be let go,
with cable enough to keep her head up stream while permitting her to
drop bodily down. Springs were prepared on each quarter; and, as the
ships were to fight in quiet water, at short range, and in the dark,
special care was taken so to secure the elevating screws that the guns
should not work themselves to too great elevation.

In accordance with these instructions the ships stripped at Pilot
Town, sending ashore spars, boats, rigging, and sails; everything that
was not at present needed. The chronometers of the fleet were sent on
board the Colorado. The larger ships snaked down the rigging, while
the gunboats came up their lower rigging, carrying it in and securing
it close to the mast. The flag-ship being now at the Head of the
Passes remained there, the flag-officer shifting his flag from one
small vessel to another as the requirements of the squadron called him
to different points. A detachment of lighter vessels, one of the
corvettes and a couple of gunboats, occupied an advance station at the
"Jump," a bayou entering the river on the west side, eight miles above
the Head of the Passes; the enemy's gunboats were thus unable to push
their reconnoissances down in sight of the main fleet while the latter
were occupied with their preparations. The logs of the squadron show
constant bustle and movement, accompanied by frequent accidents, owing
to the swift current of the river, which was this year exceptionally
high, even for the season. A hospital for the fleet was established in
good houses at Pilot Town, but the flag-officer had to complain of the
entire insufficiency of medical equipment, as well as a lack of most
essentials for carrying on the work. Ammunition of various kinds was
very deficient, and the squadron was at one time threatened with
failure of fuel, the coal vessels arriving barely in time.

The first and at that time the only serious obstacle to the upward
progress of the fleet was at the Plaquemine Bend, twenty miles from
the Head of the Passes, and ninety below New Orleans. At this point
the river, which has been running in a southeasterly direction, makes
a sharp bend, the last before reaching the sea, runs northeast for a
mile and three-quarters, and then resumes its southeast course. Two
permanent fortifications existed at this point, one on the left, or
north bank of the stream, called Fort St. Philip, the other on the
right bank, called Fort Jackson. Jackson is a little below St. Phi