XXII.
THE ATTACK OF THE GUNBOATS.
The spars of the transports were beginning to be thronged. Corporal Graybrought up a glass to Frank.
"O, good!" cried Frank. "Is it yours?"
"No; it belongs to Mr. Sinjin."
"Did he send it to me?"
"Not he! But he had been casting that sharp eye of his up at you, and Iknew what he meant when he said, 'Corporal, there's a good lookout fromthe masthead, if you'd like to take a glass up there."
"Did he really mean it for me, after all my bad treatment of him?" saidFrank. "Bless his old heart!"
With his naked eye for the general view, and the glass to bring out thedetails, Frank enjoyed a rare spectacle that day. Roanoke Island and itssurroundings lay outspread before him like a map. On the west of it wasCroatan Sound, separating it from the marshes and forests of the mainland. On the east was Roanoke Sound, a much narrower sheet of water;beyond which stretched that long, low, interminable strip of land whichforms the outer coast, or seaboard, of this double-coasted country. Stilleast of that glimmered the blue rim of the Atlantic, a dozen miles away.At about the same distance, on the north, beyond Roanoke Island and thetwo sounds each side of it, opened the broad basin of Albemarle Sound,like an inland sea. The island itself appeared to be some twelve miles inits greatest length, and two or three in breadth, indented with numerouscreeks and coves, and forming a slight curve about Croatan Sound. It waswithin this curve that the naval battle took place. It had now fairlybegun.
At noon the flag-officer's ship displayed the signal for closer action,and the engagement soon became general.
The enemy's gunboats, seven in number, showed a disposition to fight atlong range, retreating up the sound as the fleet advanced--a movementwhich soon brought the latter under the fire of a battery that openedfrom the shore.
The air, which had previously been perfectly clear that morning, was nowloaded with clouds of smoke, which puffed from a hundred guns, andsurging up from the vessels of the squadron, from the rebel gunboats, andfrom the shore battery, rolled away in broken, sun-illumined masses,wafted by a light northeasterly breeze.
The soldiers in the rigging of the transports could see the flashes burstfrom the cannons' mouths, the spouted smoke, the shots throwing up highin air the water or sand as they struck, or coming skip-skip across thesound, the shells exploding, and the terrible roar of the battle filledthe air.
For a time the fire of the attack was about equally divided between therebel steamers and the fortification on the island. It was soondiscovered, however, that boats had been sunk and a line of piles drivenacross the channel abreast of the battery, to prevent the farther advanceof our gunboats in that direction. Behind those the retreating steamersdiscreetly withdrew, where they were presently reenforced by severalother armed vessels. The gunboats made no attempt to follow, but tookpositions to give their principal attention to the battery.
The fire from the shore gradually slackened, and thousands of heartsswelled anew as the hour seemed at hand when the troops were to land andcarry the works at the point of the bayonet.
Burnside paced the deck of the Spaulding, keeping an eye on the fort,watching the enemy's shots, and looking impatiently for the arrival ofthe transports. At length they came crowding through the inlet, droppingtheir anchors in the sound just out of range of the fort. Seen from thegunboats, they were a sight not less astonishing than that which theythemselves were coming to witness. Troops, eagerly watching the conflict,crowded the decks and hung upon the rigging like swarms of bees. Ropes,masts, and yards were festooned with the heavy, clinging clusters, whichseemed ready to part and fall with their own weight. The effect of thepicture was enhanced by the mellow brilliancy of the afternoon sky,against which the dark masses were clearly defined, and by the perfecttranquility of the water, like a sea of glass mirroring the ships andtheir loaded spars.
The gunboats sent to the ships the roar of their artillery, and the shipssent back the chorus of thousands of cheering voices for every well-aimedshot.
Frank was in the rigging of the schooner, watching the fight, makingdrawings to send to his mother, and talking with his comrades, among whomSinjin's glass passed from hand to hand.
"I tell ye, boys!" remarks Seth Tucket, "this is a leetle ahead of anygame of bluff ever I took a hand in! The battery is about used up. S'poseyou look at your--my--our watch, Frank, and see how often the darnedrebels fire."
"Once in about ten minutes now," Frank informs him. "O! did you see thatshell burst? Right over one of our gunboats!"
"She's aground," says Gray, with the glass. "She can neither use her gunsnor get off! A little tug is going to help her."
