THE SHORE BATTERY.
The engineer of the Wizard had stopped her when the combat commenced;
for she was headed directly for the shore. During the fight, she had
drifted up within a few feet of the island. Among the volunteers in the
second cutter was one of the third assistant-engineers, to whom the
charge of the machinery was immediately committed. The negro firemen of
the steamer were not sorry for the change which had taken place in the
ownership of the craft; and all of them, having no love for the rebel
Confederacy, promptly offered to continue their labors in the firing
department.
The intense exertions and excitement of the men had fatigued them very
much; and, when the struggle was ended, they sat down wherever they
could find a place to rest themselves and recover their breath. The men
in the boats attended to the wounded of both parties. The first cutter
brought off the assistant-surgeon from the island, and everything was
done that their condition required. The sufferers were placed in the
cabin, and included five sailors and eight rebels. Of the boats’ crews,
only one had been killed; and the bodies of three of the enemy lay upon
the forward-deck of the Wizard.
“Somers, you did me a good turn in the action, which I shall not soon
forget,” said Mr. Granger, when the excitement had subsided.
Jack touched his cap, blushed, and stammered out that he hoped he had
done his duty. He had tried to do the best he could.
“You have done nobly, my lad; and I shall have a good report of you for
the captain, and a gentleman in the wardroom, who has a strong interest
in your welfare.”
“Thank you, sir!” replied Jack, blushing more deeply as he touched his
cap again.
“The men all did well,--behaved admirably; but no one better than
yourself, my lad,” said he, turning to the seamen, who were seated
in little groups on the deck of the steamer. “Our real work hasn’t
commenced yet.”
“Hurrah!” shouted the blue-jackets, jumping to their feet, and
displaying their readiness to engage the enemy wherever occasion might
require.
“We came off to do a certain work; and we should have done it before
this time, if this steamer hadn’t come athwart our hawse. But I intend
to do it before we return to the ship.”
“Hurrah!” repeated the blue-jackets.
“I perceive you are all ready to stand by me, and see it through.”
“Ay, ay, sir!” responded the men in prompt and hearty tones.
“Then we will go to work at once.”
The Wizard was run up to the island, the wounded men on shore
conveyed to the cabin, and the field-piece placed in position on the
forward-deck. In addition to this armament, two of the boat-howitzers
were hoisted on board, and other preparations made, which indicated
sharp work, and that Mr. Granger intended the steamer should be
used for fighting purposes. The expedition was, to some extent,
re-organized. Gun-crews were placed at the battery, and men detailed
to serve in the boats, which were to be towed by the steamer.
Mr. Granger had noticed the strong friendship subsisting between Tom
Longstone and Jack; and, when he made the former captain of one of the
captured guns, he ordered Jack to serve as first train-tackleman, which
gave him a position alongside the veteran.
“You’ll do, quartermaster,” said the commander. “I know I can trust
you.”
“Thank you, sir,” replied Tom, reverently. “I beg your honor’s pardon;
but I must ax permission to go and see the doctor for a couple of
seconds.”
“Are you wounded, my man?”
“Nothing to speak of, your honor: only a slash in the hand with a
soger’s bagonet. But I could work better if the doctor would put a bit
of plaster on it.”
“Go: we can spare you for an hour or more.”
“Thank your honor; but I won’t be gone above two minutes,” answered
Tom, saluting the officer, and running up the stairs to the cabin-deck.
“Goin’ to lose this here steamer now we’ve got it,” said the inevitable
Grummet, who was captain of one of the howitzers, when Mr. Granger went
up to the wheel-house to superintend the steering of the Wizard. “Well,
he aren’t fit for nothin’ else,” he added, as he glanced round him at
the build of the steamer.
“She’s a good enough boat, isn’t she?” asked Jack.
“What’s she good for? What was the lubber thinkin’ of when he built
such a top-heavy, top-sided consarn as this? I wouldn’t trust the
cap’n’s monkey in her.”
