[The following article from the distinguished engineer and accomplished soldier who made the heroic defence of
, has been delayed much longer than we had intended by circumstances over which we had no control.]
Dear sir: During last summer several articles appeared in Northern papers, giving accounts of
Russian torpedoes and torpedo-boats in the
Danube, in which erroneous statements were made of the use of those engines of destruction at
Charleston during our late civil war. To give a correct account of their use, as well as of other means employed by me to defend that city against the powerful naval and land batteries of the
Federals, I prepared a paper on the subject for the
Philadelphia Weekly Times, which, through accidental delays in transmission, did not appear until the first week in October.
Since then, an interesting article on “torpedo service,” by
Commander W. T. Glassel, C. S. N., who commanded the “David” in its gallant night attack on the New Ironsides in the outer harbor of
Charleston, Oct. 5, 1863, has appeared in last November's number of the
Southern Historical Society Papers, which enables me to correct a few slight errors I had made in my narrative of that attack.
I have added als) to my article a few remarks taken from a Northern source which
