ral order had already been given to each commanding
officer, and he adds: "We conversed freely as to the arrangements, and I
found that all my instructions were well understood and, I believe,
concurred in by all. After a free interchange of opinions on the
subject, every commander arranged his ship in accordance with his own
ideas."

In this point the admiral appears to have made a mistake, in not making
obligatory one detail which he employed on board the flag-ship. "I had
directed a trumpet fixed from the mizzen-top to the wheel on board this
ship, as I intended the pilot to take his station in the top, so that he
might see over the fog, or smoke, as the case might be. To this idea,
and to the coolness and courage of my pilot, Mr. Carrell, I am indebted
for the safe passage of this ship past the forts." It may be that the
admiral counted upon the vessels being so closed up that the flag-ship
would practically serve as the pilot for all. If so, he reckoned without
his host, and in this small oversight or error in judgment is possibly
to be found a weak point in his preparations; but it is the only one.
The failure of the Richmond, his immediate follower, was not in any way
due to pilotage, but to the loss of steam by an accidental shot; and it
is still a matter of doubt whether the Genesee, her consort, might not
have pulled her by. The third in the order, the Monongahela, also failed
finally from the heating of a bearing; but as this occurred after being
aground for half an hour, with the vigorous working of the engines that
naturally ensues under such circumstances, it seems as if her failure
must ultimately be traced to the smoke. "The firing had so filled the
atmosphere with smoke," wrote her captain, "as to prevent distinguishing
objects near by." The loss of the Mississippi was due entirely to an
error of the pilot, whatever may have been the cause.

The effect of the appearance above Port Hudson of the Hartford and
Albatross is abundantly testified in the correspondence of the day, both
Union and Confederate, and justifies beyond dispute this fine conception
of Farragut's and the great risk which he took entirely upon his own
responsibility. He found, indeed, a ground for his action in an order of
the Department dated October 2, 1862,[U] directing him "to guard the
lower part of the Mississippi, especially where it is joined by the Red
River," until he heard from Admiral Porter that the latter, in
conjunction