The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-05-19

ences, Judging from the deeds they inspire.
Here's 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, 1875 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 gunboats of
Ellet and Davis had cleared out the Con-
federate fleet on the Mississippi above
Vicksburg, the rivers flowing in from
Arkansas offered u refuge to every floating
thing that escaped humiliation at their
hands. Gen. Z. 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-five of
them armed. The thirty-five rifles were
all that could be scraped together for
the purpose. At the same time he ordered
a Texas regiment led by COL Allison Mel
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-
g1neer officer, was put in command of the
1OO men, the unarmed ones to aid in OBJ
structing the channel. f.. -
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 gallant fellow,
tall, well proportional, handsome, intelli-
gent, modest and brave, a man with a past
history and a fated future T.
The approach of Izilty's feet 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
utactured 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-fve riflemen,
was ia men, seventy-nine of them seamen
on the gunboats Pontchartrain and Mau-
repas The sailors were armed with re-
volvers only. The Pontchartrain carried
two 32pounder 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 a short distance
below that Capt. Williams stationed his
thlrty-five riie1nen to act as sharpshooters.
This presented three obstacles to the ap-
proach of Kilty's feet 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