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rid and Island No. 10." It was on the an accident on board the St. Louis, where news of this success of General Pope, doubtless, that General Halleck, on the evening of the 17th, announced at St. Louis, to a gathering of serenaders, that Island No. 10 had been taken, with all the ammunition and transports the enemy had there. There was some disappointment when the declaration was found to be premature. Fortunately, it was prophetic of the result. There were three weeks, however, of novel and arduous labor before the end was attained.

two men were killed directly, two mortally wounded, and several injured, by the explosion of an old 42-pounder, which had been rifled. The result of the day's bombardment, when night closed in, and the gunboats returned to their stations above, was less satisfactory than had been anticipated. Though some damage had been inflicted upon the enemy's works, the gunners still held their ground, and threatened serious injury to the gunboats on a nearer approach. It was evident, in fact, that Island No 10, and its outworks, could not be readily taken by assault from the inadequately protected gunboats. Occasional firing was kept up tending to the reduction of the place; but the conquest of the position required additional aid. "Island No. 10," telegraphs Commodore Foote to the Secretary of the Navy, on the 19th, "is harder to conquer than Columbus, as the island shores are lined with forts, each fort commanding the one above it. We are firing day and night on the rebels, and we gain on them. We are having some of the most beautiful rifle practice ever witnessed. The mortar shells have done fine execution. One shell was landed on their floating battery and cleared the concern in short metre. I am gradually approaching the island, but still do not hope for much until the occurrence of certain events, which promise success."

A more serious trial of the enemy's works was made on the second day. The forenoon was spent in manoeuvring of the gunboats, with firing from the mortar vessels. At mid-day the gunboats Cincinnati, Benton, and St. Louis, lashed side by side, a floating battery of ten guns, proceeded with the Carondelet, Pittsburg, and Mound City in the rear, toward the rebel works. Fire was opened from the Beuton upon the upper battery of the enemy at a distance of a mile and a half, and soon became general on both sides, between the gun and mortar-boats of the assailants and the various island and water batteries of the confederates. The Benton was struck three times during the bombardment, without injury to its defenders. "An 8-inch solid shot," writes the correspondent just cited, "fell upon our upper deck, cut through the half-inch iron plating and five-inch timbers as if they had The "events" alluded to were to be been paper, buried itself in the gun-deck, the result of various projected operations rebounded to the roof, then fell again, carried on with the assistance of General upon the Commodore's writing desk, Pope's forces in the rear of the enemy's smashing the lid and lodging upon the position. It would be of comparatively table." The floor in the vicinity was little advantage to drive the rebels out spread with fragments of timber, and of their works, if they were left the opseveral men standing by were covered portunity of an easy retreat to some with the splinters, yet no one was in-point below. The object was to cut off jured. Another shot entered the Cin- their escape by the single route left cinnati in a similar manner, with no further ill result. In fact, though the bombardment was kept up vigorously during the afternoon, the only casualty was from

them, that, namely, across the Tennessee peninsula, a distance of but a few miles to Tiptonville, below New Madrid, whence they might descend the river

PROJECTS FOR CAPTURING THE ENEMY'S POSITION.

with ease to other points of defence in the vicinity of Memphis. To accomplish this, General Pope, firmly in possession of the Missouri shore, needed only the means of crossing the river, and bringing his forces face to face with the enemy from below. How should this coöperation of General Pope's forces be most advantageously secured. The first project was to employ them in constructing a road through the swamps to a point on the Missouri shore opposite Island No. 10, and station there an artillery force to assist the gunboats in the reduction of the enemy's batteries. An examination of the country for this purpose was made by Colonel Bissell's Engineer regiment, and the route was found to be impracticable. At the suggestion of General Schuyler Hamilton, he was also at the same time directed by General Pope to ascertain if the swamps, which were so serious an obstacle to road making, could be turned to account in the formation of a canal by which steam transports could be brought from above across the Missouri peninsula to New Madrid below. Another mode of securing the means of crossing the river was early suggested by General Pope. On the 17th of March he wrote to Commodore Foote, advising that he should run the enemy's batteries with one of his gunboats-an attempt which the latter then declined on the ground of impracticability.

Colonel Bissell, meanwhile, reported favorably of the capability of the swampy peninsula for the construction of the canal, and was ordered by General Pope to proceed at once with the work. He was authorized to employ his whole engineer regiment upon it, and to call upon Colonel Buford, who commanded the land forces temporarily on duty with the flotilla, which had been placed under General Pope's command, for any assistance in men or material necessary for the work. "Supplies of such articles as were needed," continues General Pope in his report, "and four steamers of

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light draught were sent for to Cairo, and the work begun. It was my purpose to make the canal deep enough for the gunboats; but it was not found practicable to do so within any reasonable period. The work performed by Colonel Bissel and his regiment of engineers was, beyond measure, difficult; and its completion was delayed much beyond my expectations. The canal is twelve miles long, six miles of which are through very heavy timber. An avenue fifty feet wide was made through it, by sawing off trees of large size four and a half feet under water. For nineteen days the work was prosecuted with untiring energy and determination, under exposures and privations very unusual, even in the history of warfare. It was completed on the 4th of April, and will long remain a monument of enterprise and skill.”

