Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 2.

[591] McClernand's column reached a point only two miles from Carthage, it was found that breaches in the Bayou Vidal had caused that town and its neighborhood to be made an island, by the submerging of the country around it. The army was compelled to make a circuitous march of twelve miles further, around Bayou Vidal, and so the work was accomplished after overcoming great difficulties.

In the mean time measures had been in preparation for another and more daring experiment. It was no less than the passage of Porter's fleet, with transports and barges, by the heavy batteries at Vicksburg. The object was to afford means for carrying the troops across the Mississippi from Carthage, and to have gun-boats to cover the movement and the landing. Porter was ready for the attempt on the 16th of April. The gun-boats selected for the purpose were the Benton, Captain Green; Lafayette, Captain Walke; Price, Captain Woodworth; Louisville, Commander Owen; Carondelet, Lieutenant Murphy; Pittsburg, Lieutenant Hoel; Tuscumbia, Lieutenant Shirk; and Mound City, Lieutenant Wilson. All of these were iron-clad excepting the Price. They were laden with supplies for the army below, and were well fortified against missiles from the batteries by various overlayings, such as iron chains, timbers, and bales of cotton and hay. The transports chosen for the ordeal were the Forest Queen, Henry Clay, and Silver Wave. These, too, were laden with supplies for the army, with their machinery protected by baled hay and cotton. It was arranged for the iron-clads to pass down after dark in single file, a few hundred yards apart, each engaging the batteries as it passed, so that the transports might go by under cover of the smoke.

At dark of the 16th

April. 1863.

every thing was ready for the perilous enterprise. Silently the armored vessels moved down the river, the Benton leading, followed by the Lafayette, with the gun-boat Price and a coal-barge in tow, and the other vessels in the prescribed order. All was silent and dark at Vicksburg, until, at nearly eleven o'clock, the ten vessels were abreast the city and its defenses, when suddenly the heights seemed all ablaze with lightning and the air fearfully resonant with thunder, as the batteries opened on the fleet. Their fire was returned with spirit, and under cover of the curtain of smoke the transports hastened down the river. The Silver Wave passed unhurt; the Forest Queen was so badly wounded that she had to be towed, and the Henry Clay was set on fire, and, being deserted by her people, went flaming and roaring down the river until she was burned to the water's edge and sunk. Of all the men who passed down with the fleet only one was killed and two were wounded. They were on the Benton. The affair was eminently successful, and Grant at once ordered six more transports,¹ similarly prepared, to run by the batteries. They did so on the night of the 22d of April, with the loss of only one of them (the Tigress,) which was struck below water-mark, and sunk on the Louisiana shore, some distance below. The others were injured, but were soon made ready for use again.

Grant now prepared for vigorous operations against Vicksburg from the line of the Big Black, on its left flank and rear Awaiting this movement, let us see what was occurring in the Department of the Gulf, under the command