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 PERSONAL NARRATIVES 
 
 OF EVENTS IN THE 
 
 War of The Rebellion, 
 
 No. 1. Second Series. 
 
 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL T. BROWNE. 
 
PERSONAL NARRATIVES 
 
 OF EVENTS IN THE 
 
 War of the Rebellion 
 
 BEING PAPERS READ BEFORE THE 
 / 
 
 ■ RHODE ISLAND SOLDIERS AND SAILORS 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 
 No. 1 . . . Second Series. 
 
 providence: 
 
 THE N. BANGS WILLIAMS CO, 
 
 1880. 
 
Copyright by 
 
 N". BANGS AVILLIAMS, 
 
 1880. 
 
 PRINTED BY E. L. FREEMAN & CO. 
 
FIRST CRUISE 
 
 OP 
 
 THE MONTAUK 
 
 BY SAMUEL T. BROWNE, 
 
 PATMA8TEK UNITED STATES NAVT. 
 
 
 PROVIDElSrCE: 
 THE N. BANGS WILLIAMS CO 
 
 1880. 
 
 T^ 
 
 N 
 

 Copyright by 
 N . BANGS WILLIAMS, 
 1880. 
 
AUTHOR'S NOTE 
 
 TfiE following paper was read before Kodman Post, No. 12, 
 Department of Rhode Island, Grand Army of the Republic, 
 at the recxuest of whose officers it was written, in February, 
 1870. Especially was it suggested by Gen. James Shaw, Jr., 
 whose efPorts, made first in Rhode Island, to obtain and 
 preserve records of personal experience during the war of 
 the Rebellion, resulted, at his suggestion, in the issuing of a 
 general order by the Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army 
 of the Republic of the United States, requesting the officers 
 of every Post in all the States, to secure from the members 
 the writing and reading, and then to preserve, the records 
 of personal experience during the war; the chief result of 
 which custom would be to obtain a large and valuable 
 amo<Int of historical data, which must otherwise have re- 
 mained unwritten. 
 
 Willing and wishing to comply with the spirit of this idea, 
 the following paper was written. Subsequently, at the request 
 of the Soldiers and Sailors Historical Society of Rhode Island, 
 it was read before that Society and deposited in its archives. 
 Any interest which may attach to it, must arise from the 
 
6 author's note. 
 
 fact that the vessel of which this paper speaks, was the first 
 iron-clad that steamed so far away as the coast of Georgia, 
 and braved the rough Atlantic in mid-winter; the first that 
 had any contest with fortification or earth-work; and the first 
 under which — and with serious injury to herself — a torpedo 
 was exploded. She was thus the forerunner of all that great 
 fleet of iron-clad men-of-war, now of such various design, 
 of which nearly every navy of the world owns a part; and 
 hence, the record of her earliest days and first service may 
 be worth preservation. It is intended to be a simple and 
 unadorned story, the character of the vessel, her service, 
 and the time, justifying the detail of the relation, — and the 
 fact of its being a narrative of personal experience, making 
 unnecessary any apology for the seeming prominence of the 
 writer. 
 
 S. T. B. 
 Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md., 
 August 31, 1S7S. 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 Read before the Society, Dec. 26, 1877. 
 
 The echoes of the first guns that threatened 
 destruction to the union of the American States, 
 and sealed the harbor of Charleston into the hands 
 of a prospective Confederate South, had scarcely 
 died away wlien men's minds began to conceive 
 and their hands to form new engines for offense and 
 defense to be used upon the sea. Fragments of 
 reports reached us, now and then, from the feverish 
 and excited South, concerning the work of prepara- 
 tion going on there, — that armed and mailed craft 
 were building that would sweep the seas ; that 
 vessels-of-war — late the nation's guard — were 
 stripped of rigging and spars, braced and strength- 
 ened, clad with an armor of iron rails, and thus 
 invulnerable, were almost ready to enter a contest 
 that should help win the South an independence. 
 
8 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 Too little heed Avas given to these reports of prepa- 
 ration, and on one mild Monday morning in March, 
 1862, the North was paralyzed by a message that flew 
 from Fortress Monroe to millions of loyal firesides, 
 telling of a strange vessel clad in shot-proof armor, 
 that had steamed boldly in daylight from its covert 
 at Norfolk, and in a few hours worked its own way 
 of destruction and death among our vessels-of-war 
 lying at anchor in Hampton Roads. She had sunk 
 the Congress and Cumberland, noble vessels and 
 manned by noble men, who stood by their guns 
 while the water rose around them. 
 
 " No blanching— no faltering — still fearless all seem: 
 Each man firm to duty doth bide: 
 A flash! one more broadside! a shout — a careen! — 
 And the Cumberland sinks 'neath the tide. 
 
 "Bold hearts! mighty spirits! tried gold of our land! 
 A halo of glory your meed. 
 All honored the noble-souled Cumberland band 
 So true in Columbia's need." 
 
 But the shot from the doomed frigates bounded 
 like peas from the sides of the iron monster. The 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 9 
 
 storm of shot and shell poured upon the strange 
 craft from batteries both afloat and on shore, were 
 unavailing to stop her terrible course, and only com- 
 ing darkness saved the Minnesota and other vessels, 
 and the immense supplies of government stores gath- 
 ered at Hampton Roads. No salvation from this 
 giant war- craft appeared. New York and Phila- 
 delphia were threatened, and in a few hours the 
 whole nation was throbbing in an agony of suspense. 
 But that night there was an arrival in those waters 
 of a strange vessel-machine, that at once lifted loyal 
 hearts out of the quicksands of despair and placed 
 them on the firmer ground of hope, and to the 
 stricken North it seemed like an interposition of 
 Divine Providence. On the following day, when 
 the mailed marine Goliath came forth, lo ! — as to the 
 astonished Philistines David appeared, so this insig- 
 nificant strange apparatus that steamed out upon 
 the bay, and which had been called in ironical droll- 
 ery " a cheese-box on a raft."' Its sling was a new 
 monster gun, and its stone an eleven-inch solid shot, 
 and the giant vessel was smitten and driven away, 
 and never again ventured to attack. 
 
10 FIRST CRUISE OP THE MONTAUK. 
 
 This experiment of Ericsson's, called the " Monitor,"' 
 though reaching Fortress Monroe by scarcely less 
 than a miracle, from thenceforward became a cer- 
 tainty, and gave name to a large and important class 
 of the naval marine. A number of vessels on this 
 plan, but having many improvements resulting from 
 the experimental fight of the Monitor, were imme- 
 diately contracted for by the government, and in the 
 autumn the first two were finished, and to one of 
 them, the Montauk, the Navy Department assigned 
 me. To a modest gentleman whose eye-balls and 
 face were stained with powder, blinded and wounded 
 as he was by the last shot fired from the monster 
 Merrimac at his little Monitor, to John L. Worden, 
 whose gallant fight had restored a nation's confi- 
 de Qce, and who was now to command the Montauk, 
 I reported for duty. I found the Montauk lying at a 
 wharf in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and not yet quite 
 ready for service, and in every point she was much 
 an improvement upon the Monitor. Her flat deck, 
 not more than twenty inches above the water, and 
 pointed at each end, reminded me of the shingle 
 vessels 1 myself had launched in earlier years and in 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 11 
 
 more peaceful times. Her deck was protected by a 
 double layer of iron plates, each nine feet by three 
 in surface area, and an inch thick. Her sides were 
 armored with five thicknesses of these iron plates 
 bolted through and through on thick oaken backing, 
 and extending to a point about four feet below the 
 water-line, and there the armor ended, and a sharp 
 right angle carried that portion of the vessel known 
 as the " overhang " to the hull of the ship which 
 was constructed of five-eighth inch iron plates. 
 
