Campfire and battlefield : $b an illustrated history of the campaigns and conflicts of the great Civil WarRidpath, John Clark
History
Campfire and battlefield : $b an illustrated history of the campaigns and conflicts of the great Civil War
Ridpath, John Clark
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Campaigns; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Pictorial works
The second division consisted of three sloops of war, the flag-ship
leading. The _Hartford_ received and returned a heavy fire from the
forts, got aground on a shoal while trying to avoid a fire-raft, and a
few minutes later had another raft pushed against her, which set her
on fire. A portion of the crew was detailed to extinguish the flames,
and all the while her guns were loaded and fired as steadily as if
nothing had happened. Presently she was got afloat again, and
proceeded up the river, when, suddenly, through the smoke, as it was
lighted by the flashes of the guns, she saw a steamer filled with men
bearing down upon her, probably with the intention of carrying her by
boarding. But a ready gun planted a huge shell in the mysterious
stranger, which exploded, and she disappeared--going to the bottom,
for aught that anybody knew. The _Brooklyn_, after getting out of her
course and running upon one of the hulks, finally got through, met a
large Confederate steamer, and gave it a broadside that set it on
fire, and then poured such a rain of shot into St. Philip that the
bastions were cleared in a minute, and in the flashes the gunners
could be seen running to shelter. A Confederate gunboat that attacked
her received eleven shells from her, all of which exploded, and it
then ran ashore in flames. The _Richmond_ sailed through steadily and
worked her guns regularly, meeting with small loss, because she was
more completely provided with splinter-nettings than her consorts, as
well as because she came after them.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN DAVID G. FARRAGUT. (Afterward Admiral.)]
[Illustration: COMMANDER C. S. BOGGS. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.)]
[Illustration: CAPTAIN THEODORUS BAILEY. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.)]
{94} [Illustration: PASSAGE OF THE SECOND DIVISION OF THE FEDERAL
SQUADRON BY FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP.]
{95} The third division consisted of six gunboats. Two of them became
entangled among the hulks, and failed to pass. Another received a shot
in her boiler, which compelled her to drop down stream and out of the
fight. The other three went through in gallant style, both suffering
and inflicting considerable loss from continuous firing, and burned
two steamboats and drove another ashore before they came up with the
advance divisions of the fleet. The entire loss had been thirty-seven
killed and one hundred and forty-seven wounded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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