The Arkansaw traveler., 1882-12-24


 and the tangled remains" found on the buckets of the wheels of the gun-boats. At ] o'clock in the afternoon the Abe marie was discovered coming down for the fleet She had with her a tender called the Bombshell, mounting one gun, and river steamer from which she was to draw coal and provisions in case of win ming victory and being in condition to go to sea The federal fleet immediately go, under weigh and stood up to meet the ram. ana as soon as they came with in firing distance the fight opened. The commander of the ram knew exactly what he had to deal with, having the name and armament of every steamer in the fleet while on the federal side the Albemarle was credited with having tour more guns than she really had. and to be armed with a spar and torpedo.
 The Mattabesett led the federal fleet. and was the first to receive shot. When she had approached within two hundred yards the ram gave her shot which screamed past the smoke-stack without injury. but a second shot struck the gun boat and wounded six men. This fire was at once returned with solid shot. The massive balls from the nine-inch guns, hurled ~i;h d charge of thirteen pounds powder struck the ram with a crash that that could be heard two miles away, but bounded upwards or fell backwards into the water, having left scarcely dent Tn the armor of the ram.
 Sheering of to avoid the ram, the Mat,abesett received the fire of the Bombshell. which had gallantly followed the Albemarle into the fight. The fed eral gave her one single broadside, and brought down her flag. During the re mainder of the fight the Mat;abesett had all the orders to give by signals. but her report. at the close of the action showed that she had fired fifty shots, forty-hve of which were at the ram. and thiuy-ssven of which struck her fair and square. AS to her damage. she was struck six or seven times. and had two men killed and six wounded. One solid shot, fired from the ram at close quarters, crashed into the bow of the Maitabesett, and traversed distance of thirty-hve feet before l, rested. This was the shot which killed the two men and wounded two others. Something of the awtul force of such shot may be gleaned from the estimate made on board the gun boat that ii would have crashed through barrier of blanks siA feet thick.
 The Sassaous followed the Mattabt- sett into the fight and delivered her broads,de into the ram when fairly abreast and not over 200 feet away. One solid she. bounded back third of the distance, and the others fell into the water. It was, as if bullet had been fired from revol- ger a, a piece of hoiler-pla,e. h circling to avoid the Mattabesett, the AlbemarIe fell into the position hoped for by the Sassacus, and this latter vessel took run of several hundred yards with throttle wide open and struck the ram amidships. The collision knocked down nearly every person on both vessels. but was felt more on the gun-boat than on the ram. It seemed to those on the Sassaeus as if every bolt in the ship had been started. and the lar could have been no worse had she run full tilt at stone wharf.
 The situation was now strange and full of peril. The gun-boat held her bow firmly against the ram and soughtto push her under, and she so nearly succeeded that al one time the crew of the Abe marie cried out to each other that she was going down. While in this position both vessels kept up a fire from such guns as would bear. and here 1t was shown that the ram had a great advantage in- carry ing rifiemen. But for their fire the ram could have been boarded and disabled After the pushing had continued seven or eight minutes the ram began to turn on a pivot, and amidst the cheers of her crew she slowly swung around and delivered shot from one of her hundred-pounders. The shot had only thirty feet to traverse before striking the Sassacus. IL crashed into her a few feet from the bows. tore away bulkheads, lockers beams and braces, and struck one of the boilers and passed through it from end to and. In three seconds the Sassaeus was enveloped IF cloud of steam which blinded every body and completely hid her from view Nearly twenty men were more or less se- verely scalded, and two or three fatally. The gun-boat was now compelled to drift out of the fight and come to anchor. but she fought as she drifted and did not cease firing until obliged to by the ap- proach of other federals.
 AS sPhsSASus uIC0 dOOut tWcIlty-uNc shots, and received abou, eight or ten, and was little better than a wreck when the fight ended
 The Wyalusing, being third in line, de livered all her shots at the ram at less than rife range, and her fire was main- ,ained for full two hours. She fired over 100 shot and shell altogether. She re- ceived eight or nine sho, and shell m her hull. and more than half her bulk-heads were torn away. There was scarcely beam or brace in her interior which did not show scars of the fight and yet she had no killed or wounded to report. Had the las; shot which came aboard of her not been turned aside at the last moment by a plank ended up by previous shot, it would have entered her boiler and pro- duced the same terrible results as on board the Sassacus.
 The Commodore Hull fired over eighty shot at the ram, at least sixty of which struck, and yet in return she was not even hred at and consequently received not the least damaPe Iusf hefs,re inc ~losA of