sky with sparks from the tremendous blow; and then, from her hose-pipes, The scene was now beautiful and sublime beyond description. The immediate arena of the conflict was brilliant as day, yet surrounded, at a short distance, with impenetrable blackness and gloom. Some mount the raft and plunge the flaming timbers into the river; some with axes endeavor to cut it into harmless fragments; some dash water upon it from their buckets; some grapple it and seek to drag it towards the banks. It is indeed a phantom scene, lurid and unearthly in its brilliance, its confusion and its surrounding gloom. But, finally, the object is accomplished. The raft, flaming, smouldering, broken, is drawn out of the range of the anchored vessels, and towed to the shore, where it is slowly consumed. As the boats return they are greeted by cheers, and soon again silence and darkness resume their reign. The sentinel, pacing the deck, in vain endeavors to penetrate the gloom, and no sound is heard but the cry of the tree-toad in the forest, and the plash of the turbid stream. When Bonaparte thought of ceding Louisiana to the United States, to add to their territory, he pronounced the following words, which condense the policy of France for the preceding thirty years: "To free nations from the commercial tyranny of England we must counterbalance her by a maritime power which may become one day her rival-this power is the United States. The English aspire to the possession of all the riches of the world. I will be useful to the whole universe if I can prevent her from controlling America, as she controls Asia." After the cession in 1803, Bonaparte again said: "This accession of territory establishes forever the power of the United States, and I have just given to England a maritime rival which sooner or later will lower her pride." : CHALLENGE GIVEN TO THE UNITED STATES GUN-BOATS BY FORT JACKSON.-TERRIFIC BOMBARDMENT IN REPLY.-HEROIC ADVENTURES.-THE FLEET PASS THE FORTS.-FIRE-RAFTS.-GALLANT EXPLOITS.-SURRENDER AT QUARANTINE STATION.-CHALMETTE BATTERIES.—INSANE POLICY OF THE PEOPLE OF NEW ORLEANS.-FORTS AT CARROLTON.-SURRENDER OF NEW ORLEANS.-DEMAND FOR, AND THE SURRENDER OF, FORT JACKSON.-RECAPITULATION.-LANDING OF BUTLER'S TROOPS.-APPEARANCE OF THE CITY.-BUTLER'S REIGN.-CHANGES IN NEW ORLEANS.-DEPARTURE OF THE FLEET. EARLY in the morning of the 16th of April, 1862, all on board the mortar fleet and gun-boats were ready for action, and were impatiently awaiting the order to open fire. Concealed behind the hoary forests of the Mississippi swamps, these tremendous engines of destruction reposed for a time, as if gathering strength to deal forth, with all their might, their herculean blows. At nine o'clock in the morning, Fort Jackson threw down the gauntlet of defiance, in the form of a shell, pitched from one of her guns, the distance of a mile, into the midst of the flotilla. The gun-boat Owasco, which was a little in advance of the mortar boats, instantly, in behalf of the fleet, accepted the challenge by a return shot. Immediately the mortars commenced their terrific roar. The fleet had so obtained the range of the forts, that they could throw up their enormous shells, over the bend of the river, and its fringe of forest, and drop them, with almost unerring precision, within the ramparts of the foe. It was quite impossible for the enemy to determine the precise position of their invisible assailants. They could take no direct aim, and could only throw their shot to the spot from whence the appalling roar of the battle, and the volcanic storm of destruction, seemed to emerge. The thunder of these mortars, in continuous reverberation, was distinctly heard, day and night, during the long bombardment, in New Orleans, seventy-two miles distant. It is difficult to conceive what must have been the emotions of the rebels in the city, as they listened, day after day, for more than a week, to the ominous mutterings of this tempest, threatening soon to visit them with the vengeance of an insulted and outraged government. The mortar fleet, consisting of twenty boats, was arranged in three divisions, each of which fired for two hours in succession, and then stopped for a short time, to cool. Thus a continuous bombardment was kept up. Each mortar was fired once in five minutes, so that it averaged a shell every minute; and sometimes three or four shells, with their unearthly screech, were sweeping in majestic curves through the air, at the same time. The shells weighed two hundred and fifteen pounds. About twenty pounds of powder were used at each charge. The explosion, of course, was deafening in its peal. Though every precaution was adopted, by filling the ears with cotton, and placing the men at a distance when the gun was discharged, the hearing of not a few of the gunners was seriously impaired during the bombardment. The mortars were, of course, at an acute angle, to throw the shells high into the air. Some faint idea may be formed of the tremendous force of the recoil, from the fact, that at each discharge, the whole massive gun-boat was driven down into the water six or eight inches. The concussion was so severe, that all the light railing and wood work were shattered, and even the solid timbers strained and loosened, and windows were broken at the Balize, thirty miles distant. The shells, as they left the mortars, rose, with a shriek which pierced through the thunder of the explosion, high in the air, describing an immense arc of a mile and a half, and descended, either bursting just over the fort, or crashing its walls, or sinking into the ground twenty feet, and then exploding, heaving up the soil with earthquake power. Not one shell in twenty failed to burst, and they were equally sure in the water or under the ground. Many fell into the moat, and in their explosion threw the water, in a vast column, high above the fort, causing the very foundations. of the massive fabric to reel. Sometimes the shells burst just over the ramparts, hurling down their fragments, like a shower of canister and grape, cutting down the men at their guns, and driving them to the bombproofs for protection. The first day of the bombardment passed away, during which the fleet threw more than two thousand shells into the fort. The gun-boats also took an active part. The Iroquois, Owasco, Kennebec, Wissahicon, Cayuga and Sciota, were very efficient, and their guns were admirably manned. The Iroquois, in particular, won the admiration of the whole fleet by her