The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-12-27
Hon. HENRY c. DrMse, of Connecticut, de

Hon. HENRY c. DEM1NG, of Connecticut, de-
lvered lecture last evening under the au-
spices of the Portland Army and Navy Union,
which was fitting supplement to the delight
full account which Gov. Chamberlain gave of
the surrender of Lee few weeks since. The
pa. sage of the forts below New Orleans was
the most brilliant achievement of the naval
service of the United States during the late
war, and ON this account its delineation by an
eye witness is fit companion piece to the
mastery description by our brave Chief Mag
istrate of the military movements which Gull
minated in the final triumph of our arms.
Mr.. Deming filled his description of the
combat below New Orleans with all the terrors
which in an unsurpassed degree characterized
that most brilliant exploit. Poor "drones of
peace" and SUNDAY 'itizens' to whom fate
denied any part in the glorious conflicts which
crowned with unfiding laurels all who shared
their trials and triumphs, for the first time, per-
chance, realized the dangers and the horrors
which attend great battle. Commanding
with sketch of he lazy blockading fleet that
guarded the mouths of the Mississippi before
the arrival of Farragut, Mr.. Deming at once
and his large audience, by the touches of delil
cate humor which he threw into his account of
the vessels that lay there,
--e! GAS idle as painted slip
Upon painted ocean, -a
Secretary Welles, too, "stroking his long white
beard" and dreaming hazy day-dreams, while
all the world besides was in turmoil of excite
ment, was presented in as comical a manner
as could be anywhere outside of Thomas Nast's
caricatures. An epic may well have its harsh
ness relieved by the buffoonery of one of its
characters, and though the gravity of our ven-
cradle Secretary of the Navy might seem to
disqualfy him for the service, yet his calm
eyed placidity and infinite self-content are
made as effective in the nayalepic of the "Pas-
sage of the Forts" as the graye-digger's dis
course amid the sombre scenes of Hamlet.
The account given of the formidable and in
gtnious defences which rebel skill had contriv-
ed for the protection of the Crescent City,
would seem almost to justify the dictuns of the
English Parliamentary orator of 1862, who said:
"Thc commander who attacks Notifications
with wooden vessels is a fool, and he who sends
him there is villain" Tits true enough. that
had Farragut failed ia the passage of the forts
the attempt would have consigned him to the
mad-house. 1t was not till Porter had for days
showered upon the Rebel works his iron hail
of bombshells in vain, that it was determined
to run the gauntlet, in the course of which
wooden vessels must pass for distance of over
three miles in range of the most destructive
ordnance known to modern warfare. Of that
engagement on the night of the twenty
fourth of April, 1862, Mr. Deming gives
a more vivid description than we remember to
have seen in any of the publications in which
its history is recounted. The nearer almost
believe himself spectator of the scene which
was as near an approximation of paudemonium
let loose as any that this century has seen.
He sees stern old Farragut in the fore-top of
the Hartford, directing the battle; he witnesses
the appalling desc mt of fre-ships and the at
tack of iercely-butting iron-clad rams, pierre
ing through the sides of our vessels with
ubiquitous snout;" he hears Porter's mortars
tear the concave of heaven with their indie
scribable roar, and sees the Verona 90 down
with her guns in action till her very decks are
flooded; he is made to follow the BROOKLYN on
her perilous course up the rapid current swept
by deadly missiles and with eight dead bodies
lying on her decks and thrice as MANY more
under the surgeons knife;-all this and inf
nitely more he thinks he sees and hears as he
is hurried along through the tumult. And