April 21, 1861. |
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| Burning of the vessels at the Gosport Navy Yard.1 |
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the Navy Yard, leaving the insurgents nothing worth contending for. One hundred men were sent, under Lieutenant J. H. Russell, with sledge-hammers, to knock off the trunnions of the cannon; Captain Charles Wilkes was intrusted with the destruction of the Dry-dock; Commanders Allen and Sands were charged with the firing of the ship-houses, barracks, and other buildings; and Lieutenant Henry A. Wise was directed to lay trains upon the ships and to fire them at a given signal.
The trunnions of the Dahlgren guns resisted the hammers, but those of a large number of the old pattern guns were destroyed.
Many of the remainder were spiked, but so indifferently that they were soon repaired.
Commander Rogers and Captain Wright, of the Engineers, volunteered to blow up and destroy the Dry-dock.
At about two o'clock in the morning,
every thing was in readiness.
The troops, marines, sailors, and others at the yard, were taken on board the Pawnee and Cumberland, leaving on shore only as many as were required to start the conflagration.
At three o'clock, the Yankee, Captain Germain, took the Cumberland in tow; and twenty minutes later Paulding sent up a rocket from the Pawnee, which was the signal for the incendiaries to apply the match.
In a few minutes a grand and awful spectacle burst upon the vision of the inhabitants of Norfolk and Portsmouth, and of the country for leagues around.
The conflagration, starting simultaneously at different points, became instantly terrific.
Its
roar could be heard for miles, and its light was seen far at sea, far up the James and York Rivers, and Chesapeake Bay, and far beyond the Dismal Swamp.
The ships and the ship-houses, and other large buildings in the Navy Yard, were involved in one grand ruin.
To add to the sublimity of the fiery tempest, frequent discharges were heard from the monster ship-of-the-line Pennsylvania, as the flames reached her loaded heavy guns.
When the conflagration was fairly under way, the Pawnee and the Cumberland, towed by the Yankee, went down the river, and all who were
1 this view shows the position of some of the vessels on Sunday morning, the 21st of April. The large vessel on the right is the Pennsylvania. on the extreme left is seen the bow of the United States. in the center is seen the Pawnee steam-frigate, and the Cumberland with the Yankee at her side. This is from a picture in Harper's Weekly, May 11, 1861.
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