Battle of Albemarle Sound

JUNE 4, 1864.]

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

365

THE NAVAL FIGHT IN ALBEMARLE SOUND.

THE STEAMSHIP " SASSACUS" RAMMING THE REBEL RAM "ALBEMARLE."

EXIT OF SHOT FROM BOILER.   ENTRANCE OF SHOT IN BOILER

APPEARANCE OF BOW AFTER THE BATTLE.

WE give on this page a sketch of the engagement in Albemarle Sound, North Carolina, on the 5th inst., between the United States steamer Sassacus and the rebel ram Albemarle. Our correspondent on board the Sassacus, in sending the sketch, says : " No better opportunity than was here presented could have been desired for testing and deciding the mooted point as to the possibility of injuring an iron-clad by ramming with a wooden ship. The engagement may be briefly described as follows :

"The, Metabassett (senior ship), being in advance,

had commenced a circle of which the ram should be the centre, while we at a short distance followed in her wake. The Bombshell, a consort of the ram, was rendering him every assistance by a constant fire upon us; and though the design of running down the iron-clad was fully formed, we turned for a moment to the weaker vessel, and delivered a fire which brought the flag down and the officers and crew to their feet, frantically waving white handkerchiefs and shirts in token of surrender. Turning from the Bombshell, and being then about three hundred yards distant from the ram, we started for him at full speed, striking him fair and square, careening him over so that the water swept his decks, receiving the raking fire from his guns, and pouring into him the contents of the whole of

our forward battery almost at the same moment. The instant he had perceived our intention he endeavored to avoid us by putting on all steam and going ahead, so that after we struck his forward motion gradually laid us al-most alongside, our guns meeting his, muzzle to muzzle.

"At this juncture a shot pierced our boiler, and in an instant every thing was enveloped in scalding steam. So dense was the cloud that objects were shrouded and invisible at the distance of a rod. The roar of our guns. the crack of musketry, the screams of the scalded and dying now commingled to make the scene most appalling; yet in the midst of all our men stood firm, and, with a hero-

ism never surpassed, continued to pour a deadly fire of solid shot into his very ports, our riflemen coolly seeking every chance to pick off the enemy it their stations, and our look outs aloft throwing hand-grenades through his gratings, until, alter twelve long minutes, our engines working upon a vacuum and beyond control, we slowly but defiantly drifted out of range. As we separated the muzzles of both his guns were seen to be broken off; yet for an hour the fire was continued upon him from the other vessels of our fleet till the darkness became too great, and, crest-fallen and defeated, he sought refuge in the river from which he had so vauntingly sallied. Beyond the

displacement of our stem this ship was not injured by the collision, nor was she made to leak in the slightest degree. We struck at a speed of about eleven knots. We are entirely satisfied as to the ramming qualities of our ship."

REBEL RAM.

THE following extract from a correspondent on the United States ship William Badger, off Beaufort, North Carolina., explains the illustration on this page of the

REBEL. RAM AT WILMINGTON : " One of the rams that have been so long; building at Wil- mington, North Carolina, by the rebels, to annihilate the entire Yankee blockading squadron off that harbor, has lately made her first appearance' among our vessels, but signally failed to go through with the modest part assigned her by the over confident Confederates. She was compelled to retreat inside the rebel fortifications, front behind which she takes an occasional peep at the ' lincum gun-boats' in the distance, and makes a display of (Next Page)

REBEL RAM AT WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA.

JOSEPH HOWARD, JUN., THE FORGER.