Who Heard
That?
In the course of American history, there have been
several quotations that have become part of our cultural literacy. They are
found in the history books and taught in class, and they are frequently
repeated, in context and out. "Don’t give up the ship!" "Don’t fire until
you see the whites of their eyes!" These are familiar to everyone, though we
may only vaguely remember the circumstances surrounding them.
Most of those quotations we remember were spoken to
groups – "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country," "I
have not yet begun to fight,"- or were directed to no one in particular –
"California or bust!" and "Remember the Alamo!" Or they may be memorable
lines from speeches, such as "The only thing we have to fear is fear
itself," and "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
At least two familiar lines were, however, directed
to individuals. All of us are familiar with the quotes and some of us know
who said them, but few of us can name the person to whom they were said. It
is curious to learn that both of the following examples were originally said
to descendants of Pilgrims John and Priscilla Alden. And so, as Paul Harvey
would say, here is the "rest of the story:"
Go West, young man, go
West
For those who will
inevitably question it, I will immediately concede that this statement may
originally have been made by an Indiana newspaperman, John Soule, in 1851.
(Others may know if he also had Pilgrim connections, but that is another
story.) However, the quote, which so characterizes the period immediately
before the Civil War, was popularized by, and is associated with, Horace
Greeley, the founder and publisher of the New York Tribune. Though
Greeley himself repeated and printed it often, it appears that he first
personally offered this advice to Joshua Bushnell Grinnell, who immediately
directed himself westward – to Iowa.
Horace Greeley, the son of a New Hampshire farmer,
was born in 1811. Young Horace had little opportunity for formal schooling,
but was taught to read by his mother. Apprenticed early to a printer, he
educated himself by reading the newspapers he was printing, as well as other
books and papers.
At age twenty, Greeley moved to New York. He
supported himself in the printing trade and paid close attention to
political events, particularly the presidential campaigns. He soon began
publishing his own weekly literary papers. When only twenty-four, he founded
the New York Tribune, at first a penny daily. The paper immediately
became popular throughout the Northeast.
He was a life-long influential activist, writing in
a vigorous, forceful style on such issues as slavery, labor unions,
education, temperance, and free speech. His voice and mannerisms made him
less effective as a speaker.
The overriding theme of the country then was the
westward movement - the "manifest destiny" of the United States to expand
itself from coast to coast. Greeley supported homestead legislation, aid to
railroads, and any other government initiatives toward that goal. The young
men who read his newspapers were encouraged to find their fortunes in the
West, which, before the Civil War, meant anything past the Mississippi
River. The frontier was in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and the Dakotas.
It was vast, rich, and ready for development, if one were willing to
overlook the claims of the Indian tribes.
Josiah Bushnell Grinnell was a native of Vermont.
His father was a descendant of French Huguenots who had settled in Rhode
Island in the 1600’s and also of Pilgrims John and Priscilla Alden’s
granddaughter, Lydia Pabodie, b.1667, who married Daniel Grinnell.
Josiah Grinnell described himself as a "pioneer,
farmer, and radical." By profession he was a Congregational minister, having
graduated from Auburn Theological Seminary, Auburn, NY. As founder of the
First Congregational Church in Washington, DC, he delivered what was said to
have been the first sermon against slavery ever preached in that city. His
views were so radical, indeed, that he was forced to remove himself from the
congregation in Washington to a pastorate in New York City. It was there
that he married Julia Ann Chapin of Massachusetts and met Horace Greeley.
By this time, 1852, he was thirty-one and not as
young as many men who were seeking their fortunes elsewhere. However, when
he was faced with the loss of his voice and the necessity to find another
occupation, he visited Greeley and asked for his advice, which was freely
given and often repeated, "Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the
country!"
Grinnell took the advice and chose Iowa as his new
home. He purchased six thousand acres of promising land and with some
partners founded the town of Grinnell.
Within the town, he
founded a college, named, of course, Grinnell University. Through his
influence Iowa College, which had been founded by twelve young ministers
from New England, (two of them, incidentally, named Ebenezer Alden and Alden
Robbins) moved from Davenport and combined with Grinnell. For some years the
school was known as Iowa College, but eventually reverted to Grinnell
College, which continues today.
Grinnell continued his abolitionist and political
activities. John Brown himself brought a band of escaped slaves to
Grinnell’s home in 1859. Grinnell was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln and
was delegate to the convention that nominated Lincoln for president. During
the Civil War, he served as congressman from Iowa.
After the war, he promoted agricultural development
and railroads, and remained interested in the church and in education. It is
the legacy of pioneers with this vision that Iowa now has the highest
literacy rates of any state in the union, as well as the highest percentage
of college graduates. His own work was cut short when Josiah Bushnell
Grinnell died at age 52. His accomplishments were, however, an example of
the wisdom of Greeley’s advice.
