Kimball enterprise. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1883, 1883-04-20
10 before applying the torch and sailing

away.
The magazine was captured before 10
o'clock in the evening, or two hours pe-
fore the Pawnee stea ned away. AT any
moment during this interval she could
have driven the confederates away, but
she did not make a move, much to their
astonishment. But Tor that power Beau
regard would have had to tail back from
Bull Run, perhaps to Richmond, with
out a battle. Such a movement might
lave changed the complexion OF the en-
tire campaign, and the first battle fought
might have resulted in a crushing con-
federate defeat.
An hour before midnight the loading
of the Pawnee and Cumberland had
been finished, and the marines and em-
ployes filed aboard. Citizens OF Norfolk
and Portsmouth had heard OF the cap
ture of the powder, and were assem-
bling in excited crowds, but none could
secure information us to what actlon
McCuuley threatened 10 take. He being
an old officer, it was generally believed
that he would fight, and the assertion
that he would abandon the post without
firing a musket would have been resent
ed even by his enemies, The guards
were kept ut their stations until a quar-
ter o. twelve and then withdrawn very
quietly and detailed to light the various
fires.
Ten minutes was time enough to ap-
ply the torch to anything prepared, and
light over the yard every sou! was
aboard the vessels. In ten minutes
more, after seeing that the destruction
would be complete, the Pawnee steamed
away for fortress Monroe, the Cumber.
land following in tow, 1t was not until
the midnight heavens were allght with
the angry flames that the ~coniederates
realized what had taken place aud was
then occurring. Then a grand rush was
made for the navy yard.
The Federal commander had made
sure work with his incendiary torches.
The Confederates rushed into find hulks
and s~torehouses ans offices IN flames be-
You'd any REPRESENTATION. Men rush
ed here and there seeking to saw what
could be dragged out, but as the mines
which had been prepared began to ex.
plode the excited %populace were forced
to fall back and become spectators Ola
scene full of grandeur and desolation.
flames took hold dercely and lowered
aloft until the white caps rolling into the
bay changed color to blood-red, and the
sentinels at Fortress Monroe stood
aghast to see midnight turned into day
by the awful reflection.
All the remainder Of the night and far
into next day the flames continued their
work of destruction, but what was saved
to tae confederates was of inestimable
value Just then. 1t was a work of little
magnitude to raise the Nerrimac, which
afterwards became the celebrated IRON
clad ram and within sixty days many
of the cannons were thunderingdefance
at Union forces hundreds of miles away'.
The north was indignant over the way
Norfolk had been given up, and it was Il
matter of regret with the government.
There was Il slur, too, in the command
ant agreeing to a truce and then goingto
work to burn and destroy. Had Nc
Cauley defied the confederates he could
have held them at bay for three or four
days at least, and had the government
backed his spirit with reinforcements
who can say that Bull Run would have
been a Union defeat, the Merrimac ever
rebuilt, or Norfolk become a confederate
stronghold.
The great powder magazine, contain
ing tons of various grades of powder,
was in charge Of a single sentinel-a
petty officer named Oliver, who has
been in the United States service as man
and boy for upwards of wenty wear.
On that eventful day he was still a Uni
on man, and was ready to obey every
order from his supeyior. He had been
given no special instructions, nor did he
know at dark that the place was to be
abandoned.
In the evening, as Oliver sat at the
supper table surrounded by his children
his wife being dead-there suddenly
came the tramp of many feet and he
found himself a prisoner to a hand OF
thirty or forty of the Norfolk Fire De-
partment. It was a band that had vol
unteered for this very duty, and their
appearance was a complete surprise.
Oliver surrendered only after he had
been overpowered and bound, and his
captors could neither coax nor threaten
him into giving up the key of the maya
zine. Axes were brought and the doors
cut away, and, as wa stated in a former
article, this powder went to Richmond
and was served out to fight the battle Of
Bull Run.