The admiral detailed the three ironclads, De Kalb, Louisville, and

Cincinnati, and all the light-draught gunboats to accompany the

expedition; the gunboats, on account of their low speed, being taken

in tow by the transports. Passing by the mouth of the Arkansas, to

keep the enemy as long as possible uncertain as to the real object of

the movement, the fleet entered the White River and from the latter

passed through the cut-off which unites it with the Arkansas.

On the 9th of January the army landed about four miles below the fort.

This was a square bastioned work of three hundred feet on the side,

standing on ground elevated above the reach of floods on the left

bank, at the head of a horse-shoe bend. It had three casemates, one in

the curtain facing the approach up the bend, and one in the face of

the northeast and southeast bastions looking in the same direction. In

each bastion casemate was a IX-inch, and in that of the curtain an

VIII-inch shell-gun. These were the special antagonists of the navy,

but besides them there were four rifled and four smooth-bore light

pieces on the platform of the fort, and six similar pieces in a line

of rifle-pits exterior to and above it. Some trenches had been dug a

mile and a half below the fort, but they were untenable in presence of

the gunboats, which enfiladed and shelled them out.

While the army was moving round to the rear of the fort the admiral

sent up the ironclads to try the range, and afterward the light-draught

Rattler to clear out the rifle-pits, which was done at 5.30 P.M.

Hearing from General McClernand that the troops were ready, the

Louisville, Lieutenant-Commander Owen; De Kalb, Lieutenant-Commander

Walker, and Cincinnati, Lieutenant Bache, advanced to within four

hundred yards of the work and opened fire; the Louisville in the

centre, the De Kalb on the right and the Cincinnati on the left, each

having one of the enemy's casemate guns assigned to it. The vessels

fought bows on, three guns each; the odds being thus three guns afloat

to one in casemate on shore, leaving the advantage by the old

calculation, four to one, rather with the fort, without counting the

light pieces in the latter. When the ironclads were hotly engaged the

admiral brought up the light-draught vessels, with the Black Hawk and

Lexington, to throw in shrapnel and light rifled shell. Later, when the

battery was pretty well silenced, the Rattler, Lieutenant-Commander

Watson Smith, was ordered to pass the fort and enfilade it, which he

did in handsome style, suffering a good deal from the enemy's fire;

when above, however, he became entangled in snags and was obliged to

return. No assault was made this day by the army.

The following day, at 1.30 P.M., the army again being reported ready,

the attack was renewed in the same order by the navy, the artillery on

shore in rear of the fort opening at the same time. The guns opposed

to the fleet were silenced by 4 P.M., when the Rattler and Glide,

with the ram Monarch, Colonel Ellet, pushed by the fort and went up

the river, destroying a ferry ten miles above, so that not over thirty

or forty of the enemy escaped by it. At 4.30 P.M., when the army had

worked its way close to the intrenchments and orders had been issued

for a general assault, but before it could be made, white flags were

displayed on the face of the works. The commanding officer of the

fort, Colonel Dunnington, formerly an officer in the United States

Navy, surrendered to Admiral Porter; General Churchill, commanding the

troops, to General McClernand. The total number of Confederate troops

taken was 5,000.

It was impossible that the work of the navy could be done more

thoroughly than in this instance. Every gun opposed to it was either

destroyed or dismounted, and the casemates were knocked to pieces, the

fire of the X-inch guns of the De Kalb being in the opinion of the

enemy most injurious. In performing this service the vessels did not

come off scatheless. The De Kalb had one 32-pounder gun dismounted and

one X-inch destroyed, besides undergoing severe damage to the hull.

The other vessels were repeatedly struck, but none were rendered unfit

for immediate service. The armor was found to protect them well, the

injuries to the crew being by shot entering the ports. The casualties,

confined to the Louisville and De Kalb, were 6 killed and 25 wounded.

The next morning, January 12th, the admiral despatched the De Kalb and

Cincinnati, under Lieutenant-Commander Walker, to the White River;

transports and troops, under General Gorman, accompanying. St. Charles

was reached at 11 A.M. of the 14th, and found to be evacuated; the

garrison, having left on the evening of the 12th, in the Blue Wing,

taking with them two VIII-inch guns and a field battery. Leaving the

Cincinnati here, the De Kalb with the troops pushed on to Duvall's

Bluff, fifty miles further up, where is the crossing of the railroad

to Little Rock, on the Arkansas River. The transports were left four

miles below, while the De Kalb steamed up to the bluff, arriving there

at 3 P.M. of the 16th. She was close on the heels of the Blue Wing,

which got away fifteen minutes before her arrival, but the two

VIII-inch guns were seized in the act of being loaded on the cars for

Little Rock. At this point of his progress, the orders issued by

General Grant for the return of McClernand's forces to before

Vicksburg were received. The dépôt buildings and captured rolling

stock having been destroyed, the gunboats and transports rejoined the

main body in the Mississippi.

The naval vessels, on the 24th of January, lay off the mouth of the

Yazoo, and from there to the neck of land opposite Vicksburg, where

the army under Grant's orders was disembarking. A few days before

Porter had been obliged to withdraw the gunboats, because the coal

supply of the fleet was exhausted. During their absence eleven

Confederate transports that had been employed on the river between

Vicksburg and Port Hudson went up the Yazoo for supplies, and were

there caught by the unexpected return of the squadron, a serious

embarrassment to the enemy.

At this time the vessels of the squadron near Vicksburg, or within

easy reach, were: The Benton, Cincinnati, De Kalb, Louisville, Mound

City, Pittsburg, and Chillicothe, ironclads; Rattler, Glide, Linden,

Signal, Romeo, Juliet, Forest Rose, Marmora, light-draughts; the Tyler

and Black Hawk, wooden armed steamers; Queen of the West, Monarch,

Switzerland, Lioness, rams. During the following month the Carondelet

and Indianola, ironclads, joined the fleet. The heavy vessels remained

near the army and the principal scene of operations, but some of

these lighter vessels and rams, with others farther up, were scattered

at intervals along the river from Island No. 10 downward, cruising up

and down, keeping off guerillas, preventing contraband traffic, and

convoying transports and supply boats; in a word, keeping open the

communications of the army. A small squadron of five light-draughts

performed the same service constantly in the Tennessee and Cumberland

Rivers.

General Grant arrived on the 30th of January. The army were busy

digging on the canal across the neck, which had been begun the

previous summer, and the various plans as yet discussed had mainly

reference to turning the right flank of the Confederates. Meantime

there was no hindrance to the complete control of the river between

Vicksburg and Port Hudson by the enemy, who continued their traffic

across it and by the Red River unmolested.

Porter, therefore, determined to send some vessels below. The

batteries were much stronger than when Farragut had last passed, but

the importance of the step justified the risk. Once below, the

possession of the west bank by the Union troops gave a safe base to

which to retreat. The honor of leading in such an enterprise was given

to Colonel Charles R. Ellet, of the ram fleet, a man of tried daring.

Many considerations pointed to the rams being the fittest to make such

an attempt. They had greater speed, were well able to cope with any

vessel they were likely to meet, their greater height gave them more

command of the levees, and they were not needed to fight batteries,

which the heavier boats might be. The Queen of the West was chosen and

prepared with two thicknesses of cotton bales. Her commander received

minute orders as to his undertaking, and was directed to proceed by

night, under low speed until near the town, or discovered, to ram a

steamer called the Vicksburg lying at the wharf, at the same time

firing turpentine balls into her, and then to pass on down under the

guns of the army. She started on what was to prove a chequered career

at 4.30 A.M. of the 2d of February. Unfortunately it was found that a

recent change in the arrangement of her wheel kept her from being

steered as nicely as was needful, and the delay to remedy this defect

brought daylight upon her as she rounded the point. A heavy fire

opened at once, but still she went straight on, receiving three shots

before she reached the Vicksburg. Rounding to partly, she succeeded in

ramming, and at the same time firing the enemy with her turpentine

balls. Just then two shells from the Confederate batteries passed

through her cotton armor, one of them setting it on fire near the

starboard wheel, while the discharge of her own bow guns produced the

same effect forward. The flames spread rapidly, and the dense smoke

was suffocating the men in the engine-room. Seeing that, if he delayed

longer in order to ram again, he would probably lose his vessel, Ellet

turned her head down stream and arrived safely abreast the army below.

The fire was subdued by cutting her burning bales adrift and throwing

them overboard.

In this gallant affair the Queen of the West was struck twelve times

by heavy shot, besides undergoing a steady fire from the Confederate

sharpshooters. One of her guns was dismounted, but the other harm was

trifling, and none of her company were hurt. The Vicksburg was badly

injured.

The ram was at once sent down the river, starting at 1 P.M. of the

same day. At Warrenton, just below Vicksburg, she encountered two

batteries, which fired upon without hurting her. The following day,

when fifteen miles below the mouth of the Red River, she captured two

Confederate steamers, one of which was loaded down with provisions for

the army; and when returning up stream, a third, similarly loaded,

was taken coming out of the Red River. The coal supply running short,

it became necessary to burn them. A quantity of meal on a wharf,

awaiting transportation, was also destroyed, and seven Confederate

officers captured. The Queen returned from this raid on the 5th.

On the night of the 7th a barge, with coal enough to last nearly a

month, was set adrift from the fleet above and floated safely by the

batteries to the ram. Having filled up, she took the barge in tow and

again went down the river on the 10th, accompanied by the De Soto, a

small ferryboat which the army had seized below and turned over to the

navy; she was partly protected with iron and cotton. At 10.15 P.M. of

the 12th the admiral sent down the ironclad steamer Indianola,

Lieutenant-Commander George Brown. Taking with her two coal barges,

she proceeded slowly and quietly, and was not discovered till she had

passed the upper batteries. When the first gun was fired, she started

ahead full speed, and, though under fire for twenty minutes longer,

was not struck. With justifiable elation the admiral could now write:

"This gives us complete control of the Mississippi, except at

Vicksburg and Port Hudson. We have now below two XI-inch guns, two

IX-inch, two 30-pounder rifles, six 12-pounders, and three vessels."

Yet, with the same mockery of human foresight that followed Farragut's

satisfaction when he felt he controlled the whole Gulf coast, on the

same day that these lines were penned two of the three passed out of

Union hands, and the third had but a few days' career before her.

The Queen of the West went down the Mississippi, destroying skiffs and

flatboats whenever found, as far as the Red River, which was reached

on the morning of the 12th. Going up the Red River to the point where

the Atchafalaya Bayou branches off on its way to the Gulf, the De

Soto and barge were secured there, while the Queen went down the bayou

destroying Confederate Government property. In performing this service

one of her officers was wounded by a party of guerillas. Returning to

the De Soto, the two started up Red River. On the morning of the 14th

a transport, called the Era No. 5, was captured with two Confederate

officers. Hearing that there were three large boats lying, with steam

down, at Gordon's Landing, thirty miles higher up (about seventy-five

miles from the mouth of the river), Colonel Ellet decided to attempt

their capture. On rounding the bluff above which they were lying, the

Queen was fired upon by a battery of four 32-pounders. Orders were

immediately given to back down behind the bluff, but by some mishap

she ran aground on the right side, in plain view of the battery,

within easy range and powerless for offence. Here she received several

shots, one of which, cutting the steam-pipe, stopped the engines, that

had been backing vigorously. Nothing further in the way of escape was

tried, and the commanding officer was deterred from setting fire to

the ship by the impossibility of removing the wounded officer.

The Queen and the De Soto each had but one boat, and in the panic that

followed the explosion a party took possession of the Queen's and made

off with it to the De Soto, under the pretext of hurrying that vessel

up to the assistance of her consort; so the remainder of the ship's

company, including her commander, made their escape to the other

steamer on cotton bales. The De Soto sent up her yawl, which took off

one load, getting away just before the Confederates boarded their

prize.

