THE COREAN AFFAIR

Detailed Account of the Treacherous Attack of the Coreans on Our Launches.

Prompt Reply - The Forts Silenced - An Apology Refused - Speedy and Effective Punishment of the Barbarians.

　SAN FRANCISCO, July 15. — The following is a special account of the Corean fight, received by the steam-ship America at Shanghai, having been brought thither by the Palos, which left the Corea on June 3 to get stores and bring up some eight-inch guns from the Ashuelot:

THE SURVEY

　The fleet arrived at Jerome Gulf May 20, and reported ten days’ surveying of the channels between the various islands. finally coming to anchor at a point designated in the French charts Isle Boisee, for three days. A surveying party, away during that time, met some natives, who sent off a communication asking where we were from, and hoping we were well. On Monday of this week a number of Coreans of the third and fifth rank came aboard the Colorado, where they were received by Gov. Low’s interpreters. They were shown about the Colorado, and distinctly told that we meant to send a surveying party up the river, and that our mission was peaceful, and that we should not attack or molest them in any way unless they first assaulted us. They expressed themselves non-committal, and were glad to know our mission was peaceful, and as I believed, were satisfied. On Thursday the Monocacy and Palos, with four steam launches, two from the Colorado, the others from the Alaska and Benecia, left about 10½ A. M., to go up to and pass Kanghoa, an island at the mouth of the River Salee, and survey. The party from the Monocacy, under Capt. McCREA, numbered 170, and that from the Palos, under Commander ROCKWELL, fifty. The launches were manned by eleven men each. Capt. HOMER C. BLAKE was on the Palos. Accompanying the expedition were Mr. COWLE, Private Secretary to Minister LOW, on the Palos; Messrs. R. J. McCASLIN, and ED. H. JUISBURG. Paymaster SPAULDING, of the Palos, was with Lieut. TOTTEN, and Capt. BOSWELL and Mr. SLASSEN, of the Colorado, were with Lieut. MEAD. The boat parties were armed with cutlasses, pistols and Remington rifles. The Benecia launch carried a twenty-five pounder in the bow. The others were provided with twelve-pounders, all having a good supply of shell, canister and shrapnel. Availing themselves of the flood-tide, the launches went ahead, abreast, up the Kanghoa River, sounding as they proceeded, the Palos and Monocacy following at a convenient distance. The boats, which were unmolested for some time, prosecuted their work regularly on the river, which is here quite a mile in width. The day was bright and pleasant, and all went well till they approached the narrow portion of the river, about ten miles from the Colorado. Here a great turnout, of white-coated Coreans was noticed on a bluff of the left bank, with flags flying and presenting quite a martial array. A nearer view indicated their numbers to be about 2,000 men, clothed in the costume of the country, which is a white coat, not unlike the present European overcoat; white pajamas, tide at the ankle, with white socks and light Summer shoe such as are worn by the Chinese.
　There were two red sone forts visible, one on each bank, apparently armed with upward of sixty-nine eighteen-pounders, and guarding the narrow passage or bend of the river. The one on the right bank was the smaller of the too, and was not noticed at all during the engagement, except by a shell or two, sent to find if anybody was stirring therein. But the main fort, built upon a bank, rising nearly a hundred feet from the water’s edge, was evidently the stand-point of the Coreans, and from which they expected to intimidate or drive away in dismay the foreigners. The launches kept steadily at their business without heeding the spectacle presented in the bank.

