Chapter 28: passage of the fleet by Vicksburg and capture of Grand Gulf.--capture of Alexandria, etc.
- Plans for running the batteries. -- the fleet underway. -- the batteries open fire. -- the transport Henry Clay sunk. -- a Grand scene. -- the batteries run. -- the fleet anchors below the city. -- McClernand confronted with “Quaker guns.” -- Grant pushes on to Grand Gulf. -- the Price in front of the batteries. -- insubordination of McClernand. -- Grand Gulf described. -- the gunboats commence the attack. -- the fight fiercely contested. -- the Benton's wheel disabled. -- damages to the vessels. -- the gun-boats tie up at hard times. -- burying the dead. -- the attack renewed. -- the Confederates stand to their guns. -- so-called “history.” -- Grant's brightest chapter. -- attack on Haines' Bluff. -- Captain Walke captures sharpshooters. -- Grand Gulf captured. -- Porter confers with Farragut. -- up the Red River. -- Fort Derussy partially destroyed. -- capture of Alexandria. -- General Banks takes possession -- up the Black River. -- Harrisonburg shelled. -- operations of the Mississippi squadron summarized.
The Army had already moved on the 15th of April, 1863, and that night was selected for the naval vessels to pass the batteries of Vicksburg. Orders had been given that the coal in the furnaces should be well ignited, so as to show no smoke, that low steam should be carried, that not a wheel was to turn except to keep the vessel's bow down river, and to drift past the enemy's works fifty yards apart. Most of the vessels had a coal barge lashed to them on the side away from the enemy, and the wooden gun-boat General Price, was lashed to the off side of the iron-clad Lafayette. When all was ready the signal was made to get under way and the squadron started in the following order: Benton (flag-ship) Lieutenant-Commander James A. Greer; Lafayette, Commander Henry Walke; General Price, Lieutenant-Commander Selim Woodworth; Louisville, Lieutenant-Commander E. K. Owen; Mound City, Lieutenant-Commander Byron Wilson; Pittsburg, Volunteer-Lieutenant Hoel; Carondelet. Lieutenant-Commander J. McL. Murphy, and Tuscumbia. Lieutenant-Commander J. W. Shirk. The tug Ivy was lashed to the Benton, three army transports were in the rear and the Tuscumbia was at the end of the line to take care of them. The Benton, passed the first battery without receiving a shot, but as she came up with the second. the railroad station on the right bank of the river was set on fire, and tar barrels were lighted all along the Vicksburg shore, illuminating the river and showing every object as plainly as if it was daylight. Then the enemy opened his batteries all along the line, and the sharpshooters in rifle-pits along the levee commenced operations at the same instant. The fire was returned with spirit by the vessels as they drifted on. and the sound of falling buildings as the shells burst within them attested the efficiency of the gun-boats' fire. The vessels had drifted perhaps a mile when a shell exploded in the cotton barricades of the transport Henry Clay, and almost immediately the vessel was in a blaze; another shell soon after bursting in her hull, the transport went to pieces and
