December 1979 Civil War Times ILLUSTRATED Go asc orang .10D “He prays like a saint and fights like the devil.” ORE AND|REW HULL FOOTE By Allan Keller Fis casey taceooted sit it had been carved by fro tnd eroion ftom a mountainlde above ue tee line: hit voice wasstrident and unpleasant. He ypent more neon His knees in prayer chan a lot of clergymen and he was a tectofaler. He was the Connecticut Yankee who worked with Major General US, Grant to cut the Confederacy in two, bu, except historians, few remember his mae: An drew Hull Foot. He was called the “Gunbost Commodore” because his vessels were cre crafe bil in afew weeks out ofthe hulls of river packets or barges for the sole purpoe of holding heavy mortars. Unique ships jn che annals of naval architecture, their armored sides even predated the Monitor and Virginia Foote served twenty-one years onthe high seat and in Important posts on shore before Lincoln's Secretary ofthe Navy, Gideon Welles, asked him to command the river ine foees being organized of the Misiippi Used tothe music of wind inthe rigging om the high seas, he fought with ugly, awkward, slow-moving sea boats on arrow, cactered, inland vives, But none of dl really mattered, If there was fighting to be done Foote was the man for it and chee wat no denying the appraisal of one admiral who said "He pray like a saint and fights ke the devi.” ‘Thomas Jefferton was President when Foote was tom in New Haven, the von of a man who verve at gov mor of Connecticut and represented that sate in the USS. Seat, Hie grandfather and grea grandfather served the nearby village of Cheshire annie for 100 years beeneen them, Nothing in hie background hinted at a career in he navy, But is high grades wom hi eaty a8 mstion co the military acadamy ae West Poin where he stayed ony long enough fo ge an appoininent asa id. thipman in the navy. na shore time he had seen more frei lands and done more duty ofan unusual ore han mot offices see tor do ina Lfetime. He seemed 1 have gone everywhere, from Chile and the East indies othe Caribbean, Alexan- dria, and Athens. He crcumnavigated the globe in the war dop John Adams, fought pirates off Sumatra, and bombarded East Indian towns where Ametican traders were being threatened. He found the women of Tabi, thos aractive but complained of the “lceniousese” of the ilander, oot’s gunboats ascending te Tennete Rivero th tack aon en.USS Portsmouth bombarding the barrier forts on the Whangpoa River, Foote commanded her during this expedition. ‘After this sea duty he took the post of superintendent of the naval school and asylum for retired sailors in Philadelphia, and it was there he took the temperance pledge in hope of persuading the old salts to follow his ex ample. They did not and it was one of his few failures. Attsea again, he scoured the African Gulf of Guinea try ing to suppress the slave trade. It was unbelievably arduous duty, beating up and down the coast of west Africa in heat that melted the tar between the deck planks, in glar ing sunlight chat ruined his eyesight. He was often bat: tered by hurricanes or tortured by the yellow dust blown Inundreds of miles to sea by the harmattan winds blowing off the Sahara Desert In 1856, after another tour of shore duty, Foote, now a commander, took the sloop-of-war Portsmouth to the East Indies station. From Java he was ordered to China where che nationals were preventing American and Brit ish merchant ships from trading. Foote found the Chinese had buile four forts on the Whangpoa River below Can- ton and were firing at ships flying British and American flags while allowing French and other foreign vessels to pass in safety ‘When his superiors told Foote to take any necessary steps to correct this condition it was all he needed. One morning he led a party of 287 officers and men from the Levant and San Jacinto and about forty marines ashore with four howitzers. In three days Foote led his men through a barricaded town, into all four forts (which among them had 176 heavy guns), and beat off a force of several thousand Chinese soldiers sent to the forts’ re Tief. The Americans lost were seven men; the Chinese lost 250. s For this feat the naval officer won acclaim from his own countrymen and the British alike, When one Ameri can dissenter complained about the action in a letter, Foote wrote back, scoffing at views as crude as they are perverse where the honor of your country’s flag is involved. The storming of the Whangpoa barrier forts was Foote's last active