The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1881-05-07
FARRAGUT.
of bars,

In many respects the capture Of Ne" Or
leans by Admiral Farragut was the most as,
tonlshing achievement recorded in naval his
tory There Is no other instance on record
where even one wooden ship let alone a whoie
fleet, successfully passed such an iron tempest
as was hurled upon Farragut from forts Jack
son and ST, Philip. AS London paper re-
marked at the time, no defenccs OF the Thames
below London are stronger, yet an attempt OF
wooden Acet of an enemy to sail up the
Thames to London would have been regarded
as sheer madness,
The event occurred nineteen years ago last
Sunday, and ITS anniversary was tittingly OBJ
served at Washington next day by unveil-
ing, with elaborate ceremonies, statue IN
honor of the hero of New Orleans and Mobile
the greatest OF American sailors.
The New York Sun accompanies its &C
count of the memorial services at Washington
with the following fitting "reminiscences;
Spring Of the year 1862 was fortunate for
the Union arms The gloomy first year OF the
war was gone, and no suspicion had yet arisen
of the series of disasters which were to befall
the Ptninsular campaign OF the Army OF the
Potomac. The campaigning season had opeh'
ed by averting two enormous disasters, either
OF them capable of running the cause OF the
Union and both evaded by what now appears,
when viewed IN the perspective Of years, eX.
I,raordinary good fortune. On the oth day Of
March the armored ship Merrimac had de-
s,royed the Cumberland and Congress, and
had assumed the mastery of Hampton Roads
but the Opportune arrival, at O'Clock that
night, of the little Monitor from New York,
turned the scale, saving the Union squadron,
and perhaps Fort Monroe-possibly even New
York harbor itself A month later smllar
stroke of opportune fortune occurred at Pitts
burg Landing, where the disaster to Grants
forces on April G. was by the arrival of Buells
army on the field, turned to a repulse OF the
assailants
Unlike the two preceding events Of tina,
memorable spring, FarragutS achievement
was in all its parts a calculated product 1t
demonstrated by splendid example, the vast
advantage which the Union cause enjoyed IN
It's navy. And, cheering as Its tidngs were IN
the camps of our soldiers, they were not less
potent in the cabinets of statesmen. Farra-
CUTS victory came at a moment when France
and England were seriously pondcring the
possibility and ezpcdiency of Intervention
between North and South. Shiloh Church,
though the scene OF bloodiess engagement
ever, up to that time, delivered on the Amcrf
can continent, had no military significance to
Paris and London-they had never heard of il
But New Orleans was tJ%sflllahhd Hiding the en-.
trance of the Mississippi, was the plainesi
feature of The war; and It's capture by Farra.
gut smote upon the minds Of European OBJ
servers with decisive force.
There were technical lessons, too, in the
naval battle of New Orleans that made its
fame worldwide. II had been tho custom OF
foreign military critics to consider the land
battles delivered thus far IN the American
war AZ the conflicts of armed mobs, contain
ing nothing worthy of attention as tactical
study. But the passage Of tho Mississippi,
forts became standard fact in naval science ;
and thenceforth the inability Of fixed forts to
prevent the passage of any unobstructed and
fully navlgable stream by war vessels propell,
ed by steam was not disputed