municate, if possible, by signal with the
fleet below, but they could not be seen from her mast-heads; therefore
after firing three guns, as before concerted with General Banks, the
admiral went on up the river. The following morning he anchored off
the mouth of the Red River, remaining twenty-four hours; and then went
on to below Vicksburg to communicate with Porter, arriving there on
the 20th. On the way the ships engaged a battery of four rifled pieces
at Grand Gulf, losing 2 men killed and 6 wounded, but met with no
other opposition. Porter was absent in Deer Creek, one of the bayous
emptying into the Yazoo, when Farragut's messenger arrived, but
communication was held with General Grant, Captain Walke, the senior
naval officer present, and General A.W. Ellet, commanding the ram
flotilla. Farragut, deprived of the greater part of his own fleet, was
very desirous of getting reinforcements from above; asking specially
for an ironclad and a couple of rams to assist him in maintaining the
blockade of Red River and to patrol the Mississippi. In the absence of
Porter he was not willing to urge his request upon the subordinate
officers present, but General Ellet assumed the responsibility of
sending down two rams, without waiting to hear from the admiral, of
whose concurrence he expressed himself as feeling assured; an opinion
apparently shared by the others present at the consultation. It would
seem, however, that Porter did not think the rams actually sent fit to
be separated from a machine-shop by enemies' batteries; and his
ironclads could not be spared from the work yet to be done above. The
rams Switzerland and Lancaster, the former under command of Colonel
Charles E. Ellet, late of the Queen of the West, the latter under
Lieutenant-Colonel John A. Ellet, were detailed for this duty and
started during the night of the 24th, but so late that they did not
get by before the sun had risen. The batteries opened upon them
between 5.30 and 6 A.M. of the 25th. The Lancaster, an old and rotten
boat, received a shell in her boilers; and her hull was so shattered
by the explosion that she went to pieces and sank, the officers and
crew escaping on cotton bales. The Switzerland was hulled repeatedly
and received two shots in her boilers; but being a stronger boat
survived her injuries and drifted down safely to her destination,
where a week's labor put her again in fighting condition. The
recklessness of the daring family whose na