"Keep quiet down there, men." "No, don't come on deck yet." "All heads below, I say." "Major Jones, look to your men there forward, and keep those heads below the hatches." "Stop that fiddling, Macdonald; there'll be time enough to dance by and by."

The wading hero returned to the boats, which lingered a while, and then, firing a volley at the sloop, rapidly disappeared, and were no more seen. A gun-boat soon came to the rescue of the party, and the facts were duly reported to the general in the morning.

The boiling indignation excited in all minds by the dastardly conduct of the Biloxi savages may be imagined. The general instantly determined to give them a lesson in good manners. At half-past two that very afternoon, two gun-boats, the Jackson and New London, and the transport Lewis, with Colonel Cahill's Ninth Connecticut, and Captain Everett's battery on board, sailed for Biloxi, for the purpose of conveying that lesson to their benighted minds. Major Strong commanded the expedition, attended by Captain Jonas H. French, Lieutenant Turnbull, Captain Conant, Lieutenant Kinsman, Captain Davis, Captain John Clark, and Lieutenant Biddle.

Soon after four o'clock, the armed steamers anchored off Biloxi, and the transport Lewis made fast to the wharf. The inhabitants lined the beach, and one wild son of Mississippi stood on the wharf, rifle in hand, defying the troops to come on shore. The men were marshaled on the wharf. Major Strong placed himself at their head, and gave the word to advance. The wild son of Mississippi retired. In a few minutes Biloxi was surrounded and pervaded by Union troops, the people looking sullenly and silently on. Biloxi was a watering place in other times; the Mississippi cotton-planters' Long Branch, now half deserted, dilapidated and forlorn. Major Strong found ample quarters in the building which had served as a summer hotel. Two prisoners were brought in; one, the valorous Mississippian just mentioned; the other, a fourfooted ass.

"What do you bring that creature here for ?" asked the commander of the force.

"Isn't he a Saypoy secessionist ?" replied the Irishman who had brought him in.

"Let him run," said the major.

66

Very well, sir," said the witty O'Dowd, as he obeyed the

order. "I think myself we had better not touch the privates till we catch the commander."

By the time the surrounding country had been well reconnoitered, night closed in, and further proceedings were deferred till the morrow. The troops slept in and around the town. Not a Biloxian was molested, not a house was plundered or disfigured, not a henroost disturbed, not a garden despoiled. An Irish officer asked a group, where the blackguards were who had fired into the boat that brought home the infernal secessionist's darlin' shipwrecked -daughter; but as he elicited no response, the subject was dropped for the night. Indeed, the sad, despairing expression of every face, the evident poverty of the people, the many abandoned houses, and the utter desolation of the scene, seemed to disarm the resentment of the troops, and a feeling of pity for the " poor devils" arose in its stead. The manner in which the caught Mississippian devoured his rations, led the men to infer that provisions were not abundant in Biloxi; which was found to be true, not of Biloxi only, but of all that coast for hundreds of miles. The people were intense and vigilant devotees of secession, however. The spy who had been engaged by General Butler at Washington, six weeks before, had accomplished his mission so far as to visit New Orleans, and had come to Biloxi, designing to steal over to Ship Island. But he was there suspected, closely watched, and finally arrested. He was then in prison at New Orleans. Not a scrap of paper was found upon him, but he was still detained on suspicion.

At dawn the next morning, Captain Clark and Lieutenant Kinsman led a boat chase after a schooner laden with molasses; but wind proving a better resource than oars, the schooner escaped. As the day advanced, the citizens of Biloxi presented themselves at Major Strong's head-quarters, all avowing themselves secessionists, none of them justifying the attack on the sloop. The major's orders were to procure a written apology from the mayor, and from the commander of the Confederate forces, if any such there were. The mayor, however, kept out of the way; and it was not till his daughter had been politely conducted to head-quarters as a hostage for his appearance, that he could be found. He gave the written apology required, alleging that the party who fired upon the sloop were a mob which he had no force to control. At sunset, with the band playing and colors flying, Major Strong re

embarked the troops, and the fleet steamed westward for Pas Christian, where a regiment of the enemy was posted, and which the general's orders authorized him to visit. At ten in the evening, the steamers anchored off the pass, and the troops slept on board.

Danger was approaching them while they slept. The thunder of cannon woke them as the day was dawning; and before the troops had rubbed their eyes open, crash came a ten-inch shot through the transport, perforating the steam-pipe, passing through the cabin-lights, and out through the smoke-stack. In an instant, a second shot struck her, which carried away the cook's galley and part of the wheel-house. Three of the enemy's gun-boats, their lights all out, had stolen from Lake Borgne upon our little squadron, and this was their morning salutation. A sharp action ensued. It was twenty minutes before the Lewis could get steam enough to move, during which she received three more shots, and escaped three. But at length she both moved and acted. Fortunately, she had been provided with two rifled cannon, which were used with so much effect as to materially aid in the repulse of the enemy. The two gun-boats plied the foe with shot and shell for more than an hour before they thought proper to seek safety in the shallows of Lake Borgne. Strange to relate, but one man of the Union force was wounded, and he slightly-Captain Conant, of the Thirty-First Massachusetts.

