Preparations are being made to blow up the wreck of the gunboat, Diana, sunk in the Teche, just above Franklin in 1863. They will soon have the whole mass of timbers out of the way. The Diana was a river streamer fitted up as a gunboat by the Federals, captured by Louisianians and Texans under Col. Henry Gray near Pattersonville in 1863, using small arms and the Valverde Battery in the attack. She was put in command of Capt. Semmes, son of the hero of “Service Afloat,” who used her above Franklin in keeping back the flanking force under Gen. Grover which came from Grand Lake by Mrs. Porter’s. The Diana was fired by Capt. Semmes when the Federals entered Franklin from below, and the explosion took place where the wreck now lies embedded in a mud flat. Capt. Semmes, after putting fire to the Diana, jumped into the bayou and swam ashore, and was captured by Federal Soldiers while attempting to make his escape across W. P. Allen’s field to Bayou Choupique, in the rear of Franklin.
