March 4, 1863. |
Jan. 31. |
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the afternoon, when the mortar-boats began throwing a shell every fifteen minutes, and kept it up until next morning.
Then Drayton went up as near the fort as possible with the Passaic, for observation, shielded from the guns by the turret of his vessel.
He was satisfied that further efforts to drive out the Confederates would be useless, and the enterprise was abandoned.1
A little earlier than this the Nationals lost the steamer Isaac Smith, Acting Lieutenant Conover, while reconnoitering near Charleston.
She went up the Stono River, some miles beyond Legareville, without molestation, but when she was within a mile of that place, on her return, three masked batteries opened a cross fire upon her at a bend in the stream, when she was captured and sent to Charleston.
On the following morning another blow was given to National vessels.
The Confederates at Charleston had been informed that the two larger ships of the blockading fleet lying off the bar (Powhatan and Canandaigua) had gone to Port Royal to coal, so two Confederate armored gun-boats, of the “rain” class (Palmetto State, Captain Ingraham,2 and Chicora, Captain Tucker), went out before day-light
and in a shrouding haze, to strike the weaker National vessels then watching the harbor entrances.
Softly they stole over the bar, when the Palmetto State, acting as a ram, struck the Mercidita, Captain Stellwagen, with full force, amidships, and at the same time fired a 7-inch rifled shell into her side, that went crashing through her machinery, releasing steam that scalded many men, and so completely disabling her that she could neither fight nor fly. The victor then attacked the Keystone State, Captain Le Roy, and sent a shell into her forehold, setting it on fire.
As soon as the flames were put out, Le Roy attempted to run down his antagonist (the Keystone State having a full head of steam), but was foiled by a huge shot sent by the Palmetto State, which went through both steam-chests of his vessel, and so utterly disabled her that, like the Mercidita, she was surrendered.
Ten rifled shells had struck her, and two of them had burst on her deck.3
Day was now dawning, and the remainder of the blockading squadron, wide awake, dashed into the fight,4 when the Memphis towed the Keystone out of danger.
The assailants then retreated toward Charleston, where Beauregard, then in command there,5 and Ingraham, “flag-officer commanding naval forces of South Carolina,” proclaimed, without the shadow of truth, the blockade of Charleston “to be raised by a superior force of the Confederate States.”
Not a single vessel of the blockading squadron had been lost, for the Confederates did not make the Mercidita a prize by putting men on board of her, and the Keystone State was saved by her friends.
In the face of these facts, the raising of the blockade was falsely announced, for effect abroad, and the British consul at Charleston and the commander of
1 The earth-works of the fort were very little damaged, and only one of its nine great guns was dismounted. This was effected by one of the 15-inch shells, which weighed 845 pounds. No man was killed on either side, and only one wounded. This engagement is sometimes called the battle of Genesis Point.
2 Duncan N. Ingraham, formerly a useful officer of the National Navy, who had abandoned his flag and given his services to the Conspirators.
3 The Mercidita had three men killed and four wounded. The Keystone State had twenty men killed, chiefly by the steam, and twenty wounded.
4 The Augusta, Quaker City, Memphis, and Housatonic
5 Pemberton had been ordered to Mississippi.
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