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struck the starboard side of Chillicothe?s turret and did considerable damage. This vigorous and apparently unexpected defense caused Chillicothe to retreat around the bend in the river. There she opened fire with the two huge Dahlgren guns in her bow, but the shells did no damage to the Confederates or their fortification, and she retired upstream in a few minutes. The attack lasted less than half-an-hour, the only casualty was one Federal sailor injured, and Pvt. Baxter did not get a chance to fire even a single shot.
But the seige was far from over. That afternoon Chillicothe returned to within 800 years of Fort Pemberton and again the Confederate guns roared. This time the Federal gunboat managed to fire four shells, but while this was going on she was hit four times by the Confederate gunners. The first three did little damage, but the fourth struck the bow gun on the port	side just as	the crew was loading it.	Both shells exploded.
Four sailors	were	killed, nine wounded, and	the two forward port
slides plus part of the turret backing were wrenched away. Again Chillicothe had to retreat, and the Rebels let go with a mighty yell.
That	night the Federals tried a new tactic, Locating a
spot	of dry	land	about 700 yards north of	Fort Pemberton, they
hastily erected a cotton bale battery and managed to move in a 30-pounder Parrott off one of their gunboats. Next day they spent making emergency repairs on Chillicothe and reinforcing her and another ironclad gunboat, DeKalb. with cotton bales. That night another 30-pounder was mounted in the land emplacement of the previous night. The Confederates were short of ammunition and decided not to fire on the new emplacement, but they worked feverishly to construct traverses against the potential enfilade fire from these two guns.
Just before noon the next day, March 13, Chillicothe and DeKalb. followed by a mortar barge, steamed into the same spot on the river, about 800 yards from the fort. At first sight of Chillicothe the Confederates opened fire, and shortly every gun the Federals had in position replied to that first salvo. Both sides exchanged gunfire until about 1 p.m., when Chillicothe withdrew after having been struck 38 times. De Kalb stayed in the fight and continued to fire at 15-minute intervals until nightfall when
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