-pound keg of
gunpowder, which he proposed to strap on the rudder-post of the
vessel. He succeeded in getting under the stern of the vessel; but the
gleam of his lighted match alarmed the sentry, who fired, hitting him
in the shoulder. The Confederate went overboard, and managed to get
ashore; while his keg of powder, with the fuse lighted, went drifting
down stream. Soon it exploded, throwing up an immense column of water,
and showing that it would have sent the stoutest vessel to the bottom
had it been properly placed.

But such struggles as these could not long avert the impending
disaster. The Confederates were hemmed in on every side. It was true
that they had a strong position, and could make a desperate
resistance; but they were separated from their friends, and their
final downfall was but a question of time. Appreciating this fact,
they surrendered two days after the "Carondelet" had passed the
batteries; and Foote made his second step (this time one of sixty
miles) toward the conquest of the Mississippi.

To-day nothing remains of the once extensive island, save a small
sand-bank in the middle of the great river. The rushing current of the
Father of Waters has done its work, and Island No. 10 is now a mere
tradition.

CHAPTER XI.

FAMOUS CONFEDERATE PRIVATEERS. -- THE "ALABAMA," THE
"SHENANDOAH," THE "NASHVILLE."

Let us now desert, for a time, the progress of the Union forces down
the Mississippi River, and turn our attention toward the true home of
the sailors,--the blue waters of the ocean. We have heard much, from
many sources, of the exploits of the Confederate commerce-destroyers,
privateers, or, as the Union authorities and the historians of the war
period loved to call them, the "Rebel pirates." In the course of this
narrative we have already dealt with the career of the "Sumter," one
of the earliest of these vessels. A glance at the career of the most
famous of all the Confederate cruisers, the "Alabama," will be
interesting.

This vessel was built in England, ostensibly as a merchant-vessel,
although her heavy decks and sides, and her small hatchways, might
have warned the English officials that she was intended for purposes
of war. Before she was finished, however, the customs-house people
began to suspect her character; and goaded on by the frequent
complaints of the United States minister, that a war-vessel was being
built for the Confederates, they determined to seize h