Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 7.djvu/246

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��Captain George Hamilton Perkins, U.S.N.

��[April,

��the work and ensured, without em- barrassment, the continued operations against Fort Morgan and other de- fences in the bay.

Perkins, not content with laurels already won, got under weigh after dinner, and steamed up to Fort Pow- ell, taking that work in rear. The shots from the Chickasaw destroyed the water-tanks, and Captain Anderson reported that, believing it to be impossi- ble to drive the ironclad from its posi- tion, and fearing that a shell from the Chickasaw would explode the maga- zine, he decided to save his command and blow up the fort, which was done that night at 10.30. In the afternoon, the Chickasaw had seized a barge load- ed with stores, from under the guns of Fort Powell, and towed it to the fleet.

The next afternoon, the ever- ready and alert Chickasaw, under her inde- fatigable commander, went down to Fort Gaines and shelled that work until dusk with such telling effect, that, coupled with the fact that the land- force under General Granger, investing its rear, was now ready to open fire in conjunction with the fleet, the rebel commander capitulated the next morn- ing.

Morgan was now the only remaining work of the outer Une of Mobile's de- fences to be "possessed and occupied," and General Granger, after throwing a sufficient garrison into Gaines, trans- ferred his army and siege-train to the other side of the bay, and landing at Navy Cove, some four miles from Morgan, began its investment.

While this was going on, the Chicka- saw was not idle, but continually using her guns at one point and another, with occasional exchanges of shotted compliments with the rams and bat- teries across the obstructions in Dog

��River, forming the inner line of de- fence of the city, some four miles distant.

On the twenty-second of August, the approaches having been completed, the land and naval forces opened a terrific fire on devoted Morgan, and continued it throughout the day with such effect that General Page, commanding the garrison, struck his colors and surren- dered the next day.

The Chickasaw was as conspicuous in the bombardment as she had been in all her work since entering the bay. It was not in Perkins's temperament to be otherwise, and said an eye-witness at the time : " It was a glorious sight to see the gallant Perkins in the Chicka- saw, nearly all the morning almost touching the wharf, and pouring in his terrible missiles, two at a time, making bricks and mortar fly in all directions, then moving ahead or astern a little to get a fresh place. He stayed there till nearly noon, when he hauled off to cool his guns and give his men some refreshment. In the afternoon, he took his ship in again, and turret after turret was emptied at the poor fort."

Perkins sent home the flag that had flown over the fort during the bombard- ment ; he obtained it in this wise : "The sailors from this ship," said he, " hauled down the flag, and one of them seized it and hid it in his bosom ; there was not much left of it ; it was riddled and torn. He brought it to me, declaring that no one had a right to it but the captain of the Chickasaw. I hardly knew what to do about it, but the man seemed so earnest I could not refuse to take it from him."

The bay was now sealed to blockade runners, and Mobile, measured as to its commercial importance to the Con- federacy, might as well have been

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