"Bully for the tug!" says Jack Winch.
"Hurrah! hurrah!" ring the deafening plaudits from the ships.
"What is it?" is eagerly asked.
"The battery's flag-staff is shot away!" shouts Frank at the top of hisvoice. "Hooray!"
"Some think the flag has been hauled down, to surrender the fort, butit's a mistake," declares Gray. "See! up it goes again on a piece of thepole! And the guns are at it again."
"Where's Burnside?" asks some one. And Tucket quotes,--
"'O, where was Roderick then? One blast upon his bugle horn were worth athousand men!'"
"He is sending off a boat to the shore yonder, to look for alanding-place. We'll be going in there soon, boys!"
The boat approaches a cove called Ashby's Harbor, taking soundings as itnears the land. On board of her is one of the negro lads, who fearlesslypilots her towards scenes familiar to his days of bondage.
"They'd better keep their eyes skinned!" says Tucket. "There's rebels inthe mash there, I bet ye a dollar!"
The officers of the boat land safely, and reconnoitre. As they arereembarking, however, up spring from the tall grass a company of rebels,and flash, flash, goes a volley of musketry.
"I wish somebody had took me up on my bet," says Tucket; "'twould havebeen a dollar in my pocket."
"They're off; nobody left behind; nobody hurt, I hope," says Gray,watching the boat.
"Look, boys! the rebels works are afire!" is now the cry.
Flames break through the smoke, and the firing slackens on both sides fora short time.
"It's only the barracks, probably, fired by a shell," says Gray. "They'veno idea of surrendering. They hold out well!"
The battery is completely enveloped in black smoke, out of which leapsthe white puff of the cannon, showing that the gunners are still at work.
"See! the gunboat that was aground is getting off! that's a brave tugthat's handling her!" cries Frank "O!"--an exclamation of surprise andwonder. For just then the gunboat, swinging around so that she can bringher guns to bear, lets fly her broadside, dropping shot and shell rightinto the smoking battery.
"It's about time," says Jack Winch, "for us boys to go ashore and cleanthe rebels out. I'm a gitting tired of this slow work."
"You'll get ashore soon enough, and have enough to do when you getthere," says Atwater. "There are strong batteries towards the centre ofthe islands, that'll have to be taken when we go in."
"Abe's afraid," mutters Jack to some comrades near him. "Did ye see him,and Frank, and Seth Tucket, reading their Testaments?"
"It was the 'Lady of the Lake' Seth was reading," says Harris. "Hecarries it in his pocket, and pitches into it odd spells."
"Winch don't know the Lady of the Lake from the Bible!" chimes inTucket's high nasal voice.
"Yes, I do, too! The Lady of the Lake, that's one of Bryon's poems!S'pose I don't know?"
"O, perfectly!" sneers Ellis, amid the laughter Jack's blunder elicits."And no doubt you'll soon find out who the cowards are among us, if youdon't know already."
"What's that, afire, away up the sound, close into the main land?" asksthe phlegmatic Atwater.
"I swan, ef 'tan't one of the rebel steamers! She's got disabled, andthey've run her ashore. She's all a
sheet of fire now!"
"What's that saucy little tug around here for?"
"Burnside's aboard of her. He's coming to see if we're all right. Weshall land soon," says Gray.
"See!" cries Frank; "our gunboats are shelling the shore, to make alanding-place for us. I wouldn't like to be in the woods there!"
"I guess Frank wouldn't!" observes Jack. "But I would; I'd like no betterfun than to rush right in and skedaddle the rebels with the bayonet;that's the way to do it!"
"The woods are afire! Our shells have set them afire!" cries Ellis."Look! there come the rebel steamers again, down the western shore. Theythink they can get down at us, now our gunboats are busy off there."
"When the cat's away the mice will play," says Tucket. "But the kittensare after 'em!"
"There goes Burnside's tug to see what the row is!"
"The battery scarcely fires at all now," says Frank, looking at hiswatch. "It's twenty minutes since it has fired a shot."
"There goes one! And see! the gunboats are fighting each other now likemad--again!" cries Gray. "They're all so wrapped in smoke you can hardlysee one of 'em."--Bang, bang, bang!--"Isn't it grand?"
"A shell burst right over Burnside's tug!" exclaims Frank. "It burst, andsprinkled the water all around it!"
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