than Grant had asked, when
the vessels dropped out of range, having lost only a few wounded. The
assault of the army was not successful and regular siege operations
were begun. Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the two extremes of the
Confederate line, were thus formally invested by the 27th of May. On
that day, Porter, having received a request from Grant and Sherman to
try whether the enemy had moved from the batteries the guns on their
extreme left, as they had from many of the other hill batteries, sent
down the gunboat Cincinnati, Lieutenant George M. Bache, to draw their
fire if still there; and, if possible, to enfilade the enemy's
rifle-pits in that quarter and drive them out. The Cincinnati started
from the upper division of the squadron at 7 A.M.; the vessels of the
lower division, Price, Benton, Mound City, and Carondelet, steaming up
at the same time to cover her movement by engaging the lower
batteries, which might have played upon her. General Sherman took a
position upon a hill at the extreme right of the Union lines,
overlooking the river, so as to see the affair and take advantage of
any success gained by the Cincinnati's attack. The gunboat, protected
as usual by logs and hay, came within range shortly after nine
o'clock, and the enemy began firing rapidly from all their batteries,
the guns whose position had been doubted proving to be in their old
place. When abreast the position assigned her for enfilading the
rifle-pits the Cincinnati rounded to, and as she did so a shot pierced
her side and entered the shell-room, capsizing nearly all the boxes on
one side of the alley. As she came to with her head up stream, another
ball entered the shell-room below the water-line, and a third pierced
her stern, always the weakest part of these vessels, going into the
magazine, also below the water-line, flooding it instantly and causing
the vessel to fill rapidly. A heavy shot drove through the
pilot-house, and shortly afterward the starboard tiller was carried
away. The plunging fire of many big guns, concentrated on a single
vessel, wrought great injury in a short time; penetrating her light
deck, five of her guns were disabled by it. All three flag-staffs were
shot away, carrying the colors down with them; upon which, a
quartermaster, Frank Bois by name, went out and nailed a flag to the
stump that was left of the forward staff. Finding the vessel must
sink, Lieutenant Bache kept running up stream, hugging the east b