Then the batteries, both lower and upper, replied with full vigor and all the cliffs were wrapped in fire and smoke.
The boats steamed in closer and closer, pouring an incessant fire from their heavy guns, and both rings of batteries on the cliffs responded.
The water of the river spouted up in innumerable little geysers and now and then a boat was struck.

Over both cliffs and river a great cloud of smoke lowered.

It grew so dense that Dick and his comrades, watching with eagerness, were unable to tell much of what was happening.
Yet as the smoke lifted or was shot through with the blaze of cannon fire they saw that their prophecies were coming true.

The boats in water too deep for anchorage were caught in the powerful eddies and their captains had to show their best seamanship while they steamed back and forth.
The battle between ship and shore went on for a long time.

It seemed at last to the watching Union soldiers that the fire from the lower line of batteries was diminishing.
"We're making some way," said Warner.
"It looks like it," said Dick.