ed the
three guns, took two officers and several enlisted men prisoners, and
chased Thompson and the rest of his band sixteen miles, almost to the
outskirts of New Madrid. Dragging through the mud by short marches,
Hamilton's division reached New Madrid on the morning of March 3d.
Deploying, with the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Ohio in front as
skirmishers, Hamilton marched upon the town, pushed the enemy's pickets
back into the intrenchments, developed the line of intrenchment, drew
the fire of its armament--twenty-four, thirty-two, and sixty-four
pounders and field-pieces. The gunboats of Commodore Hollins' fleet took
part in the engagement. The water in the river was so high that it
lifted the guns on the boats above the banks. The reconnoissance
developed the fact that the intrenchments could be carried by assault,
but could not be held so long as the gunboats could lay the muzzles of
their heavy guns upon the river-bank and sweep the whole interior.

The reconnoissance made by General Hamilton showed the necessity of
having siege-guns. The troops were put into camp about two miles back
from the river; urgent request was sent to Cairo for heavy artillery,
and parties were pushed forward every day to harass the garrison and
keep them occupied. Colonel Plummer (soon after brigadier-general and
commanding a division of his own) was detached from Hamilton's division
and sent with the Eleventh Missouri, Twenty-sixth and Forty-seventh
Illinois Infantry, four guns of the First Missouri Light Artillery, and
one company of engineer troops, together with two companies of cavalry,
to act as outpost toward the interior--to Point Pleasant. The object was
to attempt by field-pieces to stop the passage of transport steamboats
up and down the river. Colonel Plummer, leaving camp at noon, March 5th,
proceeding by a circuitous road to avoid passing along the river-bank,
halted for the night in bivouac, without fires, within three or four
miles of the town. A gunboat prevented his cavalry and artillery from
occupying the town next day, but was driven away by the fire of the
infantry. The infantry and engineers prosecuted the work of digging
rifle-pits, and in the night places were sunk for the field-pieces by
excavating near the edge of the bank. By morning of March 7th the four
guns were in position, planted apart, with lines of rifle-pits
connecting them. When discovered, the gunboats immediately began a
furious assault. Plummer