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PENSACOLA HARBOR-CAPTURE OF THE JUDAH.

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all on board. Had our land forces efficiently coöperated, most of the Rebels might have been taken; as it was, Col. Brown returned unmolested to the fort.

hand in the business. Doubling Cape | tearing them to pieces and destroying Hatteras next morning, the Monticello, Lieut. Braine, came upon the main Rebel force at 1 P. M., and opened upon them with shells, putting them instantly to flight, with great slaughter. The bank or beach between the ocean and the Sound, being less than a mile wide, afforded little protection to the fugitives, who sustained an incessant fire from the Monticello for two hours; and two of our shells are said to have penetrated two Rebel sloops laden with men,

Fort Pickens, on the western extremity of Santa Rosa Island, commanding the main entrance to Pensacola harbor, was saved to the Union, as we have seen,' by the fidelity and prompt energy of Lieut. Slemmer. It was reënforced soon after the fall

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out in the harbor of Pensacola as a privateer, with intent to slip out some dark night, prepared to cruise against our commerce, planned an expedition to destroy her. During the night of Sept. 13th, four boats, carrying 100 men, commanded by Lieut. Russell, put off from Com. Mervine's flag-ship Colorado, approaching the schooner at 31 A. M., of the 14th. The privateer's crew, duly warned, opened a fire of musketry as the boats neared her; but were speedily driven from her deck by our boarders, and she set on fire and burned to the water's edge, when she sunk. Her gun, a 10-inch columbiad, was spiked, and sunk with her. All was the work of a quarter of an hour, during which our side had 3 killed and 12 wounded. As the Judah lay directly off the Navy Yard, where a thousand Rebels were quartered, this was one of the most daring and well-executed achievements of the year.

Finally, during the intensely dark night of Oct. 9th, a Confederate force crossed silently from Pensacola to Santa Rosa Island, with intent to surprise and destroy the camp of the 6th New York (Wilson's Zouaves), some two miles distant from Fort Pickens. The attack was well planned and well made. The surprise seems to have been complete. The Zouaves were instantly driven from their camp, which was thoroughly destroyed; but the darkness, which had favored the surprise, invested every step beyond the camp with unknown perils; and, when day broke, the Rebels had no choice but to retreat as swiftly as possible to their boats, eight miles distant. Of course, they were followed, and harassed, and fired upon after they had reëmbarked;

and it was claimed, on our side, that their loss exceeded 300; but, as they left but 21 dead on the island, and 30 prisoners, the claim is simply absurd. Our loss was 60, and theirs probably a little more. But several thousand Rebels were kept at Pensacola throughout the campaign by less than 1,000 on our side; and, when they finally decamped, they had no choice but to surrender the Naval Floating Dock and Railway, with much other public property, to the flames, to prevent their easy recovery to the Union.

The blockade of the mouths of the Mississippi, naturally difficult, because of their number and distances, was successfully evaded on the 1st of July by the steam privateer Sumter, Capt. Raphael Semmes, who, darting swiftly from point to point throughout those portions of the West India waters known to be most thickly studded with our merchantmen, made some twelve or fifteen captures in hardly so many days, and then ran into the friendly British port of Nassau, where he was promptly supplied with everything necessary to a vigorous prosecution of his devastating career. Having continued it some time longer with great success, he finally ran into the British harbor of Gibraltar, where the Federal gunboat Tuscarora soon found him and his vessel, and, anchoring in the Spanish port of Algesiras, just opposite, where no law would compel her to remain twentyfour hours after the Sumter had departed, she held the privateer fast until relieved by the Kearsarge, by which the blockade was persistently maintained until the Confederate officers abandoned their vessel-pro

HOLLINS'S RAID-DU PONT'S EXPEDITION.

fessing to sell her—and betook themselves to Liverpool, where a faster and better steamer, the Alabama, had meantime been constructed, and fitted out for their service. So the Nashville, which ran out of Charleston during the Summer, and, in due time, appeared in British waters, after burning (Nov. 19th) the Harvey Birch merchantman within sight of the English coast, ran into Southampton, where lay the Tuscarora; which, if permitted to pursue, would have made short work of her soon after she left, but was compelled to remain twenty-four hours to insure her escape. This detention is authorized by the law of nations, though it has not always been respected by Great Britain: Witness her capture of the Essex and Essex Junior in the harbor of Valparaiso, and her destruction of the Gen. Armstrong privateer in the port of Fayal, during the war of 1812. But the concession of such belligerent rights and immunities to a power which has neither recognized national existence nor maritime strength will yet be regretted by Great Britain, as affording an unfortunate and damaging precedent.

In October-the communications between our blockading forces in the Gulf and the loyal States being fitful and tedious the North was startled by the following bulletin, which appeared as a telegram from New Orleans to the Richmond papers:

"FORT JACKSON, Oct. 12, 1861. "Last night, I attacked the blockaders with my little fleet. I succeeded, after a very short struggle, in driving them all aground on the Southwest Pass bar, except the Preble, which I sunk.

"I captured a prize from them; and, after they were fast in sand, I peppered

them well.

"There were no casualties on our side. It was a complete success. HOLLINS."

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Commander Hollins, formerly of our Navy, and more notorious than famous for his bombardment of Greytown, Nicaragua, had drawn rather liberally on his imagination in the above. His prize was a deserted coal-boat; he had not sunk the Preble; and his 'peppering' was done at a prudent distance, and with little or no effect. But he had burst upon our squadron blockading the mouths of the Mississippi, at 3.45 A. M. of that day, with a flotilla composed of his ram Manassas, three firerafts, and five armed steamers. The ram struck our flag steamship Richmond, Capt. Pope, staving in her side below the water-line, and, for the moment, threatening her destruction. Our squadron, consisting of the Richmond, Preble, Vincennes, and Water Witch, instantly slipped their cables, and ran down the South-west Pass, very much as they would have done had all on board been considerably frightened. Commander Robert Handy, of the Vincennes, ran his vessel aground in the flight, and deserted her, with all his men; setting a slowmatch to destroy her, which happily failed. His vessel was recovered unharmed. The fire-rafts were entirely avoided; the Rebel steamboats not venturing within range of the Richmond's guns; while Hollins's haste to telegraph his victory seems to have cost him all its legitimate fruits. Beyond the destruction of the fire-ships, the losses on either side were of no account.

On the 29th of October, another and far stronger naval and military expedition set forth from Hampton Roads, and, clearing the capes of Virginia, moved majestically southward

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