But As We Turned
On The River, The Tug-Boat Which Had Brought Us Down Was Unable To
Hold Us Up Against The Force Of The Stream.
A second tug-boat was
at hand; and, with one on each side, we were just able in half
An
hour to recover the hundred yards which we had lost down the river.
The pressure against the stream was so great, owing partly to the
weight of the raft and partly to the fact that its flat head buried
itself in the water, that it was almost immovable against the
stream, although the mortar was not yet on it.
It soon became manifest that no trial could be made on that day, and
so we were obliged to leave Cairo without having witnessed the
firing of the great gun. My belief is that very little evil to the
enemy will result from those mortar-boats, and that they cannot be
used with much effect. Since that time they have been used on the
Mississippi, but as yet we do not know with what results. Island
No. 10 has been taken; but I do not know that the mortar-boats
contributed much to that success. But the enormous cost of moving
them against the stream of the river is in itself a barrier to their
use. When we saw them - and then they were quite new - many of the
rivets were already gone. The small boats had been stolen from some
of them, and the ropes and oars from others.
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