...nd the result so contrary to preconceived ideas of iron-clad invincibility, that it may justly claim to take a historical position on the same page that records the brilliant exploits of Decatur and John Paul Jones . On the afternoon of May fifth, the Mattabesett, Sassacus, and Wyalusing, side-wheel gunboats, were lying at anchor in Albemarle Sound, twenty miles below the mouth of the Roanoke River, having b...