broken, and the immediate roar of steam that enveloped the vessel showed that her steam chest had been penetrated. Every thought of saving the steamer was given up, and the exertions of all were made to save themselves. Many threw bales of cotton overboard and floated on them down to the De Soto a mile below, among whom was Col. Ellet. The fort seeing there was no reply to their guns, and conceiving from the rush of steam that something had happened, slackened their fire and sent boats to reconnoitre. By this force the remainder of the crew were captured, and the boat made a prize.

Meanwhile the De Soto approached as near the point as was safe, and picked up those who were floating, and sent a boat for the crew, which was almost captured by the enemy, who had already reached the Queen. Finding that soldiers were collecting on the shore, the De Soto was turned and slowly floated down the stream. Three miles below she ran aground and unshipped her rudder, and for the next fifteen miles and during three hours she was unmanageable, and moved with the current. As she reached the Era at eleven o'clock, a second rudder was unshipped, and she became unmanageable again, when Col. Ellet ordered her to be blown up.

It was about twelve o'clock at night before the Era was under way. It was known to Col. Ellet that the swift gunboat Webb was at Alexandria, about sixty miles up the river, and he was confident that pursuit would be made after him by her. All hands were set to work to throw overboard the corn with which the Era was laden, and amid fog, thunder, lightning and rain, she worried her way out of the Red river into the Mississippi by morning. All that day, which was Sunday, with no fuel but some of the corn with which she had been laden, and cypress found on the banks too wet to make steam enough to give her headway, the fleeing steamer attempted to get up the river. She had made scarcely forty miles in twenty-four hours. At Union Point she was run aground and detained three hours in getting off. After passing Ellis's Cliffs, the black chimney of a passing steamer was discovered over the fog which enveloped her hull. The black smoke from her chimney showed that she burned coal, and that it was a Federal steamer. It was the Indianola, and all fear of the Webb was over. Scarcely was the Era well alongside of the Indianola and the fog had lifted a little, when the Webb hove in sight. A brief pursuit of her was made by the two boats, without success. The Era was then furnished with supplies, and sent up to Admiral Porter.

The Indianola, which came so fortunately to the rescue of Col. Ellet, was one of the finest of the ironclad gunboats of the squadron: she was new, and was 174 feet long, 50 feet beam, 10 feet from the top of her deck to the bottom of her keel, or 8 feet 4 inches in the clear. Her sides (of wood) for five feet down were thirty

two inches thick, having bevelled sticks laid outside the hull (proper), and all of oak. Outside of this was three-inch thick plate iron. Her clamps and keelsons were as heavy as the largest ships. Her deck was eight inches solid, with one-inch iron plate, all well bolted. Her casemate stood at an incline of 263 degrees, and was covered with three-inch iron, as were also her ports. She had a heavy grating on top of the casemate that no shell could penetrate, and every scuttle and hatch was equally well covered. She was ironed all round, except some temporary rooms on deck, and, besides the amount of wood and iron already stated, had coal bunkers seven feet thick alongside of her boilers, the entire machinery being in the hold. She had seven_engines-two for working her side wheels, two for her propellers, two for her capstans, and one for supplying water and working the bilge and fire pumps. She had five large five-flued boilers, and made abundance of steam. Her forward casemate had two 11-inch Dahlgren guns, and her after casemate two 9-inch. Her forward casemate was pierced for two guns in front, one on each side, and two aft, so that she could fire two guns forward, one on each side, and four at an angle sideways and astern. She had also hose for throwing scalding water from the boilers, that would reach from stem to stern, and there was communication from the casemates to all parts of the vessel without the least exposure. The pilot house was also thoroughly ironclad, and instant communication could be had with the gunners and engineers, enabling the pilot to place the vessel in just such position as might be required for effective action. She left her anchorage at the mouth of the Yazoo, about ten o'clock on the night of February 13th, to run below the batteries at Vicksburg. night was hazy and cloudy, and thus exceedingly dark. After passing entirely through the fleet, and reaching the vicinity of the upper end of the canal, she shut off steam entirely, and suffered the current to bear her along. Its rate was about four miles an hour. In perfect obscurity she rounded the point, and drifted fairly beneath the formidable batteries. The tide bore her down directly toward the levee of the city. Lights were everywhere numerous, and the voices of citizens and soldiers sounded as if they were close alongside. Still the black and noiseless mass drifted along, almost rubbing the bank, yet undiscovered. The whole levee was patrolled by sentinels, and at one spot a camp fire was dimly burning. As the drifting vessel approached this point, a soldier stooping down gathered some faggots and threw them into the fire. A bright blaze flashed up for a moment, exposing everything within its sphere. The Indianola was seen by a soldier, who discharged his musket at her. At that discharge the soldiers everywhere along the bluff sprang to arms. A battery near the centre of the city fired a gun, rockets were sent off, soldiers on the bank discharged their mus

