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[101] The city having been completely occupied, and the National authority restablished, Gen. Butler caused Mumford to be arrested, tried, and, he being convicted and sentenced to death by hanging, that sentence was duly executed,1 in the face of all New Orleans anxiously looking on, and in defiance of the confident prediction of the Rebels that Butler would not dare to do it. They did not dare; he did. And his hold on the city was firmer and safer from that moment.

About the same time,2 he pardoned and set at liberty six humbler Rebels, who, having been captured and paroled at the surrender of the forts, had been induced secretly to reenlist in the Rebel service, conspiring to force or evade our pickets and hasten to join Beauregard's army in Mississippi. Their guilt was undoubted; their crime one that military law sternly punishes with death.

The occupation of New Orleans, its defenses and approaches, having been completed and assured, Commander Porter, with a part of our fleet, returned to Ship Island; a part was stationed near New Orleans to assist in its defense; and the residue, under Capt. Craven, steamed up the river to extend our sway in that direction. Baton Rouge, the State capital, was captured without resistance.3 The Mayor refusing to surrender, Commander Palmer, of the Iroquois, landed and took possession of the U. S. Arsenal. Capt. Farragut arrived soon afterward, and took measures to render our possession permanent. Natchez was in like manner given up to the Iroquois;4 but, as the Confederates had not occupied it as a military post, it was left unmolested.

The advance of our squadron, under Commander S. P. Lee, encountered no opposition until it reached Vicksburg,5 whence a summons to surrender was answered with defiance. Our force was inadequate to attack until the arrival, a few days later, of Capt. Farragut, accompanied by 4,000 soldiers under Gen. Thomas Williams. Vicksburg is naturally so strong, and was so firmly held, that it was not until after still further reenforcements had come up, including Commander Porter's mortar fleet, that a bombardment was opened.6 Not much impression was made on the elevated and formidable Rebel batteries by our fire; but, at 3 A. M. of the 28th, Capt. Farragut, in the Hartford, with six more of his vessels, passed Vicksburg triumphantly, with a total loss of 15 killed and 30 wounded, and exchanged cheers above with Capt. Davis's fleet of mortar and gun-boats, which had fought their way down from Cairo. Still, our forces were not strong enough for assault, and the bombardment remained ineffective; while Gen. Williams, who, on his way up from Baton Rouge, had been fired on from Grand Gulf, and had burned that village in retaliation, was losing men daily by sickness, which ultimately reduced his effective force by more than half. He had under-taken to cut a canal, or water-course, across the peninsula opposite Vicks-burg, and had gathered some 1,200 negroes from the adjacent plantations to assist in the work; but it did not succeed. The soil to be excavated

1 June 7.

2 May 31.

3 May 7.

4 May 12.

5 May 18.

6 Night of June 26.

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