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Show (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) That American 'Devil' ' I kIIE war now raging in the Far East is not the first time that American and Japanese armed forces have been pitted against each other. Seventy-odd years ago they fought a fierce naval battle and thereby hangs a tale of American - daring and American heroism which compares favorably with the stories that have recently been coming com-ing out of Hawaii. Wake and Midway Mid-way islands and the Philippines. This battle took place in the summer sum-mer cf 1803 during the Civil war. Among the United States naval officers, of-ficers, who were detailed to patrol the high seas in search of armed Confederate vessels that were preying prey-ing upon Union commerce, was i David Stockton McDougal, commander com-mander of the steam frigate, Wyoming. Ordered to cruise" in Asiatic wa-ters, wa-ters, McDougal arrived in the Orient h to find that danger from Southern i ,. - raiders was not the only threat to the safety of American shipping. For the mikado of Japan had issued an . edict expelling all foreigners from the Flowery Kingdom, and fanatical fanat-ical Japanese clansmen already had made several attacks upon American Amer-ican and other foreign vessels in the Straits of Shimonoseki. McDougal proceeded immediately to the scene of hostilities and on July 16 steamed into the straits. Ahead of him were bluffs from 50 to 150 feet high, on top of which were fortifications whose guns could sweep the waters of the straits. ' Besides these land batteries, there were inree native vessels in readiness readi-ness to repel any invader. It was. a situation which might have daunted the bravest captain that ever trod the deck of a man-of-wsr. "McDougal was the type COMMANDER D. S. McDOUGAl, who didn't know what fear was, which, combined with a clear insight in-sight into the motives for action, made an ideal officer," says Maclay in his "History of the Navy." "Making directly for these vessels, ves-sels, he shook out his colors, but reserved his lire, intending to at- ; tack the vessels first and give his attention to the batteries afterwards. after-wards. The signt of the American Has seemed to act like oil on the fire, for now the Japanese opened t- from other batteries with savage ferocity. McDougal's shift from the main channel somewhat disconcerted disconcert-ed their plan, as seen by the fact r. that most of their shots took effect in the Wyoming's rigging." The American vessel was now engaged with the three Japanese ships. By a well-directed fire the American gunners succeeded in sinking two of them, despite the fact that the Wyoming had run aground t and was in danger of being rammed . by the third. But the fire of the ; frigate soon drove that enemy ship off and silenced her guns. Then McDougal concentrated on the shore batteries and, while deliberately delib-erately retracing his course through the straits, kept up a most effective fire. The Japanese clansmen, fearless fear-less as they were, were greatly impressed im-pressed by McDougal's boldness. They believed that he possessed more than human nerve in thus running run-ning the gantlet of fire which they had prepared for him and long afterward aft-erward they spoke respectfully of the "American Devil" who had defeated de-feated them in the Straits of Shimonoseki. Shi-monoseki. An even higher tribute was paid to him by a fellow-American. Theodore Theo-dore Roosevelt said "Had this action ac-tion occurred at any other time than during the Civil war, its fame would have echoed all over the world." But the memory of Gettysburg Gettys-burg and Vicksburg was fresh in the minds of the people of the North. So it was easy for them to overlook the valor of an obscure sea captain winning a minor battle on the other side of the world, heroic though his achievement had been. Bora in Ohio in 18C9, Stockton entered en-tered the navy at the age of 19 and served as a midshipman on the sloop. Natchez, in the West Indies squadron from 1829 to 1831. After several years' service in the Orient, he was commissioned a captain in 1864 and placed in command of the steam sloop, Powhatan. In 1870 he became commander of the south squadron of the Pacific fleet and in 1873 he was made a rear-admiral. He was then placed on the retired list after nearly half, a century in the service. He died in San Francisco Fran-cisco on August 7, 1882. |