A PEEP INTO VICKSBURG.

335

mouth of the canal, took a rowboat through one of the creeks to the point of land opposite the city, and then walked behind the levee. While the men were working like Titans, the Colonel loaned me a powerful field-glass, and found for me a position where I could look over into the beleaguered city, without being seen by their pickets. Here the river was so very narrow that the pickets of the two armies. could carry on conversation, when all was still-as they sometimes did.

At the right was the hospital, swarming with grayuniformed Confederates. They were sitting in the windows, at the doors, on the piazzas, lying on the grass in the yard, coming and going, some on crutches, some led by assistants. A newsboy was selling papers among them, and I could distinguish between the large type of the headings and the smaller print of the columns. In the belfry of the court house, more than half-way up the hill, an officer was signaling with flags, of which he seemed to have an immense variety. Beside him stood two ladies, one wrapped in a cloak, and the other in a shawl. I could even see that the bonnet of one was blue in color. Two negresses, carrying baskets on their heads, which looked as if filled with clean clothes, set down their baskets, bowed and courtesied to one another, and then, with arms akimbo, stood and gossiped, laughing convulsively, if one could judge from the motions and gesticulations. Gray guards were pacing back and forth before the foundries. Officers were galloping to and fro; trains of freight cars were being loaded; new batteries. were being placed in position; and other scenes of warlike activity were apparent. But nothing was

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RAMS RUN THE BATTERIES.

visible that betokened pleasure or social life, or such proceedings as occupy the people of a city in time No children were on the streets, no women walking or shopping, no gay equipages, no sign of inhabited homes.

of peace.

During the day I learned that the gunboats Lancaster and Switzerland were to run the Vicksburg batteries during the night, to co-operate with Admiral Farragut. He had steamed up the river from New Orleans, had fought his way past Fort Hudson, and was now moored nearly opposite the canal before spoken of, but on the other side of the bend, below Vicksburg. The Mississippi River was now open its entire length, save here at Vicksburg. The gunboats did not get started as soon as they were ordered, and it was daydawn before they came under the rebel fire. They were both rams; one, the Lancaster, being of wood, and every way frailer than its consort, the Switzerland.

As they rounded the peninsula, from which the trees had been cut, a signal rocket was sent up by the enemy, and then the heavy guns opened their iron throats and belched thunder and fire. All along the river bank, below, and above, flames seemed to leap out of the ground, as if the very bottomless pit had been uncapped, and then the earth and the water shook with the roar of the batteries. Louder and faster bellowed the cannon, and the whole opposite hillside seemed on fire. But on went the rams, not a living thing being visible about them, seeming to bear charmed lives, that could not be wrecked by shot or shell. " They will get by in safety!" we said, as we watched them through the portholes of the gunboat Lafayette, which hugged the west shore of

the river: "Another quarter of an hour, and they are safe!"

Vain prediction! There came a plunging shot — a rush of steam- an explosion-the air was full of cinders and splinters, and then men could be seen leaping into the water, swimming and struggling for life. A shot from one of the upper batteries had exploded the boiler of the Lancaster, and then a shell, bursting in another part of the boat, completely wrecked her. The Confederate batteries continued to pour in upon her a tremendous fire. She was struck thirty times. Her entire bow was shot away, causing her to take water so rapidly that she sank almost instantly, turning a complete somersault as she went down.

The Switzerland was more fortunate, but was finally disabled by a sixty-pound ball penetrating her steam drum. She floated below Vicksburg, the batteries still keeping up their terrible fire upon her, and striking her repeatedly. At last, the Albatross, from Admiral Farragut's fleet, which had come up from New Orleans, steamed to her relief, fastened to her, and towed her to the lower mouth of the canal, where she lay helpless.

Those who were watching the contest, when the Lancaster was wrecked, and who knew the current of the river, climbed over the embankment of the Vicksburg and Shreveport Railroad, and threw out planks and limbs of trees, and aught else that the swimmers could seize, around whom, as they struggled in the water, the shot and shell were flying like hail. One after another they were drawn to land, some of them scalded, and all exhausted. As the engineer of the Lancaster clutched the hand of a

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DEATH OF THE ENGINEER.

man who drew him from the water, the skin of the scalded hand came off in that of his helper, almost as if it were a glove. It retained the creases of the knuckles, and the nails of the fingers. The poor fellow was scalded horribly, but as he stepped on shore he drew his revolver, and, turning upon his comrades, exclaimed: "Where's that coward that talked of surrendering? I'll shoot him before I die!" and discovering the man, who had said just before the explosion of the boiler, "It's of no use, we shall have to surrender!" he rushed upon him, and would have harmed him but for the bystanders.

The poor fellow, with one other as badly scalded, and several in less distress, was taken to the hospital, where he died that afternoon. I went over to see him, but he was free from pain and needed nothing, sinking rapidly away. He had no fear of death, and expressed regret only for one thing, that his boat, the Lancaster, had not run the batteries as well as the Switzerland, which got past the guns, and joined Farragut, although badly cut up. "But," he added, "I did my duty and never talked of surrendering. And I thank God I have no mother, wife, nor child to mourn for me." And so did I. And so did I. "You may say a prayer for me," he said faintly; "a short one, for it's almost over." And the brave man's spirit went up, on the breath of the short, but heartfelt petition that was made for him.

CHAPTER XVI.

COMING UP THE RIVER-A FREIGHT OF LIVING MISERY GOING OUT FROM THE LAND OF BONDAGE-AMONG SICK SOLDIERS, CONTRABANDS AND REFUGEES.

A forward Movement - Gunboats run the Vicksburg Batteries - They convoy Transports down the River-Troops cross, and beleaguer Vicksburg -We take Passage in the Maria Denning for Cairo - The Boat packed with human and animal Misery-Sick Soldiers comforted by our Presence-Johnny, the Virginia Refugee, given to my Care - His History -The tempestuous "Praise-meetings 99 of the Contrabands tabooed Refugees encamped on the River Bank-Signal the Boat to stop - The Captain dares not- - Fears Treachery-Meet Ford Douglas at Lake Providence - Agree to take a slave Boy to Chicago, despite Illinois "Black Laws."

T was the last week of April, 1863, when, having finished the work we were sent to do, we turned our faces homeward. There was no longer any need of our remaining "down the river." The troops at Lake Providence, and those sent to "flank the Mississippi" by the way of Yazoo Pass and Steele's Bayou, under Generals Sherman and McPherson, were brought down to Milliken's Bend. By the complete breaking up of all the hospitals, and the removing of all the sick to the North, as well as from the general note of preparation in the camp and among the fleet of gunboats, we understood that a