PROGRESS OF THE ACTION. their perilous enterprise. "Every vessel," says he in his official report, "was as well prepared as the ingenuity of her commander and officers could suggest, both for the preservation of life and of the vessel, and, perhaps, there is not on record such a display of ingenuity as has been evinced in this little squadron. The first was by the engineer of the Richmond, Mr. Moore, by suggesting that the sheet cables be stopped up and down on the sides in the line of the engines, which was immediately adopted by all the vessels. Then each commander made his own arrangements for stopping the shot from penetrating the boilers or machinery that might come in forward or abaft, by hammocks, coal, bags of ashes, bags of sand, clothes bags, and, in fact, every device imaginable. The bulwarks were lined with hammocks by some, by splinter nettings made with ropes by others. Some rubbed their vessels over with mud, to make their ships less visible, and some whitewashed their decks, to make things more visible by night during the fight. In the afternoon I visited each ship, in order to know positively that each commander understood my orders for the attack, and to see that all was in readiness. I had looked to their efficiency before. Every one appeared to understand their orders well, and looked forward to the conflict with firmness, but with anxiety, as it was to be in the night, or at two o'clock, A. M." According to a previous general order, Commodore Farragut's fleet was arranged in two divisions, to each of which was assigned six gunboats. The command of the first division, embracing the Cayuga, Lieutenant Commanding N. B. Harrison, the Oneida, Commander Lee, the Varuna, Commander Charles S. Boggs, the Katahdin, Lieutenant Commanding G. H. Preble, the Kineo, Lieutenant Commanding George M. Ransom, and the Wissahickon, Lieutenant Commanding A. N. Smith, was given to Captain Theodorus Bailey, an officer of the United 383 em States navy, a native of New York, who had entered the service as a midshipman in 1818, and had been constantly ployed in its various duties abroad and at home. His division acted in concert with the ships Mississippi, Commander M. Smith, and the Pensacola, Captain Henry W. Morris. Captain Bell was given the command of the 2d division of gunboats, including the Sciota, Lieutenant Commanding Donaldson, the Iriquois, Commander De Camp, the Kennebec, Lieutenant Commanding John H. Russell, the Pinola, Lieutenant Commanding Crosby, the Itasca, Lieutenant Commanding C. H. B. Caldwell, the Winona, Lieutenant Commanding Edward T. Nichols. In conjunction with this division of gunboats were the ships Hartford, Commander Richard Wainwright, the Brooklyn, Captain T. T. Craven, and the Richmond, Commander Alden. The Hartford was the flag-ship of Commodore Farragut, to whose official report of the action which ensued we now direct our attention. "At about five minutes of two o'clock, A. M., April 24, signal was made to get under way (two ordinary red lights, so as not to attract the attention of the enemy), but owing to the great difficulty in purchasing their anchors, the Pensacola and some of the other vessels were not under way until half-past three. We then advanced in two columns, Captain Bailey leading the right in the gunboat Cayuga, Lieutenant Commanding Harrison, he having been assigned to the first division of gunboats, which was to attack Fort St. Philip, in conjunction with the 2d division of ships, and the Hartford, the left; Fleet-Captain Bell leading the 2d division of gunboats in the Sciota; Lieutenant Commanding Donaldson to assist the first division of ships to attack Fort Jackson. The enemy's lights, while they discovered us to them, were, at the same time guides to us. We soon passed the barrier chains, the right column taking Fort St. Philip, and the left Fort direction as lay in their power. Just as the scene appeared to be closing, the ram Manassas was seen coming up under full speed to attack us. I directed Captain Smith, in the Mississippi, to turn and run her down; the order was instantly obeyed by the Mississippi turning and going at her at full speed. Just as we expected to see the ram annihilated, when within fifty yards of each other, she put her helm hard aport, dodged the Mississippi, and ran ashore. The Mississippi poured two broadsides into her, and sent her drifting down the river a total wreck. Thus closed our morning's fight." It would be impossible to do justice to the merits of this extraordinary engagement without citing in detail the special reports of the several commanders, to whose independent action of necessity the work was in a great measure committed. Indeed, Commodore Farragut candidly admits, in his report, that after the or Jackson. The fire became general, the smoke dense, and we had nothing to aim at but the flash of their guns; it was very difficult to distinguish friends from foes. Captain Porter had, by arrangement, moved up to a certain point on the Fort Jackson side with his gunboats, and I had assigned the same post to Captain Swartwout, in the Portsmouth, to engage the water batteries to the southward and eastward of Fort Jackson, while his mortar vessels poured a terrific fire of shells into it. I discovered a fire raft coming down upon us, and in attempting to avoid it ran the ship on shore, and the ram Manassas, which I had not seen, lay on the opposite of it, and pushed it down upon us. Our ship was soon on fire half way up to her tops, but we backed off, and through the good organization of our fire department, and the great exertions of Captain Wainwright and his first lieutenant, officers and crew, the fire was extinguished. In the meantime our bat-ganization and arrangements had been tery was never silent, but poured in its made, and the fight had fairly been enmissiles of death