blockade, amply redeemed the honor of the Navy by refusing to
surrender the Westfield, in spite of the odds against him, and by
blowing her up instead. But when he died at the post of duty the
remaining Union vessels escaped; and the blockade was raised for
a week.

After that Commodore H.H. Bell, one of Farragut's best men,
closed in with a grip which never let go. Yet even Bell suffered
a reverse when he sent the U.S.S. Hatteras to overhaul a strange
vessel that lured her off some fifteen miles and sank her in a
thirteen-minute fight. This stranger was the Alabama, then just
beginning her famous or notorious career. Nor were these the only
Union troubles in the Gulf during the first three weeks of the
new year. Commander J.N. Matt ran the Florida out of Mobile,
right through the squadron that had been specially strengthened
to deal with her; and the shore defenses of the Sabine Pass, like
those of Galveston, fell into Confederate hands again, to remain
there till the war was over.

In spite of all failures, however, Farragut still had the upper
hand along the Gulf, and up the Mississippi as far as New
Orleans, without which admirable base the River War of '69. could
never have prepared the way for Grant's magnificent victory in
the River War of '63.



CHAPTER IV. THE RIVER WAR: 1862

The military front stretched east and west across the border