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vessels.1 But the latter all escaped, and at about one o'clock in the afternoon Farragut's squadron was anchored off the city, while a violent thunderstorm was raging.
New Orleans was now utterly defenseless.
Lovell was there, but a greater portion of his troops had been sent away, with the concurrence of the civil authorities, who wished to spare the town the horrors of a bombardment.
Captain Bailey was sent ashore with a flag, bearing a summons from Farragut for the surrender of the city, and a demand that the Confederate flag should be taken down and that of the Republic raised over the public buildings.
Bailey made his way through a hooting, cursing crowd to the City Hall, escorted by sensible citizens.
To the demand for surrender, Lovell returned an unqualified refusal, but saying, that as he was powerless to hold the city against great odds, and wishing to save it from destruction, he would withdraw his troops and turn it over to the civil authorities.
At the same time he advised the Mayor not to surrender the city, nor allow the flags to be taken down by any of its people.
Acting upon this foolish advice, the Mayor (John T. Monroe), one of the most unworthy of the public men of the day, refused to surrender the city or take down the Louisiana flag from the City Hall.
This refusal was in the form of a most ridiculous letter to Farragut, in which the Mayor declared that, while his people could not prevent the occupation of the city by the National forces, they would not transfer their allegiance to a government they had deliberately repudiated.2 In the mean time a force had landed from the Pensacola, which was lying opposite Esplanade Street, and, unopposed, hoisted the National flag over the Government Mint; but as soon as they retired it was torn down and dragged in derision through the streets by young men belonging to the Pinckney Battalion, and a gambler named William B. Mumford.3 This act was hailed with acclamation by the secessionists of New Orleans, and caused paragraphs of praise and exultation to appear in the public journals.
It ended in a serious tragedy, as we shall observe presently.
In reply to the Mayor's absurd letter, the patient Farragut referred to the pulling down of the flag, the indignities to which it was subjected, and the insults offered to his officers, and said, with a meaning which the most obtuse might understand, “all of which go to show that the fire of this fleet may be drawn upon the city at any moment, and in such an event the levee would, in all probability, be cut by the shells, and an amount of distress ensue to the innocent population which I have heretofore endeavored to assure you that I desire by all means to avoid.”
He concluded by saying, “The election, therefore, is with you; but it becomes my duty to notify you to remove the women and children from the city within forty-eight hours, if I have rightly understood your determination.”
1 The shipyard at Algiers, opposite New Orleans, was burned, and with it an immense armored ram called Mississippi, which was considered the most important naval structure which the Confederates had yet undertaken.
2 “As to the hoisting of any flag,” he said, “than the flag of our own adoption and allegiance, let me say to you, Sir, that the man lives not in our midst whose hand and heart would not be palsied at the mere thought of such an act; nor could I find in my entire constituency so wretched and desperate a renegade as would dare to profane with his hand the sacred emblem of our aspirations.”
3 There was no guard left at the Mint to defend the flag, but a watch was set in the top of the Pensacola, from which a howitzer hurled grape-shot at the men who pulled down the flag, but without effect.
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