THE SLAUGHTER ON BOARD THE CONGRESS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 189, 24 June 1862, Page 5

THE SLAUGHTER ON BOARD THE CONGRESS.

Dr. Shippen, who was on board the Congress, says:— " ' There comes the Merrimac at last,' said one of our officers, who hastened down to my room. I was reading, a lately recaived newspaper with much interest, aud so i replied, ' Don't interrupt me ; lam' busy.' ' It's no joke,' he answered, 'she is coming down this time.' I saw the speaker take his sword and revolver and hurry on deck ; so the thing seemed serious, and I followed. Sure enough, there was the strange-looking'-'hull slowly steaming down the river; but she turned and seemed going back, as if after a j trial trip, aud we began to think it was a false alarm (that had stirred us up. But she soon turned again, and began to approach us (the Congress) slowly. AYe: beat to .quartern at once, and as soon as she got within range opened fire on her. AYe might as well have fired at a moving iceberg. The shot glanced off her iron sheathing iike. hailstones off a tin roof. She gradually approached us and passed us by, delivering her fire as she wont, and with awful effect. She then steamed up ahead of the Cumberland, turned round deliberately, and ran into her near the bow, ripping an enormous rent in her side, and hung on by her own siarp prow while she fired right into the fractured c'.iasm. Then she backed out and repeated-her tremendous onslaught and fierce fire, and the fate ofthe Cumberland was settled. She fought bravely, pouring in tremendous broadsides, but with apparently the same want of effect which had attended our discharge of shot. Now she settled and heeled over and went down, with most of her wounded; the living sailors, and those not wounded beyond the ability of motion, alone getting, over into her boats with the officers, and escaping to shore, while some swam from tlie ship, and so escaped to land. Having finished with the Cumberland this marine monster came back to us. She lay off our pert bow, forging slowly ahead, then backing, so as to keep her desired aud selected position, and opened upon us an awful fire. The first shell burst inside our ship, and killed every man at gun No. 7, Shell after shell, and sometimes two at a time, burst among us. The ship was soon a mere slaughter-house. The surgeon began his work, ana attempted .an amputation; a huge fragment of wood fell on the breast ofthe subject and crushed him-instantly.- Operations were now out of the question. The wounded were in crowds, horribly cut up. The slightest wound noticed was a hand shot off. Whole quarters of the human frame were torn away from some bodies—a head, a right shoulder, and entire legs and arms from others. The ship, too, was on fire. The shells had kindled her woodwork in several places. Nearly all the guns were dismounted, the bulkheads , blown to pieces—-rammers and handspikes shivered—• the powder-boys all killed. The inside of the ship looked like .the inside of a burnt and sacked house. Everything "was in fragments, black or red • burnt or bloody. Ths horrible scene lasted for about half an hour. We then struck. A rebel tug sent a boat to us, and soon came alongside herself. '$. Our great concern was for the wounded. AYe were told to come ourselves, and bring others aboard as prisoners. We bagged for a little time to get the wounded one 3, but were told to 'hurry.' 'We can't hurry men badly hurt.' ' But you must; I am going to.burn the ship, and that — quick,' said the officer ia command ; but he was mistaken, he didn't burn her. At this moment an Indiana regiment on shore opened a heavy fire on the tug from rifles and n howitzer. I saw one rebel officer fall under it. The tug found it tx> hot ; for her,1 nnd she backed out. Where she wont I did not see. In the meantime our own small boats and some from the Cumberland ran alongside, and we began getting all the wounded into them and pushed off for land. I do not think one wounded man was left on shipboard. Twenty seven came in tbe small boats. Probably eighty were left dead on the decks and in the cockpit. The ship was already on fire, as before stated, and she burned and blew up during the night.". ..''.' ; . An officer of the frigate Congress describes the effect ofthe Merrimac shot as follows: —■

