“On the 7th of April, Commander Thompson, of the Pittsburgh, also ran the island in safety.
“About the same time we finished our channel and ran boats through it to New Madrid.”
“But, Captain Banks,” the lads asked eagerly, “what happened to the men on Island No. 10?”
“Well, you see,” the captain explained, “they were cut off and had to surrender. Only a few of them got away in dugouts and boats through the swamps on the Tennessee shore.”
“Why didn’t they all march away into Tennessee!” Tim asked.
“Boys, they couldn’t,” Barker explained to them. “Only a little way east of Island No. 10 lies Reelfoot Lake, so they couldn’t march away in that direction. They held the island just as long as they could.”
“Time to go to bed for you lads,” the captain took the word again. “I have told you all I know about Bissell’s Channel and the fight at Island No. 10.”
The lads were soon fast asleep in their cabin, dreaming of Spook Lake, of monster battle-ships, and of their home in Vicksburg.
The men continued talking for some time, Captain Banks telling his friends about the dramatic river battle of Memphis on June 6, 1862.
“Captain, I want to ask you one thing,” Barker said. “Why can’t the Union gun-boats do any good fighting down-stream, why do they have to do all their heavy fighting headed up-stream?”