The

kets into the darkness, and indications of excitement were manifest everywhere. The boat had been discovered running the blockade, but no one knew where she was. Five minutes passed after the first gun was fired, and another had not followed. At last it became necessary to start the wheels in order to get steerage way on the steamer. The noise of the steam drew forth a second and third gun, and a discharge of musketry, and again all was still. The boat drifted on a few moments in silence, when the steam was again let on, and she dashed down the river, regardless of any noise that might be made. Battery after battery now opened upon her until twenty shots were fired, and she had passed uninjured beyond their reach. The steamer was under the command of Lieut.Com. Brown, and continued on down the river, until she met the Era as above stated. After pursuing the Webb, in vain, as far as the mouth of Red river, the Indianola proceeded up that stream in search of Confederate transports, and kept up a watch off the mouth of the Atchafalaya river. Here her commander learned that the Queen of the West had been repaired and might soon be down. As the narrowness of the Red river made it difficult to manœuvre a long boat like the Indianola, while the Queen was much shorter, Commander Brown determined to return to the mouth of the Big Black river, and attempt to pass up that stream, and reach if possible the bridge of the Vicksburg and Jackson railroad. This had been one of the objects for which the steamers had run the blockade. The Big Black river empties into the Mississippi at Grand Gulf, forty miles below Vicksburg. It rises in the northern part of the State of Mississippi, and flows southwesterly, passing about fifteen miles east of Vicksburg.

On Tuesday morning, Feb. 24th, the Indianola reached the mouth of the Big Black, and in the afternoon made preparations to move up the river, when two steamers were descried approaching. These proved to be the Confederate gunboat Webb and the Queen of the West. The Webb was a powerful boat and one of the swiftest on the river. They immediately attacked the Indianola, and, chiefly by striking her with their rams, so shattered her as to endanger her sinking, when she was surrendered and immediately run ashore.

A few days afterward a flatboat was fitted up by Admiral Porter to appear like a gunboat, and set adrift in the river without a pilot or crew. As it passed the batteries at Vicksburg, it was supposed to be a formidable ram, and they fired fiercely. It escaped uninjured however, and floated on down the river. Information of its approach was sent to the Queen of the West, lying under the batteries at Warrenton, eight miles below Vicksburg, and she immediately fled down stream. The Indianola was undergoing repairs near where she was taken, and the authorities at Vicksburg, thinking that she would be recaptured by the ram,

issued an order to burn her up. This order was sent down by a courier to the officer in charge of the boat. A few hours later, and another order was sent down countermanding the first, it having been ascertained that the monstrous craft was nothing else than a coalboat. But before it reached the Indianola she had been blown to atoms: not even a gun was saved.

Meanwhile, the work of cutting channels from the Mississippi to Providence Lake, on the west side, and to Moon Lake, on the east side, was progressing rapidly.

Lake Providence is a few miles south of the boundary line between Arkansas and Louisiana. It is situated in Carroll parish, Louisiana, about one mile west of the Mississippi river, and about seventy-five miles above Vicksburg. It is about six miles in length. Two streams flow out of the lake to the south, Moon bayou and Tensas river. The former, after running about a hundred miles, unites with the latter. The two continue south, and unite with the Washita, and are called after the junction Black river, which empties into the Red river, as is stated on a preceding page. By cutting a channel from the Mississippi to Lake Providence, Gen. Grant thought a communication might be had through that lake down the Tensas and Black into the Red river, and thence through the Atchafalaya, with Gen. Banks at New Orleans. This route avoided the batteries at Vicksburg and Port Hudson. The canal to the lake was finished so as to let in the water on the 16th of March. The flood was so great as to inundate a large district of country, some of which was fine land for growing cotton. Some boats passed into Lake.Providence, but the uncertainty of the channel of the Tensas river, and the interest which was now excited by the Yazoo Pass expedition, together with the unimportant results to be anticipated by removing a large force to the Red river or below, caused a diversion from this route to others presenting more certain prospects of success against Vicksburg.

