Mallory's orders to destroy the squadron were carried out by Semmes. After outfitting his men with arms and field equipment, the admiral burned and scuttl;ed his three formidable ironclads, CSS Virginia No. 2, Fredericksburg and Richmond near Drewry's Bluff. By 3 a.m. on 3 April the ironclads were well on fire, and Semmes placed his 400 men on wooden gunboats.
Semmes later wrote: "My little squadron of wooden boats now moved off up the river [to Richmond], by the glare of the burning iron-clads. They had proceeded far before an explosion, like the shock of an earthquake, took place, and the air was filled with missiles.
"It was the blowing up of the Virginia, my late flag-ship. The spectacle was grand beyond description. Her shell-rooms had been full of loaded shells. The explosion of the magazine threw all of these shells, with fuses lighted, into the air.
"The fuses were of different lengths, and as the shells exploded by twos and threes, and by dozen, the pyrotechnic effect was very fine. The explosion shook the houses in Richmond, and must have waked the echoes of the night for forty miles around."
I can't understand why the ships did not attempt to go down the James River and attack City Point and perhaps go on out to sea, regardless of obstructions and Union ships.
They Had Nothing to Lose. --Old B-Runner
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