"Wait until you hear the rest," replied Carl. "After Island Number 10 fell, most of the army was sent to reinforce Halleck before Corinth; but my command was left. We soon had possession of the Mississippi nearly to Memphis; but rumors came of the Confederates building an immense fleet of gunboats and ironclad rams. "Our gunboats moved down and attacked, but were repulsed and driven back. Colonel Charles Ellet had been given authority to build some rams. He hastily constructed some out of old river steamboats, converting them into engines of destruction. With these wooden rams, without cannon, and without an armed crew, Colonel Ellet proposed to attack and destroy the whole fleet. "Eleven sharpshooters had been chosen and placed on the _Monarch_. I was fortunate enough to be one of the eleven. We were the only armed men aboard the ram. The _Monarch_ was commanded by Colonel Alfred Ellet, a brother of Charles. Charles was aboard the ram, _Queen of the West_. "It was dusk when we came to our fleet of gunboats anchored across the Mississippi. Below them, a little above Memphis, lay the Rebel fleet, anchored in a line across the river. There the two fleets lay like two great beasts ready to spring on each other. "Colonel Ellet anchored and waited for the morning. Hardly was it light when there came the boom of a great gun. It was a beautiful morning, and as the thunder of the gun reverberated over the water, thousands of the people of Memphis rushed to the bluffs to witness the battle and, with waving flags and shouts of encouragement, cheer their men on to victory. "On, in imposing line, comes the Rebel fleet, the smokestacks of their vessels belching forth great clouds of smoke, and their guns thundering as they come. Now the guns of our fleet answer their thunder, and the bluffs on which the people are gathered shake and tremble with the concussion. A black wall of smoke settles down and hides our fleet from view; only through the blackness can be seen the flashes of the great guns. "Hardly had the battle opened when Colonel Ellet signalled for his fleet of rams to get under way. The _Queen of the West_ and the _Monarch_ got off first, and straight for the wall of blackness, lit by the fitful flashes, we steered. We entered that wall, and everything was blotted from view--only around and about us was the roar of the great guns, the bursting of shells. "Suddenly, as if emerging from the mouth of a tunnel, we burst from the cloud of smoke, and before us at full speed was coming the Rebel fleet, nearly a dozen gunboats and ironclads, against two wooden, unarmed rams. "Colonel Ellet never swerved; ahead at full speed he drove the _Queen of the West_ for the _General Lovell_. We could see the tall figure of Colonel Ellet standing on the hurricane-deck of the _Queen_. With his hat he signalled his brother to steer for the _General Price_, and on the two rams rushed, the _Queen_ slightly ahead.