 The distinctive feature of the vessel was amid- 
 ships, and consisted of a circular iron tower nine 
 feet in height, and made of such plates as above 
 mentioned, placed one over another, until the tower 
 was eleven inches thick. These plates were firmly 
 held together by massive bolts going through and 
 through, on the outside the bolt-heads slightly 
 rounded, and with the thread-end and heavy nut 
 on the inside. The roof was made of iron plates 
 perforated and placed upon railway rails, and the 
 rails resting upon massive square beams of iron 
 extending across the top of the tower. This tower, 
 or " turret," as it became known, revolved upon the 
 
12 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 faces of rings of bronze-metal fitted into a circular 
 channel in the deck, and around an immense iron 
 spindle or shaft that supported the pilot-house 
 standing above the centre of the turret, and a 
 miniature of it. The pilot-house did not revolve. 
 It was fitted with funnel-shaped eye-holes nearly 
 five feet above the floor of the pilot-house, which 
 converged from the larger diameter inside, to an 
 aperture an inch in diameter on the outside. 
 
 Within the turret were two guns, an eleven-inch 
 and a fifteen-inch, — the latter ludicrously resembling 
 a soda bottle, — its cartridges of walnut-sized powder 
 varying from thirty-five to sixty pounds weight, and 
 its missiles from a three-hundred-and-twenty-five 
 pound unfilled shell, to a four hundred pound solid 
 shot. Beneath the turret and guns was the turret- 
 chamber, and here were small engines for working 
 the turret, and also to operate the ventilating blow- 
 ers, — for all of the supply of fresh air was drawn 
 through the perforations in the roof of the turret, 
 and forced through sheet-iron connecting tubes 
 throughout the ship. 
 
FIRST CRUISE OP THE MONTAUK. 13 
 
 All the light admitted below deck, came through 
 thick circular glass dead-lights set about ten inches 
 below the surface of the iron deck, and at the bottom 
 of small cavities, perhaps seven inches in diameter, 
 called '' wells." These dead-lights Avere open when in 
 harbor, — and often even at sea in smooth weather, — 
 but when engaged in a fight, the " well " was covered 
 with a thick iron scuttle fitting snugly, secured be- 
 low, and flush with the deck. 
 
 Through the snows of November and December 
 we plodded over to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and 
 watched the fitting out of this strange vessel in 
 which we were to venture to sea, and by which we 
 hoped to strike an effective blow to preserve the 
 integrity of the Union. 
 
 None were more interested in her movements than 
 a small gray- haired Russian gentleman with black 
 twinkling eyes, whose simplicity and modesty won 
 our esteem. He was a Naval Commissioner sent by 
 the Russian Government to examine this new class 
 of iron-clad men-of-war, and had the permission of 
 our government to go to sea with us in the Moutauk ; 
 and with his small, faded traveling-bag, he was always 
 
14 -FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 earliest at the ship, that he might not be disappointed 
 in going. This was Captain Lissovski, Commandant 
 of the Cronstadt Navy Yard, and who, a few years 
 later, came over as Admiral Lissovski, commanding 
 the Russian fleet. 
 
 In due time the Montauk was ready for trial, and 
 we steamed up the Hudson to a point )iear Fort Lee, 
 and opposite Washington Heights, where were let 
 fly the big shot and shell into the rocky clifi's of the 
 Palisades, and the earthy bank beneath them, to the 
 terror of the occupants of the shanties half a mile 
 away. The discharge of forty pounds of powder 
 from the ponderous fifteen-inch guns, was as if there 
 had been a short peal of thunder near by, and yet it 
 was remarkable in how slight a degree was the shock 
 or concussion unpleasant to those on board ship. 
 Indeed, we afterward became so accustomed to it, as 
 to be able to sleep during the working of the guns ; 
 and, later, when off Forts Wagner and Sumter, and 
 during the contest with those works in 1863, I often 
 found myself waking from sleep into which I had 
 fallen while sitting on top of the turret, immediately 
 over the guns. 
 
FIRST CRUISE OP THE MONTAUK.- 15 
 
 After other trial trips off Coney Island, both ship 
 and guns promised to work well, and we put to sea. 
 It was mid-forenoon of December 22, 1862, as we 
 steamed down to Sandy Hook. There had been but 
 one other venture like this. The great interested 
 public knew but little of these vessels ; and from 
 steamers, and from all manner of sailing-craft, and 
 from ferry-boats, and from the shore, we were watched 
 with an anxious curiosity that told how the national 
 pulse was beating. 
 
 At Sandy Hook the few remaining stanchions that 
 held the lines around the vessel's sides were taken 
 down, and the deck was absolutely clear. From the 
 turret to the flag-staffs, fore and aft, a stout line was 
 rigged, called the " life-line." The turret was " un- 
 keyed," or let down upon its bed of bronze rings, and 
 upon the big rubber band affixed to its base, to make 
 it water-tight. To the extreme bow a heavy iron 
 ring was fixed, and in this was a large shackle, from 
 which two ten-inch hawsers, each one hundred and 
 fifty yards in length, were passed to the steamer 
 Connecticut, our tow and convoy, one hawser passing 
 to her port, and the other to her starboard quarter. 
 
16 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 In an hour we were off, steaming seaward. The 
 Connecticut seemed huge compared with our strange 
 craft low-lying in the water, and ran up her speed to 
 about seven knots, our own vessel steaming at the 
 same rate, just keeping the hawsers taut. 
 
 The preceding days had been so quiet that there 
 was no sea, but the short, " choppy " waves, as we 
 steamed into them, would overflow our deck, and 
 then in a thin glassy cascade run off the sides, the 
 sky was partially obscured by fleecy clouds, the 
 wind was light, and in the late evening we went to 
 our rooms and " turned in," with an assurance and 
 confidence that seems surprising as I now look upon 
 it. And so, quietly passed away the first day and 
 night of the Montauk at sea. 
 
 Of course totally unaccustomed to service like 
 this, my only warlike nights having been passed 
 upon the hills about Washington, yet the movements 
 of the vessel were so equable and slight, that I did 
 not awake until morning. The wind had arisen some- 
 what during the night, and had occasioned a medium 
 sea, so that as we steamed ahead, and the vessel's 
 flat sides came against the waves, the water was 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 17 
 
 dashed into a blinding spray that came over us like 
 a shower. 
 
 As there was no reason for going, so no one ven- 
 tured on deck, but the top of the turret was our 
 "forecastle," "midship," "quarter-deck," "lookout," 
 and all. Tall iron stanchions curving outward, were 
 fixed into sockets round the outside of the top of the 
 turret, and around these was a broad band of canvas 
 called the " weather-cloth," that aiForded protection 
 from the winter winds and the piercing spray. 
 
 The motion of the ship was very slight, and ex- 
 ceedingly buoyant and easy, the rolling not exceed- 
 ing three to four degrees, and not affecting our filled 
 cups and glasses at the table. During the day, the 
 vessel had been " too much by the head," or too 
 low in the sea forward, a difficulty that affected her 
 speed, and that increased as the vessel was light- 
 ened amidships and aft by the consumption of the 
 coal, so we put into Delaware Bay, coming to anchor 
 off Lewes, where we remained two days, remedying 
 the difficulty by moving shot and shell, and making 
 careful examination of the ship ; and finding every- 
 
18 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 thing satisfactory, we again put to sea. It was a 
 beautiful day, followed by a magnificent moonlight 
 night. The big Connecticut, with its lofty masts — 
 as we saw them — and its ponderous wheels, was 
 immediately ahead ; the restless, dashing, glittering 
 sea all around us ; and to us, standing upon this little 
 iron tower and looking down upon the deck, which 
 now and then seemed covered with a silver sheen 
 as the sea shimmered over it, it was more like a 
 vision from dreamland than an episode from daily 
 prosaic life. 
 
