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15On the evening of May 8 the naval officers and sailors of Porter ’s fleet retired pleasantly for the night, leaving the final effort to pass the rapids for the morrow. Banks was restless, however, and later stated that “I went over the dam at eleven o’clock. It was completed, and two gunboats had passed the [upper] rapids to the dam the evening before . . . . I went over the dam and felt conscious that it could not long stand the pressure of the water. Every moment increasing in depth and weight above, I knew it could not stand.” Having received this insight Banks claimed he rode upstream to see whether the navy was preparing to move at daylight. “There was not a light to be seen; not a man was stirring; not a ship had been lightened . I could not arouse anybody there.” Failing to gain satisfaction in person, Banks proceeded to write Porter a note and send Colonel Wilson to deliver it. Wilson had Porter awakened and successfully delivered Banks’s note at one o’clock on the morning of May 9. The note informed Porter that the pressure on the dam is “terrific” and that the navy should prepare their boats to take advantage of the high water. “Every exertion ought to be made to get them ready tonight, so that they may pass the falls to-morrow.” Porter was ill at the time and apparently did not respond to Banks’s note. At 5 o’clock on the morning of May 9 the partially floating barge broke loose from its moorings and washed down the river, dragging with it the barge to its right that had defined the left side of the spillway. Both of these barges lodged against a ledge of rocks on the left below the dam. The torrent rushing through the gap that resulted from the loss of the barges produced a rapid drop in the water level behind the dam. At the time the barges were washed away, one gunboat, located above the upper rapids, was ready to try to pass the falls. This boat, the Lexington, a converted, wooden river steamer, was one of the first three Union gunboats produced on the western rivers. It was a sidewheeler measuring 180 feet in length with a 42-foot beam and a 6-foot draft. Admiral Porter described what happened next: Seeing this unfortunate accident [the barges washing downstream], I jumped on a horse and rode up to where the upper vessels were anchored, and ordered The End ofthe Fifth Invasion the end of the fifth invasion  the Lexington to pass the upper falls if possible, and immediately attempt to go through the dam. I thought I might be able to save the four vessels below, not knowing whether the persons employed on the work would ever have the heart to renew their enterprise. The Lexington succeeded in getting over the upper falls just in time, the water rapidly falling as she was passing over. She then steered directly for the opening in the dam, through which the water was rushing so furiously that it seemed as if nothing but destruction awaited her. Thousands of beating hearts looked on anxious for the result. The silence was so great as the Lexington approached the dam that a pin might almost be heard to fall. She entered the gap with a full head of steam on, pitched down the roaring torrent, made two or three spasmodic rolls, hung for a moment on the rocks below, was then swept into deep water by the current, and rounded-to safely into the bank. Thirty thousand voices rose in one deafening cheer, and universal joy seemed to pervade the face of every man present. The Lexington was followed over the lower falls by the three gunboats that had passed the upper falls the previous day. The Neosho, leading the way, “all her hatches battened down and every precaution taken against accident,” was approaching the lower spillway when the pilot stopped the engine. It was too late to avoid entering the chute, however. Swept along by the rapid current, the boat slipped down the spillway and “disappeared from sight under the water.” She quickly reappeared, slightly damaged but still in one piece. Porter then watched Fort Hindman and Osage pass over the spillway in their turn, “and I thought if I was only fortunate enough to get my large vessels as well over the falls, my...

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