Life of Andrew Hull Foote: Rear-admiral United States Navy

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Preface

The life which has been imperfectly set forth in these pages deserves to be remembered as that of one who labored and accomplished much for his country; and as a life in itself pure, manly, and heroic. It followed the law of right even when leading to sharp sacrifices and death. It was one of those lives that by the simple force of character raises the spirit of its times to a higher moral level of manhood.

Though encountering great disappointments and trials, and not permitted to realize what would appear to be his just anticipations, the career of Admiral Foote may be still regarded in many respects as a brilliant one. He did many notable and noble things. He was, in fact, a great naval commander, of the same stamp — though perhaps, from the lack of opportunities, not so famous — as Decatur, Hull, Lawrence, McDonough, and Perry.

In this biography I have not indulged in highly wrought descriptions of military scenes and events, but with great pains have endeavored to keep on the exact level of truth, carefully verifying every fact and statement by all the authorities at my command, so that (though the hope may be a vain one) this volume might form a slight contribution to. the material of future history, especially the history of the late war in one of its most peculiar and important pKases.

I have desired, above all, to make a book that would be read with interest by officers and seamen in the Navy; in order that young men in that service might be led to emulate his example, who died for his country as truly as if he vi Preface.

had fallen in battle on the deck of his gan-boat I woald wish them to see that what the hero of Fort Henry and the Mi^issippi accomplished was no accident of fortune, but was prepared for in the earlier stages of a life devoted to the highest aims. His example, as well as his reputation, belong especially to the Kavy. He was a genuine American sailor ; and we can not do thorough justice to him unless we view him in this light. His qualities of mind and temperament ^ have the smack of the salt sea — the free play and rough force of old ocean. He was a true child of the sea — of a fluent spirit, moved by powerful impulses, loving honor, bold and affectionate.

Yet he was more than this. To the simple sailor-spirit of indomitable loyalty to duty was added a religious enthusiasm that fitted him to contend with foes more formidable than winds or waves. Here lay tlie real strength of his character.

I acknowledge with gratitude the good oflBces of the Hon. Gideon Welles,* for valuable letters placed at my disposal; and also the kindness of the venerable Eear-Admiral Joseph Smith, in the aid rendered by him in obtaining for me access to the files and records of the Navy Department at Washington.

The spirited sketches of actions on the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Mississippi rivers, from which the engravings in this work were made, were drawn expressly for the book by the gallant Eear-Admiral H. Walke, and lend the authority ot an eye-wdtness and of a principal actor in those scenes to the excellent drawings themselves. To other members of the Navy, and to the Hon. John A. Foote and George A. Jarvis, Esq., who have given me their kind counsel and assistance, I would also return thanks.

J. M. H.

New Haven, July^ 1874.

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CHAPTER I. Page Birth, Family, and Early Days. 13

CHAPTER IL First Cruises and Sea-life 25

CHAPTER HL

Cruise of the John Adams 88

CHAPTER IV.

Cruise of the John Adams — continued 48

CHAPTER V.

Naval Asylum at Philadelphia. — Cruise of the Cumberland, — Naval Academy at Boston 54

CHAPTER VI.

Cruise of the Pem/ on the African Coast 66

CHAPTER VIL

Cruise of the Perry— continued 75

CHAPTER Vm.

Private Journal on the Perry 89

CHAPTER IX.

Literary Labors 97 viii Contents.

CHAPTER X. Page

Cruise of the PortsmotUh and Taking of the " Barrier Forts " . 106

CHAPTER XL

Remarks on the Taking of the " Barrier Forts." — Cruise of the PortsmoiUh concluded 122

CHAPTER XIL

Correspondence. — Brooklyn Navy Yard. — Beginnings of Strife 136

CHAPTER XHL

Appointment to Command of Naval Operations at the West. —The Western Flotilla 154

CHAPTER XIV.

First Operations of "Foote's Flotilla."— The Action at Lucas's Bend, and Reconnoitring Expeditions 169

CHAPTER XV.

