In one long line, in consequence of the narrowness of the stream, did we pull noiselessly down, but no interrupting pickets were discovered, and at about half-past three o'clock we found ourselves on the broad estuary of New Berne Bay. Then, closing up in double column, we pulled for the lights of the city, even up to and around the wharves themselves, looking, but in vain, for our prey. Not a gunboat could be seen-none were there. As the day broke we hastened for shelter to a small island up the stream about three miles away, where we landed, dragged our boats into the high grass, and established numerous pickets at once. Those of us who were not on duty, tired and weary, threw ourselves on the damp ground to sleep during the long hours that must necessarily intervene before we could proceed on our mission.

Shortly after sunrise we heard firing by infantry; it was quite sharp for an hour, and then it died away. It turned out to be, as we afterwards learned, a futile attack by our forces, under General Pickett, on the works around New Berne. We were obliged to eat cold food all that day, as no fires were permissible under any circumstances, so all we could do was to keep a sharp lookout for the enemy, sleep as much as possible, and wish for the night to

come.

About sundown one gunboat, which proved to be the United States Steamer Underwriter, appeared on the distant rim of the bay. She came up, anchored off the city some five miles from where we were lying, and we felt that she was our game. We began at once to calculate the number of her guns and quality of her armament, regarding her as our prize for certain.

As darkness came upon us, to our great surprise and joy a large launch, commanded by Lieutenant George W. Gift, landed under the lee of the island. He had, by some curious circumstance, been left behind, but, with his customary vigor and daring, had impressed a pilot, and, taking all the chances, came down the Neuse boldly in daylight to join us in the prospective fight. This was a grand acquisition to our force, as he brought with him fifteen men and one howitzer.

We were now called together again, the orders to each boat's crew repeated, another prayer was offered up, and then, it being about nine o'clock, we started in double column directly for the lights of the gunboat, one of which was distinctly showing at each masthead. Pulling slowly and silently for four hours, we

neared her, and as her outlines became distinct, to our great surprise we were hailed, "man-ofwar fashion, "Boat ahoy!" We were discovered, and, as we found out later, were expected.

This was a trying moment, but Commander Wood was equal to the emergency. Jumping

up, he shouted, "Give way hard! Board at once! The men's backs bent and straightened at the oars, and the Federal blue-jackets at the same moment opened upon us with small-arms. The long, black sides of the gunboat, with men's heads and shoulders above them, could be distinctly seen by the line of red fire, and we realized immediately that the only place of safety for us was on board of the gunboat, for the fire was very destructive. Standing up in the boat with Commander Wood, and swaying to and fro by the rapid motion, were our marines, firing from the bows, while the rest of us, with only pistol in belt and hands ready to grasp her black sides, were all anxious for the climb. Our coxswain, a burly, gamy Virginian, who by gesture and loud words was encouraging the crew, steering by the tiller between knees, his hands occupied in holding his pistols, suddenly fell forward on us dead, a ball having struck him fairly in the forehead. The rudder now having no guide, the boat swerved aside, and instead of our bows striking at the gangway we struck the wheel-house, so that the next boat, commanded by Lieutenant Loyall, had the deadly honor of being first on board. Leading his crew, as became his rank, duty, and desire, Loyall jumped and pulled into the gangway, now a blazing sheet of flame, and, being nearsighted (having lost his glasses), stumbled and fell prone upon the deck of the gunboat, the four men who were following close upon his heels falling on top of him stone dead, killed by the enemy's bullets, each one of the unfortunate fellows having from four to six of them in his body. Rising, Lieutenant Loyall shook off his load of dead men, and by this time our crew had climbed up on the wheel-house, Commander Wood's long legs giving him an advantage over the rest of us. I was the closest to him, but had nothing to do as yet except to anxiously observe the progress of the hand-to-hand fighting below me. I could hear Wood's stentorian voice giving orders and encouraging the men, and then, in less than five minutes, could distinguish a strange synchronous roar, the meaning of which I did not understand at first; but it soon became plain. "She's ours! she's ours!"

everybody crying at the top of their voices, in order to stop the shooting, as only our own men were on their feet.

