The battle of the Swash and the capture of Canada

by Samuel Barton

These discussions were continued day and night (for Congress sat in almost continuous session) from the 15th to the 18th, without any result being arrived at. The members and senators were flooded with letters and telegrams from all threatened points, begging them to act at once; to pay the indemnity demanded; take Canada, and bide our time for a final settlement with Great Britain. But owing to the objections of the Western and Central States, nothing could be accomplished, and when the sun rose on the morning of the 18th of May, it was a foregone conclusion that New York and Brooklyn were to suffer all the horrors of a bombardment, unless (as was highly improbable) the British Admiral should see fit to further extend the time of probation. This he utterly refused to do; and having on the two previous days silenced the forts on Long and Staten Islands, and easily repulsed a feeble attack by the unarmored cruisers "Atlanta," "Baltimore," "Boston" and "Philadelphia," and a score or so of torpedo boats, he prepared, on the morning of the 18th, to force his way through the Narrows into the Upper Bay, where he would be within easy range of the two cities. He had satisfied himself that the torpedoes, with which the Narrows were supposed to be thickly planted, would not be able to prevent his fleet from passing through. Many of these torpedoes had been cut loose and destroyed by his torpedo destroyers; and the officers of these little boats assured him that they had cleared a narrow channel, which they had marked with diminutive buoys; and that if he would take his fleet in, in single file—each vessel following as closely as possible in the wake of the one immediately preceding her—the whole fleet could unquestionably pass through without damage.

This suggestion was adopted, and before 10 o'clock on the morning of the 18th, the whole British fleet, with the exception of the "City of New York," was safely riding at anchor in the Upper Bay. The "City of New York" was one of the merchant steamships which had been metamorphosed into a cruiser. She had formerly been plying in the passenger trade between New York and Liverpool. Owing to the shortsighted policy which our Government had previously adopted in refusing to aid or encourage the establishment of American steamship lines; this ship, although her owners were Americans, had been built in England, and sailed under the English flag in order to secure the subsidy of £10,000 a year, which that Government agreed to pay for the privilege of turning her into a cruiser in time of war.

Thus, when war was declared, the American owners of this vessel and the "City of Paris," had the mortification of seeing their own property taken from them, to make war upon their own country. In attempting to enter the Narrows with the rest of the fleet, the "City of New York," owing to her superior speed, could only keep her place in the line with great difficulty, and in sheering off, to avoid a collision with the vessel just ahead of her, she ran out of the channel which had been buoyed by the torpedo destroyers, and getting directly over two large torpedoes, she was partially blown up, and sunk in the deepest part of the Narrows in about a hundred feet of water.

Her destruction caused great rejoicing among all classes of Americans, who had protested loudly but vainly against this unpatriotic use of the British flag. But after all, the owners of the vessel were not so much to blame for it as Congress was.

As the fleet proceeded up the Bay and came to anchor between Bedloe's and Governor's Islands, its movements were watched with intense interest by a large crowd, which had assembled on the seawall of the Battery. As the hour of noon approached, however, this crowd thinned out rapidly; and at twenty minutes of twelve o'clock—at which time it had been announced that the trains on the elevated railways would cease running,—there were not more than a dozen persons visible along the whole water front of the Battery. At ten minutes before twelve, a shudder of apprehension ran through the few remaining denizens of the two cities, as they heard the ominous boom of a heavy gun. It was, however, not immediately followed by any others; and as was subsequently ascertained, was only a blank cartridge, fired as a preliminary signal to the rest of the fleet, to hold themselves in readiness to commence firing, in ten minutes. It was like the preparatory gun before starting a regatta. Everything was apparently to be done in exact accordance with a programme previously agreed upon; and the bombardment was to commence with true "man of war" precision and ceremony.

To us of the present generation, who have never experienced any of the horrors of war, it seems almost incredible that civilized and Christian men, could thus coldly arrange the details of the destruction of life and property on such a vast scale, and calmly count the seconds on their watches as they ticked away the few remaining moments which separated the two great cities from destruction.

Promptly at noon, the guns on the portside of the flagship flashed the signal to the rest of the fleet, and the work of destruction commenced in earnest. The fire at first seemed to be directed against the tall buildings in the lower part of the city, which were in plain eight, and afforded excellent marks for the gunners. But as these became rapidly battered down into masses of ruin, the guns were elevated a little, so as to throw the shells further uptown, and the area of destruction was thus vastly widened.

During the first day's bombardment, there seemed to be a tacit understanding among the artillerists (probably the result of a general order on the subject) to spare the Brooklyn Bridge; and although many projectiles came very near to the towers and supporting cables, and some almost grazed the structure itself, yet it remained intact on the evening of the 18th.

On the morning of the 19th, however, when the bombardment was renewed, these orders (if any such had existed on the previous day) had evidently been countermanded, foe nearly the whole fire of the fleet seemed to be concentrated on the towers and the cables, and in less than half an hour after the opening of the second day's cannonade, the massive granite towers gave way, and the whole magnificent structure fell into the river beneath, where for many months it remained an absolute barrier to navigation through the East River and Long Island Sound.

The Brooklyn Navy-yard was also thoroughly riddled during the second day. The British gunners had evidently been studying their charts over night, and had gauged the distance and direction of the yard so exactly, that before noon of the 19th, they had thrown over five hundred shells into the yard itself, or its immediate vicinity.