Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1863-04-10

stream. Amusement seizes upon the
Yankee officers and men. Where we're
the long talked of batteries the rebels
had been constructing with which to
holdthe Mississippi? Had they been
abandoned in panic, caused by the terri
Bile bombardment of the feet? The ma
rinc officer Of the Mississippi, now a
prisoner, tells me the query was serious
" propounded whether the rebels had
not evacuated their stronghold, and thus
cheated the /" brave Yankee tars" out Of
the glory they were expecting to reap
Only too soon did the enemy discover
that We we're but waiting to bring their
whole feet irretrievably under our guns
before we went to work For fifteen
minutes had they piled at their monster
cannon, and now they were commencing
to relax, from sheer vexation, when a
flash of light from the crest of cliff
lights the way for she'll to go plungng
through the Hartford's deck. This was
the monitor, and at once the enemy saw
a Gordon of vivid light as long as their
own.
Now commenced the battle in all its
terrible earnestness. Outnumbered in
guns and outweighed in metal, our vol
leys were as Here the paper is so mu-
tilated that the text cannot be decipher-
ed Enemy thus discovering our bate
ries they opened on them with grape and
canister, which was more accurately
thrown than their shells, and threw
clouds Of dirt upon the guns and gun
ners. The shells went over them in every
conceivable direction, except the right
one. The Hartford, very fast ship,
now made straight for up the river, max
ing her best time and trying to divert
the aim of our gunners by her incessant
and deafening broadsides She soon out
stripped the balance of the feet. Shot
after shot struck her, Kidding her
through; but still she kept on her way
Every craft now looking out for itself
and bound to make its very best time to
get by, the feet lost its orderly line of
battle, and got so mixed up it was diff
cult and sometimes impossible to distin-
guish one from another 1t was speedily
apparent to the enemy that the fire was
a great deal hotter and more destructive
than had been expected, and the captains
of the two gunboats and of the Monon-
gahela doubtless resolved quickly that il
would be madness to attempt TO run such
a terrific gauntlet Of iron hail. Whether
the commanders of ne Richmond and
Mississippi had already arrived at the
same determination, or came to it soon
after, is not known; but they all, except
the Hartford, undertook to put about and
return the way they came.
For this purpose the Richmond sheer
ed in close To the left bank, under the
batteries, and then circled round, her
course reaching nearly up to the opposite
point. In executing this manouyre she
gave cur batteries SUCCESSFULLY rakiDg
position, and they took excellen! advan-
tage Of it, ripping her from stern to
stem. From the crashing Of timbers
plainly heard during every brief interval
Of the din, and from the view had Of
shots that struck her, it was evident that
her doom was sealed Instead Of max
ing run for it down the river, hugging
the opposite shore, she again turned her
Prov towards our batteries and run right
in under them As she got this position
a voice from on board cried out, Nov,
let me see you strike me from those hills.
damn you" AS if in answer to his
blasphemous appeal, battery above and
below got his range, and while shell
crashed through his forecastle, double
charge of grape swept his decks from
the mizzenmast forward. 1t must have
done fearful execution. 81
The Mississippi undertook to execute
the same maneuvre of turning round
and making her escape back to the point
she started from. She had rounded and
just turned down stream when one Of our
shots tore of her rudder, and another
went crashing through her machinery
Immediately after came the rushing
sound Of steam escaping from some bro
ken pipe, and the now unmanageable
vessel drifted aground directly opposite
our crescent line Of batteries. His range
was quickly gained, and she was being
rapidly torn to pieces by our missiles,
when the commander gave the order for
all hands TO save themselves the best way
they could. At the same time fire broke
out in two places. The prisoners we have
taken are Of opinion that she was set on
FIRE by her own officers, but it is quite as
likely that it was caused by our red hot
shot which were being poured into her
uninterruptcdly At this time her decks
we're strewn with dead aud wounded, ac-
cording to one Of her crew with whom ]
have converscd, who thought that one
half her complement Of men were includ-
cd in tho list of casualties.
In tho meantime | must account for
the other vessels Of the feet. Tho three
larger vessels had occupied most of the
attention Of the batteries, but tho other
craft had not by any means been over
looked. Two had turned round and start
ed down the stream One Of them ap-
pnrently escaped without serious disabili-