Part 9 (1/2)
The telling broadside was delivered, and the battle was on in earnest.
To those aloft the crash of the long eighteens into the hull of the enemy at every other downward roll of the ”Constellation” showed how well the American gunners had learned to shoot, while the short bark of the cannonades and the shrieks in the brief pauses from the decks of the Frenchman told of the terrible effects of the fire among the enemy. The guns of the Frenchman were well served and rapidly fired, but they were aiming on the upward roll of the sea, and their shots went high. Several b.a.l.l.s from the smaller pieces had lodged in the foremast and mainmast, and one had struck just below the futtock-band of the maintop, where Jarvis was, and sent the splinters flying up and all about him. Yard-arm to yard-arm they sailed for three long, b.l.o.o.d.y hours, until the firing of the Frenchman gradually slackened and then stopped almost altogether.
The Americans had suffered less on the decks than aloft, and Jarvis's topmen were employed most of the time in splicing and re-reeving gear.
The discharge of the ”Constellation's” broadside-guns did not diminish for a moment, and so fast was the firing that many of the guns became overheated, and the men had to crawl out of the exposed ports to draw up buckets of water to cool them.
At about midnight Truxton managed to draw ahead of his adversary in the smoke, and, taking a raking position, sent in such a broadside that the Frenchman was silenced completely.
Jarvis and the men in the maintop had little time to use their muskets.
Several long shots had struck the mast, and almost every shroud and backstay had been carried away. As the ”Constellation” bore down upon her adversary to deal her the death-blow, the mast began swaying frightfully.
There was a cry from the men at Jarvis's side, and the marines and topmen began dropping through the lubber's-hole, swinging themselves down the sides of the swaying mast by whatever gear they could lay their hands to.
Jarvis did not move. One of the older seamen took him by the shoulder and urged him to go below. The mast was going, he said, and it meant certain death to stay aloft.
Little Jarvis smiled at him. ”This is my post of duty,” he replied, ”and I am going to stay here until ordered below.”
At this moment a terrific crackling was heard, and the old man-o'-warsman went over the edge of the top. All the strain was on one or two of the shrouds, and, just as he reached the deck, with a tremendous crash the great mast went over the side.
Jarvis had kept his promise to stay by his mast whether it was up or down.
The Frenchman, not so badly injured aloft, took advantage of the condition of the ”Constellation,” and, slowly making sail before the wreck was cleared away, faded into the night. It was afterwards discovered that she was the ”Vengeance,” of fifty-two guns. She succeeded in reaching Curacoa in a sinking condition.
When the news of the fight reached home, Congress gave Truxton a medal and a sword, and prize money to the officers and crew.
For little Jarvis, the mids.h.i.+pman, who preferred to die at his post, Congress pa.s.sed a special resolution, which read:
”_Resolved_, That the conduct of James Jarvis, a mids.h.i.+pman in said frigate, who gloriously preferred certain death to an abandonment of his post, is deserving of the highest praise, and that the loss of so promising an officer is a subject of national regret.”
History does not show an instance of n.o.bler self-sacrifice, and no such honor as this special act of Congress was received by a boy before or since.
CUs.h.i.+NG AND THE ”ALBEMARLE”
Although the Civil War furnished many instances of conspicuous gallantry, so many that most of them remain to-day comparatively unknown, none was more notable than the torpedo exploit of Lieutenant William Barker Cus.h.i.+ng. There have been several similar expeditions in our naval history. Before Tripoli, Richard Somers made the ill-fated attempt with the ”Intrepid,” and in the war with Spain, Richmond Hobson sunk the ”Merrimac.” There is no question that the personal and sentimental aspects of these three hazardous enterprises are similar. All three men were young, and each one knew that he took his life in his hands. Somers, rather than be captured with his powder, destroyed both his s.h.i.+p and himself. Hobson sunk the ”Merrimac,” but did not succeed in getting her athwart the channel. Cus.h.i.+ng, in a torpedo-launch, went under the guns of the enemy, and escaped both death and imprisonment. On the enemy the moral effect of all three exploits must have been the same. Professionally, Cus.h.i.+ng's exploit has just this distinction: he was successful. Like Decatur in the recapture of the ”Philadelphia,” he carried out in every detail the plans he had made. And upon his success the way was opened for the Union fleet, and the hopes of the Confederates fled, for only two seaports in the South--Charleston and Wilmington--remained open to them.
After the great success of the ”Merrimac” in Hampton Roads, the Confederates determined to construct a vessel of similar design for use in the Southern rivers and sounds. Under great difficulties they built the ”Albemarle” on the Roanoke River, and carried her into action almost before the last rivet was driven. She was a formidable craft in those days, and the shots from the vessels of the Northern fleet went harmlessly against her iron sides to break and fly into a thousand pieces. On the 5th of May the ”Albemarle” had another fight with a larger fleet of Union vessels, which had gathered to hem in and disable her. During the action the ”Sa.s.sacus” saw an opportunity to ram her, and, going ahead at full speed, struck the ram a terrific blow amids.h.i.+ps. The bow of the ”Sa.s.sacus”
was literally torn to pieces by the impact, and the ”Albemarle,” though heeling over and in danger of sinking for a time, finally righted and pulled out of the action uninjured, but by no means disabled. All of the vessels of the squadron kept up a heavy fire upon her, but she went on to her anchorage up the river, where a few repairs made her as good as ever.
It looked to the Unionists as though the story of the ”Merrimac” with the ”Congress” and the ”c.u.mberland” was about to be repeated; that the ”Albemarle” in course of time would come down at her leisure and destroy all Northern vessels in those waters. To make matters worse, the Unionists learned that another vessel of a similar type was nearly completed, and that the two vessels would attack at the same time,--a combination which, with their consorts, seemed irresistible. Something had to be done if the command of the sounds of the Carolinas was to remain with the navy of the North.
But during the summer of 1864 two steam launches rigged up as torpedo-boats, the invention of Engineer J. L. Long, were fitted out at New York and brought down through the ca.n.a.ls to Albemarle Sound. The bows of the boats were cut under and decked over, and the engines were so built that when covered and moving at a low rate of speed they made little or no noise. A spar ten or fifteen feet long, which carried a torpedo and a firing attachment, projected forward over the bow, and a small howitzer was also mounted forward where it would be useful to repel attack.
The government had decided to make a night attempt on the ”Albemarle,”
and the honor of the command of the expedition was bestowed on Lieutenant Cus.h.i.+ng, who had half a dozen times before received the thanks of the secretary of the navy for gallantry in action off Cape Fear River.
The expedition was favored by the inactivity of the Confederates. The ”Albemarle” lay alongside the dock at Plymouth awaiting the completion of her sister-s.h.i.+p, but this needless delay gave Cus.h.i.+ng the opportunity he wanted.
The Confederates were fully aware of the plans of the Unionist's navy, and a thousand soldiers remained to guard the ”Albemarle” from land attack as well as to act as sentries for a distance along the river bank. To provide against torpedoes, a line of great cypress logs was boomed off her sides at a distance of twenty to thirty feet, so that it seemed impossible to come within striking distance. Besides this, the smaller guns of the ram were trained up and down the river,--which here was but one hundred and fifty yards wide,--to sweep the entire area over which the attacking party had to pa.s.s.
But Cus.h.i.+ng, like Decatur, rejoiced at obstacles. He was only twenty-one, but he carried a man's head on his broad shoulders, and the planning of such an expedition down to the smallest detail was a task which he entered into with judgment and enthusiasm, ingredients as rare as they are necessary in such a desperate enterprise.