THE BOMBARDMENT

　The Benecia launch meanwhile dropped astern, owing to her lead-line fouling her screw, so that when the surveying party came opposite the fort she was nearly two miles off. Mr. COWLE took a good observation of the Coreans, and counted more than thirty-six guns in position; besides there were seen countless numbers of gingalls, carried by two men each. These last, with the bannered men, helped to swell the array which formed upon the side and top of the hill behind the stone wall. The turning-point of the river was now almost reached, and when at a distance of about 150 years from the large fort, followed in a few moments by a discharge of guns from the fort on the right bank. The launches at once turned their bows on the main fort, and their guns quickly replied, while the Palos and Monocacy coming up on a five-knot tide, rattled away over the heads of the flotilla with their eight-inch rifled guns. Lieutenant Commodore ROCKWELL, with the Palos, made splendid practice with the bow guns, while Capt. McCREA, who followed in the Monocacy, gave the enemy a full benefit of his broadside battery at close quarters, so close that the vessel grazed some hidden rocks which formed a reef above the bend of the river. Notwithstanding this accident, which displaced and iron plate and caused a leak, the Monocacy kept up a steady and well-directed fire until the forts silenced. During the action there was little or no breeze, and the thick smoke from the shore and the river almost hid the combatants. At intervals, however, there was noticed red sand, with mortar from the walls, flying off in clouds as the shells burst in the works; and in ten minutes from the commencement of the firing the Coreans were driven back, helter-skelter, over the hills. Admiral RODGERS had said before the surveying party set out, “Do not fire until you are fired, don’t be the first to stop firing.” There were no orders given to land, so that after Capt. BLAKE had satisfied himself as to the discomfiture of the enemy, the gun-boats and launches were ordered to move round the bend of the river and anchor a short distance above the scene of action. The only casualties reported were on the Alaska’s launch. A sailor was in the act of pointing a howitzer, when a ball struck him on the side of the head and shoulders. Another had two fingers cut off by the recoil of a gun. It seems strange that with the hot, close firing on the part of the Coreans such small damage should result, but it is believed that this fortunate issue for the boats was owing to the larger guns on the fort being elevated too much. The gun-boats and launches were all more or less struck by balls, and many narrow escapes took place, but fortunately none were badly hit. After the boats had rounded the point, the Coreans again returned to their guns, and in time to open fire upon the launch of the Benecia, which, as before stated, was delayed and left behind. Master SCHRODER, in charge of the launch, did odds and join his companions, and as soon as the fire from the boat was delivered, coolly returned the fire and pushed on up the river. At slack water the boats were headed down the stream again, but before they started on their return to the squadron, a few shells were judiciously thrown over the hill into the fort. This procedure settled affairs for that day. The Coreans finding their forts of no use, even though the Yankees were round the corner and out of sight, concluded to evacuate. They were seen marching out of their works in single file, and making a short route to the woods in the rear. The work of the surveying party being concluded, the vessels returned to the squadron without further molestation.
　[The attack here described is apparently that alluded to by Admiral RODGERS as the “treacherous attack on the 10th.” in the following dispatch to the Navy Department, which was printed in the TIMES JUNE 29. The chief adviser of the King, it would see, brought the reply to the demand for apology, which was substantially that the Coreans refused to hold any intercourse with foreign nations, and that the crew of the General Sherman had been executed under the laws of the land for piracy and murder committed after the wreck. Admiral RODGERS’ redress of the outrage on the 11th is thus described:]

COREA, JUNE 23, 1871

To the Secretary of the Navy:
　The Coreans, not apologizing for their treacherous attack on the 10th, we landed on Kanghoa, took and destroyed the lower fort and the munitions. On the 11th we took another fort, and then stormed and captured the stronghold. Five posts have been taken. The troops which defended them are reported as numbering 11,000. There was desperate hand-to-hand fighting in the citadel. The orduance was destroyed; 481 pieces (principally small brass pieces), very many small arms and fifty flags taken. We counted 243 dead Coreans around the citadel. We had three killed. They were the gallant Lieut McKEE, who was first inside the citadel, killed with bullet and spear; marine DENNIS HANNAHAN, and landsman SETH ALLEN. Our nine wounded are all out of danger and doing well.

(Signed,) JOHN RODGERS,
Commodore United States Navy

GENERAL
　The Detailed account of the first attack on the force composing the expedition of Minister Low to the Corea, and the prompt and effective response by our forces, in which the Corean forts were silenced, reaches us by way of San Francisco and the last Japanese steamer at that port. It appears that this is the attack for which an apology was refused by the Corean authorities, and which Admiral RODGERS on the following day, June 11, punished by the capture and demolition of the Corean stronghold and 481 cannons, and the killing of about 250 of the barbarous murderers of the General Sherman’s crew. It was rumored at Yokohama, when the America sailed, that the British Squadron had been ordered to co-operate with our navy.