one o'clock
`` In obedience to these orders , the _ Itasca _ ran up to the boom , and at eleven o'clock showed a night signal that the channel was clear of obstruction excepting the hulks , which , with care , might be passed safely . `` A heavy fog , and the settling of the smoke from the steamers upon the waters , made the night a very dark one . No sound came from the forts , yet active preparations were going on in them for the approaching struggle , and their fleet was stationed near them in readiness to assist in the effort to prevent the Union vessels from ascending the river . `` At one o'clock every one on the Union ships was called to action , but the fleet remained stationary until two , and at half past three Farragut 's and Bailey 's divisions were moving up the river , each on its appointed side , and at the rate of four miles an hour . `` Then Porter 's mortars , still at their moorings below the forts , opened upon those forts a terrible storm , sending as many as , if not more than , half a dozen shells , with their fiery trails , screaming through the air at the same moment . `` But no sound came from the forts until they discovered Captain Bailey 's ship , the _ Cayuga _ , just as she had passed the boom , when they brought their heavy guns to bear upon her , and broke the long silence with their roar . `` When she was close under Fort St. Philip she replied with heavy broadsides of grape and canister as she passed on up the river .