It was against these obstacles that Farragut, after a
week of preliminary attack, started up the river in his wooden vessels
at three o'clock in the morning of April 24, 1862.
As soon as the Confederates descried the advancing fleet, they lighted
great fires along the banks and opened a terrific cannonade. Blazing
fire-rafts threw a lurid glare against the sky. The fleet, pausing a few
minutes to discharge their broadsides into the forts, steamed on up the
river; Farragut's flagship grounded under the guns of Fort St. Philip,
and a fireship, blazing a hundred feet in the air, floated against her
and set her on fire, but the flames were extinguished, the flagship
backed off, and headed again up the stream. Before the coming of dawn,
the entire fleet, with the exception of three small boats, had passed
the forts and were grappling with the Confederate squadron above. Of
this, short work was made. Some of the enemy's vessels were driven
ashore, some were run down, others were riddled with shot--and the
proudest city of the South lay at Farragut's mercy.
On the first day of May, the United States troops under General Butler,
marched into the city, and Farragut, glad to be relieved of an
unpleasant task, proceeded up the river, ran by the batteries at
Vicksburg, assisted at the reduction of Port Hudson, and finally sailed
for New York in his flagship, the Hartford, arriving there in August,
1863.
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