could be done safely, as the shore at
the point and for a mile and a half below was swamp, and the nearest
battery was necessarily below the swamp. When near the opposite shore
the floating-batteries were to be cut loose from the steamers and
allowed to float down-stream to the point selected for the landing of
the troops. As soon as they arrived within short range they were to drop
anchor and open fire.

Meanwhile Commander Henry Walke had volunteered to take his boat, the
Carondelet; and, on March 30th, Flag-officer Foote gave him permission
to make the attempt on the first dark night. The morning of April 4th
was a busy time on the Carondelet. The deck was covered with heavy
planks, surplus chains were coiled over the most vulnerable parts of the
boat, an eleven-inch hawser was wound around the pilot-house as high as
the windows; barriers of cordwood were built about the boilers. After
sunset, the atmosphere became hazy and the sky overcast. Guns were run
back, ports closed, and the sailors armed to resist boarders. Directions
were given to sink the boat if it became liable to fall into the enemy's
hands. At dusk, twenty sharpshooters from the Forty-second Illinois came
aboard to be ready to aid the crew in resisting boarders. After dark, a
coal-barge laden with baled hay was fastened to the port side of the
boat.

At ten o'clock the moon had gone down and a storm was gathering. The
Carondelet cast loose and steamed slowly down the river. The machinery
was adjusted so as to permit the steam to escape through the
wheel-house, and avoid the noise of puffing through the pipes. The boat
glided noiseless and invisible through the darkness. Scarcely had it
advanced half a mile when the soot in the chimneys caught fire, a blaze
shot up five feet above the smoke-stack. The flue-caps were opened, the
blaze subsided, and all was yet silent along the shore. The soot in the
smoke-stacks not being moistened by the steam, which was now escaping
through the wheel-house, became very inflammable. Just as the Carondelet
was passing by the upper battery--the redan--the treacherous flame again
leaped from the chimneys, revealing and proclaiming the mission of the
boat. Sentries on the parapets on shore fired, guards turned out,
rockets darted skyward; the heavy guns opened fire; and the brooding
storm broke forth, the lightning and thunder above drowning the flashes
and war below. The lightning revealed the position of the gunboat, but