ensign to come down by the run. This incident was
received as a favorable omen by the fortunate crew, who cheered
vociferously and went with increased confidence to their work. Wild and
rapid was the firing of the Alabama, that of the Kearsarge being
deliberate, precise, and almost from the commencement productive of
death, destruction, and dismay. The Kearsarge gunners had been cautioned
against firing without direct aim, advised to elevate or depress the
guns with deliberation, and though subjected to an incessant storm of
shot and shell, proceeded calmly to their duty, and faithfully complied
with the instructions. The effect upon the enemy was readily perceived;
nothing restrained the enthusiasm of the crew. Cheer succeeded cheer,
caps thrown in the air or overboard, jackets discarded, one encouraging
the other, sanguine of victory, shouting as each projectile took effect:
"That is a good one;" "that told;" "give her another;" "down boys;"
"give her another like the last;" and so on, cheering, exulting, joyous
to the end. After exposure to an uninterrupted cannonading for eighteen
minutes without casualties, a sixty-eight-pound Blakely shell passed
through the starboard bulwarks below main rigging, exploded upon the
quarter-deck, and wounded three of the crew of the after-pivot gun. With
these exceptions, not an officer or a man of the Kearsarge received the
slightest injury. The unfortunates were speedily taken below, and so
quietly was the action performed, that at the termination of the fight a
large portion of the crew were unaware that any of their comrades were
wounded. Two shot entered the ports occupied by the thirty-twos, where
several men were stationed, and yet none were hit. A shell exploded in
the hammock-netting and set the ship on fire; the alarm calling to
fire-quarters was sounded, and persons specially detailed for a like
emergency, promptly extinguished the flames, while the remainder of the
crew continued at the guns without interruption.

Terrific was the effect of the eleven-inch shell upon the crew of the
doomed ship: many were torn asunder by shell direct, or horribly
mutilated by splinters. Her decks were covered with blood and the debris
of bodies. One gun (after-pivot) had its crew renewed four times,
fourteen out of nineteen men being disabled during the action. The
carnage around this gun was more frightful than elsewhere; so great was
the accumulation of blood and fragments of limbs, th