is my third note-the two first written in great haste, at times when I really had my hands full. Now I write with a sore and heavy head. Day before yesterday, while on board the De Soto, looking to their way of getting guns on board, a spar broke, the pieces falling some fifteen feet. I found myself knocked over and my head badly cut. I have suffered with headache and nausea a good deal since, but these are becoming less. I am thankful to have escaped so easily, and, for me, I have been very patient.

"Some four of the so-called 'rams' are here, and one or two more are expected to arrive soon. General Quimby came down yesterday with a battery of artillery and some infantry and cavalry. I think now the plan adopted in the proposed attack will be what you and General Pope had agreed to undertake. There is a flag of truce here this morning, making bitter complaint that two of the two hundred and two exchanged prisoners sent down by the Army for the commodore to deliver at Fort Pillow were sick of the small-pox. Nothing, of course, was known of the condition of the men by the commodore. They were sent down in the boat in which they came from Cairo. Lieutenant McGunngle now has the St. Louis. Mr. Erben is adrift again. Lieutenant Hall, who went to New York by summons of the Retiring Board, has returned to Cairo. Captain came down to the fleet, arriving just in time to witness the fight, and applied to be sent to Cairo to superintend work on the Eastport, or to St. Louis to perform similar duty, and thither he has gone. This looks as if pressure of public opinion in Boston sent him out. There is a good deal of sickness. I shall have to stop, as I am increasing my headache. There are many inquiries for the news from you. You carry with you the earnest wishes of the entire flotilla for your speedy recovery and quick return. While I, who must needs feel your absence more than all others, desire greatly to see you return to finish the work that is of right yours to do, I am exceedingly anxious that you should not return too soon. The climate is a trying one, and you should feel quite sure that you are entirely recovered before you come.

"Respectfully and most sincerely your friend,

S. L. PHELPS."

"U. S. GUN-BOAT 'BENTON,' NEAR FORT PILLOW,

May 22, 1862.

"MY DEAR SIR,―This morning I had the pleasure to receive your most welcome letter of the 19th inst., and avail myself now of a quiet moment, before going to bed, to give you what little gossip I can recall re

lating to the fleet, that may serve to interest you, and to thank you for your letter. I am feeling very comfortable for the time, the doctor having just bathed my sore head, and put me in good-humor for the nonce. I have been about a good deal to-day, and by to-morrow I shall be myself again, ready for any thing but long exposure to the sun.

"The Mound City is now here, ready for service again, and the Cincinnati will be ready in about one week. It is strange how that inevitable month in the case of the Eastport drags its slow length along; never beginning always one day in advance of present time. To-day's mail informs us that she will be ready in one month-so did the mail on the 22d of April last. General Quimby examined the river bank opposite Fulton to-day, and the guns have arrived to put in battery there, so that by the day after to-morrow we may hope to have something doing. The commodore sent Captain McGunngle down with the party reconnoitring. Seven gun-boats are reported at Fulton. Driving those and the rams away with a battery, so as not to be in our way while under the fort, is, of course, leaving us free for the main work. Some of the boats are secured to a considerable extent about the bow and stern, and all have logs suspended along the sides where there is no plating. We are putting railroad iron on the stern and quarters of this vessel. The rebels have dismounted nearly every gun on their vessels, depending on smallarms and rams. Jeff. Thompson, the nightmare of every port commander on the Mississippi, is the commodore of the rebel fleet just below us. Yet the commandant at New Madrid this night lies in an unquiet bed, assured that the immortal Jeff. is after him with those naked and starved swamp-rats. The Taylor* and Lexington are forced out of the Tennessee by low water, and will join the fleet here, being much needed. Will you believe it, application was made for them to remain at Cairo to protect that place, there being considerable apprehension? The Conestoga is to look after Hickman and Columbus, and will be within call of Cairo. Affairs go on much as usual with the squadron. Some few changes among the lower officers caused by sickness. Mr. Parker has gone as fourth master to the Louisville. Mr. Reed has applied for a master-mateship on board the Great Western. I suggest sending Mr. Wilkins there, and keeping Mr. Reed here as the best of the two for our purposes. Cap

* This was the original name of the boat, which was called after General and President Taylor; but toward the close of the war she began to be called the Tyler, which makes some confusion even in official reports. We have chosen to call her uniformly by her original title.

tain Walke I have not seen for several days. Little Thompson is very busy getting his vessel secured so that when the rebels 'come around the Point' again he can 'pitch into them.' Of the Cairo nothing is known, except that she was heard of to-day as wanting coal, being about out of that commodity, and pretty much ashore for provisions. The St. Louis I am satisfied will now be found up to time every where. That hospitalboat has not yet come down. It takes so long to do any thing! There are a good many sick-in this vessel more than one in ten.

