As the Confederates came in range the _Cincinnati_ opened fire and stood her ground. The Confederates scattered at once, but continued advancing. The leading Confederate boat, the _General Bragg_, hugged the Arkansas shore, passed above the _Cincinnati_, and then turning around, drove her bow into the unprotected quarter of the lone government boat. The two boats were alongside each other in a moment, and the _Cincinnati_ gave the Confederate boat a broadside that sent her skurrying down the stream and out of the battle. Behind the _Bragg_ came two more Confederates, the _Price_ and the _Sumter_, firing with guns and muskets at the ports of the _Cincinnati_, while one of them rammed her again in the place where the _Bragg_ had struck her, and at the same moment Captain Stembel fell with a ball through his throat that well-nigh proved mortal, and the executive officer was mortally hurt. Meantime Flag Officer Davis woke up, while Captain Kilty, of the _Mound City_, without waiting for orders, started to the aid of the mobbed _Cincinnati_. Captain Walke, with the _Carondelet_, was not far behind him, but both were three miles away from the scene of conflict when they started. The _Carondelet_ was the first to open fire, and the first shot raked the fleeing _Bragg_. Another shell struck the _Price_ at the water-line, cutting a water-supply pipe and causing her to leak so badly that she was thrown out of the fight. [Illustration: _Mound City._ _Carondelet._ Mortar. _Cincinnati._ _Van Dorn._ _General Price._ _Bragg._ _Sumter._ _Little Rebel._ Battle of Fort Pillow. _From a painting by Admiral Walke._]