Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/36

26 abreast the fort to await the attack. The militia in the fort, with the exception of Lieutenant Heinrich, the engineer officer, fled before a gun was fired; seeing which the commodore ordered Captain Parker to take charge with the crew of the Beaufort. This Captain Parker proceeded to do, and the Beaufort was sent, in charge of her engineer and pilot, to Norfolk. She effected her escape. As is narrated in "Recollections of a Naval Officer:" "While pulling ashore the officers and men were engaged in tearing some sheets into strips to be used as bandages for wounded men a cheerful occupation under the circumstances! but it was one of the delights of serving on these gunboats that no surgeons were allowed. Upon getting into the fort I hastily commenced stationing the men at the guns, and as quickly as possible opened fire upon the advancing enemy. Some of the officers and men of the Forrest joined us, under the brave Lieut. Joseph Gardner. I found Commodore Lynch in the fort; his boat had been cut in two by a shot, and he could not get off to his ship. . . . He assumed no command. The enemy's vessels came on at full speed under a heavy fire from our vessels and the fort. The fire from the latter was ineffectual. The officers and men were cool enough, but they had not had time to look about them. Everything was in bad working order, and it was difficult to train the guns. . ..

"Commodore Rowan's steamers did not reply to our fire until quite close. Without slackening their speed they passed the fort and fell upon our vessels. They made short work of them. The Seabird was rammed and sunk by the Commodore Perry. The Ellis was captured after a desperate defense, in which her gallant commander, James Cooke, was badly wounded. The Fanny was run on shore near the fort, and the officers and men escaped. The Appomattox got as far as the mouth of the canal; but being too wide to enter, was burned by her commander. The officers and crew escaped. The schooner Black Warrior met with the same fate. Before the Ellis