ent of shell which
struck him in the chest. His watch, and one of his shoulder-straps
(the other being gone), were afterwards sent safely to his father, a
veteran naval officer.

"We had now borne this fire for nearly an hour, and there was no
prospect of assistance from any quarter, while we were being
slaughtered without being able to return a shot. Seeing this, the
officer who had succeeded to the command of the ship, upon
consultation with our former captain (who was on board as a guest),
ordered our flag to be struck. It is not a pleasant thing to have to
strike your flag; but I did not see then, and do not see now, what
else we were to do.

"A boat now boarded us with an officer from the 'Merrimac,' who said
he would take charge of the ship. He did nothing, however, but gaze
about a little, and pick up a carbine and cutlass,--I presume as
trophies. One of the small gunboats then came alongside, and the
officer from the 'Merrimac' left. The commander of the gunboat said
that we must get out of the ship at once, as he had orders to burn
her. Some of our people went on board of his craft as prisoners, but
not many. As her upper deck was about even with our main-deck ports,
our surgeon stepped out of one, and told the commanding officer that
we had some dreadfully wounded men, and that we must have time to
collect them, and place them on board his vessel, and, moreover, that
our ship was on fire with no possibility of saving her. The reply was,
'You must make haste: those scoundrels on shore are firing at me now.'
In fact, the rifle-balls were 'pinging' about very briskly, scarring
the rusty black sides of the poor old frigate; for the Twentieth
Indiana Regiment had come down from the camp to the point, and opened
fire on the gunboat as she lay alongside of us. Our doctor having no
desire to be killed, especially by our own people, jumped back into
the port, just as the steamer, finding it too hot, shoved off and left
us. As soon as she did so, they all opened upon us again; although we
had a white flag flying to show we were out of action, and we
certainly could not be held responsible for the action of the regiment
on shore. After ten or fifteen minutes, however, they all withdrew,
and went down the channel, to bestow their attentions upon the
frigate 'Minnesota' which was hard aground. Fortunately the 'Merrimac'
drew too much water to come near the 'Minnesota' at that stage of
tide, and the small-fry were soon d