434

THE IVES TERN FLOTILLA.

off. The sight almost sickened me, and I turned my head away. Onr master’smate came soon after and ordered us to our quarters at the gun. I told himthe gun had burst, and that we had caught fire on the upper deck from theenemy’s shell. He then said: ‘Never mind the fire; go to your quarters.’Then I took a station at the starboard tackle of another rifled how-gun andremained there until the close of the fight.” The carpenter and his men extin-guished the flames.

When within four hundred yards of the fort, and while the Confederateswere running from their lower battery, our pilot-house was struck again andanother pilot wounded, our wheel was broken, and shells from the rear boatswere bursting over us. All four of our boats were shot away and draggingin the water. On looking out to bring our broadside guns to bear, we sawthat the other gun-boats were rapidly falling back out of line. The Pittsburgh in her haste to turn struck the stern of the Carondelet, and broke our star-board rudder, so that we were obliged to go ahead to clear the Pittsburgh andthe point of rocks below. The pilot of the St. Louis was killed, and the pilotof the Louisville was wounded. Both vessels had their wheel-ropes shotaway, and the men were prevented from steering the Louisville with thetiller-ropes at the stern by the shells from the rear boats bursting over them.The St. Louis and Louisville , becoming unmanageable, were compelled todrop out of battle, and the Pittsburgh followed; all had suffered severelyfrom the enemy’s fire. Flag-Officer Foote was wounded while standing bythe pilot of the St. Louis when he was killed. We were then about 350 yardsfrom the fort.

There was no alternative for the Carondelet in that narrow stream but tokeep her head to the enemy and fire into the fort with her two bow-guns, toprevent it, if possible, from returning her fire effectively. The enemy sawthat she was in a manner left to his mercy, and concentrated the fire of allhis batteries upon her. In return, the Carondelet’s guns were well served tothe last shot. Our new acting gunner, John Hall, was just the man for theoccasion. He came forward, offered his services, and with my sanction tookcharge of the starboard-bow rifled gun. He instructed the men to obey hiswarnings and follow his motions, and he told them that when he saw a shotcoming he would call out “ Down ” and stoop behind the breech of the gun ashe did so; at the same instant the men were to stand away from the bow-ports. Nearly every shot from the fort struck the bows of the Carondelet.Most of them were fired on the ricochet level, and could be plainly seen skip-ping on the water before they struck. The enemy’s object was to sink thegun-boat by striking her just below the water-line. They soon succeeded inplanting two 32-pound shots in her bow, between wind and water, which madeher leak badly, but her compartments kept her from sinking until we couldplug up the shot-holes. Three shots struck the starboard casemating; fourstruck the port casemating forward of the rifle-gun; one struck on the star-board side, between the water-line and plank-sheer, cutting through theplanking; six shots struck the pilot-house, shattering one section into piecesand cutting through the iron casing. The smoke-stacks were riddled.