Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-03-12

menacing him and his men. His men tai salvation consisted in thinking of nothing but his duty then. An admit ted cugnizance of consequences might have killed him.
 Just as he fired Willis Peyton saw the Hartford break from the mass and head toward him. Admiral Buch- anan, ill the bumped pilothouse forward, saw her at the same time. The helm of the Tennessee was shift ed and the ram was headed straight for the flagship. Expecting every mo- ment to see the latter blown up by the torpedoes, the ironclad slowly moved forward just above them, wait ing for her. When the Hartford passed the line of torpedoes unharrned the ironclad made for her, but the at tempt of the Tennessee to ram was frustrated by the quicker movement of the Hartford. With a quick prayer that it might not find his brother, whom he still believed to be on the ship, Willis Peyton poured the shot from his division at short range into the fla gship and then attacked in suc- cession the other ships as they came swarming up the channel in the wake of the admiral.
 Boyd Peyton succeeded in saving an officer, eight men and the pilot from the Tecumseh, and few others gained the beach under the fort by swim ming, all that were left of the 116 on board. Carefully and deliberate ly scanning the water to see if any others were struggling there, he fnal- ly turned the prow of his boat toward the ship and rowed over toward the fleet. If that boat crew never pulled hard before, they did it then. The Hartford had passed up long since. The Brooklyn was just heading up the channel. The Richmond and the Pen- sacoIa were going ahead. But the rearmost ships were almost stationary. His only chance would be to get aboard one of these. Sweeping around to port he rowed down the line through the fire swept sea, with his flag flying in a magnifcently gallant passage of the channel. He might have darted through an interval between one of the pairs and rowed in comparative safety down the port side of the fleet To have done that would have been to lose time, however, and might have pre- vented him from getting aboard of the ships. At any rate, with cool and thrilling courage he chose deliberately to pass between the ships and the forts still heavily engaging. By hard row. ing he succeeded in gaining the deck of the Oneida, the last ship of the line, a slight sloop of war.
 The Oneida being without support re- ceived the concerted fire of the fort and the Tennessee, which had passed completely through the fleet, dealing death and destruction to it on every hand As Peyton clambered on deck Captain Mullany, glad indeed for such enforcement, for his ship was suffer- ing severely in officers and men, gave him command of one of the forward divisions, and distributed his men among the depleted gun crews.
 As the Oneida drew up opposite the fort she was forced to pass through terrific bosom of fire. A heavy shell from the fort exploded one of her boil CTS, killing all the men in the fireroom in the most dreadful manner, scalding them to death, indeed. Another shell from the ram struck the captain and tore off his arm-he was wounded in no less than five different places that day. Another set fire to the ship. Had it not been that the monitor Winne- bago gallantly interposed between the Oneida and the Tennessee the wooden ship and her consort would have been torn to pieces and sunk then and there.
 The courage of the crew of the Oneida was beyond all praise. With the captain weltering in his blood, the ship on fire, the boilers exploding be- heath them, the men below shrieking and screaming in agony, they stuck to their guns as coolly as if nothing were happening, deliberately firing upon the fort and the ram as long as they were within range. Helpless them selves, they were carried up the chan nel by the valiant efforts of their lit- tie consort, the Galena, and the in- rushing tide, as Farragut had planned.
 By and by they, too, reached the fleet and anchored. Stopping for noth- ing, Peyton took his boat and started at once for the admiral on the Hart ford, swinging quiet at anchor above the middle ground. The guns had been secured, the decks washed clear of their blood stains and the wounded carried below to the busy surgeons 6oing what they could for them. On the port side of the quarter deck lay long line of dead men. As Peyton stepped through the gangway he asked the officer there where the ad- miral was.
 There" replied the young man, pointing to the quarter deck.
 AS Peyton went aft to report to him he saw him standing with his feet apart, his hands clasped behind his back, staring down at the bodies of the poor fellows who had been killed in the action. Tears glistened in the old mans eyes, the young man noticed, as he looked at him.
 The dauntless hero of one of the greatest naval battles of modern times was mourning like woman over his Ioe