339
to Washington, where I was introduced to the Secretary of the Navy , theHon. Gideon Welles , and to Captain G-. V. Fox, afterward Assistant Secretary.In the August following I was to construct 7 gun-boats, which, according tothe contract, were to draw 6 feet of water, carry 13 heavy guns each, be platedwith 2i-iuch iron, and have a speed of 9 miles an hour. The Be Kalb (atfirst called the St. Louis ) was the type of the other six, named the Caron-delet, Cincinnati, Louisville, Mound City, Cairo, and Pittsburgh . They were175 feet long, 51i feet beam; the fiat sides sloped at an angle of aboutthirty-five degrees, and the front and rear caseinates corresponded with thesides, the stern-wheel being entirely covered by the rear casemate. Eachwas pierced for three bow guns, eight broadside guns (four on a side), andtwo stern guns. Before these seven gun-boats were completed, I engaged toconvert the snag-boat Ben ton into an armored vessel of still larger dimensions.
After completing the seven and dispatching them down the Mississippi toCairo , I was requested by Foote (who then went by the title of “ flag-officer,’’the title of admiral not being recognized at that time in our navy), as a specialfavor to him, to accompany the Benton, the eighth one of the fleet, in herpassage down to Cairo *: It was in December, aridAhe water was falling rapidly.
The Benton had been converted from the II.'rx snag-boat Benton into themost powerful iron-clad of the fleet. She was built with two hulls abouttwenty feet apart, very strongly braced together. She had been purchasedby General Fremont while he was in command of the Western Department,and had been sent to my ship-yard for alteration into a gun-boat. Ihad the spac§ between the two hulls planked, so that a continuous bottomextended from the outer side of one hull to the outer side of the other. Theupper side was decked over in the same manner; and by extending the outersides of the two hulls forward until they joined each other at a new stem,which received them, the twin boats became one wide, strong, and substan-tial hull. The new bottom did not extend to the stern of the hull, but wasbrought up to the deck fifty feet forward of the stern, so as to leave a space for
with her Boilers and engines on hoard, was launched inCarondelet, Missouri , in forty-five days from the layingof her keel.* She was named the St. Louis , hy Rear-Admiral Foote, in honor of the city. When the fleet wastransferred from the War Department to the Navy , thisname was changed to Baron de Kalb , there being atthat time a vessel commissioned in the Navy called theSt. Louis. In ten days after the De Kalb the Carondeletwas launched, and the Cincinnati, Louisville , MoundCity, Cairo, and Pittsburgh followed in rapid succession.An eighth vessel [the Benton], larger, more powerfuland superior in every respect, was also undertakenbefore the hulls of the first seven had fairly assumedshape. . . . Thus one individual put in construc-
tion and pushed to completion within one hundred daysa powerful squadron of eight steamers, aggregating fivethousand tons, capable of steaming at nine knots perhour, each heavily armored, fully equipped, and allready for their armament of one hundred and sevenlarge guns. The fact that such a work was done isnobler praise than any that can be bestowed by words.
* It was stipulated in the contract that the gun-boats shouldbe delivered. October 10th, at Cairo . As amatter of fact, theywere not sent to Cairo until the latter part of November, andconsiderable work still remained to be done before their com-pletion. They were finished and accepted. January 15tli,1862, and put in commission the next day. The delay was in
It is to be regretted, however, that the promptness andenergy of the man who thus created an iron-clad navyon the Mississippi were not met on the part of the Gov-ernment with an equal degree of faithfulness in per-forming its part of the contract. On one pretext oranother, the stipulated payments for the work weredelayed by the War Department until the default as-sumed such magnitude that nothing but the assistancerendered by patriotic and confiding friends enabled thecontractor, after exhausting his own ample means, tocomplete the fleet. Besides the honorable reputationwhich flows from success in such a work, he has thesatisfaction of reflecting that it was with vessels at thetime his own property that the brilliant capture of FortHenry was accomplished, and the conquest of Donelsonand Island Number Ten achieved. The ever-memorablemidnight passage of Number Ten by the Pittsburgh andCarondelet, which compelled the surrender of that pow-erful stronghold, was performed by vessels furnishedfour or five months previous by the same contractor,and at the time unpaid for.” EDITORS.
part due to lack of funds and in part to the necessity of alter-ation in the design of the vessels. Had they been completedin the time specified, the Mississippi campaign, from IslandNumber Ten to Vicksburg , would probably have heen overbefore Farragut passed the forts at New Orleans .
Editors.