I had distributed our field-guns, and, when I judged the time had come, I gave the orders to begin.

The intervening ground between us and the enemy was a dead level, with the exception of one or two small gullies, and our men had no cover but the few standing trees and some logs on the ground.

The troops advanced well under a heavy fire, once or twice falling to the ground for a sort of rest or pause.

Every tree had its group of men, and behind each log was a crowd of sharp-shooters, who kept up so hot a fire that the rebel troops fired wild.

The fire of the fort proper was kept busy by the gunboats and Morgan's corps, so that all my corps had to encounter was the direct fire from the newly-built parapet across the peninsula.