The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-24
rent and the receding tide they

swift current and the receding tide they
could not cross the bar.
Tell your admiral said Captain Tatt-
nall, that the American ship will bring up
his reserves
Two officers objected-it was contrary to
the law of neutrality; but Captain Tattnall
looked across the river where the helpless
English ships were being battered to pieces
Under the merciless fire.
Blood is thicker than water" he said.
And while the English Seamen cheered
and the Americans answered them from the
tops, he dropped back with hawsers veered
astern, and when the boats of the reserve
had grappled fast he drove his vessel across
the river through a whirlwind of shot and
she'll
Having delivered the reinforcements, the
Toey-Wan dropped back, but Captain TAFT
nall was not yet satisfied with his work.
After anchoring, he said in his report,
II thought of the admiral and his chival-
rous kindness to me on the day before,
which. from an unwillingness to intrude on
him when he was preparing for action, had
in no way acknowledged.
Having decided that 1t was his duty TO
pay his respects, the gallant captain forgot
about the hundred guns still laundering
from the forts. Twenty seamen manned
a barge and, accompanied by Flag Lieuten-
ant Trenchard, he was rowed across the
shot-swept river. AS they approached the
of the oars, crashed through the boat and
tore it's way out below the water line. Fly
ing splinters mortally wounded Coxswain
Hart and injured the flag lieutenant. The
crew scrambled from the sinking barge and
were dragged aboard the gunboat Here
they beheld a terrible scene of carnage:
More than half the gunners lay dead and
the decks were slippery with blood. While
Captain Tattnall paid his respects to the
British admiral, the American seamen, quite
contrary to orders, sprang to the British
guns, rammed home the shells, and the flag
ship spoke again to the enemy's fort. The
exhausted gunners set up 9, wild cheer OF
approval and with renewed hope worked
side by side with the Americans.
On his return to the Toey-Wan Captain
Tattnall called the smoke-grimed gunners
ing part in actual hostilities.
Beg pardon, sir" said one OF them,
they was short-handed at the bow gun and
so we giv'd EN- a help fer fellowship sake"
And for the first time in Captain TAFT
nails service disobedience went unpublished.
The Toey-Wan now returned to the task
OF bringing up the British reserves; con-
tinuing far into the night. At o'clock q
storming party of 600 marines were landed
on the muddy shore. They waded three ter
cheered half way up the embankment in the
face Of q murderous fire OF jingals and
mimic balls. Hours later 400 of them came
struggling back, a full third of the force
having been killed or wounded.
Again the American ship came to the
rescue It gathered up the manned. man
gled and muddy bodies of the English
marines and with it's own dead coxswain
dropped back across the bar in the gray
of the early morning. In the meantime
Captain Tattnall had sent Lieutenant John
SON with the Powhatan to the aid of the
British ships outside the bar. and all night
of the 18th he served under the union jack,
carrying the defeated marines and wounded
seamen to places of safety.
OF 1850 men Of the allied fleets who went
into action $50 were killed and wounded, in
Guiding twenty-nine officers. In the course
of the battle the British admiral shifted his
flag no fewer than three times, evincing
an indomitable valor," reported Captain
Tattnali under very disheartening and al
most hopeless surroundings"
Captain Tattnalps act was a distinct vio-
lation of neutrality, but the American peo-
pie received him on his return from China
with honors such as have seldom fallen to
an officer of his rank. Later he was formal
~ thanked by the English secretary of state
for foreign affairs in the name OF her
Majesty and by the lords commissioners of
the British Admiralty
Gallant AmericansY' apostrophized a
writer In Blackwoods Magazine. you and
your admiral did more that day to bind
England and the United States than all
have ever done to part u.s.