''She (the Merrimac) then opened her bow guns on the Congress, the first shot she fired being grape. I was standing on the starboard horse-block with a gloss in my hand. I said to Lieutenant Pendergr.ast, ijust as she fired,.' Tbere she goes, Pender,' andhe replied ' Grape, eh! I thought she would have fired solid shot.' A part of the netting of tbo horse-block was carried away with the shot, and it rattled like bail around us. On the poop, besides myself, were Captain Smith, Lieutenant Pcndergrast, Mr. Rhodes, the pilst, Captain M'lhiire, Lieutenant Smith, and My. M'LJlintcck, captain's clerk. She then fired three or four round shot, which went through the ringing. We tried to jibe the ship by h'okting tbe ■■ spanker, arid all the officers on the poop assisted in pulling the sail round so that the wind would catch it and turn our broadside on. The Merrimac, for some reason, passed by us, pouring in a broadside at 300 yards distance, which we promptly responded to by two bioadsides froip the starhoard side, and went up to the Cumberland, which she ran into with-her iron prow, at the same time firing her two bow guns at the Cumberland and her broadside guns at us. She drew back and ran into the Cumberland again, about: I halfway between the bow and midships, firing at us and the Cumberland all the time. She then got on the starboard side of the Cumberland, and we could not fire at her for fear of hitting the Cumberland. S'.e then engaged the shore battery. During all that time we were also fighting the Jamestown and Yorktown, who were pouring shot and shell at us. I then went below, on the gun-deck, to see that our wounded were carried to the cock-pit, and found that we had three killed in our company, and some wounded. I passed around the men encouraging them, and went up on the poop again. The Merrimac, soon came at us again. We had raised the jib-saiis and spanker and fore-sail, and tried to get the ship so that we could work her with a fair wind. We had the tug-boat Zouave alongside of us, towing, but before we had moved 800 yards we got aground, still fighting the Jamestown and Yorktown, and the Merrimac pitching in a shot every few minutes. The Merrimac came down within 300 yards of us, and got; directly astern of, us, and poured in broadside after broadside. We could only use the two stern guns, and the crew were mowed-down as soon as they manned those guns. The second shot came into the stern while Captain M'lntire and myself were in tbe Captain's cabin, .firing from Sharp's rifles into the port-holes of the Merrimac. Tlie ball passed between the Captain and myselfj killing a marine who was also there, knocking the Captain down, and knocking me against the door of the pantry. Tlie stove was knocked over, and everything inside broken up. The ball passed along the spar-deck, killing Mr. Thomas Moore, acting-master. We carried the marine below, and got a pail of water and put out the cabin fire, and went to work again firing rifles out of tho hole the ball made. After exhausting my supply, I went outside, and Mr. Pendergrast asked me " Where is Mr. Smith?'' I did not know, andl went to look for him, the balls still whistling around me and mowing _their -, way through the ship fore and ftft.' Mr. Smith a cap

was found by Master's Mate Baury, all torn up, and his body was found soon after. \Ve still, fought thorn as well as we could with the two stern chasers, but finding that resistance'was useless, we struck our colors at a quarter to four o'clock.-: The rebel boat Beaufort came alongside of us, and said, " the officers are prisoners and send the crew ashore;'' nnd .waited to burn the ship. The executive officer of the. Congress demurred to the burning ofthe ship before the wounded and ere * were on shore, and said he should'nt do it. The ship had then been on fire about an hour. The Indiana 21st, Kegiment were on the sandy beach of the shore, and sendingrifle balls thick and fast on the rebel boat; some also hitting ouv men. Tho rebel officer, a midshipman, ordered some of the crew on board, and, I presume, about fifty got on her, but subsequently jumped off her and got on the ship again. 1 then went below to pack up my tilings—expecting to be a prisoner of war—had them brought on deck, but the rebel was compelled to draw off, in consequence of the rifle-balls from shore. The Merriinac, after the Beaufort left us, poured in another broadside, killing eight or ten men. I then went below to get the company rolls, and had to wade ill blood and water ankledeep to get to the room in which these books were. I found it full of smoke and considerably broken up, and everything knocked to pieces. 1 began to feel along the'floor for- the rollbooks, when a shell burst in the cockpit, the pieces flying around' like hail. The partition between therooms, the pieces of furniture;, bureau, &c, broken up by the force ofthe explosion, completely covered me, but I finally succeeded in getting out, and with what I went after. Most of the wounded then iv the cockpit were killed by that explosion, and the surgeon was injured. In a'little while the .ward-room (just over the magazine) Was in a mass of flames. AYe were busily engaged in passing the Wounded ofF the ships by whips rigged over the port bow, and, when we got them ashore, we sent the men, afterwards the officers, and Captain M'lntiro and myself left the ship among the last. We expected her to blow up every minute, and, when wc-lett, the light of the flames was shining through the aft portholes I hardly think I can describe the scene on board after the battle ; the groans of the wounded and dying mingled with the hoarse commands of the olfieers, the blackened faces, the mangled bodies, the heads, and parts ofbodies lying around in every direction. I had several rather narrow escapes and tbauk \iocl lam still whole. Some of the guncarriages were completely carried away, and a number had tlvir breeching broken.. The decks were slippery with blood and gore, and the steps still more so.'?'.' ''■..' "