"At daylight we were heading in for the fort, and almost in range, when we saw General Butler's flagship coming in at full speed, heading straight at Fort Fisher, which looked to us very grim and strong and totally uninjured. Everything was very quiet until the general got fairly within range, when there was a flash from the fort and a prolonged roar, and all the guns on the face of that work opened on his ship.
If he had any notion that he could land unopposed he was quickly undeceived, and the way that ship turned and got off shore spoke well for the energy of her fire-room force! The last we saw of her she was running east as fats as her engines could carry her. The powder boat had proved a failure, and the General was grievously disappointed. A rebel newspaper reported that a Yankee gunboat had blown up on the beach and all hands lost.
We had been up many of us all night and our only breakfast had been coffee and hard-tack. As we approached our position, Commodore Schenck sent me aloft with a pair of glasses to locate, if possible, some guns that were annoying him. It was a raw cold morning, and I had on a short double-breasted coat, in the pockets of which I had stowed several pieces of hard-tack."
Find Out What Happened Next. --Old B-Runner
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