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REAR-ADMIRAL
FARRAGUT.
WE publish on this page a
portrait of Rear-Admiral DAVID G. FARRAGUT, the victor of
New Orleans and
Mobile. He was born in Knoxville, Tennessee,
about 1803. A sailor from his ninth year, when he became a midshipman, under
Commodore PORTER, on the Essex, he was present at the battle of Valparaiso. At
thirteen he was placed in command of a prize-vessel ; and at the close of the
war of 1812 he was sent to school, and thence into the navy. He then married a
Southern lady, and settled in Norfolk, Virginia. When the Expedition against New
Orleans was resolved upon FARRAGUT was selected as its commander. He entered the
Mississippi River, passing forts Philip and Jackson March 24, 1862, and the next
day took possession of New Orleans. He took an important part in the reduction
of Port Hudson, and his late achievements in Mobile Bay have made him the first
naval hero of the age.
PETERSBURG.
THE view of PETERSBURG given
below is taken from the Richmond side of the Appomattox. The railway bridge
across the Appomattox is seen toward the left, and a large factory beyond. The
river is navigable only below the bridge, as there are rapids above. Petersburg
is contemporary with Richmond, both cities having been laid out in 1733, and
having continued to be rivals in commerce, until Richmond acquired a special
importance by being made the capital of the State. The population of Petersburg
was about 12,000 before the war. It had six churches, several large cotton and
tobacco factories, and was a place of considerable trade, exporting flour,
cotton, and tobacco. As early as 1645
a fort, called Fort Henry, was
erected at the falls of the Appomattox, on the point where Petersburg now
stands, for the defense of the neighborhood against the Nottoways and other
Indian tribes. Soon after this, PETER JONES, one of the first settlers of
Virginia, established there a trade with the Indians. The place where he fixed
himself was precisely where the two principal streets now meet, and was in
consequence called Peter's Point, but the name was after ward changed to
Petersburg. Two suburbs have since been incorporated with the city, one called
Pocahontas and another Blandford, at which latter place are the ruins of an old
church, and which, being on high ground toward the southern side of the town,
must now be much exposed to the Federal fire.
Petersburg was occupied at one
time by the British troops in the Revolutionary War. They approached by the same
route now adopted by the Federal Generals namely, by way of James River to City
Point, where an army was landed, under General PHILLIPS, in 1781, and marched
into the city. While General PHILLIPS lay ill of a bilious fever at Bolingbroke
House, the Americans, under General LAFAYETTE, cannonaded the town from Archer's
Hill, so that poor General PHILLIPS of whom JEFFERSON said, " he is the proudest
man of the proudest nation upon earth"—was conveyed to the cellar for safety,
where he exclaimed, " Won't they let me die in peace?" However, not the
cannon-ball but the fever terminated his existence, and he was buried in
Blandford church yard. One week later Lord CORNWALLIS entered the town from
Wilmington, on the south, by the same line on which the Federals are now
threatening the town and his Lordship fixed his head-quarters at Bolingbroke
House.
VIEW OF PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA, FROM THE NORTH SIDE
OF THE APPOMATTOX.
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