Suffolk Christian Sun

March 28, 1862

Page 3

ATTACK ON THE YANKEES NEAR ST. MARY’S

Capt. Clark, of Col. Davis’s Mounted Regiment, of Florida, and a number of volunteer citizens, started on Wednesday night last, to intercept a Federal gunboat which had gone in pursuit of the little steamer Hard Times.  After hitching their horses at a convenient distance, they scattered about a half mile along the edge of the bluff, each man taking a tree, and with their Maynard rifles and double-barrel shot guns, as the enemy’s gunboats got within sixty yards, the first of the ambuscade line opened and the fire told with deadly effect upon the thickly crowded decks of the gunboat, causing great confusion and excitement among the Lincolnites.  Considerable excitement prevailed on board as they saw their comrades falling.  Officers cursing men, and men cursing officers.

The Yankees used their ordnance, but with no effect, the shot striking the tops of the trees.  They used their navy pistols also, but with no damage other than slightly wounding a horse.

Our men fired from one to five shots each.  One of them, a volunteer, a noted hunter and excellent marksman, fired five times, and each time selected his man—the one with the most brass buttons on, as he expressed it.  After each shot, he did not again get a glimpse of his subject.  An hour intervened when the boat was attacked again by Capt. Lang’s company, who were similarly ambuscaded on a bluff about eight miles distant.

One of the volunteers of Capt. Davis’s mounted regiment shot both barrels of his gun load with buck shot, into a group of four of the Federals on deck, about sixty yards from his position, and saw none of them after he fired.

One of the Yankees cursed one of our men as he caught a glimpse of him.  “You d___d cowardly rebel.”  He stepped out and responded, “You are a d___d liar,” as he pulled trigger on him and “settled his hash.”

The Yankees took to the hold of their vessel when they found it too hot on deck for them.

A negro who had been a prisoner of the Yankees , and escaped from Amelia Island to the camp near Fernandina, states that he was made to assist in burying 47 of the Yankees, and reports that there were 16 wounded.  We trust that all our troops in the Confederacy will profit by the example by this guerilla movement.

-Savannah Republican-

 

[Transcribed by Sharon Strout]