The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1917-08-09


A happier story than either Of these |
have told is Of the war. That came
along soon after. I have heard this
affair told in three or four ways, and,
indeed. it may have happened more
than once. But which ship it was on
cannot tell. However, in one, at
least, of the great frigate duels with
the English, in which the navy was
really baptized, it happened that a
round shot from the enemy entered
one of our ports square, and took right
down the officer of. the gun himself,
and almost every man Of the guns
crew. Now you may say what you
choose about courage, but that is not
a nice thing to see. But as the men
who were not killed picked themselves
up. and the surgeons people were car
rying off the bodies, there appeared
Nolan, in his shirt sleeves, with the
hammer in his hand, and, just as if he
had been the officer, told them off with
authority, who Should go to the cock
pit with the wounded men, who should
stay with him, perfectly CHEEKY. and
with that way which makes men feel
sure all Is right and is going to be
right. And he finished loading the
gun with his own hands, aimed it, and
babe the men fire. And there he
stayed, captain Of that gun, keeping
those fellows in spirits, till the enemy
struck, sitting on the carriage while
the gun was cooling, though he was
exposed all the time, showing them
easier ways to handle heavy shot, max
ing the raw hands laugh at their own
blunders, and when the gun cooled
again, getting it loaded and fired twice
as often as any other gun on the ship.
The captain walked forward. by way
Of encouraging the men, and Nolan
touched his hat and said:
II am showing them how we do this
in the artillery, SIR
And this is part of the story where
all the legends agree; that the commo-
dore said:
II see you do, and I thank you, sir;
and / shall never forget this day, sir,
and you never shall, sir"
And after the whole thing was over
and he had the EngIishman's sword,
in the midst of the state and ceremony
Of the quarterback, he said:
where is Mr. Nolan? ASK Mr.. No
Ian to come here"
And when Nolan came, the captain
said:
''Mr Nolan, we are all very grateful
to you today; you are one of us today
you will be named in the dispatches"
And then the old man took off his
own sword Of ceremony, and gave it to
Nolan, ana made him put it on. The
man told me this who saw it. Nolan !
cried like baby. and well he might. /
He had not worn a sWord since that |
day at Fort Adams. But al |
ways afterward, on occasions Of cere-
mony, he wore that quaint old French |
sword of the commodore's.
The captain did mention him in the
1t was always said he |
asked that he might be pardoned. He
wrote q special letter to the secretary |
Of var. But nothing ever came of it. !!
AS I said, that was about the time !
when they began to ignore the whole |
at Washington, and when |
Nolan's Imprisonment began to carry /
tself on because there was nobody to !
stop it without any new orders from
home. I
I have heard it said that he was with /
Porter when he took possession of the I
Nukahiwa islands. Not this Porter,
you know, but old Porter, his father,
Essex Porter. that is, the old Essex
Porter not this Essex. AS an artil-
cry officer, who had seen service in
he West, Nolan knew more about for
ifications, embrasures, ravelines,
and all that, than any of
hem did; and he worked with a right
rood will in fixing that battery all
fight I have always thought it was
pity Porter did not leave him in
there with Gamble. That
would have settled all the question
bout his punishment. We should
ave kept the islands, and at this mo-
aent we should have one station in
he Pacific ocean. Our French friends,
90, when they wanted this little wa
ering place, would have found 1t was
But Madison and the
-irginians, of course, flung all that
way.
All that was near fifty years ago,
| Nolan was thirty then, he must
AVE been near eighty when he died.
lie looked sixty when he was forty.
But he never seemed to me to change
hair afterward. As I imagine his
lie, from what have seen and heard
f ii, he must have been In every sea,
nd yet almost never on land. He
aust have known In q formal way,
lore officers in our. service than any
ian living knows. He told me once,
nth grave smile, that no man in the
-orld lived so methodical a life as he.
You know the boys say l am the
ron Mask, and you know how busy
e was" He said it did not do for