THE GUN-BOATS AT BELMONT AND FORT HENRY.

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WHARF-BOAT AT CAIRO.FROM A WAR-TIME PHOTOGRAPH.

men from the East, there were Maine lumbermen, New Bedford whalers, NewYork liners, and Philadelphia sea-lawyers. The foreigners enlisted weremostly Irish, with a few English and Scotch, French, Germans, Swedes ,Norwegians, and Danes. The Northmen, considered the hardiest race in theworld, melted away in the Southern sun with surprising rapidity.

On my gun-boat, the Carondelet, were more young men perhaps than on anyother vessel in the fleet. Philadelphians were in the majority; Bostonianscame next, with a sprinkling from other cities, and just enough men-o’-war’smen to leaven the lump with naval dis-cipline. The Be Kalb had more than itsshare of men-o’-war’s men, Lieutenant-Com-mander Leonard Paulding having had thefirst choice of a full crew, and having se-cured all the frigate Sabine’s reenlisted menwho had been sent West.

During the spring and summer of 1861,

Commander John Rodgers purchased, andhe, with Commander Roger N. Stembel, Lieutenant S. L. Phelps, and Mr.Eads, altered, equipped, and manned, for immediate service on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, 3 wooden gun-boats—the Tyler, of 6 8-inch shell-gunsand 2 32-pounders; the Lexington, of 4 8-inch shell-guns and 2 32-pounders,and the Conestoga, of 4 32-pounder guns. This nucleus of the Mississippi flotilla (like the fleets of Perry, Macdonough, and Chauncey in the war of 1812)was completed with great skill and dispatch; they soon had full possession ofthe Western rivers above Columbus, Kentucky , and rendered more importantservice than as many regiments could have done. On October 12th, 1861, theSt. Louis , afterward known as the I)e Kalb, the first of the seven iron-clad gun-boats ordered of Mr. Eads by the Government, was launched at Carondelet,near St. Louis. The other iron-clads, the Cincinnati, Carondelet, Louisville ,Mound City, Cairo, and Pittsburgh, were launched soon after the St. Louis ,Mr. Eads having pushed forward the work with most commendable zeal andenergy. Three of these were built at Mound City , Ill. To the fleet of iron-clads above named were added the Benton (the largest and best vessel of theWestern flotilla), the Essex, and a few smaller and partly armored gun-boats.

Flag-Officer Foote arrived in St. Louis on September 6th, and assumedcommand of the Western flotilla. He had been my fellow-midshipman in 1827,on board the United States ship Natchez , of the West India squadron, and wasthen a promising young officer. He was transferred to the Hornet, of thesame squadron, and was appointed her sailing-master. After he left the Natchez ,we never met again until February, 1861, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, wherehe was the executive officer. Foote, Schenck, and myself were then the onlysurvivors of the midshipmen of the Natchez , in her cruise of 1827, and nowI am the only officer left.

During the cruise of 1827, while pacing the deck at night, on the lonely seas,and talking with a pious shipmate, Foote became convinced of the truth ofthe Christian religion, of which he was an earnest professor to the last. He