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Vol. V.

Rev., D. D.,

Secretary Southern Historical Society,

Richmond, Virginia:


 * During last summer several articles appeared in Northern papers, giving accounts of Russian torpedoes and torpedo-boats in the Danube, in which erroneous statements were made of the use of those engines of destruction at Charleston during our late civil war. To give a correct account of their use, as well as of other means employed by me to defend that city against the powerful naval and land batteries of the Federals, I prepared a paper on the subject for the Philadelphia Weekly Times, which, through accidental delays in transmission, did not appear until the first week in October. Since then, an interesting article on "torpedo service," by Commander W. T. Glassel, C. S. N., who commanded the "David" in its gallant night attack on the New Ironsides in the outer harbor of Charleston, Oct. 5, 1863, has appeared in last November's number of the Southern Historical Society Papers, which enables me to correct a few slight errors I had made in my narrative of that attack. I have added also to my article a few remarks taken from a Northern source which