Battle of New Orleans.

From “The Navy in the Civil War.”

As the Varuna and the Moore disappeared the McRae turned down toward Fort St. Philip. On the way she ran aground, and then the Union steamer Iroquois came along. The McRae fired a broadside of grape and copper slugs at her, and the Iroquois returned it with grape and canister. The slaughter was great on the McRae, her commander, Thomas B. Huger, being among the mortally hurt. Huger, but a few months before, had been executive officer of the Iroquois, and most of her crew were the men who had served under him. The McRae afterward got under Fort St. Philip.

The Manassas during this time had not been idle. She had, indeed, plunged into the thick of the Union force. The Brooklyn, in coming through the barrier, almost ran down the Kineo. The collision changed her course, and a minute later the Manassas butted her. Her chain cable saved her from a fatal wound.

As the Manassas glanced clear, a man climbed out of her hatch and stood by her smoke-stack a moment to see what damage she had done, and then he suddenly tumbled over into the water and disappeared. An officer of the Brooklyn afterwards asked the quartermaster, who was heaving the lead in the chains of the Brooklyn on that side, if he saw the man fall off the Manassas. “Why, yes, sir,” he replied; “I saw him fall overboard—in fact, I helped him; for I hit him alongside the head with my hand-lead.”

As the Brooklyn passed on, the Manassas turned upstream after the Union ships, watching for an opportunity to strike. She was seen, and the Mississippi and Kineo turned back to crush her, but she eluded them and ran ashore. At that her crew fled to the river bank, and the Mississippi gave her a broadside that knocked her clear of the mud, and she floated down the river. Opposite Fort St. Philip, Lieutenant Read, of the McRae, boarded her. He reported that she was then sound save for a cut pipe, but he must have been mistaken, for when she was passing Porter’s mortar flotilla she was seen to be on fire, and she soon “exploded faintly” and sank.

About the time the Manassas was abandoned, the Moore, under Beverly Kennon, was overtaking the Varuna not far from the quarantine station. The Varuna’s captain was deceived by the Moore’s false lights. So was one of the Confederate fleet—a swift vessel called the Jackson. The Jackson fired with her one gun at both steamers, and then fled to New Orleans, where her captain set her afire and abandoned her. Then one of the guerrilla fleet, the Stonewall Jackson, came up near the two, and Kennon, on seeing her, opened fire on the Varuna. He expected the Stonewall Jackson to come to his help, for the Moore, with only two thirty-two-pounders, was no match for the Varuna. Nevertheless, Kennon had to fight it out alone until victory was won. He was now close on the Varuna’s quarter, where her broadside would not bear on him, but because of the height of his own ship’s bow he could not bring his gun to bear, so he depressed the muzzle of his gun and shot a hole through his own bow to make way for shot to be aimed at the Varuna. The next shot from the Moore raked the Varuna, and to bring his broadside to bear, Captain Boggs, of the Varuna, put her helm over, and turned her across the course of the Moore. And that was a fatal error, for Kennon, instead of turning away, turned toward the Varuna and drove the sharp bow of the Moore, crashing through her side. The Varuna got in a raking broadside that was very destructive, but was herself cut through. The Moore hauled off and kept on upstream, and then came the Stonewall Jackson and rammed the Varuna on the other side. The Varuna was then headed to the easterly bank, where she sank, leaving her bow out of water.

But neither the Moore nor the Stonewall Jackson escaped, for the Oneida and Cayuga came on and drove them both ashore. The Moore was fired, but her crew surrendered when the Pensacola came along.