Commodore Foote, while this work was being accomplished, was not idle. He kept the attention of the enemy alive by occasional firing from the fleet, directing his attention particularly to the upper battery, No. 1, of the six forts of the enemy, which kept guard around the island on the Tennessee shore. Heavy firing was maintained during the last days of March, and on the night of the 1st of April, in the midst of a furious storm and hurricane, the battered fort, which had caused so much annoyance to the gunboats, was finally carried by an adventurous assault. An armed boat expedition was fitted out from the squadron and land forces, consisting of five boats manned by picked crews of ten men from the gunboats Benton, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburg, and Mound City, carrying some forty men from the 42d Illinois regiment of Colonel Roberts, to whom the command was entrusted. Stirring work was to be expected, and the party-a hundred in all, officers and men-were prepared for it. The achievement, however, was easily performed. In the simple recital of Commodore Foote, "At midnight the boats reached

A.

the fort, and pulling directly to its face, carried it, receiving only the harmless fire of two sentinels, who ran, after discharging their muskets, while the rebel troops in the vicinity rapidly retreated. Thereupon Colonel Roberts spiked the six guns mounted in the fort, and retired with boats uninjured. The commanding officer represents all the men under his command, from their coolness and deliberation, as being ready to perform even more hazardous service, had it been required to fulfill the object of the expedition."*

While these operations, preparatory to the final assault, were going on in the neighborhood of the island, a diversion was made in a reconnoissance sent from Hickman, above on the river, to Union City, the junction of the Columbus and Nashville railroads, some ten miles distant, in Tennessee. Much annoyance had been experienced from the inhabitants of this "pestiferous entrepot of treason," who had, up to the time of the Union occupation of Hickman, harassed its citizens, and who still threatened to reoccupy the town. They were taken at their word, and Colonel Buford, with the 27th Illinois, Colonel Hogg's 15th Missouri, with a battery of artillery, and detachment of cavalry, set out on the 30th March to sound their intentions. On reaching the place they fell in with the rebel pickets, and presently with the rebels themselves, a Tennessee regiment, drawn up in line of battle across the road. Active preparations were at once made for an encounter; but the policy of the enemy was retreat, and they rapidly carried it into effect. A few prisoners and some tents and equipage were taken, when the expedition returned to assure the people of Hickman that their town was in no present danger of disturbance from the Tennessee secessionists.

The next incident in Commodore Foote's squadron, was the passage, on the night

Flag-Officer Foote to the Hon. Gideon Welles. U. S. Steamer Benton, April 2, 1862.

of the 3d, in a furious storm of thunder and lightning, of the entire series of rebel batteries, by the gunboat Carondelet, which, without returning a shot, passed unharmed through a heavy fire from the enemy's works. The only sound heard from the adventurous vessel was the firing of three minute guns, the signal agreed upon by Captain Walke with Commodore Foote, as an indication of her having passed the batteries in safety. "The scene," says a correspondent from the fleet, " upon her arrival at New Madrid is represented as most exciting. The soldiers were out upon the banks, and fairly howled with delight. Cheer after cheer went up for Commodore Foote, Captain Walke, the Navy, the Carondelet, the tars, and even for the colored cabin boy; and when the Captain's gig went ashore to report, the soldiers caught the sailors up in their arms and passed them from one to another, with accompanying embraces more heartfelt than agreeable."*

Another success was reported by Commodore Foote on the 4th. On that morning, "the Benton, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh, with three boats, opened and continued for more than an hour to fire on the rebel heavy floating battery at Island No. 10, when the latter, having received several shells from the rifles and mortars, cut loose from her moorings and drifted two or three miles down the river. The shells were thrown from the flotilla into different parts of the island, and into the rebel batteries lining the Tennessee shore. The return fire produced no effect on the squadron."

We now turn to General Pope to see how he employed his new resources on the river below. His official report presents the best account we have seen of the final, decisive operations of the siege. "During all the time," says he, while the engineer force was constructing the military canal across the peninsula, "the flo

Correspondence of the New York Herald. Squier's Pictorial History, vol. i. p. 375.

GENERAL POPE'S OPERATIONS.

tilla had kept up its fire upon the batteries of the enemy, but without making any progress toward their reduction. It had by this time become very apparent that the capture of Island No. 10 could not be made unless the land forces could be thrown across the river, and their works carried from the rear; but during this long delay the enemy, anticipating such a movement, had erected batteries along the shore from Island No. 10 entirely round to Tiptonville, at every point where troops could be landed. The difficulty of crossing the river in force had, therefore, been greatly increased; and what would have been a comparatively safe undertaking three weeks before, had become one full of peril. It is not necessary to state, that the passage of a great river lined with batteries, and in the face of the enemy, is one of the most difficult and hazardous operations of war, and cannot be justified except in a case of urgent necessity. Such a case seemed presented for my action. Without this movement operations against Island No. 10 must have been abandoned, and the land forces, at least, withdrawn. It is but bare justice to say, that although the full peril of the moment was thoroughly understood by my whole command, there was not an officer or a man who was not anxious to be placed in the advance.

