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[394] vessel formed a valuable addition to the small Confederate fleet on the Mississippi. Her subsequent career, however, was a brief one, as she was fired and abandoned by a Lieutenant of infantry, who, with a small detachment, had been placed in charge. The enemy above Vicksburg had set adrift an imitation ironclad, made of a coal barge, with pine logs for guns. As it floated down near the Indianola, the Lieutenant in charge became alarmed at the approach of so formidable a craft, and decamped after setting fire to his vessel. Admiral Porter was much chagrined at the loss of this fine ironclad, of which so much had been expected, and thus announced his loss:
Lieutenant Patten, on March the 1st, was ordered to Red river, to take command of the section of the 3d Maryland aboard the Queen of the West. He found her at Shreveport, Louisiana. In the April following, the Queen, with the Lizzie Simmons as a supply boat, made an attack on the Federal fleet in Grand Lake, Louisiana, and during the engagement was set on fire by a shell from the enemy. The crew jumped over-board, and attempted to swim ashore. Many were drowned, as the distance they had to swim was about four miles. The fire soon reached the magazine of the Queen, when her eventful career was ended by an explosion, blowing her into fragments. Many of the crew were killed in the action, some were drowned, as related above, and others were picked up by the enemy; among these was Captain Fuller, the commander of the Queen. Only four of the Third Maryland made their escape. I subjoin a list of its losses, in this disastrous affair of April 14th, on Grand Lake. Killed in the action, or drowned in endeavoring to escape from the burning Queen: Lieutenant William T. Patten, Sergeant Edward H. Langley, Corporals Joseph Edgar and Michael H. O'Connell, Privates Thomas Bowler, S. Chafin, Edward Kenn and H. L. McKisick. Lieutenant Patten was drowned. He was from Port Deposit, Cecil county, Maryland. In March, 1858, he went into business at Cleveland, Tennessee, and in 1860 removed to Alabama, where he remained
Richmond, VA. 1882.
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