ny women and children. The
situation was for three days exceedingly critical, from the temper and
character of the mob and from the obstinacy and powerlessness of the
officials. It was doubtless as much as the life of any citizen of the
place was worth to comply with the admiral's demands. On the other hand,
while there could be no difficulty in hoisting the United States flag,
there would be much in protecting it from insult with the means at the
flag-officer's disposal; for to open fire upon a place where there were
so many helpless creatures, innocent of any greater offense than
behaving like a set of spoiled children, was a course that could not be
contemplated unless in the last necessity, and it was undesirable to
provoke acts which might lead to any such step. The United States
officers who were necessarily sent to communicate with the authorities
did so, in the opinion of the authorities themselves, at the peril of
their lives from a mob which no one on shore could control. On the 28th
of April, however, Forts Jackson and St. Philip surrendered to Commander
Porter in consequence of a mutiny in their garrisons, which refused to
fight any longer, saying further resistance was useless; and the
following day Farragut sent ashore a body of two hundred and fifty
marines with two howitzers manned by seamen from the Hartford, the whole
under the command of the fleet-captain, Captain Henry H. Bell. The force
was formally drawn up before the City Hall, the howitzers pointing up
and down the street, which was thronged with people. Fearing still that
some rash person in the crowd might dare to fire upon the men who were
hauling down the flag, the Mayor took his stand before one of the
howitzers; a sufficient intimation to the mob that were murder done he
would be the first victim to fall in expiation. The United States flag
was then hoisted over the Custom House, and left flying under the
protection of a guard of marines.

Thus was timely and satisfactorily completed an act, by which Farragut
signalized and sealed the fact that the conquest of New Orleans and of
its defenses, from the original conception of the enterprise to its
complete fulfillment by the customary tokens of submission and taking
possession, was wholly the work of the United States Navy; of which he,
by his magnificent successes, became the representative figure. It was a
triumph won over formidable difficulties by a mobile force, skillfully
directed and g