Action at Eddy ville. — Documents respecting the Flotilla. — Defective Guns. — Battle of Belmont. — CoiTespondence. . . 177

CHAPTER XVI.

Preparations for Attacking Fort Henry. — ^The Assault and Capture 190

CHAPTER XVn.

Results of the Capture of Fort Henry. — ^Further Movements of Gun-boats. — ^Preaching at Cairo 207

CHAPTER XVHL

The Share taken by "Foote's Flotilla" in the Siege of Fort Donelson. — ^He is Wounded. — Correspondence 220

Contents. ix

CHAPTER XIX. Page

Capture of Clarksville. — Foote's Proclamation. — Not permitted to take Nashville. — ^Armed Reconnoissance down the Mississippi. — Flag of Truce. — Evacuation of Columbus. 233

CHAPTER XX.

The Mississippi as the Scene of Operations. — General Pope's Movements at New Madrid. — Characteristic Order. — Correspondence 253

CHAPTER XXI.

Investment and Bombardment of Island No. Ten. — Death , of Son. — Cutting Canal across Peninsula 264

CHAPTER XXIL Capture of Island No. Ten 282

CHAPTER XXm.

Operations of Fleet at Fort Pillow. — Ill-Health and giving up of Active Command 294

CHAPTER XXIV.

Correspondence at Cleveland. — Detached from Command of Western Flotilla 814

CHAPTER XXV.

Correspondence. — ^Return to the East. — ^Vote of Thanks by Congress 331

CHAPTER XXVL

Appointed Chief of Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting. — Speeches and Lettei-s at Enlistment Meetings. — Correspondence. — Appointed Rear-Admiral 344

X Contents.

CHAPTER XXVIL Page

CoDgratuIations and Correspondence. — Sword Presentation at Brooklyn 355

CHAPTER XXVHL

Loss of Children. — Correspondence at Washington. — Appointment to Command of South Atlantic Squadron.—-' Last Days and Death 364

CHAPTER XXIX.

Honors to the Memory of Admiral Foote. — Funeral Obsequies. 879

CHAPTER XXX.

Conclnding Words and Letters of Friends 384

ILLUSTRATIONS.

The (3k>yEBN0B Foote House, Cheshibe, Conn Faces p. 20

St. Paul de LoAin>A. " 80

The Babbieb Fobts p. 114

The " Benton" p. 166

Scene of Opebationb at the West Faces p. 170

Battle OF Belmont " 186

Map of Pobt Henbt p. 200

Battle of Pobt Henby Faces p. 201

Map of Fobt Donelson p. 222

Battle of Pobt Donelson Paces p. 228

Map of Pobt Columbus p. 242

Scene of Opebationb abound Island No. Ten p. 267

Bombabdment of Island No. Ten. Faces p. 268

The " Cabondelet " Passing Battebies " 285

Pobt Pillow " 311

THE LIFE OF

REAR-ADMIRAL

ANDREW HULL FOOTE, U.S.N.

CHAPTER L

Andrew Hull Foote was bom in what is known as the "Buddington House," on the corner of Union and Cherry Streets, in New Haven, Connecticut, Sept. 12, 1806. Though the blood of the " De Veres, the Bohuns, and the Bigods " did not run in his veins, he was descended from good New England stock of God-fearing Puritans, whose first American ancestor, from whom he was removed about eight generations, was Nathaniel Foote, who came from England to Watertown, Mass., in 1630, and in 1635 was one of the company of emigrants of whom Trumbull, in his history of Connecticut, says they were fourteen days in the wilderness on their journey from Watertown and vicinity to begin settlements on the Connecticut River, at Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor. Nathaniel Foote settled at Wethersfield, and belonged to the original proprietors of that town, where he died in 1644. His son Robert, from whom Admiral Foote is directly descended, emigrated to Branford, Connecticut, and was among the early settlers of that town. Wethersfield, Hadley, Branford, and Cheshire numbered among their earliest and best citizens the descendants of Nathaniel Foote ; and in all the trials 4ind marked events of New England history — ^in pioneer labors, the witchcraft delusion, Indian conflicts and captivities, the colonial wars and the war of the Ee volution — this well-known and widely spread family bore its full share, some of its members having shed their blood and given their lives on the battle-field for their country. They were chiefly agriculturists ; but fllled every responsible position in social and civil life, and by their sturdy worth and intelligence helped to build up the good old commonwealth of Connecticut.

