The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-04-24
THE WEEKLY PIONEER AND DEMOCRAT


the northeast and eastern face Of Fort
Sumter, at distances of from six hundred
to thousand yards. While the maneu-
vers rapidly indicated in these paragraphs,
are going on, you must not suppose the
enemy is inactive The powerful work on
Cummings Point, named Battery Bee,
opens, the long range rifle ordnance of
Fort Beauregard join in; Moultrie hurls
its heavy metal, the fifty guns that line
Redan swell the fire, and the tremendous
armament OF Sumter vomits forth it's
fiery hail.
THE STORM OF SHOT AND SHELL.
There now ensues period of not more
than thirty minutes, which forms the eli
max and white heat of the fight; for
though from the time when fire was
opened on the head of the approaching
line to the time when the retiring fleet
passed out of the enemy's range, cover
ing an interval of two hours and half,
(from half-past two till fve,) yet the es-
sence of the fight was shut up in those
tremendous thirty minutes.
On the order being given to disregard
the movements of the tlagships, the bril-
iantly audacious Rhind ran his vessel, the
Keokuk, up through the others and laid it
seemingly under the very walls of Sumter,
and within little more than five hundred
yards from it. Close behind him, within
six hundred yards of the fort, is the Cats
kill, commanded by George Rogers, a
soul of courage compact and to both of
them one could not help applying the ex-
clamation of Nelson at Trafalgar-"S See
how Collingwood, that rebel fellow, car
rids his ship into the fight!"
Close by the Montauk, commanded by
the heroic Wordon; while not far remov-
ed are the Passaic, the Patapsco, the Ma
liant, the Nantucket the Weehawken and
the Ironsides.
The whole fleet is devoting itself mainly
to the face of Fort Sumter presented to if,
with the exception of the Ironsides, which,
from its position, can do better work on
Fort Moultrie, and is pouring forth it's ter
rifle brOadsideS from its seven 1O-inch guns
on that work.
Could you look through the smoke, and
through the fame-lit ports, into one of
those revolving towers, a spectacle would
meet your eye such as Vulcan's sti,hy
might present. Here are the two huge
guns which form the armament of each
MOnitOr-the one eleven and the other fif-
teen inches in diameter of bore. The gun
ners, begrimed with powder and stripped
to the waist, are loading the gun. The
charge of powder-thirty pounds to
each charges passed up rapidly from
below; the shot, weighing four hundred
and twenty pounds, is hoisted up by me-
chanical appliances to the muzzle of the
gun, and rammed home; the gun is run
out to theport, and tightly compressed"
the port is open for an instant, the cap
tain of the gun stands behind, lanyard in
hand" ready, fret" and the enormous
prOjectile rushes through its huge parabols,
with the weight of ten thousand tons, home
to its mark
That mark is the face of Sumter, which
already displays palpable proofs Of the hor-
rid impact. Halt dozen ugly peck marks
show conspicuous, and huge crater was
formed in the parapet near the eastern
angle. We look with interest at these eff
fects, and look forward with good hope to
seeing breech at length effected, if only
the iron-clads can remain long enough I'M
der fire to batter away.
What is this coming down out of the
fight? 1t is the KeOkuk-we know her
by her double turret. She has defed
Sumter under it's very walls, and now
comes out to report to the flagship that
she has received her death-blow, and is in
sinking condition. The flagship herself
has hsd one of her shutters shot away,
thus exposing her gun deck, and red hot
shot has penetrated her wooden bows. In
addition, three others showed signs of dis
ablement, and there was little more than
sufficient daylight left for the fleet to gain
its old anchorage. So the Admiral at five
O'Clock made signal to retire.
DAMAGE RECEIVED.
The Nahant received in all thirty
wounds, several of them bad fractures of
the deck and sides below and above the
water line. The most fatal blow, however,
was given by heavy rifed shot, which
struck the pilot-house and dislodged sever
al of the bolts, one of which, driven vio-
lently inwards, wounded all of the inmates
of the pilot-house-the captain, Captain
Downs, Massachusetts, the pilot, Gsaac
Scofeld, New Jersey,) and the Quarter
master, Edward Cobb, Massachusetts,
The Passaic also received twenty-five or
thirty wounds. The most extraordinary
shot was from large ten-inch rihed pro-
jectile, which struck the top of the turret,
scooping out a huge portion of the iron,
breaking all the eleven plates of an inch
thickness each, and spending its force on
the pilot-house (Which is plated on top Of
the turret,) in which it made crater three
inches deep, and producing such shock
on the pilot-house as to start its top and
raise it three inches! Had not the force of
the impact been broken on the turret, there
can be little doubt that this shot would
have gone clear through the pilot-house.
Another shot hit the turret, forcing the
place struck inwards, and producing big
swell on the interior. The same schock
disabled the carriage of the elven-inch gun,
while portions of the interior iron casing
fell down, and lodging in the groove of the
turret, stopped it's revolution.
The Nantucket, besides receiving. num-
Der of wounds, had her turret so Jared
that the cover Of the port could not be
opened, and consequently the fifteen-inch
gun could not be used.
These three are all of the Monitor type.
In addition. the other Monitors each re-