the Confederates well back to the north and rear of the
squadron, thus finally freeing it from a very anxious and critical
dilemma. On the 24th Hill's plantation was reached, and the vessels
returned without further adventure to the mouth of the Yazoo, where
Porter communicated with Farragut, who still remained near the lower
end of the canal.

On the 29th and 30th it blew a gale of wind from the north, during
which the steamer Vicksburg, that had been rammed two months before by
the Queen of the West, broke adrift from her moorings at the city, and
went ashore on the bank opposite the Hartford. Upon examination it was
found that her machinery had been removed, and before any further
action had been taken by Farragut, the Confederates sent down and
burned her. Meanwhile coal from the army and provisions from the upper
squadrons were floated down in barges, and on the 31st, having waited
for the completion of the repairs on the Switzerland, the admiral got
under way, with the Albatross and the ram in company, and went down
the river. At Grand Gulf the batteries again opened on the ships,
striking the Switzerland twice and the Hartford once; the latter
losing one man killed. On the evening of April 1st the little squadron
reached Red River, having destroyed on its passage down a large number
of skiffs and flat-boats, available for the transport of stores across
the Mississippi from the western country, on which Vicksburg now
mainly depended for supplies.

In their isolated condition, and occupying a position so obnoxious to
the enemy, there was reason to expect a repetition on a larger scale
of the attack made upon the Indianola. The Hartford was specially
prepared for such a meeting. The lower yards were lowered down to the
rail and the stream-chain, lashed to the bowsprit end, was carried
aft, clove-hitched to the yard-arms and brought in again at the
warping chocks. This barrier, while it remained intact, would keep an
assailant fifteen to twenty feet from the ship; then, if it were
passed, as a further protection against boarders, hawsers were
stretched along fore and aft by the lower rigging, thirty feet above
the deck, carrying a heavy boarding netting which extended from that
height to the ship's rail. The hammock-cloths were kept triced up, and
the poop-deck and topgallant-forecastle, which were flush with the
rail of the ship, were barricaded with hammocks and sails. For
protection against rams large cypress lo