Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 4.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[86] at eleven o'clock Saturday night, and was consequently five days and a half at sea, and the greater portion of the time the men and crew were on a short allowance of water. No coffee could be made on board, on account of the scarcity of water, and the suffering of the troops was severe. Many cases of delirium resulted from this state of affairs, as the rations consisted chiefly of salt beef and pork. The schooner experienced a succession of severe gales, adding seasickness, to a general extent, to the suffering from want of water.

The Suwanee, steam gunboat, which had been disabled at Annapolis, by blowing out her steamchest, arrived to-day, and will be added to the armed squadron attached to the fleet.

Two of the regiments stationed at this post, the Ninth New-York, Col. Hawkins, and the Forty-eighth Pennsylvania, Col.----, are to be relieved by the Sixth New-Hampshire, Col. Converse, and the Fifty-third New-York, Col. d'epineuil, and will join the forces of the expedition. The Sixth New-Hampshire has already been transferred, and the Fifty-third New-York will be transferred in a day or two. The steamer Louisiana is still aground.

But little anxiety is felt here about the enemy's gunboats. They give our bull-dogs a very wide berth. The chief anxiety is on account of the indifferent anchorage within the inlet. Almost every day some additional vessel is aground, if not permanently, at least for a short time. Our good craft has touched bottom several times within the last two days, once only with danger of remaining aground. By the aid of a few tons of Pennsylvania volunteers, who were made to go from side to side of the vessel, to rock her, and by backing the engine, she was rescued from the impending danger.

Many conjectures are expressed in relation to the object in the economy of nature of the sand-banks that make an inlet to Pamlico Sound a necessity, but all end in the opinion that they were intended as a wholesome and final test for human patience. The man who endures, without losing his temper, the million unexpected and improbable casualties that must attend whatever enterprise he engages in here, deserves to be canonized among the most patient of his race. How the people who formerly inhabited this region managed to maintain anything more than vegetative existence is a miracle. One can readily understand how the cardinal doctrine of the wrecker becomes an article of faith, to doubt which is a wicked heresy, by enduring the privations of this region for a single day. Next to wrecking, piloting vessels through the tortuous ramifications of the sand-bars of Pamlico Sound is the legitimate profession of the biped mollusca of this region, and when you think you have settled with your pilot and given him a gratuity in the way of sail-cloth, or rope, there is a final request for a small piece of salt pork, as he has just lost a barrel by damage from sea-water.

Natural philosophers argue the existence of certain animals from the natural productions of different regions and at different periods of the earth's formation; by the same rule, although no trace of the species is to be found at present in the neighborhood of Hatteras Inlet, the existence of the wrecker is established by the remains of innumerable wrecks. No other animal can exist on this coast.

Hatteras Inlet, January 19.

We are still awaiting the order to advance into the enemy's country, and as the promulgation of that order is dependent on results yet to be attained, the time of our departure is problematical. It is laid down as an axiom that doubtful things are always uncertain. The author must have been connected with some great military and naval expedition to have been so impressed with this truth as to declare it axiomatically. We are still within Hatteras Inlet, and each day of delay adds one if not two to the list of our disasters.

Night before last the gunboat Suwanee arrived here and anchored almost on the bar. Before long she was aground. Yesterday she partly billed and is now unfit for service. The gunboat Ranger also went aground. The steamer Cossack was aground from Saturday morning until Sunday morning. The gunboat Stars and Stripes was aground yesterday, but succeeded in getting over the swash into deep water. A large ship grounded on the bar outside the inlet, but subsequently got off.

A tug that swung foul of the Brant Island shoal lightship, which is anchored here, having been captured from the rebels, had her guard and gangway crushed into her cabin, showing her timbers to be rotten. A grand mistake seems to have been made in the selection of vessels for the expedition. A very large proportion of the vessels of the fleet have been aground and several have been lost through their great draft. The vessels draw too much for the waters in which they are intended to operate. It is even said that the figures on the stem and stern of some of our vessels have been altered in order to secure their sale to the Government.

To-day I have noticed for the first time since we left Annapolis something peculiar in the day. The Pennsylvanians were singing hymns at various intervals, and referring to my dates, I perceived it was Sunday. But from no other external indication could I infer that a Sabbath had shed its benign influence on the bleak desolation about me. I went ashore and found Capt. Belger, of the Seventh Rhode Island battery, landing his horses from the George Peabody. The trembling creatures were led to the gangway of the steamer, and after attaching a rope about thirty feet long to their necks, were pushed over into the water; the end of the rope being secured to the stern of a small boat, they were thus led ashore. They were entirely under water when thrown over, and came up snorting and puffing, but invariably striking out by instinct for the beach. Capt. Belger's battery will be left here a short time, as there is no immediate service required