[230] there was another series of what were called water batteries lining the bank. As the ships entered this curve, following the channel which swept close to the eastern shore, they were, one after the other, exposed to the most terrible enfilading fire from all the batteries following the line of the curve. This was the most desperate point of the conflict; for here it was almost literally fighting muzzle to muzzle. The rebels discharged an incessant cross-fire of grape and canister, to which the heroic squadron replied with double-shotted guns. Never did ships pass a more fiery ordeal. Lieutenant-Commander Cummings, the executive officer of the “Richmond,” was standing with his speaking-trumpet in his hand cheering the men, with Captain Alden by his side, when there was a simultaneous flash and roar, and a storm of shot came crashing through the bulwarks from a rebel battery, which they could almost touch with their ramrods. Both of the officers fell as if struck by lightning. The captain was simply knocked down by the windage, and escaped unharmed. The speaking-trumpet in Commander Cummings' hand was battered flat, and his left leg was torn off just below the knee. As he fell heavily upon the deck, in his gushing blood, he exclaimed:
Put a tourniquet on my leg, boys. Send my letters to my wife. Tell her that I fell in doing my duty!As they took him below, and into the surgeon's room, already filled with the wounded, he looked around upon the unfortunate group, and said:
If there are any here hurt worse than I am let them be attended to first.
