CHAPTER XI.
Frank a Prisoner.
In the afternoon of the following day, while it was Frank's watch ondeck, as the Ticonderoga came suddenly around an abrupt bend in the river,a puff of smoke rose from behind an embankment, about half a mile inadvance, while a shell whistled over the vessel, and dropped into thewater without exploding.
Frank immediately requested the pilot to blow four whistles, which was asignal to the other boats that they were attacked; and, after sending themessenger-boy below to report to the captain, he raised his glass to hiseye, and found that they were directly in front of a good-sized fort,built of cotton bales and embankments, and mounting at least five heavyguns. A flag-staff rose from the center of the fort, and supported the"stars and bars," which flaunted defiantly in the breeze. This was FortPemberton, the only formidable fortification the rebels had between theMississippi and Yazoo Rivers.
The captain came on deck immediately, and ordered the vessel to bestopped; and, when the other boats came up, they were ordered to taketheir stations along the bank, on each side of the river, out of range ofthe guns of the fort. When the entire fleet had assembled, theTiconderoga, in company with the Manhattan, steamed down, and opened fireon the fort, with a view to ascertain its strength. The fort repliedvigorously, and, after an hour's firing, the vessels withdrew.
The next morning, at an early hour, the troops were landed, but, for somereason, it was afternoon before they were ready to march. At three o'clockthey were drawn up in line in the woods, about two miles from the fort,where the men stacked arms, and stretched themselves out in the shade ofthe trees.
In the mean time the iron-clads had been preparing for the fight. Themagazines were opened and lighted; the casemates covered with a coat ofgrease, to glance the shot which might strike them; the men were at theirstations, and when all was ready, they steamed down toward the fort, theTiconderoga leading the way.
Frank, by attention to his duties, had rapidly learned the gun-drill, andhad been promoted to the command of one of the guns in the turret. Hethought he had become quite accustomed to the noise of bullets, but hecould not endure the silence that then reigned in the ship. The men,stripped to the waist, stood at their guns as motionless as so manystatues; and, although Frank tried hard to exhibit the same indifferencethat they did, his mind was exceedingly busy, and it seemed to him that hethought of every thing he had done during his life. Oh, how he longed tohear the order passed to commence firing! Any thing was preferable to thatawful stillness.
At length, the captain came into the turret, where he always took hisstation in action, and glanced hastily at the countenance of each of theofficers and men. He seemed satisfied with his examination, for heimmediately took his stand where he could see all that was going on, andgave orders to the pilot to head the vessel directly toward the fort; andthen every thing relapsed into that horrible silence again. But this didnot continue long; for, the moment they came within range, the fort openedon them, and a solid shot struck the casemate directly over Frank's gun,with a force that seemed to shake the entire vessel. Frank glanced at thecaptain, and saw him standing with his elbow on the starboard gun, and hishead resting on his hand, watching the fort as coolly as though they hadbeen engaged only in target practice.
The shells from the fort continued to fall around them, but the captainneither changed his position nor gave the order to fire. The port-holes inthe turret were all closed, with the exception of the one at which thecaptain stood, and, of course, no one could see what was going on. Frankbegan to grow impatient. He did not like the idea of being shot at in thatmanner without returning the fire. At length the captain inquired:
"What have you in your gun, Mr. Nelson?"
"A five-second shell, sir," answered Frank, promptly.
"Very well. Run out your gun and give them a shot."
The men sprang to their stations in an instant; the ports flew open with acrash, and the heavy gun was ran out as easily as though it had been atwelve-pounder. The first captain seized the lock string; there was adeafening report, and an eleven-inch shell went booming into the fort. Theforce of the discharge ran the gun back into the turret again, and theports closed as if by magic. They did not close entirely, however, forthere was a space of about four inches left between them, to allow for theaction of the rammer in loading. The gun was sponged, the cartridge drivenhome, and the gunner's mate stood at the muzzle of the gun, removing thecap from a shell, when a percussion shell from the fort struck in thespace between the shutters and exploded. The discharge set fire to theshell which the gunner's mate was holding in his hand, and the unfortunateman was blown almost to atoms.
