It entered the port-casemate forward,
killed three men standing at the gun, and plunged into the boiler. In
an instant the scalding steam came hissing out, filling the ship from
stem to stern, and horribly scalding every one upon the gun-deck. The
deck was covered with writhing forms, and screams of agony rang out
above the harsh noise of the escaping steam and the roar of battle
outside. Many were blown overboard; more crawled out of the portholes,
and dropped into the river to escape the scalding steam, and
struggling in the water were killed by rifle-balls or the fragments of
the shells that were bursting all around. The helpless gunboat turned
round and round in the stream, and drifted away, carrying a crew of
dead and dying men. So great was the horror of the scene, that one of
the officers, himself unhurt, who saw his comrades thus tortured all
about him, went insane.

While this scene was going on before the fort, the Union troops had
come up behind it, and with a cheer rushed over the breastworks, and
drove the garrison to surrender. The Confederate banner fell from the
staff, and the stars and stripes went up in its place. But how great
was the price that the Federals had to pay for that victory! That
night, with muffled drums, and arms reversed, the blue-jackets carried
to the grave fifty-nine of their comrades, who twelve hours before
were active men. With three volleys of musketry the simple rites over
the sailors' graves were ended; and those who were left alive, only
said with a sigh, "It is the fortune of war."

CHAPTER XV.

ON TO VICKSBURG. -- BOMBARDMENT OF THE CONFEDERATE STRONGHOLD. --
PORTER'S CRUISE IN THE FORESTS.

While the smaller gunboats were thus making dashes into the enemy's
country, destroying batteries and unfinished war-vessels, and burning
salt-works, the heavier vessels of the fleet were being massed about
Vicksburg, and were preparing to aid the army in reducing that city to
subjection. We need not describe the way in which Gen. Grant had been
rushing his troops toward that point, how for weeks his engineers had
been planning trenches and approaches to the Confederate works, until
toward the middle part of June, 1863, the people in that city found
themselves hemmed in by a huge girdle of trenches, batteries, and
military camps. Gen. Pemberton, with his army of Confederate soldiers,
had been forced backward from point after point, until at last he
found himself in