duty before the Civil War. He headed the Brooklyn Navy Yard, served on many boards and commissions, and was torally surprised when Welles, an old schoolmate from his New Haven days, ordered him co take command of naval activities in che West. Both U.S. Grant, who headed field forces in the Mis sisippi Valley, and Commodore Foote saw eye to eye on how best to defeat the Confederates. A drive down the ‘Father of Waters,” cogether with one along the Cumber- land and Tennessee Rivers, would cut the South in two, deny the Rebel forces use of supplies from the West and Southwest, and make victory certain by piecemeal anni: hilation of whatever forces might oppose them. ‘The South, aware of this, had fortified many points ‘on the Mississippi south of its juncture with the Ohio, and hhad built or was building fortifications on the two smaller rivers which flowed into the Ohio within a shore distance of each other. Fort Henry on the Tennessee was the first Union objective and the two Union commanders planned a joint operation against ic Foote bemoaned the fact he had no experienced shipwrights, but with the help of farmers, blacksmiths, and carpenters, soon succeeded in finishing four new gunboats. Esrex, Carondelet, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, all carried some iron sheathing over engine rooms and ‘magazines, There were three older wooden vessels, Tyler, Lexington, and Conestoga, armored with a patchwork of, railroad ties, heavy timbers, and baled cotton For his part, Grant organized his 15,000 men into ‘wo divisions and started overland for the enemy strong. hold, On the night of February 5, 1862, a storm of near A EY ATT ‘Rear Admiral Andrew Hull Foote.Foote's gunboat flotilla on the hurricane violence lashed the whole area, leaving the roads impassable, the small streams in flood, and bridges useless. Unable to move through the dense woods, the army was stalemated, Hearing the sound of scattered fir- ing as patrols and skirmishers met in the darkness, Foote Map of the area of Foote's operations rc} FogaiDee [USS Benton, then his flagship, i the vessel in the foreground. Sketch by Alexander Simplot decided to fight alone, The Federal gunboats dodged floating “torpedoes” and crept closer and closer to the big guns of Fort Henry Grant came aboard the flagship just as one of the torpedoes was lassocd and brought onto the fantail of the Cincinnati. An armorer examined it as the general and commodore stood by, watching. Suddenly there was a hiss of escaping gas. Foote, sixteen years older than Grant, made the ladder to the gundeck only to find Grant hard on his heels. On the upper deck, when it was found that the hissing came from an inert section of the mechanism and did not indicate an explosion, Foote felt a bit sheepish. To cover this he asked Grant, “General, why all the haste?” “To keep the Navy from getting ahead of me, laughed Grant. The Confederate commander, Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman, an old West Pointer, listened to the reports of hisscouts as they ticked off the brigades Grant was throw ing upriver; he looked through his glass at the gunboats steaming nearer, and sent most of his men cross-country to Fort Donelion, hoping to save them for a later battle With about 100 arcillerymen, he stayed to man the guns In Hine with his aggressive fighting instincts, Foote put aside thoughts of Grant's men slogging through the sodden forest on shore and pressed ahead until at 600 yards hie opened a blistering attack on Fort Henry's guns. They were not long in replying. It was a heavyweight fight, toe totoe, big gun against big gun. Shells from the gunboats plowed great ruts across the parade ground upending some Confederate cannon and knocking others into rubble Bue Tilghman was no mean fighter himself. He told his men co aim at the Cincinnati, which, as flagship, was flying Foote’s broad pennant, and shells began to find their mark. One crashed through che pilot house wall, ‘missing the commodore by a foot or less and deranging the steering apparatus. ‘On the Essex it proved even worse. A shell from the largest Rebel gun, a 2-pounder, tore through the wooden superstructure, plunged into the engine room, and exploded the main boiler. Scalding steam killed the steersman at the wheel and burned many others. Gunners were scythed down by the steam jet and some men, scalded and in agony, jumped overboard to escape. But despite this damage, the ironclads provided sufficient protection for the old