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that the 16 nine-inch guns madeat Pittsburg for the navy shouldbe forwarded to me with the great-est dispatch, and that 30 thirteen-inch mortars be made as soon aspossible and forwarded to me, to-gether with shells for both gunsand mortars. On the 24th ofAugust I directed the constructionof 38 mortar-boats, and later of 8steam-tugs to mo ve them, and thepurchase and alteration into gun-boats of two strongly built rivervessels,—the New Era , a largeferry-boat, and the Submarine , apowerful snag-boat ; they were re-named Essex and Benton. At mysuggestion and order, the sides ofall these vessels were to be cladwith iron. O 11 the 3d of SeptemberGeneral Meigs advised me to orderfrom Pittsburg fifteen-inch gunsfor my gun-boats, as “able to emptyany battery the enemy could make.”
Work on these gun-boats was driv-en forward night and day. As inthe case of the fortifications, thework was carried on by torchlight.
August 25tli an expedition wasordered under Colonel G. Waagnerwith one regiment, accompaniedby Commander John Rodgers with
two gun-boats, to destroy the enemy’s fortifications that werestructed at Belmont. [See map, page 263.]
August 28th I assigned Brigadier-General U. S. Grant to the command ofSouth-east Missouri, with headquarters at Cairo . He was fully instructedconcerning the actual and intended movements on the Mississippi and the
being con-
more immediate movements upon the Kentucky shore, together with theintention to hold the mouths of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. In hiswritten instructions General Grant was directed to act in concert with Com-mander Rodgers and Colonel Waagner, and to take possession of pointsthreatened by the Confederates on the Missouri and Kentucky shores.
August 31st Captain Neustadter was ordered to Cairo , to select a site oppositePaducah for a battery to command the mouth of the Tennessee river.
September 4th I sent heavy guns and an artillery officer to Cairo , whereGeneral Grant had just arrived from Girardeau . I telegraphed the Presidentinforming him that the enemy was beginning to occupy, on the Kentucky