CHAPTER XVI.
THE SHORE BATTERY.
The engineer of the Wizard had stopped her when the combat commenced; for she was headed directly for the shore. During the fight, she had drifted up within a few feet of the island. Among the volunteers in the second cutter was one of the third assistant-engineers, to whom the charge of the machinery was immediately committed. The negro firemen of the steamer were not sorry for the change which had taken place in the ownership of the craft; and all of them, having no love for the rebel Confederacy, promptly offered to continue their labors in the firing department.
The intense exertions and excitement of the men had fatigued them very much; and, when the struggle was ended, they sat down wherever they could find a place to rest themselves and recover their breath. The men in the boats attended to the wounded of both parties. The first cutter brought off the assistant-surgeon from the island, and everything was done that their condition required. The sufferers were placed in the cabin, and included five sailors and eight rebels. Of the boats’ crews, only one had been killed; and the bodies of three of the enemy lay upon the forward-deck of the Wizard.
“Somers, you did me a good turn in the action, which I shall not soon forget,” said Mr. Granger, when the excitement had subsided.
Jack touched his cap, blushed, and stammered out that he hoped he had done his duty. He had tried to do the best he could.
“You have done nobly, my lad; and I shall have a good report of you for the captain, and a gentleman in the wardroom, who has a strong interest in your welfare.”
“Thank you, sir!” replied Jack, blushing more deeply as he touched his cap again.
“The men all did well,--behaved admirably; but no one better than yourself, my lad,” said he, turning to the seamen, who were seated in little groups on the deck of the steamer. “Our real work hasn’t commenced yet.”
“Hurrah!” shouted the blue-jackets, jumping to their feet, and displaying their readiness to engage the enemy wherever occasion might require.
“We came off to do a certain work; and we should have done it before this time, if this steamer hadn’t come athwart our hawse. But I intend to do it before we return to the ship.”
“Hurrah!” repeated the blue-jackets.
“I perceive you are all ready to stand by me, and see it through.”
“Ay, ay, sir!” responded the men in prompt and hearty tones.
“Then we will go to work at once.”
The Wizard was run up to the island, the wounded men on shore conveyed to the cabin, and the field-piece placed in position on the forward-deck. In addition to this armament, two of the boat-howitzers were hoisted on board, and other preparations made, which indicated sharp work, and that Mr. Granger intended the steamer should be used for fighting purposes. The expedition was, to some extent, re-organized. Gun-crews were placed at the battery, and men detailed to serve in the boats, which were to be towed by the steamer.
Mr. Granger had noticed the strong friendship subsisting between Tom Longstone and Jack; and, when he made the former captain of one of the captured guns, he ordered Jack to serve as first train-tackleman, which gave him a position alongside the veteran.
“You’ll do, quartermaster,” said the commander. “I know I can trust you.”
“Thank you, sir,” replied Tom, reverently. “I beg your honor’s pardon; but I must ax permission to go and see the doctor for a couple of seconds.”
“Are you wounded, my man?”
“Nothing to speak of, your honor: only a slash in the hand with a soger’s bagonet. But I could work better if the doctor would put a bit of plaster on it.”
“Go: we can spare you for an hour or more.”
“Thank your honor; but I won’t be gone above two minutes,” answered Tom, saluting the officer, and running up the stairs to the cabin-deck.
“Goin’ to lose this here steamer now we’ve got it,” said the inevitable Grummet, who was captain of one of the howitzers, when Mr. Granger went up to the wheel-house to superintend the steering of the Wizard. “Well, he aren’t fit for nothin’ else,” he added, as he glanced round him at the build of the steamer.
“She’s a good enough boat, isn’t she?” asked Jack.
“What’s she good for? What was the lubber thinkin’ of when he built such a top-heavy, top-sided consarn as this? I wouldn’t trust the cap’n’s monkey in her.”
“She is a fresh-water steamer, built to run on the rivers and lakes about here.”
“I wouldn’t cross a mud-puddle in her. A five-knot breeze would blow her over. She looks more like a grocery-store nor she do like a wessel.”
“This is the kind of steamer they use on all the Western rivers,” added Jack, who had often seen pictures of this kind of craft in the illustrated newspapers; which, by the way, have done an important work in making up the history of this war.
“I don’t care where they use ’em: they aren’t shipshape. They may do for sogers and marines, and such lubbers; but they aren’t fit for sailors. Howsomever, there won’t be much left of her in half an hour from now.”
“Why not, Mr. Grummet?” asked Jack.
“Avast there! Don’t you go for to _mistering_ me. I aren’t a dandy nor an officer,” said Grummet fretfully.
“I meant no harm.”
“I know you didn’t, my lad; and, if you did, we can’t afford to quarrel. Some of us will wake up in eternity in less nor an hour from now; and this crazy old craft will go to the bottom!”
“What makes you think so?”
“Think so? I knows it. Do you see that ’ere battery over there?”
“I’ve seen it before to-day.”
“Do you expect this piece of shingle-work to stand up afore them guns?”
“I don’t know; but I think Mr. Granger wouldn’t take us in where there isn’t a fair chance for us.”
“The leftenant’s a brave man; but he’s hot-headed. Now, you mark my words, not one in five of us will ever get back to the ship; and the cap’n of the Harrisburg never’ll set eyes on this ugly hulk of a steamboat.”
“You forget that you told us once before to-day we should come to a bad end.”
“Didn’t I tell you the truth? There’s Graves a-layin’ there: his pipe’s out.”
“But he’s the only man killed.”
“Avast growling, Grummet!” said Tom, joining his crew at the gun. “The worse you makes it, Old Blower, the better it’ll be for us. When you says anything’s goin’ wrong, it always goes right.”
