The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1898-02-14

cclors lowered. A glorloasly fought ship,
manned by a gallant crew, ANA how sad TO
reflect that so much heroIsni should have
been wasted in literally a conflict between
brother and brother, instead of being cons
lccntfa;ed on common enemy. This An
ulo- Saxon rece, when aroused. is terrible
| in its wrath.
las the sailors We're escaring, swim
ming ashore from the Cumberland and Con-
gress, some one suggested 10 fire on them
with shrapnel and canister, but Bu3uanan
was indignant at the very augg sstioa. At
ter the surrender of the Congress n rum
her OF officers and men. takiug advantage
OF the truce, went on deck 20 get breath
Of fresh air and take u view of the sitoa-
ton In the meantime we had sent a boat
TO the Congress to take off tile prisoners.
While in the act 81 doing this the rwo of :
ficels in command were shot down bs the
fusilade of mimic balls from the Newport
News batteries. notwithstanding The flag
of surrender flying AT her ,nasthead. The
batteries then turned their attention TO our
party on the Merrimacs ieck aud Admiral
Buchanan was shot down. we were then
flying "a flag Of truce. When he ives be-
ing carried below he gave orders TO clear
for action again. and to fire hot shot into
the congress, This was doae ani she was
soon ablaze.
i
This caused much delay, and though
we turned our attention to the Minnesota
and delivered several broadsides into her.
1t was growing so late that the pilots IN
sisted upon our drawing off into deeper
water. SO we anchored in the Roads, near
Sewall's Point, for the night
During our first days fight we lost two
men Killed and seventeen wounded. Two
OF our gun muzzies were carried away,
but We never ceased firing them Tho
Damage to the vessel was wholly inmates
rial. Barring the wounding of our intrep-
Id commander, we felt well satisfied with
the result. more gallant commander
never trod the deck of a ship. He was
without peer and his name must 81
down TO posterity coupled with that of
Collingwood. Stuart. Nelson. Decatur and
Farragut, Had not Buchanan been wound
cd the next day he would have forced the
Minnesota TO surrender before the Nom
tor came to the ground and then run the
Monitor down TO force her INFO deep wn-
ter. where she could not have had the
advantage of her Hight draft.
When we received the New York pa
pers a few days after the battle We found
that the effect of this terrific defeat upon
the people of the North was simply stun
ming. lf We had only realized that night
what a commotion we had kicked up in
the North, night rs 1t was, we would cer-
tainly have run by the forts aud come hack
again just to show that il could be done
and met the Monitor before She could
have cast her guns loose or gotten into
fighting trim.
"Thc South went wild with joy. At
every station on his way to Richmond
the bearer of the great news was sur
rounded by large crowds who insisted on
hearing the story of the fight. The hopes
of the Confederacy were as high as the
dependency of the North was deep.
BATTLE WITH THE MONITOR.
"The next morning, while VIC were
our admiral to the shore and
for action, We saw coming in
from the sea the most remarkable looking
craft. which we were soon convinced was
the Monitor. Now all was excitement.
Greek was 10 meet Greek. For the fist
time in the history OF the world lronciad
was to battle with ironclad. The Monitor
and opened fire. which we re-
turned with spirit. For two hours We
bombarded each other with little or no Ell
feet. The two ships sailing in u circle. pass
and repass, delivering brOadsides at point
blank range. Lieutenant Jones coming |
down from the upper grating and obSery-
ing Lieutenant Egs!estons DIVISION stand
ing at ease, said 10 MIN, why are you not |
firing, slrf because our powder 10 pre- |
cious, sir, and find can do the Monitor |
as much damage by swapping my finger al |
her every five minutes.
The combat between the two vessels I
was kept up tor six mortal hours. and
Lieutenant Jones decided 10 ram the Mon
tor Now in my opinion here lay the err
or of the fight After this decision Lieu
epant Jones sent for me and ordered me
o reverse the engines as soon as felt the
fearing that we would nave diff
,ulty in extricating ourselves after the
.op,paci, as We did with the Cumberland,
Though one was wooden aud the other
n iron vessel. To that end he was afraid
o strike her hard. and ] was given the
ignai To reverse quite u while before we
ctually hit her. As consequence We
ust gave the Monitor little tap and
danced of. We should have run her
own with all our force and fairly forced
er under with our superior power and
reight.
-.lircling around after ramming her We
'ere enabled to plant one OF our pointed
hills right Oh the pilot house. II was
his shot which damaged the pilot Rouse
nd wounded Commodore Worden. The
ionitor then stood directly toward fi
oIut and gave no the fight. We assumed
Mi she was badly cr;ppIeI--more 50 than
he was Lleuteeant Jones then sent ior
,e. ard calling attention ~ the FACT that
. had driven The Monitor OH. said that
q INTENDED to draw on under the guns Of |
ewaIl Point and renew the attack later In
he afternoon. then went below and ar
.need for banking the fires under easy
.aro In the meantime We started no full