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ROSS FAILS TO REACH THE YAZOO.

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of course, trained upon the approach | An hour of this satisfied her, and she down the Tallahatchie, which a bend backed completely out of the fight; just here rendered as difficult and when the De Kalb came forward and perilous as could be. fired away for two hours: then she, too, gave it up; leaving the Rebel works essentially intact.

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BLAKE PROVIDENCE

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The next day was devoted by Ross to erecting a land battery in front of the Rebel lines, under cover of woods; Loring withholding his fire on it to economize his scanty ammunition. At 10 next morning," both gunboats renewed the bombardment, aided by our land battery. During the day, one of the Chilicothe's shells tore through the enemy's parapet, knocking out a cotton-bale, and igniting a tub of cartridges beside the Whitworth gun; whereby Lt. Waul, serving it, was wounded, and 15 of his men burnedsome of them badly. Other damage was done; but the Rebels worked throughout the ensuing night, repairing and strengthening their works. Our fire was renewed for a short time next day; and the day after was devoted on both sides to fortifying.

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Next morning," the attack was renewed with spirit on our side; but the Chilicothe was soon hulled by an 18-pound shot from the enemy's rifled Whitworth gun, which entered one of her port-holes, striking and exploding a shell, whereby 14 men were killed or severely wounded. The Chilicothe then drew out of the fight; and, though it was kept up till sunset by the De Kalb and our land batteries, it was plainly of no use: so Ross, next morning, concluded to give it up, and return by the way he came; which he did unmolested. Brig.-Gen. J. F. Quinby,

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The Chilicothe, Lt. Foster, first attempted to pass; when the Rebel battery opened, and a 32-pound shell struck her turret, slackening her speed; and she soon backed around the bend until only her bow protruded; when she renewed the cannonade with her heavy bow-guns, and received one or two more shots, which did her no essential harm. of McPherson's corps, joined" him

*March 13.

36 March 16.

$7 March 21.

and assumed command on his retreat. | row water-courses; so that they were Quinby now returned to the ground severally scraped clean of everything just abandoned before the defenses; above their decks when they had but had scarcely done so when he been wearily driven and warped up received" an order from Grant to the bayou and across Little Black withdraw the expedition; which he Fork into Deer creek, up that stream forthwith obeyed, returning to the to Rolling Fork, and across into the Mississippi unmolested. Sunflower; down which they floated almost to the Yazoo; where their progress was finally arrested, and vessels and men obliged to retrace their toilsome, devious way to the Mississippi.

Admiral Porter, having reconnoitered the country directly eastward of the Mississippi from Steele's bayou, just above Milliken's Bend, and listened to the testimony of friendly negroes, informed" Gen. Grant that a devious route, practicable at that stage of water for lighter iron-clads, might be found or opened thence into the Sunflower, and so into the Yazoo below Yazoo City, but above Haines's Bluff; whereupon, Grant decided to attempt it. Ascending" with Porter, in the ram Price, pioneered by several other iron-clads, through Steele's bayou to Black Fork or bayou, which makes across from Steele's into Deer creek, Grant, finding their way constantly impeded by overhanging trees, hurried back to Young's Point for a pioneer corps; but was soon advised by Porter that there was more serious work ahead; when Sherman was sent with a division; most of which was debarked at Eagle Bend, on the Mississippi, and thence marched across to the bayou (Steele's), here but a mile from the river-much of the distance being now under water, and requiring to be bridged or corduroyed before it could be passed. And such was the height of the water in the bayous and streams that our boats could with difficulty be forced through the branches of the trees which thickly overlaced those nar- throwing overboard her corn. Con

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Col. C. R. Ellet, commanding the ram Queen of the West, having the gunboat De Soto and a coal-barge in company, ran" the Vicksburg batteries without injury, and thence steamed down to the mouth of Red river, thence raiding" down the Atchafalaya to Simmsport; thence returning to the Red, and going up that river to a point 15 miles above the mouth of the Black, where he captured the steamboat Era, with 4,500 bushels of corn; thence ascending the Black and Washita to Gordon's Landing, where his treacherous pilot, Garvey, ran the Queen ashore, just as she was opened on from the bank by a Rebel battery, which soon shot away her lever and escape-pipe, then cut in two her steam-pipe, filling her with scalding steam, and compelling Ellet and his crew to abandon her she being wholly disabled and impotent-escaping on cotton-bales, and reaching the De Soto, which was just below. Going down the river, the De Soto was run into the bank and lost her rudder; when she and her barge were scuttled and burnt; Ellet and his crew taking refuge on the Era,

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THE INDIANOLA CAPTURED THEN DESTROYED.

