; but fortunately the shot lodged in some sand-bags that protected
her steam-drum.

"The next moment the ram butted into the _Brooklyn's_ starboard gangway;
but she was so effectually protected by chain armor that the _Manassas_
glanced off and disappeared in the darkness.

"All this time a raking fire from the fort had been pouring upon the
_Brooklyn_, and just as she escaped from the _Manassas_ a large
Confederate steamer attacked her. She pushed slowly on in the darkness,
after giving the steamer a broadside that set it on fire and speedily
destroyed it, and suddenly found herself abreast of Fort St. Philip.

"She was very close to it, and speedily brought all her guns to bear
upon it in a tremendous broadside.

"In his report Captain Craven said, 'I had the satisfaction of
completely silencing that work before I left it, my men in the tops
witnessing, in the flashes of the shrapnel, the enemy running like sheep
for more comfortable quarters.'

"While the _Brooklyn_ was going through all this, Farragut was having
what he called 'a rough time of it.' While he was battling with the
forts, a huge fire-raft, pushed by the _Manassas_, came suddenly upon
him all ablaze, and in trying to avoid it the _Hartford_ got aground,
and the incendiary came crashing alongside of her.

"In telling of it Farragut said, 'In a moment the ship was one blaze all
along the port side, half way up the main and mizzen tops. But thanks to
the good organization of the fire department, by Lieutenant Thornton,
the flames were extinguished, and at the same time we backed off and got
clear of the raft. All this time we were pouring shells into the forts
and they into us; now and then a rebel steamer would get under our fire
and receive our salutation of a broadside.' The fleet had not fairly
passed the forts when the Confederate ram and gun-boats hastened to take
part in the battle.

"The scene was now both grand and awful. Just think of two hundred and
sixty great guns and twenty mortars constantly firing, and shells
exploding in and around the forts; it 'shook land and water like an
earthquake,' Lossing tells us, 'and the surface of the river was strewn
with dead and helpless fishes.' Major Bell, of Butler's staff, wrote of
it, 'Combine all that you have ever heard of thunder, and add to it all
you have ever seen of lightning, and you have, perhaps, a conception of
the scene. And,' continues our historian, 'all this destructive energy,
the