The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-12-29
Picking nm a Tornedo.

was among others detailed from the
Federal steamer Monongahela. says IS.
T. K in the Detroit Free Press. to
search the Red River. between the Ten
sas and the Mississippi, for the torpe-
does which had been planted by the
Confederates before our fleet appeared
in those waters. These torpedoes were
of all makes, shapes and sizes, from a
pork barrel, half full of powder, to be
fired by electricity from the shore, to
glass demijohn holding ten pounds and
to be exploded by contact Some were
on the surface, some just under ii, and
some on the bottom. We went out in
gangs of four in rowboats TO hunt for
these terrifiers, each boat being provided
with grapnels. nets. boat hooks and
whatever else was needed for fishing up
the monsters. We had to go slow and
exercise great caution, for the channel
was tortuous and no one could guess at
what point we would come across a tor
pedo. While the woods were shelled
two or three time a day by our gun
boats, the Confederate swamp-cats were
by no means driven out. They had
every chance to Secrete themselves
along the banks, and we realized that
if we came upon an electric torpedo
which could be exploded from the
shore we ran every risk of being blown
sky-high.
We had been at work three or four
days, and had fished up seven or eight
ugly looking fellows, when we got into
part of the channel which ran within
fifty feet of the right hand bank just
at this time colored man, who had
IT,, kI.
eral weeks waiting for his deliverance,
informed us that he had observed men
planting something in this bend about
two weeks before. He thought there
were wires leading from it to the
swamp, but we secuted about for
couple of hours without being able to
find that such was the case. The bank
was a dense jungle. in which a thou
sand men could have concealed them
selves. and the gunboats could not
shell it from the position they had
taken.
1t was about an hour after dinner
that we moved up and began graphing
in the bend. The boat in which | was
stationed turned her bow down stream,
threw over her grapnels, and two men
used the oars to give her headway. We
had not pulled fifty feet when the irons
took hold, and | drew the boat back to
the spot by means of the rope Then,
standing on the seat in the stern, l
lifted at the obstruction and it came
slowly up. 1t had just appeared at the
surface sufficient for me to make out
that it was boiler-iron torpedo, when
there came an awful explosion. At the
same instant our boat was lifted high
in the air and broken to pieces, and ]
scarcely comprehendeG what had occur
red until l found myself in the water at
least two hundred feet below the point
of explosion. My hair, whiskers and
eyebrows were badly singed, and my
clothing was on fire when came down
after the flight While l had escaped,
the other three men were killed outright
and horribly mangled, and the great
wave created swamped the boat work
ing few hundred feet below US and
drowned one of her crew.
While swimming for lis capsized
boat man stood on the bank of the
river and fired four shots at me from
revolver, with the fifth he killed the
colored man who had given US infor-
nation. The victim stood on the bank,
about midway between the two boats,
and was shot through the head. The
torpedo was no doubt explod ID by cleo
tricity, and the man who fired the shots
was the operator who exploded it.