NATIONAL VESSELS IN THE MISSISSIPPI. 331 co-operate. So early as the 28th of March, Fleet-captain Henry H. Bell had made a reconnoissance well up toward Fort Jackson, with two gun-boats, and found a thick wood covering the shores of the Mississippi for about four miles below it. This was favorable for the intended operations of the Nationals, On the 8th of April, a detachment of the coast-survey party made a minute examination of the river-banks under the protection of the Owasco; and, on the 18th, two divisions (fourteen vessels) of Porter's flotilla were moored under cover of the wood, on the shores just below Fort Jackson. To prevent the discovery of his movement, Porter had daubed the hulls of his vessels with Mississippi mud, and clothed their masts and rigging with the boughs of trees, in such a way that they could not, at a distance, be distinguished from the forest. As MORIAR VESSELS DISGUISED. when "Birnam wood" moved "toward Dunsinane," the strategy was successful, and his vessels were moored at desirable points without being discovered, the nearest one being two thousand eight hundred and fifty yards from Fort Jackson, and three thousand six hundred and eighty from Fort St. Philip. The remaining division (six vessels) was moored on the opposite side of the river, at a little greater distance from the forts, the hulls of the vessels screened by reeds and willows to conceal their character. The Mississippi was full to the brim. It was rising, and gradually submerging the adjacent country. The chain and its supports at Fort Jackson had been swept away by the flood, and only slight obstructions appeared in its place, composed of eight hulks and some of the cypress logs chained together. The battle was begun before nine o'clock on the morning of the 18th, by a shot from Fort Jackson. As soon as Porter was ready, the Owasco opened fire, and the bombardment was commenced by the fourteen mortar-vessels, concealed by the woods, and the six in full view of the forts. Porter was in a position on the Harriet Lane to observe the effects of the shells, and he directed their range accordingly; and by ten o'clock the conflict was very warm. It was continued for several days with very little intermission, the gun-boats taking part by running up when the mortar-vessels needed relief, and firing heavy shells upon the forts. Perceiving little chance for reducing the forts, Farragut prepared to execute another part of his instructions by running by them. On the 20th he called a council of captains in the cabin of the Hart a April, 1862. necticut, Colonel Cahill, and Holcomb's Second Vermont battery. On the Great Republic, General Williams, with the Twenty-first Indiana, Colonel McMillen; Fourth Wisconsin, Colonel Paine, and Sixth Michigan, Colonel Cortinas. On the North America, the Thirtieth Massachusetts, Colonel Dudley, and a company each of Reed's and Durivage's cavalry. On the Will Farley, the Twelfth Connecticut, Colonel Deming. 1 On that day the Confederates sent down a "fire-ship" -a flat-boat filled with wood saturated with tur and turpentine-to burn the fleet. It came swiftly down the strong current, freighted with destruction; but it was quietly stopped in its career by some men in a small boat that went out from the Iroquois, who seized it with grappling irons, towed it to the shore, and there let it burn out in perfect harmlessness. 332 BOMBARDMENT OF FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP. ford, when that measure was decided upon. General Butler, who had arrived with his staff, had been up in a tug to take a look at the obstructions, and had reported that they must be opened before any vessels could pass, intended to destroy. especially when under fire. So, at ten o'clock that night, under cover of intense darkness, the wind blowing fiercely from the north, Commander Bell, with the Pinola and Itaska, supported by the Iroquois, Kennebec, and Winona, ran up to the boom. The Pinola ran to the hulk under the guns of Fort Jackson, and an attempt was made to destroy it by a petard, but failed. The Itaska was lashed to the next hulk, when a rocket thrown up from Fort Jackson revealed her presence, and a heavy fire from the fortress was opened upon her. The vigorous application of chisels, sledges, and saws for half an hour parted the boom of chains and logs, and the hulk to which the Itaska was lashed swung round and grounded the latter in the mud, in shallow water. The Pinola rescued her. Two hours afterward an immense fire-raft came roaring down the stream like a tornado, and, like its predecessors on similar errands, it was caught, and rendered harmless to the vessels it was Day after day the bombardment was continued, and night after night the fire-rafts were sent blazing down the stream. Fort Jackson, the principal object of attack, still held out. On the first day of the assault, its citadel was set on fire by Porter's shells and destroyed, with all the clothing and commissary stores, the garrison