[372] courage and gallantry on that occasion, but after that no shot was fired until the surrender, and the forts could have been held for weeks, if not months, so far as the bombardment was concerned, for in the judgment of the best engineering skill they were then as defensible as before the bombardment. I will not permit too great meed of praise on the part of anybody to take away the merit fairly due my brave soldiers, who endured so much hardship and showed as much bravery as the most gallant tar of them all, for we landed within five miles above the forts and “lively ram,” protected by only two gunboats, while the mortar boats, protected by seven gunboats, retreated twenty-five miles below the forts and out of the river.
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