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| James Harman Ward. |
June 11, 1861. |
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had drifted away.
Unwilling to call the men back to an exposed position, the Lieutenant swam out to the nearest one, carrying on his back a soldier (and his musket) who could not swim.
Only one man of the party who landed was injured; but a sad event
occurred on the deck of the Freeborn. The gunner was wounded in the thigh, when Captain Ward took charge of the piece.
While sighting it, a well-aimed Minie ball came from the shore and mortally wounded him by entering the abdomen.
As he fell he was caught by one arm of Harry Churchill, the boatswain's mate, who used his other hand with the string to fire the well-aimed cannon, whose round shot struck plump among the insurgents.
Ward lived only forty-five minutes. The ball had passed through the intestines and liver.
His was the only life sacrificed on the occasion, on the Union side.1
This attack on the works of the insurgents on Matthias Point, and those on the batteries at Sewell's and Pig Point, and at Acquia Creek, convinced the Government that little could be done by armed vessels, without an accompanying land force, competent to meet the foe in fair battle.
While these events were transpiring in the region of the Potomac, others equally stirring and important were occurring in Northwestern Virginia.
For a month after the dash on Romney,
Colonel Wallace and his regiment were placed in an important and perilous position at Cumberland, in Western Maryland.
When the insurgents recovered from the panic produced by that dash, which made them flee sixteen miles without halting, and found that Wallace had fallen back to Cumberland, they took heart, advanced to Romney, four thousand strong, under Colonel McDonald-infantry, cavalry, and artillery — and, pushing on to New
1 Captain Ward was the first naval officer who was killed in the war. His body was taken to the Washington Navy Yard, and thence to New York, where, on the deck of the North Carolina, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, it lay in state, and was visited by many persons. It was then conveyed to Hartford, where funeral services were performed by the Roman Catholic Bishop of that diocese, in the Cathedral. It was buried with imposing ceremonies.
The Pawnee became so obnoxious to the insurgents that they devised many schemes for her destruction. Among other contrivances was a torpedo, or floating mine, delineated in the accompanying sketch. It was picked up in the Potomac, a few yards from the Pawnee, on the evening of the 7th of July, 1861. The following is a description:--1,1, Oil-casks, serving for buoys. 2, 2, Iron tubes, four feet six inches long, and eighteen inches in diameter, charged with gunpowder. 3, A 3-inch rope, with large pieces of cork two feet apart. 4, 4, Boxes on top of casks with fusees. 5, 5, Gutta-percha tubing connected with capped tubes. 6, 6, Brass tops on the torpedoes. 7, 7, Copper tubes running through the casks. 8, Wooden platform in center of cask, on which the fusee was coiled and secured. 9, Fusee. This infernal machine was to be set afloat with the tide in the direction of the vessel to be destroyed, after the fusee or slow match was lighted. This was the beginning of the use of torpedoes, which the insurgents employed very extensively during the war. Others will be hereafter delineated and described. |
| Torpedo. |
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