at New Orleans, and had sent word that he would meet Foote coming down the Mississippi; yet it is also true that up to this point Foote (whether he erred or not in judgment) did not think that the time had come to safely try the last experiment, to make the grand throw; and it is also true that what he there did, and at the time he did it, won the long-contested prize, and it dropped like ripened fruit into his waiting hand. It is not impossible that the desired end might more speedily have been attained by the same means that was finally employed-but we defer the account of the completion of this hard contest to another chapter.

CHAPTER XXII.

CAPTURE OF ISLAND NUMBER TEN.

FOOTE was now waiting for a favorable moment, or, in other words, for a dark night, to carry out the plan, of the necessity of which he had become fully convinced, and which was also earnestly urged by General Pope, to send a gun-boat down past the batteries. He had lessened the difficulties of the feat by silencing the rebels' upper and floating batteries; and he had issued the following general order to Commander Walke, of the Carondelet:

"U. S. FLAG-STEAMER 'BENTON,' OFF ISLAND NO. TEN,

March 30, 1862.

SIR,-You will avail yourself of the first fog or rainy night, and drift your steamer down past the batteries on the Tennessee shore and Island No. Ten until you reach New Madrid.

"I assign you this service, as it is vitally important to the capture of this place that a gun-boat should soon be at New Madrid for the purpose of covering General Pope's army while he crosses at that point to the opposite shore, or to the Tennessee side of the river, that he may move his army up to Island No. Ten, and attack the rebels in rear while we attack them in front.

"Should you succeed in reaching General Pope, you will freely confer with him, and adopt his suggestions, so far as your superior knowledge of what your boat will perform and enable you to do, for the purpose of protecting his force while crossing the river.

"You will also, if you have coal, and the current of the river will permit, steam up the river while the army moves, for the purpose of attacking their fortifications. Still, you will act cautiously here, as your own will be the only boat below.

"You will capture or destroy the rebel steam gun-boat Grampus and the transports, if possible, between this place and Island No. Ten, at such

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time as will not embarrass you in placing yourself in communication with General Pope at the earliest possible time after leaving this place.

"On this delicate and somewhat hazardous service to which I assign you, I must enjoin upon you the importance of keeping your lights secreted in the hold or put out, keeping your officers and men from speaking above a whisper when passing the forts, and then only on duty; and of using every other precaution to prevent the rebels suspecting that you are dropping below their batteries.

"If you successfully perform the duty assigned you, which you so willingly undertake, it will reflect the highest credit upon you and all belonging to your vessel; and I doubt not but that the government will fully appreciate and reward you for a service which, I trust, will enable the army to cross the river and make a successful attack in rear while we storm the batteries in front.

"Commending you and all who compose your command to the care and protection of God, who rules and directs all things, I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, A. H. FOOTE, Flag-Officer.

"Commander H. Walke, commanding Carondelet.

"P. S. Should you meet with disaster, you will, as a last resort, destroy the steam machinery; and, if impossible to escape, set fire to your gun-boat or sink her, and prevent her from falling into the hands of the rebels. A. H. F."

After comparing together many accounts, both official and private, and after personal conversation with Admiral Walke, the chief actor in the scene, we have thought that all the facts and features of this extraordinary passage of the Carondelet are so accurately and graphically given in the following narrative that we could not do better than to transfer it in extenso into our pages:

"On the morning of the 4th of April preparations were begun for executing the above order,* should the state of the weather permit. The deck was defended somewhat against plunging shot by planks stripped from the wreck of an old barge. All surplus chains were coiled over the most vulnerable parts of the boat-a device employed soon after at New Orleans on a larger scale. A very large hawser (11-inch) was wound

*The order referred to is the one which has just preceded.

around the pilot-house as high as the windows; the hammocks were stowed in the nettings; and, for greater security still, cord-wood was piled up around the boilers on the exposed side; and every other precaution that ingenuity could suggest was used to render the boat safe during her short but perilous voyage. Each changing aspect of the heavens was anxiously studied during the day, for in a bright, clear night the passage would have been nearly as dangerous as at midday; and the moon was at a stage when her light would have revealed the boat as fully, for every purpose of the rebel gunners, as the sun itself.

"Late in the afternoon there was every prospect of a clear, moonlight night, and it was determined to wait until the moon was down, and then to make the attempt, whatever the prospect might be, because, after such extensive preparations had been made, the moral effect of abandoning the scheme would be nearly equal to a failure. At sundown, however, there were signs of an approaching change in the weather. A haze began to spread itself over the more distant scene, and to creep along the . river. The wind shifted, and, as evening drew on, dark clouds, indicating a thunder-storm, began to lift themselves above the northwestern horizon. The precautions adopted were very minute, and the orders for observing them were positive and strict. No lights were to be allowed where they could be visible; the guns were all run in, and the ports were closed. The sailors were all heavily armed; pistols, cutlasses, muskets, and boarding-pikes were within reach on all sides or in hand, on the supposition that, if the vessel should be partially disabled, there would be an attempt to capture her by boarding. Hand-grenades were provided, and hose was attached to the boilers for throwing scalding water over any who might attempt to board.

"It was decided to sink the boat rather than burn her, if it should be found impossible to save her, because the loss of life would probably be very great by the explosion of her magazine. At dusk, twenty sharpshooters came on board from the Forty-second Illinois Regiment, under Captain Hollenstein. At eight o'clock the gun-boat went up the river about a mile for a barge containing baled hay, which was to be lashed to the exposed side. One course of bales was laid over the stern casemates, as these would be exposed for a long distance after the batteries had been passed. The barge and the piled hay reached as high as the broadside port-holes; but as the batteries on shore were some twenty feet above water, the protection thus given was not very important.

"At ten o'clock the moon had gone down, and the sky, the earth, and