Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/147

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be useless and madne-^ to undertake it. No force in small boats, except in overwhelming numbers, can capture an armed ship, unless by taking her unawares. We spent a day of tedious waiting. Officers and men laying low, spinning yarns and talking about our prospects. I happened to hear the talking of one of the group, where a fine young officer said: " Fellows, where will we be this time to-morrow?" He was among the killed, and it was such a lesson on the uncertainty of human life. Among the killed there was Hoge and Gardner and Henry Cooke and Gill and Palmer Saunders and Goodwin, from our State, and Gift and Porcher and Scharf and Wil- liamson and Kerr and Roby. all trained at Annapolis and true as steel among these, three were from Norfolk and Portsmouth. In plain sight of us was a tall crow's nest, occupied by a lookout of the Federal army on their pickett line, and I assure you it gave us a creepy, uneasy, feeling to think that our whole movement and inten- tion might be discovered. And here let me remark that this very situation determines and exemplifies what I judge to be a man ol war a leader who does not allow his plans to be upset by what he thinks the enemy is going to do. He must be always combative and not calculating chances. Wood paid no attention to doubts and sur- mises, but had his eye fixed upon boarding and capturing that ship, and doing his part in the fall of New Bern.

We were in full hearing of Pickett's dashing attack upon the Fed- eral outerworks that day, and knew that he was driving them from the advanced line of fortifications. Before sunset Wood called for the swiftest boat, and, with your speaker in company, pulled cautiously down the river, keeping close under the banks. We had not gone two miles, when simultaneously we both cried: " There she is."

We discovered a black steamer anchored close up to the right flank of the outer fortifications of New Bern, where she had come that day, and having located her exactly, we returned to our hiding place, with the understanding that we would attack her between 12 and 4 o'clock 'in the morning. Orders were given accordingly, and all hands were made to know the order of battle and what they had to do. In rushing pell mell upon the side of a ship with boat, they naturally rebound and leave a gap that is not easy to get across, so each bow oarsman was ordered to be ready to jump aboard with a grapnel as soon as she struck and make her fast; and our coolest men were picked for that duty, which you will easily see is risky. Some time after midnight we got under way and pulled slowly down