unds received
in battle by the troops of the United States in the Department of
the Gulf. The Confederates were easily repulsed, with small loss.

Almost at the instant when Farragut was decided to run the gauntlet
of the forts, Beauregard had begun to fortify Vicksburg. Up to
this time he had trusted the defence of the river above New Orleans
to Fort Pillow, Helena, and Memphis.

When Smith took command at Vicksburg on the 12th of May, in accordance
with the orders of Lovell, the department commander, three of the
ten batteries laid out for the defence of the position had been
nearly completed and a fourth had been begun. These batteries were
intended for forty-eight guns from field rifles to 10-inch columbiads.
The garrison was to be 3,000 strong, but at this time the only
troops present were parts of two Louisiana regiments. When the
fleet arrived, on the 18th, six of the ten batteries had been
completed, and two days later twenty-three heavy guns were in place
and the defenders numbered more than 2,600.

The guns of the navy could not be elevated sufficiently for their
projectiles to reach the Confederate batteries on the bluff, and
the entire land-force, under Williams, was less than 1,100 effectives.
Even had it been possible by a sudden attack to surprise and overcome
the garrison and seize the bluffs, the whole available force of
the Department of the Gulf would have been insufficient to hold
the position for a week, as things then stood.

The truth is that the northern column with which, following their
orders, Butler and Farragut were now trying to co-operate had
ceased to exist; Jackson meant Beauregard's rear; and, as for any
co-operation between Halleck and Williams, Beauregard stood solidly
between them. On the 17th of April, the day before Porter's mortars
first opened upon Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the whole land
force of this northern column, under Pope, at that moment preparing
for the attack on Fort Pillow, had been withdrawn by imperative
orders from Halleck, and, on the very evening before the attack on
Fort Pillow was to have been made, had gone to swell the great army
assembled under Halleck at Corinth; but as yet neither Butler nor
Farragut knew anything of all this. Save by the tedious roundabout
of Washington, New York, the Atlantic, and the Gulf, there was at
this time no regular or trustworthy means of communication between
the forces descending the Mississippi and those that h