Eight miles below Helena, in Arkansas, and on the opposite side of the river, is a little lake, known as Moon Lake. The passage from the Mississippi across the lake to the mouth of the Yazoo Pass is about eight miles; thence through the Pass proper to the Coldwater river, twelve miles. The Coldwater, a narrow stream, runs south, empties into the Tallahatchie, which continues to flow south, and unites with the Yallobusha, forming the Yazoo river, which empties into the Mississippi, a few miles above Vicksburg. By opening a wider channel from the Mississippi into Moon Lake, it was the opinion that the inner streams would be rendered more easily navigable, in consequence of an increase of water, so that some smaller gunboats and a few troops could destroy the enemy's transports in the Yazoo, and their gunboats which were building. In ordinary stages of water, steamboats could ascend the

Yazoo and Tallahatchie to the mouth of the Coldwater. The region of country through which these streams flow, especially the Yazoo, is very fertile, producing a large quantity of cotton, and furnishing considerable supplies to the rebel army at Vicksburg.

The expedition consisted of two of the largest and heaviest ironclad gunboats, one ram, six light-draft gunboats, three barges laden with coal, three steam tenders, and fifteen or eighteen transports. The passage from the Mississippi to the mouth of the Pass, after the im

provement made upon it, was not attended with much difficulty. On the morning of the 25th of March it entered the mouth of the Pass. The tortuous stream was a hundred feet wide, and in some parts less. On its banks were cypress, sycamore, and gigantic cottonwood trees, whose branches formed a perfect arch over the stream. At the upper end the current rushed with great rapidity through the channel, and lower down were strips of bottom land, which were overflowed, and gave to it greater width, and, consequently, less rapidity. In the narrow and

crooked passage it was necessary to resist the force of the current by the back revolution of the wheels of the boats, and by lines fastened from tree to tree as they moved along. Three days were thus passed in making a distance of about twelve miles, and reaching the Coldwater. Smokestacks were swept away, and much of the light upper works of several of the boats. The principal difficulty in the Pass arose from the activity of the enemy, who would close one end while the Federal force was opening the other. In this manner time was gained to prepare to resist the progress of the expedition by fortifying at the mouth of the Tallahatchie.

On the 2d of April the expedition proceeded down the Coldwater. This stream was a little wider than the Pass, so that the branches of the trees seldom met over head, but its current was more sluggish, and its channel equally tortuous. Two mortar boats now joined the expedition, adding their force to the heavy guns on the other boats. As it advanced it was further reënforced, until it consisted of eighteen transports, five small gunboats, and two of a large size, the Chillicothe and the De Kalb. The advance consisted of one division of Gen. McClernand's corps, which had been stationed at Helena, under command of Brig.-Gen. L. F. Ross, and the 12th and 17th Missouri regiments from Gen. Sherman's corps, as sharpshooters, on the gunboats. The mouth of the Coldwater was reached with only some damage to the light work, wheels, and rudders of the transports.

Proceeding down the Tallahatchie, the expedition arrived within ten miles of Greenwood on the 11th. Greenwood is a small village on the Yazoo river, just below the junction of the Tallahatchie with the Yallobusha, forming the Yazoo. Just below the position of the Federal transports, the Tallahatchie turns to the eastward, bending in the form of a horseshoe, and resumes its southerly course at a point nearly south of that where the transports were. The base of the peninsula formed by this bend, being the narrowest part, and nearly a mile across, was occupied by a Confederate fortification. It consisted of a single line of breastworks facing westerly, and composed of cotton bales and earth, and flanked on the right by a battery of three heavy guns fronting the river. Other field pieces were in position on the works. On the right flank of the line, a defence or raft of logs had been constructed, to serve as a blockade of the river. Directly in front of the breastworks was a deep slough, extending across the peninsula, and admirably serving the purpose of a ditch. The slough was close to the base of the works at the upper end, but gradually receded from them at the lower, where it was several hundred yards distant. Beyond the slough there was an almost impenetrable canebrake, backed by an extensive forest. Below this fortification on the river, and in the arc of the bend, the Yallobusha flows in from the northeast, and forms its junction with the Tal

lahatchie. The village of Greenwood is upon the Yazoo, four miles below. The object of the fortification at this location was not only to stop the fleet from passing below, but also to prevent its passing up the Yallobusha river, on which a number of the enemy's steamers had sought refuge, and on the bank of which also was the important town of Granada.

