Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 2.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[210] works with projectiles, the task of the first was to force the passes. Renewing the bold manoeuvre which had proved so successful at New Orleans, Farragut calculated that his fire would drive for a moment the enemy's gunners from their pieces, and that he could avail himself of this to pass their batteries with his best ships. In this effort his success was complete. The first cannon-shots were heard on the 28th of June before three o'clock in the morning. Porter's mortars, the range of which had been studied for the last two days, were placed on a broadside line within two thousand five hundred metres of the Confederate works, and kept up the fire with the greatest precision; the gun-boats of the second division engaged in the battle at shorter range. The first division was already in motion, and the Iroquois, which led the van, had drawn near the enemy's batteries before being discovered by them.

The smoke of battle soon darkened the first glimmer of daylight. While the Iroquoiswas passing safe and sound under the fire of the batteries, which rose in tiers from the margin of the water to the summit of the bluffs, Farragut, on board the Hartford, had slackened his speed to rally the rest of his division and silence the enemy's artillery. In passing, the Federal ships threw shrapnel shot into the batteries at the water's edge, which drove the enemy's cannoneers from their posts. But they soon reappeared, and resumed the service of their guns; they followed with their shot the Union fleet, as far as that portion of the river which runs beyond the tongue of land, the abrupt turning of which compelled them to pass a second time within range of their guns. At six o'clock in the morning, the Iroquois, the Oneida, the Richmond, the Scioto, the Winona, the Wissahickon and the Hartford came to anchor above Vicksburg. The Brooklyn, which was to have followed the flag-ship, detained at first by some impediments in the river, was further delayed, and dropped to the rear after a useless cannonade; it had been followed by the Katahdin and the Kennebeck. The Federal losses did not amount to more than thirty or forty killed and wounded; none of the vessels had been seriously damaged.

Above Vicksburg, Farragut found Ellet with his naval divisions. As he wrote to the Secretary of the Navy, he had again