Hawk_ was saved. By great exertions on the part of officers and
crew, the fire was extinguished after the pilot-house was burned away.
A temporary steering apparatus was rigged, and the boat moved from the
shoal where she had grounded. She was a full half hour within range of
the Rebel guns.

CHAPTER XLV.

THE ARMY CORRESPONDENT.

The Beginning and the End.--The Lake Erie Piracy.--A Rochester
Story.--The First War Correspondent,--Napoleon's Policy.--Waterloo
and the Rothschilds.--Journalistic Enterprise in the Mexican War.--The
Crimea and the East Indian Rebellion.--Experiences at the Beginning
of Hostilities.--The Tender Mercies of the Insurgents.--In the
Field.--Adventures in Missouri and Kentucky.--Correspondents
in Captivity.--How Battle-Accounts were Written.--Professional
Complaints.

Having lain aside my pen while engaged in planting cotton and
entertaining guerrillas, I resumed it on coming North, after that
experiment was finished. Setting aside my capture in New Hampshire,
narrated in the first chapter, my adventures in the field commenced in
Missouri in the earliest campaign. Singularly enough, they terminated
on our Northern border. In the earlier days of the Rebellion, it
was the jest of the correspondents, that they would, some time, find
occasion to write war-letters from the Northern cities. The jest
became a reality in the siege of Cincinnati. During that siege we
wondered whether it would be possible to extend our labors to Detroit
or Mackinaw.

In September, 1864, the famous "Lake Erie Piracy" occurred. I was
in Cleveland when the news of the seizure of the _Philo Parsons_ was
announced by telegraph, and at once proceeded to Detroit. The capture
of the _Parsons_ was a very absurd movement on the part of the Rebels,
who had taken refuge in Canada. The original design was, doubtless,
the capture of the gun-boat _Michigan_, and the release of the
prisoners on Johnson's Island. The captors of the _Parsons_ had
confederates in Sandusky, who endeavored to have the _Michigan_ in
a half-disabled condition when the _Parsons_ arrived. This was not
accomplished, and the scheme fell completely through. The two small
steamers, the _Parsons_ and _Island Queen_, were abandoned after being
in Rebel hands only a few hours.

The officers of the _Parsons_ told an interesting story of their
seizure. Mr. Ashley, the clerk, said the boat left Detroit for
Sandusky at her usual hour. She had a few passengers