Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1863-03-06
Letter from Fort Hickman.

! The following letter is from son o.
the late DR.. Kendall, of Coventry. Il
is Of great interest to the people in thi;
county ED.
On board the Steamer Northern, 40 }
miles up arkansas rirer, at (rebei) :
Fort Hickman, Jan. 16, 1868. J
DEAR B & l.:
The date Of my last letter TO you was
the 9th inst. win now Try and write
again. From that date oul fleet moved
slowly up the Mississippi river, and last
Friday we landed two miles below this
rebel fort The gunboats Immediately
went up and commenced Smelling the
whole country around, in order to find
out just where the rebels were, land the
only object in coming up this river was
to capture the whole rebel arrangement
A slight description Of the fort, as / af-
forward saw it, will not be out of place
here. A steep bank slopes up from the
river about so feet. Numerous deep
gullys are washed out, making it hard to
climb. On the top is where they had
their negroes at work fortifying. Their
trenches were about Is feet wide and
10 deep, and the dirt elevated SO high
that believe it is fully IS feet from the
bottom of the trench to the top of the
fort 1t was an awful work to perform,
and nobody but negroes would ever have
done it. 1t would have been an impos-
sibility Tor troops to make a bayonet
charge on it. They had three tremen-
dous heavy guns. One, Dahlgren, was
mounted on the very top Of the fort
nearest the river. 1t was pivot gun on
a circular track, so it could be fred in
any direction. The gunboats completely
disabled this gun, one ball striking its
mouth and knocked off about 10 inches
of it. Another ball struck the wood
work and upset the thing, thus rendering
il unfit for use. The other two large
guns were siege guns about , feet long,
and three of them throwing 1873 pound
shells. These last two were in the bot
tom of the fort pointed towards the river,
and one covered as follows A large pile
of heavy timbers with hole left to run
GU; the gun when firing then covered
with dirt ;then more timber, and lastly
they had old railroad tracks laid close
together all over the top. These two
guns were mounted on straight track, !
and down low in the fort They would
pull them inside to load and run
them out the hole to fire. Our gunboats
played ON them with good success knock
ing off the top of the house, and gradual
y getting lower when they happened to
throw big shells directly at the guns,
which upset them also.
The fort covered some three acres,
and then they run rifle pits and lighter
Qualifications out for two miles. They
had field pieces mounted so they could
run them wherever they pleased. Their
were extensive and they had
good winter quarters provided.
On Saturday morning our whole army
were ordered to land with two days ra-
tons. The musicians were detailed TO
carry off the wounded. | was quite I'M
well, but started to 60, but failed and
went on hospital boat and assisted for
two days in caring for the wounded. Our
army and batteries were marched up the
river in such a way as to completely sur
round the rebels, that if they should at
tempt to escape they would be stopped.
There was not much musketry fight
ing on Saturday, though our boys were
exposed to the bursting of rebel shells all
day. On Sunday morning a general
advance was ordered, when the firing
was terrific. Sometimes the volleys of
musketry would sound like big tree
falling in the forest. The gallant 9th
Missouri made three bayonet charges,
and only lost IL killed and % wounded. |
They are Zouaves, and the best drilled
regiment we have with us. They al
ways fight lying down. They load ly-
ing on their backs, and turn over on
their bellies TO fire
The fighting continued until p. M,
when those three big guns being disabled |
the white flag was run up and the whole j
force surrendered 0ur hoats ipanad;ata