Honor to the brave men of Portland! They have done a gallant deed, and one it promptly. Napoleon said that the rarest courage was the two-o’clock-in-the-morning kind-meaning that. courage which is equal to sudden emergencies.— The Portland people have that kind. It is difficult to imagine circumstances more completely unexpected than those which presented themselves to these alert New Englanders on the morning of Saturday An armed revenue vessel bad been spirited away during the night, no one knew exactly how, or by whom, though doubtless the quick Yankee wit of the Portlanders had guessed that rebel pirates had a hand in the work. There was no vessel-of-war, no naval officer even in the harbor. There was, in fact, nobody who had any legal authority to do anything, but there were several hundred citizens, sailors, and soldiers, stout hearted and determined to do what they could toward stopping a piratical cruise. They took the two readiest steamers—the Chesapeake and Forest City—and, with only a few light guns started after the pirate, pushed right on in spite of her 32-pound shot, compelled the rebel buccaneers to abandon and destroy her, and fully captured both them and the vessel in which they had entered the harbor.
There is no naval hero who would not be proud to have accomplished this daring feat. Every man who had a share in it earned honorable fame. The names of the leaders come to us by telegraph.—Capt. Willets commanded the Chesapeake; Capt. John J. Liscomb the Forrest City. Capt. Leighton, Government Inspector, took charge of the Chesapeake‘s battery; Col. Mason and Capt. Beal commanded the soldiers on board the steamers.—Frederick R. Harris led the citizen volunteers. They have deserved well of their country, and shall be held in grateful and enduring remembrance by the nation whom their swift valor has saved from loss and disgrace.— Tribune.
The Alleghanian, Ebensburg, PA
