the munitions and supplies that were capable of transportation; and
held himself ready to return at a moment's notice from the Council.

Meanwhile, the Federal fleet had engaged the Confederate
flotilla--consisting of an incomplete iron-clad, a plated tow-boat ram,
and eight or ten useless wooden shells--and after a desperate fight had
driven them off only to be blown up, one by one, by their own
commanders.

The water-batteries then offered no effective resistance. The
obstructions had been opened to remove accumulated raft, and could not
be closed; and the fleet moved slowly up to seize the rich prize that
lay entirely within its grasp.

On the 26th April, the "Hartford" leading the van, it anchored off the
city to find it hushed as death and wrapped in the eddying smoke-clouds
from fifteen thousand burning bales of cotton. After the first burst of
consternation, the people took heart; and even at the sight of the
enemy's shipping did not lose all hope. There were no soldiers aboard;
Butler's army could not dare the passage of the forts in the shells of
transports that contained it; the fleet, cut off as it was from all
re-enforcement and supply, could, at worst, only shell the city and
retire--again running the gauntlets of the two forts; and then the only
loss to the city--for the flotilla in its incomplete state could not
have been made effective as a defense--would have been the cotton and
the trifling damage done by the shells.

So the people hoped on. A long correspondence, coupled with reiterated
threats of bombardment, ensued between Mayor Monroe and Admiral
Farragut, relative to the State flag that still floated over the Custom
House. Still the city was not in Federal power and there might yet be a
chance.

But on the 28th, the news of the fall of the forts in consequence of
the surrender of their garrisons--took the last support from the most
hopeful. The city yielded utterly; the marines of the "Hartford"
landed, took formal possession, raised the stars and stripes over the
City Hall; and the emblem of Louisiana's sovereignty went down forever!

Three days after, General Butler landed and took command of the city,
for which he had not struck a blow. He stationed his garrison in the
public buildings, the hotels, and even in private houses; and then
commenced a system of oppression and extortion, that--while it made the
blood boil in the veins of every southron--has sent his name to the
honest thinker