suffering severely for several hours from the intense heat of the conflagration. On the 19th, the mortar-schooner Maria J. Carleton was sunk by a rifle-shell from Fort Jackson, and, at the same time, the levee having been broken in scores of places by exploding shells, the waters of the Mississippi had flooded the parade-ground and casemates of the fort. For six days the bombardment continued, with such slight effect that Duncan reported that he had suffered very little, notwithstanding his barbette guns had been disabled at times, and that twenty-five thousand heavy shells had been hurled at him, of which one thousand had fallen within the fort. "God is certainly protecting us," he said. "We are still cheerful, and have an abiding faith in our ultimate success." a April, 1862. At sunset on the 23d," Farragut was ready for his perilous forward movement. The mortar-boats, keeping their position, were to cover the advance with their fire. Six gun-boats (Harriet Lane, Westfield, Owasco, Clinton, Miami, and Jackson, the last towing the Portsmouth) were to engage the water-battery below Fort Jackson, but not to make an attempt to pass it. Farragut, with his flag-ship Hartford, and the equally large ships Richmond and Brooklyn, that formed the first division, was to keep near the right bank of the river, and fight Fort Jackson, while Captain Theodorus Bailey, with the second division, composed of 1 Duncan was not singular among Confederate officers in making other than the most exaggerated reports for the public. The number of shells thrown was about five thousand, and the number that entered the fort about three hundred. THE WAR VESSELS PASS THE FORTS. 333 the Pensacola, Mississippi, Oneida, Varuna, Katahdin, Kineo, Wissahickon, and Portsmouth, was to keep closely to the eastern bank, and fight Fort St. Philip. To Captain Bell was assigned the duty of attacking the Confederate fleet above the forts. He was to keep in the channel of the river with the Sciota, Winona, Iroquois, Pinola, Itaska, and Kennebec, and push right on to his assigned work without regard to the forts. General Butler and his staff went on board the Saxon, and at eleven o'clock at night a signal from the Itaska, that had run up to the boom, announced the channel clear of obstructions, excepting the hulks, which, with care, might be passed. The night was very dark, owing to a heavy fog; and the smoke from THEODORUS BAILEY. the steamers settled upon the waters, and shrouded every thing in almost impenetrable gloom. • April 24, 1862. At one o'clock in the morning," everybody was called to action. There was an ominous silence at the forts, which the inexperienced thought indicated their evacuation. It was not so. Energetic preparations for a more formidable assault were going on there. The fleet, now in command of Commodore Whittle, was summoned to a rendezvous near the fort; and other preparations indicated that a knowledge of the movement about to take place below had been communicated to the Confederate commanders. The fleet moved at two o'clock, and at half-past three the divisions of Farragut and Bailey were going abreast up the swift stream, at the rate of four miles an hour. Then the mortars (the vessels still at their moorings), which were prepared for the most rapid firing, opened a terrible storm on Fort Jackson. Not less than half a dozen enormous shells were screaming through the thick night air, with their fiery trails, at the same moment. Steadily the fleet moved on, when the discovery of the Cayuga, Captain Bailey's ship, just as she had passed the opening in the boom, caused the forts to break their long silence, and bring heavy guns to bear upon her. She did not reply until she was close under those of Fort St. Philip, when she gave that work heavy broadsides of grape and canister as she passed by. The Pensacola, Mississippi, Varuna, and Portsmouth were following close in the wake of the Cayuga, and in all respects imitated her example; and the whole of Bailey's division passed the forts almost unharmed, excepting the sailing vessel Portsmouth, which, on firing a single broadside, lost her tow and drifted down the river. Captain Bell was less fortunate. The Sciota, Iroquois, and Pinola passed the forts, but the Itasca was disabled by a storm of shot, one of which pierced her boiler, and she drifted helplessly down the river. From that storm the Winona recoiled, and the Kennebec, becoming entangled in the 334 SHIPS AND FORTS IN CONFLICT. obstructions, lost her way in the intense darkness, and finally returned to her moorings below. The waning moon was now just above the horizon, and the mist and smoke had become less dense. Farragut, in the fore-rigging of the Hartford, had been watching the movements of Bailey and Bell through his nightglass with the greatest interest, while the vessels under his immediate command were slowly approaching Fort Jackson. When he was within a mile and a quarter of it, the heavy guns of that fortress opened with a