ect upon the other works, whose position had
some strong features of resemblance to those already subdued, and which
were not yet in the strong state of defense which they afterward
reached. The blockade of the coast was part of his charge; and in no way
did he think it could be so thoroughly maintained as by occupying the
harbors themselves, or their entrances.

In obedience to his peremptory orders Farragut again started up the
river, with the apprehension that if he once got above Vicksburg he
would not be able to return before the next spring rise; for the season
of lowest water in the Mississippi was now at hand. The Hartford did run
ashore on the way up, and remained hard and fast for the better part of
twenty-four hours. "It is a sad thing to think of having your ship on a
mud bank, five hundred miles from the natural element of a sailor,"
wrote the flag-officer; "but I knew that I had done all I could to
prevent her being up the river so high, and was commanded to go." She
had to take out her coal and shot, and had even removed two guns before
she floated.

On the 18th of June the squadron was assembled just below Vicksburg,
having in company also seventeen schooners of the mortar flotilla, still
under Porter's command. These were placed as rapidly as possible in
suitable positions on the two sides of the river, opened fire on the
26th, and continued it through the 27th. Upon the evening of the latter
day Porter notified the flag-officer that he was ready to cover, by a
steady bombardment, the intended passage of the fleet before the
batteries.

[Illustration: PASSAGE OF VICKSBURG BATTERIES, JUNE 28, 1862.
ORDER OF ATTACK.]

Vicksburg is situated on the first high land met on the east bank of the
Mississippi after leaving Memphis, from which it is four hundred miles
distant. The position was one of peculiar strength and importance for
commanding the navigation of the river. Not only was it exceptionally
lofty, and on one flank of that series of bluffs which has before
been mentioned as constituting the line upon which the Confederate grip
of the stream was based, but the tortuous character of the channel gave
particular facilities for an enfilading fire on vessels both before and
after they came abreast the works. They were thus exposed to a longer
and more dangerous cannonade than is the case where the stream flows
straight past the front of a battery. The channel has now changed; but
in 1862 the r