ng it; being at the same time wrapped in a cloud of smoke
which hid her hull and rose above her lower mast-heads.

As her topmasts were down, the ship was thus so completely hidden that
Buchanan, the Confederate admiral, who had had her captain under him
as a midshipman in days long gone by, and again as first lieutenant of
a corvette during the war with Mexico, asked after the surrender:
"What became of Jenkins? I saw his vessel go handsomely into action
and then lost sight of her entirely." While thus backing and fighting
the ship was in great danger of getting aground, having at times less
than a foot of water under her keel; but her commander thought the
situation so critical as to necessitate the risk. During the same time
the Brooklyn, from her unfortunate position, was unable to use any but
her bow guns, and, even when her hull was obscured by the smoke of the
battle, her position was shown to the gunners of the fort by her tall
spars towering above. These moments of anxiety were ended when she
brought her head once more in the right direction and steamed on; the
Richmond followed with the other ships of the port column, which had
closed up and joined in the action during the delay. Their fire, with
the monitors', kept down that of the fort until the bulk of the fleet
had gone by, but when the heavier ships were out of range the enemy
returned to their guns and severely punished the rear of the line; the
last ship, the Oneida, receiving a VII-inch rifle shell, which passed
through her chain armor and into the starboard boiler, where it burst,
the larger part of the watch of firemen being scalded by the escaping
steam. About the same moment a similar projectile burst in the cabin,
cutting both wheel-ropes, while her forward XI-inch gun and one of the
VIII-inch were disabled. In this condition the Oneida was pulled past
the forts by her consort, the Galena.

As the Hartford advanced over the line of torpedoes the three smaller
gunboats of the enemy took their position on her starboard bow and
ahead, whence they kept up a raking and most galling fire, to which
the Hartford, confined to the direction of the channel, could only
reply with her bow guns, one of which was speedily disabled by a shell
bursting under it. As the flag-ship advanced they retreated, keeping
their distance and range about the same, from one thousand to seven
hundred yards, and fighting mainly the stern guns. At no period of the
action did she