[237] enemy's gunboats had succeeded in passing the Island in a heavy fog; he had effected a landing above and below the Island in large force; and the surrender of the position had become a military necessity. But never was an evacuation so wretchedly managed. None of the means of retreat prepared by Gen. McCown were used; everything was abandoned; six hundred men were left to their fate on the Island; and the force transferred to the mainland was surrendered, except the few stragglers who escaped through the cane-brakes. The enemy captured Mackall himself, two brigadier-generals, six colonels, several thousand stand of arms, two thousand rank and file, seventy pieces of siege artillery, thirty pieces of field artillery, fifty-six thousand solid shot, six steam transports, two gunboats, and one floating battery carrying sixteen heavy guns. The Southern people had expected a critical engagement at Island No.10, but its capture was neatly accomplished without it; and, in the loss of men, cannon, ammunition, and supplies, the event was doubly deplorable to them, and afforded to the North such visible fruits of victory as had seldom been the result of a single enterprise. The credit of the success was claimed for the naval force under the command of Commodore Foote. The Federal Secretary of the Navy had reason to declare that “the triumph was not the less appreciated because it was protracted, and finally bloodless.” The Confederates had been compelled to abandon what had been fondly entitled “the Little Gibraltar” of the Mississippi, and had experienced a loss in heavy artillery Which was nigh irreparable. Meanwhile, Gen. Beauregard was preparing to strike a decisive blow on the mainland, and the movements of the enemy on the Tennessee River were preparing the situation for one of the grandest battles that had yet been fought in any quarter of the war.
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[237] enemy's gunboats had succeeded in passing the Island in a heavy fog; he had effected a landing above and below the Island in large force; and the surrender of the position had become a military necessity. But never was an evacuation so wretchedly managed. None of the means of retreat prepared by Gen. McCown were used; everything was abandoned; six hundred men were left to their fate on the Island; and the force transferred to the mainland was surrendered, except the few stragglers who escaped through the cane-brakes. The enemy captured Mackall himself, two brigadier-generals, six colonels, several thousand stand of arms, two thousand rank and file, seventy pieces of siege artillery, thirty pieces of field artillery, fifty-six thousand solid shot, six steam transports, two gunboats, and one floating battery carrying sixteen heavy guns. The Southern people had expected a critical engagement at Island No.10, but its capture was neatly accomplished without it; and, in the loss of men, cannon, ammunition, and supplies, the event was doubly deplorable to them, and afforded to the North such visible fruits of victory as had seldom been the result of a single enterprise. The credit of the success was claimed for the naval force under the command of Commodore Foote. The Federal Secretary of the Navy had reason to declare that “the triumph was not the less appreciated because it was protracted, and finally bloodless.” The Confederates had been compelled to abandon what had been fondly entitled “the Little Gibraltar” of the Mississippi, and had experienced a loss in heavy artillery Which was nigh irreparable. Meanwhile, Gen. Beauregard was preparing to strike a decisive blow on the mainland, and the movements of the enemy on the Tennessee River were preparing the situation for one of the grandest battles that had yet been fought in any quarter of the war.
1866.
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