Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 32.djvu/170

 158 Southern Historical Society Papers.

months previous to the surrender, was moved up to this city and lay at Rocketts, where she perished in the flames of the 3d of April, 1865.

In March, 1865, the health of the crew became impaired by the foulness of bilge water, and the midshipmen were removed from the ship and quartered in a large tobacco factory on the corner of 24th and Franklin streets. The writer, in company with twelve or fif- teen others, had been sent to the naval hospital in the city some two weeks previous.

On Sunday, the 2d of April, there were anxious looks upon the faces of medical officers of the hospital, and about 4 o'clock in the afternoon a midshipman, coming into the ward to see a sick com- rade, met the jeers and amused expressions of many of us because he was armed and equipped as an infantry soldier instead of the dainty dress of the Confederate "Middy." The visitor informed us that at 2 o'clock that day orders had been issued for the corps to be armed as infantry, and that they had been marched to the naval storehouse in double-quick time and supplied with all the necessary accoutrements. Other rumors came in that members of the senior class and some passed-midshipmen had been seen as officers in in- fantry marching through the streets, and that a naval brigade had been formed and the iron-clad squadron at Drewry's Bluff had been abandoned.

Then began a bustle in and about the wards, and at sundown the statement was freely bandied around that the President and cabinet had left the city, and that it was to be evacuated at once. At 8 o'clock the writer and two comrades drove in the hospital ambulance to the quarters of the midshipmen at the factory and found it empty. On one of the upper floors was the mahogany table and the silver table service of the wardroom, watched over by an old boatswain's mate, and, sitting in solemn state at the bottom of it, drinking, and eating crackers, was the second lieutenant. To him we mentioned the rumors, asked where the boys had gone, and requested to have the sailors transport our baggage to the depot from which the school had started. These he met with ridicule, denied the evacuation of the city and said the " Middies" had gone to Chapel Hill, N. C, which would be the seat of the naval academy for the rest of the war. He told us to return to the hospital and retire, and the next day leave with him and two other midshipmen for Chapel Hill. We did so, and on the next morning were awakened by the explosion of the magazines. Dressing rapidly, we proceeded to the surgeon's