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side; on the other, the frigates Minnesota, St. Lawrence and Roanoke were coming up from Old Point Comfort, and, in front, the beach was lined with field batteries and sharpshooters.
Fortunately for the Confederate wooden vessels, the Minnesota, St. Lawrence and Roanoke grounded, and the smaller vessels which accompanied them, warned by the fate of the Cumberland, returned to Old Point.
The Minnesota, though aground, was near enough to take part in the action, and opened a heavy fire on the Confederate squadron.
About this time Flag-Officer Buchanan hailed the Patrick Henry, and directed Commander Tucker to burn the Congress, which vessel had run ashore, hauled down her ensign, and hoisted a white flag.
The gunboats, Raleigh, Beaufort and Teaser, had attempted to burn her, but had been driven off by a heavy artillery and infantry fire from the Federal troops on the beach.
The pilots of the Patrick Henry declared that that vessel could not get alongside the Congress in consequence of an intervening shoal.
This determined Commander Tucker1 to approach the Congress as near as the shoal would permit, and then to send his boats and burn her; the boats were prepared for the service, and the boat's crews and officers to command them held ready, whilst the vessel was steaming in to the Congress. This movement of the Patrick Henry placed her in the most imminent peril; she was brought under the continuous and concentrated fire of three points; on her port-quarter were the batteries of Newport News, on her port-bow were the field batteries and sharpshooters on the beach, and on her starboard-bow the Minnesota. It soon became evident that no wooden vessel could long float under such a fire; several shots struck the hull; a piece was shot out of the walking beam; as the sponge of the after pivot gun was being inserted in the piece the handle was cut in two by a shot-half in prayer and half in despair at being unable to perform his duty, the sponger exclaimed, ‘Oh, Lord!
how is the gun to be sponged?’
and he was much relieved when the quarter gunner of his division handed him a spare sponge.
This state of things could not last long; a rifle shot from the field batteries penetrated the steam chest, the engine room and fire room were filled with steam, five or six of the firemen were scalded to death, the engineers were driven up on deck, and the engines stopped working.
The vessel was enveloped in a cloud of escaped steam, and the enemy, seeing that some disaster to the engines or boilers had occurred, increased his fire.
At the moment, no one knew what had happened, the general impression being that the boiler had exploded; and it is an unmistakable evidence
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1 The name of my dear and deeply-lamented friend, Admiral John Randolph Tucker, has been necessarily so frequently mentioned in this letter as commander of the Patrick Henry, that it will not be out of place to say a few words as to his career.
During the course of his honorable and eventful life Admiral Tucker served in three navies, rendering gallant, faithful and important services to each of them, but probably the most brilliant, if not the most important, of all his services was rendered whilst he commanded the Patrick Henry. Born in Alexandria, Virginia, in the year 1812, he entered the navy of the United States as a midshipman in 1826, and made his first cruise in the frigate Brandywine. In 1837 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and in 1855 to that of commander. During the Mexican war he commanded the bomb-brig Stromboli. In 1861, when commanded so to do by the Virginia Convention, he resigned his commission in the United States navy and entered the Confederate service, with the rank of commander. He commanded the Confederate States steamer Patrick Henry at the naval conflict in Hampton Roads; and at Drewry's Bluff, having landed his crew and mounted the principal guns of his vessel on the bluff, he materially aided in repulsing the Federal squadron. Soon after the battle of Drewry's Bluff he was promoted to the rank of captain, and ordered to Charleston, where he commanded the Confederate naval forces as flag-officer of the station. When Charleston was evacuated he returned to Drewry's Bluff, which station he commanded until Richmond was evacuated, when he reported with his command to General Lee. His services in the civil war ended at Sailor's Creek, where, after a most gallant resistance, he surrendered to General Keifer, who some years after the close of the war returned him his sword. During the war between the Republics of Peru and Chili and Spain, Admiral Tucker commanded, with the commission of rear admiral, the combined fleets of the two Republics. His last service was the exploration and survey of the upper Amazon and its tributaries, being president of the Peruvian Hydrographic Commission of the Amazon. He died of disease of the heart, at his residence in Petersburg, Virginia, on the 12th of June, 1883, and was buried by the side of his wife, in the cemetery at Norfolk. It would require a volume to do anything like justice to the character and career of this most noble and gallant man. His firmness on all occasions of duty was of proof, though no one was more gentle in the ordinary intercourse of private life. None served with him without feeling that he was a man fitted for high destinies, for he was of a nature, an experience, and a professional skill, well calculated to command respect and inspire confidence. In the course of my life I have had many opportunities of hearing character discussed among sea officers; few escape criticism of some sort or other for their professional acts, and fewer still as men, yet I do not remember a single instance in which I have ever heard a whisper of complaint against the professional or private conduct of John Randolph Tucker.—J. H. R., 1886.
Richmond, VA. 1886.
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