"We had only eighteen inches of water under us when we finally anchored and began firing rapidly...There was the wreck of a blockade-runner between us and the battery at which we were to fire, and it was evident that this had been used as a target and that the range was well known. One or two shots were fired in line with it, each one coming closer to us, and then they struck us with a ten-inch shot.
Four more followed, each one striking nearly in the same place, on the bends forward of the starboard wheel, and going through on to the berth deck. Then for some reason the shot and shell began going over us, striking the water thirty or forty feet away.
Probably the gunners on shore could not see the splash of these shots, and thought they were striking us. If they had not changed their range when they did they would have sunk us in an hour. As it was, we hauled out at sundown, pretty well hammered, and leaking so that we had to shift all our guns to port in order to stop the shot holes.
We had damaged the fort to the extent of dismounting some of its guns and burning the barracks and officers' quarters. When the whole line was fairly engaged the sight was magnificent, and never to be forgotten by those who saw it. No fort has ever been subjected to such a fire, and the garrison could only make a feeble response; most of them were driven into the bomb-proofs, where they remained till we hauled off for the night.
The heaviest losses on our side had been caused by the bursting of the one-hundred pound Parrott rifles, thirty-five or forty men had been killed or wounded in this way."
An Interesting Account of the First Battle of Fort Fisher. --Old B-Runner
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