"...just as we were training on the battery we were struck by a torpedo, which exploded under our starboard bow, a few feet from the center and some 35 or 40 feet from the bow proper just under our provision store room, which crushed in the bottom of the boat so that the water rushed in like the roar of Niagara. In five minutes the Hold was full of water and the forward part of the gunboat was flooded...One of our heaviest bow guns had been dismounted by the force of the explosion injuring three men."

"Executive Officer Hiram K. Hazlett and the writer were the last two persons to leave the sinking vessel which we did by jumping into the "dingey" which was manned by two sailors, and awaited us at the stern...We moved off just in time to escape being swallowed up in the seething caldron of foaming water... Nothing of the CAIRO could be seen 12 minutes after the first explosion, expecting the smoke stacks, and the flag staff from which still floated the flag above the troubled waters."

Faced with a small navy and a scarcity of warships, the Confederacy was forced to rely on a few heavily-armored rams and ingenious "infernal machines" for inland water and coastal defense.

The "infernal machines" were called torpedoes in the 1860's, today we know them as mines. The variety of Civil War torpedoes were almost endless. Most were anchored in stationary positions, or carried into action on long poles or spars by warships. The torpedoes could be detonated by friction devices, and some even electrically detonated.

The infernal machines were not taken seriously by the Union Navy until the morning of December 12, 1862. The sinking of the CAIRO changed their perceptions. During the remainder of the Civil War Confederate torpedoes were responsible for the destruction of numerous Union vessels. They were inexpensive to produce, but were deadly. The Union Navy had learned to fear and respect the"infernal machines."