mber, when there came on a gale of exceptional
violence, the worst of it at midnight. It lasted for forty-eight
hours, and must have occasioned great anxiety to the heads of the
expedition; for among the curious conglomerate of heterogeneous
material constituting both the ships of war and transports there were
several river steamers, some of them small. Being utterly unpractised
in such movements, an almost entire dispersal followed; in fact, I
dare say many of the transport captains asked nothing better than to
be out of other people's way. The _Pocahontas_ found herself alone
next morning; but, though small and slow, she was a veritable sea-bird
for wind and wave. Not so all. One of our extemporized ships of war,
rejoicing in the belligerent name of _Isaac Smith_, and carrying eight
fairly heavy guns, which would have told in still water, had to throw
them all overboard; and her share in the subsequent action was limited
to a single long piece, rifled I believe, and to towing a
sailing-corvette in the column.

There were some wrecks and some gallant rescues, the most conspicuous
of which was that of the battalion of marines, embarked on board the
_Governor_; a steamer, as I recollect, not strictly of the river
order, but like those which ply outside on the Boston and Maine coast.
She went down, but not before her living freight had been removed by
the sailing-frigate _Sabine_. The first lieutenant of the latter, now
the senior rear-admiral on the retired list of the navy, soon
afterwards relieved Drayton in command of the _Pocahontas_; so that I
then heard at first hand many particulars which I wish I could now
repeat in his well-deserved honor. His distinguished share in the
rescue was of common notoriety; the details only we learned from his
modest but interesting account. The deliverance was facilitated by the
two vessels being on soundings. The _Governor_ anchored, and then the
_Sabine_ ahead of her, dropping down close to. The ground-tackle of
our naval ships, as we abundantly tested during the war, would hold
through anything, if the bottom let the anchor grip.

With very few exceptions all were saved, officers and privates; but
their clothes, except those they stood in, were left behind. The
colonel was a notorious martinet, as well as something of a character;
and a story ran that one of the subalterns had found himself at the
start unable to appear in some detail of uniform, his trunks having
gone astray. "