nd, on the west shore, which the Confederates had to evacuate
when he cut their line of communications farther south. They now
held only the island and the east shore opposite, with no line
of retreat except the Mississippi, because the land line on the
east shore was blocked by swamps and flanked by the Union armies
in western Tennessee.

On the night of the fourth of April the _Carondelet_ started to
cut this last line south. She was swathed in hawsers and chain
cables. Her decks were packed tight with every sort of gear that
would break the force of plunging shot; and a big barge, laden
with coal and rammed hay, was lashed to her port side to protect
her magazine. Twenty-three picked Illinoisian sharpshooters went
aboard; while pistols, muskets, cutlasses, boarding-pikes, and hand
grenades were placed ready for instant use. The escape-pipe was
led aft into the wheel-house, so as to deaden the noise; and hose
was attached to the boilers ready to scald any Confederates that
tried to board. Then, through the heart of a terrific thunderstorm,
and amid a furious cannonade, the _Carondelet_ ran the desperate
gauntlet at full speed and arrived at New Madrid by midnight.

The Confederates were now cut off both above and below; for the
position of Island Number Ten was at the lower point of a V-shaped
bend in the Mississippi, with Federal forces at the two upper points.
But the Federal troops could not close on the Confederates without
crossing over to the east bank; and their transports could not run
the gauntlet like the ironclads. So the Engineer Regiment of the West
cut out a water road connecting the two upper points of the V. This
admirable feat of emergency field engineering was effected by sawing
through three miles of heavy timber to the nearest bayou, whence a
channel was cleared down to New Madrid. Then the transports went
through in perfect safety and took Pope's advanced guard aboard. The
ironclad _Pittsburg_ had come down, through another thunderstorm,
this same morning of the seventh; and when the island garrison
saw their position completely cut off they surrendered to Foote.
Next day Pope's men cut off the greater part of the Confederates
on the mainland. Thus fell the last point near Johnston's original
line along the southern borders of Missouri and Kentucky.

Just before it fell Johnston made a desperate counterattack from
his new line at Corinth, in northwest Mississippi, against Grant's
encroaching f