In recent years, Grinnell, Iowa, was named one of
the top 100 small towns in America, and Grinnell College is one of the
leading liberal arts colleges in the country. Josiah would be pleased.
One of the first editors to join the Republican
Party, Horace Greeley was influential in the election of Abraham Lincoln.
Though he supported the aim of freeing slaves, he worked for compromises
that would end the conflict without war, even organizing his own
unsuccessful "peace missions" with Southern leaders. At war’s end, he signed
the jail bond for former Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
After the war, Horace Greeley continued his support
of rights for blacks and was active in other social issues. Like Lincoln, he
supported a general amnesty for Confederates, knowing that it would lead to
a quicker healing of the country. In 1872, he was nominated for the
presidency, but was resoundingly defeated by the war hero incumbent, Ulysses
S. Grant.
Broken in spirit by the defeat and the death of his
wife during the campaign, Greeley died a few weeks after the election.
Damn the torpedoes, full
speed ahead!
Capt. David Glasgow
Farragut commanded the ships of the American Navy against Confederate forces
in Mobile Bay in August 1864. He and others knew that this battle could be a
crucial point of the war. For three years, the Confederate States had
maintained their resistance against the Union, but their resources were
dwindling and defeat appeared a possibility. Mobile, Alabama, was one of the
Gulf ports used by Confederate blockade-runners. If that source were cut
off, the South would be severely weakened. Capt. Farragut had been prepared
to attack Mobile two years earlier, but had been forced to divert his
resources to reinforce Union control of the lower Mississippi River. Now his
efforts would be concentrated on Mobile.
Fort Morgan, defending Mobile on the eastern side
of the Bay entrance, mounted 45 guns. Three miles west, on the other side of
the entrance, was Fort Gaines with 26 guns. The Confederates had planted
pilings in the shallow water, and east of the pilings, in the deeper water,
they had planted a minefield. Those mines were called torpedoes, that term
not yet referring to the powered torpedoes of later wars. The navigable
channel was a mere 500 yards wide, directly under the guns of Fort Morgan.
Also in the line of defenses were Old Spanish Fort and Fort McDermott. The
Confederate ironclad
Tennessee was in the bay, supported by gunboats Morgan, Gaines,
and Selma. This was a formidable defense, indeed. To assault it would
require a steady nerve and supreme confidence.
Capt. David G. Farragut was equal to the challenge.
Born son of a former navy and army man in Tennessee in 1801, he was adopted
in 1810 by famed Capt. David Porter, whose given name he took. He served as
a midshipman under Porter on the USS
Essex in the War of 1812 battle against the British at Valparaiso,
Chili, when he was only 13 years old. He fought pirates in the West Indies,
served in the war with Mexico, and became a Captain in 1855. When the Civil
War began, he gave up his home in Norfolk, Virginia, and took command of the
Western Gulf Blockading Squadron of the US Navy. He commanded the ships at
New Orleans, which also required running his boats under heavy gunfire,
along with his adopted brother, Capt. David Dixon Porter.
Now the date was August 5, 1864. Capt. Farragut had
about eighteen vessels in his armada, including four ironclads (also called
monitors) – Tecumseh, Manhattan, Winnebago, and Chickasaw. The
Flagship was the Hartford. Leading the assault was the Brooklyn,
under the command of Capt. James Alden. In the introduction to his report
after the battle, Capt. Farragut wrote:
Notwithstanding the loss of life,
particularly to this ship [Hartford], and the terrible disaster to the
Tecumseh, the result of the fight was a glorious victory. And I have
reason to feel proud of the officers, seamen, and marines of the
squadron under my command, for it has never fallen to the lot of an
officer to be thus situated and thus sustained. Regular discipline will
bring men to any amount of endurance, but there is a natural fear of
hidden dangers, particularly when so awfully destructive of humanlife as
the torpedo, which required more than discipline to overcome.
After describing the defenses and his preparations
for the battle, Farragut continues:
It was only on the urgent request of the
Captains and Commanding Officers that I yielded to the Brooklyn
being the leading ship of the line as she had four chase guns and an
ingenious arrangement for picking up torpedoes, and because in their
judgement the flag-ship ought not to be too much exposed. This I believe
to be an error; For apart from the fact that exposure is one of the
penalties of rank in the navy, it will always be the aim of the enemy to
destroy the flag-ship, and, as it will appear in the sequel, such
attempt was very persistently made, but providence did not permit it to
be successful.
The battle began and the smoke became so thick that
Capt. Farragut climbed the main shrouds some 25 feet above the deck. Fearing
that he would be knocked down, Capt. Drayton sent a sailor to tie Farragut
to the mast. Though Farragut protested, he allowed the sailor to follow his
captain’s orders. Farragut continues his report:
It was soon apparent that there was some
difficulty ahead. The Brooklyn, for some cause which I did not
then clearly understand, but which has since been explained by Captain
Alden in his report, arrested the advance of the whole fleet while, at
the same time, the guns of the fort were playing with great effect upon
that vessel and the Hartford. A moment after I saw the
Tecumseh, struck by a torpedo, disappear almost instantaneously
beneath the waves, carrying with her [her] gallant Commander and nearly
all her crew. I determined at once, as I had originally intended, to
take the lead: and after ordering the Metacomet to send a boat
to save, if possible, any of the perishing crew, I dashed ahead with the
Hartford, and the ships followed on, their officers believing that
they were going to a noble death with their commander in chief.
