Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/85

Rh guns and stores of the Satellite and Reliance were, however, saved. The expedition was a gallant achievement on the part of Lieutenant Wood and his brave officers and men, and they were much applauded. On the night of October 5, 1863, Lieut. W. T. Glassell, C. S. N., made a daring attack upon the New Ironsides, then lying off Morris island, near Charleston, S. C. The affair is well described in Scharf's history:

Lieut. W. T. Glassell was placed in command of the first David built [a steam, turtle-back, torpedo boat] and had under him C. S. Tombs, engineer, James Sullivan, fireman, and J. W. Cannon, pilot. The night selected for the expedition was slightly hazy, and shortly after 9 o'clock the David was within 300 yards of the New Ironsides and making directly for her side, when discovered by a sentinel. Without making any reply to his hail, Glassell kept on and fired with a shotgun at the officer of the deck (Acting Master Howard), who fell mortally wounded. The next moment the David struck the frigate, the torpedo exploded, the little craft plunged violently, and a deluge of water thrown up by the concussion descended on her smoke-pipe and hatchway. Her fires were extinguished and her machinery jammed. In the midst of a rattling fire of musketry from the New Ironsides, Glassell directed his men to save themselves by swimming, as it seemed impossible that the David could be made to move. After being in the water himself more than an hour, he was picked up by the boat of a transport schooner and handed over as a prisoner to Admiral Dahlgren, who ordered him into confinement on the guardship Ottawa.

Engineer Tombs, after swimming awhile, got back to the David, pulled in the pilot, J. W. Cannon, got steam up and succeeded in getting back to Charleston. The fireman, Sullivan, was taken prisoner.

Upon examining the New Ironsides, it was found that the torpedo exploded only three feet under water, and against four and a half inches of armor and twenty-seven inches of wood backing. By the explosion the ponderous ship was shaken from stem to stern. It knocked down a bulkhead, started some timbers, and threw two or three