In naval actions there is nothing which will carry such terror and dismayamong a ship's company as the bursting of one of their own shells; and thescene which followed the explosion in the turret of the Ticonderogabeggars all description. Old seamen, who had been in many a hard-foughtbattle, and had stood at their guns under the most deadly fire the enemycould pour upon them, without flinching, now deserted their stations, andran about through the blinding and suffocating smoke that filled theturret, with blanched cheeks, trampling each other under their feet, andutterly disregarding the commands of their officers, who ran among themwith drawn swords, and endeavored to force them back to their guns. It wassome time before quiet was restored, and then Frank found, to his horror,that, out of twenty-five men which had composed his gun's crew, only tenwere left. Four had been instantly killed, and eleven badly wounded. Thedeck was slippery with blood, and the turret was completely covered withit. The shrieks and groans of the wounded and dying were awful. Frank hadnever before witnessed such a scene, and, for a moment, he was so sick hecould scarcely stand. But he had no time to waste in giving away to hisfeelings. After seeing the dead and wounded carried below, he returned tohis station, and, with what was left of his gun's crew, fought bravelyduring the remainder of the action.
The fight continued until after dark, when the captain, knowing that itwould be impossible to capture the fort without the assistance of thetroops, ordered a retreat.
That same night a consultation of the naval and military commanders washeld, and it was decided to renew the attack on the following morning. Abattery of two thirty-pounder Parrotts was taken off one of the"tin-clads" and mounted on the bank, about half a mile back in the woods,and a mile from the fort. Captain Wilson, who commanded one of themosquito boats, was ordered to take command of it, and Frank, at his ownrequest, was permitted to accompany him as his aid. He started early thenext morning with fifty men, who had been detailed from the gun-boats, andat sunrise was at his station.
The battery was masked, and the rebels knew nothing of its existence. Thecaptain's orders were, not to fire until they heard the action opened bythe iron-clads. Twenty-eight men were required to man the guns, and theothers, armed with Spencer rifles, were to act as sharp-shooters. Frank,to his surprise, soon learned that this was all the support they were tohave, the troops having been ordered to take the same station they hadoccupied the day before, and to hold themselves in readiness to chargeupon the fort, as soon as the iron-clads had silenced the guns.
About ten o'clock the fort commenced firing, and Frank knew that thegun-boats were again under way. At length a loud report, which he couldhave recognized among a thousand, blended with the others, and, inobedience to the order of the captain, the men tore away the bushes whichhad masked the battery, and the fight became general.
Frank directed his fire upon a pile of cotton-bales, which protected oneof the largest guns of the fort; but, as fast as he knocked them down, therebels would recklessly spring out of the fort and put them up again. Atlength Captain Wilson ordered she sharp-shooters to advance five hundredyards nearer the fort. The rebels soon discovered this, and thecotton-bales were allowed to remain where they had fallen.
In half an hour that part of the fort was completely demolished; and therebels, being without protection against the sharp-shooters, were obligedto abandon the
gun.
While Frank was congratulating himself on the fine shooting he had done,and wondering why the troops were not ordered to charge, he was startledby the rapid report of muskets behind him. Three of his men fell deadwhere they had stood; and Frank turned just in time to see a party ofrebels issuing from the woods. They came on with loud yells; and one ofthem, who appeared to be the leader, called out:
"Surrender, now, you infernal Yankees. Shoot down the first one whoresists or attempts to escape," he added, turning to his men."Stand to your guns, my lads!" shouted Captain Wilson. "Don't give groundan inch."
The sailors, always accustomed to obedience, gathered around theirofficers, and poured a murderous fire upon the advancing enemy, from theirrevolvers. The rebels, who were greatly superior in numbers, returned thefire, and the captain fell, mortally wounded. But the sailors stubbornlystood their ground, until the rebels closed up about them, and Frank sawthat escape was impossible. But he fought like a young tiger, anddetermined that he would die before he would surrender; for even death waspreferable to a long confinement in a Southern prison.
"Drop that pistol!" exclaimed a rebel, pointing his rifle directly atFrank's head, "or I'll blow your brains out."
"Blow away!" exclaimed Frank, seizing the rebel's rifle, with a quickmovement, and firing his revolver full in his face; "I'll never surrenderas long as I have strength left to stand on my feet. Give it to 'em,lads!"
The next moment Frank was prostrated by a severe blow on the head from thebutt of a musket, and the sailors, finding that both their officers weregone, lost all heart, and threw down their weapons.
The rebels had scarcely time to collect their prisoners and retreat, whenthe troops, who had heard the noise of the conflict, and started to therescue, arrived. But they were too late; for in less than half an hourFrank and his men were safe in the fort, and confined under guard.