U.S.S. MONTICELLO,
Hampton Roads, May 22, 1861.
SIR: In compliance with your request that I render you a statement in writing of the part in which the steamer Thomas Freeborn took in firing into an unfinished battery above Sewell’s Point, I have to state that after we had fired a number of times from the U.S.S. Monticello, the steamer Thomas Freeborn came along and Commander Ward came on board. I went with him in his boat to the Thomas Freeborn, and took the vessel at his request in as close to the earthworks as I thought necessary. Commander Ward then fired a number of shot from his forward gun, a heavy 32-pounder, which did some slight injury to the embrasures. There were some twelve or fourteen shots fired in all, and the Thomas Freeborn then withdrew from her position and returned to Hampton Roads. Which on board the Freeborn, I did not see any armed men in the battery nor any pieces of ordnance.
I am, respectfully, your obedience servant,
D.L. BRAINE,
Lieutenant, Commanding.
Captain HENRY EAGLE, U.S. NAVY.
Sources
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Series I, Vol. 5. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1897.
Spirit of '61 