steady fire, while apparently a special target for the rebels. The garrisons in the forts fought with the most determined bravery. Driven repeatedly from their guns by the terrible storm of shells, they as often resolutely resumed their posts. The citadel was soon set on fire, and utterly demolished. The solid walls of the fort were cracked and shattered, the ramparts blown into the air, the levee cut by the exploding shells, so that the water of the river flowed in upon the forts, even flooding their casemates. But still the effective strength of the fortifications was not materially weakened. It is impossible to record the details even of a single day of this bombardment. For six days and nights the storm continued, in one incessant and devastating tempest of battle. The heroic endurance displayed by the sturdy crews of the mortar-boats, is deserving of all praise. The unintermitted firing was terribly exhausting. When relieved from their toil, the men instantly dropped down upon the decks, and fell soundly asleep, in the midst of an uproar well-nigh sufficient to have waked the dead. In the darkness of the night, the glare of the discharging guns, the columns of black, sulphurous smoke, the deafening roar, the shells shrieking, flashing with meteoric swiftness through the sky, with brilliance which caused the stars to pale,-made the scene inexpressibly sublime. Occasionally, fire-rafts drifted down the stream, in immense billows and flashing tongues of flame, lighting up, at midnight, the grand pageant, with an awful splendor, which the imagination of Milton alone could portray. After the first day's bombardment, the six vessels which had been stationed on the east side of the river, to assail Fort St. Philip, were with MAP OF THE POSITION OF FORTS JACKSON AND ST. drawn to the western shore, and the fire of the whole fleet of mortar-boats was concentrated upon Fort Jackson. It was afterwards ascertained that these six mortar-boats on the eastern shore were the only ones which could be distinguished, even by the best glasses, from the forts. This accounts, * A, B, C, D, &c., are points on the left bank, and 1, 2, 3, 4, &c., points on the right bank of the river, established for placing the gun-boats and mortar-boats in position. The position of the mortar flotilla, on the first day of the bombardment, April 18th, was as follows: six mortars on the left bank, between C and J, distance to Fort Jackson, 3,900 to 4,500 yards; fourteen mortars on the right bank, from 1 to 5, distance to Fort Jackson, 2,830 to 3,490 yards. On the 19th, the second day of the bombardment, they were all on the right bank, and twenty mortars were placed distant from Fort Jackson 3,010 to 4,100 yards. They remained on the third and fourth days nearly in the same position. All the large armed steamers and gun-boats were placed from onequarter to one and a quarter miles below the lowest mortar vessel. On the first day the small steam-sloops and the gun-boats went up to abreast of the Smokestack, where they engaged the forts and the enemy's steamers. in part, for the slight loss sustained by the fleet. The boats on the western shore, moored near the banks, and under the trees, were not discernible; and most of the shot and shell passed over them, and fell into the river beyond. About nine o'clock of the second morning, a shell fell upon the Carleton, and plunged crashing through her deck, magazine and bottom. She soon went down; but as she was sinking, she fired a farewell shot at the foe. At the close of the week's bombardment, but one man had been killed and six wounded, on board the fleet. If modern ingenuity has devised the most formidable instruments of destruction, that same ingenuity has been no less available in creating shields to protect from harm. One man invents an Armstrong gun; another creates a mailed ship which repels its balls, as the tiled roof sheds the hail. Men within casemates laugh at rifled guns. At the close of the week this terrible bombardment had failed to reduce the forts. Indeed, their fire had not been perceptibly diminished. It was manifest that the resolute garrison could, in this way, be subdued only at great expense of time and material. To force a passage by the forts, at all hazards, seemed to be necessary, and there were willing hearts and hands, throughout the whole fleet, eager to attempt the desperate enterprise. Accordingly, on the evening of the 23d, the order was signaled by Commodore Farragut to all the frigates and gun-boats, to be in readiness for action at two o'clock the next morning. While the bombardment had been in progress, the requisite preparations had been made for this truly chivalric adventure of running the forts. At midnight of the 21st, while a tremendous fire was kept up to attract the attention of the foe, two of the gun-boats, the Pinola, Lieut.-Com. Crosby, and the Itasca, Lieut.Com. Caldwell, cautiously ascended the river to the boom, and there, within the range of guns which, in a few minutes, could have annihilated them, succeeded in breaking the chain between two of the eight hulks so as to afford a narrow space for the passage of the ships. An attempt was also made at the same time to enlarge the gap by blowing up one of the hulks by petards. But they were so embarrassed by the darkness, the confusion, the fire to which they were exposed, and the strength of the current, that they did not succeed in igniting the petards with the galvanic battery. Capt. Henry H. Bell was intrusted with this perilous and allimportant enterprise. The night preceding the attack, Lieut.-Com. Crosby was sent up again to make an examination, and if he found the passage clear to signal to that effect. Another daring boat's crew was also sent from the Itasca on the night of the 22d, who rowed, with muffled oars, to within a few hundred feet of the fort, sounding the channel, and searching out obstructions. They were not discovered by the rebels, though large groups of them were seen upon the shore, around immense fires which they had kindled to watch for such expeditions. At five minutes before two o'clock on the morning of the 24th, the signal was made for the whole fleet of ships and gun-boats to get under weigh. The signal was simply two ordinary red lights, so as not to attract the attention of the enemy. While the mortar-boats remained in their position to rain down upon the main fort all their energies of destruction, the whole remaining squadron, under Commodore Farragut, commenced its |