 The next morning found us inside of Cape Henry: 
 the hawsers were cast loose from our bow, and we 
 steamed finely in to anchorage at Hampton Roads. 
 The Monitor — to which our gray-eyed commander 
 called our attention as we came in, and told us some- 
 thing of its famous fight, — lay just ahead of us. The 
 Passaic, of our own class, was astern of us. The 
 Galena, whose thinly clad sides were afterward pene- 
 trated at Fort Darling, was on our starboard bow ; 
 and some distance farther np the Roads, was the 
 Ironsides, afterwards with us in the storm of fire and 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 19 
 
 shell at Fort Sumter. The beautiful Colorado was 
 there, not far away ; and English men-of-war were 
 there, officers and men learning something of mod- 
 ern warfare.'^ 
 
 The days at Hampton Roads were beautiful ; no- 
 ticeably so was the first of January, 1863. An unruf- 
 fled bay ; a soft, balmy atmosphere ; a blue, unclouded, 
 fathomless sky ; — nature never seemed lovelier in 
 mid-winter; it seemed, indeed, as if its quiet was 
 a type of that peaceful transition from bondage to 
 liberty that made this day a new birth-day to four 
 million souls. 
 
 The note of preparation here was incessant ; every 
 vessel had " steam up," and many of them could have 
 slipped their cables and put to sea in a moment. 
 Half-suppressed murmurs said we were bound for 
 
 *The duties and engagements of Captain Lissovski as special 
 Naval Commissioner from the Russian Government to examine 
 modern appliances of science to the prosecution of war, pre- 
 venting his accompanying the Montauk any farther, he took his 
 departure here, having won our esteem by his gentlemanliness, 
 and his earnestness and zeal in studying and becoming familiar 
 with every part and department of the Montauk, and his earnest 
 sympathy with us in the war. 
 
20 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 Charleston. The nation in impatient suspense wait- 
 ed for a prostrating blow upon that city.* 
 
 1 doubt if the authorities at Washington then had 
 any objective point to which these- iron-clads were 
 immediately bound. 
 
 At mid-day of January second, although since 
 morning it had looked threatening outside, we went 
 to sea. The Monitor and Passaic had preceded us 
 nearly two days. The Connecticut, that was to have 
 been our convoy, was ordered to Aspinwall to bring 
 away the treasure left by the Ariel, and the steamer 
 James Adger was substituted. Before we reached 
 Cape Henry we found a heavier sea than we had 
 before seen, but the vessel behaved excellently. 
 Before night set in we saw we were meeting a gale. 
 
 *I am confident the force of iron-clads then available would 
 have been insufficient for that purpose, and it would have been 
 mad folly to have sent wooden vessels into that cul-de-sac whose 
 sides bristled with four hundred guns, and the Waters of whose 
 harbor were filled with every variety of torpedoes; and I have 
 held the opinion, especially since the first attack upon the forts 
 in April, 1863, that even if the iron-clads had penetrated the 
 harbor, and escaped the network of torpedoes, that with four 
 hundred guns the hammering them to pieces would have been 
 only a question of hours. 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 21 
 
 Every one of the seas swept over our deck like a 
 deluge. The wind blew steadily and severely from 
 the east, but did not seem to increase, and when 
 night set in, it seemed we were having the latter 
 and lesser half of the storm. Signals were ex- 
 changed from our turret and the paddle-boxes of 
 the James Adger. The ghastly light thrown by the 
 signals out of the darkness upon the seething crests 
 of the waves; the roaring of the sea as it dashed 
 against the ship and turret and submerged the hull ; 
 the cold spray thrust by the wind like needle-points 
 against our faces ; black clouds overhead, and shriek- 
 ing winds all around ; and we on this little tower 
 twenty-one feet in diameter, with not even the ship's 
 deck, nine feet below us, in sight more than half the 
 time, (for nearly every sea rose within a few inches 
 of our feet,) and nearing Hatteras ; — made it an ex- 
 perience never to be desired again: yet once passed, 
 to be valuable beyond any computation. 
 
 The increased unsteadiness of the vessel in the 
 heavy sea, and especially our anxiety for her conduct 
 through the night, prevented much sleep. Daylight 
 revealed a leaden sky, a heavy fierce wind, and a 
 
22 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 boisterous sea. At eight o'clock we were but a few 
 miles off Hatteras, and even from our low lookout 
 could now and then see the sea breaking upon the 
 sandy cape. The James Adger was the length of 
 our hawsers (about two hundred yards) ahead of us, 
 and yet at times so heavy was the sea that she was 
 hidden from us, even to her mast-heads. The vessel 
 was now steadier than we had expected her to be, 
 rising but little to the seas, but rather diving through 
 them, or allowing them to sweep over her. 
 
 At mid-forenoon the port hawser parted close to the 
 James Adger's stern, and immediately drifted along- 
 side of us, with imminent probability of its fouling 
 our propeller unless we stopped, which, as we were 
 towed by the steamer, we were of course unable to 
 do. In the emergency there was no time to commu- 
 nicate with the James Adger. At the same time the 
 starboard hawser hauled us around into the trough 
 of the sea, and placed our screw in double danger. 
 For a few exciting moments it seemed an even ques- 
 tion whether our propeller would snap, or the sea 
 submerge us. The big seas came under our over- 
 hang as if they would rip it from its solid union with 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 23 
 
 the hull, and with a shock that made the vessel trem- 
 ble from stem to stern. At times the solid green 
 water came within six inches of the turret-top. The 
 quickest remedy was to cut the remaining hawser — 
 but how ! — green seas four — five — six feet deep were 
 sweeping over the hull. Captain Worden called for a 
 volunteer, and Acting Ensign Avery instantly offered 
 to make the attempt, and with a stout line passed 
 around him under his arms, and a battle-axe in hand, 
 he dropped down from the turret on to the deck, and 
 passing his arm around the life-line that was fore and 
 aft, he struggled forward — three times swept from 
 his feet in an instant by the green seas, he reached 
 the extreme bow, clasped his arm around the flag- 
 staff, and although a half-dozen times entirely buried 
 in the sea, yet, after repeated blows, succeeded in 
 cutting the hawser. Free now from the steamer, 
 we succeeded in righting the ship into position, and 
 after a couple hours' steaming alone, we finally 
 reached smoother water, and again made fast our 
 hawsers to the James Adger. 
 
 Toward the close of the day the wind became 
 lighter, the sea smoother, and the day ended much 
 
24 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTADK. 
 
 more pleasantly than it began. Before breakfast- 
 time next morning we arrived off Beaufort, N. C, 
 and by a mistake made by our pilot in passing inside 
 the channel buoy, we ran aground, and were obliged 
 to send in for assistance. We saw the Passaic at 
 anchor inside, but no Monitor there. The steamboat 
 Freeborn soon came out to our assistance, and dis- 
 charging on board of her a sufficient amount of our 
 shot and shell to lighten us, we steamed in to an 
 anchorage inside. 
 
 We then learned more of the storm off Hatteras, 
 the latter part of which we had seen, and out of 
 which the Monitor never came. During the height 
 of the gale, and when ten miles about southeast of 
 Hatteras, the heavy seas tore the overhang from 
 her hull, and she went down. From a note by one 
 of the officers, I take the following passage : 
 
 "The gale at this time was raging fearfully; the 
 water had risen to the grate-bars of the furnaces, and 
 was extinguishing tlie fires; the ship v/as sinking; the 
 sky was covered with masses of black clouds, aud at 
 three-quarters of an hour past midnight, on the last 
 day of 1862, the Monitor disappeared in the sea." 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 25 
 
 Glory enough she had seen. Her beginning was in 
 storms of shot and shell and the destructive power 
 of man. Her ending was in the turbulent sea, with 
 storm and tempest, as though only these powers of 
 nature could fittingly attend the final hours of this 
 vessel whose mission had seemed to be the salvation 
 of the nation in its throe of agony. 
 
