Identifier: fouryearsinseces00brow (find matches)
Title: Four years in Secessia : adventures within and beyond the Union lines : embracing a great variety of facts, incidents, and romance of the war ...
Year: 1865 (1860s)
Authors: Browne, Junius Henri, 1833-1902
Subjects: United States -- History Civil War, 1861-1865 Personal narratives United States -- History Civil War, 1861-1865 Prisoners and prisons
Publisher: Hartford : O.D. Case and Co. Chicago : Geo & C.W. Sherwood
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ys gunboats, excepting the McRea, were, asthey had been represented, iow-boats, cut down to theboiler deck; their macliinery inclosed with iron, withbow and stern guns very slenderly, if at all, protected,save by bales of cotton, piled several feet high both foreand aft. The McRea, formerly a schooner, and very fast, wasabout one hundred and twenty-five feet long, and a finemodel. Her engines and boilers were protected by rail-way iron ; and though it was supposed that she had six,seven, or eight guns, only two Avere perceptible. Her bow and stern were covered with bales of cotton,which were also piled up some distance on her deck,acting as breastworks; and behind those was a largebody of infantry and sharpshooters, whose duty it wasto pick oflT whomsoever they could on our gunboats. The three rams, the Yan Dorn, Sumter, and AYel^b,were protected and ironed like the McRea, but weresmaller and lower, being constructed out of tow-boats.The Van Dorn was formidable, having a sharp, strong
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n fciti THE KEV7 YORKPUBLIC LIBRARY I 1 ASTOR. LENOX Tlt-OiJN FOUNDATION^ NAVAL ENGAGEMENT AT FORT PILLOW. l7l iron prow, partially under water, as tlie McRea andSurater liad, that must have proved very effective againstthe strongest vessel. The two rams had stern and bow guns, and musketeersand riflemen, protected by bales of cotton. But two sailors were on the deck of the Cincinnati,engaged in washing it, when the McRea, considerably inadvance, went steaming rapidly toward her. The alarmwas given, and the officers and crew, who were at break-fast, were soon at their posts. They had no time to get out of the way, but they firedtheir stern guns first, and then a double broadside at herwithout changing her course. The McRea struck herwitli great force on the port quarter, knocking a greathole in her, and immediately filling the shell-room withwater. The gunboats were all built with different compart-ments designed to be water-tight, so that if one of themsprang aleak, the others would

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