Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/66

 56 Southern Historical Society Papers.

in casemate, covered with railroad iron. On her upper or hurricane deck she had one nine-pounder, rifled piece, on field carriage ; her casemate extended aft sufficiently to protect her boilers and engines. She was the finest boat that had been built for the Bayou Sara route ; her cabin was one of the most elegant on the Mississippi river : her engines were compound, high and low pressure. In the month of January following it became necessary to burn her to prevent her fall- ing into the hands of the enemy.

The Federal gunboat " Diana " was armed with one thirty-two pounder Parrott rifle on her open bow and one or two twelve-pounder bronze Dahlgren rifled boat howitzers. Several months after the fight of November 3d, while making a reconnoissance a few miles lower down, she was engaged by the " Valverde " battery. Captain Sayres, C. S. A. (attached to Sibley's Texas brigade), and a detach- ment of cavalry. After a great slaughter among her crew she was captured with nearly two hundred infantry aboard. The boilers of the " Diana" were protected by two thicknesses of wrought bar iron, four inches by one and a-quarter inches, laid flat on a wood back- ing, built at an angle of thirty to forty degrees. The solid shot from Captain Sayres's six-pounder bronze smooth-bore guns penetrated this wrought iron in several places, making indentations of three- quarters to one inch in depth, one six-pound solid shot passing entirely through the double iron plating into the wood backing. Distance fired by the field artillery was from one hundred and fifty to two hun- dred yards.

The pilot-house was protected by scantling placed upright edge- wise, arranged like a vertical, fixed Venetian blind, through the nar- row open spaces of which the pilot could see in four directions and be protected from the fire of small arms. The Captain and pilot oc- cupied the pilot-house on this occasion. The captain was killed by the side of the pilot, who jumped overboard, and, swimming to the marsh on the left bank of the Teche, made his way to Berwick's Bay and reported the loss of the boat.

The " Diana " was repaired and was posted in the centre of the Confederate line at the battle of " Bisland," April 12th and 13th, 1863. Captain O. J. Semnies, of the field artillery, was detached from his battery and placed in command of her for the occasion, fighting her with his characteristic gallantry. She was disabled by the fire of the three or four Federal gunboats in the bayou in the rear of the Federal line of battle. Later, when Major- General R. Taylor, the commander- in-chief, fell back up the bayou, the gallant Semmes, to prevent her