d infantry; of Mississippi territory, five hundred infantry, and
of Louisiana, one thousand infantry. That portion of the quota of
Kentucky destined for New Orleans, twenty-two hundred men, and a portion
of the quota of Tennessee, embarked upon flatboats to float fifteen
hundred miles down the Ohio and Mississippi waters, had not arrived on
the tenth of December. Through the energetic efforts of the Governor,
aided by Major Edward Livingston and the Committee of Safety, the quota
of Louisiana was made up. With these, General Coffee's Tennesseans,
Major Hinds' Mississippians, and one thousand regular troops, there were
less than three thousand men for defensive operations yet available.

BATTLE OF THE GUNBOATS WITH THE FLEET OF BARGES.

An event was soon to happen which seemed for the time an irreparable
disaster to the American cause. Commodore Daniel T. Patterson, in
command of the American naval forces, on learning of the approach of
the British fleet, sent Lieutenant Thomas Ap Catesby Jones, with five
gunboats, one tender, and a dispatch boat toward the passes out to Ship
Island, to watch the movements of the British vessels. This little
flotilla, barely enough for scout duty at sea, was the extent of our
naval forces in the Gulf waters near. The orders were to fall back, if
necessary, from near Cat Island to the Rigolets; and there, if hard
pressed, to sink or be sunk by the enemy. Moving in waters too shallow
for the large English ships to pursue, until the thirteenth, Lieutenant
Jones sailed for Bay St. Louis. Sighting a large number of the enemy's
barges steering for Pass Christian, he headed for the Rigolets. But the
wind having died away and an adverse current set in, the little fleet
could get no farther than the channel inside of Melheureux Island, being
there partially grounded. Early on the morning of the fourteenth, a
flotilla of barges formed in line was discovered coming from the
direction of the enemy's ships, evidently to overtake and attack the
becalmed gunboats. The two tenders, lying beyond the aid of the latter,
were captured after a spirited resistance. The guns of these were now
turned upon Lieutenant Jones' gunboats in a combined attack of the fleet
of barges, forty-five in number, and a supporting squad of marines. The
total equipment was twelve hundred men and forty-five pieces of
artillery. The American defensive forces were seven small gunboats,
manned by thirty guns and one hundred and ei