ng heavy reinforcements to Grand Gulf to oppose
the troops on their first landing. The expedition was most successful
in attaining this end, but the vessels were very roughly handled,
having been much exposed with the wish to make the attack appear as
real as possible. The Choctaw, Lieutenant-Commander F.M. Ramsay, was
struck as often as forty-six times. Despite the heavy fire of the
enemy, no serious casualties occurred on board the fleet in an action
which lasted three hours, from 11 A.M. to 2 P.M. The demonstration was
continued during the following day, but at 8 P.M. General Sherman
withdrew his troops to the other side of the Mississippi, taking up
his march to join the main body of the army; and the vessels returned
to their anchorage off the mouth of the Yazoo.

On the morning of the 3d Porter advanced upon Grand Gulf with his
fleet below, intending to attack if the enemy were still there; but
the place was found to be evacuated, as had been expected, the march
of the army inland having rendered it untenable. The earthworks were
torn to pieces by the fire of the fleet, and Colonel Wade, the
commandant, had been killed; but the guns were still in position,
except two 32-pounders in the lower battery, which were dismounted and
broken. A large quantity of ammunition was also obtained, showing that
lack of it was not the cause of the fire slackening on the 29th of
April. The same day General Grant arrived, and made the necessary
arrangements for transferring his base of supplies to Grand Gulf
instead of Bruinsburg.

On the day that Porter ran by the batteries of Vicksburg, April 16th,
Farragut, having received his secretary and the despatches brought by
him, went back from Port Hudson to the mouth of the Red River. During
the next fortnight he kept up the blockade of the Mississippi between
those two points, twice catching stores crossing in flat-boats,
besides destroying a number of boats along the river and a large
quantity of commissary stores at Bayou Sara. Besides cutting off Port
Hudson from the west bank of the Mississippi, his presence in this
position prevented reinforcements from that place being sent by the
Red River, as they otherwise might have been, to the Confederate
General Taylor, who was now being pressed by Banks toward Alexandria.
Farragut had also in view blockading the Black River, a tributary of
the Red, which enters it from the north and northwest about thirty
miles from the Mississippi and