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Updated: May 18, 2025
On the dock fronting the navy-yard were mounted a ten-inch columbiad and a twelve-pounder field-piece, so placed as to command the deck of the schooner and the wharf to which she was moored. Fort Pensacola, not far distant, was full of Confederate troops.
Colonel Plummer's loss was 6 killed and 60 wounded. He took 80 prisoners, 38 of them wounded; captured one iron twelve-pounder gun, a number of small arms and horses, and buried 158 of Thompson's dead before leaving Fredericktown. Thompson's following was demoralized by this defeat, and Southeast Missouri after it enjoyed comparative quiet.
The leadsman on the port side reported two fathoms a little later, and then there was a ring to back her, for there could not be more than two foot of water under the keel. At this moment the peal of a twelve-pounder came from the shore, and a little later the bursting of a shell was heard astern of the Teaser.
The first time it was fired, it had no effect beyond making a small hole, and the next shot had no greater success. Colonel Moorhouse ordered a twelve-pounder to be brought up, but as he was aiding to put it into position, another ball struck him, and he fell dead.
Logan ordered his men to spread out in a longer and thinner line, although he kept at least fifty of his best about the cannon to prevent any attempt at capture. The twelve-pounder may not have done much execution upon an enemy who fought chiefly from shelter, but he knew that its effect was terrifying, and he did not mean to lose the gun.
The police boat did not attempt to board the vessel, but made its way back to Freemantle to report. There the Georgette had been fully coaled and provisioned, and had taken aboard, in addition to the pensioners and police, a twelve-pounder field-piece. At daylight on the following morning she came up with the Catalpa again, and fired a round shot across her bows.
The force took with them provisions for one day only, relying on the commissariat arrangements made on their behalf by Dr. Wolff en route. They were well mounted and armed with Lee-Metford carbines, and took with them eight Maxims, two seven-pounders and one twelve-pounder. In order to facilitate quick movement no heavy equipment was taken, and but little spare ammunition.
We now had nearly two hundred prisoners on board, and thought it prudent to retrace our steps to Port Royal, when on the following morning we fell in with two more schooner-rigged privateers. The first we captured mounted a long brass twelve-pounder and two six-pounders, with sixty-eight men. The other during the time we were exchanging prisoners had got considerably to windward of us.
Had they left their comrade and pushed on forthwith, there was nothing at that time between them and London but batteries of twelve-pounder guns, and they would certainly have reached the capital in advance of the tidings of their approach; as sudden, dreadful, and destructive their advent would have been as the earthquake that destroyed Lisbon a century ago. But they were in no hurry.
Fortunately it was never fired, for in the nick of time an old rusty muzzle-loader has been discovered in a blacksmith's shop within our lines, and has been made to fire the Russian ammunition by the exercise of much ingenuity. It belches forth mainly flames, and smokes and makes a terrific report. Some say this is as useful as a modern twelve-pounder....
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