The De Soto now started on a hurried retreat down the river, but

running into the bank she lost her rudder. Deprived of the power of

directing her motions, she was allowed to drift with the stream,

picking up, from time to time, a fugitive on a bale, and was rejoined

by her yawl about ten miles lower down. Shortly after this the parties

fell in with the prize of the morning, when the De Soto was burned and

the hasty flight continued in the Era. The following morning the

Mississippi was reached, and the day after, the 16th, they met the

Indianola eight miles below Natchez.

The Queen of the West had thus passed practically unhurt into

Confederate hands, the manner of her loss giving another instance of

how lack of heed in going into action is apt to be followed by a

precipitate withdrawal from it and unnecessary disaster. Colonel

Ellet's only reason for not burning the Queen was that he could not

remove one of her officers, who had been wounded the day before. If he

had transferred him to the De Soto before going under the battery with

the Queen, the fighting ship, this difficulty would not have existed.

No one seems to have been hurt, by the Union and Confederate reports,

and it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Ellet's rashness in

exposing his vessel, though he knew the Indianola was to be sent down,

was not atoned for by sticking to her until he had destroyed her. The

accidents were of a kind most likely to happen, and very simple

appliances that might have been all ready would have ensured her

burning. It is to be remembered, however, that Colonel Ellet was at

this time not twenty years old.

On receiving the news of the disaster, Lieutenant-Commander Brown

decided to go down as far as the mouth of the Red River. The same day

was met off Ellis's Cliff the Confederate gunboat Webb, which had been

lying at Alexandria and had started in hot pursuit of the fugitives

from the Queen of the West. Upon making out the Indianola, which she

had not expected, the Webb at once turned, and having greater speed

easily escaped; the Indianola following down to the mouth of the Red

River. Here she anchored and remained three days, while the Era, on

the 18th, returned to the neck below Vicksburg.

Brown now learned that the Queen of the West had not been so much

injured as her late commander had thought, and that a combined attack

would probably be made by her and the Webb upon the Indianola. Two

cottonclad boats were also in preparation by the Confederates for the

same purpose. In view of these facts he determined to go up the

Mississippi and get cotton, with which better to protect the Indianola

against boarders by filling up the gangways between the casemates and

the wheels. By the time this was done, having as yet met no other

vessel of the squadron, though he had hoped for reinforcements when

the loss of the Queen became known, he had reached the decision to

return and communicate with the admiral.

With two barges alongside, the progress of the Indianola against the

current was slow--too slow, for the swift rams of the enemy were

already on her track; but although Brown had kept the bunkers of the

Indianola full, he confidently expected to meet another boat which

would need the coal, and was unwilling to sink it. The smoke of the

pursuers had been seen throughout the day, and at 9.30 P.M. of the

24th four steamers were made out. These were the rams Queen and Webb,

the former in charge of Captain McCloskey, the latter of Captain

Pierce; Major J.L. Brent, of General Taylor's staff, having command of

this part of the expedition, which was fitted out in Alexandria and

accompanied by a tender called the Grand Era. These had been joined

before leaving the Red River by the cottonclad steamer Batey from Port

Hudson, carrying 250 riflemen under Lieutenant-Colonel Brand, whose

rank entitled him to command the whole.

The enemy used the advantage of their greatly superior speed to choose

the night for attacking, that the Indianola might not fire with the

certainty of clear sight. They first saw her near Palmyra Island, a

little above New Carthage, and were themselves made out at the same

instant. The Indianola at once went to quarters and cleared for

action, continuing up stream till her preparations were made; then she

turned and stood down. The channel above Palmyra Island at that time

hugged the eastern shore, crossing to the western just above the

island, and the Indianola seems to have been in this place when the

enemy coming up describes her as "with her head quartering across and

down river," presenting the port bow to their approach. The order of

advance was with the Queen leading, the Webb five hundred yards

astern, and the two other boats lashed together some distance in the

rear. The Queen dashed up, firing her light pieces to no purpose when

one hundred and fifty yards off, and endeavored to ram the Indianola

abaft the port wheel; but the latter, backing, received the blow on

the barge, through which the enemy's sharp bow passed but without

injuring her opponent. The barge went adrift and sunk. The Webb

followed, and, the Indianola standing for her at full speed, the two

came together bows on with a crash that knocked down most of their

crews. The Webb's bow was cut in for a distance of eight feet,

extending from two feet above the water-line to the keelson, but as

she was filled in solid for more than eight feet she did not sink. The

Indianola received no damage.

A third blow was delivered on the starboard side by the Webb, in what

manner does not appear precisely, with the effect of crushing the

other barge, leaving it hanging by the lashings, which were then cut

adrift. The Webb passed up following the Queen. The latter, having

gained sufficient distance, turned and charged down, but as the

Indianola was turning up at the same moment the blow on the starboard

bow glanced, the vessels rasping by each other; and as the Queen

cleared the stern of her enemy, the latter planted two IX-inch shot

successfully, killing 2 and wounding 4 of her crew and disabling two

guns. During all this time the Indianola kept firing her guns whenever

they could be made to bear, but, as the enemy had calculated, the

darkness of the night prevented them from doing as much execution as

they otherwise would. The rams also kept up a constant firing with

their musketry and light guns. In the uncertain light it was very

difficult to watch the two assailants through the peep-holes in the

pilot-house of the gunboat, but yet a fifth blow was received forward

of the wheels without injury. At last, however, the Queen was able to

strike just abaft the starboard wheel-house, crushing the wheel,

disabling the starboard rudder, and starting a number of leaks abaft

the shaft. The starboard engine was thus useless and the Indianola

helpless to avoid the onset of the Webb, which struck her fair in the

stern, starting the timbers and starboard rudder-box so that the water

poured in in large volumes. This settled the fight, and Brent reported

to Colonel Brand that the enemy was disabled. The Batey then dashed up

to board, but the Indianola, after delaying a few moments in mid

river, till the water had risen nearly to the grate-bars, to assure

her sinking, had run her bows into the west bank, and surrendered as

soon as the cottonclads came alongside. The enemy, finding that she

must sink and not willing that this should happen on the side where

the Union army was, made fast at once two steamers and towed her down

and over to the east bank, where she sank in ten feet of water near

the plantation of the President of the Confederacy. The loss of the

Indianola was 1 killed, 1 wounded, and 7 missing. The latter probably

got ashore on the west bank, for 3 were captured there the following

day and more than one got through to Porter's squadron. The loss of

the enemy was officially stated at 3 killed and 5 wounded, but a

Confederate officer admitted to the commander of the Indianola that it

was much greater.

This ended Porter's sanguine hopes of blockading the river by detached

vessels while he kept the body of the fleet above. After being

harassed and stirred up during three weeks, the Confederates again

found themselves masters of the line from Vicksburg to Port Hudson for

a few days longer, and with two Union vessels in their hands, one of

which was serviceable, while the other, badly damaged and partly sunk,

it is true, had still her armament intact and was possibly not beyond

repair. Their possession of the Indianola, however, was of short

duration. The second day after the capture, a detail of 100 men with a

lieutenant was sent to try and save her, by the army officer

commanding near by, while the Queen of the West went up to Warrenton,

to act as picket for the fleet, and with despatches to General

Stevenson, commanding at Vicksburg, asking for pumps and other help.

In a short time, the Queen returned in great haste and reported a

gunboat approaching. All the vessels that had behaved so gallantly two

nights before got under way in a panic and went hurriedly down,

leaving the working party and the lieutenant. The gunboat did not come

nearer than two miles and a half, and seemed very apprehensive of an

attack herself, sticking close to the bank. The lieutenant stood his

ground for one day; but then finding himself deserted by his own

fleet, which by this time was up Red River, and the gunboat still

lying, terrible though inert, just above him, he, the next evening,

laid the two XI-inch guns muzzle to muzzle, and so fired them. One

was burst, the other apparently only kicked over. He next threw

overboard two field pieces he had with him, made an attempt to blow up

the vessel, which resulted in destroying the forward casemate and

burning most of the wreck above water, and then fled with his command.

The gunboat which caused all this consternation with such happy

results to the Union fleet was a mock monitor, built upon the hull of

an old coal barge, with pork barrels piled to resemble smoke-stacks,

through which poured volumes of smoke from mud furnaces. She went down

swiftly with the current, passing the Vicksburg batteries just before

daylight, and drawing from them a furious cannonade. As day broke she

drifted into the lower end of the canal, and was again sent down

stream by the amused Union soldiers, who as little as the admiral

dreamed of the good service the dummy was to do. Such was the end of

the Indianola, a striking instance of the moral power of the gunboats.

The Queen of the West was subsequently sent through the Bayou

Atchafalaya to Grand Lake, and there destroyed two months later by the

gunboats of the Gulf Squadron.

When the news of these reverses reached New Orleans, Admiral Farragut,

who had for some time contemplated a movement up the river, felt that

the time was come. On the 12th of March he was at Baton Rouge, where

he inspected the ships of the squadron the next day; and then moved up

to near Profit's Island, seven miles below the bend on which Port

Hudson is situated. On the 14th, early, the vessels again weighed and

anchored at the head of the island, where the admiral communicated

with Commander Caldwell, of the Essex, who for some time had occupied

this station with a half dozen mortar-schooners.

As one ascends the river to Port Hudson, the course pursued is nearly

due north; then it takes a sharp turn to the west-southwest for a

distance of one or two miles. The little town of Port Hudson is on the

east bank just below the bend. The bluffs on which the batteries were

placed begin at the bend, extending for a mile and a half down the

river, and are from eighty to one hundred feet high. From the opposite

bank, at and just below the point, a dangerous shoal spot makes out.

At the time of the passage of the fleet there were mounted in battery

nineteen heavy guns,[15] viz.: two X-inch and two VIII-inch

columbiads; two 42-, two 32-, and three 24-pound smooth-bores; and

eight rifles, varying from 80- to 50-pounders.

The object of the admiral was simply to pass the batteries with his

fleet, so as to blockade the river above. The vessels he had with him

were the Hartford (flag-ship), twenty-four guns, Captain James S.

Palmer; Monongahela, ten guns, Captain J.P. McKinstry; Mississippi,

seventeen guns, Captain Melancton Smith; Richmond, twenty-four guns,

Commander James Alden; Genesee, eight guns, Commander William H.

Macomb; Albatross, six guns, Lieutenant-Commander John E. Hart; Kineo,

six[16] guns, Lieutenant-Commander John Watters.

The larger ships, except the Mississippi, were directed to take a

gunboat on the port side, securing her well aft, so as to leave as

much of the port battery as possible clear. Each was to keep a little

to starboard of her next ahead, so as to be free to use her bow guns

as soon as possible with the least danger from premature explosions of

projectiles. In accordance with this order, the Hartford took the

Albatross, the Monongahela, the Kineo, and the Richmond the Genesee;

the Richmond being the slowest ship and the Genesee the most powerful

gunboat. The ships were prepared as at the passage of the lower forts,

and in the Hartford the admiral had placed his pilot in the

mizzen-top, where he could see more clearly, and had arranged a

speaking-tube thence to the deck. The Essex and Sachem were not to

attempt the passage, but with some mortar-boats to engage the lower

batteries to cover the movement.

Shortly before 10 P.M. the ships weighed and advanced in the following

order: Hartford, Richmond, Monongahela, Mississippi. At eleven, as

they drew near the batteries, the lowest of which the Hartford had

already passed, the enemy threw up rockets and opened their fire.

