is for the ships to manoeuvre. Wooden
vessels can do nothing with the ironclads, unless by getting within one
or two hundred yards, so as to ram them or pour in a broadside." He
repeats the information given by a refugee, that the ironclad Nashville
would not be ready before March, and that the Confederate admiral
announced that when she was he would raise the blockade. "It is
depressing," he adds, "to see how easily false reports circulate, and
in what a state of alarm the community is kept by the most absurd
rumors. If the Department could get one or two ironclads here, it would
put an end to this state of things and restore confidence to the people
of the ports now in our possession. I feel no apprehension about
Buchanan's raising the blockade; but, with such a force as he has in the
bay, it would be unwise to take in our wooden vessels without the means
of fighting the enemy on an equal footing." Having made this
reconnaissance, he went on to New Orleans, arriving there January 22d.

It appears, therefore, that, regarded as a naval question, Farragut
considered the time had gone by for an attempt to run the forts of
Mobile Bay, and that it would not return until some ironclads were
furnished him by the Department. The capture of the forts he at no time
expected, except by the same means as he had looked to for the reduction
of those in the Mississippi--that is, by a combined military and naval
operation. In both cases the navy was to plant itself across the enemy's
communications, which it could do by running the gantlet of his guns. It
then remained for the land forces either to complete the investment and
await their fall by the slow process of famine, or to proceed with a
regular siege covered by the fleet. Without the protection of the ships
in the bay, the army would be continually harassed by the light gunboats
of the enemy, and very possibly exposed to attack by superior force.
Without the troops, the presence of the ships inside would be powerless
to compel the surrender of the works, or to prevent their receiving some
supplies. But in the two years that had very nearly elapsed since
Farragut, if permitted his own wish, would have attacked, the
strengthening of the works and the introduction of the ironclads had
materially altered the question. He was, it is true, misinformed as to
the readiness of the latter. The vessels that were dignified by that
name when he first returned to his station, took no part in