ves of the inshore eddy. Before they came up with the chain, a
fire was kindled on the eastern bank throwing a broad belt of light
athwart the stream. To pull across this in plain view seemed madness,
so the boat was headed to the opposite side and crawled up to within
a hundred yards of the hulks. Then holding on to the bushes, out of
the glare of the fire, and hearing the voices of the enemy in the
water battery, the party surveyed the situation. Though tangled chains
hung from the bows of the outer and lower hulk it seemed perfectly
plain that none reached across the river, but, after some hesitation
about running the risk merely to clear up a point as to which he had
himself no doubt, the necessity of satisfying others determined
Caldwell; and by his orders the cutter struck boldly out and into the
light. Crossing it unobserved, or else taken for a Confederate boat by
any who may have seen, the party reached the outer hulk on the west
side. Pausing for a moment under its shelter they then pulled up
stream, abreast the inshore hulk, and Jones dropped from the bow a
deep-sea lead with ten fathoms of line. The boat was then allowed to
drift with the current, and the line held in the hand gave no sign of
fouling anything. Then they pulled up a second time and again dropped
down close to the hulk on the east shore with like favorable result;
showing conclusively that, to a depth of sixty feet, nothing existed
to bar the passage of the fleet. The cutter then flew on her return
with a favoring current, signalling all clear at 11 P.M.

At 2 A.M. the flag-ship hoisted the appointed signal and the starboard
column weighed, the heavy vessels taking a long while to purchase
their anchors, owing to the force of the current. At 3.30 the Cayuga,
leading, passed through the booms, the enemy waiting for the ships to
come fairly into his power. In regular order followed the Pensacola,
Mississippi, Oneida, Varuna, Katahdin, Kineo, Wissahickon, the
Confederate fire beginning as the Pensacola passed through the breach.
The Varuna, Cayuga, and Katahdin steamed rapidly on, the one heavy
gun of the gunboats being ill-adapted to cope with those in the works;
but the heavy ships, keeping line inside the gunboats, moved slowly
by, fighting deliberately and stopping from time to time to deliver
their broadsides with greater effect.

[Illustration: Battle of New Orleans.]

The Pensacola, following the Cayuga closely and keeping a little o