Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/177

 The Story of the Arkansas. 167

loss; and it was with mingled curses and admiration we saw her come chasing them down the river. :?:***

Johnnie."

ANOTHER.

" The great rebel iron-clad Arkansas came down the river on the morning of the 15th and passed the whole fleet, and is now under the batteries at Vicksburg. * * We were the head ship except the hospital boat and river steamers. One of Davis's rams came around our stern to give her a butt as she passed (she was called the Lancaster), but unfortunately a shot from the rebel entered the Lan- caster's boiler, and such a sight I never saw before. Not ten yards from our ship the scalded wretches threw themselves into the water. Some of them never rose to the surface again. I turned around and there was the Arkansas coming down very leisurely, when we let fly a broadside of fourteen guns loaded with solid shot, each weighing no pounds. For an instant we could not see anything but smoke. The next instant I looked again, and she had passed as if nothing had fired at her. All the damage done, that I could see, was that part of her bow was knocked off. (The ram was broken.) Each vessel fired at her as she passed, not more than thirty yards distant. to run into the Arkansas and board her at all hazards. The mortars opened on the town instantly. The Richmond took the lead ; then came the Iroquois, Oneida (lost in Yokohoma Bay in 1870), Hart- ford, Sumter, and two other gunboats which were to pass the city and fight the ram."
 * ' * Steam was got up on all the fleet. Our ship was picked out

I have reproduced these letters to show that the account I have already given was not exaggerated. Let us now proceed with our narrative. We were dealing with a bold and confident enemy, deter- mined to take some desperate chances to compass our destruction. As the reader already knows our crew was fearfully used up on the 15th. Daily we sent more men to the hospital, suffering with mala- rious diseases, until we had not in a week more than thirty sea- men, ordinary seamen and landsmen, and I think but four or five firemen. Many of the younger officers had also succumbed ; those of us who were left were used up also. We slept below, with our clothes on, in an atmosphere so heated by the steam of the engines as to keep one in a constant perspiration. No more men were to be had. It was disheartening enough to see a ship which but a week