three o'clock in the morning
Farragut ordered two gunboats to steal through the darkness without lights and clear this raft . The work was swiftly done . The task was rendered unexpectedly easy by a break caused by a severe storm . At three o'clock in the morning of the twenty-fourth , the lookout on the ramparts of the forts saw the black hulls of the fleet , swiftly and silently steaming up the river straight for the mouths of their guns . The word was flashed to the little nondescript fleet of the Confederacy lying in the smooth waters above and they moved instantly to the support of the forts . The night was one of calm and glorious beauty . The Southern skies sparkled with jeweled stars .