Before them flowed the vast swift current of the Mississippi,
gleaming now in the sunshine, and beyond were the frowning bluffs,
crested and ringed with cannon. Grant had with him twenty thousand men
and his seven gunboats, and Bowen, eight thousand troops. But if the
affair lasted long other Southern armies would surely come.
Dick and his comrades had little to do but watch and thousands watched
with them. When the sun was fully risen the seven boats steamed out in
two groups, four farther down the river in order to attack the lower
batteries, while the other three up the stream would launch their fire
against those on the summit.
He watched the crest of the cliffs. He saw plainly through his glasses
the muzzles of cannon and men moving about the batteries. Then there
was a sudden blaze of fire and column of smoke and a shell struck in the
water near one of the gunboats. The boat replied and its comrades also
sent shot and shell toward the frowning summit. Then the batteries,
both lower and upper, replied with full vigor and all the cliffs were
wrapped in fire and smoke.
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