_Rear-Adm. Comdg. S. Atl. Block. Squad._
To the Senior Officer present at the different Blockading Stations on
the Coast of Georgia and Florida.
[D] "The effect was electrical. The Rebels were the best men in Ford's
command, being Lieutenant-Colonel Showalter's Californians, and they are
brave men. They had dismounted and sent their horses to the rear, and
were undoubtedly determined upon a desperate fight, and their superior
numbers made them confident of success. But they never fought with
artillery, and a cannon has more terror for them than ten thousand
rifles and all the wild Camanches on the plains of Texas. At first
glimpse of the shining brass monsters there was a visible wavering in
the determined front of the enemy, and as the shells came screaming over
their heads the scare was complete. They broke ranks, fled for their
horses, scrambled on the first that came to hand, and skedaddled in the
direction of Brownsville."--_New York Evening Post_, Sept 25, 1864.
[E] "The colored regiments had nothing at all to do with it; they
behaved with propriety throughout."--_Boston Journal Correspondence_.
("Carleton.")
"The negro troops took no part whatever in the perpetration of this
Vandalism."--_New York Tribune Correspondence_. ("N. P.")
"We know not whether we are most rejoiced or saddened to observe, by the
general concurrence of accounts, that the negro soldiers had nothing to
do with the barbarous act."--_Boston Journal Editorial_, April 10, 1863.