. Reminiscences of the war of the rebellion, 1861-1865 . e told with fearful effect. Some of the officers of the fleet in describing the bat-tle, said that the shot and shells could be seen like foot-balls of the giants. A large percent of the shot from the enemys gunswould be deflected, glancing off when striking the armorplates, but a large number striking point blank penetratedthe decks of the monitors, some striking the plateclosing the portholes of the turret, some w^ith such tre-mendous force as to stop the working of the turret, whileone. the Keokuk, a double turreted monitor, was penet
. Reminiscences of the war of the rebellion, 1861-1865 . e told with fearful effect. Some of the officers of the fleet in describing the bat-tle, said that the shot and shells could be seen like foot-balls of the giants. A large percent of the shot from the enemys gunswould be deflected, glancing off when striking the armorplates, but a large number striking point blank penetratedthe decks of the monitors, some striking the plateclosing the portholes of the turret, some w^ith such tre-mendous force as to stop the working of the turret, whileone. the Keokuk, a double turreted monitor, was penetra-ted below the water line, and sunk oft ]\Iorris Island beach 206 NAVAL ATTACK UPON CHARLESTON where later, after our capture of Morris Island, we couldsee it every day at low tide. After forty-five minutes of this terrible bombarding,Commodore Dupont seeing the impossibility of continuingthe fight, signalled the commanders to withdraw theirvessels. The new Ironsides during this time had anchoredwithin range of the guns of Sumter, just off Morris Is-. FORT SUMTER IN 1861. land, and by chance unwittingly dropped their anchor overa large mine, placed there by the enemy, but by some im-perfection of the wires, the rebel of^cer in Fort Wagnerwho had charge of the works, found it impossible to ex-plode the mine, thus saving the flagship and all its crewfrom being blown into eternity; their flagship weighinganchor, moved out with the monitor? from under fire. 207 REMINISCENCES OF THE WAR OF THE REBELLION During the fight, the new Ironsides was struck nine-ty-five times, and without material damage. The Keokukwas struck ninety times, and all of the other monitors re-ceiving the shock of from fifty to eighty projectiles. Itwas the intention of Admiral Dupont when he gave theorder to withdraw, to renew the fight on the followingday, but it was found that his vessels were so crippled hedecided not to take the chance of turning a defeat into adisaster. The total number of our guns upon
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectuniteds, bookyear1911