Prudence, and the fact of the best water being on the starboard hand,

led the ships to hug the east shore of the river, passing so close

under the Confederate guns that the speech of the gunners and troops

could be distinguished. Along the shore, at the foot of the bluffs,

powerful reflecting lamps, like those used on locomotives, had been

placed, to show the ships to the enemy as they passed; and for the

same purpose large fires, already stacked on the opposite point, were

lit. The fire of the fleet and from the shore soon raised a smoke

which made these precautions useless, while it involved the ships in a

danger greater than any from the enemy's guns. Settling down upon the

water, in a still damp atmosphere, it soon hid everything from the

eyes of the pilots. The flag-ship, leading, had the advantage of

pushing often ahead of her own smoke; but those who followed ran into

it and incurred a perplexity which increased from van to rear. At the

bend of the river the current caught the Hartford on her port bow,

sweeping her round with her head toward the batteries and nearly on

shore, her stem touching the ground slightly; but by her own efforts

and the assistance of the Albatross she was backed clear. Then, the

Albatross backing and the Hartford going ahead strong with the

engines, her head was fairly pointed up the stream, and she passed by

without serious injury. Deceived possibly by the report of the

howitzers in her top, which were nearly on their own level, the

Confederates did not depress their guns sufficiently to hit her as

often as they did the ships that followed her. One killed and two

wounded is her report; and one marine fell overboard, his cries for

help being heard on board the other ships as they passed by, unable to

save him.

The Richmond, with the Genesee alongside, following the Hartford, had

reached the last battery and was about to make the turn when a

plunging shot entering about four feet above the berth-deck, passed

through a barricade of clothes-bags and hawsers into the engine-room,

upsetting the starboard safety-valve; then glancing a little upward,

it displaced the port safety-valve weight and twisted the lever,

leaving the valve partly opened. The steam escaped so rapidly as to

reduce the pressure at once to nine pounds, while filling the

fire-room and berth-deck. Deprived thus of her motive force, it was

found that the Genesee was not able to drag both vessels up against

the strong current then running. Commander Alden was therefore

compelled to turn down stream, and after some narrow escapes from the

fire of his own fleet, was soon carried by the gunboat out of range.

The two vessels lost 3 killed and 15 wounded; among the latter the

first lieutenant of the Richmond, A. Boyd Cummings, mortally.

The Monongahela and Kineo were third in line. While under the fire of

the principal batteries, musketry opened upon them from the west bank,

which was soon silenced by shrapnel and grape from the Kineo. A few

moments later a chance shot lodged between the stern-post and

rudder-post of the gunboat, wedging the rudder and making it

completely useless. The density of the smoke, complained of by all the

officers of the fleet that night, caused the pilots to miss their way;

and the larger ship took the ground on the spit opposite the town. The

Kineo, not touching, with the way she had tore clear of her fasts,

and, ranging a short distance ahead, grounded also. Both vessels

received considerable though not serious damage from the violence of

the separation. The Kineo was soon able to back clear and, though

disabled, managed to get a hawser from the Monongahela and pull that

ship off after she had been twenty-five minutes aground. The latter

then went ahead again, while the Kineo, unable to steer properly,

drifted down stream out of range. While aground a shot came in,

cutting away the bridge under Captain McKinstry's feet, and throwing

him to the deck below; the fall incapacitated him from remaining at

his station, and Lieutenant-Commander N.W. Thomas took command of the

Monongahela. Meanwhile the Mississippi had passed, unseen and

unseeing, in the smoke, and had herself grounded a little farther up

near the head of the spit. She was observed to be on fire as the

Monongahela again drew near the bend, and at the same moment the

latter vessel's engines ceased to move, a crank-pin being heated. Thus

unmanageable she drifted down within thirty yards of the batteries,

and had to anchor below. Her loss was 6 killed and 21 wounded; the

Kineo, though repeatedly struck, had no one hurt.

The Mississippi had passed the lower batteries and had reached the

bend, going fast, when she struck, heeling at once three streaks to

port. The engines were reversed and backed to the full extent of their

power, and the port battery run in to bring the ship on an even keel.

After working for thirty-five minutes it was found impossible to get

her off. The port battery and pivot gun were then ordered to be thrown

overboard, but before that was done Captain Smith decided that the

ship would have to be abandoned, as three batteries had her range and

were hulling her constantly.

The sick and wounded were brought up, and three small boats, all that

were left, were employed in landing the crew. The fire of the

starboard battery had been kept up until this time, but now ceased.

The ship was then set on fire in the forward store-room; but before

the fire had gained sufficient headway, three shot entering there let

in water and put it out. She was then fired in four different places

aft, and as soon as it was sure that she would be destroyed, the

captain and first lieutenant left her, passing down to the Richmond in

safety. The Mississippi remained aground till 3 A.M., when she floated

off and drifted down the river, passing the other ships without

injuring them. At 5.30, being then some distance below, she blew up,

thus meeting the same fate that had befallen her sister ship, the

Missouri, twenty years before, in the harbor of Gibraltar.

From the circumstances of the case the exact number of killed and

wounded of the Mississippi could not be ascertained. Upon mustering

the ship's company after the action, 64 were found missing out of a

total of 297. Of these 25 were believed to have been killed.

It is sufficiently apparent, from the above accounts of the

experiences of each vessel, that the failure of the greater part of

the fleet to pass was principally due to other circumstances than the

Confederate fire. The darkness of the night, the stillness of the air,

which permitted the smoke to settle undisturbed, the intricacy of the

navigation, the rapidity of the current, then running at the rate of

five knots, the poor speed of the ships, not over eight knots, were

known beforehand, and were greater elements of danger than the simple

fire of the enemy. To these is to be added the difficulty of making

the turn, with the swift current of the river round the bend tending

to throw the ship bodily on to the hostile shore before she could be

brought to head in the new direction. The Hartford and her consort

alone reached this final trial, and were by it nearly involved in the

common disaster.

Nearly, but not quite; and the success of the two vessels, though it

placed them in a trying and hazardous position, ensured the attainment

of the object for which the risk had been run. The Red River was

blockaded, not again to be open to the Confederates during the war;

and though nearly four months were still to elapse before the

Mississippi would be freely used throughout its length by Union

vessels, it slipped finally from the control of the enemy as Farragut

with his two ships passed from under the batteries at Port Hudson.

The morning after the action the flag-ship dropped down nearly within

range of the enemy, to communicate, if possible, by signal with the

fleet below, but they could not be seen from her mast-heads; therefore

after firing three guns, as before concerted with General Banks, the

admiral went on up the river. The following morning he anchored off

the mouth of the Red River, remaining twenty-four hours; and then went

on to below Vicksburg to communicate with Porter, arriving there on

the 20th. On the way the ships engaged a battery of four rifled pieces

at Grand Gulf, losing 2 men killed and 6 wounded, but met with no

other opposition. Porter was absent in Deer Creek, one of the bayous

emptying into the Yazoo, when Farragut's messenger arrived, but

communication was held with General Grant, Captain Walke, the senior

naval officer present, and General A.W. Ellet, commanding the ram

flotilla. Farragut, deprived of the greater part of his own fleet, was

very desirous of getting reinforcements from above; asking specially

for an ironclad and a couple of rams to assist him in maintaining the

blockade of Red River and to patrol the Mississippi. In the absence of

Porter he was not willing to urge his request upon the subordinate

officers present, but General Ellet assumed the responsibility of

sending down two rams, without waiting to hear from the admiral, of

whose concurrence he expressed himself as feeling assured; an opinion

apparently shared by the others present at the consultation. It would

seem, however, that Porter did not think the rams actually sent fit to

be separated from a machine-shop by enemies' batteries; and his

ironclads could not be spared from the work yet to be done above. The

rams Switzerland and Lancaster, the former under command of Colonel

Charles E. Ellet, late of the Queen of the West, the latter under

Lieutenant-Colonel John A. Ellet, were detailed for this duty and

started during the night of the 24th, but so late that they did not

get by before the sun had risen. The batteries opened upon them

between 5.30 and 6 A.M. of the 25th. The Lancaster, an old and rotten

boat, received a shell in her boilers; and her hull was so shattered

by the explosion that she went to pieces and sank, the officers and

crew escaping on cotton bales. The Switzerland was hulled repeatedly

and received two shots in her boilers; but being a stronger boat

survived her injuries and drifted down safely to her destination,

where a week's labor put her again in fighting condition. The

recklessness of the daring family whose name is so associated with the

ram fleet had thus caused the loss of two of them, and led Porter to

caution Farragut to keep the one now with him always under his own

eye.

Soon after the coming of General Grant, while the army was digging

canals at two or three different points, with the view of opening new

waterways from above to below Vicksburg, Admiral Porter had suggested

that by cutting the levee across the old Yazoo Pass, six miles below

Helena, access might be had to the Yazoo above Haines's Bluff and

Vicksburg turned by that route. Grant ordered the cutting, and Porter

sent the light-draught Forest Rose to stand by to enter when open.

There are two entrances from the Mississippi to the pass, the upper

one direct, the lower one turning to the left and running parallel to

the course of the river. Just within their junction the levee, built

in 1856, crosses the pass, which is here only seventy-five feet wide

between the timber on either side. At the distance of a mile from the

great river the pass enters the northern end of Moon Lake, a

crescent-shaped sheet of water, probably an old bed of the

Mississippi. The lake is seven or eight miles long and from eight

hundred to a thousand yards wide, with a uniform depth enough to float

the largest steamboats. Two or three plantations were then on the east

shore, but the rest was unbroken forest, quiet and isolated, abounding

in game as the waters did in fish. The pass issues again half way down

the eastern side, through an opening so shut in with trees that it can

scarcely be seen a hundred yards away, and pursues a tortuous course

of twelve or fourteen miles to the Coldwater River, the upper portion

of the Yazoo. In this part of the route, which never exceeds one

hundred feet in width and often narrows to seventy-five or less, the

forest of cyprus and sycamore trees, mingled with great cottonwoods

and thickly twining wild grape-vines, formed a perfect arch overhead,

shutting out the rays of the sun; and, though generally high enough to

allow the tall smoke-stacks to pass underneath, sometimes grazed

their tops and again swept them down to the deck as the swift current

bore the vessels along.

Digging on the levee was begun on the 2d of February, under the

direction of Lieutenant-Colonel James H. Wilson, of the Engineers. At

this time the difference of level between the water inside and out of

the levee was eight and a half feet. At seven the next evening, the

digging having gone far enough, a mine was exploded and the water

rushed in. By eleven the opening was forty yards wide and the water

pouring in like a cataract, tearing aways logs, trees, and great

masses of earth with the utmost ease. Owing to the vast tract of

country to be flooded before the waters could attain their level, it

was not possible to enter for four or five days; during that time they

were spreading north and south and east, driving the wild animals from

their lairs and the reptiles to take refuge in the trees.

Meanwhile news of the project had reached the Confederates, who,

though they could have little idea of the magnitude of the force which

intended to penetrate where few but flat-boats had gone before, had

taken the easy precaution of felling large trees across the stream. On

the 10th Colonel Wilson had passed through Moon Lake and into the pass

beyond. Then it took three days of constant labor to get through five

miles of felled timber and drifted wood. Some of the trees reached

quite across the stream, and were four feet in diameter. To add to the

difficulties of the pioneers, the country all around was overflowed,

except a mere strip a few inches out of water on the very bank. Still

they persevered, and the way was opened through to the Coldwater.

Porter detailed for this expedition the ironclads Chillicothe,

Lieutenant-Commander James P. Foster, and De Kalb, Lieutenant-Commander

John G. Walker; light-draught steamers Rattler, Marmora, Signal, Romeo,

Petrel, and Forest Rose; rams Lioness and Fulton; the whole being

under Lieutenant-Commander Watson Smith, of the Rattler. The expedition

went through Yazoo Pass, meeting many obstructions and difficulties,

despite the work of Wilson's corps.

