rned.

The gunboats had not hitherto crossed Dog River Bar, partly on account
of the low water and partly because of the torpedoes, which were known
to be thickly sowed thereabouts. It now became necessary for the navy
to cut off the communication of the fort with Mobile by water, while
the army invested it by land. On the 27th of March the fleet moved up
and the bar was safely crossed by the double-ender Octorara, Lieutenant
Commander W.W. Low; and the ironclads, Kickapoo, Lieutenant-Commander
M.P. Jones; Osage, Lieutenant-Commander William M. Gamble; Milwaukee,
Lieutenant-Commander James H. Gillis; Winnebago, Lieutenant-Commander
W.A. Kirkland; and Chickasaw, Lieutenant-Commander George H. Perkins.
They opened that day on the enemy's works, which were invested by the
army the same night.

Before and after crossing, the bay had been thoroughly swept for
torpedoes, and it was hoped that all had been found; but,
unfortunately, they had not. On the 28th the Winnebago and Milwaukee
moved up toward Spanish Fort, shelling a transport lying there from a
distance of two miles. As the enemy's works were throwing far over,
they were ordered to return to the rest of the fleet when the
transport moved off. The Milwaukee dropped down with the current,
keeping her head up stream, and had come within two hundred yards of
the fleet when she struck a torpedo, on her port side forty feet from
the stern. She sank abaft in three minutes, but her bow did not fill
for nearly an hour. No one was hurt or drowned by this accident. The
next day, the Winnebago having dragged in a fresh breeze too near the
Osage, the latter weighed and moved a short distance ahead. Just as
she was about to drop her anchor, a torpedo exploded under the bow
and she began to sink, filling almost immediately. Of her crew 5 were
killed and 11 wounded by the explosion, but none were drowned. The
place where this happened had been thoroughly swept and the torpedo
was thought to be one that had gone, or been sent, adrift from above.
The two vessels were in twelve feet water, so that the tops of the
turrets remained in sight. Lieutenant-Commander Gillis, after the loss
of his vessel, took command of a naval battery in the siege and did
good service.

On the 1st of April the light-draught steamer Rodolph, having on board
apparatus for raising the Milwaukee, was coming near the fleet when
she too struck a torpedo, which exploded thirty feet abaft her stem
and caused her