e Valley City, says of this
"brush" with the Confederates:

"It is a pity about that '_deadly aim_,' for we did not have a man
injured, and one of the men and myself were over the stern exposed
to their guns, and though their shot fell all around us, we were
not struck. A pretty correct account of the time of the action and
position of the Valley City is given, but there was not a man left
his station during the action, although their sharpshooters fired
at and left marks of their bullets all round our port-holes, and
the gangway to which we afterwards shifted a gun to bear on them.

"The three other boats did not even get within range of the enemy,
on account of drawing too much water. They, however, fired one shot
at long range, after the enemy had retired, and this shot was made
merely to get the range of the enemy in case another attack should
be made on the Valley City before she got afloat. One of the two
boats they speak of was a tug-boat that went with the Valley City
up the river to assist her to get afloat in case she got aground,
and was manned by two officers--one an ensign, the other an
engineer--and five men. The tug-boat was not armed.

"It is very singular that they, in their account of the brush,
should italicize the word _wooden_, as much as to say we had an
iron-clad.

"I saved one of their shells that lit on the deck of the Valley
City, which fortunately did not explode. If the Valley City had
been afloat, she would have silenced their batteries sooner."

On Saturday, October 1, at 4 o'clock a.m., the Valley City got under
weigh, and steamed to Edenton. Captain J. A. J. Brooks, Acting Master
James G. Green, J. W. Sands and myself went ashore, and visited Mr.
Samuel B.'s, and spent the time very pleasantly. At 4 o'clock p.m. we
returned to the Valley City, and got under weigh, and proceeded to our
old station at the mouth of the Roanoke river. On the 3d, the U.S.
steamers Commodore Hull and Tacony and the tug Belle came up and
anchored near us. On the 6th, I was ordered aboard the Otsego, to hold
a medical survey on one of the officers of that vessel, for the purpose
of sending him to the U.S. Naval Hospital at Norfolk. When I returned
aboard the Valley City, I found a refugee aboard, suffering from yellow
fever. She was taken to Edenton aboard the Valley City, where she died
of the disease. We called on M