Three and a half days were consumed in making the twelve miles from

the lake to the Coldwater; for, though the current ran swiftly--five

or six miles an hour--the low, overhanging trees threatened the

chimneys, and big projecting limbs would come sweeping and crashing

along the light upper works, making a wreck of anything they met. The

great stern-wheels were constantly backing, and a small boat lay on

either quarter in readiness to run a line to the trees to check the

way of the vessels and to ease them round the sharp bends, which were

so frequent it was impossible to see ahead or astern one hundred yards

in any part of the route. Huge rafts of driftwood still remained to be

dislodged.

On the 28th of February the vessels entered the Coldwater. Here the

stream was wider and the current slacker, the trees rarely meeting

overhead; but the channel was nearly as crooked, and accidents almost

as frequent. Six days were consumed in advancing thirty miles through

an almost unbroken wilderness. The stream widened and the country

became more promising in the lower part of the Coldwater and the upper

part of the Tallahatchie, into which the vessels steamed on the

evening of the 6th in a sorely damaged condition. The Petrel had lost

her wheel and was wholly disabled; both smoke-stacks of the Romeo were

gone; the Chillicothe had run upon the stump of a tree and started a

plank in her bottom, which was now kept in place by being shored down

from the beams of the deck above; and though none, except the Petrel,

were unfit for fighting, all had suffered greatly in hull and upper

works. The transports, which had joined with 6,000 troops, were yet

more roughly handled.

The lower part of the Tallahatchie again became narrow and crooked,

and for forty or fifty miles no break appeared in a wild and

forbidding wilderness until they began to draw near Fort Pemberton,

when the stream grew to a fair size. Tokens of the enemy now were seen

in burning piles of cotton, and a Confederate steamer, which was

picking up what she could, was so closely pressed as to be burned by

her crew. The position of the Confederates had been chosen but a few

days before, and the works were only partially up. The Tallahatchie

here sweeps sharply to the east, and then returns again, forming a

horseshoe bend thirteen miles long, the two parts of the stream

approaching each other so closely that the neck of the enclosed

peninsula is less than a quarter of a mile wide. It is in this bend

that the Yallabusha enters, the river then taking the name of Yazoo;

so that the works erected across the neck were said to be between the

Tallahatchie and Yazoo, though the stream is one. The fort, which was

called Pemberton, was built of cotton and earth; in front of it was a

deep slough, and on its right flank the river was barricaded by a raft

and the hull of the ocean steamer Star of the West, which, after

drawing the first shots fired in the war, when the batteries in

Charleston stopped her from reinforcing Fort Sumter in January, 1861,

had passed by some chance to New Orleans, where she was seized by the

Government of Louisiana when that State seceded. When Farragut took

New Orleans, she, with many river steamers, was taken to the Yazoo,

and now met her end sunk in the swollen waters of a Southern creek.

The cannon mounted in the works were one six-and-a-half-inch rifled

gun, three 20-pounder Parrott rifles, and some field pieces, among

which was a Whitworth rifle. Lieutenant F.E. Shepperd, of the

Confederate Navy, who had been busy felling trees in the upper river,

was put in charge of these pieces because none of the army officers

present, except General Loring, were familiar with the use of great

guns. The heavy rifle, the main reliance of the fort, was only got

into position by blocking it up from the ground, no other appliances

being at hand; and as there was not enough blocking, the attempt had

nearly failed. It was in place barely in time to meet the gunboats.

The Chillicothe, at 10 A.M. of the 11th of March, steamed round the

bend above and engaged the battery. She was twice struck on the

turret, being materially injured, and withdrew to fortify with cotton

bales. At 4.25 P.M. she again went into action, at a distance of eight

hundred yards, with the De Kalb, but after firing four times, a shell

from the Confederate battery struck in the muzzle of the port XI-inch

just as the loaders had entered a shell and were stripping the patch

from the fuze; both projectiles exploded, killing 2 and wounding 11 of

the gun's crew, besides injuring the gun. The Chillicothe was then

withdrawn, after receiving another shot, which killed one of her

ship's company, and showing her unfitness for action through scamped

work put upon her. The stream was so narrow that two vessels could

with difficulty act, and therefore a 30-pound rifled gun was landed

from the Rattler on the 13th and an VIII-inch from the De Kalb on the

15th. The action was renewed again on the 13th, by both ironclads at

10.45 A.M., at a distance of eight hundred yards, and was severe until

2 P.M., when the Chillicothe was forced to retire, her ammunition

running short. The De Kalb remained in position until dark, firing

every fifteen minutes, but receiving no reply from the enemy. In this

day's fight the fort was much damaged, the earth covering and bales

being knocked away and the cotton set on fire in many places. None of

the guns were dismounted, but the large rifle was struck on the side

of the muzzle. The greater part of the powder was in a powder-boat a

mile away in the Yazoo, but small supplies for the immediate service

of the battery were kept in temporary receptacles in the fort. One of

these was struck by a shot and the cotton bale covering it knocked

off; before it could be replaced a bursting shell exploded the powder,

killing and wounding a number of the garrison.

On the 16th another attack was made by the two boats, but the

Chillicothe was disabled in a few minutes and both were withdrawn. The

difficulty of handling when fighting down stream prevented the vessels

from getting that nearness to the enemy which is so essential in an

attack by ships upon fortifications. Besides the damage sustained by

the Chillicothe, the De Kalb was much cut up, losing ten gun-deck

beams and having the wheel-house and steerage badly knocked to pieces,

but was not rendered unfit for service as the Chillicothe was. The

latter lost 4 killed and 16 wounded; the De Kalb 3 killed and 3

wounded. On the 17th, the troops being unable to land because the

country was overflowed and the ships unable to silence the fort, the

expedition fell back. On the 22d General Quimby and his command was

met coming down, and at his desire the whole expedition returned to

Fort Pemberton; but after remaining twelve days longer without effect

the attempt was finally abandoned.

Though thus inconclusive, the attempt by Yazoo Pass has an interest of

its own from the unique character of the difficulties encountered by

the ships. Although forewarned, the enemy were taken unawares, and

there is reason to believe, as we have seen, that had a little more

feverish energy been displayed the vessels might have got possession

of Fort Pemberton before its guns were mounted. As it was, by the

Confederate reports, "notwithstanding every exertion the enemy found

us but poorly prepared to receive him." There was no other favorable

position for defensive works down to Yazoo City.

While the result of the Yazoo Pass expedition was uncertain and the

vessels still before Fort Pemberton, an enterprise of similar

character was undertaken by Admiral Porter in person, having for its

object to reach the Yazoo below Yazoo City but far above the works at

Haines's Bluff. The proposed route was from the Yazoo up Steele's

Bayou, through Black Bayou to Deer Creek, and thence by Rolling Fork,

a crooked stream of about four miles, to the Big Sunflower, whence the

way was open and easy to the Yazoo River. Fort Pemberton would then be

taken between two divisions of the fleet, and must fall; while the

numerous steamers scattered through the streams of the Yazoo country

would be at the mercy of the gunboats.

After a short preliminary reconnoissance as far as Black Bayou, which

indicated that the enterprise was feasible, though arduous, and having

received encouraging accounts of the remainder of the route, the

admiral started on the 16th of March with five ironclads: the

Louisville, Lieutenant-Commander E.K. Owen; Cincinnati, Lieutenant

George M. Bache; Carondelet, Lieutenant J.M. Murphy; Mound City,

Lieutenant Byron Wilson; Pittsburg, Lieutenant W.B. Hoel; four

mortars, and four tugs. All went well till Black Bayou was reached.

This is about four miles long, narrow, and very crooked, and was then

filled with trees. Here the crews had to go to work, dragging the

trees up by the roots, or pushing them over with the ironclads, and

cutting away the heavy overhanging branches. Having done this the

ironclads were able to force their way through the bushes and trees

which lined the banks and clung closely to the bows and sides of the

vessels, but the way remained impracticable for transports and wooden

boats. In twenty-four hours the ironclads had gotten through these

four miles to Hill's plantation, at the junction of Black Bayou and

Deer Creek.

General W.T. Sherman had been directed to support the movement with

one division of his corps and a body of pioneers. The number of

steamers fit for the bayou navigation being limited, the division was

landed on the east bank of the Mississippi and crossed by land to

Steele's Bayou, which there approaches to within a mile of the river.

The pioneers followed the admiral up Black Bayou, and when the

gunboats entered Deer Creek remained to further clear the bayou. On

the 20th the work had progressed so that two transports entered as far

as a mile and a half below Hill's, where was the first piece of dry

land between that point and the mouth of the Yazoo, the country

generally being under water.

Meanwhile the admiral had pushed on up Deer Creek, where the water was

deep but the channel narrow, crooked, and filled with young willows,

which bound the boats and made progress very difficult. The bends were

sharp, and much trouble was experienced in heaving the vessels around

them, while the banks were lined with heavy trees and overhanging

branches that would tear down the chimneys and demolish boats and

light woodwork. Still they worked on, making from half a mile to a

mile an hour. The enemy, notwithstanding what had been done at Yazoo

Pass, were taken by surprise, not having believed that even gunboats

would try to penetrate by those marshy, willowy ditches. On the night

of the 17th, Colonel Ferguson, commanding the district, first received

word at his headquarters on Deer Creek, forty miles above Rolling

Fork, that the gunboats had entered the creek. He at once hurried a

battalion of sharpshooters and some artillery on board a steamer and

hastened down to Rolling Fork, being so lucky as to get there before

the vessels, on the afternoon of the 19th. A small detached body of

cavalry were ahead of him, and, acting on their own account, had begun

to cut down trees across the stream. Anticipating this, the admiral

had sent Lieutenant Murphy ahead in a tug and he had come up in time

to stop the felling of the first; but the horsemen galloped across

country faster than the tug could force her way through the channel

and at last got down a large tree, which arrested the tug till the

rest of the force came up. Then the slaves, with muskets to their

breasts, were compelled to ply their axes to stop the advance of those

to whom they looked for freedom.

The situation was critical, and the crews turned to with a will,

working night and day to clear away these obstacles, without sleep and

snatching their food. They were now five or six miles from Rolling

Fork, and hearing that the enemy were landing, Lieutenant Murphy was

sent forward with 300 men and two howitzers to hold the stream until

the gunboats could cover it with their guns; which he did, occupying

an Indian mound sixty feet high. After working all night and the next

day, the 19th, the squadron had hewed its way by sundown to within

eight hundred yards of Rolling Fork. They rested that night, and the

morning of the 20th again started to work through the willows, but the

lithe trees resisted all their efforts to push through, and had either

to be pulled up one by one or cut off under water, both tedious

processes. Meanwhile Ferguson, having collected 800 men and six pieces

of artillery, attacked Murphy's little body of men, who had to be

recalled. At three in the afternoon Featherstone's brigade, with a

section of artillery, arrived from Vicksburg to reinforce the enemy,

and toward sundown opened a sharp fire upon the gunboats from a

distance. Though this was easily silenced by the vessels, the

difficulty of throwing out working parties in the presence of the

enemy's force was apparent. Word was at once sent to Sherman of the

state of things, and reached him at 3 A.M. of the 21st; but before

that time the admiral, learning that some of the enemy had reached his

rear and had begun felling trees behind him to prevent his retreat,

had decided to withdraw. Advance through Rolling Fork was no longer

possible, it having been so obstructed that two or three days' labor

would have been needed to clear it, even if unopposed.

Having but ten or twelve feet to spare on either side it was

impossible to turn the boats, so the rudders were unshipped and they

began that night to back down, rebounding from tree to tree on either

bank as they struck them. The country from Rolling Fork to Black Bayou

was mostly a chain of plantations, in which the trees at few points

came down to the bank of the stream thickly enough to afford cover for

troops in numbers; but yet there was shelter for sharpshooters at such

a distance as enabled them to pick off any of the crews that exposed

themselves. The guns were three feet below the levee, depriving them

of much of their power to annoy the assailants. At 4 P.M. of the 21st,

however, Colonel Giles A. Smith, of Sherman's command, arrived with

800 men; Sherman, as soon as he heard of the admiral's dilemma, having

sent every man he had by the east bank of Deer Creek, remaining

himself alone at Hill's until nightfall. Three steamboat loads of

troops then arrived below, and were conducted by him, with lighted

candles, through two and a half miles of dense cane-brake to the

plantation.

