I can't deny or confirm these allegations, Gary, other than to state that a line officer of his period would not allow a lack of decorum or dicipline that an unbuttoned tunic might pose and would have acted to protect his command by having ports shut. The may have sweated, but they were not shot.

The Western River War is covered in ORN, Series I, Volume XXIII.

I've been looking at images taken at various times since her 1964 recovery. It appears to me that the U.S.S. Cairo might have waded into more than one torpedo at the time of her sinking in Dec. of 1862. The destruction of the amount of her fore on the portside cannot be accounted for by me by one charge.