unlucky craft ashore for repairs. But the storm of
solid shot was too much for her; and she was forced to seek shelter
under the bluffs, where the heavy guns of the Confederate
shore-batteries compelled the Union ships to keep a respectful
distance. Here she lay for several weeks, beating off every assault of
the Federals, and making a valuable addition to the defences of the
city. But, in an evil hour, the Confederate authorities decided to
send her down the river to recapture Baton Rouge. When her journey was
but half completed, she was pounced upon by several United States
vessels, with the "Essex" in the lead. Her engines breaking down, she
drifted upon a sand-bank; and the attacking ships pounded her at their
leisure, until, with the fire bursting from her portholes, she was
abandoned by her crew, and blazed away until her career was ended by
the explosion of her magazine. She had given the Federal fleet some
hard tussles, but beyond that had done nothing of the work the
Confederates so fondly hoped of her.

While the flotilla of gunboats, led by the "Essex," were planning for
the destruction of the "Arkansas," a small naval expedition,
consisting of three gunboats, was threading its way up the narrow
channel of the White River in search of some Confederate batteries
said to be on the banks. Within twelve hours from the start, the
sailors learned from a ragged negro, whom they captured on the shore,
that the Confederates had powerful batteries only five miles farther
up, and that the river channel was obstructed by sunken vessels.
Anchor was cast for the night; and in the morning the troops
accompanying the expedition were landed, and plunged into the forest
with the plan of taking the fort by a rush from the rear. The gunboats
began a slow advance up the river, throwing shells into the woods
ahead of them. The blue-jackets kept carefully under cover; for,
though they could see no foe, yet the constant singing of
rifle-bullets about the ships proved that somewhere in those bushes
were concealed sharp-shooters whose powder was good and whose aim was
true. The "Mound City" was leading the gunboats, and had advanced
within six hundred yards of the enemy's guns, when a single shot,
fired from a masked battery high up the bluffs, rang out sharply amid
the rattle of small-arms. It was the first cannon-shot fired by the
Confederates in that engagement, and it was probably the most horribly
deadly shot fired in the war.