At Capt. Alden’s
command, the Brooklyn had stopped dead and had begun backing up in
order to avoid the minefield. The other ships were in line behind her,
directly under the guns of the fort. It was at this time that Capt. Farragut
was quoted by others as having shouted to Capt. Alden, "Damn the torpedoes.
Full steam ahead!" He commanded the Flagship Hartford to pass the
Brooklyn
and take the lead.
…I steamed through between the buoys, where
the torpedoes were supposed to have been sunk. These buoys had been
previously examined by my flag-lieutenant, J. Crittendon Watson, in
several nightly reconnaissance. [sic] Though he had not been able to
discover the sunken torpedoes, yet we had been assured by refugees,
deserters, and others, of their existence, but believing that, from
their having been some time in the water they were probably innocuous, I
determined to take the chance at their explosion.
In his own report, Capt. Alden supported the points
made by Farragut, adding his own flourishes:
[After descriptions of the setting and the
beginning of the battle]…At this juncture I observed the ill-fated
Tecumseh, which was then about three-hundred yards ahead of us, and
on our starboard bow, careen violently over, and sink almost
instantaneously, sunk by a torpedo. Assassination in its worst form! A
glorious though terrible end for our noble friends, the intrepid
pioneers of that death strewn path! Immortal fame is theirs! Peace to
their names!
We were now somewhat inside of the fort,
when shoal water was reported, and at the same time, as the smoke
cleared up a little, a row of suspicious looking buoys was discovered
directly under our bows. While we were in the act of backing to clear
them, our gallant Capt. passed us and took the lead. Getting headway
again as soon as possible, we pushed up the channel at full speed in his
wake.
During the battle, the
Lackawanna (one of the Union ships) ran into the Hartford. Once
again the colorful Farragut spoke, "Can you say ‘for God’s sake’ by signal?"
When the signalman answered affirmatively, Farragut ordered, "Then say to
the Lackawanna ‘For God’s sake get out of our way and anchor.’"
The battle had begun at 6:45am and at 10:00 the
ironclad Tennessee
surrendered, ending the engagement. Farragut graciously allowed the
Confederates to take their wounded to Pensacola, including their commander,
Admiral Buchannan. The Confederate sailors responded by warning the Union
sailors that a gun on the Tennessee was jammed and if they tried to
fire it someone might be injured.
Capt. Alden and his crew acquitted themselves to
Farragut’s satisfaction during the remainder of the battle in the bay. Capt.
Alden reported that there were fifty-four casualties aboard the Brooklyn,
including eleven killed. "The list will not appear large when it is
considered that we were nearly two hours under fire."
Fort Gaines surrendered on August 7. The Union
ships continued to pound Fort Morgan as army troops under General Gordon
Granger moved on the fort.
On August 22, the Union fleet surrounded Fort
Morgan and began a final bombardment. On the morning of August 23, 1864, the
Confederates hoisted the white flag, thus surrendering control of their last
available port in the Gulf of Mexico. The war ended in April 1865.
In December 1864, the grateful Congress of the
United States established a new title, Vice-Admiral, for Farragut, and two
years later he was appointed the first Admiral in American history. (The
earlier title was Commodore.)
Admiral David G. Farragut died in 1870 at the Naval
Yard in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
James Alden was born in Portland, Maine, in 1810.
He was the son of James Alden, b 1775 and Elizabeth Tate Alden , and a
direct descendant of Pilgrims John and Priscilla Alden. He was appointed a
midshipman in the American Navy in 1828. He served in the Mediterranean, the
South Seas, and along the Antarctic continent, and circumnavigated the globe
twice. He served in the Mexican War and was in command by the beginning of
the Civil War. He was promoted to Captain in 1863 and Commodore in 1866. He
ended his career in 1872 as a Rear Admiral (he was the next Admiral
appointed after Farragut), and died in San Francisco in 1877.
In 1918, a new American destroyer was laid down and
named Alden.
She was commissioned on November 1919, sponsored by Miss Sarah Alden Dorsey,
a niece of the late Rear Admiral James Alden. The destroyer served until she
was stuck from the Register in 1945 and sold for scrap.
So there we have them, two Pilgrim descendants,
part of our familiar history but virtually nameless in the annals. C’est la
vie.
Linda R. Ashley is the former Curator of the
John Alden House Museum in Duxbury, MA. This is the house built and occupied
by Pilgrims John and Priscilla Alden.
