The hero of Manila; Dewey on the Mississippi and the Pacific (1899) (14762655795)

Identifier: heroofmaniladewe00john (find matches)
Title: The hero of Manila; Dewey on the Mississippi and the Pacific
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Johnson, Rossiter, 1840-1931
Subjects: Dewey, George, 1837-1917 Manila Bay, Battle of, Philippines, 1898 United States -- History Civil War, 1861-1865 Naval operations
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and Company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation



Text Appearing Before Image:
s and muskets in the tops,officers on the bridges, gunners between decks, en-gineers, firemen, and surgeons below—all were in astate of intense action. The largest of the Confederate vessels, a powerful steamer fitted as a ram, at-tacked the Varuna, and was subjected to a murderous raking fire from that ship. Finding that his bowgun was mounted too far aft to strike her when atsuch close quarters, the Confederate commander de-pressed it and fired through the bow of his own ves-sel. Then another ram came up and joined in theattack, and the Varuna was reduced to a wreck anddriven ashore. Meanwhile, the second division of the fleet cameup, led by the Hartford. This vessel, in attempting to avoid a fire raft, struck on a shoal; then the ram Manassas pushed another blazing raft againsther quarter, and in a moment she was on fire. Thegreat excitement thus produced on board the flag-ship did not for a moment interfere with the discipline.A part of her crew were called to fire quarters and
Text Appearing After Image:
Farragut's fleet passing the forts^^ THE FIGHT FOR NEW ORLEANS. 89 put out the flames, while the rest continued to workthe guns with perfect regularity. Then she was backedoff into deep water, and continued up stream, firinginto every enemy she could reach. A steamer loadedwith men (probably intended as a boarding party) boredown upon the flagship, but the marines promptlyfired a shell into her which exploded, and she dis-appeared. While the Mississippi was engaged in this desperate battle an officer on board kept his eye on Lieu-tenant Dewey—for on him every movement of theship depended—and he has described the figure of theyoung officer on the high bridge as it was alternately hidden by the smoke and illuminated by the flashesof the artillery. Every time the dark came back, he says, Ifelt sure that we never should see Dewey again.His cap was blown off, and his eyes were aflame; buthe gave his orders with the air of a man in thoroughcommand