398 
COMMENDED ESSAY, 1893 . 
Mobile. 
Peiho River. 
Port Hudson 
Gibraltar. 
Portobello. 
Louisburg. 
Belleisle. 
Charleston. 
after wasting two days in fruitless bombardment, ran past by night, 
with trifling loss. Later on he returned by daylight, and craft of all 
kinds forced the passage. 
At Mobile obstructions threw the whole line into confusion, and 
checked the ships under the guns of the fortress. The fleet suffered 
severely, and the attempt nearly ended in disaster. 
At the mouth of the Peiho Liver, in 1859, the ships made the fatal 
mistake of first directing their attention to the forts instead of the 
obstructions. Landing was unsuccessfully attempted, and the attack 
ended in failure. 
The failure of the attempt at Port Hudson was due to (1) darkness; 
(2)- smoke; (3) intricacy of navigation; (4) rapidity of current. 
(IY.) Bombardment (asssisted by naval landing parties). —Gibraltar, in 
1704, and Portobello, in 1739, are good instances of this. 
At Gibraltar 1800 marines blockaded the fortress on the land side, 
and the bombardment was followed up by storming parties. The fall 
of the fortress was due to the immense numerical superiority of the 
attacking force (10,000 to 150), and the cutting off of all supplies. 
Gibraltar has defied its foes from that day to this only because it has 
never been attacked by a power with command of the sea. 
Close alongside tactics were pursued with success at Portobello. 
Lack of troops necessitated the attack being made by the ships, which 
were brought in towing boats on their off-sides so that there might be 
no delay in landing the seamen once the fire of the forts was subdued. 
Success was due to (1) surprise and sudden assault; (2) inferiority of 
the garrison. 
(Y.) Combined naval and military attacks. —History gives us many 
instances of this form of attack, which was generally successful when 
properly carried out, failure being always due to obvious causes. 
The chief cases of success are Louisburg in 1745 ; Belleisle, 1761 ; 
Charleston, 1780 and 1863 ; Banda Heir a, 1810; Beyrout, 1840; 
Sevastopol, 1854; Kinburn, 1855 ; Fort Fisher, 1864; Sfax, 1881. 
Failures occurred at Carthagena, 1739 ; and Puerto Cabello, 1743. 
Louisburg is an excellent example of successful combined attack. 
The garrison numbered 12C0, the attacking troops 3850. The French 
fleet at Brest was masked by a superior British one. The troops were 
landed four miles from the fortress, covered by the fire of some of the 
smaller vessels. The fleet blockaded the entrance to the harbour, 
while the troops erected batteries on shore. After 47 days’ siege, in 
which 9400 shell were fired by the besiegers, the fortress fell. 
Belleisle, with a garrison of 2600, was attacked by 10,000 troops. 
The French fleet at Brest was masked. The troops were landed clear 
of the batteries, and at the second attempt established themselves on 
shore. After two months’ siege the place surrendered. 
We have already seen that Charleston was twice unsuccessfully at¬ 
tacked by ships alone in 1776 and 1863. Following closely on each of 
these, combined attacks were successfully carried out in 1780 and 
1863. In 1780 the fortress was much stronger than in 1776, and the 
attacking force consisted of 14 ships and 7550 troops. After some 
