Watson remarks that the Admiral stood during the critical period coolly giving his orders and watching the ship slowly turn, referring occasionally to a little compass which was attached to his watch-chain, though most of the time during the engagement he was forward observing the conflict.
The Brooklyn got out of her course, ran over one of the hulks, and became entangled in the raft, where she suffered a raking fire from Fort Jackson and a pretty severe one from St. Philip. Scarcely was she disentangled and on her way up-stream when she was butted by the Manassas, which, however, had not headway enough to damage her much, and slid off in the darkness. Then she was attacked by a large steamer, but gave her the port broadside at fifty yards and set her on fire. Groping along through a black cloud of smoke from a fire-raft, she came close abreast of Fort St. Philip, into which she poured such tremendous broadsides that by the flashes the gunners were sent running to shelter, and for the time the fort was silenced. The Brooklyn then passed on, and engaged several of the enemy's gunboats at short range. One of these, the Warrior, came under the port broadside, when eleven five-second shells were instantly planted in her, all of which exploded, setting her on fire, and she was run ashore. The Brooklyn was under fire an hour and a half, and her losses were almost as severe as those of the Pensacola. The Richmond, a slow ship, brought up the rear of the second division, steaming steadily and working her guns with great regularity. Her commander attributed her small losses mainly to the complete provision of splinter-nettings.
The Sciota, carrying Fleet Captain Bell, led the third division. She steamed by the forts, firing as she passed, and above them burned two steamboats. She sent a boat's crew to receive the surrender of an armed steamer, but it was found to be fast aground. The Iroquois passed within fifty yards of Fort Jackson without injury, but was subjected to a terrible raking crossfire from Fort St. Philip, and was also raked by the McCrea with grape-shot and langrage. She drove off the McCrea with an eleven-inch shell and a stand of canister, and afterward passed through a group of rebel gunboats, giving each a broadside of shell as she went by. Her losses were heavy. The Pinola passed up in line, firing her eleven-inch pivot-gun and Parrott rifles at the flashes of Fort Jackson's guns, which at first were all that could be seen; then she emerged from the cloud of smoke, stood over toward Fort St. Philip, and in the light of the blazing rafts received the discharges of its forty guns. She was the last vessel that passed the forts, and got up in time to put one or two shells into the gunboats of the enemy.
The Kennebec got out of her course, became entangled in the rafts, and did not get free till it was broad daylight and too late to attempt a passage. The Itasca, arriving in front of Fort Jackson, received a shot in her boiler, which made it impossible for her to proceed, and she was turned down-stream. The Winona got astray among the hulks and lost so much time that when she came within range of Fort Jackson it was daylight and the fleet had passed on. The first three or four shots from the fort swept away the entire crew of her rifled gun, save one man. Still she kept on, until the lower battery of Fort St. Philip opened on her at less than point-blank range; this was too much for her, and she prudently headed down-stream and ran out of the fire.
Thus was accomplished a feat in naval warfare which had no precedent, and which is still without a parallel except the one furnished by Farragut himself, two years later, at Mobile. Starting with seventeen wooden vessels, he had passed with all but three of them against the swift current of a river but half a mile wide, between two powerful earthworks which bad long been prepared for him, his course impeded by blazing rafts, and immediately thereafter had met the enemy's fleet Of fifteen vessels, two of them ironclad, and either captured or destroyed every one of them. And all this with a loss of but one ship from his own squadron. Probably few naval men would have believed that this work could have been done so effectually, even with ironclads.
“Two things are necessary to the life of pure faith. The first is, that we behold God alone, under all the imperfect coverings that conceal him; the second is, constantly to have our souls kept in a state of dependence.”
–Fenelon