ficulty of finding the breach was already felt,
and became more and more puzzling as the vessels were nearer the rear.
The Wissahickon was one of the last that succeeded in getting through.

The port column was under way in time to follow close in the wake of
its predecessor; indeed, it seems certain that, in impatience to be
off, or from some other reason, the leading ships of this division
doubled on the rear ships of the van. By the report of the captain of
the Hartford, which led, that ship was engaged only twenty minutes
after the enemy opened on the leading vessels of the starboard column.
She steered in near to Jackson, but a fire raft coming down on her
caused her to sheer across the river, where she took the ground close
under St. Philip; the raft lying on her port quarter, against which it
was pushed by the tug Mosher,[6] a small affair of thirty-five tons,
unarmed, with a crew of half a dozen men commanded by a man named
Sherman. On that eventful night, when so many hundreds of brave men,
each busy in his own sphere, were plying their work of death, surely
no one deed of more desperate courage was done than that of this
little band. The assault threatened the very life of the big ship, and
was made in the bright light of the fire under the muzzles of her
guns. These were turned on the puny foe, which received a shot in her
boilers and sunk. It is believed that the crew lost their lives, but
the Hartford had caught fire and was ablaze, the flames darting up the
rigging and bursting through the ports; but the discipline of her crew
prevailed over the fury of the element, while they were still
receiving and returning the blows of their human antagonists in both
forts; then working herself clear, the Hartford passed from under
their fire.

The Brooklyn and Richmond followed the Hartford, and behind them the
gunboat division Sciota, Iroquois, Pinola, Kennebec, Itasca, and
Winona, Fleet-Captain Bell having his divisional flag flying on board
the Sciota. By this the enemy had better range, and at the same time
the smoke of the battle was settling down upon the face of the river.
The good fortune which carried through all the vessels of the leading
column therefore failed the rear. The Brooklyn lost sight of her next
ahead and, as she was passing through the hulks, using both broadsides
as they would bear, came violently into collision with the Kineo, next
to the last ship of the starboard column--another indication