When Smith reached the vessels, they had been stopped for an hour or

two by a coal barge sunk across the creek, and were kept from sending

out working parties by the enemy's sharpshooters. Smith now took

charge of the banks, being reinforced with 150 men and two howitzers

from the fleet, and before midnight the barge was blown up. The

retreat continued next day, the boats backing, and the Louisville,

which was the farthest down, clearing away the obstructions while the

troops kept the enemy from molesting the workers. Owing to the number

of trees to be removed, only six miles had been gained by 3 P.M., at

which hour a large body of the enemy were seen passing by, along the

edge of the woods, and taking position about a mile ahead of the

advance of the troops. The gunboats opened upon them, and at this time

General Sherman himself opportunely came up with his reinforcements

and drove the Confederates well back to the north and rear of the

squadron, thus finally freeing it from a very anxious and critical

dilemma. On the 24th Hill's plantation was reached, and the vessels

returned without further adventure to the mouth of the Yazoo, where

Porter communicated with Farragut, who still remained near the lower

end of the canal.

On the 29th and 30th it blew a gale of wind from the north, during

which the steamer Vicksburg, that had been rammed two months before by

the Queen of the West, broke adrift from her moorings at the city, and

went ashore on the bank opposite the Hartford. Upon examination it was

found that her machinery had been removed, and before any further

action had been taken by Farragut, the Confederates sent down and

burned her. Meanwhile coal from the army and provisions from the upper

squadrons were floated down in barges, and on the 31st, having waited

for the completion of the repairs on the Switzerland, the admiral got

under way, with the Albatross and the ram in company, and went down

the river. At Grand Gulf the batteries again opened on the ships,

striking the Switzerland twice and the Hartford once; the latter

losing one man killed. On the evening of April 1st the little squadron

reached Red River, having destroyed on its passage down a large number

of skiffs and flat-boats, available for the transport of stores across

the Mississippi from the western country, on which Vicksburg now

mainly depended for supplies.

In their isolated condition, and occupying a position so obnoxious to

the enemy, there was reason to expect a repetition on a larger scale

of the attack made upon the Indianola. The Hartford was specially

prepared for such a meeting. The lower yards were lowered down to the

rail and the stream-chain, lashed to the bowsprit end, was carried

aft, clove-hitched to the yard-arms and brought in again at the

warping chocks. This barrier, while it remained intact, would keep an

assailant fifteen to twenty feet from the ship; then, if it were

passed, as a further protection against boarders, hawsers were

stretched along fore and aft by the lower rigging, thirty feet above

the deck, carrying a heavy boarding netting which extended from that

height to the ship's rail. The hammock-cloths were kept triced up, and

the poop-deck and topgallant-forecastle, which were flush with the

rail of the ship, were barricaded with hammocks and sails. For

protection against rams large cypress logs were slung around the

vessel, a foot above the water line. During the time they were thus

alone the guns' crews always slept by the guns and the ship was kept

in a constant state of preparation for instant action.

On the 6th Farragut went down again to Port Hudson, anxious for news

about his other ships, from which he had now been for three weeks

separated, and desiring to communicate with General Banks. The

ordinary methods of signalling having failed to attain these objects,

the admiral's secretary, Mr. Gabaudan, volunteered to pass Port Hudson

in a skiff by night. The boat was covered with twigs, arranged to

resemble one of the floating trees not uncommon in the Mississippi.

At a quarter past eight on the evening of the 7th Mr. Gabaudan stepped

into his ark, and lying down in the bottom of it, with a paddle and

revolver by his side, was committed to the current. This bore him

safely by; but once grazing the shore, the sentinels were heard

commenting on the size of the log, and a boat put out to make an

examination. Fortunately the men were contented with a glance, which

satisfied them that the object was what it seemed; and Gabaudan's safe

arrival was signalled from the vessels below at 10 P.M.

The next morning the admiral returned to Red River and caught two

steamers outside, one of which managed to get in again; but the other

was captured, and with her a Confederate commissary, who was making

arrangements for crossing a large number of cattle from the West at

various points. Red River was effectually closed, but the smallness of

his force made it necessary to keep them all together, in case of

attack, and though intercourse across the Mississippi was seriously

impaired, it was not wholly checked. On the 15th the admiral again

returned to the bend above Port Hudson, and communicated by signal

with the Richmond, which had come up in accordance with instructions

transmitted through Mr. Gabaudan. This officer at the same time

returned to the ship, under protection of an escort, overland, there

being no regular Confederate force on the right bank.

Meanwhile General Grant had been maturing his plans for the movement

by which Vicksburg was eventually reduced. The bayou expeditions had

failed, and with them every hope of turning the enemy's right flank.

The idea had been entertained of opening a water route by cutting a

channel from the west bank of the Mississippi, seventy-five miles

above Vicksburg, to Lake Providence, from which there was

communication by bayous to the Tensas, Wachita, and Red Rivers, and so

to the Mississippi below Vicksburg. Yet another water-way by bayous

was contemplated from Milliken's Bend, twenty miles above, through the

Tensas, to New Carthage, thirty miles below, Vicksburg. Work was done

upon both these routes by the army; but the rapid falling of the river

toward the middle of April at once made them less desirable and the

roads on the west bank passable. Three army corps had already moved,

one after the other, beginning on the 29th of March, toward New

Carthage on the west bank; but though not over twenty miles by land in

a straight line, the condition of the country from broken levees and

bad roads made necessary a circuit of thirty-five miles to reach this

point. As soon as the movement was definitely decided upon, Admiral

Porter made his preparations for running the batteries of Vicksburg

with the greater portion of his fleet. To assure a supply of fuel

below, the vessels detailed for the duty took each a coal barge on the

starboard side, leaving the port guns, which would bear upon the

batteries, clear for firing. There being no intention to engage the

enemy except for the purpose of covering the passage, every precaution

was taken to avoid being seen or heard. All lights were extinguished,

ports carefully covered, and the fires well lighted before starting,

so as to show, if possible, no smoke; while to lessen the noise, the

steam, as with the Carondelet at Island No. 10, was to exhaust into

the wheel, and the vessels were to proceed at low speed. To avoid

collisions, fifty yards were prescribed as the interval to be

observed, and each boat was to keep a little to one side of its next

ahead, so that, in case of the latter stopping, the follower would be

able to pass without change of course. The sterns of the

vessels--their weakest part--were to be specially protected against

raking shots, which was done by piling wet bales of hay and slinging

heavy logs near the water line.

At a quarter past nine of the night of April 16th, the fleet destined

for this service got under way from the mouth of the Yazoo River, the

flag-ship Benton, sixteen guns,[17] Lieutenant-Commander James A.

Greer, leading, and the other vessels in the following order:

Lafayette, eight guns, Captain Henry Walke; Louisville, twelve guns,

Lieutenant-Commander Elias K. Owen; Mound City, fourteen guns,

Lieutenant Byron Wilson; Pittsburg, thirteen guns, Lieutenant W.R.

Hoel; Carondelet, eleven guns, Lieutenant J. McLeod Murphy; Tuscumbia,

five guns, Lieutenant-Commander James W. Shirk. The Lafayette carried

with her, lashed to the other side of her coal barge, the ram General

Price, Lieutenant S.E. Woodworth, which had continued in the service

after being taken from the Confederates at Memphis. After the

Carondelet, between her and the Tuscumbia, came three army transports,

the Silver Wave, Henry Clay, and Forest Queen, unprotected except by

bales of hay and cotton round the boilers. They carried stores, but no

troops.

A month later, and probably at this time also, the river batteries

before which the fleet was to pass contained thirty-one pieces of

heavy artillery and thirteen of light.[18] Among them were eight

X-inch, one IX-inch, and one VIII-inch columbiad, smooth-bore guns;

and eleven rifled guns of a calibre of 6.5 inches and upward.

At 11.10 P.M., the fleet then moving at a speed scarcely exceeding the

drift of the current, a musketry fire began from the upper batteries

of the enemy. At 11.16 the great guns began, slowly at first, but soon

more rapidly. A few moments later a large fire was lit on the point,

bringing the vessels, as they passed before it, into bold relief, and

serving to confuse, to some extent, the pilots of the fleet. Each ship

as she brought her guns to bear on rounding the point, opened her

fire, first from the bow and then from the port battery. The

engagement thus soon became general and animated. The confusion of the

scene was increased by the eddying currents of the river, which,

catching the slowly moving steamers, now on the bow, now on the

quarter, swung them round with their broadside to the stream, or even

threw the bow up river again. Unable to see through the smoke and

perplexed by the light of the fire, the majority of the vessels, thus

cut around, made a full turn in the stream under the guns of the

enemy, and one, at least, went round twice. The flag-ship Benton,

though heavily struck, passed through without special adventure

escaping this involuntary wheel. The Lafayette, in the smoke, found

her nose nearly on shore on the enemy's side, and her coal barge

received a shell in the bow which reduced it to a sinking condition.

The Louisville, next astern, coming up, fouled the Lafayette's

consort, the General Price; which, being already badly cut up by shot

and shell, cast off her fasts and made the rest of the journey alone.

The Lafayette then let go her barge and went down without further

adventure. The Louisville also lost her barge, apparently, at this

time, but picked it up again while still under fire. The Mound City

following came down upon the three vessels thus sported with by the

current and the difficulties of the night, and to avoid a like

disaster passed them by. The Pittsburg came next in her appointed

station; like the Mound City, she escaped the pranks of the eddy, and

both vessels, steaming leisurely on, used their guns with good effect;

receiving, while passing the burning pile ashore, several shot from

the enemy. The Pittsburg was struck on the quarter, where the logs

alone prevented the shot from entering the magazine. The Carondelet

met with no other mishap than making an involuntary circle in the

river. The Tuscumbia remained in rear of the transports, which had a

hard time. Either swung by the eddy, or daunted by the tremendous fire

which they were certainly ill-fitted to resist, two of them at one

time pointed up stream. The Tuscumbia stopped, prepared to compel

their passage down; but force was not needed. The Henry Clay caught

fire, was burnt and sank; the other resumed her course. When rounding

the point, the Tuscumbia touched, and as she backed off fouled the

Forest Queen, causing great hurrahs among the enemy. The vessels soon

got apart, but the transport had a shot through her steam-pipe; so the

Tuscumbia stuck to her, the two drifting down together until out of

range, when the gunboat towed the other ashore. The Tuscumbia had a

shot in the bows under water, starting seven planks and causing her to

leak badly.

Though repeatedly hulled, the armed vessels received no injury

unfitting them for instant service, and of their crews lost only 13

wounded. By three o'clock in the morning they were all anchored twelve

miles above New Carthage, ready to co-operate with the movements of

the army.

Encouraged by the comparative success of the transports on the 16th,

Grant directed six more to run the batteries, which was done on the

night of the 22d. One got a shot under water, and sank after getting

by; the others were more or less damaged, but were repaired by the

orders of Admiral Porter. Still the number was so limited, in

proportion to the amount of transportation required, that the general

decided to move the troops by land to Hard Times Landing, twenty-five

miles below New Carthage by the course of the river. The ships of war

and transports followed, the latter carrying as many men as they

could.

