“The armament was determined by the exigencies of the time. The army supplied thirty-five old forty-two-pounders, which were rifled and so threw a seventy-pound shell. These having lost the metal cut away for grooves, and not being banded, were called upon to endure the increased strain of firing rifled projectiles with actually less strength than had been allowed for the discharge of a round ball of about half the weight. Such makeshifts are characteristic of nations that do not prepare for war, and will doubtless occur again in the experience of our navy.” So says Mahan.
The Mississippi Fleet off Mound City, Illinois.
From a photograph owned by Mr. C. B. Hall.
The Benton had been a snag-boat—a craft with two hulls so joined and strengthened that she could get the largest kind of a cottonwood tree between the hulls, hoist it out of the mud, and drag it clear of the steamer channel. She had had two wheels, but one between the hulls was substituted, and the whole was built over into the semblance of an angular turtle, and armored with plates of iron three and a half inches thick, well backed with oak. She was a five-knot boat and of deep draft for the service (nine feet), but she was at that date the most powerful warship afloat, and “she went by the name of the Old War Horse.” She carried sixteen guns, of which two were nine-inch Dahlgrens.
Another vessel, like the Benton, was called the Essex, because commanded by Capt. William Porter, a son of the Porter of Essex fame. “After bearing a creditable part in the battle of Fort Henry she became separated by the batteries of Vicksburg from the upper squadron, and is less identified with its history.” She carried one ten-inch and three nine-inch guns besides several smaller ones.
Other vessels were added to this upper Mississippi squadron from time to time, but “they bore no proportionate share in the fighting. The eight (from the Eads’ yards) may be fairly called the ships of the line of battle on the Western waters.”
Commander John Rodgers was relieved by Flag Officer Foote on September 6, 1861. He brought a number of younger officers who were to command the ships of the new fleet while taking orders from the commanding general of that department. Among these was Commander Henry Walke, who had saved Fort Pickens at Pensacola, as already told, by disobeying orders. Walke was sent to the Taylor.
These salt-water fighters found strange materials awaiting them—ships such as they had never dreamed of in connection with war, and men from the river banks and the corn-fields who knew nothing of great guns and less, were that possible, of the restraints of naval discipline. Nevertheless, the effects of naval discipline made first-class tars out of the raw material, and the gunboats proved good enough for the occasion.
