r fire as soon as the forts should open. The steam-fleet moved up
in two columns, one led by Flag-officer Farragut in person, in the
Hartford, the other by Captain Theodorus Bailey, as second in command,
in the Cayuga. The left column (Farragut's) was composed of the
Hartford, Brooklyn, Richmond, Sciota, Iroquois, Kennebec, Pinola,
Itasca, and Winona; the right (Bailey's), of the Cayuga, Pensacola,
Mississippi, Oneida, Varuna, Katahdin, Kineo, and Wissahickon. The
right column was to engage Fort St. Philip; the left, Fort Jackson.
The fleet were fairly abreast of the forts before they were
discovered, and fire opened upon them; but from that moment the firing
was terrible, and the smoke, settling down like a pall upon the river,
produced intense darkness, and the ships could only aim at the flash
from the forts, the forts at the flash from the ships. A fire-raft,
pushed by the ram Manassas against the flag-ship (the Hartford), set
it on fire, and at the same instant it ran aground; but by the prompt
and disciplined exertions of the men the flame was extinguished in a
few minutes and the ship got afloat, never ceasing its fire upon the
enemy. At times the gunboats passed so near the forts as to be able to
throw their broadsides of shrapnel, grape, and canister with most
destructive force into their interior; and the forts, in the endeavor
to depress their guns sufficiently to strike the vessels, lost their
shot, which rolled into the ditches. They were nearly past the forts
when the rebel fleet came down upon them, the iron-clad ram Manassas
among them. Several of these gunboats were iron-clad about the bow,
and had iron beaks or spurs. The Cayuga, Captain Bailey's flag-ship,
was the first to encounter these; and soon after the Varuna, commanded
by Captain Boggs, found itself in a nest of rebel steamers, and moved
forward, delivering its broadsides, port and starboard, with fearful
precision, into its antagonists, four of which were speedily disabled
and sunk by its fire. The Varuna was finally attacked by the Morgan
and another rebel gunboat, both iron-clad at the bow, which crushed in
her sides; but crowding her steam, she drew them on, while still fast,
and poured broadsides into both, which drove them ashore crippled and
in flames. Running his own steamer on shore as speedily as possible,
the gallant Boggs fought her as long as his guns were out of water,
and then brought off his men, who were taken on board the Oneida