the east side of the river,
anchoring in the order prescribed to them.

As some doubts had been expressed as to the actual rupture of the chains
between the hulks on either side the breach, although they had evidently
been dragged from their position by the efforts made on the night of the
20th, Lieutenant Caldwell was again chosen, at his own request, to make
an examination of the actual conditions. This he did in the early part
of the night, before the ships got under way; and it is a singular
confirmation of the slackness and inefficiency that has been charged
against the water service of the Confederates that he effected this duty
thoroughly and without molestation. Twice he pulled above the hulks and
thence allowed his boat to drift down between them, a heavy lead with
sixty feet of line hanging from her bows. As this line caught on nothing
it was clear that within the narrow limits of the breach no impediment
to the passage of a vessel existed. By 11 P. M. Caldwell was on his
return with this decisive and encouraging report.

At 2 A. M. the appointed signal was made, and at once was heard in every
direction the clank-clank of the chains as the seamen hove the anchors
to the bows. The strength of the current and the tenacity of the bottom
in some spots made this operation longer than had been expected, and not
till half-past three did the leading vessel reach the line of hulks,
followed closely by the rest of her division. There is something
singularly impressive in the thought of these moments of silent tension,
following the active efforts of getting under way and preceding the
furious strife, for whose first outburst every heart on board was
waiting; and the impression is increased by the petty size of the little
vessel in the lead, which thus advanced with steady beating of the
engines to bear the first blast of the storm. Favored partly by her
size, and yet more by the negligence of those among the enemy whose duty
it was to have kept the scene alight with the numerous fire-rafts
provided for that very purpose, the Cayuga passed the hulks and was well
on her way up river before she was seen. "Although it was a starlight
night," wrote Lieutenant Perkins, who by her commander's direction was
piloting the ship, "we were not discovered until well under the forts;
then they opened upon us a tremendous fire." It was the prelude to a
drama of singular energy and grandeur, for the Confederates in the forts
were full