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were seen to interfere with it or take it down, to open fire upon them with the howitzers.
This would be a signal for the Hartford to open fire upon the city, which would be followed by a fire along the line of the whole fleet, which lay broadside on.
On Sunday morning, Farragut called his officers and crew below in religious service to give thanks to the Almighty for His preservation of them in the great dangers and perils to which they had been exposed.
The services were solemnly going on under his direction, when the guns from the main-tops bearing on the flag were discharged.
Instantly everybody ran on deck and went to his post.
Every gun was manned and the lanyards of the locks of some of them were pulled.
But a wonderful happening had taken place.
The careful ordnance officer, before he went down, cast his eye upon the heavens and saw portents of rain.
He therefore went around the battery, took out; of the vents all the wafers by which the guns were fired, and placed them in a receptacle where they would be kept dry. Consequently no gun answered fire when the lanyards were pulled.
Seeing that those who had taken the flag down had run away and that there was no movement of anybody, Farragut paused, and so the city was saved from bombardment.
Farragut sent his boat ashore to ascertain why the flag had been taken down and was informed that it was done by some person wholly unauthorized.
A party headed by Mumford had torn down the flag, dragged it through the streets and spit on it, and trampled on it until it was torn to pieces.
It was then distributed among the rabble, and each one thought it a high honor to get a piece of it and wear it.
It has been said that I had no right to take any notice of this act because it was done before I got there.
But it was the flag of the United States, and it had been placed there by Farragut after he took possession of the city.
Upon that point I never had any controversy.
Although he had been clearly convicted of this offense against the laws of war and his country, yet it was not believed by the rebels that Mumford would be executed.
He was at the head of the gamblers of New Orleans, and was a man of considerable education, some property, and much influence with the lower class.
It was said that Butler would never dare hang him, and when the parole
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
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