Five miles below Hard Times, on the opposite shore, is Grand Gulf,

where a battery had fired upon Farragut, both on his passage to

Vicksburg and return from there, after the fight at Port Hudson. The

Confederates had begun to strengthen the works immediately after that

time to prevent him from going by with impunity; but as he considered

his task limited to the blockade of the Red River and the Mississippi

below, to which alone his force was adequate, he had not again come

within their range. Immediately above Grand Gulf is the mouth of the

Big Black River, a considerable stream, by which supplies from the Red

River country were transported to the interior of the Confederacy on

the east of the Mississippi.

Eight hundred yards below the mouth of the Big Black is the Point of

Rocks, rising about seventy-five feet above the river at its then

height. On this was the upper battery, mounting, at the time of

attack, two VII-inch rifles, one VIII-inch smooth-bore, and a 30-pound

rifled gun on wheels. A line of rifle-pits and a covered way led from

there to the lower fort, three-quarters of a mile farther down, in

which were mounted one 100-pound rifle, one VIII-inch smooth-bore, and

two 32-pounders. There were in addition five light rifled guns, 10-and

20-pounders, in different parts of the works. The Point of Rocks

battery was close over the river, but the bluffs below receded so as

to leave a narrow strip of land, three to four hundred yards wide,

along the water and in front of the lower fort. All the fortifications

were earthworks.

[Illustration: Battle at Grand Gulf.]

The intention was to silence the works by the fleet, after which the

army was to cross in transports, under cover of the gunboats, and

carry the place by storm. The orders prescribing the manner of attack

were issued by the admiral on the 27th. On the 29th, at 7 A.M., the

fleet got under way, the Pittsburg leading; her commander, Lieutenant

Hoel, a volunteer officer, being himself a pilot for the Mississippi,

obtained the honor of leading through his local knowledge. The

Louisville, Carondelet, and Mound City followed in the order named,

firing upon the upper fort so long as their guns bore, but passing by

it to attack the lower work, which was allotted to them. The Pittsburg

rounded to as she reached her station, keeping up her fire all the

time, and took position close into the bank with her head up stream.

The Louisville, following the Pittsburg's motions, passed her, rounded

to and took her station immediately astern. The Carondelet and Mound

City successively performed the same manoeuvre. All four then went

into close action with the lower fort, at the same time directing any

of their guns that would bear upon other points of the works. The

remaining vessels, Lafayette, Tuscumbia, and flag-ship Benton,

followed the first four, but rounded to above the town to engage the

upper fort; the Lafayette taking position at first in an eddy of the

river, and using her two stern guns, 100-pound rifles. The Benton and

Tuscumbia fought their bow and starboard guns; all the vessels keeping

under way during the engagement, and being at times baffled by the

eddies in the stream. At eleven o'clock, the admiral signalled the

Lafayette to change her position to the lower battery, which she did.

About eleven, a shot came into the Benton's pilot-house, wounding the

pilot and shattering the wheel. The vessel was for a moment

unmanageable, got into an eddy, and was carried down three-quarters of

a mile before she could again be brought under control; but her place

was promptly supplied by the Pittsburg, which had just moved up with

that division of the fleet, the lower fort being silenced. The whole

squadron now concentrated its fire upon the Point of Rocks battery,

keeping under way, and from the difficulties of the stream and the

eddying current, at varying ranges. The Lafayette took again her

position in the eddy to the north of the battery. Half an hour after

noon, the Tuscumbia's port engine was disabled, and being unable to

stem the stream with her screws, she was compelled to drop down below

Grand Gulf. The action was continued vigorously until 1 P.M., when the

enemy's fire, which had not been silenced in the upper fort, slackened

materially. The admiral then passed up the river to consult with

Grant, who had seen the fight from the deck of a tug and realized, as

did Porter, that the works had proved themselves too high and too

strong to be taken from the water side. He therefore decided to land

the troops, who were already on board the transports waiting to cross,

and march down to the point immediately below Grand Gulf, while Porter

signalled his ships to withdraw, which they did, after an action

lasting four hours and a quarter, tying up again to the landing at

Hard Times. The limitation to the power of the vessels was very

clearly shown here, as at Fort Donelson; the advantage given by

commanding height could not be overcome by them. On a level, as at

Fort Henry, or with slight advantage of command against them, as at

Arkansas Post, the chances were that they would at close quarters win

by disabling or silencing the guns; but when it came to a question of

elevation the guns on shore were too much sheltered. Even so, it may

be looked upon as an unusual misfortune that after tearing the works

to pieces as they did, no gun of the Confederates was seriously

injured. On the other hand, though the gunboats were roughly handled,

it could be claimed for them, too, that they were not silenced, and

that, like the earthworks, they were not, with one exception,

seriously injured. The loss of the fleet was: the Benton, 7 killed and

19 wounded; Tuscumbia, 5 killed and 24 wounded; Pittsburg, 6 killed

and 13 wounded. The Lafayette had one man wounded, while the remaining

vessels lost none.

In the afternoon the Confederates were observed to be repairing their

works, so the Lafayette was ordered down to stop them. She soon drove

off the working parties, and then kept up a steady fire at five-minute

intervals against the upper battery until 8 P.M., getting no reply

from a work which had responded so vigorously in the morning.

That evening the fleet got under way at 8 P.M., the Benton leading,

followed by the other gunboats and the transports, the Lafayette

joining as they reached her station. The armed vessels again engaged

the batteries and the transports slipped safely by under cover of this

attack, receiving no injury; in fact, being struck not more than two

or three times. As soon as they had passed, the gunboats followed, and

tied up again on the Louisiana shore, four miles below Grand Gulf. One

life only was lost in the night action, on board the Mound City.

At daylight the following morning the work of carrying the army across

the Mississippi to Bruinsburg began, the gunboats as well as the

transports aiding in the operation.

The same day, April 30th, a feigned attack was made at Haines's Bluff

by the vessels of the squadron remaining above Vicksburg, under

Lieutenant-Commander K.R. Breese, in conjunction with the Fifteenth

Army Corps, under General W.T. Sherman. The object of General Grant in

ordering this demonstration was to hinder the Confederates at

Vicksburg from sending heavy reinforcements to Grand Gulf to oppose

the troops on their first landing. The expedition was most successful

in attaining this end, but the vessels were very roughly handled,

having been much exposed with the wish to make the attack appear as

real as possible. The Choctaw, Lieutenant-Commander F.M. Ramsay, was

struck as often as forty-six times. Despite the heavy fire of the

enemy, no serious casualties occurred on board the fleet in an action

which lasted three hours, from 11 A.M. to 2 P.M. The demonstration was

continued during the following day, but at 8 P.M. General Sherman

withdrew his troops to the other side of the Mississippi, taking up

his march to join the main body of the army; and the vessels returned

to their anchorage off the mouth of the Yazoo.

On the morning of the 3d Porter advanced upon Grand Gulf with his

fleet below, intending to attack if the enemy were still there; but

the place was found to be evacuated, as had been expected, the march

of the army inland having rendered it untenable. The earthworks were

torn to pieces by the fire of the fleet, and Colonel Wade, the

commandant, had been killed; but the guns were still in position,

except two 32-pounders in the lower battery, which were dismounted and

broken. A large quantity of ammunition was also obtained, showing that

lack of it was not the cause of the fire slackening on the 29th of

April. The same day General Grant arrived, and made the necessary

arrangements for transferring his base of supplies to Grand Gulf

instead of Bruinsburg.

On the day that Porter ran by the batteries of Vicksburg, April 16th,

Farragut, having received his secretary and the despatches brought by

him, went back from Port Hudson to the mouth of the Red River. During

the next fortnight he kept up the blockade of the Mississippi between

those two points, twice catching stores crossing in flat-boats,

besides destroying a number of boats along the river and a large

quantity of commissary stores at Bayou Sara. Besides cutting off Port

Hudson from the west bank of the Mississippi, his presence in this

position prevented reinforcements from that place being sent by the

Red River, as they otherwise might have been, to the Confederate

General Taylor, who was now being pressed by Banks toward Alexandria.

Farragut had also in view blockading the Black River, a tributary of

the Red, which enters it from the north and northwest about thirty

miles from the Mississippi and by which it was reported that

reinforcements to Taylor were expected to arrive from Arkansas.

These military movements in Western Louisiana were due to the

operations of General Banks, who had abandoned the demonstration

made from Baton Rouge against Port Hudson, at the time Farragut passed,

and resumed his operations by the Bayous Teche and Atchafalaya. This

expedition was accompanied by four light gunboats, the Calhoun, Clifton,

Arizona, and Estrella, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander A.P.

Cooke, of the latter vessel. The land forces reached Opelousas near the

Teche, sixty miles from Alexandria, on the 20th of April; and the same

day the gunboats took Butte-à-la-Rose, on the Atchafalaya, sixty miles

from Brashear City, a fortified place, mounting two heavy guns. Banks

continued his advance upon Alexandria, and the gunboats pushed on

through the Atchafalaya for the mouth of the Red River.

On the evening of the 1st of May the Arizona arrived where the

Hartford was then lying, bringing with her despatches from Banks to

Farragut, asking his co-operation against Alexandria. The Estrella

coming a few hours later, the admiral sent the two, with the

Albatross, under Lieutenant-Commander John E. Hart, senior officer, up

the Red River on the 3d. The little detachment reached the mouth of

the Black River that afternoon, and there learned that none of the

Confederate reinforcements expected by that stream had as yet passed.

At sunset they anchored thirteen miles below Gordon's Landing. The

next day, at 5 A.M., they again went up the stream, reaching, at 8.40,

the bluff and bend which had been the scene of the capture of the

Queen of the West ten weeks before. When the Albatross, which was

leading, looked out from behind the bluff her people saw a battery

with three casemates, now called Fort De Russey, commanding the river,

covering two river steamers with steam up; alongside one of these was

a flat-boat loaded with a heavy gun, believed to be one of those taken

from the Indianola. Below the battery was a heavy raft, stretching

across the stream and secured by chains to both banks. The Albatross

went at once into action at a distance of five hundred yards, having,

at that distance, to deal not only with the battery but with

sharpshooters sheltered behind cotton barricades on board the

steamers. The ship was much embarrassed by the eddies and the

intricacy of the channel, touching several times; but the fight was

maintained for forty minutes, after which she withdrew, having been

hulled eleven times, her spars and rigging seriously injured, and

having lost two men killed and four wounded. The force was too small

to grapple successfully with the work, so Lieutenant-Commander Hart

gave the order to return.

On the way down the vessels met Admiral Porter, who had delayed at

Grand Gulf no longer than was necessary to take possession. Leaving

there at noon of the day of its occupation he reached the mouth of the

Red River on the 4th, and communicated with Farragut. The next day he

went up the Red River, taking with him, besides the flag-ship Benton,

the Lafayette, Pittsburg, and Price. The ram Switzerland, which

Farragut no longer needed, and the tug Ivy accompanied him.

When he fell in with Hart's expedition, Porter took the Estrella and

Arizona in addition to his own force, leaving the Albatross to rejoin

Farragut alone. On the 5th, toward sundown, Fort De Russey was

reached, but found to be abandoned and the guns removed, except one

64-pounder. Losing no time in destroying the abandoned works, the

squadron pushed on at once for Alexandria; a passage through the raft

being opened by the Price's ram. The Arizona having speed was sent

ahead to surprise any steamer that might be at the town, where she

arrived the evening of the 6th, the rest of the vessels coming up the

following morning. Most of the Confederate public property had been

already removed to Shreveport, three hundred and fifty miles farther

up, in the northwest corner of Louisiana, where the gunboats in that

stage of the river could not follow. General Banks arrived on the

evening of the 7th from Opelousas.

