Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 4.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[539] fleet had to be divided in order to avoid collisions, and at another the heaviest gunboats had to be towed by the most powerful transports. When Green arrived on the 12th, about four, at Blair's Landing, the greater part of the ships of war had already passed this point, likewise all the transports with the exception of six. These were in a critical position: the Hastings had broken her rudder; the Clara Bell and the Emerald were trying in vain to drag the Alice Vivian off a sandbank; and, finally, the Rob Roy ran into the stern of the Black Hawk, which was engaged in raising the sunken monitor Osage. The gunboats Lexington and Neosho were less than a mile up the stream. Green boldly proceeded to bring his three guns into action on the bluffs, and, posting his skirmishers in the underbrush along the edge, he opened fire on the Federal vessels. There were some victims of these ambuscades among Smith's soldiers, surprised as they were by the sudden attack; but they quickly rallied, and, taking shelter behind the bags of oats and bales of hay and cotton that fortified the decks, they returned a sharp fire. The guns mounted on the poopdeck replied to those of Green, which were badly handled, while the cross-fire of the Lexington and the Osage soon silenced the latter. The combat was too unequal for the Confederates to sustain it for any length of time. They would have needed a considerable number of troops to keep up from the bluffs a skirmish-fire capable of preventing any manoeuvre and so arresting navigation. Besides, the death of their leader soon demoralized them and caused them to abandon the struggle. Green, killed by a grapeshot, was one of the few victims of this battle between the cavalry and the fleet. Not more than twenty men fell on each side. The Confederates contended that they had seen the decks of the Federal vessels strewn with the dead and the dying. The sound of Smith's and Porter's cannonade was heard at Grand Écore, and served to increase the uneasiness which officers and soldiers felt about the fate of their comrades. All would have willingly hastened to their assistance, but Banks, solely absorbed in protecting himself, did not give them the order. On the morning of the 13th, Admiral Porter arrived at Grand core with a part of his ships, but the rest of the fleet was not in sight, and toward noon the report of cannon announced that it had again come to blows