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another of these savage conflicts, and to die by violence in the

streets.

We may ask, with Dr. McCormick's friend, "Were such things common in the 'cotton kingdom ?" The doctor's answer will suffice: "Not to this extent;" but scenes like these were common; and the spirits, the habits, the cast of character, which gave rise to them, were all but universal. What, then, must New Orleans have been, the chief city of that kingdom, with a police subject to the city government, the city government controlled by "Thugs," and the "Thugs" managed by the Spoiler, in alliance with the moneychanger?

We return to the morning of April 24th, on which the Union fleet ran past the forts.

Never before were the people of New Orleans so confident of a victorious defense, as when they r ad in the newspapers of that morning the brief report of Generɛ Duncan, touching the twentyfive thousand ineffectual shells.lways the city had implicitly relied on its defenses; but, after six days of vain bombardment, the confidence of the people was such that news from below had ceased to be very interesting, and every ne went about his business as though nothing unusual was going

n.

At half-past nine in the morning late risers still dawdling over their coffee and Delta, the bell of me of the churches, which had been designated as the alarm bell, struck the concerted signal of alarm-twelve strokes four times r peated. It was the well-known summons for all armed bodies to assemble at their head-quarters There was a wild rush to the news aper bulletin-boards. "IT IS REPORTED THAT TWO OF THE ENEMY'S GUN-BOATS HAVE SUCCEEDED IN PASSING THE FORTS

19

vires before Captain Farragut ve New Orleans a dismal pre

This was all that came over the cut them; but it was enough to monition of the coming catastrop]. The troops flew to their re spective rendezvous. The city was population was in the streets all besieged, but nothing more could were but twenty-eight hundred Co General Lovell, their commander, day before, and was now galloping riding a steeplechase. The militi

i

filled with rumors. The whole ay. The bulletin-boards were e extracted from them. There federate troops in the city; and ad gone down to the forts the back along the levee like a man however, were numerous; con.

spicuous among them the European Brigade, composed of French, English and Spanish battalions. A fine regiment of free colored men was on duty also. But, in the absence of the general, and the uncertainty of the intelligence, nothing was done or could be done, but assemble and wait, and increase the general alarm by the spectacle of masses of troops.

The newspapers of the afternoon could add nothing to the intelligence of the morning. But, at half-past two, General Lovell arrived, bringing news that the Union fleet had passed the forts, destroyed the Confederate gun-boats, and was approaching the city. Then the panic set in. Stores were hastily closed, and inany were abandoned without closing. People left their houses forgetting to shut the front-door, and ran about the streets without apparent object. There was a fearful beating of drums, and a running together of soldiers. Women were seen bonnetless, with pistol in each hand, crying: "Burn the city. Never mind us. Burn the city." Officers rode about impressing carts and drays to remove the cotton from store-houses to the levee for 'burning. Four millions of specie were carted from the banks to the railroad stations, and sent out of the city. The consulates were filled with people, bringing their valuables to be stored under the protection of foreign flags. Traitor Twiggs made haste to fly, leaving his swords to the care of a young lady-the swords voted him by Congress and legislature for services in Mexico. Other conspicuous traitors followed his prudent example. The authorities, Confederate and municipal, were at their wit's end. Shall the troops remain and defend the city, or join the army of Beauregard at Corinth? It was concluded to join Beauregard; at least to get out of the city, beyond the guns of the fleet, and so save the city from bombardment. Some thousands of the militia, it appears, left with the twenty-eight hundred Confederate troops, choking the avenues of escape with multitudinous vehicles. Other thousands remained, doffing their uniforms, exchanging garments even with negroes, and returned to their homes. The regiment of free colored men would not leave the city -a fact which was remembered, some months later, to their ad vantage.

At such a time could the Thugs be inactive? To keep them in check, to save the city from conflagration and plunder, the mayor called upon the European brigade, and placed the city under their

charge. They accepted the duty, repressed the tumult, and prevented the destruction of the town, threatened alike by frenzied women and spoliating rowdies.

So passed the afternoon of Thursday, April 24th. I indicate only the leading features of the scene. The reader must imagine the rest, if he can. Only those who have seen a large city suddenly driven mad with apprehension and rage, can form an adequate conception of the confusion, the hurry, the bewilderment, the terror, the fury, that prevailed. Such denunciations of Duncan, of the governor of the state, of the general in command! Such maledic tions upon the Yankees! Such a strife between those who wished New Orleans to be another Moscow, and those who pleaded for the homes of fifty thousand women and children! Such a hunting down of the few Union men and women, who dared to display their exultation! Such a threatening of instant lamp-post, or swifter pistol bullet, to any who should so much as look at a Yankee without a scowl! Woe, woe, to the man who should give them the slightest semblance of aid or sympathy! Hail, yellow fever! once the dreaded scourge of New Orleans; more welcome now than the breezes of October after a summer of desolation! Come, Destroyer; come, and blast these hated foes of a sublime southern chivalry! Come, though we also perish!