wooden vessels to come in close ‘enough to add their fire, After less than an hour, Tilgh: man ordered the Stars and Bars lowered. So Foote took Fort Henry without material assistance from Grant. It was, in face, a naval victory. Although ‘many more words have been written about the conflict between the Monitor and Virginia, which mec in battle a few weeks later in Hampton Roads, Virginia, the victory of the gunboats at Fort Henry preached its own sermon, ‘The age of wooden war ships was over; ironclads were the vessels of the future. Proud of his success, Foote steamed back to Cairo, linois, for divine services on the sabbath. In full uni- form, he walked to a small Presbyterian church to give thanks. But there was no minister. After a considerable wait, Foote went to the deacons’ bench and urged one of, the officials to replace the missing pastor. They were so reluctant the commodore himself strode to the pulpit, read from the Seriptures, said a prayer, led in the singing. of several hymns, and preached a sermon on the words of, ‘Jesus: "Let not your hearts be troubled; ye believe in God, Continued on page 43 ee Explosion ofa gun on USS Carondelet during the attack on Fort Donelson. Drawn by M.J. Burns, ater a sketch by Admiral Walke, n| CONFEDERATE WIZARDS OF THE SADDLE. By Bennett H. Young Dayton, Ohio: Morningside Bookshop 1979 (first published 1914). Map explanatory note, index, 633 pp. $30.00. Bennett Young, best remembered for his St. Albans, Vermont, raid in 1864, ‘was an officer in the 8th Kentucky Cav alry in John Hunt Morgan's command, Captured during the 1863 Indiana-Ohio raid, he escaped from prison and reached Canada. A prolific post-war author, he headed the United Confederate Veterans Association when he published this book in 1914. ‘Young unnecessarily admitted that he wrote “with the bias of a cavaleyman,” for the volume is a paean to the Confed- ezate cavalry leaders. While he devoted some attention to the eastern theater (Stuart, Hampton, Mosby), his heart ‘was obviously in the West, and half of the 24 chapters revolve around Forrest, ‘Morgan and Wheeler. The book has no discernible organization; it jumps from leader to leader, from event to event, with a fine disregard for chronology, The style is florid 19th-century, and Young resorted to superlatives when he described his beloved branch of service But he did considerable research in the printed records available after 1900, and he interviewed a number of ex-Confed- crates, The most interesting accounts describe the actions in which he partici pated, The result ie an interesting and ‘useful narrative that captures much of the sprit that characterized the Confed- erate calvary. Lowell H, Harrison ‘Western Kentucky University Norton, 0. W.: The Attack and Defense of Little Roundtop, Gettysburg, July 2, 1863. $17.50 Introduction by John Pullen. 350 pp, Index. Longstreet wrote Norton» Congrate- Tote you onthe edmivobe work you have ‘dona andthe saree you hare ‘Check/Money Order/Mesto Chorge/Vise MORNINGSIDE BOOKSHOP P.O, Box 336, Forest Park Station Dayton, Ohio. 45405, 519/836-1378 a U.S.S. MONITOR: THE SHIP THAT LAUNCHED A MODERN NAVY. By Lieutenant Ezkoard M. Miller. Annapolis, Maryland: Leeward Publications, Ine. 1078. Appendix, bibliography. xiv, 125 The USS Monitor is the best known ‘warship in American history. Just about cevery school kid can identify the vessel as the one that fought the Merrimack (Virginia). This is truer today than a few ‘years ago becagse ofthe widespread pub- Ticty given to the discovery of the wreck of the Monitor off Hatteras, North Caro- lina, in 1973, and the expeditions to the site since then. One result of this inter- est has been the appearance of several publications on the Hampton Roads en- gagement and the vessels involved in it USS. Monitor: The Ship That Launched A Modern Navy by Lieutenant Edward ‘M. Miller, USN, is the most recent book fn the famous warship and by far the best. Miller's background has certainly contributed to the book's excellence, While a midshipman at the U.S. Naval ‘Academy he was the "ramrod’ of “Proj- fect Cheesebox,” an academic project at the school to accumulate and analyze historical, engineering, and oceanographic data with the object of locating the wreck of the Monitor. In 197% this data along with other information was utilized by a group of scientists to confirm the loca- tion of the wreck. Miller was a member of the expedition that accomplished this objective. ‘The book not only narrates the