he had been struck by a splinter, remarked, "You may call it a splinter on your big ship, but aboard this little craft it ranks with a log of wood." I witnessed a singular freak of a solid shot. It knocked down a partition, smashed through Kimberley's bureau, and cut a box of socks completely in two; another was found quietly resting in the bunk of one of the engineers in the steerage, as if it had nothing to do with this little affair. It was not for some days afterward that we learned, through rebel sources, of the accident to the "Richmond" and death of her gallant executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Boyd Cummings, and of the grounding of the "Mississippi," of the efforts to save her, and of her final destruction to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy. I may add that General Richard Arnold informed me, only a short time before his death, that he commanded the advance the night we ran by Port Hudson. He had no very well defined instructions, simply ordered "to advance." Before he knew it he was way inside the enemy's line, in a sort of cul-de-sac. Fortunately he had impressed upon the men perfect silence, and he succeeded in counter-marching his command without being attacked, although he could hear the enemy on both flanks. He says he learned from the rebels that there were at least eighteen thousand men in Port Hudson that night. Sunday morning opened peacefully and bright; we could hardly realize all the turmoil of the previous night. With spyglass we could see Confederate cavalrymen watering their horses, and the occasional gleam of a sabre assured us that our movements were being carefully watched to prevent communication with our friends below. The Admiral did not despair; he felt that he had accomplished something in getting his two vessels past the batteries, and he became more resolute in his determination to turn this seeming disaster to good account. At this juncture, Edward C. Gabaudan, a New York boy, volunteered to take a despatch to the fleet below by water. A small dug-out was covered with twigs, to resemble the float ing trees which were a common sight in the Mississippi. At night-fall Mr. Gabaudan lay down in his little craft, and silently drifted out into the current, followed by the prayers and God-speeds of his shipmates. His frail bark was swept in so close to the shore at one time that he could distinctly hear the sentinels talking. The size of his craft attracted attention, and a boat actually put out to make an examination. It was a trying moment, and Gabaudan felt that his time had come; but, with finger on trigger of his revolver, he determined to sell his life dearly, and quietly awaited discovery. Fortunately for him the rebels were not in a pulling humor that night, and found the current strong; and you can imagine Gabaudan's relief when he suddenly heard himself pronounced to be "Nothing but a log!" and the enemy's boat turned and disappeared in the darkness. It is not my purpose to relate the subsequent career of these vessels until the capitulation of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, but I certainly consider the service rendered by them in blocking up the Red River and cutting off supplies as aiding materially in the discomfiture of those garrisons. For my own part, when we reached Vicksburg, after engaging the batteries at Grand Gulf and Warrenton, a secret tribunal sat on me, consisting of Admiral Farragut, Captains Jenkins and Palmer, and it was decided that Farragut would become cross-eyed looking out for me and rebel batteries at the same time. So I was ignominiously bounced out of the ship, turned over to General Grant, and sent home as slow freight. 21 THE SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF PLYMOUTH. An Address by Surgeon WILLIAM M. SMITH, U. S. V., at a Meeting of the Commandery, December 7, 1887. THE War of the Rebellion was attended by the movement of armies so great, by battles which were so numerous, with consequences so important, and which had so many victims, that many of the minor contests are recorded in our histories with a single paragraph. It should be a good-will offering of the actors in the Civil War, a deserved tribute to the memory of those who braved its perils or who died to preserve the Union, to tell the story of those lesser contests and of those instances of individual heroism which would have immortalized the actors in any other war in which our country has been engaged. Ten miles from the confluence of the Roanoke River with Albemarle Sound, upon the right bank of the river, is situated the town of Plymouth. Before the war this was one of the most beautiful of the many lovely towns upon the inland waters of North Carolina. Early in the year 1862, General Burnside had taken Newberne. The presence of the soldiers of the Union at that place had given encouragement and activity to the Union sentiment among the people of this part of the State, with the immediate result of securing the organization of several skeleton regiments of loyal North Carolinians, which later were so well filled as to do good service in the Union cause. Two companies of these troops occupied Plymouth in the summer of 1862. With the same spirit and policy which influenced the Confederate General Magruder a few months previously to burn the beautiful village of Hampton, near Fortress Monroe, and nearly every building for miles along the left bank of the James River, on his retreat to Richmond, a rebel force attacked and drove from Plymouth the force of loyal Carolinians, and burned the business portions and the finest dwellings of the town. It was believed that a military force at Plymouth, sufficiently strong to hold it, would necessarily command an extensive and fertile portion of the State for many miles up the river, which was navigable for our gunboats for a considerable distance, and enable expeditions to be made thence to points on other tributaries of the sound, or descents upon. territory adjacent to it, and thus encourage the development of loyalty to the Union among the inhabitants. With this in view, a force of about 2,000 men occupied Plymouth in the spring of 1863, under the command of Brigadier-General Wessels. The interval between the arrival of this force at Plymouth in the spring of 1863 and the siege in April, 1864, was employed not only in the usual routine of camp duties, and in the strengthening the defences of the post, but in expeditions to destroy the stores of the Confederates within reach, and to capture or disperse the armed bands of the enemy, known as the guerillas, composed for the most part of deserters from the Confederate armies, who terrorized the loyal portion of the population. These expeditions served to relieve the monotony of camp life, while they accustomed the men to exercise that coolness, self-reliance, and courage which make the efficient soldier and develop the true hero. For this purpose Edenton, "loveliest village of the sound," was several times visited; Elizabeth City, Windsor, and several other localities were objective points of expeditions. The re-enlistment, for the war, of the three years' men, in the early spring of 1864, was one of the most notable events in the history of the war. The campaign of 1863 had resulted in the South in the fall of Vicksburg and the opening of the Mississippi. In the North the Confederate foe had met the soldiers of the Union at Gettysburg, in one of the most stubbornly contested and bloody battles of the war, and had recoiled from the contest, disappointed and defeated, but not disorganized. In the spring of 1864, it was evident to every observing soldier, that, although the power of the Confederacy was waning, there were yet weary marches and fiercely-fought battles before them. Nevertheless there were but few of the men of the force at Plymouth who did not re-enlist "for the war." In the early part of April, 1864, the men were looking forward to a brief reunion with their friends among the hills and valleys of the North, before entering upon the approaching campaign. "How they dreamed of the joys of the home-coming time, none can tell but soldiers who have been in service during three years of the "great Rebellion." Henceforth they were entitled to be called, and were known as, "veterans." They had earned the name by "long, weary marches, and winters in camp," the endurance of "tropical heat and malarial damp," and on "fields that were deluged with Loyalty's blood." The force under command of General Wessels on the 17th of April, 1864, was composed of the following organizations: General Wessels and staff, II; Sixteenth Connecticut, 463; Second Massachusetts, Companies G and H, 269; Second North Carolina, Companies B and E, 165; Twelfth New York Cavalry, Companies A and F, 121; Eighty-fifth New York, 544; Twenty-fourth New York. Battery, 122; One-hundred-and-first Pennsylvania, 409; One-hundred-and-third Pennsylvania, 485; unattached recruits (mostly colored), 245; total, 2,834. Of this number, 127 were officers. Captain Marvin, formerly sergeant-major of the Eighty-fifth New York Volunteers, had also about 100 recently enlisted colored recruits. It was well understood by officers and men at Plymouth during the fall and winter of 1863-64, that the Confederates were building an iron-clad at Halifax, near the head of navi |