“She is a fresh-water steamer, built to run on the rivers and lakes
about here.”
“I wouldn’t cross a mud-puddle in her. A five-knot breeze would blow
her over. She looks more like a grocery-store nor she do like a wessel.”
“This is the kind of steamer they use on all the Western rivers,”
added Jack, who had often seen pictures of this kind of craft in the
illustrated newspapers; which, by the way, have done an important work
in making up the history of this war.
“I don’t care where they use ’em: they aren’t shipshape. They may do
for sogers and marines, and such lubbers; but they aren’t fit for
sailors. Howsomever, there won’t be much left of her in half an hour
from now.”
“Why not, Mr. Grummet?” asked Jack.
“Avast there! Don’t you go for to _mistering_ me. I aren’t a dandy nor
an officer,” said Grummet fretfully.
“I meant no harm.”
“I know you didn’t, my lad; and, if you did, we can’t afford to
quarrel. Some of us will wake up in eternity in less nor an hour from
now; and this crazy old craft will go to the bottom!”
“What makes you think so?”
“Think so? I knows it. Do you see that ’ere battery over there?”
“I’ve seen it before to-day.”
“Do you expect this piece of shingle-work to stand up afore them guns?”
“I don’t know; but I think Mr. Granger wouldn’t take us in where there
isn’t a fair chance for us.”
“The leftenant’s a brave man; but he’s hot-headed. Now, you mark my
words, not one in five of us will ever get back to the ship; and the
cap’n of the Harrisburg never’ll set eyes on this ugly hulk of a
steamboat.”
“You forget that you told us once before to-day we should come to a bad
end.”
“Didn’t I tell you the truth? There’s Graves a-layin’ there: his pipe’s
out.”
“But he’s the only man killed.”
“Avast growling, Grummet!” said Tom, joining his crew at the gun. “The
worse you makes it, Old Blower, the better it’ll be for us. When you
says anything’s goin’ wrong, it always goes right.”
“How’s your hand, Tom?” asked Jack.
“Good as new: the doctor patched it up, and it’s all right now.”
“I’m glad to hear it. How are our poor fellows in the cabin?”
“All doing well but Jones, and the doctor says he’ll die, in spite of
all he can do, poor fellow.”
“Didn’t I tell you so?” exclaimed Grummet.
“No, you didn’t,--you old bruiser! You aren’t a goin’ for to frighten
the boy with your ghost-yarns. I tell you----”
At that moment, a twenty-four-pound shot from the battery, which the
steamer was rapidly approaching, dropped into the water on one side of
her, and interrupted the conversation. All the steam that the Wizard’s
boilers would bear was now crowded upon her; and, when she had advanced
a quarter of a mile farther, the order was given for the battery on the
forward-deck to open upon the fort, which was an earthwork, mounting
four guns.
The firing was vigorously kept up on both sides. Two of the shots
from the shore-battery struck the steamer, but without inflicting any
serious injury. As each party had an equal number of guns, it was a
fair thing; but the gunners in the fort were evidently not accustomed
to their work, while the old man-of-war’s men on the deck of the Wizard
were perfectly at home at this business.
As the steamer approached nearer to the land, the fire from the fort
was sensibly diminished; and Mr. Granger was confident that two of its
guns had been disabled. The Wizard’s course had been made by various
angles, so as to disturb as much as possible the calculations of the
gunners, and to prevent any chance shot from raking her. The two balls
that had struck her, therefore, passed across her, instead of through
her from end to end. Both went under the cabin, abaft the paddle-boxes;
one of them crushing through the pine-wood partitions, and the other
knocking off one of the quarter-pieces at the stern.
While the men were still busy at the guns, Mr. Granger came down from
the wheel-house.
“Give it to them, my men!” said he with a smile, as he observed the
vigor with which they worked. “We must hoist the stars and stripes on
that battery.”
