James Russell Soley, Professor U. S. Navy, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 7.1, The blockade and the cruisers
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[218] might have taken advantage of the weather to come off from the fort. No attempt was made, however; and when the fog lifted, the Nashville was on fire forward, aft, and amidships. Presently her pivot gun exploded with the heat; next the smoke-stack toppled over; and finally, about one hour after the attack had begun, the magazine blew up, leaving nothing of the vessel but the smoking fragments of her hull.

To the Montauk, the battle had been no more than an hour's target practice of a winter morning. The gunners of Fort McAllister, either unprepared or demoralized, made bad work of it, and struck the ironclad only five times, doing no damage. The gunboats, remaining at a considerable distance down the river, though near enough to fire with effect at the fort, were not injured in the least. After the destruction of the Nashville, the Montauk dropped down the river. On her way she struck and exploded a torpedo, causing a serious leak, but Worden kept on until safely out of range of the fort. The monitor was then run upon a mud flat, which stopped the leak effectually until the injury could be repaired. This was the only casualty in the action—an action which in its neatness and finish left nothing to be desired.

The last of the commerce-destroyers was the Sea King, or Shenandoah. This vessel was a full-rigged ship with auxiliary steam power, of seven hundred and ninety tons, built on the Clyde, and employed in the East India trade. She was a very fast ship, a twenty-four hours run of three hundred and twenty miles being no uncommon thing with her. She cleared from London for Bombay October 8, 1864, her Captain, Corbett, having a power of sale from the owner to dispose of her at any time within six months. She had on board a large supply of coal and provisions; but she was not