Only a portion of the vessels at the Gosport station were absolutely destroyed. The New York, on the stocks in one of the ship-houses, was totally consumed. The Pennsylvania, Dolphin, and Columbia had nothing saved but the lower bottom timbers; the Raritan was burnt to the water's edge; the Merrimack was burnt to her copper-line and sunk; the Germantown was also burnt and sunk; while the useless old United States, in which Decatur won glory, was not injured; and the Plymouth was not burned, but scuttled and sunk. The same fate overtook the Columbus and Delaware. The Plymouth was afterward raised; so was the Merrimack, and converted into a powerful iron-clad vessel of war.2
The insurgents seized old Fort Norfolk, situated a short distance below the city of Norfolk, on the 21st. It had been used as a magazine, and contained about three hundred thousand pounds of gunpowder and a large quantity of loaded shells and other missiles. On the same day, General Taliaferro issued an order prohibiting the Collector of the port of Norfolk from accepting drafts from the National Government, or allowing the removal of money or any thing else from the Custom House. At the same time troops were hastening to Norfolk from lower Virginia; and on the 22d, three companies of soldiers from Georgia arrived in the express train from Weldon, a portion of whom took post at the Marine Hospital on the Portsmouth side of the river. The hull of the old ship United States was towed down the river, and moored and sunk in the channel, a mile below Fort Norfolk; and a battery of heavy guns was immediately erected at Sewell's Point, and another on Craney Island, to command the entrance to the Elizabeth River and the harbor of Norfolk. The insurgents had now secured a most important military position, as well as valuable materials