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tinuing down the river, well aware | and, when nearly opposite Grand
that the Rebels would soon be after Gulf, encountered" the Rebel ram
them, the traitor Garvey was installed Webb, as also the captured Queen of
as pilot, and soon contrived to run the West (which had somehow been
the Era hard aground also, just after repaired so as to be serviceable), with
reaching the Mississippi-she draw- two other less formidable gunboats,
ing two feet water, and the shallow- in all mounting ten heavy guns, and
est of these rivers being now good manned by several hundred men.
for at least thirty. Ellet, by the time These attacked her with such energy
she was with difficulty got off, ap- and skill, mainly by butting her with
pears to have suspected that Rebels their rams, while they danced about
were not the safest pilots for Na- her, dodging her shots, that she was
tional war vessels; though he does not soon disabled; having been rammed
seem to have shot the scoundrel, or for the seventh time by the Webb,
done any thing else but intimate that and now directly in her stern, which
his style of piloting was not approved. was completely stove in. Being in
Four armed boats were sent down af- a sinking condition, she was surren-
ter him, but turned back by their lead- dered and immediately run ashore.
er, the Webb, unexpectedly meeting
our heavy iron-clad Indianola, which
they did not choose to encounter; so
the Era made her way up to the sta-
tion just below Vicksburg; receiving,
by the way, salutes that meant mis-
chief from Grand Gulf and Warren-

ton.

The Indianola, Lt.-Com'g. Brown, was one of our finest iron-clads: 174 feet long by 50 broad, with five boilers, seven engines, thoroughly shielded, and armed with two 11-inch and two 9-inch guns. Leaving the mouth of the Yazoo, she had drifted" nearly by Vicksburg undiscovered; and the batteries finally opened on her had done her no harm whatever. Keeping on down, she was just in season, as we have seen, to shield Ellet and the Era from probable capture; and she now swept proudly down the river, expecting to drive all before her.

After blockading for some days the mouth of Red river, which she did not enter for want of pilots, she was returning up the Mississippi; 13 Night of Feb. 13.

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by

Farragut being away on the Gulf coast, the Rebels had now the mastery of the river between Vicksburg and New Orleans-a mastery which they soon lost by a Yankee trick. A worthless coal flat-boat, fitted up, covered, and decorated by Porter, with furnaces of mud and smokestacks of pork-barrels, to counterfeit a terrible ram, was let loose" him, unmanned, above Vicksburg; and floated down by the batteries, eliciting and surviving a tremendous cannonade. The Rebels in Vicksburg hastened to give warning of this fearful monster to the Queen, lying under their batteries at Warrenton, eight miles below; whereupon, the Queen fled down the river at her best speed. The Indianola was now undergoing repairs near the point where she was captured; and word was sent from Vicksburg that she must be burned at once to save her from the monster's clutches. A few hours later, when it had been discovered that they had been thrown into

44 Feb. 24, 94 P. M.

45 About Feb. 24.

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hysterics by an old coal-boat, fresh word was sent that they had been sold; but, ere this arrived, the Indianola had been blown to splinters-not even her priceless guns having been saved. The Webb now escaped up the Red river; leaving our supremacy on the Mississippi once more undisputed and unbroken.

