GUNBOAT GALENA, Sunday, May 11.
DEAR BROTHER – I suppose by this time you have heard of the Galena leaving Hampton Roads. I was glad of it, for such a fine ship as this ought not to be kept idle in such times as these, and the boys were all anxious for a fight. We got under way and left the Roads fifteen minutes past seven o’clock on the morning of the 8th, and it was not long till we passed Sewall’s Point, without one shot being fired at us. As we passed Newport News we were hailed by loud and long cheers from the men of the fort, who were glad to see us make a move to help their brother soldiers. But we had only passed them about twenty five minutes, when, to our great joy, a battery hove in sight. It was first seen by the well experienced eye of our gallant Captain. He gave orders to Lieutenant Newman to call all hands to quarters, which he did in his usual cool way, for he is always cool and brave. This order was promptly obeyed by the crew, who thought every minute an hour to try their skill on the rebels. They soon had a chance, for at fifteen minutes to ten o’clock the ball was opened by our pivot gun forward. The shot fell short. The second and third were fired, but there was no reply. We ran in under their gun range, and then they opened on us from six or eight guns, but all of the shot fell harmless against our iron sides. I hardly think they knew what was coming at them. We let fly from our whole battery, and made it pretty warm for them. We sailed back and forward by the fort three or four times, and soon leveled their flag and made it drag in the dust. After an action of forty minutes they ran like “red sharks,” as they always do from the well directed fire of our brave sailors. Not one shot struck us up to the end of the engagement.
Fort No. 2 – The action commenced about one o’clock, three quarters of an hour after we had silenced the first battery. In this fort we found a more formidable opponent than the first. It mounted twelve guns and after an hour and fifteen minutes’ bombardment, eleven of them were silenced. The remaining one fought us for an hour afterward, making this bombardment of two hours and fifteen minutes duration. The gunboats Aristook [sic] and Port Royal were with us, but did not take an active part in the engagement, though they did some execution with their long guns.
The rebel gunboats Jamestown and Patrick Henry were lying under the guns of the second fort, but instead of assisting its defence, they got up steam and ran away with all speed toward Richmond. Our damage in the engagement was small. One shot struck the Aristook and went through her bulwarks under the hammock nettings. No one was injured. One or two shots struck us, but they only left their mark on our iron mail and glided off.
After passing the second fort we started up the river, but the buoys have been removed and there we stuck hard and fast, waiting for high tide. The batteries silenced were called the Upper and Lower Shoal batteries. Great praise is given to Captain Rodgers, First Lieutenant Newman and Engineer in Chief Thompson.
LATER – We are just getting off shore, and a boat has come on board from Gen. McClellan, by which I send this. We will be off for City Point in the morning. – {Cor. Baltimore American
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 24, 1862, p. 4
No comments:
Post a Comment