fleet did not silence all the shore batteries or force the surrender of Mobile, its destruction of the Confederate navy drew yet tighter the line of destruction about the rebellion, convincing the North that the end of the war was rapidly approaching. But it was not the wooden ships in Farragut's fleet that won him the battle-but his iron-clads; the day of wooden warships was over. No armor-plated vessel built by the Confederates carried the demonstration further than did the Albemarle, an iron-clad, constructed in a cornfield on the banks of the Roanoke River and completed in April, 1864. "She measured 152 feet in length, 45 in width, and, with her armor on, drew eight feet. In general construction she resembled all the other Confederate ironclads. Her casement, or shield, was sixty feet long, sloping to the deck at an angle of forty-five degrees; plated with two-inch iron, rolled at the Tredegar Works. She was armed with two rifled Brooke guns, mounted on pivot carriages, so disposed that each gun commanded three portholes. Her beak was of oak, plated with two-inch iron. She was a year under construction." She was built under the direction of the same officer who had converted the Virginia into the Merrimac, and was a monument to the triumph of her builders over obstacles-the almost total lack of adequate facilities for such naval construction in the Confederacy. On April 18th she attacked the Union fleet off Plymouth, North Carolina, and promptly destroyed the two Union gunboats, Miami and Southfield. It was evident that she was pitted against the entire Union fleet in the Sound, eight vessels carrying 32 guns and 23 howitzers. The battle began early in the morning, May 5th. The combined fleet made little impression on the Albemarle save the destruction of her smokestack which, cutting off the draft to her boilers, appeared to put her out of action; but by burning the bacon and lard on board, her officers got her back to Plymouth, where she remained all summer long, only slightly active but a menace to the naval power of the Union. Several plans for her destruction were proposed but "September had come," write Nicolay and Hay, "before the plan and the man were found that were adapted to the work. The scheme was to fit out two small steam launches rigged with spar torpedoes, and armed with howitzers, which should try to reach the ram at night by surprise; the man was Lieutenant William B. Cushing, who had attracted the attention of his superiors by several noteworthy examples of coolness and daring. Once he had landed by night with two boat crews at the town of Smithville, being rowed under the very guns of Fort Caswell, walked with three men to General Louis Hébert's headquarters, captured an officer of engineers, the general himself being absent in Wilmington, and had come away safely with his prisoner, from a post garrisoned by a thousand men. "At another time, having volunteered to destroy the ironclad Raleigh, supposed to be lying in the Cape Fear River, he went in his cutter up the stream, eluding the sentries on either shore, landed within seven miles of Wilmington, thoroughly reconnoitred the place, found the Raleigh a total wreck, and after three days of adventures in which his luck and daring were equally amazing, he was intercepted on his return down the river in the moonlight by a whole fleet of guard boats and his escape apparently wholly cut off. Turning about, he found himself confronted by a schooner filled with troops. Instead of surrendering, he dashed for New Inlet; and, seconded by his crew, who always seemed when with him as insensible to danger as himself, he escaped into the breakers, where the enemy dared not follow, and safely rejoined his ship. His perfect coolness in critical emergencies was a matter of temperament rather than calculation. He prepared everything in advance with a care and judgment remarkable in one so young; but when the time of action came, the immediate peril of death was nothing more than a gentle stimulant to him; he enjoyed it as he would a frolic. He was a handsome youth, twenty-one years of age; six feet high; with a beardless face and bright auburn hair. "After conferences with Admiral Lee and Mr. Fox, the assistant secretary of the navy, Cushing went to New York and found two launches, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, suited to his purpose. They were forty-six feet in length, nine and one-half feet wide, and drew about forty inches. While they were being equipped for the work by Engineerin-Chief W. W. Wood, of the navy, Cushing visited his mother in Fredonia, N. Y., and confided to her his intention, saying he needed her prayers. Returning to New York, he took his launches out and tested his torpedoes, and then started them southward, by way of Chesapeake Bay; one of them on the way was attacked by guerrillas and burned. At Hampton Roads, Cushing refitted his only remaining boat, and passing through the Dismal Swamp, came to Roanoke Island. There he gave out that he was bound for Beaufort and steamed away by night to join the fleet which was lying off the mouth of the Roanoke River, the senior officer being Commander W. H. Macomb, whose flagship was the Shamrock. "Here for the first time Cushing disclosed to his officers. and men the purpose of his expedition, leaving them free to go or stay as they preferred; all wanted to go with him. Several others volunteered, among them Paymaster Francis H. Swan, whose anxiety for a fight was paid by a severe wound and four months in Libby prison; W. L. Howarth, Cushing's tried and trusted companion in former adventures, and two other master's mates, Thos. S. Gay and John Woodman; two engineer officers, Steever and Stotesbury, and eight men. A cutter from the Shamrock was taken in tow with eleven men; their duty was to board the wreck of the Southfield, if the guard which was known to be posted there should discover the party as they passed. A false start was made on the night of the 26th; the boat ran aground, and so much time was wasted in getting her off that the expedition was postponed twenty-four hours. At midnight, in rain and storm, the devoted little party set forth. Fortune favored them at first; they passed the |
