The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1862-07-24

nearly an hour before she got Of. Her crew
CALAMITY maintained she fight, keeping up a
fierce fire on the Arkansas until she had passed
beyond the reach of her guns
| The Arkansas as soon as she was clear from
the bar, Immediately started down the river.
the Tyler seeing this, passed her and preceded
her down, maintaining gallant running fight
with her greatly superior adversary.
| The distance from the mouth of the Yaxoo riv-
err to the batteries at Vicksburg, is about ten
miles
The fleet of Davis and Farragut, with num-
Der OF transports, ammunition boats, mortar boats
aud wooden rams, were lying scattered over a
space Otneary two miles of the river lust above
the upper batteries. Unfortunately none of
the iron gunboats had steam up. and the entire
feet scattered about that few of them
could ire at the Arkansas as she passed with
out danger of hitting some of our own boats, un-
til she came into close range.
AS she approached such boats as could safe
~ do so oreled lire upon her, but her heavy iron
plating successfully resisted most of the shots.
Spectators describe the appearance of the
shots az they struck to have been curious in
the extreme. Every time solid shot struck
her plating cloud of blue blaze seemed to rise
from the spot and streak of brighter fire caus-
ed by the friction, marked the entire course
Of the shot, until it passed off the vessel into
however
passed entirely through the plating, and pene
trated the interior of the vessel As the Ar
kansas approached Farragut's gunboat, No. 6.
she swerved little from her course to reply to
SHOT from one of the Other boats At this in.
slant solid shot from the 1i-inch columbiad
of the No. b. struck her on the larboard bow.
near the forward port passing through and
under her plating, and ripping it off for con-
siderable distance. What further damage it
did is not ascertained, but it is evident that the
Arkansas is considerably injured, as at the time
our informant left there, she was lying covered
over on the bank under the shelter of the bat
teries, ;and large number of men could be
seen at work on her.
The injuries to our feet were very much less
than at first represented.
The Benton received q shot which struck
near the edge other after port, on the larboard
side, instantly killing man who was stand
ing there, passing through the gunners room
and the wood room, and finally landing on the
commanders bed This was the only shot
which did any particular damage, and this was
from one of the shore batteries and not from
the Arkans2s.
The Tyler is a wooden boat, which engaged
the Arkansas longer than any other nearly an
hour and half, and received the most damage
She had seven men killed outright and some
nine or ten sounded. Among the killed were
twowell known river men-Charley Sebastian.
pilot of the Tyler, one of the best known and
most popular men on the river, and Mr. Davis,
the engineer. David Hiner another we'll
known pilot, had his arm taken off by q
shot
The ram Lancaster received shot which
penetrated the mud receiver underneath the
boilers, causing an escape of hot water, by
which six men were scalded, three Of them ia
tally
The entire Federal loss so far as we can as
certain, will amount to about 10 killed and Is
wounded, Of whom five or six will probably
die What the loss of life ON board the Arkan-
sas was is not known, but undoubtedly it amour
ted to considerable as several shots were seen
to pass into her interior, and the hot water
streams of the Carondeles, at the time she at
tempted to board, were thrown directly into her.
The Carondelet received no damage from the
steam of the Arkansas.
! The Federal ram Queen of the West, which
| lay directly in the path of the Arkansas as she
came down, was the s:ipient of large portion
ofthe fire: The bow Of the Queen was pro-
tected by bales Of pressed hay, which proved
decidedly better protection than iron plating.
Not single shot passed through them, but sew
eral large shells were pulled out of the hay, in
which they had buried themselves, and were ex-
tingu before they burst