orce. On Friday, the 14th of August, 1863, this wretched man,
Francis Scott, private of Company F, 1st Louisiana, suffered the
military penalty of his crime.

Taylor now gave up the attempt to capture the position at
Donaldsonville, and devoted his attention to a blockade of the
river by establishing his batteries at various points behind the
natural fortification formed by the levee. Seven guns, under
Faries, were placed on Gaudet's plantation, opposite Whitehall
Point, while the guns of Semmes, Nichols, and Cornay were planted
opposite College Point and at Fifty-five Mile Point, commanding
Grand View reach. On the 3d of July Semmes opened fire on the
Union transports, as they were approaching College Point on their
way up the river. The steamer _Iberville_ was disabled, and from
this time until after the surrender no transport passed up, except
under convoy, and it was only with great difficulty that even the
fastest boats made their way down with the help of the current.

When this state of things was reported to Farragut, who had gone
back to Port Hudson, he sent to New Orleans for his Chief of Staff,
Captain Jenkins, to come up, in order that he himself might once
more go down and give his personal attention to the affair. On
the 7th of July the _Tennessee_ started from New Orleans with
Jenkins aboard; she had successfully run the gauntlet of the
batteries, when, between eight and nine o'clock in the evening, as
Faries was firing his last rounds, a solid shot struck and instantly
killed Commander Abner Read. Captain Jenkins was, at the same
time, wounded by a flying fragment of a broken cutlass. Of the
crew two were killed and four wounded.

On the 8th the _Saint Mary's_, a fine seagoing steamer and one of
the fastest boats in the department, was carrying Lieutenant Emerson,
Acting-Assistant Adjutant-General, with important despatches from
headquarters to Emory and to the Chief Quartermaster, when, about
three o'clock in the morning, she drew the fire of all the Confederate
guns. The _Princess Royal_ and the _Kineo_ convoyed her past the
upper battery, but from this point she had to trust to her speed
and her low freeboard. In rounding Fifty-five Mile Point she was
struck five times, one conical shell and one shrapnel penetrating
her side above the water-line and bursting inboard.

At half-past six on the morning of the 9th of July, Farragut, who
had left Port Hudson on the _Monongahela_ on the evenin