Page:The Immortal Six Hundred.djvu/114

   and from there make our way to Charleston City. While the preliminaries of the surrender were being arranged a signal gun was heard out at sea and soon the gunboats hove in sight. Under the shadow of their frowning guns hope fled and black despair settled upon our hearts. The moment the gunboats came in sight the cowardly attitude of Captain Webster changed to that of impudent defiance. He forced some of our officers to go down in the coal bunkers of the ship and help to throw overboard coal to lighten us off the sand bar. The guard drove us all below, allowing no prisoners on deck until the ship was pulled off the bar. There were two incidents which took place while our ship was aground worth recording. The first showed how deeply Webster and his guards hated everything Southern. The first mate of the "Crescent City" was an Irishman who had lived, before the war began, in New Orleans. He recognized, amongst the prisoners, several friends. Whenever the chance presented itself he