Ironclad Captain by Jay Slagle

Author:Jay Slagle [Slagle, Jay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Historical
ISBN: 9780873385503
Google: F7upmCqjOxQC
Publisher: Kent State University Press
Published: 1996-01-15T03:36:58+00:00

Foote was then assisted to his cabin, weak and trembling from his emotional farewell. At 3 P.M. the former Confederate steamer DeSoto dropped down to the Benton to convey the commodore to Cairo. With the crew looking on, Foote was gently half-carried by Captain Davis and Lieutenant Phelps to the transport. After he had been placed on a chair on the upper guards facing the crew, some minutes passed before the DeSoto cast off. The correspondent continued:

As he looked at the Benton, perhaps for the last time, and saw the many familiar faces that fixed their kind eyes upon him so earnestly, his trembling hand frequently sought his quivering lip, and nervously twitched his whiskers. One could see his efforts to suppress his feeling, but nature prevailed, and the brave officer covered his wan face with a fan he held to dissipate the heat of the afternoon, and wept like a child.

The bell was rung, and the wheels splashed mournfully, and three loud, long and ringing cheers were given by the crew. The Commodore stood up on his crutches as the DeSoto moved up the broad Mississippi, and with tremendous voice said: “God bless you all! Heaven knows how hard it is for me to leave you! Better and braver men than you never trod a deck. I would much rather stay with you and die with you than go away. But my duty to my country compels me to yield to stronger, though I hope not more willing hands. God bless you, my brave men, God bless you all!”11

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