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than the west. It was in pursuance of this plan that he had so abruptly ordered a discontinuance of and withdrawal from the various expeditions looking to the control of the valley of the Yazoo, and the capture or destruction of the thirty Rebel steamboats employed on that river or laid up near Yazoo City. All being at length prepared, and the Winter overflow of the Mississippi so far abated that the so-called roads of that region were no longer generally under water, but only beds of the profoundest and softest black mud, Gen. McClernand, with his (13th) corps, was impelled" down the west bank of the great river to New Carthage; McPherson following directly with his (17th) corps; each moving no faster than it could be accompanied by its trains. The roads were so inconceivably bad that the advance was inevitably laborious and slow. The river-bank, being higher than

Admiral Farragut, commanding below Vicksburg, having applied to Admiral Porter for iron-clads and rams to operate against certain small but formidable Rebel iron-clads and rams which held possession of Red river, the rams Switzerland, Col. Chas. R. Ellet, and Lancaster, Lt. Col. John A. Ellet, were prepared for running the Vicksburg batteries; which they attempted" to do; but with ill success. Instead of being started in due season, it was daylight when they came under the Rebel fire; whereby the Lancaster was sunk and the Switzerland badly cut up. The latter succeeded in passing. Of the country back of it, the march several frailer vessels, which from time to time made the venture, two or three were sunk; the residue mainly went by unscathed.

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was mainly along the levee; of course, under constant observation from the Rebel pickets and scouts across the river.

When our van was barely two miles from New Carthage, it was stopped by a break in the levee, through which the waters of the Mississippi were pouring out into the bayou Vidal, forbidding approach to the village, which was temporarily transformed into an island. After boats had been collected to effect a crossing of the upper break, it was found that the process would not only be tedious but would have to be repeated below. Grant now decided to march around the bayou, avoiding New Carthage, and striking

47 March 29.

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PORTER RUNS BY VICKSBURG-GRIERSON'S RAID. 301

the Mississippi at Perkins's, 12 miles farther, or 35 from his base at Milliken's Bend. And now the lack of transportation on the river below Vicksburg, dictated a still farther march down to Hard Times, opposite, but rather below, Grand Gulf; extending the distance traversed from Milliken's Bend to 70 miles,

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by a shot, and received another through her steam-drum, disabling her; yet she floated out of range, and, being taken in tow by a gunboat, went through without further damage; while the Silver Wave ran the gauntlet entirely unscathed; but the Clay was struck by a shell which set her protecting cotton-bales on fire, just as she had been stopped to prevent a collision with the crippled Queen; when her panic-stricken crew

Gen. Grant now ordered six more transports to be sent down, towing and partially shielded by twelve barges laden with forage. Five of the transports made" the venture in safety; but the Tigress received a shot below her water-line which disabled. her, so that she drifted helplessly down and sank near the Louisiana bank, some distance below. Of the barges, three, with five of the transports, were soon made ready for further usefulness.

Meantime, Commodore Porter, at the suggestion of Gen. Grant, had made preparation for running the batteries of Vicksburg with his iron-launched her yawl and made for the clads, followed by three transports; shore, leaving their vessel to float and the experiment was made 18 with down the river in flames till she fair success. The gunboats Benton, burned to the water's edge and sunk— Lafayette, Price, Louisville, Caron- a total loss. We had one man killed delet, Pittsburg, Tuscumbia, and and two wounded by a shell on board Mound City (all iron-clads but the the Benton, but lost none beside, on Price), floated silently down the cur- either gunboats or transports. rent, under cover of thick darkness, for nearly an hour; and their crews were beginning to infer that the Rebels had, for some reason, concluded not to assail them; when just as they were fairly opposite the city-fire was opened on them from the up-stream batteries, and in a moment the whole bluff was ablaze with the flashes, and quaking to the roar, of heavy guns, rising tier above tier along the entire water-front of the city. The fleet promptly responded with grape and shrapnel, firing at the city rather than the batteries, and went by unharmed; opening upon the Warrenton batteries, as it neared them, so furious a cannonade that they scarcely attempted a reply. The passage of the gunboats was thus triumphantly effected; but of the three transports-Forest Queen, Henry Clay, and Silver Wave-which attempted to follow, under cover of the smoke, the first-named was hulled Night of April 16.

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The effective Rebel force in the States bordering on the Mississippi being now mainly engaged in the defense of Vicksburg and the Yazoo valley, Grant had determined to retaliate one of the destructive cavalry raids of Morgan, Forrest, and Van Dorn. To this end, Col. B. H. Grierson, with a cavalry brigade, 1,700 strong, composed of the 6th and 7th Illinois and 2d Iowa, starting " from Lagrange, Tennessee, swept rapidly Night of April 22. April 17.

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