Many comical incidents happened during the engagement, and if all could be remembered they would make a respectable-sized chapter. A few, that the men often talked and laughed about, are here given: Frank Veazie, officers’ cook, during the hot firing, kept up a promenade inside the storehouse with his coat collar up and bent over as if rain was falling upon him. Private Billy Burt, Company D, when all hands were crowded for shelter near the breastwork, during the first hour, shouted: “For God’s sake, get where the sergeants are and we will be safe!” The quartermaster’s colored boy, Charlie Amos, fell asleep early in the evening, sleeping through all the uproar, and did not awake until it was over.
The loss by the United States naval squadron was:
Clifton—One wounded.
Owasco—One killed; fifteen wounded, including Commander Wilson.
Harriet Lane—Five killed; five wounded; exclusive of officers, one hundred and ten sailors were made prisoners.
Westfield—Fourteen killed.
The Confederate loss is hard to ascertain. From the character of their raw volunteers many men slightly wounded must have never been reported, besides, their administration department was too loose for an exact official report of casualties. While not so heavy as would be supposed from the naval cannonade of the city, it is officially reported by General Magruder to have been about twenty-six killed and one hundred and seventeen wounded, but Surgeon Cummings, who had excellent opportunities for knowing, places it at about three hundred killed and wounded.[7] A part of the Confederate loss was known at the time to be as follows:
[7] Andrew Parish, a lad of fourteen or fifteen years, Magruder’s colored servant, who was with the general in Virginia and Texas, says he saw at Galveston from fifty to seventy-five Confederate dead after the action was over. With the usual proportion of wounded to killed, Mr. Parish almost corroborates Surgeon Cummings.
Colonel Pyron’s regiment—Two killed; six wounded.
Captain Wilson’s battery— —— killed; four wounded.