In naval actions there is nothing which will carry such terror and dismay among a ship’s company as the bursting of one of their own shells; and the scene which followed the explosion in the turret of the Ticonderoga beggars all description.  Old seamen, who had been in many a hard-fought battle, and had stood at their guns under the most deadly fire the enemy could pour upon them, without flinching, now deserted their stations, and ran about through the blinding and suffocating smoke that filled the turret, with blanched cheeks, trampling each other under their feet, and utterly disregarding the commands of their officers, who ran among them with drawn swords, and endeavored to force them back to their guns.  It was some time before quiet was restored, and then Frank found, to his horror, that, out of twenty-five men which had composed his gun’s crew, only ten were left.  Four had been instantly killed, and eleven badly wounded.  The deck was slippery with blood, and the turret was completely covered with it.  The shrieks and groans of the wounded and dying were awful.  Frank had never before witnessed such a scene, and, for a moment, he was so sick he could scarcely stand.  But he had no time to waste in giving away to his feelings.  After seeing the dead and wounded carried below, he returned to his station, and, with what was left of his gun’s crew, fought bravely during the remainder of the action.

The fight continued until after dark, when the captain, knowing that it would be impossible to capture the fort without the assistance of the troops, ordered a retreat.

That same night a consultation of the naval and military commanders was held, and it was decided to renew the attack on the following morning.  A battery of two thirty-pounder Parrotts was taken off one of the “tin-clads” and mounted on the bank, about half a mile back in the woods, and a mile from the fort.  Captain Wilson, who commanded one of the mosquito boats, was ordered to take command of it, and Frank, at his own request, was permitted to accompany him as his aid.  He started early the next morning with fifty men, who had been detailed from the gun-boats, and at sunrise was at his station.

The battery was masked, and the rebels knew nothing of its existence.  The captain’s orders were, not to fire until they heard the action opened by the iron-clads.  Twenty-eight men were required to man the guns, and the others, armed with Spencer rifles, were to act as sharp-shooters.  Frank, to his surprise, soon learned that this was all the support they were to have, the troops having been ordered to take the same station they had occupied the day before, and to hold themselves in readiness to charge upon the fort, as soon as the iron-clads had silenced the guns.

About ten o’clock the fort commenced firing, and Frank knew that the gun-boats were again under way.  At length a loud report, which he could have recognized among a thousand, blended with the others, and, in obedience to the order of the captain, the men tore away the bushes which had masked the battery, and the fight became general.