Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-01-30
The Fight Between the Alabama and Hat
teras off Galveston.

from tne daiVeston NeWsI
Our readers generally will be interest
ed in the account by Captain Semmes
himself, commander of the Alabama, Of
the fight between that vessel and the
Hattsras off Galveston, the noise oil
which was heard with so much wonder
and conjecture by many of our citizens,
Sunday evening, January II, 1868.
The Alabama had come round near
this port, in the hope of destroying Gene
raj Banks expedition, which was ex
pected to rendezvous here in January
1868. On arriving, Admiral Semmes
found General Banks absent, but discov.
cred that there were five Federal ships
of war in the harbor. He had promised
his men some "sport," but to run-a-muck
into FIVE war-ships, of which the least
was nearly his equal, hardly came under
that category. Happily, one of the
euemy's vessels decided the question for
him by going out in pursuit.
We give the rest, as told by the Ad-
miral, in his book, "The Sumter and the
Alabama" just issued:
"The Alabama was still under sail,
though, of course, being so near the en-
emy, the water was still warm in her
boilers, and in condition to give as
steam in ten minutes. To carry out my
design of decoying the enemy, now wore
ship as though l were fleeing FROM his
pursuit. This, no doubt, encouraged
him, though, as it would seem, the cap
tain of the pursuing ship pretty soon
began to smell rat, as the reader will
sec by his report of the engagement. l
now lowered my propeller, still holding
on to my sails, however, and gave the
ship q small head of steam, TO prevent
the stranger from overhauling me too
rapidly. We were still too close TO the
fleet to think of engaging him. / thus
decoyed him on, little by little, now
turning my propeller over slowly, and
now stopping it altogether. In the
meantime night set in before We could
get distinct view of our pursuer. She
was evidently large steamer, but we
knew from her build and rig that she be.
longed neither to the class Of old steam
frigates nor that of the new sloops, and
we were quite willing to try, our strength
with any of the other classes.
AT length, when / judged that l had
drawn the stranger cut about twenty
miles from his feet, | furled my sails,
beat to quarters, prepared my ship for
action, and wheeled to meet him. The
two ships now approached each other
rapidly. As we came within speaking
distance we simultaneously stopped our
engines, the ships being about one hun
dred yards apart The enemy was the
first TO hail. What ship is thstP cried
he This is her Britannia Msjesty's
steamer Petrol, we replied. We now
hailed in turn and demanded to know
who he was. The reply not coming TO
us very distinctly, we repeated our ques-
ton. when we heard the words, This is
the United States ship -, the name Of
the ship being lost to US. But we heard
enough. All we wanted 10 know was
that the stranger was q United States
ship, and therefore our enemy. A
pause now ensued--a rather awkward
pause, as the reader may suppose.
Presently the stranger hailed again and
said, III you please, l will send a boat
on board of YOU" His object was, Of
course, to verify or discredit the answer
we had given him that We were enc OF
her Britannia Majesty's cruisers We
replied, Certainly, we shall be happy to
receive your boat aud we heard . boat.
swain's mate call away boat, and could
hear the oreaking Of the tackles as she
was lowered into the water.
Things were now come TO crisis,
and it being useless to delay our engage
ment with the enemy any longer, l
turned 10 my FIRST lieutenant and said, Il
suppose you are all ready for action 7
We are, be replied; the men are eager
to begin, aud are only waiting for the