...esting him to attend to it, and afterwards called upon Commodore Whittle and entreated him to order the steamer to take the desired position below the forts. This he declined to do, but telegraphed Captain Mitchell , telling him to strain a point to place the vessel there, if, in his judgment, it was advisable. No change, however, was made, and in the night of the twenty-third March, I went down myself in a s...