Page:The Immortal Six Hundred.djvu/112

   "Crescent's" officers, and they had run too close into shore and had run the ship aground and lost our escorts, the gunboats.

This accidental grounding of the ship sent my spirits away up, and the thought came to me, "Now we can certainly get back to Dixie without the formality of exchange." While I was thinking all this over, Col. Van Manning, 3d Ark. Inf., came on deck. I hastily told him the situation. He at once said, "Murray, we must take this ship." He went below, a hasty council was held with the prisoners, and it was determined that we should take the ship. It was arranged that Colonels Manning, DeGurney, Abe Fulkerson, and Maj. W. W. Goldsborough should make the demand for the surrender of the ship. If it was declined, those below were to rush the guard at foot of the ladder, get on deck, capture the guard, and go ashore on Folly Island. It was a desperate undertaking. It would have been certain death for some of us