32 The Mississippi Valley in the Civil War

instructions whatever and no reinforcements untiltoo late, so that the gallant Mulligan was left tocontend with a foe that outnumbered him seven-fold. On the 18th the Confederates seized thesteamer, and carried by storm a large buildingused as a hospital, which overlooked Mulligan’sworks. A desperate struggle ensued about thisbuilding. The Federals recaptured it and droveout the enemy, but presently numbers prevailed;the Confederates won it again and held it, cuttingoff Mulligan’s approaches to the river. Therewas neither spring nor cistern on the plateau, theweather was intolerably hot, and the devoted gar-rison soon began to suffer the torments of thirst.Next day a scanty reinforcement, tardily sent,arrived on the opposite bank of the river, but wasunable to cross. Nevertheless, all that day andnight, and through the forenoon of the 20th, astout resistance was kept up, while the besiegerssteadily pounded away with artillery. At lengtha general assault was made, the Confederates roll-ing large bales of hemp in front of them as amovable entrenchment, under cover of which theypushed close to the works on every side. Mulli-gan then surrendered, to avoid useless bloodshed.

The horse being thus stolen, Fremont at lastset out to lock the stable door. A cry of indigna-tion went up throughout the northern states. In