ERICSSON'S BATTERY. 



EXPEDITIONS. 



287 



turbance subside, although, as a precautionary 

 measure, the sick person is kept in camp until 

 the ninth day. No marks of the eruption (as 

 is pitting, &c.,) have been left in cases 

 examined that were treated by the remedy. 



3. With regard to the medicine acting (as is 

 believed by the Indians) in tho way of a pre- 

 ventive in those exposed to the infection, it is 

 curious to note, that iu the camps where the 

 remedy has been used, the people keep a weak 

 infusion of the plant constantly prepared, and 

 take a dose occasionally during the day, so as 

 to " keep the antidote in the blood." 



In the discussion which followed the reading 

 of this paper, all the speakers concurred in the 

 desirability of requesting Mr. Miles to procure 

 a further supply of the root of the Sarracenia 

 purpurea, with the view of having its anti- 

 varioloid powers tested. 

 ERICSSON'S BATTERY. (See NAVY.) 

 EVANS, JOHN, M. D., an American geologist, 

 born in Portsmouth, N. H., Feb. 14, 1812, son of 

 Hon. Richard E., Judge of the Supreme Court of 

 N. II., died April 13, 1861. He graduated at the 

 St. Louis Medical College, and was engaged, soon 

 after taking his degree, as assistant in the geo- 

 logical survey of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, 

 and Nebraska, under the charge of Dr. David 

 Dale Owen. While engaged in this survey he 

 first attracted the notice of scientific men by 

 his discovery and description of a large deposit 

 of fossil bones of extinct species of mammalia in 

 the " Mauvaises Terres " of Nebraska. This dis- 

 covery was deemed of such importance by Eu- 

 ropean geologists, that one of the most eminent 

 of their number was immediately sent to exain- 

 e the collections as well as the locality from 

 hich they had been taken. The U. S. Gov- 

 nment soon after commissioned him to carry 

 the geological survey of- Washington and 

 regon territories. He had, after several years 

 severe labor, completed this survey, and after 

 iting for a short time as geologist of the Chiri- 

 qui commission, proceeded to Washington to 

 prepare and superintend the publication of an 

 elaborate report of his surveys of Oregon and 

 Washington, where he was attacked with ty- 

 phoid pneumonia, which speedily proved fatal. 

 EXPEDITIONS, MILITARY AND NAVAL. 

 .t the commencement of the war the paucity 

 f available vessels in the navy, and the large 

 umber required to maintain an efficient block- 

 "e over an extended coast line, rendered it 

 ifficult to spare a naval force sufficient for 

 nterprises, the importance of -which was fully 

 derstood by the Government ; but as soon 

 a moderate blockading force was sup- 

 ilied, attention was turned to the organiza- 

 "on of a series of expeditions, having for their 

 'bject the capture of the best harbors on the 

 coast, and the taking possession of extended 

 tracts of country in their vicinity. The moral 

 effect of these movements, in dividing the at- 

 tention of the Confederate army, and exciting 

 their alarm for their homes, as many of their 

 regiments were from the seaboard and Gulf 



States, -was a matter of quite as much import- 

 ance as the actual territory seized. 



Six of these expeditious have been under- 

 taken ; all of them planned and two of them 

 wholly executed in 1861, -while some of the 

 others have not yet completed their work. The 

 order of their departure was as follows : 



1. The Hatteras Expedition. On the 13th of 

 August, when General Wool took command 

 at Fortress Monroe, he found that preparations 

 had already been made for an expedition to the 

 North Carolina coast. Hatteras Inlet, the 

 point of destination, was a gap in the sandy 

 barrier which lines the coast of North Carolina, 

 about 18 miles S. W. of Cape Hatteras, and 160 

 miles below Fortress Monroe. Its channel was 

 intricate but accessible without difficulty to 

 those who were accustomed to it, provided the 

 weather was good. This and Ocracoke Inlet 

 were the principal entrances to Pamlico Sound, 

 a large body of water lying between this sandy 

 beach and the mainland of North Carolina, in 

 which there was good anchorage, smooth water, 

 and fine harbors. Hatteras Inlet would admit 

 vessels drawing 7 feet water, but its tortuous 

 channel, from which the Confederate author- 

 ities had removed all the buoys, made it difficult 

 to enter in rough weather, without danger of 

 grounding. On the sandy beach, commanding 

 the inlet, the Confederate forces had erected, 

 during the summer, two forts the larger, named 

 Fort Hatteras, being intended for 15 guns, 

 though only 10 had been mounted ; the smaller 

 for 7 guns, of which 5 had been mounted. 

 These forts were built of sand, and were 20 

 feet wide at top, and turfed. They had each a 

 bomb-proof, the one at the larger fort capable 

 of protecting about400 men ; that at the smaller 

 300. The guns were mounted en barbette, (that 

 is, on the top of the earthworks.) The guns on 

 both forts were thirty-two pounders, except 

 one eight-inch shell gun on Fort Hatteras. Most 

 of these particulars had been communicated to 

 the Federal authorities about the 1st of August 

 by Mr. Daniel Campbell, master of the schooner 

 Lydia Frances, which had been wrecked about 

 the 1st of May on the coast near Hatteras Inlet, 

 who had been detained as a prisoner at the in- 

 let for three months. The expedition intended 

 for the capture of these forts consisted of the 

 United States steamers Minnesota, Capt. Van 

 Brune-, Wabash, Capt. Mercer; Monticello, 

 Commander Gillis; Pawnee, Commander Ro- 

 wan, and Harriet Lane, Capt. Faunce ; the U. 

 S. chartered steamers Adelaide, Commander 

 Stellwagen, and George Peabody, Lieut. Leroy, 

 and the steamtug Fanny as transports, to- 

 gether with schooners towed by the steamers 

 having surf-boats on them. The steam frigate 

 Susquehanna and the sailing frigate Cumber- 

 land were ordered also to join the expedition. 

 The naval portion of the expedition was under 

 the command of Commodore S. H. Stringham, 

 whose broad pennant was hoisted on the Min- 

 nesota. To this naval force was added a body 

 of about 880 troops, consisting of 500 of the 



