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up, furl sails and brace the yards.
Another detail of men and the ship's surgeon were assigned to the care of the dead and wounded on the deck, while still another party was employed to get the ship's hawser up from between decks to be used for towing her into Sabine pass.
The officers of the ship were taken on board the Bell, and great was their surprise to discover what manner of frail craft they had mistaken for an ironclad.
While the Bell was capturing the Morning Light, the Uncle Ben had veered to the eastward and achieved the same success in her encounter with the Velocity, which she promptly towed into port.
Captain Fowler, with characteristic modesty, lavished unqualified praise upon the detachment of Pyron's regiment on board the Bell, and also upon the Davis Guards for their bravery and readiness to obey orders, taking no credit to himself for the successful result of the daring expedition.
They were brave men, but so gallant a leader would have lent courage to less valiant hearts than theirs.
Many hearts sincerely mourn his death, but perhaps none more truly appreciated the intrepid courage of his grand nature than those who shared his danger in the capture of the Morning Light and Velocity.
The report of
Lieut.-Col. W. H. Griffin, in command at
Sabine pass, mentions the victory of a small body of Texans in an engagement there, April 18, 1863, as follows:
‘Last night I placed 30 men in the lighthouse under Lieutenant Jones, of Griffin's battalion.
To-day at 11 o'clock, 13 Federals came up to the lighthouse in two small boats.
We captured 6 men, including Captain Mc-Dermot, of the Cayuga, who was mortally wounded, and the captain's gig. The other boat escaped with 3 men. Four were killed in the water.
Second Lieutenant Wright, of Company D, Griffin's battalion, was killed, gallantly leading the men. No other casualties.’
On May 3d the enemy attempted to make a landing on
St. Joseph's island, near
Corpus Christi, but were brilliantly repelled by a small force under
Capt. E. E. Hobby.
Col. A. M. Hobby, Eighth Texas infantry, in command at
Corpus Christi, in transmitting the reports of
Capts. B. F. Neal and
E. E. Hobby, said of the latter:
