The Blockade Runner — page 74: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE BLOCKADE RUNNER. ras) At last the Congress made for the beach, where she grounded. Then the heartless enemy approached, and poured broadside after broadside into her, until she hauied down her colors and surrendered. Night was fast settling over this scene. The darkness was lit-up by the flashes of the Mer- rimac’s guns. She was now turning her attention to the poweriul steamship Minnesota, which had grounded, and lay apparently at her mercy. Captain Van Brunt trained his heaviest cannon on the steel-mailed monster, but the shot produced no effect. Where would the ram’s work end ? It was the gloomiest Saturday night the Union cause had yet known. | The fight between the Minnesota on one side and the Merrimac and her consorts, two steamers, on the other, lasted until seven o’clock, when the ram drew off and steamed back toward Norfolk. The day was hers. She had destroyed two war vessels, and left another —the Minnesota—in a precarious condition. Everybody believed that she would return on the following day and complete her mission—the destruc- tion of every Federal ship blockading the mouth of . the James. Then she would turn her prow northward, and Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York would hear _ the thunder of her guns. It was, indeed, the most critical hour of the whole | war—the second day at Gettysbuyg not excepted. Comic doo S (©) 5}