It
had been done. A single half-submerged battery exposed to the
concentrated fire of a powerful fleet had held them at bay and compelled
them to withdraw at nightfall. Rucker fired the last shot as twilight
gathered over the yellow waters. His battery had mounted five guns at
sunrise. Three of them were dismantled. Two of them still spoke defiance
from their mud-soaked beds.
On April the sixth, the fleet reenforced succeeded in slipping past the
batteries in a heavy fog. A landing was effected above and below the
island in large force, and its surrender was a military necessity.
Foote and Pope captured MacKall, the commander, two brigadier generals,
six colonels, a stand of ten thousand arms, two thousand soldiers,
seventy pieces of siege artillery, thirty pieces of field artillery,
fifty-six thousand solid shot, six transports and a floating battery of
sixteen guns.
A cry of anguish came from the heart of the Confederate President. The
loss of men was insignificant--the loss of this enormous store of heavy
guns and ammunition with no factory as yet capable of manufacturing them
was irreparable.
But the cup of his misery was not yet full. The greatest fleet the
United States Navy had gathered, was circling the mouth of the
Mississippi with its guns pointing toward New Orleans.
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