ather
unnecessary step, considering the age and character of the commanders
of the vessels. To handle two vessels in such an enterprise,
necessarily undertaken on a dark night, is not easy, and it is a
hardship to a commander to be virtually superseded in his own ship at
such a time. This was also felt in assigning divisional commanders for
the night attack only, when they could not possibly manage more than
one ship and simply overshadowed the captain of the vessel.

On the afternoon of the 20th, the Itasca and Pinola each went
alongside one of the sloops, where their lower masts were taken out,
and, with the rigging, sent ashore. At 10 P.M. Captain Bell went
aboard both and addressed the officers and crews about the importance
of the duty before them. He remained on board the Pinola and the two
vessels then got underway, the Pinola leading. All the mortar-boats
now opened together, having at times nine shells in the air at once,
to keep down the fire of Jackson in case of discovery, although the
two gunboats showed for little, being very deep in the water.

As they drew near the obstructions two rockets were thrown up by the
enemy, whose fire opened briskly; but the masts being out, it was not
easy to distinguish the vessels from the hulks. The Pinola struck the
third from the eastern shore and her men jumped on board. The
intention was to explode two charges of powder with a slow match over
the chains, and a torpedo by electricity under the bows of the hulk,
a petard operator being on board. The charges were placed, and the
Pinola cast off. The operator claims that he asked Bell to drop astern
by a hawser, but that instead of so doing, he let go and backed the
engines. Be this as it may, the ship went rapidly astern, the operator
did not or could not reel off rapidly enough, and the wires broke.
This hulk therefore remained in place, for the timed fuzes did not
act.

The Itasca ran alongside the second hulk from the east shore and threw
a grapnel on board, which caught firmly in the rail; but through the
strength of the current the rail gave way and the Itasca, taking a
sheer to starboard, drifted astern with her head toward the bank. As
quickly as possible she turned round, steamed up again and boarded the
hulk nearest the east shore on its port, or off-shore side, and this
time held on, keeping the engine turning slowly and the helm aport to
ease the strain on the grapnel. Captain Caldwell, Acting-Masters Amos