Part 23 (1/2)

3,3 Little Rebel.

4,4 General Price.

5,5 Sumter.

6,6 General Lovell.

7,7 General Thompson.

8,8 General Bragg.

9,9 General Van Dorn.

Q Queen City.

M Monarch.]

The accompanying diagram will show you the position of both fleets at the beginning and at the close of the engagement.

Slowly and steadily they came into line. The Little Rebel moved through the fleet, and Commodore Montgomery issued his orders to each captain in person.

The Benton and St. Louis dropped down towards the city, to protect the tug. A signal brought us back, and the boats moved up-stream again, to the original position.

There was another signal from the flag-s.h.i.+p, and then on board all the boats there was a shrill whistle. It was the boatswain piping all hands to quarters. The drummer beat his roll, and the marines seized their muskets. The sailors threw open the ports, ran out the guns, brought up shot and sh.e.l.ls, stowed away furniture, took down rammers and sponges, seized their handspikes, stripped off their coats, rolled up their sleeves, loaded the cannon, and stood by their pieces. Cutla.s.ses and boarding-pikes were distributed. Last words were said. They waited for orders.

”Let the men have their breakfasts,” was the order from the flag-s.h.i.+p.

Commodore Davis believed in fighting on full stomachs. Hot coffee, bread, and beef were carried round to the men.

The Rebel fleet watched us awhile. The crowd upon the sh.o.r.e increased.

Perhaps they thought the Yankees did not dare to fight. At length the Rebel fleet began to move up-stream.

”Round to; head down-stream; keep in line with the flag-s.h.i.+p,” was the order which we on board the Jessie Benton carried to each boat of the line. We returned, and took our position between the Benton and Carondelet.

I stood on the top of the tug, beside the pilot-house. Stand with me there, and behold the scene. The sun is an hour high, and its bright rays lie in a broad line of silver light upon the eddying stream. You look down the river to the city, and behold the housetops, the windows, the levee, crowded with men, women, and children. The flag of the Confederacy floats defiantly. The Rebel fleet is moving slowly towards us. A dense cloud of smoke rolls up from the chimneys of the steamers, and floats over the city.

There is a flash, a puff from the Little Rebel, a sound of something unseen in the air, and a column of water is thrown up a mile behind us.

A second shot, from the Beauregard, falls beside the Benton. A third, from the Price, aimed at the Carondelet, misses by a foot or two, and dashes up the water between the Jessie Benton and the flag-s.h.i.+p. It is a sixty-four-pounder. If it had struck us, our boat would have been splintered to kindlings in an instant.

Commodore Montgomery sees that the boats of the Federal fleet have their iron-plated bows up-stream. He comes up rapidly, to crush them at the stern, where there are no iron plates. A signal goes up from the Benton, and the broadsides begin to turn towards the enemy. The crowd upon the levee think that the Federal boats are retreating, and hurrah for Commodore Montgomery.

There has been profound silence on board the Union gunboats. The men are waiting for the word. It comes.

”Open fire, and take close quarters.”

The Cairo begins. A ten-inch shot screams through the air, and skips along the water towards the Little Rebel. Another, from the St. Louis. A third, from the Louisville. Another, from the Carondelet, and lastly, from the Benton. The gunners crouch beside their guns, to track the shot. Some are too high, some too low. There is an answering roar from all the Rebel boats. The air is full of indescribable noises. The water boils and bubbles around us. It is tossed up in columns and jets. There are sudden flashes overhead, explosions, and sulphurous clouds, and whirring of ragged pieces of iron. The uproar increases. The cannonade reverberates from the high bluff behind the city to the dark-green forest upon the Arkansas sh.o.r.e, and echoes from bend to bend.

The s.p.a.ce between the fleets is gradually lessening. The Yankees are not retreating, but advancing. A shot strikes the Little Rebel. One tears through the General Price. Another through the General Bragg. Commodore Montgomery is above the city, and begins to fall back. He is not ready to come to close quarters. Fifteen minutes pa.s.s by, but it seems not more than two. How fast one lives at such a time! All of your senses are quickened. You see everything, hear everything. The blood rushes through your veins. Your pulse is quickened. You long to get at the enemy,--to sweep over the intervening s.p.a.ce, lay your boat alongside, pour in a broadside, and knock them to pieces in a twinkling! You care nothing for the screaming of the shot, the bursting of the sh.e.l.ls. You have got over all that. You have but one thought,--_to tear down that hateful flaunting flag, to smite the enemies of your country into the dust_!

While this cannonade was going on, I noticed the two rams casting loose from the sh.o.r.e. I heard the tinkle of the engineer's bell for more fire and a full head of steam. The sharpshooters took their places. The Queen came out from the shelter of the great cottonwoods, crossed the river, and pa.s.sed down between the Benton and Carondelet. Colonel Ellet stood beside the pilot, and waved his hand to us on board the Jessie Benton.

The Monarch was a little later, and, instead of following in the wake of the Queen, pa.s.sed between the Cairo and the St. Louis.

See the Queen! Her great wheels whirl up clouds of spray, and leave a foaming path. She carries a silver train sparkling in the morning light.

She ploughs a furrow, which rolls the width of the river. Our boat dances like a feather on the waves. She gains the intervening s.p.a.ce between the fleets. Never moved a Queen so determinedly, never one more fleet,--almost leaping from the water. The Stars and Stripes stream to the breeze beneath the black banner unfolding, expanding, and trailing far away from her smoke-stacks. There is a surging, hissing, and smothered screaming of the pent-up steam in her boilers, as if they had put on all energy for the moment. They had;--flesh, blood, bones, iron, bra.s.s, steel,--animate and inanimate,--were nerved up for the trial of the hour!

Officers and men behold her in astonishment and admiration. For a moment there is silence. The men stand transfixed by their guns, forgetting their duties. Then the Rebel gunners, as if moved by a common impulse, bring their guns to bear upon her. She is exposed on the right, on the left, and in front. It is a terrible cross-fire. Solid shot scream past.