sippi, designed to command and protect the river gateway to
La Fourche, mounting four guns, and originally intended for a
garrison of perhaps 600 men. The parapet was high and thick, like
the levee, and was surrounded by a deep ditch, the flanks on the
bayou and the river being further protected by stout stockades
extending from the levees to the water, at ordinary stages. The
work was now held by a mixed force of 180 men, comprising two small
companies of the 28th Maine--F, Captain Edward B. Neal, and G,
Captain Augustine Thompson,--besides a number of convalescents of
various regiments. Major Joseph D. Bullen, of the 28th, was in
command, and with him at the time was Major Henry M. Porter, of
the 7th Vermont, provost-marshal of the parish of Iberville, whose
quarters in the town on the other side of the bayou were no longer
tenable.

Farragut, who had gone down to New Orleans and hoisted his flag on
the _Pensacola_, leaving Palmer and Alden in command of the upper
and lower fleets before Port Hudson, had disposed his gunboats so
as to patrol the river in sections. The _Princess Royal_,
Lieutenant-Commander M. B. Woolsey, was near Donaldsonville; the
_Winona_, Lieutenant-Commander A. W. Weaver, near Plaquemine; and
the _Kineo_, Lieutenant-Commander John Watters, between Bonnet Carre
and the Red Church. As soon as the Confederates appeared before
Donaldsonville, Woolsey was notified, and couriers were sent up and
down the river to summon the _Winona_ and the _Kineo_.

Green brought to the attack six regiments and one battery, between
1,300 and 1,500 strong,(2) including three regiments of his own
brigade, the 4th, 5th, and 7th Texas, and three regiments of Major's
brigade--Lane's, Stone's, and Phillips's. The river, and therefore
the bayou, were now low, exposing wide margins of batture, and
Green's plan was, while surrounding and threatening the fort on
its land faces, to gain an entrance on the water front by crossing
the batture and passing around the ends of the stockades.

At ten minutes past midnight the red light of a Coston signal from
the fort announced to the Navy that the enemy were coming. At
twenty minutes past one the fight was opened by the Confederates
with musketry. Instantly the fort replied with the fire of its
guns, and of every musket that could be brought to the parapet.
Five minutes later the _Princess Royal_, which, since nightfall,
had been under way and cleared for action, began she