The night we cast off our lines and floated down the Mississippi on our eventful expedition was as lovely a night as I have ever seen in any part of the world. The sky was without a cloud; the air was deliciously soft, and the heavens were so bright that we could read the newspapers without the slightest difficulty. There were thirty-five of us in all, including some twenty enlisted men, who had volunteered to go along in order to resist the enemy, if our vessels should be disabled and boarded. Never was any expedition worse prepared. The two barges were laden with barrels of pork and boxes of army bread, and on the top were bales of hay. The hay, which was extremely dry, was scattered all over, so that a spark—not to speak of a bursting shell—might ignite it in a moment, and so destroy our vessels inevitably. In addition to this, we had not a bucket on board, in the likely event of fire; nor had we a single small boat to get away with, should the flames master us. Still, all being volunteers, none of us were obliged to go unless we wished, and, as we said, the greater the danger, the greater the sensation, and the more we should enjoy its memory, provided we were fortunate enough to escape. It is due to the prudence of Captain ——, who fitted out the expedition in such an admirably reckless manner, to say that he did not intend to accompany us.
We had about five miles to run before reaching the batteries. There is a sharp bend in the river just above Vicksburg, caused by a tongue of land or peninsula on the Louisiana side. This peninsula had been covered with trees; but the rebels had cut them down, so that their guns had full sweep across it, and could command any and all vessels descending the stream when they were nearly three miles above the batteries. We floated at first, knowing that the puff of steam from the tug could be heard at a long distance in the midnight silence, and would necessarily attract the attention of the enemy. The first twenty minutes were passed quite pleasantly. We opened a bottle of wine, and drank to the success of our adventure, lighted our cigars, and chatted upon the possibilities of the situation. Thinking disaster might befall us, we tore up the few private letters we had in our pockets, and indulged in all kinds of jests respecting the potentiality of the result.
UNDER FIRE AT VICKSBURG.
We had scarcely reached the bend of the Mississippi, when we saw a flash from the hostile guns, heard the boom, and felt that the outer barge was struck. We thought that to be hit by the first shot was pretty good to begin with. Knowing, too, that we should be nearly three quarters of an hour under fire,—most of the time immediately in front of the batteries,—our prospects of a happy issue to our expedition were far from brilliant. There being no further use in attempting to steal on the foe, the engineer of the tug set the engine in motion. Our progress, hampered by the huge barges, was necessarily slow—very little greater than that of the current.
The initial gun was followed by a hundred others. For several miles along the Mississippi shore, the batteries belched forth shot and shell, until the bank of the river seemed all ablaze. Those who went for excitement certainly found it. The roar of the guns—some of the largest calibre—was almost deafening. The round shot howled over our heads; the shells shrieked fiercely and then exploded, many of them just above the barges. We could hear fragments falling about us, and it appeared as if the shot, so thick did they come, sometimes grazed our hair and our whiskers. As a pyrotechnic exhibition, it was splendid, and we should have enjoyed it greatly, had we not heard in the brief intervals of the cannonading the groans of the poor fellows who had been struck.
Such a situation is certainly a strong test of courage, which frequently quails in an entire state of placidity, when it would not blanch before the deadliest peril, could it be actively met. All we had to do—all, indeed, we could do—was to stand and take it. There was no possibility of shrinking or retreating, even had we been so inclined. We were precisely in the position of a regiment under a galling fire, and ordered not to move or return a single shot. Boom, bang, boom! whiz, yship, hursh! roar, crack, shriek!
EXCELLENT GUNNERY PRACTICE.
Such were the indescribable sounds that greeted and surrounded us for fully forty minutes, and you may be sure the minutes were not short.
The whole night was radiant, with flashing artillery and bursting shells. The brightness of the moon and stars was quite eclipsed; they looked dim and yellow through the blaze and smoke of war. The barges were struck again and again, and so were the bales of hay; but still the boats were not materially injured, and we could plainly hear the puff, puff, puff, of the tug, doing its best to carry along the great burden to which it was tied.