Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/72

62 but the President of the United States acknowledged his right under the rules of war to act as he did, and he was soon after exchanged. The Confederate naval authorities sustained his course at New Orleans, and not long after his exchange he was made a flag-officer and placed in command of the James river squadron. Thus ended the battle of New Orleans. We have seen that the authorities at Richmond failed to provide means to obstruct the Mississippi river, or to organize a proper naval force there.

At the time New Orleans fell there were three small Confederate gunboats on Lake Ponchartrain, commanded by Lieutenants Poindexter, Gwathmey and Winder. These officers burned their vessels, first sending the guns up to Port Hudson, where they were afterward of much service. In the general panic attending the appearance of Farragut's fleet, the fine ironclad Mississippi was burned. Lieut. C. W. Read says (Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. I): "There was no real effort made to get that vessel up the river. Two river steamboats, poorly commanded and miserably handled, made a show of trying to tow the ironclad. They humbugged a few minutes and then set her on fire. The assertion that the Mississippi could not have been towed up the river is perfectly absurd. The largo, flat-bottomed, square-ended floating battery built at New Orleans was easily towed up to Columbus."

The loss in the United States fleet in passing the forts and vessels at New Orleans was 37 killed and 147 wounded; total, 184. We have no record of the Confederate loss.