Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/144

126 also large supply of caps, and shells loaded, with the Bormann fuse attached. Yard not so much injured as supposed. Merrimac, Germantown and Dolphin sunk; Cumberland escaped.

On Sunday, April 21st, Richmond was thrown into great consternation by a dispatch stating that the steamer Pawnee was coming up James river to destroy the powder taken from the magazine at old Fort Norfolk and the cannon foundry above Richmond. Alarms were sounded, citizens rushed to arms, and troops and a battery were at once sent down the James to Chaffin's bluff, where the river is quite narrow, and hasty preparations made for the defense of the city. The Pawnee, after returning from the attempted destruction of the navy yard, was reported as making a reconnoissance up the James, which caused this alarm, revealing to the authorities the utterly defenseless condition of Richmond, and inducing them to take steps for its defense. The advisory council met after the excitement had subsided, and directed Governor Letcher to instruct the governor of South Carolina to change the destination of his troops to Richmond, "where an effort would be made to concentrate as large a force as possible to make that city the base of operations for defending the interests of the Southern States."

Maj.-Gen. Walter Gwynn, who had been assigned to command of the Virginia forces at Norfolk, reported on the 23d that the Baltic had arrived off Old Point with troops from Boston and then proceeded to Washington; that the Cumberland, the only war vessel in Hampton Roads, was lying off Old Point. That day the advisory council asked the governor to direct General Gwynn to send a flag to Fort Monroe and ascertain whether it was true that army officers, citizens of Virginia, were kept in irons at that fort, or otherwise restrained against their will. The governor was also directed to have vessels that had been seized and detained in the waters of Virginia inspected, valued and detained for the defense of the State. Ex-Governor Wise, from near Norfolk, about that time urged the Richmond authorities to place heavy guns at Hampton to prevent the forces at Fort Monroe from taking the points of vantage and shutting up Virginia bays and rivers, concluding: "We are quiet here now, but fortifying, and daily along Lynnhaven seeing the steamers take reinforcements up the bay and the Potomac