The Hatteras tried to prevent the CSS Alabama from running a blockade set up around the port of Galveston, Texas. The Hatteras was blown full of holes and sank to the bottom, taking two men in the engine room with her.

Archived documents state that the two-crew members who died were Irish immigrants who may have joined the U.S. Navy to gain citizenship and they probably had no idea who they were fighting or what they were fighting for. The government in DC used immigrants by the thousands for cannon fodder. In the case of German immigrants, there were whole Regiments that could not even speak english...