All night
long the work of destruction went on, and it was nearly morning when the Pawnee,
taking the Cumberland in tow, and with all the men on board except those left
behind to fire the trains, cast loose and moved off a short distance. Everything
being ready, Paulding ordered a rocket to be sent up, the signal agreed on for
the torch to be applied. It rose gracefully into the air with its silent
message, and as it "burst in shivers of many-colored lights," the men
who watched its ascent, fired the trains. In an instant the flames leaped up in
every direction, revealing the whole yard as by magic, and turning night into
day. Startled by the mighty conflagration from their sleep, the citizens of
Norfolk and Portsmouth rushed into the open air, and saw the whole heavens
illumined as though the fires of the last day had been kindled. The flames
leaped from the pitchy, smoking decks to the shrouds, and curled like fiery
serpents round the tall masts, while on every side piles of material and
dwellings became a mass of fire. Says a spectator of the terrific scene, "
It was not thirty minutes from the time the trains were fired, till the
conflagration roared like a hurricane, and the flames from land and water swayed
and mingled together, and darted high, and fell, and leaped up again, and by
their very motion showed their sympathy with the crackling, crashing roar of
destruction beneath. But in all this magnificent scene, the old ship Pennsylvania
was the centre-piece. She was a very giant in death, as she had been in life.
She was a sea of flame, and when the iron entered her soul’ and her bowels
were consuming, then did she spout forth from every port-hole of every deck,
torrents and cataracts of fire, that to the mind of Milton, would have
represented her a frigate of hell, pouring out unremitting broadsides of
infernal fire. Several of her guns were left loaded but not shotted, and as the
fire reached them they sent out on the startled morning air, minute guns of
fearful peal, that added greatly to the alarm that the light of the
conflagration had spread through the surrounding country. The Pennsylvania
burned like a volcano for five hours and a half, before her mainmast fell. I
stood watching the proud but perishing leviathan, as this emblem of her majesty
was about to come down. At precisely half past nine, the tall tree that stood in
her centre tottered and fell, and crushed deep into her burning sides, while a
storm of sparks flooded the sky."
Paulding, with the Cumberland
in tow, succeeded in getting out of Elizabeth River. His work was then done, and
he left the Pawnee at City Point.
Not long after this he was
placed over the Navy Yard at Brooklyn,
where he remained. He was one of the three appointed by the Secretary of the
navy to investigate the subject of armored vessels, and to contract for the
three first that were built: viz. the Ericsson,
Galena, and Ironsides. He is now on the retired list.