like Island No. 10 could be taken, why should not the Federals, especially it they made the attack with a proper vigor, be able to overcome any resistance the defences of New Orleans in many respects not by any means so strong would be able to make?
Exactly when or where the blow would be struck, however, it was impossible to tell. The general impression was that the attack would be made by the army under General Butler, and Low really formidable the Federal fleet was, few, if any, had any real notion. I suppose that scarcely any one imagined the ships would make an unsupported effort to pass the fortifications below the city, or that they would succeed in doing so in case the attempt was made. I knew little or nothing about the river defences, or the preparations that were being made to receive a naval attack, from my own observations, but from what I understood with regard to them, I felt tolerably assured of their efficiency, and my chief concern was about the inefficiency of the measures adopted to resist a land attack.
The Federal Fleet Passes the Fort.
The Federal fleet, however, to the surprise of every one, succeeded in overcoming the obstructions in the river, and in passing the two principal forts, after a desperate battle, and then New Orleans was at the mercy of the naval gunners, specimens of whose methods of fighting had been exhibited to me at Fort Donelson and Shiloh in such a manner as to inspire me with a wholesome dislike for the kind of missiles they were in the habit of throwing. The gunboats I had encountered at Fort Donelson and Shiloh were, however, very different affairs from the ships which fought their way past Forts Jackson and St. Philip, a broadside from a frigate like the Hartford ought almost to have routed an entire army ; and when I saw these splendid vessels appearing off the levee, I began to have a greater respect for the power of the Federal government than I had had before, and a greater appreciation of the weakness of the Confederacy.
But while I was thus compelled to appreciate more forcibly than I had done the enormous difficulties in the way of a successful termination of the contest, T was no more in a mood for surrendering than I was at the beginning. Indeed, defeat and disaster only nerved me to make greater exertions than ever, and I held in utter contempt those weak-hearted people who,
