As soon as Foote arrived, Grant urged him to attack the fort's river batteries. Although Foote was reluctant to proceed before adequate reconnaissance, he moved his gunboats close to the shore by 3:00 p.m. and opened fire, just as he had done at Fort Henry. Confederate gunners waited until the gunboats were within to return fire. The Confederate artillery pummeled the fleet and the assault was over by 4:30 p.m. Foote was wounded (coincidentally in his foot). The wheelhouse of his flagship, USS "St. Louis", was carried away, and she floated helplessly downriver. USS "Louisville" was also disabled and the "Pittsburg" began to take on water. The damage to the fleet was significant and it retreated downriver. Of the 500 Confederate shots fired, "St. Louis" was hit 59 times, "Carondelet" 54, "Louisville" 36, and "Pittsburg" 20 times. Foote had miscalculated the assault. Historian Kendall Gott suggested that it would have been more prudent to stay as far downriver as possible, and use the fleet's longer-range guns to reduce the fort. An alternative might have been to overrun the batteries, probably at night as would be done successfully in the 1863 Vicksburg Campaign. Once past the fixed river batteries, Fort Donelson would have been defenseless.