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[364] top; the ditch twenty feet wide on the ground level, and eight feet deep, with a slope of four feet base.

A “banquette” for infantry was constructed around the interior slope of the parapet; also three platforms for artillery in each bastion, and one in the curtain facing north.

On the southern face of the north-eastern bastion was a casemate eighteen by fifteen feet wide, and seven and a half feet high in the clear; the walls of which were constructed of three thicknesses of oak timbers, sixteen inches square, and so the roof with an additional revetment of iron bars. One of the shorter sides of the casemate was inserted in the parapet, and was pierced by an embrasure three feet eight inches on the inside, and four feet six inches on the outside; the entrance being in the opposite wall. This casemate contained a nine-inch columbiad.

A similar casemate was constructed in the curtain facing the river, containing an eight-inch columbiad, and still another nine-inch columbiad was mounted in the salient angle of the southeastern bastion on a “centre pintle Barbette” carriage. All of these guns commanded the river below the Fort.

Besides these, there were four three-inch Parrott guns and four six-pounder iron smooth-bore guns, mounted on field-carriages on the platform in the Fort; which also contained a well-stored magazine, several frame buildings and a well.

The entrance to the Fort, secured by a traverse, was on its north-western side, and from the salient angle of the north-western bastion extended a broken line of rifle-pits westerly for seven hundred and twenty yards, toward the bayou, intersected by wooden traverses. Along the line of rifle-pits six field-pieces were mounted, of which three were rifled.

Although the neighboring bridge across the bayou had been partially destroyed, yet the latter was passable at several points.

Below the Fort occur the rifle-pits and levee before mentioned. The levee exposed a convex line to our advance, was pierced for ten guns and lined on the inside by rifle-pits. The second line of rifle-pits, with intervals left for six guns, extended across the high land from the river to the swamp, its rear approach being obstructed by an abattis of fallen timber. And still nearer the Fort was a deep ravine, entering the river at right angles and extending inland in different arms, in front of the left of our line. In front of the centre of the line was an open field.

This strip of high land afforded the only available approach from our landing to the enemy's defences, and above the second line of rifle-pits, expanded into a dry plateau, extending to the swamp on the east and north-east, and to the bayou and river on the west and south.

This plateau, crossed by the Brownsville and Little Rock road, embraced the enemy's cantonment, his principal defences and the field of action of this day, which covered a space of about one thousand yards square.

Having placed in battery, at the request of Admiral Porter, two twenty-pounder Parrotts, as already explained, for the purpose of dismounting the gun in the lower casemate, which had seriously annoyed the gunboats on the previous evening, and all my forces being ready for action, I sent word to the Admiral, accordingly, and notified him that as soon as he had opened fire, I would advance to the attack of the enemy's works; and at twelve M. repeated the same communication.

At one o'clock P. M., the gunboats opened fire, immediately followed by the fire of artillery along the right wing of my line, and soon after by the fire of artillery along the left wing. At the expiration of thirty minutes, the infantry were to advance to the charge, and when our men were heard shouting to the gunboats, in order to avoid inflicting injury upon them, were to cease firing.

By half-past 1 o'clock Hovey's and Thayer's brigades and Giles A. Smith and T. K. Smith's brigades of General Sherman's corps, had crossed in double-quick time, a narrow space of cleared ground, in their front, and gained position in a belt of woods extending, irregularly, some three hundred yards quite to the enemy's rifle-pits; checked here, for a time, by a sudden and severe fire of musketry and artillery from cover of the enemy's works, they boldly resumed and continued their advance, supported by Blair's brigade, as a reserve, until they had approached within short musket-range of the enemy's line, and found shelter in some ravines lined by underbrush and fallen timber.

In executing this movement, General Hovey was wounded by a fragment of a shell, but continued upon the field in the gallant discharge of duty; General Thayer lost his horse, which was shot under him, and Colonel G. A. Smith and T. K. Smith led their commands in a manner challenging the commendation of their superior officers. Wood's and Barrett's batteries also performed valuable service; Hoffman's battery was advanced within two hundred yards of the enemy's intrenchments, and poured in a rapid and effective fire from three successive positions. It was now three o'clock P. M.

The artillery of General Morgan's corps having opened fire about one o'clock, as already mentioned, kept it up with telling effect for some time. Lieut. Webster's twenty-pounder Parrotts, on the river bank, completely enfiladed the two faces of the north-eastern bastion — some of their shots penetrating the embrasure of the casemate, and contributing, with others from the gunboats, to silence the gun inside of it; also the lighter gun in the northern curtain and the gun en barbette in the south-eastern bastion, which appeared to be above the elevation of the gunboats' fire. These results are not only recounted by General Osterhaus as important in themselves, but as bearing honorable testimony to the skill and efficiency of Lieutenant Webster.

Blount's three ten-pounder Parrotts continued to pour a well-directed fire into the enemy's lines until General A. J. Smith's division had passed to the front and neared the enemy's works. It


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