The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-05
U. S. GUNBoAr MERc1pErA.
Now Coal Barge-At Present in the
 Harbor.

blockade of the city of Charleston dur
 ing the late civil war, has been remod-
 eled and is now used as 8 coal barge.
 She is at present and has been for
 several days past in the harbor dis
 charging cargo of coal,
 There have been several articles in
 the local papers concerning this fa-
 nous old craft and many errors have
 been detected by well known citi-
 Zen in a position to know the facts con-
 cerning 1t, and accordingly in the fol-
 lowing article tells what he knows
 concerning the boat:
 l noticed in an issue in one of our
 local papers an article in relation to the former U. S. gunboat Mercidita, now
 coal barge. As have spent many a - dreary day in her company during the Charleston blockade l noticed a num- [ Der Of errors in the description of the old ship. She was built in New York
 in 1861, instead of 1872, for merchant steamer. She Is IFS feet inches long,
 instead of 300; 29 feet beam. Her ton mage is S14, Her battery was eight guns. Their calibre l do not remem- ber She may have been at New Or
 leans during the latter part of the war.
 I know that she was at the Charleston | blockade in 1862, '63. At that time I was an ordinary seaman on board of | the U. s. s. Flambeau, Captain J. H. Upshur Our station was often next to the Mercidita, and I have reason to remember her. In December, 1862, our ship was ordered to Bulls bay, about twelve miles northeast from Charles | ton. On the morning of January 31, | 1863, at about o'clock we heard heavy | firing in the direction of the Charleston blockade. Of course we were anxious | to learn what the trouble was On February the G. w. Bluli a former New York pilot boat, arrived from Charleston, with mail and the follow- ing news, that on the morning of the 31st of January two rebel iron clads attacked the Charleston blockading | fleet and disabled the Mercidita and Keystone State, killing and wounding
 ten men in the Mercidita and thirty on the Keystone State. The above is an extract from a log written at the time was in the U. s. navy, which now I | have. In Spears history of the Ameri-
 can Navy, vol. 4, page 474, is the fol- | lowing account of the engagement on | the morning of the 31st of January, ] 1863: The warships Housatonic, Ot- tawa and Unadilla, with the armed merchant ships Mercidita, Keystone | State, Quaker City, Memphis, Augusta, | Stettin and Flag were lying at wide in- | tervals off Charleston. There was
 heavy fog laying low in the water At
 4:30 a. m. a ship suddenly appeared in the mists abeam of the Mercidita. Cap | tain Henry Stillwagen, the officer of
 the deck of the Union ship, believing
 the stranger to be one of the blockad- ing force shouted: What steamer is that? Drop your anchor or you will be into us. The reply that came was
 startling. It was made by Commodore | Ingraham and he said: The Confeder- ate steamer Palmetto State, and he
 emphasized the answer with a shell
 that killed one man, cut through the
 condenser and the steam drum above
 one of the Mercidita boilers and then | exploded just short of the further side l in her side near the waterline. The
 shot and escaping steam killed four
 and as many more were scalded. They | were at the mercy of the iron clad and | believed the ship sinking. When the l Confederates demanded that the Mer- | cidita surrender, Liutenant T. Abbott | was sent in a small boat to the Pal metto State, where he gave parole l of all the members of his crew. This done Comomdore Ingram let the Mer- cidita alone and went hunting for the
 others of the blockading fleet. Mean-
 time shell was fired at the Chicora and the Confederates returned 1t with a shot that set the Keystone State af1re. She, however, steamed away in- to the fog until she had extinguished | the fire, when she moved towards some
 black smoke intending to ram the ves-
 sel making it. It proved to be one of | the Confederate ships, but the Key | stone state failed to ram her. Projec- | tiles cut the Keystone States steam
 pipes and pierced her below the wa | ter line. It was an iron clad against a
 merchant steamer and there could be but one result. The merchant surren- 1 dered. She lost twenty killed and as
 many wounded
 Meantime the Palmetto state, accord | ing to Commodore Ingraham, had been
 cruising about exchanging shots with
 the other ships of the squadron, but they having superior speed easily
 avoided her. The Union reports say | that the Unadilla and Housatonic att | tackled her instead of running. At | any event they could not take the sur-
 rendered ships to port and they steam | ed back to the shelter of their batter l ies, and the Mercidita promptly hoisted her flag again. The Confeder-
 ates claimed that they had raised the
 blockade, and the British, French and ! Spanish consular agents also made a
 great ado about the blockade being
 broken, But it did not go, as our ships
 remained and continued to do business l at the same old stand.
 The Mercidita, although now an old disreputable looking coal hulk is not | forgotten by a
 Naval Veteran from '61 to '65.