f Vicksburg
is reached. They then gradually recede, their height at the same time
decreasing by degrees to one hundred and fifty feet.

The position was by nature the strongest on the river. The height of
the banks, with the narrowness and peculiar winding of the stream,
placed the batteries on the hill-sides above the reach of guns on
shipboard. At the time of Farragut's first attack, though not nearly
so strongly and regularly fortified as afterward, there were in
position twenty six[9] guns, viz.: two X-inch, one IX-inch, four
VIII-inch, five 42- and two 24-pounder smooth-bores, and seven 32-,
two 24-, one 18-, and two 12-pounder rifled guns. Of these, one
IX-inch, three VIII-inch, and the 18-pounder rifle were planted at the
highest point of the bluffs above the town, in the bend, where they
had a raking fire upon the ships before and after they passed their
front. Just above these the four 24-pounders were placed.[10] Half a
mile below the town was a water battery,[11] about fifty feet above
the river, mounting two rifled 32s, and four 42s. The eleven other
guns were placed along the crest of the hills below the town,
scattered over a distance of a mile or more, so that it was hard for
the ships to make out their exact position. The distance from end to
end of the siege batteries was about three miles, and as the current
was running at the rate of three knots, while the speed of the fleet
was not over eight, three-quarters of an hour at least was needed for
each ship to pass by the front of the works. The upper batteries
followed them for at least twenty minutes longer. Besides the siege
guns, field batteries in the town, and moving from place to place,
took part in the action; and a heavy fire was kept up on the vessels
from the rifle-pits near the turn.

On the 26th and 27th of June the schooners were placed in position,
nine on the east and eight on the west bank. Bomb practice began on
the 26th and was continued through the 27th. On the evening of the
latter day Commander Porter notified the admiral that he was ready to
cover the passage of the fleet.

At 2 A.M. of the 28th the signal was made, and at three the fleet was
under way. The vessels advanced in two columns, the Richmond,
Hartford, and Brooklyn in the order named, forming the starboard
column, with intervals between them long enough to allow two gunboats
to fire through. The port column was composed of the Iroquois, the
leading ship, and the Oneid