Major Strong executed his purpose. He landed his troops, and took possession of the town, a sea-side summer resort, frequented by the people of New Orleans. He dashed upon the camp of the Confederate regiment, three miles distant, and reached it so quickly after the flight of the enemy as to find in the colonel's tent an unfinished dispatch, and the pen with which he was writing it still wet with ink. The dispatch was designed to inform General Lovell, commanding at New Orleans, of the descent upon Biloxi and Pass Christian, and announced the colonel's "desire" to attack the Union troops "toward evening." The camp was destroyed; the public stores in the town were also seized, part of them carried away, and the rest burnt.

At Pass Christian, the Union officers had their first taste of the quality and humor of the ladies of the south-west.

"A portion of the women," writes an officer, "stood their ground

Mrs. and Miss Lee were of this number. Mrs. Lee and her husband keep a hotel, which is known as 'Lee's boarding house.' It is a snug inn. But Mrs. Lee is a tartar. She told Major Strong, that 'Mr. Lee, although he kept a hotel, was of one of the first families of Virginia.'

"I dare say,' replied the Major; there is nothing incompatible with great qualities in the business he pursues!'

"While this parley was going on, Miss Lee pushed herself through the front door. She pouted as she passed over the portico, pulling as she went an unwilling hood over her handsome face, then somewhat disfigured by a frown.

"After the miniature sea and land fights, the officers met again at Lee's boarding house. Bread and butter, and poor claret, were the substance of the repast; Mrs. Lee and her fire-emitting daughter insisting upon occupying chairs at the table, while Mr. Lee waited upon the guests and drew the corks. The display of appetite was good. I think every man ate the worth of the gold dollar which he gave Mrs. Lee, who carefully folded away the hateful Lincoln coin in the corner of her dirty apron. It struck me as queer to see this 'first lady' in clothes which soap could have improved."

Miss Lee could not be appeased. She continued to pout and frown, and to say rude things to the officers in reply to their polite banter, when silence or witty retort would have been in better accord with the lofty claims of her family.

The squadron returned to Ship Island without farther adventure. General Butler marked his sense of the excellent conduct of the troops in a general order:

"Of their bravery in the field," he said, "he felt assured; but another quality, more trying to the soldier, claims his admiration. After having been for months subjected to the privations necessarily incident to camp life upon this island, these well-disciplined soldiers, although for many hours in full possession of two rebel villages, filled with what to them were most desirable luxuries, abstaining from the least unauthorized interference with private property, and all molestation of peaceable citizens. This behavior is worthy of all praise. It robs war of half its horrors-it teaches our enemies how much they have been misinformed by their designing leaders, as to the character of our soldiers and the intention of our government-it gives them a lesson and an example in humanity

and civilized warfare much needed, however little it may be followed. The general commanding commends the action of the men of this expedition to every soldier in this department. Let it be imitated by all in the towns and cities we occupy, a living witness that the United States soldier fights only for the Union, the constitution, and the enforcement of the laws."

Readers will care to know, that the child, the unconscious cause of these proceedings, was restored to her parents. Her father was seeking her at Fort Pickens, under a flag of truce, while Major Strong was conveying her to Biloxi. Her mother, some weeks later, induced the gentleman to call upon General Butler at New Orleans, and thank him for his goodness to their offspring.

April 15th, the welcome word came from Captain Farragut, that all his fleet were over the bar, and reloaded, and that he hoped, the next day, to move up the river to the vicinity of the forts. He had made all possible haste; but the dense, continuous fogs, and the extraordinary lowness of the water had retarded every movement. On the 17th, General Butler was at the mouths of the river with his six thousand troops ready to co-operate. If the fleet had been delayed a few days longer, General Butler would have taken Pensacola, which he learned had been left almost defenseless. The naval commander vetoed the scheme, not anticipating further delay in operating against the forts.

CHAPTER XIII.

REDUCTION OF THE FORTS.

THE distance from the mouths of the Mississippi to New Orleans is one hundred and five miles. The two forts are situated at a bend in the river, seventy-five miles below the city, and thirty from the place where the river breaks into the passes or mouths. Fort Jackson, on the western bank, is hidden from the view of the ascending voyager by a strip of dense woods, which extends along the bank to a point eight miles below it; but Fort St. Philip, on the eastern shore, lies plainly in sight, because it is placed in the