uvre, the difficulties of the river and the greatness of the
stake to both parties made it imperative to take no needless risks. As a
protection against rams, large cypress logs were hung around the ship
about a foot above the water line, where they would both resist
penetration and also give time for the elasticity of the frame of a
wooden vessel to take up the blow. Against boarding, elaborate
preparations were made, which would prevent a steamer attempting it from
getting nearer than twenty feet to the side, where she would remain an
easy victim to the shell and grape of the Hartford's guns.

From the 2d to the 30th of April Farragut remained in the neighborhood
of the Red River, between its mouth and Port Hudson. Cut off by the
batteries of the place, and by the prevalence of guerrillas on the west
bank, from all usual means of communication with General Banks and his
own squadron, he contrived to get a letter down by the daring of his
secretary, Mr. Edward C. Gabaudan; who was set adrift one night in a
skiff ingeniously covered with drift brush, and, thus concealed, floated
undiscovered past the enemy's guards. The small number of his vessels
prevented his extending his blockade as far as he wished; but in closing
the Red River he deprived the enemy of by far the best line they
possessed, and he destroyed a quantity of stores and boats.

In the mean time diverse and important events were concurring to release
him from his position of isolation. Toward the end of March General
Grant, who had for some time abandoned all expectation of turning
Vicksburg by its right flank, began the celebrated movement down the
west side of the Mississippi; whence he crossed to the east bank at
Bruinsburg, and fought the campaign which ended by shutting up Pemberton
and his army within the lines of the place. In furtherance of this plan,
Porter himself, with a large body of his ships, ran the batteries at
Vicksburg on the night of April 16. The fleet then kept pace with the
necessarily slow progress of the army, encumbered with trains, through
the roads heavy with the mire of the recent overflow. On the 29th of
April the Mississippi squadron fought a sharp engagement with the
Confederate batteries at Grand Gulf, which they could not reduce; and
the following day Grant's army crossed the river.

While these events were bringing the Mississippi squadron into that part
of the river which Farragut had aimed to control, other movements we