that Memphis
will not fall till conclusions are first tried on water, and
at the cannon's mouth."[28]

[Footnote 28: Memphis Avalanche, June 6, 1862]

I was awake early enough to see the brightening of the morning. Never
was there a lovelier daybreak. The woods were full of song-birds. The
air was balmy. A few light clouds, fringed with gold, lay along the
eastern horizon.

The fleet of five gunboats was anchored in a line across the river. The
Benton was nearest the Tennessee shore, next was the Carondelet, then
the Louisville, St. Louis, and, lastly, the Cairo. Near by the Cairo,
tied up to the Arkansas shore, were the Queen City and the Monarch,--two
of Colonel Ellet's rams. The tugs Jessie Benton and Spitfire hovered
near the Benton, Commodore Davis's flag-ship. It was their place to be
within call, to carry orders to the other boats of the fleet.

Before sunrise the anchors were up, and the boats kept their position in
the stream by the slow working of the engines.

Commodore Davis waved his hand, and the Jessie Benton was alongside the
flag-ship in a moment.

"Drop down towards the city, and see if you can discover the Rebel
fleet," was the order.

I jumped on board the tug. Below us was the city. The first rays of the
sun were gilding the church-spires. A crowd of people stood upon the
broad levee between the city and the river. They were coming from all
the streets, on foot, on horseback, in carriages,--men, women, and
children--ten thousand, to see Lincoln's gunboats sent to the bottom.
Above the court-house, and from flagstaffs, waved the flag of the
Confederacy. A half-dozen river steamers lay at the landing, but the
Rebel fleet was not in sight. At our right hand was the wide marsh on
the tongue of land where Wolfe River empties into the Mississippi. Upon
our left were the cotton-trees and button-woods, and the village of
Hopedale at the terminus of the Little Rock and Memphis Railroad. We
dropped slowly down the stream, the tug floating in the swift current,
running deep and strong as it sweeps past the city.

The crowd increased. The levee was black with the multitude. The windows
were filled. The flat roofs of the warehouses were covered with the
excited throng, which surged to and fro as we upon the tug came down
into the bend, almost within talking distance.

Suddenly a boat came out from the Arkansas shore, where it had been
lying concealed from view behind the forest,--another, anot