"There seemed little hope of any assistance from the gunboats. I therefore had several heavy coal-barges brought into the upper end of the canal, which, during the progress of the work, were made into floating batteries. Each battery consisted of three heavy barges lashed together, and bolted with iron. The middle barge was bulkheaded all around, so as to give four feet of thickness of solid timber both at the sides and on the ends. The heavy guns, three in number, were mounted on it, and protected by traverses of sand-bags. It also carried eighty sharpshooters. The barges outside of it had a first layer in

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the bottom of empty water-tight barrels, securely lashed, then layers of dry cotton-wood rails and cotton bales packed close. They were then floored over at the top, to keep everything in its place, so that a shot penetrating the outer barges must pass through twenty feet of rails and cotton before reaching the middle one, which carried the men and the guns. The arrangement of water-barrels and cotton-bales was made in order that even if penetrated frequently by the enemy's shot, and filled with water, the outer barges could not sink. It was my purpose when all was ready, to tow one or two of these batteries over the river to a point opposite New Madrid, where swamps prevented any access to the river, and where the enemy, therefore, had been unable to establish his batteries. When near the shore, the floating batteries with their crews were to be cut loose from the steamer, and allowed to float down the river to the point selected for landing the troops. As soon as they arrived within a short range of it they were to cast out their anchors so as to hold the barges firmly, and open fire upon the enemy's batteries. I think that these batteries would have accomplished their purpose, and my whole force volunteered to man them. They were well provided with small boats, to keep out of danger, and even if the worst happened, and the batteries were sunk by the enemy's fire, the men would meet with no worse fate than capture.

On the 5th of April, the steamers and barges were brought near the mouth of the bayou which discharges into the Mississippi at New Madrid, but were kept carefully out of sight of the river, whilst our floating batteries were being completed. The enemy, as we afterwards learned, had received positive advices of the construction of the canal, but were unable to believe that such a work was practicable. The first assurance they had of its completion was the

appearance of the four steamers loaded 22d, and 51st Illinois regiments, with with troops, on the morning of the 7th of April. On the 4th, Commodore Foote allowed one of the gunboats to run the batteries at Island No. 10, and Captain Walke, U. S. N., who had volunteeredas appears from the Commodore's order to him-came through that night with the gunboat Carondelet. Although many shots were fired at him as he passed the batteries, his boat was not once struck. He informed me of his arrival early on the 5th. On the morning of the 6th, I sent General Granger, Colonel Smith of the 43d Ohio, and Captain L. B. Marshall of my staff, to make a reconnoissance of the river below, and requested Captain Walke to take them on board the Carondelet, and run down the river to ascertain precisely the character of the banks and the position and number of the enemy's batteries. The whole day was spent in this reconnoissance, the Carondelet steaming down the river in the midst of a heavy fire from the enemy's batteries along the shore. The whole bank, for fifteen miles, was lined with heavy guns at intervals; in no case, I think, exceeding one mile. Entrenchments for infantry were also thrown up along the shore, between the batteries.

Houghtaling's battery of artillery. The land batteries of 32-pounders, under Captain Williams, 1st United States infantry, which I had established some days before, opposite the point where the troops were to land, were ordered to open their fire upon the enemy's batteries opposite as soon as it was possible to see them. A heavy rain storm commenced on the night of the 6th, and continued, with short intermissions, for several days. The morning of the 7th was very dark, and the rain fell heavily until midday. As soon as it was fairly light, our heavy batteries on the land opened their fire vigorously upon the batteries of the enemy, and the two gunboats ran down the river and joined in the action. I cannot speak too highly of the conduct of Captain Walke during the whole of these operations. Prompt, gallant, and cheerful, he performed the hazardous service assigned him with signal skill and success. About twelve o'clock M. he signalled me that the batteries near our place of landing were silenced, and the steamers containing Paine's division moved out from the landing and began to cross the river, preceded by the gun

boats.

"On his return up the river, Captain "The whole force designed to cross Walke silenced the enemy's battery op- had been drawn up along the river bank, posite Point Pleasant, and a small infan- and saluted the passing steamers with try force, under Captain L. H. Marshall, shouts of exultation. As soon as we belanded and spiked the guns. On the gan to cross the river, the enemy comnight of the 6th, at my urgent request, menced to vacate his positions along the Commodore Foote ordered the Pittsburg banks and the batteries on the Tennesalso to run down to New Madrid. She see shore, opposite Island No. 10. His arrived at daylight, having, like the Ca- whole force was in motion toward Tipondelet, come through without being tonville, with the exception of the few touched. I directed Captain Walke to artillerists on the island, who, in the proceed down the river at daylight on haste of the retreat, had been abandonthe 7th, with the two gunboats, and, if ed. As Paine's division was passing oppossible, silence the batteries near Wat-posite the point I occupied on the shore, son's Landing, the point which had been selected to land the troops, and at the same time, I brought the four steamers into the river and embarked Paine's division, which consisted of the 10th, 16th,

one of my spies, who had crossed on the gunboats from the silenced battery, informed me of this hurried retreat of the enemy. I signalled General Paine to stop his boats, and sent him the informa

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