Jumping down onto the deck I slipped in the blood and fell on my back and hands. Rising immediately I caught hold of an officer standing near me, who, with an oath, collared me, and I threw up his revolver just in time to make myself known. It was Lieutenant Wilkinson, who, the moment he recognized me, exclaimed: "I'm looking for you doctor; come here!" Following him a short distance in the darkness I examined a youth who was sitting in the lap of another, and in feeling his head I felt my hand slip down between his ears, and to my horror discovered that his head had been cleft in two by a boarding-sword in the hands of some giant of the forecastle. was Passed Midshipman Palmer Saunders, of Norfolk. Directing his body and those of all the other killed to be laid out aft on the quarter-deck, I went down below looking for the wounded in the ward-room, where the lights were burning, and found half a dozen with slight shots from revolvers. By the time I had finished my examination a half-hour had elapsed, when, again ascending to the deck, I heard the officers of the various crews reporting to Commander Wood; for immediately after the capture of the vessel, according to orders, the engineers and firemen had been sent down to the engine-room to get up steam, and Lieutenant Loyall, an executive officer, with a number of seamen, had attempted to raise the anchor, cast loose the cable which secured the ship to the wharf just under the guns of Fort Stephenson, while the marines, in charge of their proper officers, were stationed at the gangways and guarding the prisoners. The lieutenants, midshipmen, and others manned the guns, of which there were six eleven-inch, as it was our intention to convert her at once into a Confederate man-of-war, and under the captured flag to go out to sea, to take and destroy as many of the vessels of the enemy as possible.

But all our well-laid plans were abortive; the engineers reported the fires out, and that it would be futile to attempt to get up steam under an hour; and Lieutenant Loyall, too, after very hard work, reported it useless to spend any more time in trying to unshackle the chains-as the ship had been moored to a buoy-unless he could have hours in which to perform the work. Just at this moment, too, to bring things to a climax, the fort, under which we found that we were moored, bow and stem, opened fire upon us

with grape and solid shot. Some of those who had escaped had reported the state of affairs on board, and this was the result.

In about fifteen minutes a solid shot or two had disabled the walking-beam, and it then became evident to all that we were in a trap, to escape from which depended on hard work and strategy. How to extricate ourselves in safety from the thus far successful expedition was the question, but events proved that our commander was equal to the emergency.

Very calmly and clearly he directed me to remove all dead and wounded to the boats, which the several crews were now hauling to the lee side of the vessel, where they would be protected from the shots from the fort. The order was soon carried out by willing hands; they were distributed as equally as possible, each boat in charge of its own proper officer, and subjected, under that heavy fire, to that rigid discipline characteristic of the navy, manned by their regular crews; and as they lay in double lines hugging the protected lee of the ship as closely as possible, it was a splendid picture of the discipline a body of trained men can show under circumstances of great danger.

After an extended search through the ship's decks, above and below, we found that we had removed all the dead and wounded; and then, when the search was reported ended, Commander Wood, still on deck giving his orders, although the fire from the fort was very deadly and searching, called up four lieutenants to him, to whom he gave instructions as follows: Two of them were to go below in the forward part of the ship, and the other two below in the after part, where, from their respective stations, they were to fire the vessel and not to leave her until her decks were all ablaze. At that juncture they were to return to their boats and report.

The remainder of us were lying on our oars while orders for firing the ship were being carried out, and soon we saw great columns of red flame shoot upward out of the forward-hatch and wardroom; whereupon the four officers rejoined their boats. Immediately, by the glare of the burning ship, we could see the outlines. of the fort, with its depressed guns, and the heads and shoulders of the men manning them; as the blaze grew larger and fiercer their eyes were so dazzled and blinded that every one of our twelve boats pulled away out into the broad estuary, safe and untouched; then we all realized fully our adroit and successful esсаре.

Some years after the affair I met one of the Federal officers who were in the fort, and he told me that they were not only completely blinded by the flame, which prevented them from seeing us, but were also stampeded by the knowledge of the fact that there were several tons of powder in the magazine of the vessel, which, when it exploded, would probably blow the fort to pieces; so, naturally, they did not remain very long after they were aware that the ship had been fired. This all occurred as we had expected. We in our boats, at a safe distance of more than half a mile, saw the Under

were, and that, as a natural consequence, they would be treated well.

