let's_ bow, and Dick
watched the shell rise with a shriek and fall short of the fort.

The fleet moved closer and another shell screamed through the sky and
again fell short. They moved again, found the range, and for four hours
the earth trembled beneath the steady roar of their forty-six guns.

At eleven o'clock Dick saw the long lines of men in blue deploy for an
assault on the entrenchments. They moved with quick sure step, these men
under Grant. He was sorry for them. They were marching to certain death.

On the blue waves rolled, pouring volley after volley into the heaps of
earth behind which the Southerners lay.

They were close enough now and the quick command rang along the
trenches.

"Fire!"

A storm of death swept the ranks in the open fields. They stood their
ground stubbornly, those dogged western fighters. Dazed and cut to
pieces, they rallied and pressed forward again only to be mowed down in
heaps.

They gave it up at last and sullenly withdrew, leaving the dead piled
high and the wounded slowly freezing to death where they lay.

The artillery kept the earth quivering with the steady roar of their
guns and the Federal sharpshooters harassed the trenches without a
moment's respite. It was impossible to move for food or water until
nightfall.

At dawn next day Dick once more gripped his gun and peered over the
embankment. The morning passed without attack. What could it mean? They
saw at last--another fleet. Clouds of black smoke on the river told the
story. Reenforcements had arrived.

At half-past two o'clock the fleet formed in line of battle--threw their
big flags to the breeze and dashed squarely on the fort.

They swept now within point blank range of three hundred yards, pouring
in a storm of shot.

But the Confederate batteries were too heavy and too well manned.
Fifty-seven shells struck the flagship and more than a hundred took
effect on the five boats leading the assault. The fleet was crushed and
put out of commission. Every boat was disabled except one and that
withdrew beyond the range of the batteries.

Dick watched the magnificent spectacle with thrilling pride. He could
have enjoyed the show but for the bitter cold. It was twenty degrees
below the freezing point, and while the battle raged between the fleet
and fort it began to sleet and snow. When the crippled boats at last
drifted down the yellow tide and out of range, he found to his amazement
that a thick coat of ice