20/21 He was suffering from a painful wound in the hand, and when helped on board of the _Deerhound_ was in an exhausted condition. The captain of the yacht, after picking up thirty-nine men, including a number of officers, instead of delivering them to Captain Winslow, as he was in honor bound to do, edged away from the scene, and, putting on all steam, did not pause until he reached Southampton. The _Kearsarge_ picked up the men that remained and took them into Cherbourg. The Confederate commander and his sympathizing British friends offered all sorts of excuses for his defeat. Some of them were ingenious, but none was the true one. |