The grandfather of Andrew was John Foote, a native of North Branf ord, who was a graduate of Tale College in 1765, and for about fifty years was pastor of the church in Cheshire, Connecticut, where he died in 1813. He was one of the oldfashioned New England ministers, who were settled over their parishes for life, and whose life formed an integral part of the history of the town itself. For nearly a hundred years the grandfather and great-grandfather of the Admiral were the pastors of the village church, the one succeeding the other.*

* The following incident respecting Lncinda Foote, daughter of Rev. John Foote, which has been recently revived in the public prints, shows that that reverend gentleman was not of the opinion of Aaron Burr, who thought that one tongue was enough for a woman* At the age of twelve years Lucinda Foote was fitted to enter Yale College, as appears from the following copy of a translation of a certificate in Latin, written upon parchment, given to her by President Stiles, and also inserted by him in his diary on the same date :

" The President of Yale College to all to whom these presents shall come. — Greeting : Be it known to you that I have examined Miss Lucinda Foote, twelve years old, and have found that in the learned languages — the Latin and the Greek — she has made commendable progress, giving the true meaning of passages in the JBneid of Virgil, the Select Orations of Cicero, and in the Greek Testament ; and that she is frilly .qualified, except in regard to sex, to be received as a pupil in the Freshman Class in Yale University. Given in the College Library, the 22d of December, 1788. Ezra STiMa, President."

Though kept out of college, Miss Foote pursued a frill course of college studies, and also studied Hebrew with President Stiles. She married at eighteen, and died at the age of sixty-two, having been the mother often children.

His Parents. 15

His parents were Samuel Augustiis Foote and Eudocia Hull, daughter of General Andrew HuU (militia general), of Cheshire. His father, Samuel Augustus, was Governor of Connecticut in 1834-5, and United States Senator from 1827 to 1833. He was known in the political history of the country as the mover of ^^ Foote's Eesolutions," which gave occasion to the famous passage of arms between Webster and Hayne. In his political sentiments Governor Foote was originally a Jeff ersonian Democrat, but afterward became a member of the National Bepublican party, which in 1832 was reorganized as the Whig party under the leadership of Clay and Webster.

In the winter of 1829-30 it was determined by the leaders of the Bepublican party to provoke the Southern members who held nullification principles to an open discussion which should compel them to show tiieir colors. Senator Foote assumed the task of moving tiie resolutions, which bore mainly on the question of the final disposal of the public lands and the proceeds of their sales ; but he consented to do this on the condition that he should not make a speech upon his own resolutions. This was characteristic of the man. While in Congress, and, in fact, during a long and successful political life, he rarely was known to make a speech, although, whenever he did speak, it was to the point His success was owing to his stanchness and sagacity of character. He was a man of positive opinions, often standing quite alone, as on the Missouri Compromise question ; but he was known to friend and foe as a politician of inflexible honesty, and one who despised intrigue. He led men by his force of will and independence of character. If not an orator, it is an interesting fact that the father of Admiral Foote was a prominent actor in the first great public strife of opinion between the North and the South, and between those principles which go to strengthen and uphold the authority of the national government, and those which tend to its dissolution. The father may thus be

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Bald, in some sense, to have begun the contest which ended in the war* of the Bebellion, and the triamph of the principles of republican government — a war in which his son bore so distinguished a part.

The childhood and youth of Admiral Foote were those of a boy brought up in strict Puritan principles, modified perhaps by the gentler influence of his mother, who, by her womanly tact in ordinary matters, was the true executrix of the household, although the father, as in the old Hebrew household, held the supreme authority, which was never relaxed in a real difference of opinion.