"Sanford is not here, having gone to look after the ordnance at Cairo and St. Louis, and now is gone to the latter place. I can not, therefore, deliver your messages. I, too, wish an exception could be made in his case without a dangerous and ruinous precedent. I received notice from Mr. Grimes, through Mr. Whittlesey, of the action of the Naval Committee on the nominations before it was published. I should most certainly let -'s vanity have full swing. It will yet hang him. He only follows his master in attacks on the flotilla. We can afford to let both go unnoticed. If familiar with Sancho's 'saws,' you will remember one applicable to his case.

"May 23.—There is nothing new this morning. Mrs. Phelps will probably have the pleasure of seeing you in Cleveland, as she is about leaving Paducah to go to my father's in Ohio. I trust you are improving as rapidly and surely as the universal desire of the flotilla would have you. You could wish no more.

"Very respectfully and truly yours,

S. L. PHELPS."

"U. S. FLAG-SHIP BENTON,' OFF FORT PILLOW,

May 28, 1862.

"MY DEAR SIR,—I was a good deal disappointed this morning not to have heard from you either directly or through Commodore Davis. I, however, have seen a paragraph taken from the Cleveland papers stating that you are improving in health since causes of excitement have been removed.

'I am like the host twice made glad—glad because the people manifest an appreciation of your character and services, and glad because the same people have concluded to let you get well and in a fit condition to return to us. All the gun-boats are being secured as far as possible against rams, by putting railroad iron about the bows and sterns, and slinging logs about the sides. This vessel is being secured extensively. I have had three bars of railroad iron secured between and along the

fan-tails, so as to prevent cutting there, and also heavy frames inclosing rudders, and ironed. Along the casemate, where the iron is light, I have had 4-inch plate flanged and firmly bolted, to increase the strength of the angle at that vulnerable point. If we have time to secure the bows with 3-inch plates already here, we will be able to split any boat that hits us there.

"Colonel Ellet is here now with some half-dozen rams. I am exceedingly glad that no naval officers were asked to take these same rams. They serve to count as it is; and if we can get among the rebel fleet, and by our fire prevent the use of their guns, these rams ought to be of service in sinking the rebel craft, which, on account of their being so stuffed with cotton, is a difficult thing to accomplish with shot alone. I have written this amid great confusion and many interruptions. I have been thinking how much I had reason to be thankful for in the fortune that has befallen me in this war. The success with the crazy Conestoga, the transfer to this fine command, with you as commander-in-chief, and now, in your temporary absence, with Commodore Davis in your place, is a series of good luck that I am fully sensible of, and, I trust, duly grateful for. Few, if any, have been so favored.

"Respectfully and very truly yours,

S. L. PHELPS."

Ellet's rams, according to the writer's testimony, did effective work a few days after this at the great fight at Memphis; but the following extract from a letter, dated June 4th, is very amusing:

“Our Ram Colonel is as crazy as our friend Sturges. He has been writing absurd things to the commodore, quoting his instructions from the War Department to prove that he is not under orders of the naval officer commanding; and he proposed running the fire of the fort and attacking the rebel fleet below. In his letters to the War Department, he styles his mode of warfare as peculiar, and not likely to be approved of by naval officers; and that, therefore, it is not possible that he should be restrained by their authority. The War Department is cautious in replying; but, upon the whole, desires that the naval commander should not interfere, unless the operations of the Ram Colonel would greatly interfere with the regular naval operations, or imperil public interests, or to that effect. The Ram Colonel wrote that he proposed immediately to proceed against the rebel fleet, passing the fire of Fort Pillow. The commodore

replied that while he did not approve of the enterprise, he would offer no opposition, and wished him all luck. Two or three days after, sure enough, the Ram Colonel got under way in a rain-squall, and started down around Craighead Point, followed by the junior rams. Head ram had not passed from our view before a fire was opened from the fort, and. ram's head came around double quick, and all the rams paddled back, followed by a sharp fire from the fort, though we could not in the rain judge of how the shot fell. A few minutes after our rams had come up, two rebel rams appeared round the Point, and, as plainly as rams ever talked, said, 'Come on, Yankee rams; we are here on neutral ground ready to butt our difficulties out;' but Yankee rams said not a word. The conclusion is, we shall hear no more from our Ram Colonel about running batteries."

Paymaster Wise writes, May 25th:

"As long as you remain in Cleveland, we feel that you are yet our dear flag-officer, only away for a short time; but if you go to New York, we fear they won't let you come back."

Quartermaster-General Meigs says at the close of a business

letter:

"I regret that your wound should have compelled you to leave the flotilla, built up by your exertions, and led to victory, before its work was all completed by a junction with the fleet from below; but congratulate you upon the successes you were allowed to obtain, and upon the love and admiration which you have secured from all true Americans."

Although sick and weak, he seems during his stay at Cleveland to have written much, especially in favor of the claims of certain naval officers, to obtain for them positions and commands which he thought were deserved for past faithful services. He did not forget his friends; he followed up their claims with great persistency until he had secured the prize. They knew they could depend upon his practical support in the struggle for honorable advancement, and this knit him to them with hooks of steel. One of them says:

"It is no fault of yours that I am not to be confirmed—indeed, you have labored hard for it; and if it should be so decided that we do not