The times., 1898-11-09
Captain Wallace's Story Of the
Achievement.
WAS PILOT OF THE MONITOR
Now Master Of the Training Strip
New HaMpshire-A Life That
Would Furnish Material for Sew
cral Novels of Adventure-ToOk
Part in the Crimean War. :

| ing ship New Hampshire, is one of the
! Dest-known men in the navy. The story
of his eventful life would furnish mate
captains adventures Began when. though
scarcely more than "a. boy, he ran the
British blockade In 0the Baltic Sea. to
carry guns to the Russians. He took
part in the Crimean War; when the IA
nous foreign brigade marched to the
relief OF Lucknow in the terrible days
OF the Indian mutiny, Capt. Wallace was
one OF the members; for two years he
was on the Grinneil expedition, search
| Ing In the Arctic regions for Sir John
Franklin; he was pilot of the Monitor In
/ the famous battle with the Merrimac; he
| was prisoner In Andersonville, from
which he escaped after terrible suffer
| ings and periIs; he was with Farragut
and Dewey at Mobile Bay and New Or
| leans; he fell from a ship when many
miles from land off the coast of Spain,
! ana was rescued after being in the wa
ter twenty-five hours. In many other
places ne has met with dangers of every
description.
One of Capt. Wallace's most interesting
experiences was in the .Monitor-M Merrimac
| night, in which he steered the Union yes
! sell
The sailors in the navy were averse to
going on the Monitor" said the captain,
in describing the famous fight Men
| VINO We're willing to meet any peril on
a wooden ship had superstitious dread
OF the iron Monitor. which looked as if
she would go to the bottom in a heavy
| sea When Capt Worden, who COM
manded the Monitor, came to the shin
! on which l was serving, a call was made
Ior volunteers. On board our ship were
i,OeO men, but at first no one stepped for
ward. Capt. Worden came to my side
WHAT'S the matter?' he asked.
You re one of the men / want
lie took hold OF my arm and walked
/. across the deck with him As soon as
/ volunteered, 800 men stepped forward a
/ crew was selected and the monitor start
/ ed out toward Norfolk and Hampton
Roads. When we arrived at the roads
/ we could see the wrecks of the Congress
and Cumberland. They had been sunk
I with perfect ease by the Merrimac their
| broadsides glancing OFF her iron-clad sides
| ike peas rafting against a pan We
came to anchor alongside of the Mime
1 sofa and the next day the Merrimac hove
| in sight
we started at once for the fight The
| captain ordered me to steer directly un-
4 der the lee of the Merrimac and the hat
tie began. Capt. Worden was In the tow
! er with me. / held the Monitor right un-
| der the lee of the Merrimac and the last
| part of the battle was rought at a dis
tance of only few yards. At this range
our hsaNy guns made the railroad iron,
1 OF which the Merrimac's armor was com
Z Har fs,Ya
damaged by our fire. but the little Moni-
\ tor was scarcely injuredT
While the battle was at it's height a
| iWV-pound shell from the Merrimac struck
the lookout tower in which / was stand
Ing with Capt Worden The captain was
knocked down and SO dangerously injur
| ed that had 10 cali through the sneak
ing tupe FOR surgeon The same shot
| hurled me against Ithe wheel. breaking
my wrist / stayed at the wheel. how
ever, and steered the boat through the
entire fight. After fighting at close ouar-
] ters for some time the Merrimac had ALI
s"e wanted and, turning about, made her
way back to Norfolk The Monitor fol-
iowed for some distance, put was called
! PACK by signal from: the fleet
AFTER serving on the Monitor for some
.iHe, capt. Wallace Joined the fleet fur
! ther south. While cruising on a scoutine
i
ed the Albemarle-Capt. Wallace and a
cockswain named Riley were captured
ana taken to the Confederate prison ar
lamp Andersonville. where so MANY Of
the Union prisoners died. Escape was AL
most impossible, but Capt. Wallace was
one of the fortunate few who succeeded
IN crawling across the dead line.
AFTER 1 had been at Andersonvire for
lhree weeks said Capt Wallace, II
m min
long would either be shot by the euardr
or die from sickness and lack of food So
made up my mind to escape Riley tho
cockswain, and two Union soldiers ware
In the plan with me. For several davs
We saved up what food we could-it was
not much-and one dark night we crept
out to the dead line. We had to kill
three sentries before reaching the stock
ade. We climbed over the stockade and
pushed on in the darkness until we came
to river. There we separated. The SOL
dlers wanted to push on across the coln-
try, but knew We would be followed by
oioodhounds, so after they left us Ripley
and l swan across the river and back
three times. walking up and down the
bank on each side in order to throw the
bloodhounds off the trail. Then we Climb
ed to the top of a big liveoak tree
From our station in the tree we could
see the rebels leave the camp in pursuit
They passed under the tree number of
times, but never thought of looking for
us SO near the camp. We stayed up In
that tree for sixty-three hours, with some
bacon rinds and pieces of cornbread as
our only food. 1t was very cold at night
and we were far from comfortable. but
we did not wish to go down until the pur-
suit had died away little Then / hail
ed negro who was passing
Lawd a massa,' said he when he saw
US coming down from the tree. The SOL
diers have been looking everywhar for
you.
The darkey got us an old canoe and
we made the trip to the coast We trav-
eled at night and lay alongside of the
bank during the day. When we reached
the seacoast our troubles were by no
means ended. All along the coast were
divisions of the home guard and they
captured u.s.
-Four miles off the coast, almost out of
sight of land, lay the United States gum
boat Unadilla. The waters of the south
swarm with sharks and no one for an
instant suspected that we would dare to
swim to the gunboat, so their vigilance
was somewhat relaxeds But as there was
no way of signaling the boat we decided
to swim for it. At smidHight we slipped
away from our guards and made our way
to the beach. There IA new danger
awaited u.s. The southern waters are
very phosphorescent at night and If
man swims through them he leaves
trail which can be plainly seen. So Riley
and crept out as fer-as we could, keep
ing our bodies under water. and making