Six Or Seven Of Them Had Gone Up The Tennessee River
The Day Before We Reached Cairo; And While We Were There They
Succeeded In Knocking Down Fort Henry, And In Carrying Off The
Soldiers Stationed There And The Officer In Command.
One of the
boats, however, had been penetrated by a shot, which made its way
into the boiler; and the men on deck - six, I think, in number - were
scalded to death by the escaping steam.
The two pilots up in the
cupola were destroyed in this terrible manner. As they were
altogether closed in by the iron roof and sides, there was no escape
for the steam. The boats, however, were well made and very
powerfully armed, and will probably succeed in driving the
secessionist armies away from the great river banks. By what
machinery the secessionist armies are to be followed into the
interior is altogether another question.
But there was also another fleet at Cairo, and we were informed that
we were just in time to see the first essay made at testing the
utility of this armada. It consisted of no less than thirty-eight
mortar-boats, each of which had cost 1700l. These mortar-boats were
broad, flat-bottomed rafts, each constructed with a deck raised
three feet above the bottom. They were protected by high iron sides
supposed to be proof against rifle-balls, and, when supplied, had
been furnished each with a little boat, a rope, and four rough
sweeps or oars.
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