smaller vessels
were sunk in the river channel, the two rifled guns of the _Jamestown_
having been previously landed and mounted in pits dug in the brow of
the bluff. The eight-inch solid-shot gun of the _Patrick Henry_ and
her two six-inch rifles were also landed, thus forming a formidable
naval battery countersunk on the brow of the hill, consisting of one
eight-inch solid-shot gun and four six-inch rifles. Besides the naval
battery, there were several army guns mounted in a breastwork and
served by a battalion of Artillery, under the command of Major A.
Drewry, who was the owner of the bluff, and from whom the place took
its name.

The naval guns were manned by the crews of the _Patrick Henry_,
_Jamestown_ and _Virginia_--the crew of the _Virginia_ arriving at the
bluff soon after she had been destroyed by Flag Officer Tatnall, to
prevent her from falling into the hands of the enemy. It is not always
possible for a sea captain to preserve the vessel he commands; but it
is always possible to act with firmness, skill and judgment under
trying and adverse circumstances, and this Flag Officer Tatnall seems
to have done. A court-martial, composed of officers of high
professional attainments and acknowledged personal merit, acquitted
him of all blame for the loss of the _Virginia_.

The following naval officers may be named as participating in the
engagement of Drewry's Bluff, though there were others whose names are
not at this time procurable: Of the _Patrick Henry_, Commander John
Randolph Tucker, Lieutenant James Henry Rochelle, Lieutenant Francis
Lyell Hoge, and others; of the _Jamestown_, Lieutenant Commanding J.
Nicholas Barney, Acting Master Samuel Barron, Jr., and others; of the
_Virginia_, Lieutenant Catesby Roger Jones, Lieutenant Hunter
Davidson, Lieutenant John Taylor Wood, Lieutenant Walter Raleigh Butt,
and others. Commander E. Farrand was the ranking and commanding
officer present, having been sent down from Richmond to command the
station.

It was on the 15th of May, 1862, that the Federal vessels _Galena_,
_Monitor_, _Naugatuck_, _Aroostook_, and _Port Royal_ made the
well-known attack on the Confederate batteries at Drewry's Bluff,
which was the only obstacle barring the way to Richmond, the capital
of the Confederate States.

The _Galena_ and _Monitor_ engaged the batteries at short distance,
the other three Federal vessels keeping just within long range of the
Confederate guns. The _Monitor_, af