The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-04-25
How NOT TO DO TT.

instructions in the harbor. These RATS
ana torpedoes have been here nearly two
months, and the attempt to take Charleston |
has been abandoned without their useful
ness being considered for moment. One
OF the rants was taken in by the Weehawk-
torpedoes, but, they refused to have the tor |
pedoes connected with it. They were afraid
the torpedoes might kick backward, al !
though they had been experimental with. |
and even the raft had not been injured.
One of these torpedoes, containing seven
hundred pounds Of powder, would have
swept away the distractions in the farbor.
and enabled the feet, yesterday afternoon.
to go up and lombard the city. They were.
however, not used, and this great national
retribution is abandoned. en-
Is Yours, &C., G. C. F.
TWO DAYS AFTER THE FIGHT.
STEAMSHIP Ericsson, J
orr CHARLESTON, April 9, 1858.
I closed my last letter yesterday, irnme-
Of Admiral Dupont to disappoint the ma
ton by retiring from before Charleston,
acknowledging his inability to perform the
duty delegated to him. At q later hour in
the evening, visited the ironclands on
the steam tug Dandelion, and more bro
ken-hearted set of men never had the
misfortune to encounter. Each man ap-
graced by the act of his superiors, and
aboard the Ironsides the state of feeling
among the younger officers and crew was
that Of supreme disgust. a
visited several of the monitors during
the morning, when, all expected to
renew the conflict at one o'clock, and all
were in high glee at the prospect, and full
Sumter must yield under repetition Of
the pounding it received on Tuesday
Conhdence was every where felt. The
gallant Fairfax, of the Nantucket, asser-
ted that he had put twenty-seven Of his
immense projectiles against and through
the walls ofSumter, and was confident
that if all would do a. well in the attack
commence, Sumter must yield, or become
q pile of rubbish.
From the deck of the Wehawken the
northeast wall of the fort was very dis
tinctly visible with q glass, the distance
being attraction less than two miles. I ex-
amined it very closely, and the holes in it
could not have been less than from two TO
| three feet deep. At one point three of the
| embrasures on this front appeared as if
knocked into one. This, it should be re-
membered, is not on the front where the
combined attack was made, but on that
! side where our vessels merely fired as a
passing compliment to the enemy, in going
in and out from their positions. Captain
Rodgers remarked, on hearing expressions
of surprise at the amount of damage visi-
BILE, that the damage on this front was tri-
| fling, compared with the holes bored into
the northwest front of the fort.
CONDITION OF OUR VESSELS. stt
The Ironsides, and each and all Of the
seven monitors are at the moment write,
in as good, if not better condition for re-
newal Of the fight than they were at first
On six of them not a soul was injured, and
the men and machinery havebeen tested I'M
der heavy fire. The vessels are covered
with the scars of war, deep indentations,
holes through their smoke stacks, &C., but
not one of them received any injury that
could be regarded as rendering them less
most roughly used, was ready for action at
one O'Clock, alittle difficulty in the working
of her turret having been remedied by the
mechanics sent here for that pOrpoSe. This
was tho vessel on which three men were
wounded by the flying ofsome broken bolts
| in the pilot house.
The Patapsco steamed of alone to Port
Royal, yesterday afternoon, and the We
hawken, which was longer under fire than
any other vessel, was not injured in the
least, so far as her condition for service was
concerned.
They will all return to Port Royal to-
morrow, and 1t is to be hoped that the Pres
identwill Immediately send here command
ers, who not only believe that Charleston
can be taken, but sympathize with the tru-
ly loyal Of the land, when they declare that
| "Charleston must be taken"
THE REBEL CANNoNADING.
| The cannonading by the rebels on Tues
day last, is admitted on all hands to have
been the most admirable. The number of
ted, from the first to last shot, to have been
not less than two thousand, while some es-
innate it at from three to four thousand
The nine vessels engaged each received not
less than fifty shots, while the Keokuk
was struck over one hundred times. This
would make over five hundred shots that
took effect, while the long whistle of four
fifths Of the:shots indicated that they MISS
ed their mark. slQT latll aiGE Z
The battle during the first hour was most
fierce, and the splash of the water around
the monitors indicated the terrible ordeal
under which they were passing. That the
monitors should have come out Ofthe fight
in such condition was . matter Of surprise,
not one of them having its effectiveness for
immediate service lessened.
| One of the causes of the long delay in the
bOmbardment was the fear Of bomb-shells
! falling on their decks. A month was lost
| in sending North for additional iron plates
to thicken them, and render them bomb
proof. There was, however, but two OR
/ ClIe0 JULIUS IllIOWA Tie stuu,
consequently, this precaution was entirely
unnecessary.
| The lager beer barrels reported by Capt
Rogers, of the Weehawken, who went into
| the harbor beyond Sumter, are understood
to sustain masses of rope and fish nets,
which were intended to entangle and foul
the propellers of the monitors, and render
them useless. By breaking through these,
and stopping their propellers until they got
beyond the How Of the ropes and nets. this
oontrivance could easily have been render
| ed useless. ls Har ,. f....
The line of spiles across the harbor was
a half mile beyond these barrels, and the
rebel rams were inside of these spiles. The
use of one of Ericsson's torpedo RATS and
shells would have swept away a hundred
feet of these spiles, and the city would have
been at our mercy. In fact, nothing to Sc
cure success has been attempted, and the
| whole attack was mere sham. The result
has met the predictions of those who had it
in hand. They made the attack merely to
meet public sentiment, and after going thro'
the formalities of an attack, have abandon
ed it, with one man killed and four or five
wounded. After eighteen months prepar-
alton they have humbled and disgraced the
nation in Two hOurS