Continuing to pull for the remainder of the night, we sought and found, by the aid of our pilot, a safe and narrow creek, up which we ascended, and at sunrise hauled our boats upon a beach. There we carefully lifted out our wounded men, placed them under the shade of trees on the grass, and made them as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. Then, as soon as we had partaken of our breakfast, of which we were in so much need, we laid out the dead, after carefully washing and dressing

writer blow up, and distinctly heard the report of the explosion, while those at the fort, a short distance from the ship, had, luckily for them, sought a safe refuge.

Fortunately, there were no casualties at this stage of the expedition. I boarded boat after boat, in my capacity of surgeon, attending to the requirements of those who demanded immediate aid, and I witnessed many amusing scenes, for among the prisoners were some old men-of-warsmen, former shipmates of mine in the Federal navy years before, and of the other officers also. Their minds were greatly relieved when I made known to them who their captors

them. All hands were called, a long pit was dug in the sand, funeral services were held, the men buried, and each grave marked. We remained there all that day, recuperating our exhausted muscles, and when night came again we embarked on our return trip. All through that night and the four succeeding ones we cautiously pulled up the rapid Neuse, doing most of our work in the darkness, until, when near Kingston, we could with impunity pull in daylight.

Arriving at Kingston the boats were dragged up the hill to the long train of gondola cars which had been waiting for us, and then was

presented an exhibition of sailors' ingenuity. The boats were placed upright on an even keel, lengthwise on the flat cars, and so securely lashed by ropes that the officers, men, and even the wounded, seated in them as if on the water, comfortably and safely made the long journey of a day and two nights to Petersburg. Arriving there the boats were unshipped into the Appomattox River, and the entire party floated down it to City Point, where it debouches into the James. It was contemplated, when City Point was reached, to make a dash at any one Federal gunboat should there be the slightest prospect of success; but learning from our scouts, on our arrival after dark, that the gunboats and transports at anchor there equaled the number of our own, at least, we had to abandon our ideas of trying to make a capture, and were compelled to hug the opposite bank very closely, where the river is nearly four miles wide, and in that manner slip up the James, pulling hard against the current. By the next evening we arrived, without any further adventure, at Drury's Bluff, where we disembarked. Our boats were shown as mementoes of the searching fire we had been subjected to, for they all were perforated by many Minié-balls, the white. wooden plugs inserted into the holes averaging fourteen to each boat engaged; they were all shot into them, from "stem to stern," lengthwise.

Among the many incidents that occurred on the trip there were two which left a lasting impression on my mind, and to this day they are as vivid as if they had happened yesterday. As we were stepping into the boats at the island that night, the lights of the gunboat plainly visible from the spot on which we stood, a bloody, serious action inevitable, several of the midshipmen, youth-like, were gayly chatting about what they intended to do, joyous and confident, and choosing each other for mates to fight together "shoulder to shoulder," when one of them, who stood near me in the darkness, made the remark, as a conclusion, as we were

taking our places, "I wonder, boys, how many of us will be up in those stars by to-morrow morning?" This rather jarred on the ears of us older ones, and looking around to see who it was that had spoken, recognized the bright and handsome Palmer Saunders. Poor fellow! he was the only one who took his flight, though many of the others were severely wounded.

On our route down to Kingston by rail we were obliged to make frequent stops for wood and water. At every station the young midshipmen swarmed into the depots and houses, full of their fun and deviltry, making friends of the many pretty girls gathered there at once, who asked all manner of questions as to this strange sight of boats on cars filled with men in a uniform new to them. The young gentlemen explained very glibly what they were going to do, "To board, capture, and destroy as many of the enemy's gunboats as possible." "Well, when you return," replied the girls, "be sure that you bring us some relics-flags, etc !" "Yes, yes! We'll do it," answered the boys. "But what will you give us in exchange ?" "Why, only thanks, of course!" "That won't do ;give us a kiss for each flag, will you?" With blushes and much confusion, the girls consented, and in a few moments we were off and on our journey again. On the return trip the young men, never for an instant forgetting the bargain they had made, manufactured several miniature. flags. We old ones purposely stopped at all the stations we had made coming down, in order to see the fun. The young ladies were called out at each place, and after the dead were lamented, the wounded in the cars cared for, then the midshipmen brought their flags, recalled the promises made to them, and demanded their redemption. Immediately there commenced a lively outburst of laughter, denials, a skirmish, followed by a slight resistance, and the whole. bevy were kissed seriatim by the midshipmen, and but for the whistle of the train, warning them away, they would have continued indefinitely.