IOO

THE WATER-BATTERY AT FORT JACKSON.

ing been maintained uninterruptedly all the pre-vious night. The Federal gun-boats several timespoked their noses cautiously around the point,delivered shots, and dodged back quickly.

Some time during the first days of the bombard-ment, the Confederate States steamer McRae, ly-ing about the fort and in its rear, commenced firingat the mortar-fleet, with the good intention of aid-ing us. The projectiles from her guns passeddirectly over the water-battery, and many sabotsfrom them fell in and around it. Seeing that hershot were falling far short of the enemy, and thatit would be but a waste of ammunition for her to con-tinue firing, I notified Colonel Higgins of the facts,and he requested her commander to cease firing,which he promptly did. This was the only attempt,according to my recollection, on the part of thenavy, after the first day of the bombardment, torender us any assistance, until they were forcedinto action by Farragut’s advance.

After the 20th of April the enemy’s mortar-boatscontinued to rain shell incessantly, night and day,upon Fort Jackson and the water-battery, untilnearly sundown on the 24th. During all this try-ing period the officers and men who served underme in the water-battery never wavered, and not asingle one was ever driven from Ms post.

On the afternoon of the 23d I received a com-munication from Colonel Higgins, notifying methat the enemy were planting signals along theriver-bank, just above the position of the mortar-fleet, and that this and other movements amongthem indicated that they would make an attemptthat night to rush by our works, with their steam-ers, and ordering me to prepare to resist their pas-sage. He also notified me that the river would belit up by fire-rafts. I was very watchful all thatnight, hardly sleeping an instant. Every gun inthe battery was loaded and pointed toward theriver, and the men were kept at their posts.

At 3:30 the bombardment was redoubled, andsoon afterward Sergeant Herman called my atten-tion to several black, shapeless masses, barelydistinguishable from the surrounding darkness,moving silently, but steadily, up the river. Not alight Was visible anywhere ; not a torch had beenapplied to a single fire-raft, and not one of themhad been started from its moorings. As soon as Icaught sight of the moving objects, I knew theywere the enemy’s vessels, and I ordered the gunsto be trained upon the two which were in the lead,and to open a rapid fire upon them. Only a mo-ment sufficed for the gunners to sight the guns, sothoroughly was everything prepared, andthewater-battery thundered its greeting to the enemy. FortJackson followed instantly with a grand crash ofartillery from the guns under Anderson and Ogden ,Baylor and Agar along the lower and river fronts,and from those of Mumford in the mortar bas-tion and Kennedy in the flag-staff bastion. FortSt. Philip echoed with the boom of its guns. TheFederal vessels replied with broadsides. Theflashes of the guns, from both sides, lit up theriver with a lurid light that revealed the outlinesof the Federal steamers more distinctly.

I do not believe there ever was a grander spec-

tacle witnessed before in the world than that dis-played during the great artillery duel which thenfollowed. The mortar-shells shot upw'ard from themortar-boats, rushed to the apexes of their flight,flashing the lights of their fuses as they revolved,paused an instant, and then descended upon ourworks like hundreds of meteors, or burst in mid-air, hurling their jagged fragments in every direc-tion. The guns on both sides kept up a continualroar for nearly an hour, without a moment’s inter-mission, and produced a shimmering illumination,which, though beautiful and grand, was illusive inits effect upon the eye, and made it impossible tojudge accurately of the distance of the movingvessels from us; and this fact, taken in connectionwith their rapid and constant change of positions,as they speeded up the river, rendered it very dif-ficult to hit them with our projectiles. On theother hand, our positions being stationary, theyoperated at no such disadvantage, though movingthemselves. All the shore guns were served withgreat rapidity, until the vessels had passed beyondour range. As the vessels were masked by FortJackson from our view as they passed up the river,our attention was turned to those following, in suc-cession; and no vessel stood in front of Fort Jack-son and the water-battery many moments withoutreceiving their compliments in the shape of ironmissiles. No guns were silenced in either FortJackson or the water-battery at any time duringthis engagement. Not a man was driven from Idspost at the guns in the water-battery, much less fromthe battery itself, as is asserted by Admiral Porter.[See p. 43.]

After Farragut passed with most of his steamersthere was a slackening of the fire in the fortsand the water-battery, simply for the reason thatit would have been madness to have wasted anymore ammunition than was necessary to driveaway Admiral Porter and all the vessels which hadfailed to pass the forts under cover of darkness.But as soon as it was light enough to see themplainly we silenced and drove rapidly down the riverall the vessels, including Admiral Porter’s, that re-mained below the forts. As soon as Farragut’s ves-sels could, they pushed up the river out of our range.

The passage of the forts by Farragut and hisfleet was an act of grand heroism that should for-ever shed luster on the American navy, and Porterand his mortar-fleet did splendid work, and con-tributed very materially to the success which theFederal navy achieved over us. I have no doubthe fought his flotilla in front of the water-batterywith great courage. But some things he did notaccomplish, and among them the silencing of FortJackson and the water-battery. I think it could beproven that it was a physical impossibility for himto have gotten as near the water-battery as heclaims to have done, as I think the water-batteryis farther from the river-bank itself. But to Farra-gut belongs the great glory of the capture.

In reference to the mutiny, I have only to saythis, that there was no indication that any of themen in the water-battery were implicated in it.No officers and I believe no native Southernerswere involved in this disgraceful affair.