his tory of the ship from her conception by John Ericsson to her end off Hatteras, ‘but also the story of the search and dis covery of the wreck. Is well researched land quite readable. The many photo- graphs, drawings, and color prints add significantly to the book’ appeal. Finally, you cannot help but be impressed by the attractive format of this book. Leeward Publications deserves praise for this. ‘The book is well worth the price. All in all, I consider it to be a very good addition tothe literature ofthe war, espe- cially the naval side of i. William Ni. Still, J East Carolina University PATRICIDE IN THE HOUSE DI- VIDED: A PSYCHOLOGICAL INTER- PRETATION OF LINCOLN AND HIS AGE, by George Forgie. New York City, N.Y.: W. W, Norton & Company, 1979, Index. 308 pp. $14.95. Subtle in analysis, marvelously sug- gestive in insight, and beautifully writ ten, George Forgie's new book isa sti ulating contribution to the literature on the intellectual and politcal origins of the Civil War. While few will agree with all of is contentions and some may think he relies too heavily on psychological theory to account for actions that can ‘otherwise be explained, all who are in- terested in Civil War causation will prof- it from a close reading of Forgie's argu- To oversimplify atightly-woven anal- ysis, Forgie maintains that the people ‘who lived between 1820 and 1860 formed a post-heroic generation that had two main characteristics, First, they were ‘obsessed with the past because they had been imbued since childhood with patri- ‘otic veneration for the achievements of the Founding Fathers, All contemporary events were judged against the standard of the Revolution, and men saw as theit primary politcal obligation the preser- vation of the republican experiment and the Union the Fathers had created. Sec- fond, this generation transferred to the public realm familial emotions from the domestic sector. Americans thus viewed themselves as brothers in the house built by the Fathers as well as sons, and they believed that stressing such familial sentiment was necessary to preserve the Union. An unforeseen result ofthe inter- nalization of familial emotions in public life, however, was the simultaneous un- Teaching of unconscious childhood fan- tasies of patricide and fratricide. In con- crete terms, this meant ambitious men resented the Founding Fathers at the same time they honored them, because the Fathers’ grip on the public mind pre- vented the present generation from achieving a heroic stature of its own, Seemingly nothing they could do could equal in significance what the Revolu- tionary had done. Only by eliminating the memory ofthe Fathers, only by sym= bolically killing them, could they gain Istoric fame for themselves. This tension between veneration and resentment is best exemplitied in the career of Lincoln. To find an outlet for his ambition, Lincoln projected as early as 1838 that a tyrant would inevitably appear to threaten republican liberty and that therefore his generation would win its own fame by saving the Republic from the tyrant. After the Kansas- Nebraska Act, Lincola thus portrayed Stephen Douglas in terms of the scenario hhe had forecast. Whatever the facts, Douglas in Lincoln's eyes was a tyrant ‘ho conspired to subvert the Republic Restoring the Union to early republican Purity, not attacking slavery or South- fermers, thus became his main theme. Lin- coln of course hoped to save the Union Continued on page 49 . .. ADMIRAL FOOTE Continued from page 11 believe also in Me.” The congregation seemed pleased. ‘The next major battle, against Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, was another story. With his flotilla gathered again, Foote steamed upriver while Grant's huge force marched overland. The gunboats reached the outer works of the fort on the night of February 18, an evening that turned bitterly cold. Snow began to fall and persisted for much of the darkness. Dawa was little more than a lightening of the sky, enough to show the mercury standing at 10 degrees and two or more inches of snow on the riverbanks. Before Grant could arrange the troops to his satisfac tion, Brigadier General John McClernand, a politician- turned-soldier, disobeyed orders and began an assault on the Rebels’ outer works. Foote, hearing the noise of bat- dle, moved his gunboats upstream to divert pressure on Union troops and came immediately under heavy, pluag: ing fire from shore batteries high on the bank. In minutes Louisille, Carondelet, and