Unquestioning obedience was the rule of the family life. This held good not only in respect of domestic authority, but extended also to teachers and all superiors in age and rank. The schoolmaster stood in loco j^arenHs^ and the most rigorous discipline administered at school was taken at home as good evidence that it was well deserved, and admitted of no appeal.

It was held that talents were given to be used, and idleness was looked upon as the great sin. The day began with the song of the birds. The son was expected to give his spare hours to the service of his parents at home or in the field, and the most deferential respect was enjoined in their presence. Plain diet, simple apparel, hard work, and, above all, profound reverence for the Sabbath, and unfailing attendance upon public worship and all religious ordinances, characterized this and other sober Puritan households, even down to the beginning of the present century, in Connecticut, " the land of steady habits."

Andrew was a lively boy, indisposed to study or routine of any kind ; and though he had no bad traits, he loved freedom and fun. The family consisted of robust boys, with no sister's softening infiuence ; and many were the pranks of these youngsters, in which Andrew was the leader. One story is

His Boyhood. 17 told of him, which, considering the austere setting of circumstances in which it appears, must have been at the time ludicrous enough. His oldest brother John, who shared his fun-loving temper, had played some successful prank, which, by all principles of boy-law, it was incumbent upon Andrew to return with interest. He armed himself with a no less effectual and no more destructive missile than a rotten apple, and, standing behind a door, patiently awaited his opportunity. At length hearing some one approaching whom he supposed to be his brother, he darted from his concealment, and threw the apple with all his force, when, to his horror, he saw that it had taken effect in the bosom of his father's niffled shirt, who liad just come out of his chamber, having carefully arrayed liimself for the occasion of delivering a public address on the return of peace. The indignant sire, supposing that the jest was intended for himself, rushed to seize the offender, but fright lent wings to his feet ; and as the church-bell was already tolling for the public service, the pursuit was necessarily abandoned to allow time for a speedy change of dress ; so that an opportunity was gained by Andrew to send in an explanation and apology ; and, to his infinite satisfaction, the young rogue was released with a severe reprimand.

Other anecdotes are told, quite as trivial in themselves, which, however, are characteristic of the spirit of the boy, and show that his resolute nature manifested itself early. While but a wee bit of a lad, he was one day leading his youngei* brother Augustus, who was dressed in a red frock, across a meadow where there was a large merino ram. The buck, excited by the red dress, charged furiously upon the little fellow. Andrew bravely threw himself in the way, and received the shock ; and this he did several times, until they had reached the fence in safety. His brother (Hon. John A. Foote, of Cleveland, Ohio, who tells this story) says of the occurrence, that it was undoubtedly the admiral's ^r*^ ram fight.

B

Another story of Andrew's youthful days might have been told of hundreds and thousands of plucky boys, but which, at all events, shows that the spirit oi fight was born in him, and was ready to manifest itself on any real provocation of insult or injustice. When he had grown to be a bigger lad, he went one winter's day into a shoemaker's shop, and left the shop door open behind him. One of tlie workmen thereupon ordered him in a peremptory way to shut the door. Andrew thought the tone was too authoritative, and refused to shut the door unless asked civilly. The workman, thereupon growing wrathful, told him that if he did not close the door he would thrash him ; and at once the ire of our young hero was kindled, and Crispin was laid helpless across his own bench, while the old master, who had watched the affair over his spectacles, instead of interfering, cried out, " Bravo ! bravo ! well done, lad !"

His brother John says of his early years: "He was a stuttering, stammering, left-handed little boy. A cot was fitted tightly over his left hand, and he was required to use only his right. When he commenced speaking, he was admonished to speak slowly, and to beat time with his right hand.

" When we were boys together, it was a rule in our family to commence the Sabbath early on Saturday evening, and play was to be suspended until we could see three stars on Sunday evening. Herschel and other distinguished men have had great credit for discovering new stars, but I have sometimes queried whether the future admiral did not in those days discover some stars never seen by any of them. Very certain I am that the play sometimes commenced before I could see any stars ; and I am equally certain that he never, in after-life, watched for them in a storm at sea, or on a lee shore, more anxiously than when a boy, on a Sunday evening, he watched for them as a license to begin his sports.