 We remained a number of days at our anchorage 
 near Fort Macon. At dinner on Sunday, the eleventh 
 of January, Captain Worden informed me that we 
 were going to Part Royal. Here — thanks for Burn- 
 side's campaign — we received our mail via Newborn. 
 
 On Monday, the twelfth, Captain Worden showed 
 me an order he had received from Washington, — con- 
 sequent upon the loss of the Monitor, — to send the 
 Paymaster, the funds and the accounts, on board the 
 convoy steamer, when he again went to sea, and he 
 asked me what I thought of the order. 1 told him 
 I thought it somewhat ill-considered and unwise, so 
 far as the person of the Paymaster was concerned; 
 that it might be well enough to send the funds and 
 accounts, but to send on board another vessel any 
 officer at such a time, might occasion an uneasiness 
 
26 FIRST CRUISE OP THE MONTAUK. 
 
 and want of confidence in the ship that would be 
 demoralizing to the crew, and possibly produce seri- 
 ous results, and that just now an establishment of 
 complete confidence was precisely the thing desired 
 and to be gained if possible. I said I thought it also 
 evinced on the part of the authorities ai Washington 
 an apparent indifference to human life, that the reten- 
 tion of the person of the Paymaster on board would 
 conceal, and I requested him, as a favor to me, to 
 forego the execution of the order, so far as the officer 
 was concerned, and permit me to remain on board, 
 and he did so. I quietly packed up the funds and 
 accounts, and went with them on board the James 
 Adger, and only the Captain, the First Lieutenant 
 and myself, knew anything of the matter. 
 
 On the afternoon of Saturday, January seventeenth, 
 our own vessel convoyed by the James Adger, and the 
 Passaic convoyed by the Rhode Island, steamed out to 
 sea. At dark the Passaic and her convoy were eight 
 miles astern of us, and we did not see her again. 
 The wind was after us, and though there was but 
 little sea, the prospect of a comfortable voyage was 
 not flattering. During the night the wind increased, 
 
FIRST CRUISE OP THE MONTAUK. 27 
 
 the sea became turbulent, and the vessel uneasy. 
 In the early morning I awoke and went out upon the 
 turret, and found the sky clouded, the wind in the 
 northeast and blowing fresh, and a heavy sea, though 
 it was with us. All day long the wind was variable, 
 and gave no token of settling. Many times while 
 sitting in my room, reading or writing, and hearing 
 the sea gurgling overhead, I have looked up and 
 seen the rushing eddying water filling and dashing 
 over the little well above my dead-lights, and realiz- 
 ing that there was two, three or four feet of water 
 on the deck over my head, I would muse and think 
 how strange is our human nature in its adaptability 
 to all combinations of circumstance, and that I — that 
 -any one — could sit there in peace and quiet, and with 
 no feeling of alarm. 
 
 Below deck it was always light enough to read or 
 to attend to the daily routine of the ship. As none 
 of the crew had occasion to go on deck, they re- 
 mained below, reading, sleeping or smoking, or 
 occupying their time in the many ways that a good 
 and contented crew find to consume the day. 
 
28 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 The ventilation of the vessel proved to be very 
 fair. The partial vacuum caused by the rapidly 
 revolving fans, or blowers, in the turret-chamber, 
 drew the air through the perforations in the roof of 
 the turret, to the fans, whence it was blown through 
 iron tubes to the different parts of the ship, and 
 finally passed away by the furnaces and smoke-stack. 
 
 On the evening of the seventeenth we were twenty- 
 five miles off Charleston, and a few of the officers re- 
 solved themselves, on the impulse of the moment, into 
 a council of war, and debated the question — whether 
 we should not go in, open the harbor to our fleet, 
 and take the glory to ourselves. On the evening 
 of this day the sky partially cleared, and the wind 
 clung to the north-of-west, but next morning found 
 it again in the northeast, and a heavy sea running, 
 every ponderous sweep engulfing the hull of the 
 ship. In the forenoon we saw the tall trees on Bay 
 Point, and soon the light ship off Port Royal harbor 
 came in sight. About three miles outside, we cast 
 off ihe hawsers that held us to the James Adger, 
 and steamed ahead into the harbor — the first Yankee 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 29 
 
 iron-clad that had steamed so far at sea, or so far 
 penetrated the domain of the South. 
 
 As we steamed by the beautiful and stately flag- 
 ship, the Wabash, with Admiral DuPont and his 
 officers on the quarter-deck watching us, his crew 
 manned the rigging and gave us three rousing 
 cheers; and as we steamed on, it was taken up by 
 the Vermont, the Ironsides, and other vessels-of-war 
 as we passed them, and among which we soon came 
 to anchor. The top of our smoke-stack came far 
 below the rails of some of these vessels, and a little 
 distance away our hull was scarcely discernible 
 above the water ; yet our monster guns, the beauti- 
 ful and effectual mechanism of our turret machinery, 
 the perfect command of the vessel and her apparent 
 invulnerability, inspired a confidence there long 
 needed. Safe and quietly at anchor, our vessel be- 
 came the subject of visits on the part of army and 
 navy officers, and of correspondents, and all who 
 could get to see her, and the examination established 
 the confidence her arrival had inspired. 
 
 The non-arrival of the Passaic caused some anx- 
 iety. Not until the evening of the second day after 
 
30 FIRST CRUISE OP THE MONTAUK. 
 
 .our arrival, did she signal her appearing. By a gale 
 that arose as we came in, she had been driven back 
 beyond Charleston, and for thirty hours she with- 
 stood the fury of the storm, yet came in safe and 
 sound. 
 
 Admiral DuPont had work for us to do, and we 
 only remained at Port Royal for a few days. It had 
 been our expectation that we were going to block- 
 ade or try the capture of the Atlanta. She had been 
 the British steamer Fingal, and laden with arms and 
 munitions of war, had run the blockade to Savannah, 
 and had there been transformed into an iron-clad 
 of the Merrimac type, the women of Georgia — it was 
 said — having given half a million of dollars in gold 
 to effect the transformation. Information obtained 
 from Savannah seemed to justify the anxiety of the 
 commanding officers at Port Royal for fear of an 
 attack upon them by this vessel, which they had 
 been as poorly prepared to meet as was the Union 
 fleet at Hampton Roads when the Merrimac made 
 the attack there. For months the Atlanta had been 
 lying below Savannah, and now and then signals had 
 been made from the Union garrison at Fort Pulaski 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 31 
 
 that she was moving down the river.* But the 
 golden opportunity — to them — was permitted to 
 pass, and when, on June seventeenth, accompanied 
 by two steamers filled with spectators, she came to 
 capture two of our iron-clads that were blockading 
 her, she commenced a fight that lasted only fifteen 
 minutes, and surrendered after being struck by five 
 shot from the Nahant — an iron-clad of the Montauk 
 class — and was brought a prize into Port Royal, 
 where it had so often been a boast she was going 
 only to burn and destroy. 
 
 Beyond Savannah, in the Big Ogeechee river, was 
 lying the Nashville, a comparatively new and fine 
 steamer, and sister ship of the James Adger. Sea- 
 worthy and fast, she had twice run out with cotton 
 for Europe, and returned with material of war. It 
 was known that she had been fitted and furnished as 
 a privateer, and partially loaded with cotton, and 
 under the protection of the Atlanta, was ready to 
 
 * There seems to be no reason to doubt that she might have 
 gone to Port Royal, and destroyed all the vessels there, — a dis- 
 aster that would have been second only to the first assault of 
 the Merrimac. 
 
