3-008-723 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Civil War in America: position of the Federal flotilla on the Mississippi, off Fort Pillow, shortly before its evacuation, from a sketch by our special artist, 1862. 'Craighead Point; Chickasaw Bluffs, on which is Fort Pillow...[View of] the position of the flotilla shortly before the evacuation of that fort by the Confederates. In a letter written in a transport off Fort Pillow, on the 31st of May last, our Special Artist writes as follows: "Our mortars have been pegging away at Fort Pillow for the last day or two without intermission, and we occasionally get a shell in return, Unfortunately, the Federalists cannot well ascertain the effect of their fire, as all they can see of the fort or its position is simply the rise of the bluff on which it is situated above the bend in the river...The national morter-rafts are placed against the Arkansas shore, immediately under the bank, and half a mile of dense forest lies between them and the winding bed of the river which flows by the fort. The shells are thrown over the trees, the range being calculated by a daily reconnaissance sent to observe the effect of the bombardment; but this reconnaissance is not always successful, for the woods are often filled by Confederate scouts..." From "Illustrated London News", 1862.