Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1861-11-22
From the Springfield Republican.
THE CAPTURE OF BEAUFORT.

The special correspondent of the me-
tropolitap press, who accompanied the
great naval expedition, arc able to give
very little information in addition to that
embraced in the official reports We CLEAN
a few additional items:-
One cause of delay in attacking the
forts, after most Of the feet had arrived
off Port Royal, was the fact that Captain
McNutt, superintendent of ordnance, had
placed upon single vessel of the fleet, the
Star of the South, all the heavy siege
guns, in fact all the large cannon that
were intended to be taken on shore to
strengthen our position as soon as attained
and all the ordnance storcs including
nearly all the powder III the whole feet
Capt McNutt has since been confined as
insane, and evidently did not know what
he was about when loading the vessel.
The dozen or so steamers or gunboats
that composed the feet of the notorious
Commodore Josiah Tatnall, though they
showed their heads in the early part of
the action, showed thier heels after the
first round or two, and were seen no more.
This too, in spite Of positive promise
the truthful Tatnall had made to Gen.
Drayton and all other leaders in command
at this point, that he would stand by
them till death" This fact was asccr-
tained by the letter itself, which was found,
carefully read and duly preserved. Doubt
less, when the gallant commodore saw our
gunboats in such ncighborly proximity to
him. he saw death so close at hand as to
make him think he had redeemed his rash
promise The disappointment of some of
the navy officers was extreme, for some of
them have such an abiding affection for
1atmll as to exceedingly desire to renew
their former acquaintance and they would
lave been very happy to have provided
him with temporary position in a Union
ship once more.
The re els had confidently calculated
on being able to sink the entire fleet in
twenty minutes, as we learned from some
copies of southern papers and from some
of the rebel letters, many of which fell
into our hands, and of several in which
this result is confidently predicted, and is
regarded not merely as a " consummation
Levouty to he wished" but was looked
upon almost as an accomplished fact.
The utter destruction Of the entire expe-
dition was considered 50 positively assured,
and their belief in the ability of their
batteries to put an effectual quietus upon
the prctcnsions Of Iincoln's' feet was
so perfect, that in one or two of the docu-
mcnts the writer's lamcnted the necessity
they should be under Of sending the ships
to the bottom, when the confederatcs are
50 much in need of ships II was taken
for granted that the tremendous cxecu-
ton to be done by their heavy guns,
would pcrforate the hulls of our ships
and send them instantly to the bottom.
Having this confident expectation, the
rebels looked eagerly after every fire to
sec some of our ships 60 down. They es-
pccially concentrated their guns on the
Wabash, and, as the prisoners afterwards
Informed us, were much surprised that she
persisted in remaining aAoat. When the
ships had all passed their battery in safe
ty for the first timc,>and had "pcppered
them WE'LL" and had all got off without
apparent injury, the astonishment was
great and the universal impression began
to prevail that there was some mistake.
On almost every vessel after the fight
the men were called aft and publicly
thanked by their respective captains. Or
the ship Bienville, particular mention was
made and special thanks returned, il
presence Of the ships company, to Will
lam Henry Steele, q boy not IA years old
who conducted himself with distinguished
bravery. sn @
From the best data that could be OBJ
tained, two thousand shots and shell wer'
delivered by the feet. Individual case
Of gallantry were numerous. The mel
fought with determined bravery; they
worked on coolly, and the silence was onl,
broken by an occasional cheer when som
..onl,od ofI,ooi ,uaa noticed bv their fripo