32 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 run by our little fleet of gunboats that had so dili- 
 gently watched and confined her. The Florida was 
 then working destruction with American commerce, 
 and the Oreto had been at sea only a week. Those 
 who knew the Nashville could imagine the alarm and 
 destruction she might occasion when once officered 
 and at sea. To the Big Ogeechee we were sent to 
 watch and, if possible, capture or destroy the Nash- 
 ville. Again convoyed by the James Adger, though 
 not using her as a tow, we steamed seaward. The 
 sea was as smooth as a lake, and the day clear, mild 
 and balmy as a southern spring. At noon we made 
 the blockading fleet off Warsaw Sound, through 
 which the Atlanta must pass if she ventured to sea, 
 and tried to communicate, but the wind was too light 
 to raise our signal flags. In the early afternoon we 
 passed the Canandaigua, blockading Ossabaw Sound, 
 where we were bound, and into which the Big Ogee- 
 chee flows. A heavy fog shut us in as we came to 
 the narrow entrance to the Sound, and we were com- 
 pelled to anchor ; but the fog lifted after awhile, and 
 we steamed ahead again, and finally came to anchor 
 inside the Sound, where we remained that night, Jan- 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 33 
 
 uary twenty-fourth. The gunboats Seneca and Wis- 
 sahicon, that had been blockading here some time, 
 came to anchor near us. Our vessel was now en- 
 tirely cleared for fighting trim. From stem to stern 
 not a rope or a chain, or a bolt, in sight, nothing but 
 the round turret and the big smoke-stack. Nothing 
 remained to be done, in case of sudden action, but to 
 close the battle-hatches — the work of a few seconds. 
 An armed watch was stationed on deck, and the 
 alarm-rattle laid in one of the turret-ports, ready for 
 immediate use by the oflScer of the deck. 
 
 The bright winter moon that flecked the water 
 with flashes of silver, never shone down upon a 
 stranger looking craft. The officers below, in con- 
 versation, quietly speculated upon the probabilities 
 of coming contests. The night passed quietly away. 
 In the morning, one of the crew, Isaac Selby, was 
 missing, and it was supposed that during his Avatch 
 he must have stepped overboard, and the swift stream 
 swept him under. At noon of the following day, 
 January twenty-fifth, we moved up the river three 
 miles, and again came to anchor. Here we received 
 on board, from one of the other vessels, a pilot named 
 
34 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 Murphy, a small, tough-looking Georgian, whose es- 
 cape from southern authorities was one of singular 
 interest, whose knowledge of those waters proved 
 of immense value to the Union commanders, and 
 whose whole war course established a loyalty as 
 true as steel. 
 
 The Big Ogeechee is narrow, and very crooked, and 
 low marshy banks border its sides. A mile or more 
 across the marsh, and a little on the left, a spur 
 of woodland conceals a location in the river known 
 as Genesis Point, and here was the Genesis Point 
 battery, better known, perhaps, as " Fort McAllister," 
 named from Colonel McAllister, the sometime com- 
 mandant, and upon whose plantation the fort was 
 located. The river, which some distance of its 
 course below the fort is hidden by the point of 
 woodland, we could plainly see above the fort as it 
 meandered through the marsh, which, with its tall, 
 sedgy grass, extends on the right to, and beyond, 
 the Little Ogeechee, even to the low bluff that 
 forms the bank of the Vernon river, and on which 
 the little hamlet of Beulah is located ; near by, a 
 battery of three guns, and not far away, a small 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 35 
 
 camp, possibly of Confederate pickets. Here and 
 there, over this extended marshy basin, we can see 
 columns of smoke arising, either from rice-mills or 
 Confederate camps. Five hundred yards above our 
 anchorage would have uncovered the fort from its 
 concealment behind the point of woods, and bring us 
 near a spot where is flying a white rag from the tip 
 of a rod that sticks just above the grass, — a range - 
 mark for the fort, and upon which their guns are 
 bearing. It is more than a mile from the fort, and 
 yet they had obtained such accuracy of practice, 
 that when the gunboat Wissahicon went first to this 
 point, she received the first shot from the fort 
 directly in the centre of her hull. 
 
 The beautiful mid-winter day passed in making 
 preparations for the attack on the morrow. We 
 knew that their guns covered every rod of our ap- 
 proach, and were assured that there were electric 
 and percussion torpedoes sunk in its channel ; but 
 the risks of these are the chances of war. At nine 
 o'clock in the evening, two boats, fitted for a night 
 reconnoissance, left the ship. Each had a crew of 
 ten men and three officers, and every officer and 
 
36 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 man was armed with revolver, rifle and cutlass. I 
 accompanied the first lieutenant in the first boat. 
 We shoved away from the ship, and with oars muf- 
 fled with sheepskin, quietly pulled along in the broad 
 shadow the grass cast upon the river. The sky was 
 unclouded, and the moon shone clear and bright. 
 Up and up we pulled, with no sound save the pat- 
 tering of the drops as they fell from the oar-blades 
 upon the river. We supposed the rebels had out 
 scouts along the banks, and we watched for them, 
 but none appeared. Up we continued, half the crew 
 rowing, the other half with arms in their hands, until 
 we reached a line of obstructions that diagonally 
 crossed the river, and efi'ectually closed it, with the 
 channel passage through it skillfully concealed. A 
 third of a mile beyond was the fort, its side toward 
 us dark in the shadow, and the sentry pacing the 
 parapet. Here we remained a while, listening and 
 watching, but nothing broke the stillness of the 
 night, and we returned, removing the range-stakes 
 along the bank as we came across them, and before 
 midnight we reached the ship. 
 
 On Tuesday morning, January twenty-seventh, we 
 
FIRST CRUISE OP THE MONTAUK. 37 
 
 were'all up before light, and after partaking of a lunch 
 of coffee and crackers we got up anchor, and soon 
 after light started slowly up the river. Three of our 
 boats were trailing astern from a spar lashed across 
 the ship. When well underway, the rattle sounded 
 to " quarters," and oflScers and men repaired to their 
 stations for action. Captain Worden, the pilot Mur- 
 phy and myself remained on the turret-top. I think 
 it would have been quite impossible for any one to 
 have comprehended and appreciated the occasion. 
 I am sure we did not. A vessel of war of such type 
 as the world had never before seen, vulnerable only 
 in her hull below the water, steaming up a narrow, 
 tortuous, strange river, with the assurance that in 
 its bed were torpedoes, the slightest touch to which 
 would explode them, and containing powder sufficient 
 to destroy a dozen vessels like our own, — was a reali- 
 zation the full import of which we could not then 
 comprehend. 
 
 When we reached the bend iu the river where the 
 fort opened to full view, it was clear day and the 
 sun was just shining above the low tree-tops. A 
 little less than a mile ahead was the fort, situated at 
 
 4 
 
38 FIRST CRUISE OP THE MONTAUK. 
 
 a sharp angle in the river, the bending of the river 
 above it making of the land on our right a peninsula. 
 Slowly we steamed against the current, and eagerly 
 scanned through our glasses the massive proportions 
 of the fortiBcation, its banks covered with rich green 
 sod, and the muzzles of the guns just visible, point- 
 ing at us from the heavily protected embrasures. 
 Between the guns immense mounds of earth or trav- 
 erses extended back into the rear, eftectually cover- 
 ing the guns from an enfilading fire, to which by the 
 approach they were partially exposed. Above the 
 parapet floated the new ensign of this new dominion 
 whose existence we had come to dispute. 
 
