. Young folk's history of the war for the union . Mortar-Boat. 204 P^A RIDGE.—ISLAhD KUMBER TEN. [1862. was simply a strong flat-boat, with a thick wooden wall builtall around it, about eight feet high, plated with iron on theoutside, and made sloping so that shot would glance oS, Eachcarried a single mortar in the middle, the ammunition for whichwas ke^it in a magazine under the floor below the water-mark,and had a tent for shelter. The mortals were precisely likethose used on land, a picture of one of which is given on page Foote kept up the bombardment for many days,without do
. Young folk's history of the war for the union . Mortar-Boat. 204 P^A RIDGE.—ISLAhD KUMBER TEN. [1862. was simply a strong flat-boat, with a thick wooden wall builtall around it, about eight feet high, plated with iron on theoutside, and made sloping so that shot would glance oS, Eachcarried a single mortar in the middle, the ammunition for whichwas ke^it in a magazine under the floor below the water-mark,and had a tent for shelter. The mortals were precisely likethose used on land, a picture of one of which is given on page Foote kept up the bombardment for many days,without doing much damage to the Confederate works. Butwhile he kept the enemy busy, General Pope had been engagedin digging a canal across the swampy jieninsula formed by thebend of the river, so that vessels could go through to New. I Island >;;i;i!, Ten. Madrid without having to pass Island Number Ten. This M^asa most wonderful feat, for the peninsula was about twelve milesacross, more than half the distance being covered with a growthof heavy trees, which had to be sawed off in many places fourfeet under water. A large number of men were employed,and after nineteen days of hard labor a channel deep enoughfor light-draught vessels was cut through. In the night of April 1 a few men from the gunboats, aided jby some of Popes soldiers, landed on the Kentucky shore, op- Iposite Island Number Ten, took one of the batteries by sur-prise and spiked its six guns—that is, drove files into theirtouch-holes, so that they could not be used any more. A few Inights afterward the Carondelet ran safely by all the batteries at midnight, during a heavy thunder-storm. She might have 1862.] THE LITTLE GLBRALTAR 205 slipped by unseen, but the soot in her smoke-stucks caught firejust before the batteries were reached, and th
Size: 1882px × 1328px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1881
