The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-11-03
A HOT FIGHT.
AN INCIDENT OF BANKS'S RED
RIVER EXPEDITION.
A Federal FIotiIla Attacked by Con-
federate Troops-A Battery's
Warm ReceptiOn-Un-
der Heavy Fire.

Darlington Smith describes in the De-
troit Free Press hot fight which the
naval flotiila that accompanied General
Eanks's starved Red Itiver Expcdi-
tion had with the Confcdcrates. Says
the writer: We had at Grand Ecore at
the time large gunboat called the East
port, which was in an almost helpless
condition from having struck torpedo,
and three smaller ones, and all the crews
were q mixed set and not too strong in
numbers. was then serving on board
the Cricket, which was the flagship, and
at least half our crew was made up OF
negro refugees, all of whom cju:d help
han lie the big guns, but none of whom
had the least knowledge of gnnnery or
had ever been in fight. We were left
to ourselves, and in what every man real
lied was a dangerous position. We
were far firm Alexandria,, in the midst
of a hostil, country, with river full OF
bends, bars and sunken logs.
Had the gunboats moved off at once
we might have escaped much of the loss
we wee compelled to suffer by the delay,
but the Admiral refused to leave the
Eastport b:hnd. She had been un-
loaded and something done toward re.
pa ring the leaks, and he det:rm' ned
that she should 60 with us to Alcxand ia.
She not only had to be towed, but to
drag lighter after her, and such was
her draug ght, even WHEN light, chat con-
stant vigilance had to BIZ exercised to
keep her off the bottom. She got aground
twice the first day and in the next fifty
miles she was almost literally pull,d by
hand over bars, sunken logs and Oh tinale
snags. During all this time the gun
boats were pumping the water out OF
her, and full hundred men were KEEP
busy with hawscrs and chains. At length
a stiff current at a bend of the river sc;
her upon q bed Of sunken logs and
s.umps, and she was there to atay. She
could be lightened no more, and any at
tempt to pull her off w~uld have torn
her to pieces. Thirty hours We're spent
in trying various plans, and she was then
filled with powder and blown up.
The Contederates had been given am
pie time to concentrate between us and
Ale1an lria, and we had scarcely gotten
rid of the Eastport Wien the woods
seemed to swarm with sharrshooters.
They fired on us at every bend and from
every bank. but fortunately did not seek
to OBJ ;truct the way by telling trees. We
had a arp fight with infantry before
leaving the scene of the Eastports de-
struction, and were made to realize that
we should NEE with more serious diff
culties on the way down. Our three
gunboats were guaranteed only bullet
proof, but they were not even that. Our
guns were of old pattern and small cali
Der, and, as 1 said at the outset, the gun
crews were made up from q miscellan-
eous lot of stragglers. When we left
the spot where the astport was blown
up. the flagship took the lead down the
river, with orders for the batteries on
every boat to be in readiness to open fire
at any moment. We had, if I remember
rightly, eighteen guns in all, and the
largest one on the Cricket was twelve
FOUNDER.
We had been uhuv4 Nay al out three
hours and had just reached the upper
end Of bluff mile long. when the pilot
blew sharp blast oni the whistle as b
danger signal. and the next moment there
was roar and crash which seemed to
shake heaven and earth. The Confed-
crates had planted score of cannon on
the bluff, trained them all on the channel
at short range, and as we came opposite
the whole battery was discharged as one
gun, and the Cricket received every mis-
slc. Viii Q the guns were being reloaded
several hundred infantry opened fire, anc
there was a square foot of the gun
boat above water which was not Clipped
by bullets. The fire from the battery
killed the engineer. pilot and ten Other
persons, and wounded twenty-one, in
cluding every fireman and the best gun
ners. inside of two minutes we lost III
killed and wounded over half our crew.
We were five minutes under fire before
returning it, and in this tine were struck
over forty times The following gunboat
came in for almost as many hard knocks,
having twenty killed and wounded, and
she got out Of range by returning up the
river.
Meanwhile, we in the Cricket had
floated down to point from which we
could take the Confederates in reverse,
and we soon silcnced half Their guns,
though they worked sufficient number
to sink one of our tow-boats and drown
her whole crew, and to bluff the other
gunboats from attempting the passage.
They left us below, and two gunboats
and tow-boat above. We ran down
about seven miles, getting aground and
off aga.n twice, and then fell in with
one Of our ironclals. The latter was at
once ordered up the stream, but ran her
self aground after going coupl, of
miles, and before she got off the two
gunboats came down. They had eft the
other tow boat above the battery to fall
into the hands of the Confcderates, and
they also raised the one sunk in the river.
We lost in kill; and wounded on the
thre. boats nearly ninety men, and while
one had two and the other three guns
rendered helpless, the flagship had only
one which could be used after the fl hit
was over. Many of the missiles passed.
through both sides of the boats, and
dozens of them fell into the engine room,
and it has always been looked upon as a
miracle that the engines and boilers es'
capped injury.