. . . is related by the Evansville Journal. The rains, which had fallen for some days before the fight, softened the earthworks into a sort of heavy mud. During the engagement a shot from the Essex threw a great wad of this mud into the muzzle of the 10-inch columbiad in the fort. The rebels not noticing the queer cartridge thus furnished them, rammed in theirs and of course drove the mud in ahead of it, filling up the vent and chamber so that the gun could not be fired. The Journal says the double load of mud and powder is still in the gun and will take some trouble to get it out.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, February 20, 1862, p. 2
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