The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-02-11

oYershadowed Us before it was again
dispell led by q glow Of Light, which shot
I5up into the Hheayens in the direction oi
Newport News. Looking il that dMec-
ition, w saw the Congress III dames;s and
the fire continued to grow in bril- liancy
and in beauty until about 10 p. M,
/ when her magazine exploded with
terrific report, and all was again mid
night darkness "a.
On Sunday morning I conveyed
i Commodore Buchanan, Lieutenant Mi
4 nor and one Of our men who had been
seriousl wounded to Sewells Point.
Il Upon returning to the ship pulled
around her to see how she had weather
ed the storm Of shot and shell through
i which she had passed on the previous
If day Her ram had been twisted off two
of her guns had been fractured and rem
dered neficient, the iron ratings and
stanchions which surroRaded the hnrri-
cane deck were carried away, her
\ mokestack was riddled like a sieve,
and counted over 100 marks upon her
iron plating, showing where she had
been struck with cannon shot Islearned
with regret that it was Lieutenant
Jones intention to proceed again to
Hampton Roads and renew the battle.
l regretted 1t, first, because we had lost
our ram, which / considered our
effective weapon; second, because two
OF our guns had been broken Off and SO
shortened that we could not discharge
them without setting the timbers around
the gunports on fire; third, because our
officers and men had been arduously en-
i gagged, without intermission even for
1 food, from a. 10. to 10 M. on thesday
before, and we were wearied and need
ed rest, and last, but not least, because
i-itiwas the Sabbath day, which I had AL
ways been taught to revere.
In a few minutes the anchor was
! up, and we were again in motion. III Dis
covering that the United States steamer
Minnesota Mil was seriously crippled and
aground, Jones ordered the pilot to take
US as as near that vessel as possibleSin
order that we might give her thescpup
de grace, but he, not being Of the stuff
from which heroes are made and pre-
ferring to receive her formidable broad
side from afar, purposely ran us aground
some two miles off. ,.!ss
while we We're thus stuck in the
mud the Monitor, commanded BY my
old friend and messmate, John Z. Wor-
den, made her appearance and opened
fire upon us. II Worden fought his vessel
bravely and we'll, and, soon discovering
that he could make no impression upon
our 'obdurate and insensible corpus Sin
any other way, he adopted the old Ro-
man method Of using the battering ram,
an9, in hopes Of thereby effecting
breach, discharged shot after shot at the
same spot, which was first about amid
ships. Had he known perhaps that
was posted at that particular spot
passing remembrance Of Aud 4: Lang
Syne' and the pleasant days we had
i passed together on the old Warren in
the Pacific and the Cumberland in the
Mediterranean might have induced him
to select some other locality upon which
to try his experiment. AS it was, how
ever, he knocked SO long and so hard at
4 my door that one of the men assisting
me, whose body touched the side of the
vessel, was FRUSTRATED by the concussion,
land nearly frightened out of his life,
while one Of the timbers was driven in
about a quarter of an inch. '3@ @s#i
i How long we continued to bang
away at each other I cannot now re-
member, but after long time our. chief
engineer. Ramsey, by straining his. en-
i gines to their uttermost tension, sue
ceeded in releasing us from the tena-
4 scious mud, when, springing like asman
from a horrible nightmare, we made
rush at the Monitor to sink her. For
tunately, however, for that vessel, the
Cumberland had been the Delilah Of our
Samson and had shorn the Virginia, or
Merrimao, of her front lock, therebyde-
priving us Of our principal strength.
Our iron PROV being gone, we struck
the Monitor with blunt ends Of our
wooden beams to which it had been at
|stached instead Of it's penetrating edge,
and that was all that saved her from
destruction. Immediately after recover
ing from the collision the Monitor
moved off toward Fortress Monroe, and
never did she come within long range
LOT as again.
Seeing the Monitor retire from the
/ field without firing another gun, we
i supposed that the machinery which
worked her turret had been damaged,
and that this was the cause Of her re-
treat, but we afterward heard that 1t
was due to most painful and serious
i injury to Captain Worden' s5eyes ppca-
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