The Fortress Monroe correspondent of the New York Times says of the resent engagement at Newport News, between the Confederate steamer Yorktown and some of our gunboats, that:
“The general impression seems to be, among naval men, those who at Newport News witnessed the fight, that the gunboats did not behave in the most creditable manner. Before the Yorktown was made out, owing to the heavy morning mists, two shots were fired by her at the gunboats, when they all got under way at once and steamed down the river away from her, firing as they retreated. They got down very near to the frigates Congress and Cumberland, and then gathered courage and steamed up again to within about two miles and a half of the enemy. They lay there in line of battle, across the river, for two hours, firing at long range, many of them falling short, and few of them good line shots, while the Yorktown’s practice was very good, the shells falling thickly about our boats. During part of this time the Yorktown was hard aground, and had a little of the old Yankee pluck animated the commanding officer of the gunboats, she could have been boarded and carried with but trifling lots, notwithstanding the ‘iron plated sides,’ which seem to have struck terror in to our boats. After an hour or two of this work, the Yorktown rounded up stream and steamed away slowly, yawing now and then, and pitching a shot over to the right and left shores of the river, as a sort of insult to her insignificant foes, and she was gone.”
Daily Richmond Whig, Richmond, VA