The Shining Sea (47 page)

Both sides were seizing American shipping. Peruvian royalists routinely attacked vessels flying the Stars and Stripes, but so too did Chilean privateers, turned pirates. Downes was ordered to put a stop to the seizures, but maintaining neutral rights among warring countries was not easy. He also had to be careful of Cochrane trying to advance British interests. In these confusing circumstances Downes managed to remain strictly neutral and at the same time save a number of American ships and seamen, acquitting himself exceptionally well.

Not long after returning home, he had to watch helplessly in 1825 as his friend David Porter threw away his career. Downes was appointed to serve on the court-martial that convicted Porter. There was little Downes could do for him, however. The court was stacked with Porter's enemies. Nonetheless, Downes remained close friends with him and continued to loan him money. Porter always lived in high style, far beyond his means. The sums were substantial—$4,500 on one occasion and $1,500 on another.

The next important assignment for Downes was command of the Mediterranean squadron. He sailed for Gibraltar in the USS
Java
in 1828 and remained until 1830. His orders were to protect American commerce. Since the departure of Decatur and Bainbridge in 1815 the United States had kept a force in the Mediterranean to guarantee the peace, beginning a long tradition. America has had a fleet there ever since.

After his stint in the Mediterranean, Downes was soon appointed skipper of the 44-gun, 500-man heavy frigate
Potomac.
On June 27, 1831, he
received orders to transport the new American ambassador, Martin Van Buren, to England, after which Downes was to proceed to the Pacific by way of the Cape of Good Hope and assume command “of the naval forces on that station,” headquartered in Valparaiso. The sloop of war
Falmouth
and the schooner
Dolphin
were to accompany him.

President Andrew Jackson changed his orders on August 9, 1831, however. He sent Downes directly to Sumatra in the East Indies via the Cape of Good Hope to put a stop to the attacks of Malay pirates on American shipping engaged in the lucrative pepper trade. Jackson and the country had been stirred up by an attack in February 1831 that Malay pirates made on the American merchant ship
Friendship
out of Salem, Massachusetts. The first officer and two seamen were killed while the skipper, Charles Endicott, and the rest of the crew were ashore. Endicott managed to reclaim his ship and sail back to Salem, where community leaders demanded that President Jackson do something.

Responding to these calls and his own outrage, Jackson ordered Downes to proceed directly to Sumatra, and after ascertaining what had happened, obtain “prompt redress” so that
“the guilty perpetrators [are] made to feel that the flag of the Union is not to be insulted with impunity.”

After a long, but uneventful trip, Downes arrived off the village of Quallah Battoo on February 5, 1832. During the voyage he trained 250 of his men on the
Potomac
as an amphibious force, in case that was necessary, much as Captain Porter had done on the
Essex
. Soon after Downes arrived, he determined that ascertaining exactly what had happened would be impossible, as would negotiating with the obviously hostile rajahs.

He decided instead to attack and bombarded Quallah Battoo. His well-trained landing force of sailors and marines assaulted four forts, capturing them after a two-and-a-half-hour battle in which as many as a hundred or more natives were killed and two Americans. When Downes was through, the rajahs promised never to attack American merchantmen again—a promise that was kept only briefly.

With his mission complete, Downes sailed across the Pacific, stopping among other places at Honolulu before traveling to Valparaiso. There he learned that his attack on Quallah Battoo had created a political brouhaha in Washington. Jackson's political enemies, while not criticizing Downes
and his heroic men, faulted the president for initiating a conflict without Congressional approval. Responding to the loud criticism, Navy Secretary Levi Woodbury wrote a private letter to Downes complaining of his aggressive tactics. Downes was surprised. He felt that he had scrupulously adhered to his orders. When he arrived home in May 1834, after circumnavigating the globe, the criticism from Jackson's opponents had subsided, and the president gave the popular commodore his full support.

