PAGE 15
The End of New York
by
On arriving at Union Square, he met a cavalry squad looking for him, and mounting the horse of one of the men, he proceeded with this escort to the upper end of the island, which was now densely packed with people.
The projectiles from the heavy guns of the great ironclad were now falling in the lower part of the city with terrible effect. The Western Union building was shattered from cellar to roof; the City Hall was on fire; so also was St. Paul’s Church and the Herald building. The last-mentioned conflagration was put out by the editors and compositors of that journal–the entire Herald staff being then in the underground press-rooms, busily preparing and working off extras giving the latest details of the bombardment.
The Morse Building was completely demolished by two Krupp shells, and not an edifice in Wall Street, except the sub-Treasury, had escaped total ruin.
The result of the conference of the Safety Committee was the dispatching of a messenger to Sandy Hook, informing General Hancock of the condition of affairs, and asking him to request an armistice for parley.
The “Ideal,” bearing a white flag, was at once dispatched to the Spanish flag-ship, and shortly after the firing ceased.
The Spanish admiral refused to alter the terms already proposed, except that, in view of the injury already inflicted on the city and the probable increased difficulty of collecting the sum demanded, he would agree to allow five days’ time in which to pay the latter, on board his flag-ship.
General Hancock declined to consider this proposal.
“El Cid” now began a new manoeuvre. All the steam-launches of the fleet, provided with long, forked spars extending from their bows, formed in front of her, and, thus preceded, she deliberately steamed up to the Main channel.
The fort on the Hook at once opened upon her, but the shot glanced like dry peas from her armor. She, in return, shelled the fort, the masonry of which literally crumbled before the enormous projectiles hurled against it. Meanwhile, the launches had entered the channel and were picking up such torpedoes as could be detected. Other launches, having no crews on board, but being governed entirely by electric wires, were sent into the channel and caused to drop counter mines, which, on being fired, caused the explosion of such torpedoes as remained: thus making a broad and safe channel for the ironclad to enter.
Finally the remaining launches returned to the “Cid” and evidently reported the channel clear for she boldly steamed into it, stopping only for an instant, when off the end of the peninsula, to send a double charge of grape and canister from her huge guns into the ranks of the fugitives, who were precipitately rushing from the fort.
It was then that General Hancock was killed although the fact has since often been disputed. His body, wounded in a dozen places, was found on the sand near the highest wall of the fort, from the top of which, it is conjectured, he was swept by the fearful hail of the Spanish ironclad.
“El Cid” continued on into the bay, occasionally stopping as signaled by the launches preceding her, when a torpedo was encountered, and finally took up her position within about a mile of Fort Hamilton, and hence about seven miles from the Battery.
As the projectiles from the fort glanced harmlessly from her armor, she paid no attention to that attack, but resumed her fire upon the city.
Shells now began to fall as far up-town as Forty-second Street.
V.
AT THE MERCY OF THE FOE.
Meanwhile, the other four vessels had ceased their bombardment of the batteries, as the latter no longer answered them.
They appeared to have new work in hand.
During the following afternoon a fresh sea-breeze set in. Then a large, swaying globe made its appearance on the deck of each of the vessels. Examination with the telescope showed to the signal men, who had established a new station on the Jersey highlands, that these mysterious spheres were balloons; and that the ships were about to dispatch them, was evident from the fact that small pilot-balloons were soon sent up. These last were wafted directly toward the city.