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| Source - Fold3 |
From the Speech of Com. Jesse Duncan Elliot, U.S.N., delivered in Hagerstown, Md. (1843) ...:
I [Commodore Elliott] may here relate a deeply affecting scene which occurred at that time [at Sacketts Harbor]. I had scarcely set my foot upon the deck of the Conquest, when a noble young lad named Hatfield, about 15 years of age, observed to his fellow-midshipman Clarke, "My dream is up! I dreamed that Captain Elliott came on board, and that I was killed." And true enough, the little fellow was killed! His leg was taken off just below the knee by a shot from the shore, while we were working up to the battery, against an opposing wind, the magazine of which was exploded on Gen. Pike's brigade; and while I was tying up his leg, and endeavoring to stop the blood, he said it was of no use, for he must die. I replied to him that he should not die, but live to be an admiral. He asked me if he had done his duty, and if I was satisfied with him? I told him I was, and that he was a brave little fellow. He then asked me if I would call on my way home, and tell his father and mother that he had been faithful. I did so. His father was an industrious mechanic, at Albany.
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