that a shot from me, or a call, would bring down on
him, and that we had entire possession of the place.
After sending two officers from the nearest troops
to explain the condition to Steele, and to warn every
officer they met to pass the word for everybody to
be on the sharp lookout, I arranged with Deshler to
keep quiet until I could bring his own commander,
or orders from him. Returning to General Sherman,
I found a party of young rebel officers, including
Robert Johnston’s son (rebel Senate) and Captain
Wolf, quartermaster, of New Orleans, who declined
to surrender except to gentlemen. Some German
Missouri soldiers didn’t relish the distinction,
and were about clubbing them over the head, when I
interfered and received their surrender. Hurrying
back to the general, I reported the dangerous condition
of things. He and General Churchill, commanding
officer of the enemy, started for Deshler’s
brigade; meeting Garland, a quarrel and some recrimination
followed between him and Churchill, as to where the
fault of the surrender belonged, which was rather
promptly silenced by General Sherman, who hurried to
the scene of trouble. There, after some ill-natured
talk, Deshler ordered his men to lay down their arms.
I rode into the fort, and found the parapet badly
torn up by the fire from the fleet. On going
to the embrasure where I had seen the gun while on
the river-bank talking to Captain Shirk, the piece
was found split back about eighteen inches, and the
lower half of the muzzle dropped out. A battered
but unexploded shell lying with the piece explained
that it must have struck the gun in the muzzle, almost
squarely. On passing along the inside I saw
from the torn condition of the earthworks how tremendous
our fire was, and how the fire of the enemy was kept
down. The fire of the navy had partly torn down
the side of the fort next the river. A good
many sailors were in the fort. General A. J.
Smith, Admiral Porter, and General Burbridge were
there—all in high spirits, but in some contention
as to who got in first. Toward dark, or nearly
so, an Arkansas regiment came in as reenforcements,
but surrendered without any trouble. About the
same time General Sherman received orders to put General
A. J. Smith in charge of the fort, and stay outside
with his men. As his troops were nearly all
inside, and had four-fifths of the prisoners in charge,
these orders were not very clear, and the general left
for headquarters to find out what was meant.
I went on collecting arms, and as our men were scattering
a good deal and were greatly excited, I took the precaution
to pass along the line and march the prisoners far
enough from the stacked arms to be out of temptation.
I was especially urged to this by hearing several rebel
officers speak of their guns being still loaded.
It was dark before all the prisoners were collected
and under guard, including the regiment that arrived
after the fight. I am confident that all the
prisoners were under guard by General Sherman’s
troops.