ick as the wrist; but the shell-wounds were even worse. The
quarter-master, who had first discovered the approach of the
iron-clad,--an old man-of-war's man, named John Leroy,--was taken
below with both legs off. The gallant fellow died in a few minutes,
but cheered and exhorted the men to stand by the ship, almost with his
last breath. The 'Merrimac' had, in the mean time, passed up stream;
and our poor fellows, thinking she had had enough of it, and was for
getting away, actually began to cheer. For many of them it was the
last cheer they were ever to give. We soon saw what her object was;
for standing up abreast of the bow of the 'Cumberland,' and putting
her helm aport, she ran her ram right into that vessel. The gallant
frigate kept up her splendid and deliberate, but ineffectual, fire,
until she filled and sank, which she did in a very few minutes. A
small freight-steamer of the quarter-master's department, and some
tugs and boats from the camp-wharf, put off to rescue the survivors,
who were forced to jump overboard. In spite of shot from the
Confederate gunboats, one of which pierced the boiler of the
freight-boat, they succeeded in saving the greater number of those who
were in the water. Seeing the fate of the 'Cumberland,' which sank in
very deep water, we set our topsails and jib, and slipped the chains,
under a sharp fire from the gunboats, which killed and wounded many.
With the help of the sails, and the tug 'Zouave,' the ship was now run
on the flats which make off from Newport News Point. Here the vessel
keeled over as the tide continued to fall, leaving us only two guns
which could be fought,--those in the stern ports. Two large
steam-frigates and a sailing-frigate, towed by tugs, had started up
from Hampton Roads to our assistance. They all got aground before they
had achieved half the distance; and it was fortunate that they did so,
for they would probably have met the fate of the 'Cumberland,' in
which case the lives of the twelve or thirteen hundred men comprising
their crews would have been uselessly jeopardized.

"After the 'Merrimac' had sunk the 'Cumberland,' she came down the
channel and attacked us again. Taking up a position about one hundred
and fifty yards astern of us, she deliberately raked us with
eighty-pounder shell; while the steamers we had so long kept up the
river, and those which had come out with the iron-clad from Norfolk,
all concentrated the fire of their small rifled guns up