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THE WESTERN FLOTILLA

THE “ CARONDELET ” AND ** PITTSBURGH ” CAPTURING THE CONFEDERATE BATTERIES BELOW NEW MADRID.AFTER A DRAWING BY REAR-ADMIRAL WALKE.

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5000 men, 20 pieces of heavy artillery, 7000 stand of arms, and a large quan-tity of ammunition and provisions, without the loss of a man on our side.

On the 12th the Benton (flag-steamer), with the Cincinnati , Mound City,Cairo, and St. Louis, passed Tiptonvifle and signaled the Carondelet and Pitts-burgh to follow. Five Confederate gun-boats came up the next day andoffered battle; but after the exchange of a few shots at long range they retireddown the river. We followed them all the way to Craighead’s Point, wherethey were under cover of their fortifications at Fort Pillow. I was not awareat the time that we were chasing the squadron of my esteemed shipmate ofthe U. S. Frigates Cumberland and Merrimac, Colonel John W. Dunnington,who afterward fought so bravely at Arkansas Post.

On the 14th General Pope’s army landed about six miles above Craighead’sPoint, near Osceola, under the protection of the gun-boats. While he was pre-paring to attack Fort Pillow, Foote sent his executive officer twice to me onthe Carondelet to inquire whether I would undei’take, with my vessel and twoor three other gun-boats, to pass below the fort to cooperate with GeneralPope, to which inquiries I replied that I was ready at any time to make theattempt. But Pope and his army (with the exception of 1500 men) were or-dered away, and the expedition against Fort Pillow was abandoned. Betweenthe 14th of Api’il and the 10th of May two or three of the mortar-boats weretowed down the river and moored near Craighead’s Point, with a gun-boat toprotect them. They were employed in throwing 13-inch bombs across thepoint into Fort Pillow, two miles distant. The enemy returned our bombard-ment with vigor, but not with much accuracy or effect. Several of their bombsfell near the gun-boats when we were three miles from the fort.