‘He bade us goodbye…’
George W. Carter of the 16th Connecticut Infantry followed the lead of many of his fellow soldiers and leapt from the damaged steamer onto the deck of. The 20-year-old Company D drummer quickly realized, however, that had begun to sink. He jumped into the churning water and grabbed hold of a wooden plank. For more than an hour, he toiled to stay afloat, hoping for a miracle. But about 2 a.m., the struggle ended. As Corporal George Hollands of the 101st Pennsylvania Infantry recalled:
