ATTACK ON SEWALL'S POINT. but presents a favorable place for the landing of troops to operate in the rear of Norfolk. The Virginians accordingly sent down gangs of negroes, and some soldiers, to raise batteries of sand, and to mount them with cannon. While thus occupied, commander Harry May Eagle, of the United States steamer 18. Star, who was on the watch, discovered the work in progress. "Several noises were heard during the night, but not distinct enough for me," reported Captain Eagle officially, "to trace them. At half-past five P. M. I heard distinct blows, as if from an axe securing timber platforms for gun-carriages inside of the embrasures, and immediately I ordered a shot to be fired over them. The rebels immediately hoisted a white flag with some design on it, and fired a shot that cut the fore spencer guys near the gaff. I immediately beat to quarters and returned their fire, which was continued by them. I expended fifteen | round of grape, twelve ten-inch shot, thirty-two ten-inch shell, ten shell for thirty-two pounders, and forty-five thirty-two-pound shot, making a total of one hundred and fourteen shots, which," adds the captain, "I think did some execution among the rebels. I only desisted for want of ammunition, having only five eight-pound charges remaining for the pivot gun." The action continued for an hour and a quarter, and although the official statement makes no allusion to the fact, it would seem that another Federal vessel bore a not ineffective part in the engagement. Captain Ward came up op 267 portunely with the steamer Freeborn, and taking a position within five hundred yards of the shore, opened with thirty-two-pound round shot. "He soon drove the party out of the work, and was not long in hammering two or three of the embrasures into one. The defenders, with a mounted officer at their head, took refuge in a clump of trees near by, into which Captain Ward presently threw a shot, which had the effect of routing the party." One of the enemy gave the following account of the affair, from which it would seem there was less "execution among the rebels" than Captain Eagle had expected. "The enemy had three eight-inch columbiads, from which they kept up an incessant and rapid firing. Their guns were aimed with remarkable precision. Any one of their shots would have struck a boat of the size of theirs; but, thank God, not one did its diabolical work among us. Almost half their shot struck our battery, and several shells exploded on top of it. One tremendous bomb hit the muzzle of the cannon at which Lieutenant Moffet and myself were working, and exploded in the embrasure, not three feet from us, covering us with the turf and splinters of the battery, and so tearing up the embrasure as to make it large enough for three guns. Another shell passed within a foot of Robert Lockhart, as he ran out to plant the flag a little farther to the left than where it had been waving. He did not have time to get behind the battery after the cry of 'look out' was given and before the ball came. He fell flat on the ground, and that saved him. Privates Mayo and Porter had, one ball pass between their legs while they were shoveling away sand from in front of their gun. "The trees near the fort were completely peeled and trimmed by the grape and shell. A chain came whizzing just a foot above the battery, struck a tree about ten feet off, and.cut it in two as smoothly as you could cut a sprig of asparagus. The shell, and grape, and thirty-two-pounders rained down among us all the time as thickly as hail, and all of us are the possessors of some of these trophies, gathered on the ground of our first successful battle-field." The attack, however, upon Sewall's Point had the effect of putting the Virginians on the alert, to increase the strength of that place. They immediately concentrated two thousand troops there, and added "four of the heaviest guns" to the battery, which they have hitherto continued to hold in defiance of Fortress Monroe and the Federal cruisers. The United States Government, alive to the importance of Fortress Monroe, not only as a defensive work, but as a basis of operations, had hastened to strengthen its garrison and to place there a large body of troops. Before the close of May there were over five thousand men collected within its walls. To Butler, created a major-general, a major-general, who had proved so energetic an officer at Annapolis and Baltimore, being succeeded at Baltimore by General Cad wallader-was given the command of the new military department of Virginia, embracing the eastern district to the summit of the Blue Ridge, and also May the States of North and South Car- 18. olina. Fortress Monroe was included within Butler's command, and thither he May repaired and established his head- 22. quarters. His arrival was welcomed with enthusiasm, and honored by the usual military ceremonies. Salutes were