A correspondent of the Mobile (Ala.) Register and Advertiser, writing from Vicksburg, Miss., under date of July 16th, in an account of the doings of the ram Arkansas, after announcing her arrival in front of Vicksburg, says:
‘ In about half an hour a rascally gunboat crept up within range, and the first thing the crowd on board and lining the shore knew of it was the whiz of a rifle shell in most unpleasant proximity, followed instantly by others and a regular shower of shells from the remaining mortar boats. Then oh then, you should have seen the gallant Southrons skedaddle! For my own part, I suddenly discovered I had pressing business elsewhere, and a shell just then falling and exploding in an old frame building a few yards distant, and sending the whole concern high in the air, as though a small whirlwind had got into a lumber yard, my business became urgent.
Thus rested matters until late in the afternoon, the enemy having gradually slackened fire — when a furious bombardment commenced on the lower batteries, and was maintained without intermission until dusk, at which time a movement in the upper squadron was apparent, and presently a number of vessels were dimly seen turning the point above. Just then fast and various grew the bombardment from below, and our upper batteries and the moving enemy became engaged. The ships, some eight or ten in number, moved slowly down stream, all the while throwing shot and shell by broadsides at our batteries, into the town and at the Arkansas, which returned the salutation most heartily. You may conceive the din when I assure you that an entire brigade of our infantry, a few hundred yards distant from my position, were pouring volleys into the enemy's rigging I had no idea any musketry had been fired until the affair was over. For near an hour and a half the roar was deafening and incessant; yet, strange to relate, the cheering and contending hosts could at times be distinctly heard. During the height of the engagement a conflagration broke out in the town, and several houses were destroyed, which added to the grandeur of the scene.
As the vessels were passing our lower batteries I again sallied forth, being anxious to learn the fate of the Arkansas. I reached her just after she had ceased firing, and found she had changed her position a few hundred feet, having gotten under way to tight to greater advantage, but found it impossible to generate sufficient steam. Boarding her, I joyfully discovered her to be yet comparatively unhurt; but a solid H-inch shot had penetrated her side and killed the head pilot and another, whilst the splinters from the timbers had slightly wounded several more, including a lieutenant and an engineer. Captain Brown assured me that with the exception of this unlucky shot, all the others rattled against his sides like hailstorms. On his part, he brought five guns to bear on the enemy, and feels confident to have struck them all but two; for, said he, "I heard my shot crashing through their timbers above the roar of the guns," By the way, the sound a heavy shot makes in going through a ship or a house is prodigious and exceedingly unpleasant.
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