Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/31

Rh guns some—54 heavy guns on 19 vessels; to oppose which Commodore Lynch had 8 small steamers, mounting in the aggregate 9 guns. This fleet was accompanied by many transports carrying the troops. Admiral Ammen, U. S. N., says: "The army transports were 46 in number, armed with 47 guns of small caliber, and carried in round numbers 12,000 troops." The admiral also mentions the gunboats Picket, Huzzar, Pioneer, Vidette, Ranger, Lancer and Chasseur as participating in the attack on Fort Bartow. These boats mounted, probably, one gun each.

Captain Parker, commanding the Beaufort, gives the following account of the naval part of the defense, in "Recollections of a Naval Officer," page 227: "It was at 9 o'clock on the morning of February 6, 1862, that the enemy's fleet made its appearance. The fleet was accompanied by a large number of transports bearing the troops of General Burnside; and it was evidently his plan to silence our batteries, particularly the one at Pork point [Fort Bartow], and land the troops under the protection of the guns of the ships. The weather at the time the enemy made his appearance was cold, gloomy and threatening; and about 10 a. m. we observed that he had anchored below the Marshes. We had got under weigh and formed line abreast, in the rear of the obstructions, and we remained under weigh all day, as the weather was too thick to see very far, and we did not know at what moment the ships might commence the attack.

"About 4 o'clock in the afternoon Captain Simms, in the Appomattox, was sent down to reconnoiter. He went very close to the enemy, but was not fired at. Flag-Officer Goldsborough says in his allusion to it: 'She met with no opposition from us, simply because we were not unwill-