Saturday, March 12, 2011

Another Account of the Gun Boat Engagement

WASHINGTON, May 20. – A private letter from an officer of one of the flotilla speaking of the recent engagement says the Galena, iron clad, was admirably maneuvered – so beautifully and safely that she passed five or six times as close as she could get, and silenced one of the batteries.  She then passed and re-passed the second battery six times but finding they were using so much ammunition, for which they expected to have better use further up, Commander Rogers ordered the wooden vessels to run up, whilst he in the Galena, lay abreast off the battery and disconcert the rebel gunners.  The Galena then followed but the buoys had been displaced and misplaced so that the pilots, last evening, run the Galena ashore, and she is still aground.  None of our vessels are seriously injured.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 24, 1862, p. 4

No comments: