We were not to meet Indians nor Chinese; our battle was to be set against men whom we respected as foes, and who were quite as fertile in plans for defense as we possibly could be in our scheme of attack.
But during the next month, although we talked these matters over in the wardroom in the evenings, our days were too busily occupied for such thoughts. The first difficulty that confronted us was to get our fleet over the bar that jealously guards the delta of the Mississippi, and a full month of really hard work was required to accomplish this first step.
At last, however, on the 1st of April, all the vessels of the fleet were gathered something more than two miles below Fort Jackson, the bomb schooners moored close in to the right bank of the river.
The coast-survey officers at once went to work to establish marks and to construct a map for the purpose of getting the bomb vessels in proper position and in correct range for their attack upon the forts, and on the 18th of April the regular bombardment opened and was continued, almost without intermission, until our passage of the forts.
This bomb fire at first, to us of the fleet, was a matter of constant interest, and the topmast heads—we had sent down our topgallant and royal masts in stripping for the fight—were thronged with anxious spectators. But as no perceptible effect was produced on the forts by the bombardment, we soon lost our curiosity and came to the conclusion that after all this was simply to be the overture, but the real work would remain for us to accomplish.
Meanwhile the enemy were by no means inactive, and they soon resorted to one of their cherished plans of offense, from which they evidently hoped great things.
One night three enormous fire-rafts appeared bearing down upon us, blazing high with burning pitch and turpentine and sending out dense clouds of smoke. But for these we were prepared with an organized naval fire brigade, and before they came dangerously near our ships a fleet of boats was sent out with grapnels, which they fastened to the rafts and then quickly towed them into the middle of the river, where they drifted harmlessly past the ships, affording us an illumination on a grand scale.
The night of April 20 it was determined to make an attempt to cut the chain cable in preparation for our ascent of the river. This chain was stretched across the river from a point abreast of Fort Jackson to the opposite side of the river, where a small land battery had been constructed to cover it. The cable was supported by passing over a line of seven hulks anchored in the river.
Our plan was to blow up one of these hulks by a petard, to be exploded by an electric wire, and a “petard-man,” one Kroehl, was on board the flagship to work the apparatus.
This delicate and dangerous duty was placed in charge of Captain Bell, with the gunboats Pinola and Itasca, supported by the Kennebec, Winona, and Iroquois.