Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1891-11-26
BLOCKADE OF THE POTOMAC.

How the Pensacola Ran the Gauntlet OF
Batteries.
During the summer and fall of 1861
the confederates had effected the COM
plete blockade of the city of Washing
ton and the Potomac river. Not an
ounce of provisions or munitions of war
could get into Washington except by
railway from Baltimore and undergo
ing .ransshipment at that place. The
Potomac river was closed and the rebel
batteries could only be passed by few
small crafts at night
The sloop-of-war Pensacola had been
fitting for sea at the Washington navy
yard for nearly year past, and in the
month of November her engineers pro-
nounced her ready. The rebel batteries
swept the channel of the river through
a distance of nine miles, and this was
the gauntlet the ship was to run if she
was to join Farragut's fleet below New
Orleans, where she was ordered to rem
devious.
The confederate officers of this long
line of batteries on the right bank of
the Potomac had possession of the coast
survey charts and they were thus en-
abled to train their guns accurately on
mid-channel of the river, not very wide
at this place The elevating screws of
the guns were made secure after the
aim had been carefully adjusted and
nothing was left for the gunner to do
but to watch until the ship should come
in the line of fire and pull his lock
string. Nine miles of batteries seemed
h discrimination, of fhn shin a
pretty sure thing.
On a star-lit November night just as
the moon was sinking in the west,
the ship, which had been lying at an
Choir off Alexandria, got under way and
headed down the river toward the bat
teries and to try the fortune of war
John Walters, the only navy yard pilot
who remained loyal to the government,
stood by to steer the ship through her
dangerous course. Two navy yard tugs
were secured along the off-shore side of
the ship to help the ships own engines
and to be ready to assist in the event of
their being disabled
1t is impossible to describe or to under
stand now the intense interest excited
by this attempt to break through the
rebel blockade of the federal capital,
not only in Washington, but through
out the country, and especially in the
confederacy. That night, therefore,
but few people in Washington went to
their beds to sleep as they listened to
the booming of the great guns on the
banks of the Potomac, President Lin
coin, Mr.. Seward, the secretary Of war,
and indeed nearly or quite all the MEM
bers of the cabinet embarked in a
steamer at the navy yard and followed
in the wake of the Pensacola down the
river, until she arrived off Shipping
point, where the first gun was fired
from the rebel batteries. There they
stopped their engine and peered
through the night at the recedng hull
of the ship, amid the flashes and booms
of guns. Never, perhaps, in the his
tory of our navy had so much and so
intense an interest been centered upon
a ship of war.
Orders from the navy department had
been issued to the captain of the Pen
SacOla that no reply should oe given 70
the rebel batteries. 1t was the mission
of that ship to pass through the fire of
the enemy as swiftly and as safely as
possible. Think of being under the fire
of an enemy's guns for one hour or
longer and forbidden to fire back. The
grand old pilot, Walters. understood his
business The throttles of the engines
were opened wide; che tugs WEI 80
10 keep speed with the ship and to give
neither sight nor sound to the enemy;
and, by fine, shrewd trick of seaman
ship and plotting the Pensacola was
near to the very edge Of the channel