She returned the fire from her thirty-pounder Parrott
gun forward, and occasioned the rebels considerable loss. The Allison
was seriously damaged in the fray. The top of her pilot house was torn
off, her smoke stack pierced by a shell, and her steam safety pipe cut
away. It was a miracle she was not sunk. Finally extricating herself
from her perilous position, also backed around the point of land and
came to anchor with the rest of the flotilla, screened from the rebel
battery by woods, but in short range. There they laid all night,
prepared at any moment to repel any attempt on the part of the enemy to
capture them by boarding. Several times during the night they fired upon
the rebel reconnoitering parties, who became very bold in their
advances.

All night long our men could hear the rattle of trains over the
railroad, evidently conveying reinforcements to Kinston, against which
General Foster had steadily pushed his advance, fighting for every inch
of ground. The blows of axes, as the rebels felled trees to block up
the avenues of approach to the town, the calls of soldiers, barking of
dogs, and other sounds, were heard all the night long proceeding from
the wooded shore. But no serious attempt was made to capture the boats,
which might have been successful if well planned. On Sunday morning the
boats turned, and descended the stream, as the water in the river had
fallen nearly fifteen inches during the night, and promised to leave
them high and dry, prizes to the rebels, if they much longer delayed
their return. On their way down they were fired upon from the shores by
guerrillas, who followed them a distance of twenty miles, killing one of
our men (Edward J. Perkins, Company H, Marine Artillery), and wounding
three others, none very seriously. The Ocean Wave, and, indeed, all the
boats, were more or less injured by musketry and field pieces. Bullets
were found on the Ocean Wave dipped in verdigris, to poison the wounds
they inflicted, and others had copper wire attached, for the same
purpose. The rebels evidently have been taking some new lessons in
warfare from the Sepoys or Chinese; They are apt pupils. It would also
appear that about 150 of these guerrillas were the attacking party, and
thirty of them were killed and wounded before they relinquished the idea
of taking the boats, as we have since learned. The attempt to pen in the
boats, by felling trees across the river, was thwarted by the rapid
movements of t