Using due care, with a thorough knowledge of Sound navigation, the pilot supposed Point Judith was passed and steered a course to carry the steamer up Narragansett Bay, when at five o’clock A.M. Sunday, August 9th, the Commodore struck upon the rocks of Point Judith, hard and fast. When she struck it was with sufficient force to throw men partly from their berths. There were two distinct shocks, with a grating sound as if timbers were being crushed and broken. No confusion followed the event; every one was cool and collected as though nothing had happened; when it was definitely ascertained that the steamer was fast upon the rocks, many men went to sleep again.
Upon deck it was impossible to see a hand or any object a few feet distant, the fog was so dense. The water was smooth and at high tide. After ineffectual attempts to back off, boats were lowered to make an examination of the hull near the water line, and a careful inspection made of the hold. While making water freely there was no danger, for the bow was hard and fast upon the rocks, and when the tide receded would leave her hull upon solid bottom; still all was done that could be to stop the leak.
The fog lifted gradually and by seven o’clock A.M. entirely disappeared, when the steamer’s position was seen to be within a stone’s throw of the shore. Adjutant Davis and Quartermaster Burrell went ashore, got conveyance to Kingston, and with some difficulty opened telegraphic communication with Providence, for assistance, also sending word to Boston. Fortunately the commissariat was in condition to keep the men from hunger. With the exception of grumbling on account of disappointment at not being able to eat a good breakfast in Boston, the men took the accident philosophically. The morning passed without any event of importance.
Early in the afternoon steamer City of Newport arrived from Providence, and after attempts were made at high tide to float the Commodore into clear water, without success, numerous heavy hawsers being broken, it was decided to transfer the men to the City of Newport by life-boats from both steamers, each boat-load hauled hand over hand along a hawser prepared for the purpose, instead of using oars. This operation was slow, the boats carrying a small number at a time. As darkness came on the tide receded and obliged the City of Newport to let go her end of the hawser and keep farther off from shore, to prevent grounding; the wind freshened up and caused a heavy swell on the sea and surf on shore. This took place before the transfer of men was complete, and made the rest of the operation tedious and tiresome, as oars had to be used to pull more than a mile.
Officers and men behaved admirably until afternoon, when boats were ready to transfer men; then came the tug of war in an endeavor to fill these boats. Orders and in some cases entreaty had to be used in forcing men into them. Men who would face an enemy without fear were afraid to trust themselves in small boats upon the water. The last boat to reach the City of Newport contained seven or eight men, who were saved from capsizing, in an insane endeavor they made to reach the steamer’s deck together, by the coolness of two men.
When all were on board that could be induced to take to the boats, the City of Newport proceeded to Providence, arriving there at two o’clock Monday morning, August 10th. No time was lost in taking cars, held in readiness, and the train started for Boston without delay, arriving at the Boston and Providence depot at five o’clock. Had the regiment arrived home on Sunday morning, as expected, a rousing reception was ready for it.
The Forty-Second marched to Faneuil Hall, where breakfast was waiting, and the regiment formally welcomed home by prominent citizens. At half-past ten o’clock A.M. the regiment formed line and marched to the parade ground on Boston Common, where the men were dismissed until the twentieth.
August 20th, 1863, one year after the first detachment went into camp as a nucleus to organize the regiment, the men assembled upon the old ground at Readville and were mustered out of the United States service.
The following officers and men remained in the enemy’s hands, prisoners of war: Colonel Burrell, Surgeon Cummings, Captains Sherive, Proctor and Savage, Lieutenants Cowdin, Eddy, Bartlett, S. F. White, Newcomb and Stowell, Corporal H. W. McIntosh, Privates Dennis Dailey, Edwin F. Josselyn, Francis S. Morrill, James O’Shaughnessy, of Company D; Corporal David L. Wentworth and Private Joseph W. D. Parker, of Company G; Private Joseph W. McLaughlin, Company I; and Private Samuel R. Hersey, Company C.