remarkable precision of aim, and the Hartford was struck several times. Farragut had mounted two guns upon the forecastle, and with these he promptly replied, at the same time pushing ahead directly for the fort. When he was within half a mile of it, he sheered off and gave the garrison such broadsides of grape and canister that they were driven from all their barbette guns. But the casemate guns were kept in full play, and the conflict became very severe. The Richmond soon joined in the fight; but the Brooklyn lagged behind, in lyn's smoke-stack, which fortunately lodged in some sand-bags that protected her steam-drum. The next moment the ram butted into the ship's starboard gang-way, but the chain armor that had been formed over the sides of the Brooklyn so protected it that the Manassas glanced off and disappeared in the gloom. The Brooklyn had been exposed to a raking fire from Fort Jackson while entangled in the boom and encountering the Manassas. She had just escaped the latter, when a large Confederate steamer assailed her. She gave it a broadside that set it on fire and consigned it to swift destruction. Then pushing slowly on in the dark she suddenly found herself abreast Fort St. Philip, and very close to it. She was in a position to bring all her guns to bear upon it in the course of a few minutes. This was done with powerful effect. "I had the satisfaction," said Captain Craven in his report, "of completely silencing that work before I left it, my men in the tops witnessing, in the flashes of the bursting shrapnel,' the enemy running like sheep for more comfortable quarters." SHRAPNEL SHELL 1 A Shrapnel shell is sometimes spherical and sometimes conical, like that represented in section in the engraving. They are hollow spheres or cones of iron, filled with musket-balls or grape-shot, with sufficient gunpowder to explode them when ignited by a fuse. The balls are then scattered and are very destructive. A HEAVY BOMBARDMENT. 335 Commodore Farragut, in the mean time, "was having a rough time of it," as he said. While battling with the forts, a huge fire-raft, pushed by the Manassas, came suddenly upon him, all a-blaze. In trying to avoid this, the Hartford was run aground, and the incendiary came crashing alongside of her. "In a moment," said Farragut, "the ship was one blaze all along the port side, half way up to the main and mizzen tops. But thanks to the good organization of the fire department, by Lieutenant Thornton, the flames were extinguished, and at the same time we backed off and got clear of the raft. All this time we were pouring shells into the forts, and they into us, and now and then a rebel steamer would get under our fire and receive our salutation of a broadside." Before the fleet had fairly passed the forts, the Confederate gunboats and rams appeared and took part in the battle, producing a scene at once awful and grand. The noise of twenty mortars and two hundred and sixty great THE HARTFORD. guns, afloat and ashore, was terrific. The explosion of shells, sunken deep in the Oozy earth in and around the forts, shook land and water like an earthquake; and the surface of the river was strewn with dead and helpless fishes stunned by the concussions. "Combine," said Major Bell, of Butler's staff, "all that you have ever heard of thunder, and add to it all you have ever seen of lightning, and you have perhaps a conception of the scene." And all this noise and destructive energy-the blazing fire-rafts, the floating volcanoes sending forth fire and smoke, and bolts of death, and the thundering forts, and the ponderous rams, were all crowded, in "the greatest darkness just before the dawn," within the space of a narrow river--"too narrow," said Farragut, "for more than two or three vessels to act to advantage. My greatest fear was that we should fire into each other; and Captain Wainwright and myself were hallooing ourselves hoarse at the men not to fire into our ships." We have observed that the fleet had not fairly passed the river obstructions before the Confederate rams and gun-boats appeared.' The Cayuga encountered that flotilla as soon as she passed Fort St. Philip. The ram There were six rams, named Warrior, Stonewall Jackson, Defiance, Resolute, Governor Moore, and General Quitman, commanded respectively by Captains Stephenson, Philips, McCoy, Hooper, Kennon, and Grant. These were river steamers, made shot-proof by cotton bulk-heads, and furnished with iron prows for pushing. The ram Manassas, then commanded by Captain Warley, was an entirely different affair. She was thus described by an eye-witness: "She is about one hundred feet long and twenty feet beam, and draws from nine to twelve feet water. Her shape above water is nearly that of half a sharply pointed egg-shell, so that a shot will glance from her, no matter where it strikes. Her back is formed of twelve-inch oak, covered with oneand-a-half-inch bar iron. She has two chimneys, so arranged as to slide down in time of action. The pilot |