The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1905-12-28
WAR OF THE REBELLION.
(Continued from page IL

3. Renshaw, whose loyalty was serious
" doubted. He had lain quietly in thu
harbor ever since his arrival there, ant
had maintained the most cordial rela
fions with the people on shore, wht
visited his ships at will. There were
ugly rumors that he was I'm direct com
Inunication with the Confederate au
thorities.
The Capture Of Galveston.
Gen. j. B. Magruder, the ostenta.
tiOus, spectacular Prince John" OF
the old Regular Army, had gone into
the Confederate army with quite g
flourish, and had been very much in
evidence at the beginning of McClel-
lan's PeninSular campaign, where with
some few thousand men at Yorktown
he had held McClellan's whole army
at bay for several weeks and then
made mastery retreat. Somehow he
had not commended himself to Jeffer:
SON Davis by his performances, and
had been relieved from duty with the
Army Of Northern Virginia and sent
to command in Texas. He decided to
do something to signalize his advent,
and performed the only feat of i'm
portance that he achieved during his
years of command there. He ordered
ry and Sibley, Cooks regiment of
heavy artillery and Wilson's light bat
terry. in all about 1000 men. To these
he added two steamboats,, the Bayou
City and the Neptune. which were
protected by tiers Of cottonhai-s. Inc
Rayoy City Carried a 66-aean.1aeor gun
and zoo soldiers, and the Neptune had
two small guns and $50 musketeers.
All these preparations were made
without Commander Renshaw being
aware of 1t, unless it was in a traitor
Gus sense, which has been strongly as
serted. Magruder had abundant OPP
portunity to gain full knowledge of the
Union situation and make complete
plans, for the small Union land force
did not attempt to patrol the city in
front of them nor ascertain what was
going on outside of their barbados.
On the morning of Jan. 1, 1868, Ma
gruder marched his forces down to
within two squares Of the Union troops
and formed for the attack. He posted
sitions, unhitched their horses and
sent them to a place Of safety, and
made every arrangement for the bat
tie. The moon went down at q. M,
obscuring everything on shore, but
leaving the vessels and garrison stand
ing out clearly against the starlit sky.
Magruder fired the signal gun with his
own hands, and Col. Cook led forward
a storming party of 500 men directly
against the $50 Massachusetts, men at
the end of the pier. Cook met more
trouble than he had anticipated, be-
cause the Yankees had at last walked
up to their danger and removed the
boards of the pier directly in front of
them, using these to add to their bar
ricades. Cooks men had to wade
through the water on either side OF
the pier, carrying scaling ladders. The
severe fire which they received from
the Massachusetts, men added to the
shots from the gunboats, which had
been alarmed, proved too much for the
dssailants, and they had to recoil. The
gunboats were waking up, one after
another, and they soon silenced the
lighter pieces that the rebels had put
in position. Commander Renshaw, on
the Westaeld, lay out some distance
and started up to join in the fight but
soon ran aground, and the Clifton went
to her assistance to pull her off. In the
meantime the two Confederate steam
ers, which were handled with courage
and dash by Commodore Leon Smith,
an old Captain on the California line
Of steamers, dashed down the harbor
They found there in Capt. Wainwright
and his crew men who were vigilant,
alert and brave. Undismayed by the
storm Of shots from the rifiemen.
Wainwright dashed at the Neptune
and gave her such a blow that she
then struck at the Bayou City, which
barely escaped similar fate and lost
her larboard wheelhouse. Though the
Neptune sank, her upper deck was out
of water and her undismayed infantry
kept up a sharp musketry fire, which
sci, and the Bayou City turning,
rammed the Lanes screw, grappled
with the boat and overpowered her
crew with swarms of boarders, but not
until Wainwright had been killed and
Lieutenant-Command Lea MORALLY
wounded. Lea's father was rebel
Major in the attack, and one Of the
first to recognize his dying son. The
Owasco had been coaling down the
harbor, and got under way as soon as
possible. She tried to go to the as
distance Of the Lane, but grounded re-
peatedly, owing to the darkness and
the narrowness of the channel. 1t was
now o'clock and broad daylight. The
rebels raised a white flag on the Har-
riet Lane, and sent one with a boat to
the Clifton demanding the surrender OF
our fleet. Commander
Law. in command of the Clifton, re-
fused this, but accompanied the flag of
truce to Renshaw on the Westfield. The
flag Of truce was a scheme of the rebels
to gain time, and in the three hours
taken up by 1t the attack upon the
Massachusetts men was continued and
they were forced TO surrender. Ken
shaw refused to surrender, and or.
dered his vessels to get out of harms
way as soon as possible, while he
would blow up the Westfield, since he
could not get her off. He gave orders
to do this, but the explosion was pre-
mature and killed not only Renshaw
himself but Lieut.. Zimmerman, Engi-
neer Greene and Is Of the crew. Lieu
tenant-Commander Law, believing that
none Of his vessels could cope with the
Harriet Lane, ran of with the sad re-
mains of our fleet to New Orleans, to
tell the story Of the disaster, to the in
tense chagrin and anger Of Admiral
Farragut.
Banks's Force and Plans.
According to his returns Of Dec. 81
1852, Gen. Banks had in his Sc regi-
ments 36,508 officers and men, OF
whom 1928 were present for duty
With this force he had to occupy posi-
tions stretching all along the Gulf from
Mobile to the Rio Grand, to helI
maintain the blockade, and he also
had to garrison points In the Louis
lana country for the protection OF
New Orleans. After deducting these
garrisons he found that he could
not take the field with more than u.s..
600 men. and his information was te
the effect that the garrison Of Por
Hudson numbered IL 000 To COW moth