ithstanding that the Confederate gunboats
_Raleigh_, _Teaser_ and _Beaufort_ had attempted to take possession of
the surrendered vessel, and had been driven off by a heavy artillery
and infantry fire from the Federal troops on the beach. After the
Confederate gunboats had been forced to retire from the _Congress_,
Flag-Officer Buchanan hailed the _Patrick Henry_ and directed
Commander Tucker to burn that frigate. The pilots of the _Patrick
Henry_ declared they could not take her alongside of the _Congress_ on
account of an intervening shoal, which determined Tucker to approach
as near as the shoal would permit and then send his boats to burn the
Federal frigate. The boats were prepared for the service, and the
boats' crews and officers held ready whilst the _Patrick Henry_
steamed in towards the _Congress_.

This movement of the _Patrick Henry_ placed her in the most imminent
peril; she was brought under the continuous and concentrated fire of
three points; on her port quarters were the batteries of Newport News,
on her port bow the field batteries and sharpshooters on the beach,
and on her starboard bow the _Minnesota_. It soon became evident that
no wooden vessel could long float under such a fire; several shots
struck the hull, and a piece of the walking-beam was shot away. As the
sponge of the after pivot gun was being inserted in the muzzle of the
piece, the handle was cut in two by a shot from the enemy; half in
prayer and half in despair at being unable to perform his duty, the
sponger exclaimed, "Oh, Lord! how is the gun to be sponged?" He was
much relieved when the quarter-gunner of his division handed him a
spare sponge. This state of things could not last long; a shot from a
rifled gun of one of the field batteries on the beach penetrated the
steam-chest, the engine-room and fire-room were filled with steam,
four of the firemen were scalded to death and several others severely
injured; the engineers and firemen were driven up on deck, and the
engines stopped working: the vessel was enveloped in a cloud of
escaped steam, and the enemy, seeing that some disaster to the boiler
had occurred, increased his fire. At the moment, until the chief
engineer made his report, no one on the spar-deck knew exactly what
had happened, the general impression being that the boilers had
exploded. It is an unmistakable evidence of the courage and discipline
of the crew that the fire from the _Patrick Henry_ did not slacken,
but