“Hurrah!” shouted the gun-crews.
“Ready with the gang-planks!” added the commander; and, at the same
time, the bell from the wheel-house stopped the engine, and the boat
struck the shore.
“Boarders, away!” shouted Mr. Granger, as the steamer touched the shore.
“Hurrah!” yelled the seamen, as they leaped ashore, and dashed up the
hill to the spot where the battery was located.
On they flew, up the slope, and over the breast-works; when, after
a short and decisive struggle, the victory was won. There were but
few men in the fort,--only enough to man the guns,--and there was
nothing very brilliant in the achievement. Jack Somers hardly found an
opportunity to strike a blow. The rebel flag was pulled down, and the
stars and stripes were run up in its place.
“Not so bad as it might be,--is it?” said Jack, with a smile, to
Grummet.
“You haven’t seen the end of it yet,” persisted the grumbler.
“We’ve seen the end of this battery, at any rate.”
It was quite true that they had not yet seen the end of the expedition;
for, after a working-party had been detailed to transport the guns
to the steamer, Mr. Granger ordered the first cutter to be manned,
and immediately started up the bay in her. After pulling a short
distance, they discovered the town which was known to be there; and,
at a convenient place, the commander landed. Taking twenty men with
him, he proceeded to examine the locality. On the road, which they soon
reached, they captured two men, whom Mr. Granger questioned, and from
whom, in spite of themselves, he obtained some valuable information.
Crossing the neck of land, they came to the water on the other side;
and here Mr. Granger discovered that of which he had evidently been in
search. It was a nondescript craft, which the rebels were converting
into a ram; probably for the purpose of making a raid among the
men-of-war at Ship Island. At the approach of the party, the mechanics
who were at work upon her fled, as though the whole Federal army was
sweeping down upon them. Mr. Granger gave directions for setting fire
to the ram; and the seamen piled up heaps of chips and shavings in
various parts of her, and applied the match.
The party remained long enough to insure the destruction of the clumsy
contrivance; and then hastened back to the boat, which was about two
miles distant.
When they reached the road which they had before crossed, a new and
startling state of things menaced them. Rushing down the road, on
the double-quick, was a company of infantry. They had just come in
sight from behind a hotel used in summer for pleasure-seekers from
New Orleans: and it was impossible to elude their observation; for
the country was flat and open, and afforded no place for defense or
concealment.
Jack could not help glancing at Mr. Granger to observe the effect of
this discovery upon him; but he looked calm and unmoved, as he had all
the morning.
“It’s lucky old Grummet isn’t here,” said Tom.
“He told me we hadn’t seen the end of it yet,” replied Jack. “What are
we going to do?”
“Dunno, my darling.”
“Shall we fight, or surrender?”
“Jest look at the leftenant afore you say surrender.”
“They are three to our one.”
“No matter, my boy, if they were ten to our one. Never say die!”
Jack couldn’t exactly see how they were to proceed, with a company of
fifty or sixty men in the very act of charging upon them; but he had
unlimited confidence in his commander, and he was resolved to take
things as they came.
“Halt!” shouted the captain of the rebel company.
Mr. Granger declined to obey, and ordered the men to move on towards
the boat. The muskets of the soldiers were raised to their shoulders.
“Fall flat on the ground!” said the commander suddenly.
“Fire!” shouted the rebel officer at the moment, when all the seamen
dropped as though they had been shot.
The bullets whistled over their heads; but not a man was injured. They
jumped, and ran again with all their might towards the place where
they had landed, closely pursued by the rebels.
Old Tom Longstone and some others of the party were more accustomed to
fighting than they were to running; and the consequence was, that the
rebels gained rapidly upon them. But, in the midst of the race, Jack
Somers, agile and fleet as he was, happened to be tripped by one of
his companions, who was looking over his shoulder to see the pursuers.
Before he could pick himself up, his party had left him, and the rebels
were upon him.