SOLDIER 25 



up the road from Baton Rouge they had a sharp skirmish 

 with the enemy and found a bridge to build. Goodell was 

 not one of those men who do not know what fear is, 

 but he had moral strength to do his duty without regard 

 to danger. "I was under fire," he writes, "for ten or fifteen 

 minutes, the bullets zipping in the trees over my head. I 

 flatter myself that my hair rose to a reasonable height 

 on that occasion." 



The army came within cannon-shot of the Confederate 

 works, but could not get their guns up in time to be of any 

 service. But they were auditors and witnesses of a terri- 

 ble scene. At 11.20 P.M., two rockets burst into the air, and 

 in an instant all the guns of the fortress lit up the dark- 

 ness with their flash. The fleet replied, and until 35 minutes 

 after midnight the roar of one hundred and fifty guns was 

 incessant. To add terror to the anxiety of the awful scene 

 in the mind of the soldiers, "the U. S. Frigate Mississippi" 

 grounded, and to save her from capture, she was fired 

 in all parts, and when wrapped in flames that lit up the 

 scene for miles around, went up with a terrific explosion in 

 fragments to the sky. Goodell's account of this daring and 

 brilliant affair has been lost. Farragut's little fleet for this 

 desperate enterprise consisted of four ships and three gun- 

 boats, which were lashed to the port side of the forward 

 ships. But only the Hartford, which flew the Admiral's 

 "dauntless blue," and her consort, the little Albatross, 

 succeeded in running past the batteries. The other ships 

 were disabled by the enemy's fire and dropped down the 

 stream. The Mississippi, which had no consort, grounded, 

 became a target for the enemy's guns, and to save the 

 lives of her men was abandoned and fired. 



