But when the second broadside came
It made them hold their jaws, sir.
If the second broadside didn’t make them “hold their jaw” others did. Their cheers were a mockery, and in a rapidly increasing number of cases were turned to shrieks and groans. The Yankees, peering through the sights of their long twenty-fours, were hulling the Macedonian at every round, in spite of wind and rocking waves.
Diagram of the BATTLE BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MACEDONIAN.
THE M.-M. CO.
Note.—The Macedonian had the weather-gauge, and held it until after losing her mizzen-mast at about 10.25 A.M., when the United States forged ahead, tacked about, and returned to find the Macedonian with fore and main top-masts gone, and ready to surrender.
“Our men kept cheering with all their might,” said Samuel Leech (quoted by Maclay) who was one of the Macedonian’s crew. “I cheered with them, though I confess I scarcely knew what for. Grape-shot and canister were pouring through our port-holes like leaden hail; the large shot came against the ship’s side, shaking her to the very keel, and passing through her timbers and scattering terrific splinters, which did more appalling work than the shot itself.
“The slaughter among the boys of the Macedonian was one of the most painful incidents of the battle. One of the lads supplying the sixth and seventh guns had his leg taken off by a cannon-shot, while the other was struck in the ankle by a grape-shot, and had to have the leg amputated. A Portuguese boy who was supplying the quarter-deck guns had nearly all the flesh on his face burned off by an accidental explosion of the cartridge (bag of powder) he was carrying, and as the agonized lad lifted both hands, as if imploring relief, a cannon shot cut him in two.
“A man named Aldrich had his hand taken off by a shot, and the next instant another tore open his bowels in a horrible manner. Two or three of his ship-mates caught him as he fell, and threw him overboard while he was yet alive.