About ten o'clock
The captain 's orders were , not to fire until they heard the action opened by the iron-clads . Twenty-eight men were required to man the guns , and the others , armed with Spencer rifles , were to act as sharp-shooters . Frank , to his surprise , soon learned that this was all the support they were to have , the troops having been ordered to take the same station they had occupied the day before , and to hold themselves in readiness to charge upon the fort , as soon as the iron-clads had silenced the guns . About ten o'clock the fort commenced firing , and Frank knew that the gun-boats were again under way . At length a loud report , which he could have recognized among a thousand , blended with the others , and , in obedience to the order of the captain , the men tore away the bushes which had masked the battery , and the fight became general . Frank directed his fire upon a pile of cotton-bales , which protected one of the largest guns of the fort ; but , as fast as he knocked them down , the rebels would recklessly spring out of the fort and put them up again . At length Captain Wilson ordered she sharp-shooters to advance five hundred yards nearer the fort .