AKMY OPERATIONS. 



49 



commence the campaign on the opposite side 

 of the river. 



At the same time that the occupation of 

 New Carthage was ordered, preparations were 

 made for running transports and a gunboat 

 fleet below the batteries of Vicksburg. The 

 gunboats selected were the Benton, Capt. 

 Greer ; Lafayette, Capt. Henry "Walke ; Price, 

 Capt. Woodworth; Louisville, Capt. Owens; 

 Carondelet, Capt. McLeod Murphy ; Pittsburg, 

 Capt. "Wm. Hoel ; Tuscumbia, Capt. Shirk, and 

 Mound City. All of these boats except the 

 Price were ironclad. Each had taken, for 

 additional protection, baled cotton, hay, rail- 

 road iron, timber, chains, or whatever else 

 might be suitable. The transports which were 

 selected were the Forest Queen, Capt. Dan. 

 Con way ; Henry Clay ; and Silver "Wave, Capt. 

 McMillan. These boats took a quantity of 

 supplies for the army, and bales of cotton and 

 hay were placed around the most important 

 parts of their machinery. The night of the 

 16th of April was fixed for the expedition to 

 start. Everything was in readiness before 

 dark. The plan decided upon was that the 

 ironclads should pass down in single file, with 

 intervals between the boats of a few hundred 

 yards, and that when in front of the batteries 

 they should engage them with their broadside 

 guns, and, under cover of the smoke, the trans- 

 ports should endeavor to pass unseen. A spec- 

 tator of the exciting scene has thus described 

 it: 



" Lights twinkled busily from the Vicksburg 

 hillsides until about 10 o'clock, when they 

 disappeared, and about the same moment song 

 and laughter on our side were hushed, as a 

 shapeless mass of what looked like a great frag- 

 ment of darkness was discerned floating noise- 

 lessly down the river. It was the Benton. It 

 passed and disappeared in the night, and was 

 succeeded by another bank of darkness, the La- 

 fayette, with the Price lashed to her starboard 

 side. And thus they continued, as if huge 

 shadows detached themselves from the dark- 

 ness above, floated across the vision, and dis- 

 appeared in the darkness below. Ten of these 

 noiseless shapes revealed themselves and dis- 

 appeared. 



" Three quarters of an hour passed. People 

 heard nothing save their own 'suppressed 

 breathings ; saw nothing save a long low bank 

 of darkness, which, like a black fog, walled the 

 view below, and joined the sky and river in the 

 direction of Vicksburg. And all watched this 

 gathering of darkness, for in it were thunders 

 and lightnings and volcanoes, which at any 

 instant might light up the night with fierce ir- 

 ruptions. 



" So long a time passed without anything 

 occurring that people began to believe the en- 

 emy had determined, for some malevolent pur- 

 pose, to allow the fleet to pass below without 

 obstruction. However, this supposition was 

 hardly broached ere it was contradicted most 

 emphatically. At just a quarter before eleven, 

 VOL. in. 4 A 



two bright sharp lines of flame flashed through 

 the darkness, at the extreme right of the Vicks- 

 burg batteries ; and, in an instant, the whole 

 length of the bluffs was ablaze with fire. The 

 fleet, which had rounded the Point, and now 

 lay squarely before the city, at once responded 

 by opening their ports, and pouring their full 

 broadside of twenty-five heavy guns, charged 

 with grape and shrapnel, directly against the 

 city. 



"A great cloud of smoke rolled heavily over 

 the gunboats, and in this the three transports 

 entered and made their 'best tune' down the 

 river. The Forest Queen, which was in the ad- 

 vance, received a shot in the hull and another 

 through the steam drum, which disabled her 

 instantly. The Henry Clay, that came next, was 

 stopped^ to prevent her running into the other, 

 and at the same moment was struck by a shell 

 that set her cotton on fire. The crew, demor- 

 alized by the stoppage and terrified by the fire, 

 ran aimlessly around for a few moments, then 

 launched the yawl, sprang into it, and pulled 

 for the shore. The pilot, finding that no en- 

 gineers obeyed the bells, stayed a short time un- 

 til the fire began to seethe around him, when 

 he seized a plank, jumped overboard, and was 

 picked up by a gunboat. The Clay, in the 

 mean time, became a great blazing mass, that 

 floated down the river until it disappeared be- 

 low "Warrenton. Had she been manned by 

 men of nerve, the fire would have- been extin- 

 guished and the boat carried through safely. 

 The fact of her floating so far shows that her 

 hull was uninjured. 



" The Forest Queen was taken in tow by a 

 gunboat, and towed below without further 

 damage. The Silver "Wave did not receive a 

 scratch. 



"The Vicksburg batteries were passed in 

 about an hour and a quarter. Upon reaching 

 Warrenton batteries, the gunboats took the in- 

 itiative by pouring in their broadsides on the 

 instant they reached position ; and so continu- 

 ous and. terrific was their fire that the enemy 

 scarcely attempted a response." 



No one on board either of the transports was 

 injured, and Gen. Grant immediately ordered 

 six more to be prepared in like manner for run- 

 ning the batteries. Accordingly the Tigress, 

 Anglo-Saxon, Cheeseman, Empire City, Hori- 

 zona, and Moderator left Milliken's Bend on 

 the night of the 22d of April, and five of them 

 got by, but in a somewhat damaged condition. 

 The Tigress received a shot in her hull below 

 the water line, and sunk on the Louisiana shore, 

 after passing the last of the batteries. In tow 

 of these transports, twelve barges loaded with 

 forage were sent, one half of which got through 

 in a condition to be used. The transports in- 

 jured in running the blockade were repaired 

 by order of Admiral Porter, and in a very 

 short time five of them were in running order, 

 and the remainder in a condition to be used as 

 barges in the movement of troops. 



As the number of transports below Vicks- 



