ommodore Mitchell notified General
Duncan of his purpose, and the latter seemed sanguine of a successful
issue, assuring the Commodore of his ability to hold the forts for
weeks. Orders were issued on board the Louisiana for the crew to have an
early breakfast, and every thing to be in readiness to cast off from the
river bank a little after sunrise. The situation justified the hopes
entertained by us of at least partially retrieving our fortunes, when,
shortly after daylight, an officer came across the river to us from Fort
Jackson, with General Duncan's compliments, and to say that General D.
was about to surrender the forts to Commodore Porter.[5] In nautical
parlance, we were "struck flat aback" by this astounding intelligence.
With the forts as a base of operations, we might repeat the effort, if
the first were unsuccessful; and would be able to repair damages, if
necessary, under shelter of their guns; but with their surrender we were
helpless. The capture of the Louisiana would then become, indeed, a mere
question of time, without the firing of a gun; for we would have been
unable to replenish our supplies either of provisions or coal when
exhausted. The most sanguine spirits on board, in the light of their
experience of the motive power of the Louisiana, did not believe that we
could accomplish more than the control of that portion of the river
within the range of our guns; nor that the vessel could ever do much
more than stem the rapid current of the Mississippi. The surrender of
New Orleans was, indeed, inevitable; but even that catastrophe would not
involve complete possession of the river by the enemy while we held the
forts near its mouth. The gigantic efforts afterwards made by the
Federal forces for the capture of Vicksburg showed the vital importance
attached by the United States Government to the possession of the
fortified positions on the Mississippi, while the equally desperate
exertions made by the Confederacy to hold it, demonstrated our
consciousness of its value to us.

Commodore Mitchell ordered his boat and proceeded with all haste to
remonstrate with General Duncan; but all was unavailing; the General
informing the Commodore that he had already dispatched a boat to the
United States fleet, offering to surrender his command under certain
conditions; disclaiming, in the offer, all control over the forces
afloat. The Commodore's boat had scarcely got back to the Louisiana,
when the quartermaster