Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-03-09

above the batteries. Before the first attack the Confederate range marks for the gunners in the fort were skill Then the Montauk steamed up to with in 15O yards of the Instructions and threw out her anchors as a challenge for a gun duel. Like the original Mon- itor, the Montauk's deck was almost wholly submerged, and the enemy found her very small target. She lay close under the fort for four hours and emptied her shell chests upon the works without doing the enemy any harm so far as could be seen by a glass.
 Coming out of her first scrimmage wholly unintured, although the ene- my's gunners landed many shots against her iron sides, the Montauk only waited to refill her magazine and then boldly started in again. This time she anchored within 1000 yards of the eneny's guns, directly opposite an eight inch columbiad. Taking the gun chamber of the columbiad for his principal target, Worden lombard ed it fiercely with his eleven inch and fifteen inch guns, the armament of the Montauk being one of each. The first gun of the monitor was fired at 7:45 o'clock in the morning. At S:3O o'clock shell aimed at the columbiad struck a thirty-two pounder gun near the CO., lumbiad, killing the gun chief, Major Gallie, who stood by encouraging his men. Worden's heavy shells razed the parapet in front of the guns of the fort, leaving the men in the batteries very much exposed, but they kept up a hot fire on the Montauk, moving their pieces from point to point to baf- fe the Federal marksmen.
 Although the Montauk stood farther off in this attack than during the pre- vious one, she was struck oftener, re- ceiving forty-one shots In all. Many of the missiles were ten inch, but they rolled off from the iron plates, leaving scarcely dent.
 When Worden steamed the Montauk up in front of Fort McAllister early on the morning of Feb. 2S, a fog still hung over the scene, and. the. tide being fa- vorable, he anchored within 800 yards of the enemy's guns. At the same time three wooden gunboats and mortar boat sent by Dupont to SUD- port the attack took station near the monitor and opened upon the fort. The Confederate cruiser Nashville lay stranded 1,2O0 yards from the Mon tauk beyond marsh of tall canes. The upper decks of the cruiser were visible from the turret of the monitor.
 The moment his wooden consorts opened upon the fort Worden trained his guns upon the Nashville. The cruiser had often been sighted before by Federal ships reconnoitering around the fort and had always eluded cap- ture and battle by fleeing up the river. Worden determined to finish her now that she lay at his mercy before she could float and get back up the river. All the guns of the fort poured their eight inch and ten inch shots upon the Montauk, but Worden ignored them entirely, and in turn the Confederate gunners ignored the wooden ships Only one shot from the fort struck the gunboats, and that was from thirty two pounder and did but little damage.
 The fire of the fort upon the monitor was fast and furious, but the gunners were evidently excited and desperate, for out of the hundreds aimed at the Montauk only five found the little tar get Worden got accurate range on the Nashville in spite of the fog. He was as close to the Instructions in the channel as 1t was safe to go. The first few shells of the Montauk set the cruiser on fire in the wooden upper works, and about that time the fog grew denser, completely shutting off the view from the Federal gunners. Still they continued firing according to the direction and elevation already ob- tained.
 It was just twenty minutes after Worden fired his first shot when the flames burst out on the Nashville. Then thirty minutes of dense fog in- teryened, and at the end of fifty min utes, the fog clearing, it was seen that the ire had increased. A pivot gun mounted abaft the mainmast of the burning cruiser exploded from the in- tense heat, and a few minutes later her smokestack.. disappeared under a good shot from the turret of the Mon- tauk. The flames soon reached the magazine of the ship, which exploded with tremendous force, leaving the cruiser smoking ruin. When the Nashville's magazine exploded, the Federal vessels ceased firing and dropped down the river, followed by random shots from the fort.
 During his many trips up to the fort in the Montauk Worden had passed the Confederate torpedoes going and coming without meeting with harm, but in his last withdrawal the monitor ran upon one which stove a great hole in her side below the water line The Confederates in the fort had seen the monitor pass and repass the torpedoes harmlessly so often that they gave no attention to her as she dropped away down the channel. Besides, the fog hid her from view of the fort, and Worden succeeded in bleaching her out of sight of the enemy. In few days the wound was repaired by bolting a piece of boiler iron over the gap, and the MonfauIy wapf ha cl< Tn hor ota +ioy,