484 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



the Missouri river, under command of Captain Rogers. She was a poor 

 affair, entirely unfit to attack land batteries. Her casemates were mere 

 breastworks, seven or eight feet high, with plate armor on her ports three- 

 eighths of an inch thick, and only ten inches of wood. 



On the 4th day of October, 1861, Commodore W. D. Porter having 

 arrived in St. Louis, took command of her, and her name was changed to 

 the Essex. She was placed on the dock at St. Louis, the hull thoroughly 

 overhauled and tightly caulked, sponcils or false sides were put on to in- 

 crease the buoyancy and help to sustain the casemates. Before her case- 

 mates were fairly commenced, she was ordered to Cairo. That there was 

 a chance for a fight, was quite enough for Commodore Porter to induce a 

 prompt departure, and after grounding several times on sand bars, she 

 finally arrived at Cairo without casemates or materials from which to make 

 them. But Commodore Porter had the will, and found the way to get sup- 

 plies. The mills in that vicinity were all busy cutting timber for the other 

 vessels belonging to the squadron under flag officer Foote, and the Essex 

 being an independent craft, under independent command, and paid for out 

 of the army appropriations, she did not get her share of materials. Com- 

 modore Porter was, therefore, obliged not only to superintend personally the 

 work, but to use extraordinary exertions to obtain materials. I was at this 

 time at St. Louis preparing the iron for the Essex, and fitting up the mortar 

 fleet of thirty-eight scows with iron sides, pitched at an angle, to protect 

 the men from the sharpshooters. In December, 1861, these boats, as they 

 are called, were taken to Cairo. I shipped the iron for the Essex in a 

 transport, and went, valise in hand, to Cairo to put on the plating. 



I shall alwaj^s remember the day I arrived. I had never had an oppor- 

 tunity of speaking with the commodore before, and now I found him, in the 

 evening, on deck, busy as possible attending to the wood-work of the ves- 

 sel. When I approached and told him what I was there for, he replied 

 briskly " Well, Governor, here is a chance for j'ou to pitch in;" and I did 

 pitch in, up to my boot-tops in the mud on shore and up to my neck in work. 

 I had but few tools to work with, and what I had not we did without, ma- 

 king such shift as we could. My forge was a dry-goods' box, filled with 

 sand and mud; my anvil a plate of iron three feet long, thirteen inches 

 wide and two and a half inches thick. All was loosely arranged on the 

 deck of an Ohio river flat boat, in order to keep near the Essex, which 

 would go one day to Mound City for lumber, and the next to Columbus to 

 fire shells at the enemy. When not thus engaged she was at anchor, and 

 then my boat was on one side of her, and a coal barge and lumber scow on 

 the other, the cables of which were slipped when she went on any hostile 

 expedition. 



On the first of February I had the iron on, she started for the Tennessee 

 river. I knew well by this time, from my intimate acquaintance with the 

 commodore, when there was a prospect of a fight, by the way in which he 

 wore his old black hat, and dragged his shawl about his shoulders. That 

 evening he was unusually pleasant, and I knew from all the signs that 

 something was going to happen; therefore I worked my men until twelve 

 o'clock in putting on iron and removing tools from the Essex. It was un- 

 derstood that I could go on the expedition, but the great weight of tools 



