The fight is over. The thunder of the morning dies away, and the birds renew their singing. The abandoned boats are picked up. The Jeff Thompson cannot be saved. The flames leap around the chimneys. The boilers are heated to redness. A pillar of fire springs upward, in long lances of light. The interior of the boat--boilers, beams of iron, burning planks, flaming timbers, cannon-shot, shells--is lifted five hundred feet in air, in an expanding, unfolding cloud, filled with loud explosions. The scattered fragments rain upon forest, field, and river, as if meteors of vast proportions had fallen from heaven to earth, taking fire in their descent. There is a shock which shakes all Memphis, and announces to the disappointed, terror-stricken, weeping, humiliated multitude that the drama which they have played so madly for a twelvemonth is over, that retribution for crime has come at last! Thus in an hour's time the Rebel fleet was annihilated. Commodore Montgomery was to have sent the Union boats to the bottom; but his expectations were not realized, his promises not fulfilled. It is not known how many men were lost on the Rebel side, but probably from eighty to a hundred. Colonel Ellet was the only one injured on board the Union fleet. The gunboats were uninjured. The Queen of the West was the only boat disabled. In striking contrast was the damage to Montgomery's fleet:-- Sunk, General Price, 4 guns. " General Beauregard, 4 " " General Lovell, 4 " Burned, Jeff Thompson, 4 " Captured, General Bragg, 3 " " Sumter, 3 " " Little Rebel, 2 " -- 24 The bow guns of Commodore Davis's fleet only were used in the attack, making sixteen guns in all brought to bear upon the Rebel fleet. The Cairo and St. Louis fired broadsides upon the crews as they fled to the woods. * * * * * The retreating of the Rebel fleet carried the Union gunboats several miles below the city before the contest was over. At ten o'clock Commodore Davis steamed back to the city. There stood the multitude, confounded by what had taken place. A boat came off from the shore, pulled by two oarsmen, and bringing a citizen, Dr. Dickerson, who waved a white handkerchief. He was a messenger from the Mayor, tendering the surrender of the city. There were some men in the crowd who shook their fists at us, and cried, "O you blue-bellied Yankees! You devils! You scoundrels!" We could bear it very well, after the events of the morning. A few hurrahed for Jeff Davis, but the multitude made no demonstration.