 It being unnecessary and imprudent to remain 
 longer on the outside, we descended into the turret, 
 and from thence climbed up into the pilot-house, and 
 from the funnel-shapel eye-holes within, I watched 
 the contest. Before eight o'clock we came to an- 
 chor about eleven hundred yards from the fort. In 
 a few moments we let fly from the eleven-inch gun, 
 a shell that fell a little short and disappeared in the 
 river. Another was tried, that entered the battery 
 and exploded with a loud report, blowing the soil in 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 39 
 
 every direction, and for a moment hiding a portion 
 of the fort in the dust of the explosion. Then a shell 
 was sent from the fifteen-inch gun, — the breech of 
 which is so thick it prevents looking over it and out 
 of the port, and hence has to be sighted by the eleven- 
 inch, — and this imbedded itself in the parapet, and 
 burst with a heavy deadened report, literally filling 
 the air above the fort with earth and debris. The 
 reports of our guns were like peals of thunder in- 
 stantly let loose from confinement. Columns of fire 
 fifteen inches in diameter, and a rod in length, flashed 
 from the turret ; immense bodies of dense smoke shot 
 over the river; and but for its incessant rolling and 
 unfolding looked like masses of granite. For a mo- 
 ment after the discharge of the guns, the turret and 
 turret-chamber were filled with smoke, but the ven- 
 tilating apparatus soon carried it away. The shock 
 of the discharge, though forty pounds of powder were 
 used, was not severe or at all injurious within the 
 ship. Mr. Giraud, the officer having command within 
 the turret, and considered one of the best shots the 
 war produced, had found the exact range, and kept 
 it. Instantly the rebels replied with a ten- inch shot 
 
40 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MOjSITAUK. 
 
 from their pet gun. A flash ! — and then a big puff 
 of sraoke, out of which a tiny bhick spot appeared, 
 that rapidly grew in size (or seemed to), describing 
 a low arc, and then for an instant a big black ball 
 was before my eyes, then quick as thought it disap- 
 peared, and with a heavy — thud ! it struck square in 
 the centi'e of the turret, making an indentation about 
 as large as a soup-plate. It was evident from their 
 firing the instant our guns were discharged, that 
 they hoped to send a shot into one of our ports, but 
 the immediate turning away of the turret to reload, 
 prevented the working of their plan. We could 
 watch our own shell as they emerged from the smoke 
 and seemed rapidly to lessen in size and then bury 
 themselves in the earth. 
 
 Again we gave them an eleven-inch shell that fell 
 within the fort, and again a fifteen-inch that imbed- 
 ded itself in the solid work an instant, and then 
 exploded, powder, smoke, dust and earth filling the 
 air, and leaving a rent in the work big enough to 
 drive an ox-cart through. Occasionally a shell would 
 scour the top of the fort, and then ricochet into the 
 air, and fall a mile beyond in the dense wood, crush- 
 
FIRST CRUISE OP THE MONTAUK. 41 
 
 ing the trees in its descent. Sometimes a shell would 
 pass through the face of the fort and burst inside. 
 We could only see the rebels as they loaded their 
 guns, and then at the discharge of our own they 
 would drop as though shot, and rush to their bomb- 
 proofs, — though we learned there was nothing that 
 day in Fort McAllister that could truly be called 
 bomb proof. 
 
 We fired at intervals of six or seven minutes, 
 alternating with our guns, for an hour, when the 
 length of the intervals was increased to ten or twelve 
 minutes. They answered from the fort briskly and 
 with wonderful precision, remembering how small a 
 mark our ship at the distance afforded. Not a shot 
 from the fort struck farther from us than thirty or 
 forty feet, and the shot and exploding shell threw 
 up from the river columns of water that broke and 
 descended upon the turret like showers of rain. To 
 our astonishment, they would fire some of their guns 
 out from the smoke of our exploded shell, when it 
 seemed that the shell had struck precisely where the 
 gun stood. We afterwards learned that these gun 
 carriages were on rails, and the recoil sent the guns 
 
42 FIRST CRUISE OP THE MONTAUK. 
 
 to bomb-proofs in the rear, where they were loaded 
 and run out again, or from which, as needed, they 
 could be run into position and then loaded. 
 
 The rebels fired rapidly for an hour, when their 
 firing began to slacken and become irregular, and 
 apparently from only two guns, — and as we knew 
 they could and had been using eight, we concluded 
 six must be in some way disabled, and thought we 
 could see through some of the immense rents and 
 damaged embrasures, that a number of them were 
 dismounted. For three hours we had thrown our 
 big shells into their work. We had carried away 
 their flag, blown into a shapeless mass the parapet 
 and glacis that we had seen in the morning strong 
 and smooth sodded. They still held out, and wo 
 began to wonder how long they could stand the 
 explosion of fifteen-inch shell, for the number that 
 remained in our magazine having suitable fuses was 
 small. These were carefully used, and as we watched 
 them, we knew that the havoc they made must be 
 terrible. They continued to fire at us with a spite- 
 fulness and snap truly admirable. They had carried 
 away one of our flags ; riddled another ; hammered 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 43 
 
 a score of indentations in our turret and pilot-house ; 
 broken off some of the bolts and driven them inside — 
 and two of them, with the nuts attached to them, had 
 passed within three inches of my head, that would 
 have been crushed had they hit it; they had scoured 
 our deck with scars two feet long, indenting and 
 bending the iron plates ; they had perforated our 
 smoke-stack in many places, and cut its top into a 
 ragged fringe ; they had smashed our boats into 
 splinters; still the efficiency of the vessel was not 
 touched. In half an hour our suitable shell were 
 gone, and solid shot and canister would not avail, 
 and we withdrew. For some time they had not fired, 
 but as we got underway and were moving down 
 stream, they let fly at us four shot in rapid succes- 
 sion. A few of us had got out on to the deck from 
 one of the smoke-stained ports in the turret. One 
 of the shot fell at our right hand in the river, two 
 fell short, and the fourth came screaming over our 
 heads, and striking in the marsh beyond, threw up 
 grass and mud and water, and ricocheting, flew off 
 high into the air, as though it was going to Port 
 Royal. 
 
44 FIRST CRUISE OP THE MONTAUK. 
 
 Officers and men, black and stained with powder- 
 smoke, came from the turret and from below decks, 
 out into the clear noonday air, to see the result 
 of the fight, and to take a parting look at the fort, 
 which not till now had they been able to see. We 
 steamed down to our anchorage and made fast, A 
 small steamer was immediately sent to Port Royal 
 for suitable shell and fuses, and boats. In the after- 
 noon the ship was cleared and cleaned of powder- 
 smoke, and splinters, and fragments of shell (broken 
 against our turret), and in early evening we went to 
 rest, after a terrible strain upon the nerves of the 
 watchers, and the muscles of the workers. Though 
 the work might have been blown into worthlessness 
 by us, or abandoned by the rebels, still with no co- 
 operating land force, it could not be occupied by us, 
 while when we withdrew it could be strengthened 
 again and renewed by the rebels. 
 
 Contrabands occasionally canre to us, some of them 
 directh'- from the fort, and there was no flaw or con- 
 tradiction in their story. They told us the fort was 
 commenced before the war began, and they had 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 45 
 
 worked on it incessantly until it was exceedingly- 
 strong. 
 
 We learned from a number of refugees that our 
 day's work had almost demolished" the fort; that we 
 had dismounted three guns ; had killed two officers 
 and a number of men ; that two or three times the 
 fort was abandoned ; and that one of our fifteen-inch 
 unexploded shell was exhibited in Savannah, excit- 
 ing much wonder, and exerting an excellent moral 
 influence. 
 
 The rebels stuck to their work splendidly, and we 
 voted McAllister and his men a plucky company. 
 It was impossible without exposing men to certain 
 death, to remove the obstructions, and hence impos- 
 sible for us to get up the river. The Nashville cer- 
 tainly could not get out. The chief end in attacking 
 Fort McAllister was to put our men under fire, and 
 thoroughly test the power of resistance and offense 
 of our vessel. , 
 
 In a week — on February first — we repeated this 
 fight, going this time within six hundred yards of the 
 fort, and close to the obstructions. We were struck 
 fifty- six times. As often as we tore up the work in 
 
46 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 this way, the surrounding country was levied on for 
 workmen, and with the labor of the garrison, forty- 
 eight hours made the work nearly as good as new. 
 
