Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 39.djvu/194

 182 Southern Historical Society Papers.

The officers taken on at Fort Norfolk, not sick or incapacitated by wounds, were requested to join the plot, to which they readily assented. I copy from the diary of Lieutenant A. E. Asbury, now living at Higginsville, Mo., and Colonel J. J. Green, of Cov- ington, Tenn., who died in 1906, to whom I am indebted for the greater portion of this article. The plan was a detail of three men to be at or near each sentinel on duty talking or chaffing with him. Another party under a leader were told to be near when the relief guard had stacked their muskets, and still another to be in readiness to assemble quickly to overawe the crew. The signal was the ringing of the steamer's bell, and so quickly and quietly was the plot executed that scarcely had the sound of the bell died away before the Confederates were in possession of the steamer.

Colonel Green says within one minute the capture was effective. Lieutenant Asbury, who was sick and lying down in the hold of the steamer with many others, says the first intimation of the melee on the upper deck was a captain coming among them and stating in no uncertain sounds that they had charge of the ship. A jollification was held, and such a rebel yell rang out over the waters of the Chesapeake Bay as will never be heard again. Captain Fuller, captain of the C. S. gunboat "Star of the West," one of the prisoners, was placed in command, and a council of war held, and the first intention was to run the steamer into Nas- sau. The supply of coal, however, was found to be insufficient, and it was finally decided to make for the beach somewhere south of Cape Henry and take chances. The landing was made after nightfall, most probably ten miles south of Virginia Beach. When all of the officers not too sick or severly wounded were transferred to the beach, the steamer was given back to her cap- tain, under oath, to care for the sick and wounded prisoners left on board,proceed to Fort Delaware, and there report. This oath he faithfully kept (?) by steaming as rapidly as possible to Fort Monroe and there reporting the little incident or accident that had befallen him on his journey. Major-General Dix, U. S.. in command at Fortress ^Monroe, in his report states that the