ar schooners were moved to their
designated positions, and the exact distances and bearings of each
vessel being ascertained from the map, were furnished to the respective
captains. Then the bombardment fairly commenced, and was continued, with
only slight intermission, for six days. Twice Captain Porter ordered
some of the vessels to change their positions when he found localities
that would answer better; the coast survey party furnished the new data
required. From the schooners, which were fastened to the trees on the
riverside, none of the works of the enemy were visible, but the exact
station of each vessel and its distance and bearings from the forts had
been ascertained from the chart. The mortars were accordingly charged
and pointed and the fuses regulated. Thus the bombardment was conducted
entirely upon theoretical principles, and as such with its results,
presents perhaps a new feature in naval warfare. When the whole number
of shells discharged from the flotilla is compared with those that fell
and left their marks on the dry parts of Fort Jackson (to which must be
added, in the same ratio, all those falling in the submerged parts), the
precision of the firing appears truly remarkable, and must command our
highest admiration, particularly when we consider that every shot was
fired upon a _computed_ aim.

During the days of the bombardment, the exact damage done to the forts
could not be ascertained. A deserter from the garrison came to the fleet
and stated that Jackson was a complete wreck, but his information was
considered rather doubtful. After six days' firing, when the forts
showed no disposition to surrender, and when our stock of ammunition was
considerably reduced, Captain Porter submitted to the flag officer a
plan for passing with the fleet between the forts. The order to pass the
forts was given on the 23d of April, and a favorable reference in this
order was made to Captain Porter's plan. On the morning of the 24th of
April, at three o'clock, the fleet got under weigh. The steam gunboats
of the flotilla ran up close to the western fort and engaged the water
battery and the rampart guns, and from the mortar vessels a shower of
shells was thrown into the besieged work. This bombardment made it
impossible for the leaders of the enemy to keep their men on the
ramparts. Three times they broke, although they were twice driven back
to their guns at the point of the bayonet. From Fort St. Philip a much
g