[
528]
part.
After a severe contest, in which the
Carondelet was badly injured and lost fourteen men killed and wounded, and the
Arkansas twenty-five killed and wounded, the latter, beating off and much damaging her antagonists, made her way down the
Yazoo into the
Mississippi, and took shelter under the batteries at
Vicksburg.
Farragut now ran past the
Vicksburg batteries again, and anchored below, and he and
Davis abandoned the bombardment of that post.
On the 22d
another attempt was made to capture or destroy the
Arkansas. The
Essex,
Captain W. D. Porter, and
Ellet's
Queen of the West were employed for the purpose, while the gun-boats were bombarding the batteries above and below the town.
The attempt was not successful, and, as the river was falling fast, and thus made naval operations less efficient, the
siege of Vicksburg was abandoned, under instructions from
Washington, and
Farragut's fleet returned to New Orleans on the 28th.
His transports having been annoyed by the firing upon them of a guerrilla band at
Donaldsonville, on the left bank of the river, at the mouth of the
Bayou
La Fourche, he ordered that village to be bombarded, after warning the inhabitants of his intention.
Much of the town was destroyed.
It was afterward occupied by National troops, who built a strong earthwork there, and named it Fort Butler.
When
Farragut descended the river,
General Williams and the land-troops debarked at
Baton Rouge, for the purpose of permanently occupying it. Re-enforcements were sent to him, and
Farragut took a position to give him aid in holding the place if necessary.
Williams's troops were suffering severely from sickness, and this fact, in an exaggerated form, having been communicated to
Van Dorn by resident secessionists, he organized an expedition to capture the post.
It was composed of about five thousand men, under
General J. C. Breckenridge, who expected to be aided by the ram