 Our object in coming here, the capture or de- 
 struction of the Nashville, had been so far without 
 avail. Friday, February twenty-seventh, unexpect- 
 edly placed her in our power, and sealed her des- 
 tiny. A little more than two weeks before, she 
 came from her retreat near the bridge of the Savan- 
 nah and Florida Railroad, and took a position under 
 the guns of Fort McAllister, intending to take advan- 
 tage of the spring tides prevailing then, and seize 
 the first opportunity to slip to sea. But we had 
 been waiting and watching for this very movement. 
 One night she came down to Hardee's Cut, a short 
 distance below the fort, hoping in that way to get 
 into the Little Ogeechee, elude our vessels, and pass 
 to sea ; but one of the vigilant gunboats was there 
 ready to receive h6r if she came through. They did 
 not try it, and back she went up the river, and, as 
 we learned from refugees, for some time was con- 
 cealed in a bight in the river a number of miles above 
 the fort, while the Savannah papers said she had 
 
FIRST CRUISE OP THE MONTAUK. 47 
 
 given the slip to our vessels, and gone to sea. As 
 we expected, however, she came down again to the 
 fort. For a number of days she had been trying, as 
 it has since proved, to get up the river again, but a 
 mile above the fort was a shoal, over which she could 
 pass only at highest tide. She steamed up to the 
 shoal and back again to the fort, a number of times. 
 On Sunday afternoon, February twenty- second, she 
 came in sight from behind the point of woods, went 
 to the shoal, and again returned to the fort. She 
 reminded me very much of a caged rat seeking a 
 hole for escape, and finding none. On Friday, Feb- 
 ruary twenty-seventh, at three o'clock in the after- 
 noon, the gunboat VVissahicon signaled a movement 
 on the part of the Nashville, lying near the fort. 
 From the gunboat's mast-heads they could see what 
 from our lower position was invisible. We bent our 
 sight eagerly toward the point of woods, and soon 
 discovered thin columns of black smoke ascending 
 from behind the trees, as from a steamer's smoke- 
 stack, and indicating a movement on the part of the 
 privateer. For a while the smoke increased, and 
 grew thicker, but finally seemed to settle down into 
 a thin broken line, and so remained. The captain 
 
48 FIRST CRUISE OP THE MONTAUK. 
 
 and ofiScers went down below to dinner. I remained 
 on the turret, impressed that more was coming out of 
 the matter. In twenty minutes the column of smoke 
 began growing larger, and blacker, and thicker, and 
 to move rapidly by the trees. Intently I watched the 
 point, and in a moment, from behind the trees came 
 the bow, foremast, then the smoke-$tack, and main- 
 mast, and there indeed, with the thick black smoke 
 arising from her funnel and filling the atmosphere, 
 and the ship steaming rapidly up the river, was the 
 famous blockade runner, the rebel privateer Nash- 
 ville. She steamed rapidly some distance up the 
 river, then suddenly and instantly stopped, when her 
 bow and the wliole of the ship forward was abruptly 
 lifted four or five feet, and there she remained. 
 
 I saw immediately that she had waited to go up 
 the river until it was too late, and in endeavoring in 
 the clear light of mid-afternoon, — and we had never 
 seen her so plainly before, her coming and going hav- 
 ing been in the duskiness of morning or evening, — 
 had attempted to cut her way through the shoal, and 
 had brought up aground, hard and fast. I immedi- 
 ately sent word below, and the captain and officers 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 49 
 
 came on deck. We went straightway to quarters, 
 and for a while Captain Worden intended to go di- 
 rectly up the river. The gunboat Seneca was sent 
 up to reconnoitre. She went up the Little Ogeechee 
 to within a mile and a half of the Nashville, and by 
 way of trial threw four or five shell at her, and in 
 half an hour came back again. 
 
 In the meantime the smoke from the Nashville 
 increased, crowding itself up into the air from out 
 her funnel, a dense, expanding, sooty column, and 
 rolling and curling into big black clouds that covered 
 the sky and hurried the coming night, and telling 
 us — how plainly — that they were making a life- 
 struggle to get away. But it was of no use ; her 
 engines though a hundred-fold more powerful could 
 not take her off whole. She did not move an inch. 
 The tide, at the ebb when she ran aground, was now 
 falling, and her condition was every moment becom- 
 ing worse. 
 
 Captain Worden would have moved up to attack 
 her if he had thought it judicious, but he saw that 
 she could not get off until morning, with not the 
 slightest probability of her doing so then. Night 
 
50 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 ■ 
 
 was fast coming on, and he chose to wait. At dusk 
 a little smoke, mingled with steam, was rising in thin 
 clouds from her funnel. With our glasses we plainly 
 saw men on her deck, at the mast-heads, and in her 
 rigging, and we knew that she would be lightened 
 during the night, if possible, and every expedient 
 resorted to to get her afloat. 
 
 The night was mild and hazy, the moon obscured 
 by passing clouds, yet no light was seen in the di- 
 rection of the grounded steamer, nor indeed in any 
 other direction, not even the usual rebel signal lights 
 seen almost every night on the river above, or at the 
 batteries on Coffee Bluff, or at Beulah ; but we were 
 confident they were working at her, and we prepared 
 to make a demonstration in the morning, anxiously 
 hoping that the bird we saw so nicely caught in the 
 afternoon, might be still fast at the morrow's dawn. 
 
 At four o'clock the next morning, February 
 twenty-eighth, all hands were up, and at five 
 o'clock we had had breakfast and were all ready for 
 the work which we had been earnestly hoping the 
 day might bring us to do. It was a mild, pleasant 
 morning, and the surface of the river was scarcely 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 51 
 
 broken by a ripple. At five o'clock and ten minutes 
 we got up anchor, and in ten minutes more we were 
 steaming up the river at the rate of six knots. The 
 morning was just breaking, and it was not light 
 enough to discover whether the Nashville was still 
 on the shoal where last evening's darkness found 
 her. We entered a bend in the river, and slackened 
 our speed somewhat, and soon it became lighter, but 
 we were behind the point of woods that we were 
 watching with eager eyes, while our passage up the 
 river was opening to our view the point where we 
 hoped to find the rebel steamer still entrapped. 
 
 A little farther — and there she is — hard and fast! 
 We can see a number of men on her forecastle, and 
 considerable bustle and confusion. We steam on by 
 Hardee's' Cut, by a range-mark that is fifteen hun- 
 dred yards from the fort, on to a point eight hundred 
 and fifty yards from the fort, and at seven o'clock we 
 come to anchor, with fifteen fathoms of chain from 
 our windlass. The ship is heading up the river. 
 As we look at the Nashville, Fort McAllister is on 
 our left, eight hundred and fifty yards away, at the 
 angle in the bend of the river. We lie close in to 
 
52 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 the marshy shore. The Nashville is much more than 
 a mile above the fort, but less than eleven hundred 
 yards from us, across the swampy peninsula, and is 
 lying with her full fair broadside toward us. The 
 gunboats Wissahicon, Seneca and Dann are lying in 
 the Big Ogeechee, a mile and a half below us. 
 
 From the level of our deck we can see nothing 
 of the Nashville but the paddle-box tops, the smoke- 
 stack, and topmasts ; but from the inside of the 
 pilot-house we can see the whole steamer, even 
 below her guards, and nearly to the water. She is 
 newly painted, and is the same light drab color as 
 our own vessels of war. Her masts and spars look 
 well, her rigging is taut, and her figure-head newly 
 gilded. 
 
