Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 19.djvu/83

 Capture of the C. S. Earn Tennessee in Mobile Bay. 77

there was a dull sounding impact, and at the same instant the men whose backs were against the shield were split in pieces. I saw their limbs and chests, severed and mangled, scattered about the deck, their hearts lying near their bodies. All of the gun's crew and the admiral were covered from head to foot with blood, flesh and viscera. I thought at first that the admiral was mortally wounded. The frag- ments and members of the dead men were shoveled up, put in buck- ets and hammocks, and struck below.

Engineer Rogers, of the wounded, had a pistol ball through his "shoulder. "How in the world did you manage to get this?" I asked him. He replied : " Why, I was off watch and had nothing to do, so while the Hartford was lying alongside of us a Yankee cursed me through the port-hole and I jabbed him with my bayonet in the body, and his comrade shot me with his revolver." Cutting the ball out, I proposed to give him morphine, as he was suffering terribly, but he said: "None of that for me, doctor. When we go down I want to be up and take my chances of getting out of some port-hole." Another man was wounded in the ear when fighting in the same manner as the engineer, but he always declared he got even by the use of his bayonet. I merely mention these facts to show how close the fighting was, when men could kill or wound each other through the port-holes of their respective vessels.

While attending the engineer, an aide came down the ladder in great haste and said: " Doctor, the admiral is wounded!" " Well, bring him below," I replied. "I can't do it," he answered; "I haven't time. I am carrying orders for Captain Johnson." So up I went; asked some officer whom I saw: "Where is the admiral?" " Don't know," he replied. " We are all at work loading and firing. Got too much to do to think of anything else." Then I looked for the gallant commander myself, and, lying curled up under the sharp angle of the roof, I discovered the old white-haired man. He was grim, silent, and uttered no sound in his great pain. I went up to him and asked : "Admiral, are you badly hurt ?" " Don't know,'.' he replied; but I saw one of his legs crushed up under his body, and, as I could get no help, raised him up with great caution and, clasping his arms around my neck, carried him on my back down the ladder to the cock-pit, his broken leg slapping against me as I moved slowly along. After I had applied a temporary bandage he sat up on the deck and received reports from Captain Johnson regarding the progress of the fight. Captain Johnson soon came down in person, and the admiral