626
THE UNION AND CONFEDERATE NAVIES.
barges, destined for use as fire-ships, upon which Commodore George N.Hollins placed great reliance.
Another measure of defense adopted by the Confederate Governmentdeserves mention here, although the navy was in no way connected with it.On the 14th of January, 1862, Secretary Benjamin, of the War Department ,telegraphed orders to General Lovell, who was in command at New Orleans ,to impress certain river steamboats, fourteen in number, for the public service.On the 15th the vessels designated were seized. They were intended to forma flotilla of rams for the defense of the Mississippi , in accordance with a plansuggested by two steamboat captains, Montgomery and Townsend, who hadsecured the adoption of their project at Richmond through the influence ofpolitical friends in Congress . In the words of Secretary Benjamin, they were“ backed by the whole Missouri delegation.” The scheme had its origin partlyin jealousy or distrust of the navy, and the direction of the “ River DefenseFleet,” as it was called, was therefore intrusted to the army. The projectors
of the enterprise had takencare, however, to limit the au-thority of the army officersover the fleet, and the WarDepartment wrote that whenit sailed it would be “ subjectto the orders of General Beau-regard, as regards the servicerequired of it, but of coursewithout any interference inits organization.” The originalcost of the vessels was $563,000,and the cost of equipping andfitting them out was $800,000.
The River Defense Flotillahardly accomplished resultsthat justified this heavy out-lay. Its organization, as mighthave been expected, was seri-ously defective. In January,Lovell was apprehensive that“ fourteen Mississippi River captains and pilots will never agree about anything after they once getunder way.” These fears were afterward realized. April 15th, Lovell wrote:
“ The river pilots (Montgomery and Townsend), wlio are the head of the fleet, are men oflimited ideas, no system, and no administrative capacity -whatever. I very much fear, too, thattheir powers of execution will prove much less than has been anticipated,— in short, unless somecompetent person of education, system, and brains is put over each division of this fleet, it will,in my judgment, prove an utter failure. No code of laws or penalties has been established, andit is difficult to decide how deserters from the fleet are to be tried and punished. There is littleor no discipline or subordination — too much ‘ steamboat ’ and too little of the ‘ man-of-war ’ tobe very effective.”