our vessels; and my heart jumped up into my mouth when I found I
could not see a single one. I thought they must all have been
sunk by the forts." But not a ship had gone down. The three big
ones of the starboard column--Pensacola, Mississippi, and
Oneida--closed with the fort (so that the gunners on both sides
exchanged jeers of defiance) and kept up a furious fire till the
lighter craft astern slipped past safely and joined the Cayuga
above.

Meanwhile the Cayuga had been attacked by a mob of Mississippi
steamers, six of which belonged to the original fourteen blessed
with their precious independence by Secretary Benjamin, "backed
by the whole Missouri Delegation." So when the rest of the
Federal light craft came up, "all sorts of things happened" in a
general free fight. There was no lack of Confederate courage; but
an utter absence of concerted action and of the simplest kind of
naval skill, except on the part of the two vessels commanded by
ex-officers of the United States Navy. The Federal light craft
cut their way through their unorganized opponents as easily as a
battalion of regulars could cut through a mob throwing stones.
But the only two Confederate naval officers got clear of the
scrimmage and did all that skill could do with their makeshift
little craft against the Federal fleet. Kennon singled out the
Varuna (the only one of Farragut's vessels that was not a real
man-of-war), raked her stern with the two guns of his own much
inferior vessel, the Governor Moore, and rammed her into a
sinking condition. Warley flew at bigger game with his little
ram, the Manassas, trying three of the large men-of-war, one
after another, as they came upstream. The Pensacola eluded him by
a knowing turn of her helm that roused his warmest admiration.