ghty current of the river, but they faltered not in their
brave defence until they saw their ship a wreck and in flames. Then
leaving their dead comrades with the "Richmond" for a funeral pyre,
they escaped to the shore, and threaded their way through miles of
morasses and dense thickets until they came to the mortar-boats, where
they found refuge and rest. And so that first attack on Port Hudson
ended with Farragut above the batteries, and his ships, below. It had
only served to prove, that, safe in their heavy earthworks, the
Confederates could defy any attack by ships alone. This fact was clear
to the Union authorities, and they began massing troops about the
hostile works. Two months later, Porter's mortar-boats, the frigates
and gunboats, and the batteries and muskets of an immense body of
troops, opened on the works. While the heavy fire was being kept up,
the Union armies were closing in, digging trenches, and surrounding
the Confederates on all sides. The firing came to be short-range work
and very deadly. "To show you what cool and desperate fighting it
was," says a Confederate, "I had at least twenty-five shots at
Federals not two hundred feet away. In one instance I fired upon a
lieutenant who was urging on his men. I wounded him in his left arm.
He fired at me with his revolver, and sent a bullet through my cap.
Next time I hit him in the hip, and he fell;, but, while I was
reloading, he raised himself up, and shot the man next to me through
the head. The officer was so close to me that I could tell the color
of his eyes, and detect a small scar on his face."

This sort of work continued for weeks, with occasional charges by the
Federals. Farragut's fleet kept up its bombardment, but did little
damage. One of the Confederate soldiers said, some time after the war,
"One can get used to almost any thing. After the first two or three
days, we took the bombardment as part of the regular routine. Pieces
of shell were continually flying about, and it was the regular thing
for a bomb to drop down among us at intervals. I have seen them come
down within fifty feet of a sentinel, and throw up a wagon-load of
dirt, without his even turning his head. We had but few men hurt by
the artillery-fire. I do not believe we averaged one man hit for every
thousand pounds of metal thrown. I remember that one day I counted
thirteen shells and bombs hurled at the spot where I was posted before
we had a man hurt, and he was only sl