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passed through the wheel-house, emerged, dropped, and exploded in the river just at our stern.
Then a ten-inch solid shot entered our starboard bow-port, demolished a gun-carriage, killed three men and wounded four others, traversed the entire length of the boat, and sank into the river in our wake.
Then a shell came shrieking through the air, striking fair into our forward starboard-port, killing one man, wounding two, and then passed aft, sundering our rudder-chains, and rendering the boat unmanageable.
We were compelled to drop astern and leave the scene of action, and, so far as we were concerned, the battle was over.
One of their shells entered and exploded directly in the pilot-house of the St. Louis, killing the pilot, and wounding Flag-Officer Foote severely in the leg. Two of the shots entered the Pittsburg below the guards, causing her to leak badly, and it is probable she will sink before morning.
Another entered the Carondelet, killing four men and wounding eight others.
Commodore Foote tells me that he has commanded at the taking of six forts, and has been in several naval engagements, but he never was under so severe a fire before.
Fifty-seven shots struck his vessel, his upper works were riddled, and his lower decks strewed with the dead and wounded.1
Hoppin says (page 223):
The Louisville was disabled by a shot, which cut away her rudder-chains, making her totally unmanageable, so that she drifted with the current out of action.
Very soon the St. Louis was disabled by a shot through her pilothouse, rendering her steering impossible, so that she also floated down the river.
The other two armored vessels were also terribly struck, and a rifled cannon on the Carondelet burst, so that these two could no longer sustain the action; and, after fighting for more than an hour, the little fleet was forced to withdraw. ... Foote, it is said, wept like a child when the order to withdraw was given.
The St. Louis was struck fifty-nine times, the Louisville thirty-six times, the Carondelet twenty-six, the Pittsburg twenty, and four vessels receiving no less than 141 wounds.
The fleet, gathering itself together, and rendering mutual help to its disabled members, proceeded to Cairo to repair damages, intending to return immediately with a stronger naval force to continue the siege.
We learn also, from
Hoppin's narrative, that
Foote was twice wounded, once in the arm and once in the leg; and, from
Foote's report, that his loss was fifty-four killed and wounded. The fight lasted an hour and ten minutes.
Foote believed he could have taken the fort in fifteen minutes more; but he was mistaken-further contest would have insured the destruction of his fleet.
Gilmer's report tells us:
Our batteries were uninjured, and not a man in them killed.
The repulse of the gunboats closed the operations of the day, except a few scattering shots along the land-defenses.
