The Rebels Bombarding An Old House

– A correspondent of the Chicago Times sends the following from Island No. 10, written before its surrender: –

“The rebels had a magnificent scare yesterday. The rising water has inundated the banks of the river and the whole surrounding country, and in many cases has carried off fences and farming paraphernalia of all kinds. In the present instance, the ravenous waters seized upon a small farm house and carried it off body and boots, and at an early hour in the morning it came floating past here with the roof only visible above the surface. The five mile current soon carried it into the rebel lines, and they espying it, immediately concluded that it must be some devise of Yankee ingenuity for doing mischief. If it wasn’t a floating battery, it must be an infernal machine, and immense torpedo, or at least some cute invention for running the blockade. So they opened fire upon it, and sent shot and shell thick and heavy around it. The old house stood the bombardment bravely, and although pierced in a hundred places, it still floated calmly on, and fairly run the gauntlet of all the batteries, when fearing lest it should escape, a brave and venturesome body of secesh charged upon and boarded it. They climbed upon the ridge of the roof, sat astride and peeped through the cracks. They inserted their bayonets under the boards and ripped them up, and there, in the solitude of an imprisoned garret, with the turbulent waters bubling within a few inches of her feet they found and antiquated cat, whose serenity was undisturbed by the fearful race she had run, and whose anxiety seemed to be to get out of her uncomfortable position. The details as given by a refugee, were ludicrous. The rebels morned [sic] a large amount of powder and shot wasted, and nary Yankee circumvented.”

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, April 16, 1862, p. 2