E. Harris, to whom Mr.
Gerdes had transferred the command, but unfortunately a few hours after
starting she broke her shaft by striking a snag, and was entirely
disabled, until extensively repaired. She was towed from Baton Rouge,
where the accident happened, to New Orleans, and there turned over to
Captain Morris, of the U. S. Navy, commanding the sloop of war
Pensacola. The officers and the crew of the Sachem were returned to New
York in a U. S. transport steamer. Thus ended the expedition of the
Coast Survey party attached in 1862 to the mortar flotilla.

The intercourse and association of the navy officers with the officers
of the Coast Survey during the eventful days of the siege of Fort
Jackson, the reconnoissance to Mobile, the expedition in Lake
Pontchartrain and Pearl river, up to the time the Sachem was disabled
from further participation in the operations of that campaign, had
cemented warm feelings of attachment and sincere friendship, and it was
with a heavy heart the writer of these lines bade farewell to his
honored commander and friend of twenty years standing, and to his other
associates in the dangers and triumphs of that ever memorable campaign.

Porter now pursues his glorious career as rear admiral of the national
navy, and his name has been since, and will be forever identified with
Vicksburg, Arkansas Post, Red river, and Grand Gulf. Commanders Richard
Wainwright, of the Hartford; Jonathan Wainwright, of the Harriet Lane;
W. B. Renshaw, of the Westfield, and Lieutenant Lee, also of the Harriet
Lane, have passed away from their friends and associates, consecrating
their lives gloriously in our country's cause, but deplored and lamented
by their friends. Mr. Oltmanns recovered slowly from his wound, and has
served since on topographical duty for the Army of the Potomac. He is
now with the Engineer Department of General Banks in Louisiana, where he
has proved very useful, and so far eminently successful. Mr. Harris, who
is esteemed and appreciated by the officers of the navy and of the Coast
Survey, has gone back to his legitimate occupation in the office of the
Northwestern Boundary. Messrs. Halter and Bowie remain in the Coast
Survey, and are now employed in its duties.

THE CRUEL CARPENTER.

Lay, darling, thy hand on this heart of mine!
Ah! hear'st thou that knocking within the shrine?
A cruel carpenter dwells there, and he
Is busily making a coffin for me!

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