 At seven minutes past seven o'clock we fire our 
 first gun (the eleven-inch) at the Nashville, and im- 
 mediately they let fly at us from the fort three guns. 
 But something is the matter there — for they all pass 
 without touching us, as the shot from the fort have 
 not hitherto done. The smoke from our own gun 
 rises slowly, and we cannot see the effect of its 
 shell. In thirty seconds we see another flash and 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 53 
 
 puff from the fort, and another shell flies by us. In 
 five minutes we fire our eleven-inch again, and again 
 the smoke conceals the effect of our shot. In five 
 minutes a shot from the fort strikes our pilot-house, 
 a ten-inch solid shot, and breaks into halves, one 
 half remaining on top of the turret, and the other 
 half falling down upon the deck. We then fire our 
 fifteen-inch, and still the rolling "cloud of dense blue 
 powder-smoke shuts from our view the result of the 
 shot. We then fire the eleven-inch, and can plainly 
 see it pass just over the Nashville's after rail. In 
 six minutes we fire the fifth time, now a fifteen-inch 
 shell, and follow it distinctly with our eyes, and it 
 penetrates the rebel's deck near the foremast. From 
 the fort they are firing at intervals of a minute, occa- 
 sionally a shot at the gunboats below, though beyond 
 range yet as if they must do something except the 
 incessant harmless fire at us, and still toward us they 
 send most of their shot. But we pay no attention 
 to the fort, not returning any of its fire. Again we 
 send a shell which the smoke hides from us, and 
 again another is hidden from us. The fifth shot, 
 that entered near the foremast, has done its work, 
 
54 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 and we can see a column of whitish-gray smoke 
 issuing from her fore-hatch, and in five minutes 
 more tongues of flame leap out with the smoke, high 
 into the air. 
 
 We cannot see her guns, and we suppose they 
 must have been taken off during the night. As we 
 came to anchorj we saw a number of persons get 
 over her starboard side, the one opposite us, after 
 which we saw no living soul on board. 
 
 We fire again, and the shell flies crashing into her 
 hull in front of her paddle-box, and when the smoke 
 of our gun has slowly drifted away, we see the fire 
 breaking through the deck amidships. Another shell 
 smashes through the paddle-box, and explodes at the 
 base of the smoke-stack, which comes tumbling down 
 upon the hurricane-deck. Though Mr. Giraud can- 
 not see the Nashville, yet he is making splendid 
 shots from our guidance. 
 
 We fire our last shot at three minutes after eight 
 o'clock, having fired fourteen times ; and as the smoke 
 clears away from this last shot, we can see the flames 
 bursting out around her paddle-boxes, issuing in great 
 sheets from the fore-hatch, creeping up the foremast 
 
FIRST CRUISE OP THE MONTAUK. 55 
 
 rigging, and gaining aft." The fog which has been 
 slowly gathering around us, now entirely shuts us in, 
 and we cannot see thirty yards. For more than half 
 an hour we are thus enclosed, when the fog rises 
 enough to show us the Nashville with the fire rapidly 
 gaining, and smoke-stack fallen partly through the 
 port paddle-box. Fearing that under cover of the 
 fog our ship might be boarded by overpowering 
 numbers, the anchor was gotten up at forty minutes 
 after eight o'clock, and we turned head down stream. 
 From the fort they had not fired in twenty-five or 
 thirty minutes, but as we started away, they let the 
 shot come thick and fast. We learned afterward that 
 the garrison had been changed since our last visit, 
 and only the fact of new men at the guns could 
 explain why few shots from all their firing hit us — 
 but really it made little difference whether they hit 
 us or not. 
 
 We steamed slowly down, and in a few moments 
 the fog had risen, revealing the Nashville enveloped 
 in flames. The fire came out from the opened seams 
 in her sides, from around her smoke-stack base and 
 her masts, from between the ribs and braces of her 
 
56 FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 iron wheels, and fore and aft; and from stem to stern 
 she was shrouded in iire. At thirty-five minutes past 
 nine o'clock she blew up, with a smothered rumbling 
 report like distant thunder. The explosion was 
 amidships, and the column of flame and smoke, like 
 the discharge of a huge gun, shot up into the air, 
 higher than her trucks, carrying with it the charred 
 and broken timber and burning bales of cotton. It 
 was a sight that once seen can never be effaced from 
 the memory. In a few moments another explosion 
 of less extent took place, shattering and opening the 
 stern of the steamer. Her masts, that had stood 
 through it all like black spectres, now toppled and 
 came down ; the flames gradually lessened ; the 
 long black column of smoke wound its way up to a 
 cloud which had grown until it overshadowed the 
 heavens ; and nothing remained but the stem and 
 the iron wheels. 
 
 A mass of smouldering embers was all that re- 
 mained of the noted blockade-runner, the terror of 
 our northern merchants, the destroyer of the Harvey 
 Birch, the rebel pirate Nashville. 
 
 We continued on slowly down the river. I came 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 57 
 
 out of the pilot-house and was standing on the tur- 
 ret; men and officers had just been relieved from 
 their stations and were gathering on deck. The 
 port quarter of the vessel was carried, probably by 
 the action of the current, against the bank of the 
 river, and quite near a small piece of cloth flying 
 from a stick in the grass, which the captain had 
 noticed as we went up the river and called the pilot 
 Murphy's attention to it, who said, — •' I think I'll 
 give it a wide berth, sir ! I am afraid it's a torpedo." 
 As we now touched the bank, I was conscious of a 
 jarring motion, as though she had struck the bank 
 quite heavily, but nothing more. So it was noticed 
 by most upon the deck. There was not much more 
 commotion in the water than might be made by the 
 propeller when close in shore. It was, however, 
 supposed in the fire-room below to be a torpedo, and 
 before we moved half a dozen rods away from the 
 bank, the chief engineer came up from the fire-room 
 and said to the captain, — " That was a torpedo, sir ! 
 it has blown a hole in her hull under the boilers, and 
 the water is within three inches of her fires." We 
 were just passing the gunboats, whose crews were in 
 
SS- FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 
 
 their ships' rigging cheering us. Captain Worden 
 shouted to their commanding officers to send him 
 men and buckets. The boats were dropped from 
 their davits to the river ; the men jumped into them ; 
 buckets and pumps were tumbled in ; and in fifty 
 seconds boats were alongside, and men, buckets and 
 pumps on board. The tide was about an hour ebb. 
 Captain Worden turned to the pilot, and said to him, 
 " Murphy, can't you run me ashore here in some 
 good place?" The pilot answered, "That I can, 
 sir!" All the remaining steam was crowded on, 
 and after moving about half a dozen lengths, we ran 
 ashore along the river bank, where the vessel's keel 
 bore evenly. The pressure of the ship upon the 
 bottom filled the cavity and stopped the leak ; the 
 ebbing tide left us high and dry ; pine plugs with 
 gutta percha were driven into the chief opening 
 and the cracks that radiated from it ; the ship was 
 bailed out ; and when the rising tide came in again 
 and lifted us, the rent seemed closed and the ship 
 as good as ever. 
 
 The rebels had intended undoubtedly to explode 
 the torpedo under us as we went up the river, that 
 
 ^ 
 
 RD-94 
 
FIRST CRUISE OF THE MONTAUK. 59 
 
 side being the right and proper one to take as we 
 moved up, and the torpedo must have been located 
 as recently as the previous night. But the percep- 
 tion and prudence of our pilot saved us. Had the 
 rebel plan succeeded, the torpedo would have sunk 
 us in the river, the gunboats could not have gone 
 near enough to harm the Nashville, and she would 
 have been saved to the enemy, and possibly suc- 
 ceeded in getting to sea. But the Montauk was 
 preserved ; was able with her patched hull to join 
 in a fight with Fort McAllister (DU the following 
 day, with three other monitors that arrived that 
 afternoon ; was at Charleston from the beginning to 
 the end of the assault on the forts ; and came out 
 of the war the veteran monitor, bearing more than 
 four hundred honorable scars. 
 
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