Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 2

[333] delivering fire as they fell in, and one after another the enemy's pieces were silenced, until only one heavy gun in the southern angle replied. No damage was inflicted on the fleet. The firing continued until after dark, when the wooden ships dropped out to their anchorage, but the iron-clads maintained their position during the night, now and then firing a shell. The enemy had long ceased to respond, and kept within his bomb-proofs. That night Porter sent a dispatch to the government, reporting the day's proceedings. ‘The firing of the fleet,’ he said, ‘will commence as soon as we get breakfast, and be kept up as long as the ordnance department provides us with shells and guns.’

As soon as the first troops were landed, Terry threw out his pickets, and the presence of Hoke's division was ascertained. The first object, of course, was to establish a national line across the peninsula; but the ground was marshy and ill adapted for earthworks, cut up with ponds and salt-water bogs, and the afternoon was consumed in reconnoitring. Terry's men, however, evaded the rebel cavalry, and, threading their way through the swampy undergrowth, by nine o'clock they had reached the river, and at two A. M. a line was selected only two miles from the fort. Tools were brought rapidly up, and entrenching began. All night the work went on, and by eight o'clock on the morning of the 14th, a good breastwork extended from the river to the sea, partially covered with abatis, and already in a defensible condition. The foothold on the peninsula was secure. Early on this day the landing of the artillery was begun, and by sunset all the light guns were ashore. Most of them were placed on the river-side, where,