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The morning of February 9th, having heard that a portion of the commandof General Henry A. Wise still remained at Nag’s Head, General Parkeordered that I should take a battalion of my regiment, proceed to that point,and, if possible, effect their capture. When we arrived at the place of debar-kation we were surprised to meet with no resistance to our landing. The factwas sufficiently accounted for when we learned that Wise with his whole com-mand had retreated northward at sundown the day before.
From the time of the capture of Eoanoke Island stories had come frequentlyto the Union commanders setting forth the loyalty of the citizens of the townof Winton on the Chowan River, and their desire to serve the Union cause.On the 18th of February an expedition of eight gun-boats under Com-mander Rowan, and a land force of which I had charge, started for the ChowanRiver, for the purpose of encouraging our friends at Winton and destroyingtwo important bridges of the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad. The morningof the 19th we began to ascend the river, and as I had never believed in thetales regarding the loyalty of the Wintoniaus, from the time of enteringthe river, I assumed the position of volunteer lookout from the cross-treesof the mainmast of the steamer Delaware . The day was beautiful, thesail charming, and all went well until about half-past 3 o’clock. Thesteamer had “ slowed down ” and taken a sheer in toward the Winton wharf,where a negro woman stood waving a rag, when from my lofty perch I dis-covered the glistening of many musket-barrels among the short shrubs thatcovered the high bank, and farther back two pieces of artillery in position.I shouted to the astonished native pilot at the helm, “ Ring on, sheer off,rebels on shore! ” fully half a dozen times before he could comprehend mymeaning. At last he rang on full speed, changed his course, and clearedthe wharf by about ten feet. At that moment the enemy opened fire, and
patch for me. It read: ‘ Captain Parker, with the crewof the Beaufort, will at once take charge of the fort.—Lynch.’ ‘Where the devil,’ I asked, ‘ are the men whowere in the fort ? ’ ‘ All run away,’ said the messenger.. . . Upon getting iuto the fort I hastily commencedstationing the men at the guns, and as quickly as pos-sible opened fire upon the advancing enemy. Some ofthe officers and men of the Forrest made their way to usupon learning that the militia had fled. I must not for-get to say that the engineer officer who had been sentfrom Richmond for service in the fort remained bravelyat his post. . . . I found Commodore Lynch on shore;his boat had been cut in two by a shot and he could notget off to his ship, as he informed me; aud he further-more said r was to command the fort without referenceto his being there — that if he saw an opportunity to getoff to the Seabird, he should embrace it. The enemy’svessels came on at full speed under a heavy fire fromour vessels and the fort. The fire from the latter wasineffectual. The officers and men were cool enough;but they had not had time to look about them. Every-thing was in bad working order, and it was difficult totrain the guns. . . . Commodore Rowan’s steamersdid not reply to our fire until quite close; and withoutslackening their speed they passed the fort and fell uponour vessels. They made short work of them. The Sea-bird was rammed and sunk by the Commodore Perry .The EUis was captured after a desperate defense, inwhich her gallant commander, James Cooke, was badlywounded. The schooner Black Warrior was set on fireand abandoned, her crew escaping through the marshes
on their side of the river. The Fanny was run on shoreand blown up by her commander, who with his crewescaped to the shore. . . . Captain Sims, of theAppomattox,\Lwpt up a sharp fire from his bow gun untilit was accidentally spiked; and he then had to run forit. He had a howitzer aft which he kept in play; butupon arriving at the mouth of the canal he found hisvessel was about tivo inches too wide to enter; he there-fore set her on fire, and she blew up. The Beaufort gotthrough to Norfolk .
“We in the fort saw this work of destruction goingon without being able to prevent it. As soon as thevessels passed the fort we could not bring a gun tobear on them, and a shot from them would have takenus in reverse. A few rounds of grape would have killedand wounded all the men in the fort, for the distancewas only a few hundred yards. Seeing this, I directedJohnson to spike the guns, to order every man toshoulder his musket, and then to take down the flag.
“ All this was promptly and coolly done, and upon thefact being reported to me by Johnson, I pointed tosome woods in our rear and told him to make thebest of his way there with the command. All thistime Commodore Lynch had stood quietly looking on,lmt without uttering a word. As his command hadjust been destroyed under his eyes, I knew pretty wellwhat his feelings were. Turning to him I said: ‘ Com-modore, I have ordered the fort evacuated.’ ‘Why so,sir?’ he demanded. I pointed out the condition ofaffairs I have just stated, and he acquiesced. Arm inarm, we followed the retreating men.”