The Local news. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1861-1862, 1861-10-21
ALEXANDRIA,, VA.


Weaver, arrived at this port on Saturday
evening last, in tow of the steam-tug Reso-
lutte. having met with some injuries in pass
ing the Confederate batteries at Quantico.
The :" Lady Ann" had been lying below
Quantico, where the Confederate guns are
planted, and between ten and eleven o'clock
on Saturday started in company with the
schooner Fairfax, to pass the Confederate
works, under cover of a fog, and in tow of
the Resolute, the Lady Ann being on the
Maryland, and the Fairfax on the Virginia
side of the tug.
The fog lifted as the vessels neared the
batteries, and the guns of the batteries open
ed upon them, with quick fire and accurate
range. The Fairfax was struck by some
twenty shots, one of which stranded one of
the tow ropes, and the vessel swung around
in the ebb tide. As she did 50, her connec-
tions with the tug were cut, and the vessel
drifted from the tug, which steamed ahead
rapidly. The captain and crew Of the Fair
fax had taken refuge in the tug before the
rope was cut A barge containing apparent.
ly about thirty men and arrow boat were
seen to put off from the bat cry, to board the
Fairfax, and tow her up to Quantico.
Meanwhile the Resoluto and the Lady Ann
had passed out of the range of the batteries
the Lady Ann having received six shots,
one Of which struck her bowsprit, another
,olr mt nj, od
away part of the hand-rail another under
the jib-boom, and carried away the fore-top-
sail stay another struck the headfall post,
and carried away the windlass gear another
shot cut away the matnmast shrouds, and
grazed the mast another came in over the
stern, carried away corner of the quarter
house, and passed out through the bulwarks.
The Fairfax is supposed to be much in
iured.
The cargo of the Lody Ann wa, coal. The
Fairfax was loaded with hay, one hundred
and fifty barrels of cement, and an assorted
cargo, comprising piano, the vessel and
cargo being worth about fifteen thousand
dollars.
The following account of the affair we
find in the telegraphic report of the Asso-
ciated Press: E" Persons attached to the steam
tug Resolute report that about eleven O'Clock
this Saturday morning, while off Occoquan
river, near Budd's Point the cable by which
the Resolute was towing the schooner Fair
fax, from Philadelphia, broke, when the lat
ter drifted towards the shore, and the Con-
federates, in boats, started out and captured
her. The Resolute was, it is added, fred
at from the battery in that vicinity, but be-
ing unable to render assistance, made her
way to Washington, where she arrived that
evening.
1.-The schooner, towed with hay; cement
and furniture, which Saturday fell into the
hands of the Confederates, is the first disas-
ter Of that kind on the river, and is alone
, owing to the breaking of the hawser by
which it was fastened to the Rssolute, thus
allowing it to drift towards the Virginia
shore. The other vessel in tow arrived here
safely with the Resolute, Notwithstanding
the attack from the batteries upon them"
The New York Herald gives the following
additional items The Fairfax and Lady
Ann were in the thickest Of the fog, when
one battery opened, the Rescue being ahead,
and while they were under fire, tho fog lift
ed, just as the Res lutte struck on a chain
that the Confederates had stretched across
she channel, by large pungy on the Virgil
MIA shore, to buoys and floats on the Mary
land side. The sudden jerk broke the tug
lines connecting the Fairfax with the Reso-
lutte. and the former, being on the Virginia
side, drifted towards the Confederates.
1.-The fire was so hot that the captain of
the Fairfax had to abandon his vessel, TAX
ing his crew along with him to the Resolute,
but leaving behind him all his clothing and
everything he had on board He had no
time to set fire to the schooner, or he would
have done so. Captain Foster was about to
lower his boat, in order to fire the schooner,
but had he done 50 the Resolute would have
been inevitably sunk, and the schooner on
her starboard side either sunk with her or