" As a boy, he was full of fun and frolic — a real boy — but

Influences that drew Him to the Sea. 19

he was genial, kind, and popular, and I do not I'emember of his ever being quarrelsome."

Such incidents of his youthful days might be multiplied; it would, however, be interesting to inquire what it was that gave the first turn to his life, and led him to seek the sea. It is said Hugh Miller remembered that when a child not three years old he went into the garden one day, and saw there " a minute duckling, covered with soft, yellow hair, growing out of the soil by its feet, and beside it a plant that bore as its flowers a crop of little mussel-shells of a deep red color." This really belonged to the vegetable kingdom ; and the discriminating observation of a new fact in nature by one so young seemed prophetic of the future man of science.

Nothing remarkable of this kind is recorded of Admiral Foote's childhood. The sea is a magnet that draws its own to it wherever they may be. The plowboy on the hill-side or on the prairie far away hears in his mind's inner sense the perpetual undertone of ocean, and drops the plow, and makes his way to the coast to embark upon the adventurous life of the sailor. The love of the sea is one of those instincts that are original in the nature of some. This only is to be said of our hero's youth, that his earliest recollections were of ships. His father, when he lived in New Haven, was engaged in the West India trade, and his place of business was upon the well-known quay called " Long Wharf." For the first ten years of his married life his father was, as he himself supposed, subject to an afPection of the lungs, and occasionally made a voyage to the West Indies, in the capacity of supercargo of one of his own vessels. As these absences were infrequent, the going and coming produced a strong impression upon the imagination of his children, as they watched the departing or returning sail, and probably awoke in one of them at least the vague and wild desires after a sailor's life.

It is also not altogether improbable that the war of 1812, which was almost altogether a naval war, and the brilliant victories of oiir sea-captains at that time, kindled unconsciously in the ardent mind of the boy the first faint fires of military glory connected with the sea. When those stories of combats on the ocean and on the great lakes were related with enthusiasm at the family fireside or table, it is quite impossible that a mind so susceptible even as a child to honor, should not have caught the spirit and the glow of such stirring events.

The war of 1812, and the severe illness of his father, brought about a change ^f scene ; and the family removed from New Haven to Cheshire, a beautiful inland village in the same state and coimty, in the spring of the year 1813. There they continued to reside, in a fine old family mansion, until the death of Governor Foote in 1846.

A word more should here be said of the father of the Admiral, for from him the son inherited some of his strongest traits of character.

Samuel A. Foote was bom November 8, 1780. Though of a delicate constitution in childhood and youth, he prepared for and graduated at Tale College before he was seventeen years of age. He subsequently pursued the study of the law with Judge Eeeve, of -Litchfield, Connecticut, until impaired health compelled him to give it up ; and he began business in New Haven, in the West India trade, in 1803. From 1817 to 1835 he was in public life, filling all the ehief political oflSces in the state. While governor of the state he received the degree of LL.D. from Yale College. He was a notable example of an intelligent and practical American statesman, or, perhaps, the better word Would be politician, of the old school, with the marked conservatism of the shrewd men of his state, and vnth the still higher qualities of independence and firmness.

These sterner traits, enforced often by a severe countenance and piercing look, were mingled with a vein of kindly humor, which made him popular with all classes, and even with his

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M t • till

Governor Samuel A. Foote. 2 1

political opponents ; so that, through his known inflexibility of purpose, that could not be turned by any amount of outside pressure or party drill, and his courteous manners, he truly, as a man, wielded a great influence. His mode of speaking was simple, and as in convei*sation. He never attempted a methodized discourse ; but aiming directly at what he considered the essential thing, and developing but one idea at a time, he soon exhausted what he had to say, though it was generally found that he struck at the heart of the matter, and said die true and weighty word. It is related of him, however, that he fully appreciated the value of the ability to speak well in a free country, and encouraged his sons to train themselves in the art of public address.

