with a load of cotton and
made a bold dash for the sea. She succeeded in getting by several
vessels before suspected, and even passed New Orleans; but the
telegraph was faster than she, and before reaching the forts she was
headed off by the Richmond, run ashore, and burned. On the 14th of
August, 1865, Admiral Lee was relieved and the Mississippi Squadron,
as an organization, ceased to be. The vessels whose careers we have
followed, and whose names have become familiar, were gradually sold,
and, like most of their officers, returned to peaceful life.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] These were mostly slaves who were running from their masters.

[21] Colonel Brent, Taylor's Chief of Artillery, reported that there
were only four Confederate pieces, two 12-pounders and two howitzers,
in this attack; instead of eighteen, as stated by Porter. Brent was not
present, and Captain Cornay, commanding the battery, was killed. The
pilot Maitland, who was captured the next day, states, in a separate
report made two months later, that he heard among the enemy that the
number was eighteen. Phelps, who, like the admiral, was hardened to
fire, speaks of them as numerous. The reader must decide for himself
the probability of four smooth-bore light pieces striking one small
boat thirty-eight times in five minutes, besides badly disabling three
others.

CHAPTER VIII.

MOBILE.

Admiral Farragut resumed the command of his squadron on January 18th,
1864. His wish was to attack at once the defences of Mobile before the
Confederates had finished the ironclads they were building; but troops
were needed for the reduction of the forts, and the Red River
expedition had diverted those that might have been available.

The city of Mobile is thirty miles from the Gulf, at the head of a
great bay of the same name. The width of the bay varies from fifteen
miles at the lower end to six at the upper; the depth throughout the
greater part is from twelve to fourteen feet, shelving gently near the
shores, but at the lower end there is a deep hole extending from the
mouth north-northwest for six miles, with an average width of two and
a half. In this the depth is from twenty to twenty-four feet. The
principal entrance is from the Gulf direct, between Mobile Point, a
long low projection from the mainland, on the east, and Dauphin Island
on the west, the latter being one of the chain which bounds
Mississippi Sound. The distance between these points is nearly