I shall never forget the expression of poor old Captain Pope’s face as he listened to this astonishing report. He was anything but a profane man in his daily habit, and I am sure that the Recording Angel dropped a tear over the swear words with which our commander emphasized his reply.
Meanwhile the important consideration in our minds was, how long that “slow match” might be expected to burn, and what effect the explosion of all the powder on board the Vincennes might have upon us,—perilously close neighbors as we unfortunately were.
By some fortunate chance, however, the match went out, and after waiting a proper time Captain Handy and his crew were sent back to their ship, one of her officers being detached, and sent in the Frolic to Barrataria, to bring the South Carolina to our assistance.
At 1 P. M. a steamer was seen coming out of Pass à L’Outre which proved to be the transport McClellan from Fort Pickens. She had supplies for us, and, best of all, our long-desired Parrott rifle gun, and had actually been almost up to the Head of the Passes in search of us.
It was a miracle that she had not been captured by the Confederates. Late that night the South Carolina, Captain James Alden, arrived.
Our Comedy of Errors is nearly ended. The following morning, with the aid of the two steamers, our fleet was all got afloat. All was saved but our honor, and that we felt very anxious about, for as the news of our affair got around to Pensacola, the other ships seemed to think we had made too good time down the river, and they spoke of our brush as “Pope’s Run.”
The outcome of this was that our ship sent a special request to be allowed to join in the coming attack upon Fort McCrea at Pensacola. Our request was granted and we joined with the Niagara on November 24 in that fight.
We were the inside ship, were struck several times, and had several killed and wounded. This made us all feel better, and during the next two years the Richmond was in all of Farragut’s fights. She was at New Orleans, twice passed the batteries at Vicksburg, was at Port Hudson, with a battery of our guns on shore during the siege, and was finally in the glorious Mobile fight. So that the Richmond made a record that placed her among the historic ships of the navy.