Downes was gratified, and he soon retired from active sea duty, having spent the greater part of a thirty-four-year career at sea. From 1835 to 1842 and then again, from 1849 to 1852, he served as commandant of the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, another choice assignment for someone of his age. In between those commands, he was Boston's port captain. And from 1852 to 1853 he was a lighthouse inspector. Downes died in Charlestown on August 11, 1854, at the age of seventy, still one of the Navy's most respected figures.

D
AVID
F
ARRAGUT LOVED THE NAVY EVERY BIT AS MUCH AS
John Downes. He remained in the service his entire career. During the years following the War of 1812, his devotion was often tested, but no matter how trying, he persevered. Had it not been for the Civil War, however, Farragut would undoubtedly have ended his career as an obscure captain.

During the Civil War, he became a national hero, but that was a long time after he returned home on parole in
Essex Junior
. After being formally exchanged and released from parole in November 1814, he was assigned to the new 74-gun
Independence
, Commodore William Bainbridge's flagship. In March 1815 Farragut sailed to the Mediterranean with Bainbridge, who was assuming command from Decatur. Much to Bainbridge's chagrin, when he arrived he discovered that Decatur had already subdued the Barbary pirate states. Bainbridge wanted that honor for himself. There was nothing left for him to do, however, and he returned home, leaving part of his squadron in the Mediterranean to maintain a continuing American presence.

The following spring, Midshipman Farragut was assigned to the 74-gun
Washington
for three years (1816–1819). Her skipper, Captain John O. Creighton, made an indelible impression on him. Creighton, it turned
out, was a sadistic martinet. Farragut had never seen anything like him in the service, or even thought there could be such a captain in the American navy. It was not uncommon, Farragut reported, for the officer of the deck on the
Washington
to call up the whole watch and give them two or three dozen lashes apiece for the real or imagined fault of one man, or sometimes for a mere accident. At times, for some minor infraction, hands were forced to wait eight or ten hours for their meals. On one occasion, Farragut recalled, the entire crew was kept on deck all night for several nights in succession. Farragut thought Creighton was the worse disciplinarian in the navy and a disgrace to the service. The contrast with Porter and all the other officers Farragut had served under was striking. He vowed never to resort to Creighton's methods, and he never did.

During 1818, while serving in the Mediterranean, Farragut was able to spend nine happy months with Charles Folsom, the American consul in Tunis, where he studied English literature, French, Italian, and some Arabic. He had a gift for languages and later learned Spanish as well. Like David Porter, Farragut believed in constantly improving his mind.

In the fall of 1819, Farragut was appointed acting lieutenant aboard the brig
Shark
, after which he returned home, landing in November 1820. Farragut's career then proceeded slowly. He was promoted to lieutenant in January 1825, but was not made commander until 1841. He did not attain the rank of captain until 1855. He probably would have retired without achieving any fame were it not for the Civil War.

When the war started, Farragut was faced with the most important decision of his life—which side he would fight on. He was a southerner, born in Tennessee, and he had lived in Norfolk, Virginia, most of his adult life, but he was adamantly opposed to secession and said so publicly. During the difficult winter of 1860–1861, he chose nation over state. He never hesitated. On December 20, 1860, when South Carolina seceded from the Union, followed by Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas on February 1, 1861, creating the Confederate States of America, Farragut did not approve. He hoped that Virginia would not follow suit, but when she did on April 17, 1861, he and his family left Norfolk and moved to Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. He traveled the day after the vote to secede.

Not only did he leave the South, but he intended to fight to preserve the Union, and fight he did, becoming one of the greatest heroes in American history. Initially suspect because of his southern birth and longtime residence in Virginia, he did not receive orders until the very end of 1861, when he was given command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron.
Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles said of Farragut that he had “innate fearless morale courage.” Indeed he had.

Farragut's orders directed him to blockade the Gulf Coast from St. Andrews Bay off Panama City to the mouth of the Rio Grande, and to capture New Orleans. President Abraham Lincoln planned to blockade the Confederate States and split them by gaining complete control of the Mississippi River. Seizing New Orleans was essential.

