118                                HISTORY OF THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT O.V.V.I.

           Next, the Jeff. Thompson was beached and fired, and her crew shelled in the same manner; and then the Sumter, and then the General Bragg - all on the Arkansas shore, nearly opposite Fort Pickering. If these boats had had full crews, how alive with running rebels the woods must have been.            The remaining rebel vessel, the Van Dorn, was hotly pursued by two of our fleetest boats, as far as the foot of President's Island, where the chase was given up. Her heels were all that saved her, and she is the only one left to tell the tale of the overwhelming disaster to the hemmed-in rebels below. No doubt she will claim that the Lincoln Armada was entirely annihilated.

           The most magnificent spectacle of the day was the explosion of the Jeff. Thompson. Shortly after she was beached, she was discovered to be on fire, and continued to burn fiercely for more than an hour, when her magazine ignited, blowing all that remained of the ill-fated craft into ten thousand atoms. A large number of shells were on board, and many of these were thrown high into the air, where they burst with a sound like the firing of a feu de joie, scattering their fragments in every direction. The spectacle was fine, even in the broad glare of a June sun; but at night it would have rivaled in grandeur the finest pyrotechnic display.

HOW THE GENERAL BRAGG WAS SAVED.

           One of the most formidable looking boats of the rebel fleet was the General Bragg. She was originally the Marquis de Habana, a condemned slaver, and more recently the New Orleans and Galveston steamer Mexico. It was the Bragg that gave the Cincinnati her heaviest blow in the gunboat fight above Fort Pillow on the 10th of May. Soon after she was run ashore this morning she was boarded by Lieutenant Bishop and a boat's crew from the Benton, who found her boilers dry and red hot, and the cotton between her outside and inside bulwarks in flames. With the greatest difficulty they succeeded in extinguishing the fire before any serious damage had been done, and after the fight she was towed up to the city. Lieutenant Bishop, a gallant and gentlemanly young officer, should be assigned to the command of the Bragg at once.

RECAPITULATION.

           From the foregoing it will be seen that seven of the eight vessels composing the rebel flotilla were captured, sunk and destroyed, as follows: General Price, sunk in shoal water; can be raised. General Beauregard, sunk in shoal water; can be raised. General Lovell, utterly destroyed. General Thompson, burned to the water's edge. General Bragg, abandoned and captured. Little Rebel, abandoned and captured. Sumter, abandoned and captured. General Van Dorn, escaped.

THE DAMAGE TO OUR FLEET.

           Strange as it may seem, not one of our gunboats was struck once, and not a man was injured on our side, except Colonel Ellet. One shell exploded over the Benton, but did no harm. Colonel Ellet's

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