As the river was beginning to fall, Porter went down again on the 8th

with all the vessels but the Lafayette, Captain Walke, who was left at

Alexandria to co-operate with the army. The Benton stopped for a short

time at Fort De Russey, while a detached expedition, consisting of the

Price, Switzerland, Pittsburg, and Arizona was sent up the Black

River. They got as far as Harrisonburg, seventy miles up, where were

found batteries on high hills too heavy for the force, which was

recalled after communicating with the admiral, having succeeded in

destroying $300,000 worth of the enemy's provisions. The Switzerland,

Estrella, and Arizona were now sent up to Captain Walke at Alexandria,

and the admiral returned to Grand Gulf on the 13th. The Black River

expedition was in itself of no great consequence; but, taken in

connection with others of the same character through these waters,

after the fall of Vicksburg, and the expected reinforcements of Taylor

by the same route, it illustrates the facilities for rapidly

traversing the enemy's country afforded by the navigable streams, and

the part played by them in the conduct of the war by either party.

Farragut now felt that his personal presence was no longer required

above Port Hudson, and returned to New Orleans by one of the bayous;

leaving Commodore Palmer with the Hartford, Albatross, Estrella, and

Arizona to maintain the blockade above until Porter was ready to

assume the entire charge. The Hartford, however, did not come down

till after the surrender of Port Hudson, two months later.

After the capture of Alexandria and the dispersal of the enemy in that

quarter, General Banks moved down with his army to Simmesport, on the

Atchafalaya Bayou, five miles from the Red River, and thence across

the Mississippi at Bayou Sara, five or six miles above Port Hudson.

General Augur of his command at the same time moved up from Baton

Rouge. The two bodies met on the 23d of May, and Port Hudson was

immediately invested. An assault was made on the 27th, but proved

unsuccessful, and the army settled down to a regular siege. A battery

of four IX-inch shell-guns from the navy was efficiently served

throughout the siege by a detachment of seamen from the Richmond and

Essex under Lieutenant-Commander Edward Terry, executive officer of

the former vessel. The Essex, Commander Caldwell, and the half dozen

mortar-schooners under his orders maintained a constant bombardment

and succession of artillery fights with the river batteries of the

enemy, being exposed to the fire of four VIII-and X-inch columbiads

and two heavy rifles. Between the 23d of May and 26th of June Caldwell

estimated that one thousand shot and shell had been fired at him from

these guns. During these daily engagements the Essex was hulled

twenty-three times, besides being frequently struck above her decks,

and had received severe injury. The mortar-schooners also came in for

their share of hard knocks, and their captains were all specially

commended both by Caldwell and Farragut.

On the 15th of May Porter went to the Yazoo and there awaited news

from the army. On the 18th heavy firing in the rear of the city

assured him of Grant's approach. That afternoon the advance of

Sherman's corps came in below Snyder's Bluff, between the city and

Haines's Bluff. The works at the latter point had been abandoned the

evening before on the approach of the army; a small party only being

left to destroy or remove whatever they could. Upon the appearance of

the troops the admiral sent up a force of gunboats under

Lieutenant-Commander K.R. Breese, whereupon the party ran off, leaving

everything in good order. The works mounted fourteen heavy guns,

VIII-and X-inch smooth-bores, and VII½-inch rifles; the carriages of

these were burned, as were the Confederate encampments, and the

magazines blown up. Porter now received letters from Grant, Sherman,

and Steele, informing him of the entire success of the campaign in the

rear of Vicksburg, and asking that provisions might be sent up, the

army having lived off the country almost entirely during a fortnight

of constant marching and fighting. Lieutenant-Commander J.G. Walker

in the De Kalb was sent up to Yazoo City with sufficient force to

destroy the enemy's property which he might find, and the gunboats

below Vicksburg were moved up to fire on the hill batteries, an

annoyance to the garrison which they kept up off and on during the

night. On the 19th six mortar-boats were got into position, with

orders to fire night and day as rapidly as possible.

Grant, having completed the investment of Vicksburg, sent word on the

evening of the 21st that he intended to make a general assault upon

the enemy's works at 10 A.M. the following day, and asked that the

fleet might shell the batteries from 9.30 to 10.30. Porter complied by

keeping up his mortar fire all night and sending up the gunboats to

shell the water batteries, and other places where he thought the enemy

might find rest. At 7 A.M. the next day the Mound City, followed at

eight by the Benton, Tuscumbia, and Carondelot, moved up abreast the

lower end of the canal, opening upon the hill batteries; then they

attacked the water batteries, the duel between them and the ships at a

range of four hundred and fifty yards being maintained incessantly for

two hours. The Tuscumbia proved, as before, too weak to withstand such

close action and had to drop down. The admiral wrote that this was the

hottest fire that the gunboats had yet endured, but the water

batteries having little elevation, the ships contended on more even

terms than at Grand Gulf, and fighting bows on, received little

damage.

The fire was maintained for an hour longer than Grant had asked, when

the vessels dropped out of range, having lost only a few wounded. The

assault of the army was not successful and regular siege operations

were begun. Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the two extremes of the

Confederate line, were thus formally invested by the 27th of May. On

that day, Porter, having received a request from Grant and Sherman to

try whether the enemy had moved from the batteries the guns on their

extreme left, as they had from many of the other hill batteries, sent

down the gunboat Cincinnati, Lieutenant George M. Bache, to draw their

fire if still there; and, if possible, to enfilade the enemy's

rifle-pits in that quarter and drive them out. The Cincinnati started

from the upper division of the squadron at 7 A.M.; the vessels of the

lower division, Price, Benton, Mound City, and Carondelet, steaming up

at the same time to cover her movement by engaging the lower

batteries, which might have played upon her. General Sherman took a

position upon a hill at the extreme right of the Union lines,

overlooking the river, so as to see the affair and take advantage of

any success gained by the Cincinnati's attack. The gunboat, protected

as usual by logs and hay, came within range shortly after nine

o'clock, and the enemy began firing rapidly from all their batteries,

the guns whose position had been doubted proving to be in their old

place. When abreast the position assigned her for enfilading the

rifle-pits the Cincinnati rounded to, and as she did so a shot pierced

her side and entered the shell-room, capsizing nearly all the boxes on

one side of the alley. As she came to with her head up stream, another

ball entered the shell-room below the water-line, and a third pierced

her stern, always the weakest part of these vessels, going into the

magazine, also below the water-line, flooding it instantly and causing

the vessel to fill rapidly. A heavy shot drove through the

pilot-house, and shortly afterward the starboard tiller was carried

away. The plunging fire of many big guns, concentrated on a single

vessel, wrought great injury in a short time; penetrating her light

deck, five of her guns were disabled by it. All three flag-staffs were

shot away, carrying the colors down with them; upon which, a

quartermaster, Frank Bois by name, went out and nailed a flag to the

stump that was left of the forward staff. Finding the vessel must

sink, Lieutenant Bache kept running up stream, hugging the east bank

to be as far as possible out of the enemy's range, and about ten

minutes before she went down sheered in, ran out a hawser, and a plank

by which the wounded were landed. Unfortunately the men who went

ashore with the hawser did not secure it properly, the boat began

drifting out into the stream, and the officers and crew had to swim

for their lives. She sank in three fathoms of water within range of

the enemy's batteries, the second to go down of the seven first built.

The loss was 5 killed, 14 wounded, and 15 missing; supposed to have

been drowned.

The detached expedition to Yazoo City, under Lieutenant-Commander

Walker, had returned on the evening of the 23d. On the approach of the

vessels, the Confederates had set fire to the navy yard and three

steamers on the stocks building for ships of war, one a very large

vessel, 310 feet long by 70 feet beam and intended to carry 4½-inch

plating. All that had not been destroyed or removed by the enemy the

gunboats finished, the loss being estimated at two million dollars. An

attack was made upon the gunboats at a bend of the river by a small

force of riflemen with three field pieces, but was repelled without

trouble, one man only being killed and eight slightly wounded. The

morning after their return the same vessels were again sent up. One of

the light-draughts, the Signal, met with the curious accident of

knocking down her smoke-stacks, an incident which again illustrates

the peculiar character of this bayou warfare. Sending her back, and

leaving his own vessel, the De Kalb, to follow as rapidly as possible,

Walker pushed on with the Forest Rose, Linden, and Petrel to within

fifteen miles of Fort Pemberton, by which the Yazoo Pass expedition

had been baffled. Here four fine steamers had been sunk on a bar,

stopping farther progress. Having no means of raising them, they were

fired and burned to the water's edge. The vessels then passed down the

Yazoo, burning a large saw-mill twenty-five miles above Yazoo City,

till they came to the Big Sunflower River. They ascended this stream

one hundred and eighty miles, branch expeditions being sent into the

bayous that enter it, destroying or causing the destruction of four

more steamers. Transportation on the Yazoo by the Confederates was now

broken up below Fort Pemberton, while above it a few steamers only

remained.

From this time until the surrender of Vicksburg little occurred to

vary the routine siege operations. Thirteen heavy cannon, from IX-inch

to 32-pounders, were landed from the fleet to take their place in the

siege batteries, in charge, at different points of the lines, of

Lieutenant-Commander T.O. Selfridge, and Acting-Masters C.B. Dahlgren

and J.F. Reed; and as many officers and men as could be spared were

sent with them. Three heavy guns, a X-inch, IX-inch, and 100-pound

rifle, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander F.M. Ramsay, of the

Choctaw, were placed in scows close to the point opposite the town,

but where they were protected by the bank, enfilading the batteries

and rifle-pits on the enemy's left, against which the Cincinnati had

made her unsuccessful attack. The gunboats below were constantly under

fire and the mortars steadily shelling. On the 19th of June Grant

notified the admiral that he intended to open a general bombardment at

4 A.M. the following day and continue it till 10 A.M. The lower

division, the scow battery, and the mortars joined in this, shelling

the hill batteries and the city, but no reply was made by the enemy

from the water front.

The great service of the navy during the siege was keeping open the

communications, which were entirely by the river from the time that

Sherman's corps reached Snyder's Bluff. The danger of Vicksburg

thrilled from the heart of the Confederacy through every nerve to its

extremities. It was felt that its fall would carry down Port Hudson

also, leave the Mississippi open, and hopelessly sever the East and

West. Every man, therefore, that could be moved was in motion, and

though the enemy had no vessel on the river, the banks on either side

swarmed with guerillas, moving rapidly from spot to spot, rarely

attempting to attack any body of troops, but falling back into the

interior and dispersing when followed up. Provided with numerous field

pieces, they sought to cut off the transports carrying reinforcements

and the steamers carrying supplies. The tortuous course of the stream

in many places enabled those who knew the ground to move rapidly

across the country and attack the same vessel a second time if she

escaped the first assault. On several occasions batteries were built,

and a large force attempted the destruction of transports. From these

dangers the navy was the only, as it was the best protection. The long

line from Cairo to Vicksburg was patrolled by the smaller class of

gunboats, and, thanks to their skilful distribution and the activity

and courage of the individual commanders, no serious interruption of

travel occurred. One steamer only was badly disabled and a few men

killed or wounded.

On the 4th of July, 1863, Vicksburg surrendered, and on the 9th the

garrison of Port Hudson also laid down its arms. The Mississippi was

now open from Cairo to the Gulf, and the merchant steamboat Imperial,

leaving St. Louis on the 8th, reached New Orleans on the 10th of this

month without molestation.

The Navy Department now directed that the command of the river as far

down as New Orleans should be assumed by Porter, Farragut to confine

himself henceforth to the coast operations and blockade. Toward the

end of July the two admirals met in New Orleans, and, the transfer

having been made, Farragut sailed on the 1st of August for the North

to enjoy a short respite from his labors. Porter then returned to

Cairo, where he at once divided the long line of waterways under his

command into eight districts,[19] of which six were on the

Mississippi. The seventh extended on the Ohio from Cairo to the

Tennessee, and thence through the course of the latter river, while

the eighth embraced the upper Ohio and the Valley of the Cumberland.