On February 2, 1862, Farragut left Hampton Roads in his flagship, the USS
Hartford,
and sailed south, determined to capture New Orleans as quickly as possible. He knew it would be difficult, but he was confident that he could take it, and he did not wait long. On April 24, 1862, after cutting a chain-and-hulk barrier strung across the Mississippi, he led a flotilla past strongly defended Forts St. Stephen and Jackson—the strong points guarding the southern approaches to the city—through heavy fire, and soon stood off lightly defended New Orleans. A contingent of Farragut's marines, led by Captain Theodorus Bailey, then marched without opposition to the city's custom house and raised the American flag. New Orleans was in Union hands. President Lincoln and the Congress were overjoyed, and to honor Farragut they created for the first time in the nation's history the rank of rear admiral, which they awarded him on July 16, 1862.

Gaining control of the rest of the Mississippi was not as easy. The Confederates put up a desperate fight. Vicksburg and Port Hudson were the keys, and the Union attacked them from the north and the south, by land as well as water. Farragut was in the thick of the fight with David Dixon Porter, David Porter's son, and General Ulysses S. Grant. They finally forced the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, and Port Hudson on July 9, cutting the Confederacy in two.

Farragut distinguished himself again in the battle for Mobile Bay in 1864, the last Confederate port remaining open on the Gulf of Mexico.
The bay was stoutly defended. Farragut had a hard time getting in and silencing the three forts defending it, as well as the Confederate ships guarding it, particularly the ironclad
Tennessee
. He persisted, however, as he always did, and won a great victory on August 5, 1864, shutting the port, although the city of Mobile, which was inaccessible to Farragut's ships, remained in Confederate hands until the end of the war.

During the battle for Mobile, Confederate mines (known as torpedoes) were a particular problem, and for a time stymied the Union advance, but Farragut is said to have uttered the famous order, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,” which proved to be a key in moving his fleet forward to victory. Whether he said those exact words, he certainly shouted something similar, and his monumental determination to prevail carried the day. Winning the battle for Mobile Bay was the high point of Farragut's career. It was
“one of the hardest victories of my life,” he wrote, “and the most desperate battle I ever fought since the days of the old
Essex
.” To honor him, Congress created the new rank of vice admiral, and President Lincoln awarded it to him on December 21, 1864.

Farragut's victory at Mobile, coupled with Sherman's in Atlanta, counteracted a wave of defeatism spreading in the North. It contributed to Lincoln's reelection and played an important part in winning the war, all of which made Farragut a greater hero than ever.

He remained in the navy after the war. The new rank of admiral was created for him. He was awarded it on July 25, 1866, and given command of the European Squadron from 1867 to 1868. He died on August 14, 1870, at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

J
AMES
H
ILLYAR
'
S SUBSEQUENT CAREER WAS ALSO MARKED BY
uninterrupted success, although he never achieved the prominence of David Farragut. When he arrived home from South America on November 18, 1814, he was greeted as a hero. His accomplishments in the Pacific were impressive. He had secured British control of the mouth of the Columbia River and furthered Britain's ambition to acquire the entire Oregon Territory, a significant accomplishment in itself. But he accomplished much more. He arranged a peace between Chile and Peru that secured Spanish rule in both countries, albeit temporarily—a seemingly impossible task. And he had captured the
Essex
, restoring the dominance of
Britain's commerce and whaling in the eastern Pacific. The Prince Regent (George III's son who was fulfilling the duties of Monarch for his incapacitated father) and the Admiralty, not to mention Parliament and the public, were loud in their applause.

Although an accomplished fighter, Hillyar was also extraordinarily generous to his opponents. David Porter and his surviving men were able to come home and receive the acclaim of the president and their countrymen only because of the thoughtfulness of Captain Hillyar. After he had performed his grim task of defeating the
Essex
, he did everything he could to ease the burdens of the
Essex
men and their captain. His lack of rancor, his sense that he was performing a distasteful duty for his country and had no personal animosity toward his foe, was symptomatic of the man. He was in every respect a professional.