The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-06
OUR HEROES OF THE SEA
(ConcIuded from v,n,h pare.l

Concluded from Ninth Page)
cable and endeavored to get up sufficient
steam from her banked fires to enable her
to run off or run the Confederates down.
This movement only FASTENED the boarding
party, and to disable her engines Midship-
man j. T. Scharf, who was in command
of the howitzer in the bow of his launch,
fired a shot which took effect in the pilot
house. Before the howitzer could be re-
loaded all the boarding party were along
side trying to get q footing on deck. The
instructions were that one of the boarding
columns should attack the Underwater for
ward and the other astern, but in the ex-
element the largest number of the boats
went forward while Colonel Woods alone
went amidship. As the boats advanced they
poured volley after volley into the FEEDER
ais, who returned their fire from the decks,
at the same time throwing heavy shot and
bolts of iron into the boats alongside in
their efforts to sink them. The watch on
the top of the wheel house doomed up
against the sky and emptied his revlver
into the boats as they advanced. AS he
fired his last shot three Confederates fired
at him simultaneously and he fell into the
water like the jumping of frog. The fire
becoming hot from the boats alongside, the
back from the sides and gathered in the
dark ways alongside of the gun racks just
aft of the wheel house, and as the Con-
federates made efforts to climb on board
they poured into them volley after volley,
each flash of which Redeemed the decks and
waters around, enabling the attacking
party to note their position. In spite of the
heavy fire the boarders were cool and yet
eager. Now and then one or more were
struck down, but the rest never faltered.
When the boats struck the sides of the
Underwater grapnes were thrown on
board and the Confederates were soon
scrambling, with cutlass and pistol in hand
to the deck with a rush and a wild cheer
that rang across the waters, the firing
from the Federals never ceasing for one
moment. The brave Lieut.. B. p. Loyal,
now a successful merchant in Norfolk, Va.
was the first to reach the deck, with En-
gineer Emmett F. Gill and Colonel Wood at
his side. Following in their steps came
Lieuts. Francis L. Hoge, William A. Kerr,
Philip Porcher James M. Gardner, F. M.
Roby, Henry Wilkinson, George w. Gift,
Mdshipmen Palmer, Saunders, H. S. Cook,
j. Thomas Scharf and William S. Hague,
CALAMITY leading the men,
HAND-TO-HAND CONFLICT.
Once on the deck, the onslaught was fast
ana bloody. Cutlasses and pistols were the
weapons of the Confederates, and each Sc
lected and made a rush for his man. The
odds were against the attacking party, and
some of them had to struggle with three
opponents. But neither side ever f1inched
in the hand-to-hand life-and-death struggle
which ragged in every part of the boat, and
in which many sickening tragedies took
place which the writer will never forget.
The boarders forced the fighting and drove
back the Federals inch by inch. Steadily
but surely they began to gain the deck and
crowded the Federals to the companionways
or other places of concealment while all
the time fierce hand-to-hand fights were
going on. Now one of the Confederates
would sink exhausted, again one of the Fed
erals would fall on the bloody deck. Rifles
were snatched from the hands of the dead
the dying and used in the hands as blud-
geons and did deadly work. Down the
companionways the defenders of the vessel
were driven pell-mell into the wardroom
and Storage, and even to the coal bunkers,
and after another sharp but decisive strug-
gle the F'ederals surrendered The Under
writer's decks were red with blood and the
dead and dying and wounded were lying in
every part. Between the waists, where the
Federals made stand, their dead and
wounded were piled OH top of one another.
One of the Federal officers was lying there
with nine cutlass wounds.
The Underwater lost in the engagement,
including her commander, about eleven
killed, the same number drowned, twenty
six wounded and nineteen prisoners. Twen-
ty-three of her officers and men escaped.
losses of the Underwater were nearly as
large as that sustained by any other naval
vessel in the war, and her record in this en-
gagement is one that will ever rebound to
the credit of American manhood and to the
glory of the American sailor. The Confeder-
ate loss was over one-fourth of their num-
Der engaged-six killed and twenty-five
wounded. E. F. Gill, the Confederate engi-
neer, was killed in the gangway, and Mid
shipman Palmer Saunders, gallant young
man, was cut down in hand-to-h hand con-
fiict and shot through the stomach by a
Federal officer, and breathed out his young
life on deck All fought well. There was no
hating, no cowardice; every man stood at
his post and did his duty and exhibited the
herosm of Americans, and made plain a
glory that now belongs to all the citizens of
the great Republic.
FORTS FIRING ON FRIENDS.
While the contending forces were battling
on the decks of the Underwater, the Fed
erals on shore and in the forts began to
beat the long roll, and the cry of ITO
arms!'' ITO arms." rang out on the early
morning air; rockets were exploded, the
guns in the forts were loaded, and before
the Underwater was entirely in the hands
of the Confederates the shore batteries
opened fire on the doomed vessel. Regard
less of their wounded and the men who
were prisoners on board the Underwater
acknowledgement shell struck the after
deck in front of the prisoners and injured
her machinery Another gunboat appearing
in the distance, the Confederates made
preparations to defend the Underwater.
Lieutenant Hoge opened the magazines and
manned the guns, and the prisoners and the
injured were placed in the boats Steam.
however was down, and the machinery
was disabled, and a heavy fire from the
forts was pouring into the steamer, it was
decided to set fire to the vessel and abandon
her Accordingly the guns were loaded and
pointed toward the town; fire was applied
from the furnaces to several parts of the
vessel, and in five minutes after the Con-
federates left the Underwater was one
mass of flames from stem to stern, burning
with her the dead bodies of the brave Fed
erals who had fallen during the struggle.