During the evening of Thursday, before it was known whether the batteries at Chalmette could retard the upward progress of the fleet, the famous burning of cotton and ships began: fifteen thousand bales of cotton on the levee; twelve or fifteen cotton ships, in the river; fifteen or twenty river steamboats; an unfinished ram of great magnitude; the dry-docks; vast heaps of coal; vaster stores of steamboat wood; miles of steamboat wood; ship timber; board yards; whatever was supposed to be of use to Yankees; all was set on fire, and the heavens were black with smoke. Hogsheads of sugar and barrels of molasses were stove in by hundreds Parts of the levee ran molasses. Thousands of negroes and poor white people were carrying off the sugar in aprons, pails, and baskets. And, as if this were not enough, the valiant governor of Louisiana fled away up the river in the swiftest steamboat he could find, spreading alarm as he went, and issuing proclamations, calling on the planters to burn every bale of cotton in the state which the ruthless invaders could reach.

"If," said he, "you are resolved to be free; if you are worthy of the heroic blood that has come down to you through hallowed generations; if you have fixed your undimmed eyes upon the brightness that is spread out before you and your children, and are determined to shake away for ever all political association with the venal hordes that now gather like a pestilence about your fair country; now, my fellow-citizens, is the time to strike." He meant strike a light; for he continues thus: "One sparkling, living torch of fire, for one hour, in manly action upon each other's plantation, and the eternal seal of southern independence is fired and fixed in the great heart of the world."

This sublime effusion had its effect, supported as it was by the presence of the Union fleet in the sacred river. Hence, as we are officially informed, two hundred and fifty thousand bales of cotton were consumed, during the next few days, in a region already im. poverished by the war. Not a pound of this cotton was in danger of seizure; it was safer after the fall of the city than before.

About twelve o'clock, the fleet hove in sight of assembled New Orleans. The seven miles of crescent levee were one living fringe of human beings, who looked upon the coming ships with inexpressible sorrow, shame, and anger. Again the cry arose, burn the city; a cry that might have been obeyed but for the known presence and determination of the European brigade. The people were given over to a strong delusion, the result of two generations of De Bow falsehood and Calhoun heresy. That fleet, if they had but known it, was Deliverance, not Subjugation; it was to end, not begin, the reign of terror and of wrong. The time will come when New Orleans will know this; when the anniversary of this day will be celebrated with thankfulness and joy, and statues of Farragut and Butler will adorn the public places of the city. But before that time comes, what years of wise and heroic labor! The fleet drew near and cast anchor in the stream, the crowd looking on, some in sullen silence, many uttering yells of execration, a few se cretly rejoicing, all deeply moved.

CHAPTER XV.

NEW ORLEANS WILL NOT SURRENDER.

CAPTAIN FARRAGUT's fleet emerged from the hurly-burly of the fight on the morning of the 24th, into a beautiful and tranquil scene. Soon after leaving quarantine, the sugar plantations, with their villas girdled with pleasant verandas, and surrounded with trees, each with its village of negro huts near by, appeared on both sides of the river. The canes were a foot high, and of the brightest April green, rendered more vivid by the background of forest a mile from the river. Except that a white flag or rag was hung from many of the houses, and, in some instances, a torn and faded American flag, a relic of better times, there was little to remind the voyagers that they were in an enemy's country. Here and there a white man was seen waving a Union flag; and occasionally a gesture of defiance or contempt was discerned. The negroes who were working in the fields in great numbers-in gangs of fifty, a hundred, two hundred-these alone gave an unmistakable welcome to the ships. They would come running down to the levee in crowds, hoe in hand, and toss their battered old hats into the air, and shout, sing and caper in their wild picturesque fashion. Other gangs, held under stronger control, kept on their work without so much as looking at the passing vessels, unless it might be that one or two of them, watching their chance, would wave a hand or hat, and straight to hoe again..

None of those batteries with which the river was said to be "lined," were discovered. At three o'clock the ships were off Point la Hache, which had been reported to be impassably fortified. No guns were there. On the contrary, on a plantation near by thirty plows were going, and two hundred negroes came to the shore in the highest glee, to greet the ships. "Hurrah for Abraham,” cried one. At eight o'clock in the evening, at a point eighteen miles below the city, the fleet came to anchor for the night. The city was not more than half that distance in a straight line, and consequently, the prodigious volumes of smoke from the burning cotton were

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