The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1898-04-28
STORIES OF WAR
AND WAR TIMES.

'sIn the present advanced state OF the ar
| tillery and torpedo service said General
F. s. Ferguson yesterday, "the story of the
destruction of an ironclad by submarine
torpedo is the most interesting one / can
tell you. The incident refer to happened
| during the war between the states at the
| siege of Fort Morgan on August 5, 1864. On
| that day Farrigut's fleet steamed into MO-
| bile bay. There were four ironclad mont
| tors with the fleet, the leading one being
| the Tecumseh, under the command of Cap
| tain T. A M. Craven. Her crew consisted
| of $50 men. The fire between the fleet and
| the fort began when the fleet was about
| two miles distant and increased in violence
| as 1t approached the fort. When just
abreast of the lighthouse and when the
| guns of the fort were hurting their shot at
| the Tecumseh, as we'll as at the other YES
/ sells of the fleet, the Tecumseh was sudden
ly seen to careen toward the fort and sink
| almost stack foremost.
1T was a horrible sight even to our train
| ed veterans in the fort, accustomed as they
| were to all forms of death. AT this time
| the hostile guns were not more than 300
yards apart, and it was seen that number
of men had escaped from the turret and
were struggling in the water. Sergeant
Whitesides of the First artillery, being off
duty at that moment, got into fishing
skff and, although directly beneath the
fires of the fort and the fleet, rescued four
of these men from drowning and brought
them safely ashore as his prisoners. A
young masters mate of the federal gun
boat Metacomet rescued six more. These
ten were all who survived the terrible dis
aster. 1t was caused by the explosion of a
Ltd
in the channel for the purpose.
"At that time the federal authorities, es-
! pecially Admiral Farrigut, denounced the
confederates as barbarians and savages for
resorting to such methods of warfare, but
it will be remembered that the confederates
taught the world great deal about the
art of war. 1t was only the other day that
l noticed where detachment of skilled
| officers and men of the engineering depart
ment of the United States army passed
through Birmingham on their way to Mo-
bile for the purpose of again defending that
harbor with submarine mines and tor
| pedoes."
ITO see all of Birmingham's pretty girls
| flock down to the depot to see the soldiers
pass through said Captain NJ. A. Wright
| at the depot yesterday, Every forcibly re-
calls the old days in 81 when we young
| bucks were going off to the war. Yes, we
| had brass button girls in those days and
| the boys in gray were just as eager to give
| them little souvenirs as are the boys in
| blue at this time. But the girls those days
showed their appreciation more than do
| their children and grand children of 1898.
| When a train load of soldiers would pull
| into the station, there would be nearly
| every girl and matron in town with deli
| cate lunch spread for the hungry soldiers,
| and they seemed to have lively compe-
| tition as to who could be the most atten-
| tive to their heroes. Not only when we
were going to war, but all during that four
| year conflict did these noble southern wo-
men continue their mission of nursing the
| sick and wounded and feeding the hungry.
| Do you blame the southerners for fighting
| as they did?'
| 81 was living at Green Castle, Pa, when
| the civil war broke out" said William Sny-
| der yesterday afternoon. "a number of
| the young men in the town who did not
volunteer at the first CALL organized a home
| guard, and 1 was one of them. We kept
this organization for a year, when the COM
pany decided to enlist in the federal army
guns and ammunition by the state of Penn
| sylvania, but our uniforms were homemade
out of the greyest of Kentucky jeans 1t
is needless to say that the federal govern
ment wouldn't have any of it's soldiers 60
ing to the front in gray uniforms, and
when we arrived at Harrisburg, we were
made to exchange them for uniforms of
blue. We didn't have tourist sleeping cars
| fa frax, in c,,oh +ha
south now use, but we were piled on board
of fiat cars with boards stretched across
for seats. This, under hot August sun,
was not very pleasant travelling.
IT think that the Spanish war will last
longer than people generally imagine, not
because we can't whip the Spaniards, but
because we can't get to them. think that
Spain will carry on guerilla warfare, both
with her navy and army. and in that case
it will be necessary for us to force the fight
ing in Spanish waters and possibly in Spain
itself. This will take more than $4,000 SOL
diers, and Birmingham's home guard may
yet have chance to fight for their coun-
try"
SIT is noticeable fact" said L. Rogan
yesterday, show President McKinley's call
for volunteers differed from the calls of
President Lincoln and President Davis in
1861 Mckinley calls for 125,0Oo volunteers
to serve for two years. Davis called for
100000 men for a years service. and Lin
coin wanted 5000 volunteers for three
months only.
''I was living in Charleston, S. c., at the
time and remember with what doubts most
intelligent people of the city received this
call. They said that it would be impossible
for the federal government to raise rs 900
men, and that IL they lid, the confederates
could never meet them. But, contrary to
our expectations, both of these events came
true. Lincoln raised his 75,09o men and we
met them, though the meeting was a little
bit longer than our politicians had led us
to believe They told us that If the Yam
KEGS fought at all that we could easily
whip them in two or three battles"