burg on the 5th.
Porter was naturally jubilant, for, as it seemed, the mastery of
the great river had been the swift reward of his enterprise.

A week later Ellet again ran down the Mississippi and up the Red,
burning and destroying until, pushing his success too far, he found
himself under the guns of Fort De Russy. A few shots sufficed to
disable the _Queen of the West_, which fell into the hands of the
Confederates, while Ellet and his men escaped in one of their
captures.

Below Natchez they met the _Indianola_ coming down the river, after
safely passing Vicksburg. On the 24th the Confederate gunboat
_Webb_, and the ram _Queen of the West_, now also flying the
Confederate colors, came after the _Indianola_, attacked her off
Palmyra Island, and sank her. Thus, as suddenly as it had gone
from them, the control of the long reach of the Mississippi once
more passed over to the Confederates.

At this news Farragut took fire. Between him and the impudent
little Confederate flotilla, whose easy triumph had suddenly laid
low the hopes and plans of his brother admiral, there stood nothing
save the guns of Port Hudson. These batteries he would pass, and
for the fourth time, yet not the last, would look the miles of
Confederate cannon in the mouth. Banks, whose movements were
retarded and to some extent held in abeyance, from the causes
already mentioned, promptly fell in with the Admiral's plans, and
both commanders conferring freely, the details were soon arranged.

CHAPTER VIII.
FARRAGUT PASSES PORT HUDSON.

While Farragut was putting his fleet in thorough order for this
adventure, looking after all needful arrangements with minute
personal care, Banks concentrated all his disposable force at Baton
Rouge. By the 7th of March, leaving T. W. Sherman to cover New
Orleans and Weitzel to hold strongly La Fourche, Banks had a marching
column, composed of Augur's, Emory's, and Grover's divisions, 15,000
strong. On the 9th of March tents were struck, to be pitched no
more for five hard months, and the next morning the troops were
ready, but repairs delayed the fleet, the last vessels of which
did not reach Baton Rouge until about the 12th. On that day, for
the first time, Banks reviewed his army, on the old battle-ground,
in the presence of the admiral, his staff, and many officers of
the fleet. The new regiments, with some exceptions, showed plainly
the progress already attained under the energetic training and