“How’s your hand, Tom?” asked Jack.
“Good as new: the doctor patched it up, and it’s all right now.”
“I’m glad to hear it. How are our poor fellows in the cabin?”
“All doing well but Jones, and the doctor says he’ll die, in spite of all he can do, poor fellow.”
“Didn’t I tell you so?” exclaimed Grummet.
“No, you didn’t,--you old bruiser! You aren’t a goin’ for to frighten the boy with your ghost-yarns. I tell you----”
At that moment, a twenty-four-pound shot from the battery, which the steamer was rapidly approaching, dropped into the water on one side of her, and interrupted the conversation. All the steam that the Wizard’s boilers would bear was now crowded upon her; and, when she had advanced a quarter of a mile farther, the order was given for the battery on the forward-deck to open upon the fort, which was an earthwork, mounting four guns.
The firing was vigorously kept up on both sides. Two of the shots from the shore-battery struck the steamer, but without inflicting any serious injury. As each party had an equal number of guns, it was a fair thing; but the gunners in the fort were evidently not accustomed to their work, while the old man-of-war’s men on the deck of the Wizard were perfectly at home at this business.
As the steamer approached nearer to the land, the fire from the fort was sensibly diminished; and Mr. Granger was confident that two of its guns had been disabled. The Wizard’s course had been made by various angles, so as to disturb as much as possible the calculations of the gunners, and to prevent any chance shot from raking her. The two balls that had struck her, therefore, passed across her, instead of through her from end to end. Both went under the cabin, abaft the paddle-boxes; one of them crushing through the pine-wood partitions, and the other knocking off one of the quarter-pieces at the stern.
While the men were still busy at the guns, Mr. Granger came down from the wheel-house.
“Give it to them, my men!” said he with a smile, as he observed the vigor with which they worked. “We must hoist the stars and stripes on that battery.”
“Hurrah!” shouted the gun-crews.
“Ready with the gang-planks!” added the commander; and, at the same time, the bell from the wheel-house stopped the engine, and the boat struck the shore.
“Boarders, away!” shouted Mr. Granger, as the steamer touched the shore.
“Hurrah!” yelled the seamen, as they leaped ashore, and dashed up the hill to the spot where the battery was located.
On they flew, up the slope, and over the breast-works; when, after a short and decisive struggle, the victory was won. There were but few men in the fort,--only enough to man the guns,--and there was nothing very brilliant in the achievement. Jack Somers hardly found an opportunity to strike a blow. The rebel flag was pulled down, and the stars and stripes were run up in its place.
“Not so bad as it might be,--is it?” said Jack, with a smile, to Grummet.
“You haven’t seen the end of it yet,” persisted the grumbler.
“We’ve seen the end of this battery, at any rate.”
It was quite true that they had not yet seen the end of the expedition; for, after a working-party had been detailed to transport the guns to the steamer, Mr. Granger ordered the first cutter to be manned, and immediately started up the bay in her. After pulling a short distance, they discovered the town which was known to be there; and, at a convenient place, the commander landed. Taking twenty men with him, he proceeded to examine the locality. On the road, which they soon reached, they captured two men, whom Mr. Granger questioned, and from whom, in spite of themselves, he obtained some valuable information.
Crossing the neck of land, they came to the water on the other side; and here Mr. Granger discovered that of which he had evidently been in search. It was a nondescript craft, which the rebels were converting into a ram; probably for the purpose of making a raid among the men-of-war at Ship Island. At the approach of the party, the mechanics who were at work upon her fled, as though the whole Federal army was sweeping down upon them. Mr. Granger gave directions for setting fire to the ram; and the seamen piled up heaps of chips and shavings in various parts of her, and applied the match.
The party remained long enough to insure the destruction of the clumsy contrivance; and then hastened back to the boat, which was about two miles distant.
When they reached the road which they had before crossed, a new and startling state of things menaced them. Rushing down the road, on the double-quick, was a company of infantry. They had just come in sight from behind a hotel used in summer for pleasure-seekers from New Orleans: and it was impossible to elude their observation; for the country was flat and open, and afforded no place for defense or concealment.
Jack could not help glancing at Mr. Granger to observe the effect of this discovery upon him; but he looked calm and unmoved, as he had all the morning.
“It’s lucky old Grummet isn’t here,” said Tom.
“He told me we hadn’t seen the end of it yet,” replied Jack. “What are we going to do?”
“Dunno, my darling.”
“Shall we fight, or surrender?”
“Jest look at the leftenant afore you say surrender.”
“They are three to our one.”
“No matter, my boy, if they were ten to our one. Never say die!”
Jack couldn’t exactly see how they were to proceed, with a company of fifty or sixty men in the very act of charging upon them; but he had unlimited confidence in his commander, and he was resolved to take things as they came.
“Halt!” shouted the captain of the rebel company.
Mr. Granger declined to obey, and ordered the men to move on towards the boat. The muskets of the soldiers were raised to their shoulders.
“Fall flat on the ground!” said the commander suddenly.
“Fire!” shouted the rebel officer at the moment, when all the seamen dropped as though they had been shot.
The bullets whistled over their heads; but not a man was injured. They jumped, and ran again with all their might towards the place where they had landed, closely pursued by the rebels.
Old Tom Longstone and some others of the party were more accustomed to fighting than they were to running; and the consequence was, that the rebels gained rapidly upon them. But, in the midst of the race, Jack Somers, agile and fleet as he was, happened to be tripped by one of his companions, who was looking over his shoulder to see the pursuers. Before he could pick himself up, his party had left him, and the rebels were upon him.