ells had driven the gunners to the bomb-proofs.
In one hour and fifteen minutes after the first gun was fired,
not a shot came from the fort. Two magazines had been blown
up, and the fort set on fire in several places. Such a torrent
of missiles was falling and bursting that it was impossible
for anything human to stand."*

[Footnote]
* Badeau's "Military History of General Grant," Vol. 3, p. 314.
[End of Footnote]

In this condition of things General Butler arrived upon the
scene. Not a soldier had been hurt on the Union side.

"General Curtis was now within fifty yards of the fort, and
sent word to General Ames that he could take the work, whereupon
Ames, not knowing Butler's determination, gave orders for
an assault. Curtis at once moved forward, but by the time
he reached his position, night had come on, and the fleet
had nearly ceased its fire .... At this juncture Butler's
orders to reembark arrived, and no assault was made. Curtis
and the officers with him, declared that the fort could have
been carried; that at the moment they were recalled, they
virtually had possession, having actually approached so close
that a rebel flag had been snatched from the parapet and a
horse brought away from the inside stockade.

"That night Butler informed the Admiral that he and Weitzel
were of the opinion that the place could not be carried by
assault .... I shall therefore sail, he said, for Hampton
Roads as soon as the transport fleet can be got in order."*

[Footnote]
* Ibid., p. 317.
[End of Footnote]

"Porter replied that he could fire much faster than he had
been doing, and would keep the enemy from showing himself
until our men were within twenty yards of the fort, and he
begged that Butler would leave some brave fellows like those
who had snatched the flag from the parapet and taken the horse
from the fort."

Butler was unchangeable. He got all his troops aboard, except
Curtis's brigade, and started back. In doing this Butler
made a fearful mistake. "My instructions to the officer who
went in command of the expedition," says General Grant, "were
explicit in the statement that to effect a landing would be
of itself a great victory, and if one should be effected,
the foothold must not be relinquished; on the contrary, a
regular siege of the fort must be commenced and, to guard
against interference by reason of storms, supplies of provisions
must be laid in as soon as they could be got on shore. But