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| The well-planted batteries Confederate siege-gun Mounted in the River fortifications at Port Hudson. Twenty of these great pieces thundered at Farragut's fleet till long after midnight on March 14, 1863. although the objective was not so important to the Federals as in the famous fight at New Orleans, the engagement at Port Hudson was scarcely less brilliant, and its outcome was more costly to the navy, which lost the valuable steam corvette Mississippi, mounting nineteen guns. The fleet lost 113 men in action. Farragut had the superiority in number and weight of metal, but this was more than offset by the advantageous position of the Confederates. A successful shot from the ship could do little more than tear up the earth in the fortifications on the bluff, while every shot from the shore that told might mean the piercing of a boiler or the disabling of a rudder, rendering a ship helpless. To add to the disadvantages, Farragut's intention was discovered at the outset. A River steamer approached with flaring lights and tooting whistles and ran through the fleet, up to the Hartford, merely bringing the word that Banks was within five miles of Port Hudson. Thus the fleet was discovered and the Confederates, illuminating the River with piles of blazing pine-knots, trained their guns with deadly precision on the advancing vessels. |