The Confederate force was estimated above five thousand men, under the command of Gen. Tilghman, who surrendered Fort Henry, in Kentucky. On the morning of the 11th a reconnoissance was made by the gunboat Chillicothe, Lieut.-Commander Foster. The boat approached within a short distance of the fortification, and fired several shots, and was hit four times in return by heavy shot from rifle pieces. At the same time detachments from the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Indiana regiments were sent out to feel the Confederate position on the land side. A considerable body of the enemy's skirmishers were encountered, who were driven across the slough and into the works, when the detachments were withdrawn. In the afternoon the Chillicothe was ordered to engage the fortification. After she had fired seven rounds, a 64-pound shell from the enemy passed through a half-open port, striking upon the muzzle of a gun, in which a shell had just been placed preparatory to cutting the fuse. Both shells exploded at once, by which three men were killed and eleven wounded. At this time orders were received to withdraw from the engagement. During the ensuing night a force was sent to throw up a battery facing the enemy's works, west of the slough, and in the edge of the timber. A single 30pound Parrott gun was mounted, and the work concealed by brush from the view of the enemy. Subsequently another gun was mounted. No attack was made on the 12th, in consequence of the absence of the mortar boats. After some delay, on the 13th, the engagement was commenced about half past ten A. M. by the land batteries. The gunboats Chillicothe and De Kalb soon after approached and opened their fire. It now appeared that the fortification mounted a rifled 64-Parrott and three 24-Dahlgrens, and a small field battery. These guns were protected by a parapet composed of seven tiers of cotton bales, covered on the outside with eight feet of earth. The contest was bravely maintained for some time, when the fire of the enemy was suspended, but no disposition to surrender was shown. The gunboats and battery kept up the fire, but without any success in reducing the works. The Chillicothe was struck thirty-four times, but not severely injured. The DeKalb suffered more, in consequence of some shot penetrating her casemates, by which one man was killed and five wounded.

The impracticable nature of the approach to the fort by foot soldiers on the west, in consequence of the overflow or slough, rendered it necessary that the gunboats should silence the guns of the enemy, and enable the transports

to run down and land troops immediately on the fort itself. But all attempts to silence the fort by the gunboats proved unsuccessful, and the guns of the battery were withdrawn, and the expedition put on the defensive. After a few days it began to retire.

Meantime, Gen. Grant had been led to believe, as the navigation proved better than was expected, that it was possible to make this the route for obtaining a foothold on high land above Haines's Bluff, and had sent for ward a division of Gen. McPherson's corps, commanded by Brig.-Gen. J. F. Quimby, and had ordered some small-class steamers for transporting the army. The seventeenth corps, under Gen. McPherson, was also directed to be in readiness to move, and one division from the thirteenth and fifteenth corps each, was collected near the Pass. But it soon became evident that a sufficient number of boats of the right class, could not be obtained for the transportation of more than one division. On the 23d of March, therefore, orders were given to withdraw all the forces operating in that direction, for the purpose of concentrating at Milliken's Bend.

At this time another expedition had started under Admiral Porter, for the purpose of reaching the Yazoo below Fort Pemberton and Greenwood, and above Haines's Bluff. Such a movement, if successful, would leave Greenwood and Fort Pemberton to the rear of the Federal forces, and necessarily cause it to be abandoned. At the same time, about thirty Confederate steamers could be captured or destroyed. The route to be pursued by this expedition was up the Yazoo river to Cypress bayou, which enters that river at a point opposite the landing place of Gen. Sherman's troops when attacking the bluffs in the rear of Vicksburg, thence into Steele's bayou, and along that watercourse, and through Cypress Lake, to Little Black Fork, thence into Deer creek. Following this stream for some distance, the route branches off along Rolling Fork into the Big Sunflower river, which empties into the Yazoo above Haines's Bluff.

The expedition under Admiral Porter, consisted of the gunboats Pittsburg, Louisville, Mound City, Cincinnati, and Carondelet, with a number of small transports. Gen. Grant stated that the principal obstacles appeared to be the overhanging trees, and he sent forward a pioneer corps for their removal. Soon after, Admiral Porter sent back for a coöperating military force, and Gen. Sherman was promptly sent with one division of his corps. The number of steamers suitable for the navigation of these bayous being limited, most of the force was sent up the Mississippi to Eagle Bend, a point where the river runs within one mile of Steele's bayou, thus avoiding an important part of the difficult navigation. The cause of the failure of this expedition is thus explained by Gen. Grant:

"The expedition failed, probably, more from