Her loss had been heavy and her engines were so battered that her commander ran her ashore, where she was burned to the water's edge.
Out of the misty light burst the _Stonewall Jackson_ and rammed the _Varuna_ on the port side, repeating the blow with a viciousness that stove in the vessel below the water line; but the _Varuna_ swung the ram ahead until her own broadside guns bore, when she planted several 5-inch shells into the _Stonewall Jackson_, which set her on fire and caused her to drift ashore.
But the _Varuna_ had been mortally hurt and was sinking fast.

To quote the words of Commodore Boggs: "In fifteen minutes from the time the _Varuna_ was struck by the _Stonewall Jackson_, she was on the bottom, with only her topgallant forecastle out of the water." But those were exceedingly lively minutes for the _Varuna_ and the other craft in her neighborhood.

Commander Boggs turned her prow toward shore and crowded all steam, firing his guns as the water rose about the trucks.

When the last shell left the side of the sinking vessel the current had reached the mouth of the piece, and some of it was blown out like mist with the shrieking missile.
The moment the bow of the _Varuna_ struck the bank a chain cable was fastened around the trunk of a tree, so as to prevent her from sliding into deep water as she went down and taking the wounded and dead with her.

This was a precaution which would not have occurred to every man in the situation of Commander Boggs.
The daring conduct of this officer brought a tribute from one of our poets, which contains the stanzas: "Who has not heard of the dauntless _Varuna_?
Who shall not hear of the deeds she has done?
Who shall not hear while the brown Mississippi Rushes along from the snow to the sun?
"Five of the rebels like satellites round her, Burned in her orbit of splendor and fear, One like the Pleiad of mystical story Shot terror-stricken beyond her dread sphere." When Boggs' native city heard of his gallant conduct it voted him a sword, and the State of New Jersey did the same.