St. Louis were riddled and, disabled. Foote himself, entering the wheel house of the St. Louis, was struck by shell splinters. Casualties were heavy on the Union craft and some of the boats yawed out of control, drifting downstream on the swollen current. If Foote had known of the confusion in the fort, where Brigadier Generals Gideon Pillow, John B, Floyd and Simon Bolivar Buckner were debating just who should surrender the bastion, she might have called for a desperate stand. Instead, the flotilla drew back; it was a defeat for the Union naval force. But on land things went much better, pethaps, it may be surmised, because of Foote's diversionary action, Floyd and Pillow, both afraid of being shot as traitors if captured, fled, leaving the surrender to Buckner. A colo nel whose name would soon become one of the most fa ‘mous of the Civil War, Na than Bedford Forrest, led his small cavalry troop away from the fort over a hidden path through the swamps and escaped to fight again, and again. It was Grant's victory and many Northerners over: looked Foote’s vital role in the drama. Hobbling around fon crutches, his foot hurting badly from the shell splinter wound, che commodore sent a report to the Navy Depart. ‘ment ascribing his diflicul: ties to the premature attack launched by McClernand, but he highly praised che soldiers who had fought through snow, tangled forest and bitter cold, He did not mention his own wound, As the smoke of battle cleared away, certain facts be: came clear. Grant had expected a long battle with heavy casualties. He was even ready to lay siege to Fort Donelson and wait out 2 surrender. Abler Confederate generals could easily have delayed or perhaps prevented a Union victory. What broke the poor spirits of those woefully incompetent Southern leaders was the terrifying, plung: ing shellfire from the gunboats’ cannon and mortars, Proof of this, if any was needed, came when Pillow tele graphed to the governor of Tennessee at the height of the conilict: “The Federal gunboats are destroying us, For God's sake send us all the help you can immediately.” Capcure of Forts Henry and Donelson unlocked one of the two main gates to the South. The other consisted of forts on the Mississippi below Cairo. A serpentine double bend in the river above New Madrid, Missouri, was the real cork in the bortle because an island, called Number 10, blocked it with hastily placed Rebel guns. Foote was eager to help pull che cork but his boats were not ready. He put much faith in a super gunboat named the Benton, which had the heaviest armor on the Mississippi at the time. Her iron plating made her almost impervious to shells but it also let her awkward and slow. But Foote, in his dogged Yankee manner, sensed that this readnaughe of the inland waters held the key to passing the many Confederate forts along the river and he wanted her ready ‘On March 14 he finally wired Major General Henry W. Halleck, in supreme command in the West, that he F E F H i ince Sam's FOOTE in Tennessee.” From a contemporary cartoon,‘was moving against the enemy forts. After preliminary bat- {des the Union flotilla reached Island Number 10 and found the river in flood, filled with floating debris, currents un: predictable, and che Benton as temperamental as an opera diva. Foote solved one prob: lem by lashing the big gun: boat to two other vessels with ‘more powerful engines. Then he steamed downstream and started a heavy bombard- ment of the fort. Southern guns replied vigorously, One shell rico cheted off the heavy armor plate of the Benton, found a ‘weak place in the sheathing, crashed into Foote’s cabin and, in his own words, “de posited itself in the drawer as quietly as possible.” “ Pifisncis con ntyaano, Gunboat USS St. Louis. Foote was wounded on this vessel in the attack against Fort Donelson, eer Admiral Henry Walke, once commander of the Carondelet. In the midst of that protracted seige the commodore received a message from his wife in New Haven, dis- closing that their second son, William, had died at the age of 13. Without leaving his post on the flagship Foote dicated a short answer: “May God support us. The shock scuns me in midst of fight. ‘Thy will be done to us and ‘where Foote organized his gunboat flotilla, In a later, longer mes- sage, he told his wife that God's will was all-wise, that he himself, although in much pain and danger, had no fear of death because he knew God would provide for his wife and children. Tt was a premonition of