The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-03-14

In the second bombardment of Fort Fisher
shell from Federal gunboat exploded in
the midst of group. One soldier had two
buttons cut from his coat, another had his
hat dashed off, and third had his canteen
shot away, and yet the damage inflicted by
that shell was more than had occurred
from the previous 200 missiles.
During one of the Monitor bonnbardments
of Fort Sumter aug. ~ Commander
Rogers took the Catskill into the fight.
She was hit about 20 times without having
a man wounded or suffering any serious
injury, when as she was about to steam
away shot struck the top of the pilot
house, and the flying nuts and iron splin-
tiers killed the commander and his paymas-
ter and wounded the two pilots. At later
date the ironclad Weehawken fred shell
into Fort Moultrie which dismounted one
gun, broke off the muzzle of another,
knocked down several feet of wall and
killed 16 and wounded 10 men. At later
hour in this fight Confederate lieutenant
was hurled distance of so feet by the ex-
plosion Of a shell, and yet his only injury
was the direct result Of the fall While
men to the right and left and behind him
were killed or wounded, he few through
the air in the company of the iron splinters
and was untouched by them.
During the bombardment of Fort Henry
a shot from gun sighted by General
Tilghman himself at the Federal gunboat
Essex broke through her plates with an
awful crash, killed one man and wounded
two and entered the middle boiler. The
results were most disastrous. Of the en-
tire crew not more than 10 escaped scald-
ing, and many were literally steamed to
death. The one thought was to escape
from the terrible steam, and every one who
could get out of the trap jumped over
board and left the vessel to float out of
action. Had the Essex been two feet nearer
to or farther from the fort the accident
could not have happened. A delay Of three
or four seconds in loading and firing the
gun would have prevented it. She could
have been struck so times without inhict-
ing the damage done by that one shot.
In the gunboat fight before Memphis five
shots were thrown away for every one
which hit. The fight was brought on rath-
er sooner than was expected by either side,
and the boats had to maneuver with
strong current. The Federal craft Benton
fred five or six shots which missed, and fol-
lowed thelh with another which crashed
into the Beauregard, entered her boiler and
placed her helpless Hardly any of her
crew escaped scalding, and the same shot
killed and wounded several men before
striking the boiler. just another such lucky
shot struck the steam chest of the Little
Rebel and took her out Of the fight While
$50 or 200 shots were fired during the fight,
the two missiles mentioned had much to do
with winning the victory.
At least ono of the great shells thrown
from the Federal gunboats in Turkey Bend
at the battle of Malvern Hill was yet lying
within half mile Of the Malvern farm
house in the spring of 1882. A few failed to
explode, and this was one of them. Perhaps
there was no other instance in the war where
the navy helped the army out so success
fully. From the signal station at the NAL
vern house the little flags directed the gun
boats two miles away just where to throw
their ponderous projectiles to do the most
good.
The lower road to Richmond was under
fire of these guns, and troops coming down
that way were thrown into great confusion
by the bursting shells, but it was over in
the woods on the Crews farm that they
played the greatest havoc. Here Magruder
was massing his troops as they came up.
They were perfectly safe from the shells
flung at them by the field artillery on the
plateau, bat there was no escape from the
screaming monsters which came whirling
through the air from the James river and
dropped into the forest with terrific crash.
While the number of men killed and
wounded was small the effects of the fire
were felt throughout whole corps. The
fall of single shell would destroy the
alignment Of whole brigade, and it has
been asserted on both sides that the work
of the guhboats delayed the Confederate
attack for more than an hour, and that
hour was priceless time to Mcclellan. One
of the unexploded shells, after lying on the
battle-ground for over three years. was final
ly loaded into cart by three or four col
ored men to be taken to Richmond and sold
to the junk dealer. While en- route the
mule ran away, and as the shell tumbled
about it exploded. The difference between
che wreck of the mule and the wreck of the
cart could easily be distinguished, but both
were left where the explosion hurled them.
In December, 1858, the English schooner
Rinedove attempted to run into Indian
river, Florida The Federal bark Roebuck,