Of course daylight had come long before the time the two ships had grounded, and the Confederates, who had followed their fire-rafts with the bark-rigged _McRae_ and the four converted gunboats and a river tug, found, to their astonishment, the whole river clear. They had hoped, at first, to make some disturbance--possibly to sink the _Richmond_ with the ram--and, at any rate, get the _McRae_ to sea. But the _McRae’s_ engines had failed, and so had the ram’s, while the fire-rafts had drifted ashore harmless. And yet there were the government ships out at sea, or aground inside and sorry they couldn’t get away. Very naturally the Confederates came down where their long-range Whitworth rifles would take effect, and opened fire on the grounded ships. The only damage done was when a shell lodged in the locker where Captain Pope kept his linen. Fortunately, the shell did not explode, and the linen was not wholly destroyed. The _Richmond_ replied with a nine-inch gun on her forecastle, and the Confederates, having boats so frail that one shell could have sunk any one of them, were obliged to keep at long range. The _Water Witch_ was sent in great haste to bring the _South Carolina_ from Barrataria, and after she came to the rescue the transport _McClellan_ also arrived with rifles for the _Richmond_. “My mind was very much relieved, knowing that the armament of four rifled guns on board the _McClellan_, together with the long gun of the _South Carolina_, would keep the enemy at bay,” says Pope in his report. Imagine the state of mind of this officer! “Four rifled guns on board the _McClellan_, together with the long gun of the _South Carolina_, would keep the enemy _at bay_!” But before the relief ships arrived, Captain Handy, of the _Vincennes_, had once more become so nervous he couldn’t stand the strain without doing something. The Confederates were firing at the _Richmond_; but they might fire at him and he might get hurt. So he wrote a note to the already overwrought Pope. Because no other case of the kind is known to the annals of the American navy, because the exhibit forms an interesting study in mental phenomena, and because the shame of it, when spread in history, must serve to make a repetition of the story impossible, the note shall be given in full: “SIR: We are aground. We have only two guns that will bear in the direction of the enemy. Shall I remain on board after the moon goes down, with my crippled ship and worn-out men? Will you send me word what countersign my boats shall use if we pass near your ship? While we have moonlight, would it not be better to leave the ship? Shall I burn her when I leave her? “Respectfully, ROBERT HANDY.”