fired, and there was a grand review, on the parade ground, of the troops, amounting to over four thousand men, who received their new chief with loud hurrahs. The General's first movement was to take possession of Hampton, separated from Fort Monroe, or rather the peninsula of Old Point Comfort, upon which the fortress stands, only by an artificial causeway and a narrow neck of land. A regiment of volunteers was detailed for the purpose of resisting any possible opposition, and they marched across the causeway. The Virginians, as soon as they observed the approach of the Federal troops, hurried to set fire to the bridge, where they had accumulated combustibles for the purpose. The advance guard, however, of the volunteers. pushed on rapidly, and before the fire had done much damage, extinguished it and put the enemy to flight, with the loss of one field-piece. This was seized and thrown into the bay, and General Butler continuing his progress, and making his reconnoissance, selected the site for a permanent encampment upon the farm of a Mr. Segar, a unionist. Next day CAPTURE OF NEWPORT NEWS. two regiments were here encamped, and a foothold secured upon the mainland of Virginia. Reinforcements continuing to pour into Fortress Monroe, General Butler was enabled again to make a successful advance into the territory of the enemy. May Embarking twenty-five hundred 27. men in transports at the wharf of the fort, consisting principally of Vermont and Massachusetts regiments, he dispatched them to take possession of Newport News. This place is situated on the left bank of the James River, on the same peninsula formed between that stream and the York River, to which Fortress Monroe itself is joined by a causeway and narrow neck of land. The expedition met with no resistance, and no attempt at it, beyond several ineffectual shots from the enemy's batteries on the opposite side of James River. Intrenchments were immediately begun after the landing of the troops, and Newport News, a post which commands the peninsula on which it is situated, and a small island in the stream which it was feared might be fortified by the Confederates, was thus secured. The enemy were vigorously providing for the defence of the Virginia coast, thus threatened by the increased force at Fortress Monroe, and by the accumulation, under the cover of its guns, of armed United States vessels in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The Confederates had not only erected batteries upon the Elizabeth, James, York, Rappahannock, and Potomac rivers, but upon the smaller streams 269 which empty into them. One of the most formidable of these works had been constructed at the mouth of the Acquia Creek. This place had been judiciously chosen by the enemy as a point of the utmost importance in the defence of Virginia. Here is situated the eastern terminus of the Fredericksburgh and Potomac Railway, which, extending from the river to Fredericksburgh, continues from that city to Richmond, the capital of Virginia. The mouth of the Acquia, where it empties into the Potomac on the Virginia side of the river, is about fifty miles from Washington, and seventy-five from Richmond. The current of travel from the North to the South, after passing down the Potomac from Washington, usually took this direction, by rail, to the capital of Virginia and more Southern destinations. Strong batteries had been raised on the shore and on high and commanding ground behind. These, Captain Ward, of the United States steamer Freeborn, determined to make an effort to reduce. He, accordingly, supported by the two steamers, Anacosta and Resolute, May opened fire. After an incessant 31. discharge, kept up for two hours, the three lower batteries at the railroad terminus were silenced. His ammunition, however, having been expended, and the enemy continuing to fire with great effect from their guns on the heights, Captain Ward was obliged to haul off the Freeborn. The other two small steamers, being unprovided with rifled guns, were unable to fire at a sufficiently long range to be of much aid, and they were accordingly prevented from taking any very effective share in the engagement. On the next day the steamers Pawnee and Yankee joined Ward's flotilla, and the action was renewed. Captain Ward, in his report to the secretary of the navy, thus details the events of the cannonade : "I have the honor," he wrote, "to report a renewal of the bombardment at Acquia Creek, commencing at eleven o'clock and thirty minutes in the forenoon this day, and terminating, from fatigue of the men (the day being very warm, and the firing on our side incessant), at 4.30 in the afternoon, being a duration of five hours. The firing on shore was scarcely as spirited at any time as yesterday. The heights were abandoned, the guns apparently having been transferred to the earth-works at the railway terminus, in replacement of the