History of the Gun-boats.

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each of about six hundred tons, to draw six feet, to carry thirteen heavy guns, to be plated with iron two and a half inches thick, and to steam nine miles per hour. They were one hundred and seventy-five feet long, and fifty-one and a half feet wide; the hulls of wood; their sides projected from the bottom of the boat to the water-line at an angle of about thirtyfive degrees, and from the water-line the sides fell back at about the same angle to form a slanting casemate, the gundeck being but a foot above water. This slanting casemate extended across the hull, near the bow and stern, forming a quadrilateral gun-deck. Three 9 or 10 inch guns were placed in the bow, four similar ones on each side, and two smaller ones astern. The casemate inclosed the wheel, which was placed in a recess on the stern of the vessel. The plating was two and a half inches thick, thirteen inches wide, and was rabbeted on the edges to make a more perfect joint."

These seven vessels were begun and carried forward with immense energy, and were finished and ready for armament within one hundred days after the signing of the contract. The first of them, and, indeed, the first United States ironclad, with her boilers and engines on board, was launched in Carondelet, Missouri, on the 12th of October, 1861. She was named the St. Louis by Admiral Foote; but when the fleet was transferred from the War Department to the Navy, this name was changed to the De Kalb, there being another commissioned vessel at that time named the St. Louis. Then followed the Carondelet, Cincinnati, Louisville, Mound City, Cairo, and Pittsburg. Shortly after, the most powerful vessel of them all, and which played an important part in the war as the flag-ship of Admiral Foote-the Benton-was altered and plated from the basis of a very large and stout snag-boat that had borne the same name. Some smaller

*Boynton's "History of the Navy during the Rebellion," vol. i., p. 501.

boats, partially armored, were added, and thus, in an incredibly short time, there was prepared "a powerful squadron, aggregating five thousand tons, capable of steaming at nine knots per hour, each heavily armored, fully equipped, and ready for their armament of one hundred and seven large guns."

This rapid generalization does not convey any conception of the incessant detail and the wearing toil, night and day, week-days and Sundays, of those who were chiefly concerned in the getting up, or extemporizing, as it were, of this fleet, whose peculiar character necessitated the invention of new machinery, and the establishment of new navy yards, dock yards, rolling-mills, machine-shops, foundries, forges, and sawmills. "The timber to form the hulls of the vessels was as yet uncut in the forests, and the engines to drive them were unbuilt." Of course the general supervision of this work-certainly during the latter half of it--and the impelling will that carried it all forward, and brought it up to a point where it was wrought into a most complete and formidable instrumentality of destruction, without which the power of rebeldom at the West could not have been broken-this undoubtedly was

Anxieties and Encouragements.

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his who mainly bore its responsibility; but, like the labors of Perry in constructing his gun-boat fleet on Lake Erie, while the work was arduous, it was the sure means of final success.

The letters of Captain Foote betray the intense anxiety that he felt, but they bespeak at the same time the unflinching spirit of the man in carrying on this anomalous work, which was, as has been remarked, wholly uncongenial to him. He wished to surround himself with naval men, and he succeeded in doing so to a considerable extent; but his sailor soul was harassed by having to operate through the Army Department,. through Army agents and civil contractors, and landsmen and river men of all kinds, some of the latter being most finished specimens of Western Yankees intensified.

But there were some encouraging features. The whole country was looking on with interest; and at Washington. Secretary Welles, and, above all, Foote's warm personal friends, Gustavus Vasa Fox, the Assistant-Secretary of the Navy, one of the most able and far-sighted men in the government, and Commodore Joseph Smith, who from the earliest was a main promoter of the iron-clad innovation-these, as far as they had time and opportunity, were unwearied in their aid. A few extracts from Commodore Smith's letters, written at this period, will close the chapter. Under the date of October 25, 1861, he writes:

"Great excitement prevails on account of the fall of Lexington, and it seems that General Fremont has incurred the displeasure of many for not supporting Colonel Mulligan better. What the result may be is yet to be seen. We are behind in equipment, for want of guns of the proper kind. Rifled cannon may be very useful in certain positions and cases, but my opinion is that heavy shot from smooth bores will be more destructive than the rifled projectiles. Some of each may be well. Missouri and Kentucky seem now to be the most interesting points, and we should have double the men in those regions that we have. I think the Department will be disposed to favor you, for none in the Navy stand before you. You see what changes in squadrons have been made-a

lieutenant in command of one of our largest ships! It is said that our Navy officers are too old-be it so; I am ready to be put into the hopper to be ground over again. Don't know what the Board will do, and

care less.

"Pity our élite of the Navy could not have let well enough alone, and left the Department to furlough inefficient officers while it had the power to do so. Oh, my country! I feel for her misfortune and fear for her destiny. But there is a higher Power, and I trust after He has sufficiently scourged us we shall return to our duty and to peace. We are too sordid for patriotism, and until the selfish principle shall be eradicated we shall continue to suffer."

Under October 31st he writes:

"I understand all your embarrassments; but if any man can overcome them, you can. I spoke to the Secretary about sending men to you, and I understand they will be taken from Fort Ellsworth, near Alexandria, and sent to you forthwith-and good men they are. We are pressed here for supplies, all transportation being cut off except by the Baltimore Railroad. Supplies now are at a most ruinous price, but we hope soon to open the Potomac by upsetting the batteries studded on the Virginia bank of that river. What are to be the next movements of the Army of the Potomac I do not know. I hope when they do move they will sweep clean as they go. I have seen the man here who furnished the iron for plating your boats; it is sufficient to break, or stop, or turn the enemy's shot, I think."

He says, December 31:

"I submitted your general orders to Dahlgren, who said they could not be criticised. It is difficult to prepare a flotilla in the circumstances in which you are placed; but you will master it, and come out all right. We are going at the rate of $200,000 per diem, and upon the rag system. You have read Seward's reply to Lord John Russell's demand. It is ingenious, gassy, too long, but able. Our diplomacy with England stands 'Wilkes, vs. Apology.' We shall, I trust, strike a death-blow to the Confederate hopes before many months pass; if we do not, our country will be in a lamentable condition. The black clouds around us look threatening; but I trust they have a silver lining which will dispel them after a time."

CHAPTER XIV.

FIRST OPERATIONS OF "FOOTE'S FLOTILLA."-THE ACTION AT LUCAS'S BEND, AND RECONNOITRING EXPEDITIONS.

Now that the war is over, we can afford to give our whilom Southern foes the credit of great ability in military affairs, and to recognize the truly formidable nature of the rebellion that was organized against the national life. They certainly far surpassed us at the more calm and sluggish North in the force, rapidity, and skill of the early operations and dispositions of the war. From the fact also that there was a real despotism at the South, and a spirit of intense, passionate concentration upon one subject, the Southerners hurled themselves with desperate energy into the struggle. In point of territory, also, the country was about equally divided; for the Ohio River really formed the northern defensive line of the rebel states. Kentucky's neutrality was of such a nature as to give free scope to the enemy's operations; the Mississippi River below Columbus was entirely sealed up; in Missouri the rebellion had a strong basis for attack upon the Northwestern States; and, in fact, the rebel line presented an almost unbroken front of fortified posts from the mouth of the Ohio to the mouth of the Potomac. Success in Virginia alone could avail but little to break this line of defense unless at the West it was penetrated and cut in two. Vast masses of Southern troops were concentrated in Tennessee between Nashville and the Mississippi River, and also in Eastern Tennessee; but how to come at these, and how to project and maintain Northern arınies in hostile states, so far from the base of supplies, was a difficult question, and, at the time, one wholly incapable of