into Fort St. Philip, op- tered upon, "the density of the smoke posite to which we had got by this time, from guns and fire rafts, the scenes passand it was silenced, with the exception ing on board our own ship and around of a gun now and then. By this time us-for By this time us-for it was as if the artillery of Heathe enemy's gunboats, some thirteen in ven were playing on the earth-rendered number, besides two iron-clad rams, the it impossible for the flag-officer to see Manassas and Louisiana, had become how each vessel was conducting itself." more visible. We took them in hand, He can judge, he adds, only by the and in the course of a short time destroy- final results and the special reports from ed eleven of them. We were now fairly the fleet; "but I feel that I can say with past the forts, and the victory was ours; truth, that it has rarely been the lot of a but still here and there a gunboat making commander to be supported by officers resistance. Two of them had attacked of more indomitable courage, or higher the Varuna, which vessel, by her greater professional merit." speed, was much in advance of us; they The report of Capt Bailey, second in ran into her and caused her to sink, but command, on board the Cayuga, which not before she had destroyed her adver- led the column on the right, like the saries, and their wrecks now lie side by other official statements of this adventuside, a monument to the gallantry of Cap-rous affair, is a spirited sailor's docutain Boggs, his officers, and crew. It ment, impressed with a certain zest of was a kind of guerrilla; they were fight- the new situation. "We led off," he reing in all directions. Captains Bailey and Bell, who were in command of the 1st and 2d divisions of gunboats, were as active in rendering assistance in every ports to Flag-Officer Farragut, "at two A. M., in accordance with your signal, and steered directly up stream, edging a little to starboard, in order to give room ENCOUNTER WITH THE MANASSAS. 385 bank, and was last seen by some of the officers floating down the stream, passing the Mississippi without smoke-stack. I counted nine of the enemy's steamers of all kinds destroyed; all but two being well armed on the bow and stern." Captain Craven records an adventure of his steam sloop Brooklyn with this famous ram, which, certainly, during her short career in this engagement, displayed a wonderful activity. At the beginning of the action, the Brooklyn, in the darkness and smoke, was entangled with the hulks and rafts of the chain barrier, when she fell athwart the stream, her for your division. I was followed by the Pensacola in fine style, the remainder of my division following in regular and compact order. We were scarcely above the boom when we were discovered, and Jackson and St. Philip opened upon us. We could bring no gun to bear, but steered directly on. We were struck from stem to stern. At length we were close up with St. Philip, when we opened with grape and canister. Scarcely were we above the line of fire, when we found ourselves attacked by the rebel fleet of gunboats. This was hot but more congenial work. Two large steamers now attempted to board, one on our star-bow grazing the shore, and in this situa-board bow, the other astern; a third on our starboard beam. The 11-inch Dahlgren being trained on this fellow, we fired at a range of thirty yards. The effect was very destructive; he immediately steered in shore, ran aground, and burnt himself up. The Parrott gun on the forecastle drove off one on the bow, while we prepared to repel boarders, so close was our remaining enemy. About this time Boggs and Lee came dashing in, and made a finish of the rebel boats-eleven in all." Fleet-Captain Bell, on board the Sciota, the flag-officer's division on the left, reports having run safely through the batteries of the forts and rebel steamers when two of the latter were set fire to and burned by Captain Donaldson. Delaying to take possession of another which had surrendered, and which was found to be fast ashore, the Sciota was brought within half a mile of the ram Manassas, when Captain Bell had the satisfaction to witness the decided manner in which the noble old steamship Mississippi, Commander Melancthon Smith, met that pigmy monster. The Mississippi made at her, but the Manassas sheered off to avoid the collision, and landed on the shore, when her crew escaped over her roof into the swamp. The Mississippi pelted her meanwhile with her heavy guns. After a while she slipped off the tion was exposed to a pretty severe fire from Fort St. Philip. Escaping this danger she resumed her course, when, in the humorous and graphic language of her commander, "she was feebly butted by the celebrated ram Manassas. She came butting into our starboard gangway, first firing from her trap-door, when within about ten feet of the ship, directly towards our smoke-stack, her shot entering about five feet above the water-line and lodging in the sand-bags which protected our steam-drum. I had discovered this queer-looking gentleman while forcing my way over the barricade, lying close into the bank, and when he made his appearance the second time I was so close to him that he had not an opportunity to get up his full speed, and his efforts to damage me were completely frustrated, our chain armor proving a perfect protection to our sides. He soon slid off, and disappeared in the darkness. A few moments thereafter, being all the time under a raking fire from Fort Jackson, I was attacked by a large rebel steamer. Our port broadside, at the short distance of only fifty or sixty yards, completely finished him, setting him on fire almost instantaneously. Still groping my way in the dark, or under the black cloud of smoke from the fire raft, I suddenly found myself abreast of St. Philip, and so close that the leads |