de, and at the rate of four miles an hour.

"Then Porter's mortars, still at their moorings below the forts, opened
upon those forts a terrible storm, sending as many as, if not more than,
half a dozen shells, with their fiery trails, screaming through the air
at the same moment.

"But no sound came from the forts until they discovered Captain Bailey's
ship, the _Cayuga_, just as she had passed the boom, when they brought
their heavy guns to bear upon her, and broke the long silence with their
roar.

"When she was close under Fort St. Philip she replied with heavy
broadsides of grape and canister as she passed on up the river.

"The other vessels of Bailey's division followed closely after, each
imitating the _Cayuga's_ example in delivering a broadside as she passed
the forts, which they did almost unharmed, with the exception of the
_Portsmouth_, a sailing vessel, which lost her tow, on firing her
broadside, and drifted down the river.

"Captain Bell and his division were not quite so fortunate. Three of his
vessels passed the forts, but the _Itasca_ received a storm of shot, one
of which pierced her boiler, and she drifted helplessly down the river.
The _Kennebec_ lost her way among the obstructions and went back to her
moorings below; the _Winona_, too, recoiled from the storm.

"In the meantime, Farragut was in the fore rigging of the _Hartford_,
watching with intense interest, through his night glass, the movements
of the vessels under the command of Bailey and Bell, while the vessels
he commanded in person were slowly nearing Fort Jackson. He was within a
mile and a quarter of it when its heavy guns opened upon him. They were
well aimed, and the _Hartford_ was struck several times.

"Farragut replied with two guns which he had placed upon his forecastle,
while at the same time he pushed on directly for the fort. When within a
half mile of it he sheered off and gave them heavy broadsides of grape
and canister; so heavy that they were driven from all their barbette
guns. But the casemate guns were kept in full play, and the fight became
a very severe one.

"The _Richmond_ soon joined in it; the _Brooklyn_ got entangled with
some of the hulks that bore up the chain, and so lagged behind. She had
just succeeded in freeing herself from them, when the Confederate ram
_Manassas_ came furiously down upon her, and when within about ten feet,
fired a heavy bolt at her from its trap-door, aiming for her smoke
stack