Undoubtedly Andrew learned his first lesson of obedience — the prime word in a sailor's creed — at home ; yet father and son were so much alike in stubbornness of will that Governor Foote once said that he thought he ^^ had succeeded pretty well in controlling all his boys with the exception of Andrew — hiip alone he had only attempted to guide.^^ Yet in both father and son there was, as has been said, a kindly, genial vein ; and they were both what might be truly called popular men with all classes. Courtesy, indeed, was inculcated as a prime principle in the family life ; and the example of Washington — the American gentleman as well as hero — was not as yet forgotten. This gentler side of the Puritan character and education is sometimes lost sight of. Doubtless there was too little of the spirit of indulgent sympathy with innocent enjoyment, and too intense a stress laid on obligation and not enough on love ; but the Puritan family was by no means like a planet journeying on in perpetual eclipse. It rolled out sometimes into broad and pleasant sunshine upon Thanksgiving days, election days, and the holiday sports of childhood and youth, and whenever original Anglo-Saxon humor, good-nature, and cheerful piety fairly asserted themselves. We have but to add, what has already been hinted, that Governor Foote, being himself a high-toned Christian man, reared his family in the strict principles of New England morality ; religion, as the foundation of character, was laid at the bottom. Though it was not in Andrew's case the immediate cause of a religions life, who can tell what a profound influence this home piety, leading the mind constantly to view the practical earnestness, and even solemnity of life — its obligations to God — had upon his whole future career ?

In regard to the schoolmasters and school-days of Andrew Foote, a word might be said — and but a word — ^for his was a nature that did not easily take mould from without, but rather developed itself by a native force from within: He was not a man of thought so much as of action. The strength of his nature was on its moral side. What he purposed he thought ; what he willed he did. His life is in his deeds. Silent in preparation, issuing from deep sources, his acts, like the acts of men of his kind, were rapid ; their results are ppen to every eye, and the world does not care very much to know about the early shaping influences of a power which is noiselessly generated like electricity in the hidden springs of nature. In fact, his schools and schoolmasters did not probably have much to do in making the man. He drew his sagacity to plan, his courage to dare, his power to act, from his parents, and from the nature God gave him. His first school — ^upon entering which, it is said, he made a desperate but, in this sole instance, unsuccessful fight for freedom — was in New Haven, and was kept by Miss Betsey Bromham, afterward Mrs. Austen, who was permitted to visit the Admiral in his last sickness in New York, and then and there to express the life-long interest which she felt for her former child-pupil.

When the family removed to Cheshire, Andrew was sent first to the common or district school kept in that village, and

School-days. 23 afterward was placed at the Episcopal Academy of Cheshire, then in charge of an able and noted instructor. Dr. Tillotson Sronson.

It is not probable that young Foote distinguished himself as a scholar, for that was not his bent ; but in these schools in Cheshire he became fitted to pass the examination then required to become a member of West Point Military Academy, the entering of which institution was a kind of compromise with his parents, since he had already declared his intention of going into the Navy, to which his mother was particularly opposed. We may, however, suppose that his school -years were not wholly lost time, as his literary attainments and productions in after-years gave good proof. He mastered the common English branches, and always wrote ;n a clear and flowing style. He said to a friend in the latter part of his life that he had never read a book through consecutively, but was accustomed to glean its contents by a rapid glancing over it, and that he had found this to be the method of some distinguished men. One of his schoolmates at the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire was Gideon Welles, recently Secretary of the Navy, who proved to be one of his warmest friends, and who, in the trying scenes of the war, gave the Admiral his generous and unfailing support From the testimony of another schoolmate,* young Foote was noted while at the academy for his amiability and tact in getting out of the difficulties which his frolicsome disposition plunged him into; and even the stem old doctor, a stickler for discipline, was not able to resist his winningly frank, gentle, and affectionate manners.

This healthy, bold, adventurous boy, we may imagine, was learning a great deal of human nature and of the* world that God made in those school-days in the picturesque country vil-