tragedy to ‘The battle between gun- boats and shore batteries went on for weeks. Neither side seemed able to claim a victory. Then Union forces tried 2 novel approach to breaking the impasse, not by = booming guns and explod- Gunboat USS Tyler of Foote’s river flotilla, drawn by Rear Admiral Henry Walk, ing shells, but by the sheer 6nl Gunboats attacking Island Number 10. drudgery of digging a canal around the serpentine bend. and bypassing and isolating Island Number 10. In the ‘meantime Foote’s injury failed to respond to the zough ‘medical treatment of the place and time. Cold compresses did litle to relieve the pain, As Major General John Pope's army dug the canal the flotilla kept up its bombardment, bbut Foote became fretful at the delay He commanded one last, dramatic action against the fort but he took no part in it personally. With Pope, vic- tor at New Madrid, on the west, and wrong, side of the Mississippi, ie was decided co run the gantlet past the fort to supply him with transports, so he could move his 15,000 men in behind the Confederate defenses. ‘A few nights later, in the midst ofa violent thunder- storm, the Carondelet, flying Flag Officer Henry Walke’s pennant, churned south to run by the island's batteries, She was protected with railroad ties, anchor chains laid over vulnerable spots and an Linch hawser tied around and around her pilot house. And as added insurance against being holed by shells, a coal barge loaded with baled hay, timber and coal was lashed to the port side, the one that would face the island’s guns. With the pilot, an old riverboat captain, standing completely exposed on the bow to direct the wheelman, = iti = ce < eet Oo Ken ‘Map of Foote’s and Pope's operations against Island Number 10. « the gunboat made the run downstream. Whenever a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky illuminating the scene, the Confederate gunners lobbed a few shells at the pass ing vessel but in such a stygian night, chey had little luck. ‘The Carondelet survived in part because it hugged the island's shore and the Rebel gunners could not depress their guns far enough to hit her. The next night the Pitts: burg made the same daring run in another thunder storm, reaching New Madrid unharmed The Confederate defenders of the fort had no re- course now bur to retreat as the two gunboats, and others that might follow, could serve as transports and move Pope’s men to the east bank of the Mississippi behind them, This was, technically, Foote's last active engagement with che enemy. The wound in his foot failed to respond to the crude medical trearment, prompting him to start wondering in one letter whether it would be better to re sign to save his life or to die in harness. A century later, with antibiotics and ocher medicines, the wound would probably have healed within weeks. As it turned out Foote had to give in because of pain and the drain on his strength. He requested transfer to inactive duty and it wwas granted reluctantly by the navy, He was crushed by this misfortune. As his pennant was lowered on the Benton, the flag officer, sitting on the deck of a transport alongside, shielded his face with a palmetto leaf fan so no one could see the tears coursing For further reading, Allan Keller, a veteran contributor to WTI, somewhat bashfully suggests his own monograph, “Andrew Hull Foote: Cunboat Commodore,” (published by the Connecticut Civil War Centennial Commission), or The Life of Admiral Foote (1874), by JM. Hoppin, down his grizaled bewhiskered face. A few did, though, and they wept for him. Promoted to rear admiral, he was later named Com: mander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, But before he could buy a new uniform two of his daughters ied within a fortnight of each other. Now he had lost three children in less than half a year. And as ifthe trage- dies were not enough to shake his resolve, doctors ex: amined him and told him he had Bright's Disease; kidney failure and coma were imminent Nothing could stop him from crying to follow his orders. Courageously he left New Haven for New York to pick up his new ship. He cook a room in the old Astor House Hotel on lower Broadway and while he fretted over the delay in the ship's arrival, his last illness struck. He lapsed into a coma and died on the evening of Friday, June 26, 1868. A physician standing at the bedside with the admiral’s brother said that Foote “had worn himself ‘The old Astor House Hotel, where Foote returned to die, June