ight.

While this was in progress, General Scott was so arranging his troops
that he should entirely invest the city, and by the 20th of March the
bombardment began. General Scott summoned the authorities to
surrender, and gave them a chance to send the women and children out
of the city. Both invitation and opportunity were declined. And so it
came about that many non-combatants were killed in the siege that
followed. The sailors not only had to land the army and the materials
of war, but they were obliged to help get the siege guns in place. The
blue-jacket ashore is nearly always alive to the importance of having
a lark, and even in this arduous service they acted very much as
though they were on a spree. On one occasion a "norther" came up, and
for several days the seamen could not get back to their ships. Being
idle they had a good time to their hearts' content. It is said that
before the end of the first day every Jack of them had a horse and was
a mounted marine. One of these, a very tough old salt, had for his
charger a donkey, and on this animal he rode by General Scott's
quarters in great pride. "Some officers standing by observing that he
was, as they thought, seated too far back, called out to him to shift
his seat more amidships. 'Gentlemen,' said Jack, drawing rein, 'this
is the first craft I ever commanded, and it's d--d hard if I can't
ride on the quarter-deck.'"

But there was more serious work immediately in store for the navy than
fetching and carrying for the army and rewarding themselves in boyish
pranks. The day before the serious bombardment began the squadron was
notified by signal from the flagship: "Commodore Perry commands the
squadron." There was rejoicing at this, for Perry was regarded as a
man who preferred a fight for its own sake rather than to have no
fight at all. In this command he proved that he was a good fighter,
but he proved also that he knew how to be conservative when necessity
made such a course wise. Commodore Conner went home because his health
demanded that he should. The Navy Department was not dissatisfied with
him. But the opportunity for heavy fighting came after Perry took the
command. From the beginning of the siege the fleet kept up a heavy
firing on the city and castle so as to divert the fire from the land
forces.

General Scott soon saw that his guns were not strong enough to batter
down the walls of the city, so he requested Commodore Perry to send
him some h