Each district had its own commander, who was responsible to the

admiral, but was not to interfere with another unless in case of great

need. For the present all was quiet, but there were already rumors of

trouble to come when the enemy should recover from the stunning blows

he had just received.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] A son of Colonel Charles Ellet, Jr., the first commander of the

ram fleet.

[15] Confederate Return of March 27, 1863. A large number of field

pieces, reported to be as many as 35, took part in the action of the

15th.

[16] Of these, four were 24-pounder brass howitzers, usually not

counted in ships' batteries.

[17] For particulars of batteries of Mississippi Squadron of 1662 and

1863, see Appendix.

[18] Report of Colonel Higgins, C.S.A., commanding the river batteries.

[19] The number of districts was afterward increased to ten.

CHAPTER VI.

MINOR OCCURRENCES IN 1863.

On the 4th of July, the same day that Vicksburg surrendered, an attack

was made upon Helena, in Arkansas, by the Confederates in force. The

garrison at the same time numbered 4,000 men, the enemy were variously

estimated at from 9,000 to 15,000. Having attacked the centre of the

position, the Confederates carried the rifle-pits and a battery upon

the hills, in rear of the town, which commanded all the other

defensive works as well as the town itself. They then began pushing

masses of troops down the hill, while their sharpshooters were picking

off the artillerists in the main fort, called Fort Curtis. Guns had

also been placed in commanding positions near the river, both above

and below the town, and opened fire upon the line of defensive works

across the river bottom, there about a thousand yards in width.

Lieutenant-Commander Pritchett, of the Tyler, seeing how the assault

was about to be made, placed his vessel in front of the town, so that

her broadside played upon the enemy descending the hills, while their

artillery above and below were exposed to her bow and stern guns. From

this advantageous position the Tyler opened fire, and to her powerful

battery and the judgment with which it was used must be mainly

attributed the success of the day; for though the garrison fought with

great gallantry and tenacity, they were outnumbered two to one. The

enemy were driven back with great slaughter. General Prentiss,

commanding the post, took occasion to acknowledge, in the fullest and

most generous manner, Pritchett's care in previously acquainting

himself with the character of the ground, as well as the assistance

afterward rendered by him in the fight. Four hundred of the enemy were

buried on the field and 1,100 were made prisoners.

While Grant was occupied at Vicksburg and Banks at Port Hudson,

General Taylor, commanding the Confederate forces in West Louisiana,

had concentrated, on the morning of the 6th of June, a force of three

brigades at Richmond, about ten miles from Milliken's Bend and twenty

from Young's Point. At Milliken's there was a brigade of negro troops,

with a few companies of the Twenty-third Iowa white regiment, in all

1,100 men; and at Young's a few scattered detachments, numbering 500

or 600. Taylor determined to try a surprise of both points, having

also a vague hope of communicating with Vicksburg, or causing some

diversion in its favor. At sundown of the 6th one brigade was moved

toward Milliken's, and one toward Young's Point, the third taking a

position in reserve six miles from Richmond. The force directed

against Young's Point blundered on its way, got there in broad

daylight, and, finding a gunboat present, retired without making any

serious attempt. The other brigade, commanded by McCulloch, reached

its destination about 3 A.M. of the 7th, drove in the pickets and

advanced with determination upon the Union lines. The latter were

gradually forced back of the levee, the Iowa regiment fighting with

great steadiness, and the negroes behaving well individually; but they

lacked organization and knowledge of their weapons. Accordingly when

the enemy, who were much superior in numbers, charged the levee and

came hand to hand, the colored troops, after a few moments of

desperate struggle, broke and fled under the bank of the river.

Nothing saved them from destruction but the presence of the Choctaw,

which at 3.30 A.M. had opened her fire and was now able to maintain it

without fear of injuring her friends. The Confederates could not, or

would not face it, and withdrew at 8.30 A.M. What the fate of these

black troops would have been had the Confederates come upon them in

the flush of a successful charge seems somewhat doubtful, in view of

Taylor's suggestive remark that "_unfortunately_ some fifty of them

had been taken prisoners."

Immediately after the surrender of Vicksburg, Porter followed up the

discomfiture of the Confederates by a series of raids into the

interior of the country through its natural water-ways.

Lieutenant-Commander Walker was again sent up to Yazoo City, this time

in company with a force of troops numbering 5,000, under Major-General

Herron. During the month that had passed since Walker's last visit,

the enemy had been fortifying the place, and the batteries were found

ready to receive the vessels. General Herron was then notified, and

when his men were landed, a combined attack was made by the army and

navy. The Confederates made but slight resistance and soon fled,

abandoning everything. Six heavy guns and one vessel fell into the

Union hands, and four fine steamers wore destroyed by the enemy.

Unfortunately, while the De Kalb was moving slowly along she struck a

torpedo, which exploded under her bow and sunk her. As she went down

another exploded under her stern, shattering it badly. This gunboat,

which at first was called the St. Louis, was the third to be lost of

the seven. The Cincinnati was afterward raised; but the De Kalb was so

shattered as to make it useless to repair her.

At this same time Lieutenant-Commander Selfridge, with a force of

light-draught gunboats, entered the Red River, turned out of it into

the Black, and from the latter again into the Tensas; following one of

the routes by which Grant had thought to move his army below

Vicksburg. This water-line runs parallel with the Mississippi.

Selfridge succeeded in reaching the head of navigation, Tensas Lake

and Bayou Macon, thirty miles above Vicksburg, and only five or six

from the Mississippi. The expedition was divided at a tributary of the

Black, called Little Red River; two going up it, while two continued

up the Tensas. Afterward it went up the Washita as far as

Harrisonburg, where the batteries stopped them. Four steamers were

destroyed, together with a quantity of ammunition and provisions.

A few weeks later, in August, Lieutenant Bache, late of the

Cincinnati, went up the White River with three gunboats, the

Lexington, Cricket, and Marmora. At a second Little Red River, a

narrow and crooked tributary of the White, the Cricket was sent off to

look for two steamers said to be hidden there. Bache himself went on

to Augusta, thirty miles further up the White, where he got certain

news of the movements of the Confederate army in Arkansas; thus

attaining one of his chief objects. He now returned to the mouth of

the Little Red, and, leaving the Marmora there, went up himself to see

how the Cricket had fared. The little vessel was met coming down;

bringing with her the two steamers, but having lost one man killed and

eight wounded in a brush with sharpshooters. On their return the three

vessels were waylaid at every available point by musketry, but met

with no loss. They had gone two hundred and fifty miles up the White,

and forty up the Little Red River.

During a great part of 1863, Tennessee and Kentucky, beyond the lines

of the Union army, were a prey not only to raids by detached bodies of

the enemy's army, but also to the operations of guerillas and light

irregular forces. The ruling feeling of the country favored the

Confederate cause, so that every hamlet and farm-house gave a refuge

to these marauders, while at the same time the known existence of some

Union feeling made it hard for officers to judge, in all cases,

whether punishment should fall on the places where the attacks were

made. The country between the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers early in

the year harbored many of these irregular bodies, having a certain

loose organization and a number of field-pieces. The distance between

the two streams in the lower part of their course being small, they

were able to move from the banks of one to the other with ease. It was

necessary, therefore, to keep these rivers patrolled by a force of

gunboats; which, though forming part of Porter's fleet, were under the

immediate orders of Captain Alexander M. Pennock, commanding the naval

station at Cairo. West of the rivers, between them and the great

river, the western parts of Kentucky and Tennessee and the northern

part of Mississippi were under control of the Union troops, though

inroads of guerillas were not unknown. Nashville was held by the Union

forces; but the Confederates were not far away at Shelbyville and

Tullahoma. The fights between the gunboats and the hostile parties on

these rivers do not individually possess much importance, but have an

interest in showing the unending and essential work performed by the

navy in keeping the communications open, aiding isolated garrisons,

and checking the growth of the guerilla war.

On the 30th of January Lieutenant-Commander S.L. Phelps, having been

sent by Captain Pennock in the Lexington to make a special examination

of the condition of affairs on the Cumberland River, reported that, a

transport having been fired upon twenty miles above Clarksville, he

had landed and burned a storehouse used as a resort by the enemy. As

he returned the vessel was attacked with some Parrott rifles and

struck three times; but the heavy guns of the Lexington drove the

enemy off. Going down to Clarksville he met there a fleet of

thirty-one steamers, having many barges in tow, convoyed by three

light-draught gunboats. These he joined, and the enemy having tested

the power of the Lexington, did not fire a shot between Clarksville

and Nashville. As a result of his enquiries he thought that no

transport should be allowed to go without convoy higher than Fort

Henry or Donelson, situated on either river on the line separating

Kentucky and Tennessee. The Lexington was therefore detained, and for

a time added to the flotilla on those rivers.

Four days later, Lieutenant-Commander Le Roy Fitch, in active charge

of the two rivers, was going up the Cumberland with a fleet of

transports, convoyed by the Lexington and five light-draughts. When

twenty-four miles below Dover, the town on the west bank near which

Fort Donelson was situated, he met a steamer bearing a message from

Colonel Harding, commanding the post, to the effect that his pickets

had been driven in and that he was attacked in force. Fitch at once

left the convoy and pushed ahead as fast as he could. A short distance

below the town he met a second steamer with the news that Harding was

surrounded. At 8 P.M. he arrived, and found the Union forces not only

surrounded by overwhelming forces but out of ammunition.

The enemy, not thinking about gunboats, had posted the main body of

his troops in a graveyard at the west end of the town, the left wing

resting in a ravine that led down to the river, thus enabling the

vessels to rake that portion of his line. The gunboats opened fire

simultaneously up the ravine, into the graveyard and upon the valley

beyond. Taken wholly by surprise, the Confederates did not return a

shot, but decamped in haste. Leaving two boats to maintain the fire

through the ravine, Fitch hastened up with the other four to shell the

main road, which, after leaving the upper end of the town, follows

nearly the bank of the stream for some distance. The attacking force

in this case was 4,500 strong, composed of regular Confederate troops

under Generals Wheeler, Forrest, and Wharton. By 11 P.M. they had

disappeared, leaving 140 dead. The garrison, which numbered only 800,

had defended itself gallantly against this overwhelming force since

noon, but was _in extremis_ when the gunboats arrived.

On the 27th of March, Fitch was at Fort Hindman, on the Tennessee,

where he took on board a force of 150 soldiers and went up the river.

On reaching Savanna he heard of a cotton-mill four miles back being

run for the Confederate army. The troops and a force of sailors were

landed and took the mill, although a regiment of the enemy's cavalry

was but two or three miles away. Finding no sure proof of its working

for the army, they did not destroy the building, but removed some of

the essential parts of the machinery. Going on to Chickasaw, south of

the Tennessee line, as the water was too low for the Lexington, he

sent on two light-draughts as far as Florence, where they shelled a

camp of the enemy. The rapid falling of the river obliged them to

return. On the way a quantity of food and live stock belonging to a

noted abettor of guerilla warfare were seized.

Having returned to the mouth of the Cumberland to coal, Fitch received

a telegram on the 3d of April that a convoy had been attacked at

Palmyra, thirty miles above Dover, and the gunboat St. Clair disabled.

He at once got under way, took five light-draughts besides his own

vessel, the Lexington, and went up the river. When he reached Palmyra

he burned every house in the town, as a punishment for the firing on

unarmed vessels and harboring guerillas. A quick movement followed

against a body of the enemy higher up the stream, but they had notice

of his approach, and had disappeared.

On the 24th a steamer was fired upon in the Tennessee, and three men

badly wounded. Fitch went at once to the scene, but the enemy were

off. On the 26th, cruising up the river, he found the vessels of

General Ellet, commanding what was now called the Marine Brigade,

fighting a battery and body of infantry 700 strong. Fitch joined in,

and the enemy were of course repulsed. The Marine Brigade landed and

pursued the enemy some distance, finding their commander mortally

wounded.