The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-04-30

Tn \ w mon sense and OPP
! !: !: /.
JAHl NH VA portunity. There
!as|asas1 astEfH, is no knighthood,
sSfIAAEsssssE. ~ EAIsNIHsjh no lady's favor in
EHIESSG AlH#DiNltlI the hazard to spur
IRhsSE 1 hhsMHHAI on weak human
SsssEE sS .MNHNaMAI flesh; nothin 6
SENsA 4 A. HAlsREsyp much in fact at
%AD EW stake except sue
cess and reputa-
u Sion. Potent, toe,
are all these infu-
ences, judging from the deeds they inspire.
Here's a case in point, an affair quite I'M
known, although it was in it's way one of
the most desperate and sanguine in our
annals. Out of gunboat's crew of 173
souls, that drove wedgelike into one corner
OF the fight, 125 persisted and IS were
wounded. 1t was in the contest for Arkan-
sas, the second year of the civil war,
When the Union rams and gnnboats of
Ellet and Davis had cleared out the Con-
federate feet on the Mississippi above
Vicksburg, the rivers flowing in from
Arkansas offered a refuge to every floating
thing that escaped annihilatiox at their
hands. Gen. II. c. Hindman command
ed what there was of the Confed-
eracy in Arkansas and surmising that
the Union gunboats might take no.
ton to inspect the interior of his
bailiwick, he ordered that a stand
be made at the bluffs on the White river
below st. Charles, a point 100 miles from
the mouth of the Mississippi. He sent to
the spot two gunboats, the Pontchartrain
and Maurepas, and 100 men-thirty- of
them armed. The thirty-five rifles were
all that could be scraped together for
the purpose. At the same time he ordered
Texas regiment led by Col Allison Nell
son, then on it's way from the Lone Star
State to REINFORCE him, to proceed to the
same point. Capt. A. S. Williams, an en-
gineer officer, was put in command of the
100 men, the unarmed ones to aid in OBJ
structing the channel.
On the 10th of June the Union ironclads
Mound City and ST. Louis and the wooden
gunboats Conestoga and Tyler, under Com
mander A. H. Kitty, of the Mound City,
and the Forty-sixth Indiana regiment, led
by Col. G. N. Fitch, were slowly ascending
the river just below St. Charles. The in
spring genius ON the Confederate side was
Capt. Joseph Fry, an old United States
naval officer, who resigned in 1861 to fol-
low the fortunes of his state, Louisiana, in
the rebellion. He was a gallant fellow,
tall, well proportional. handsome, intelli-
gent, modest and brave, man with past
history and fated future
The approach of Kilty's fleet took the
party at ST. Charles by surprise. Nelson
was not on hand with his Texans; in fact
he had been detained up the river waiting
for ammunition which had yet to be man
ufactured out of lead gathered in bits from
the country at large. He was known to
be en- route, however, making all haste to
the rendezvous, and Fry decided to fight if
attacked. A few hours delay might
change the odds that were for the moment
dead against him. His total force, includ-
ing Capt. Williams thirty five rifemen,
was la men, seventy-nine of them seamen
on the gunboats Pontchartrain and Maui
repas. The sailors were armed with re-
volvers only. The Pontchartrain carried
two 32-pounder rifles and these were put
into battery on the bluffs Lieut.. j. w.
Huntington, of the Pontchartrain, com
manded the battery and worked it with
the crew of his vessel About 400 yards
below Dunnington's battery, Capt. Fry,
placed four guns from his own vessel, the
Maurepas, in battery, and short distance
thirty-five rifemen to act as sharpshooters.
This presented three obstacles to the ap-
proach of Kilty's fleet in ascending the
narrow channel between the bluffs. Still
another was added above the batteries.
Capt. Williams had driven some piles in
the channel, intending if time allowed to
extend the barrier from shore to shore.
The sudden appearance of the enemy put
stop to that work, and Capt. Fry sunk
two transports of his fleet, and finding the
obstruction incomplete scuttled the Maui
repas and sunk her, hoping to cripple the
Union ships by his shore batteries while
they were entangled in the instructions.
It was forlorn hope, of course-114 men
and half dozen guns against four gum
boats and regiment of we'll equipped
soldiers. Yet every hour brought Nelson's
Texans nearer, and wonderful things may
happen in an hour or SO. But it takes
two to make an issue in war as well as
elsewhere, and there was a man on the
other side, or, to be more exact, team of
men, quite a match in daring for the
plucky Confederates.. TIN men of the
team were Col G. N. Fitch, commander
of the expedition, and Capt. Kitty, chief of
the little f1otilla.
Early on the morning of the 18th Col
Fitch put his infantry ashore a couple of
miles below the town and engaged Capt
Williams skirmishers. At the same time
the feet, led by the Mound City, steamed
up and tossed shell and grape into the woods
and bushes along shore. Fry's heavy guns
gave no reply until the Mound City was OPP
posite his second battery-the rifles taken
from the Maurepas. A volley from these
guns drew, hot fire from the fleet, and
Capt. Williams was quickly hustled out of
his quarters by the shell and canister from
the gunboats and Col. Fitch's skirmishers
Fitch soon drew his men up in front of
Fry's second battery, and after looking the
ground over he signaled to Capt. Kitty
that he would storm the position by land,
unless the brave sailors preferred to move
their ships up to the batteries and silence
them by gunboat fire. Kitty signaled
back rosn the deck of the Mound City that
he would take the contract alone. The
Land troops apd vessels could not fight 81
multaneousiy, because the gunboat fire
swept the ground where the land force
would have to charge.
Capt Kitty stopped the Mound City di-
rectly In front OF Fry's four gun battery,
and for nearly an hour poured shot into it
at lively rate. Meanwhile Lieut.. Dun.
nin0fnr1 of fho ~ /,