batteries there silenced by ours yesterday. During the last hour of the engagement only two or three shots were thrown from the shore, by a few individuals seen stealthily now and then to emerge from concealment, and who hastily loaded and fired a single gun. The bulk of the party had left half an hour before, and squads were observed from time to time taking to their heels along the beach, with a speed and bottom truly commendable for its prudence, and highly amusing to the seamen. I did not deem it advisable to permit so feeble a fire to wear out my men. Therefore, I discontinued the engagement. Several shots came on board of us, causing the vessel to leak badly, and, besides other injuries, clipping the port-wheel, the wrought-iron shaft being gouged by a shot which would have shattered it if of cast iron. Fortunately I have again neither killed nor wounded to report, though the shot at times fell thick about us, testing the gallantry and steadiness of my men, which I consider of standard proof for any emergency. I proceed to Washington to repair damages and refill my exhausted magazine. The Pawnee remains, meantime, below, to supply my place in the blockade. Captain Rowan, of that ship, joined me last night, replenishing my exhausted stores, and most gallantly opened the fire this morning, having followed my lead in shore toward the batteries. His ship received numerous wounds, both below and aloft, inflicted by the enemy's shot. On account of her size, she being more easily hit, she appeared to be their favorite mark, and was herself often a sheet of flame, owing to the great rapidity of her discharges. The enemy set fire to the large passenger and freight dépot on the end of the long pier, as we were approaching, probably to remove it as an obstruction to their aim, but were not permitted to extinguish the flames during the whole five hours' cannonade. Consequently nearly the whole pier is destroyed, leaving only the charred piles remaining above the water to mark its former position. ATTACK ON ACQUIA CREEK. fallen aboard and around us, any one of which would have struck a frigate. We had more than a thousand shots discharged at us within range, and have ourselves fired upward of three hundred shots and shells, with seventeen hundred pounds of powder. What damage we have inflicted remains to be seen. That we have received none not easily repaired, is truly remarkable. The Anacosta and Reliance were not permitted to come under damaging fire, their support having been necessary to embolden those engaged, by giving them confidence that if disabled in the machinery, assistance was at hand to drag them out." The enemy, however, notwithstanding this spirited attack, persisted in holding their position, and by increased fortifications rendered the batteries of Acquia Creek among the most formidable of their defensive works. The naval force, under Commodore Stringham, which had now gathered in Hampton Roads, and was blockading the Chesapeake, continued to be active, but, however spiritedly managed, seemed to effect but little in its attempts upon the enemy's batteries. The Harriet Lane, commanded by Captain Faunce, June started out on a cruise up the 5. James River, to look out for batteries. Having discovered one at the mouth of the Nansemond, which joins the James at Hampton Roads, the Harriet Lane opened fire. Being within sight of Fortress Monroe, the soldiers thronged the ramparts to watch the 271 was briskly responded to by the enemy, who, with their guns of longer range and heavier metal, succeeded in effecting greater damage than they received. The Harriet Lane, after continuing the action for half an hour, in the course of which she was struck by several shot from a thirty-four-pound rifled cannon, hauled off and returned to her anchorage under the guns of the fort. Reinforcements still continuing to pour into Fortress Monroe, the active Butler became eager for action. The outposts at Newport News and Hampton having been annoyed by a body of the enemy posted at Little Bethel, about eight miles distant from both encampments, General Butler resolved upon an attempt to surprise and capture it. He accordingly sent out an expedition for the purpose. This June was composed of two divisions- 9. the one made up of the New York regiment of Zouaves, commanded by Colonel Duryea, and the Albany (N. Y.) regiment under Colonel Townsend, supported by a detachment of United States artillery, with three cannon, led by Lieutenant Greble. The other division was composed of the New York Steuben Regiment, commanded by Colonel Bendix, and detachments of the First Vermont and Third Massachusetts, under Lieutenant-Colonel whole expedition was placed under the command of General Pierce, a militia brigadier-general of Massachusetts, whose military service had hitherto been restricted to the holiday parades of Boston Common or the village green. The Washburn. The |