CAPTAIN JAMES B. EADS.
MAP OF THE REGION OF FOOTE’S OPERATIONS.
RECOLLECTIONS OF FOOTE AND THE GUN-BOATS.
BY CAPTAIN JAMES B. EADS.
Note.—Of the services of Captain Eads to the Western flotilla, the Kev.C. B. Boynton says, in his “ History of the Navy “ During the month of July, 1861, the Quartermaster-General advertised for proposals to construct a number of iron-clad gun-boats for service on the Mississippi River. The bids were opened on the 6th of August, and Mr. Eads was found to he the best bidder for the whole number, both in regard to the time of completion and price. . . . On the 7th of August, 1861, Mr. Eads signed a contract with Quartermaster-General Meigs to construct these seven vessels ready for their crews and armaments in sixty-five days.”
After completing the seven and despatching them down the Mississippi to Cairo, 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 special favor to him, to accompany the Benton, the eighth one of the fleet, in her passage down to Cairo. It was in December, and the water was falling rapidly.
The Benton had been converted from the U. S. snag-boat Benton into the most powerful iron-clad of the fleet. She was built with two hulls about twenty feet apart, very strongly braced together. She had been purchased by 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. I had the space between the two hulls planked, so that a continuous bottom extended from the outer side of one hull to the outer side of the other. The upper side was decked over in the same manner; and by extending the outer sides 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 substantial hull. The new bottom did not extend to the stern of the hull, but was brought up to the deck fifty feet forward of the stern, so as to leave a space for a central wheel with which the boat was to be propelled. This wheel was turned by the original engines of the snag-boat, each of the engines having formerly turned an independent wheel on the outside of the twin boat. In this
OON after the surrender of Fort Sumter, while in St. Louis, I received a letter from Attorney-General Bates, dated Washington, April 17th, in which he said: “Be not surprised if you are called here suddenly by telegram. If called, come instantly. In a certain contingency it will be necessary to have the aid of the most thorough knowledge of our Western rivers and the use of steam on them, and in that event I have advised that you should be consulted.” The call by telegraph followed close upon the letter. I hurried to Washington, where I was introduced to the Secretary of the Navy, the Hon. Gideon Welles, and to Captain G. Y. Fox, afterward Assistant Secretary. In the August following I was to construct 7 gun-boats, which, according to the contract, were to draw 6 feet of water, carry 13 heavy guns each, be plated with 21-inch iron, and have a speed of 9 miles an hour. The Be Kalb (at first called the St. Louis) was the type of the other six, named the Carondelet,. Cincinnati, Louisville, Mound City, Cairo, and Pittsburg. They were 175 feet long, 3U feet beam; the flat sides sloped at an angle of about thirty-five degrees, and the front and rear casemates corresponded with the sides, the stern-wheel being entirely covered by the rear casemate. Each was pierced for three bow guns, eight broadside guns (four on a side), and two stern guns. Before these seven gun-boats were completed, I engaged to convert the snag-boat Benton into an armored vessel of still larger dimensions.
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THE “DE KALB,” FORMERLY THE “ST. LOUIS.”
Type of tlie “Carondelet,” “Cincinnati,” “Louisville,” “Mound City,” “Cairo,” and “ Pittsburg.”
From a photograph!
regain his position he encountered a mounted officer whose uniform was covered with a water-proof coat. After approaching till their knees touched, the stranger said to Fry: “We must not fire on our own men”; and nodding his head to his left, he said, “Those are our men.” Fry said, “Of course not. I would not do so intentionally”; and he began to move toward his regiment, when turning he saw another mounted man riding from the trees who fired and wounded Fry’s horse. Fry at once fired on the man who had accosted him, and several of his men, observing the incident, fired at the same time. The shots were fatal, and the horseman fell dead, pierced by a pistol-shot in his breast and by two musket-balls. It was soon ascertained that it was Zollicoffer himself who had fallen. In the meantime, the enemy were pressing Fry in front and overlapping his right. On his right front only the fence separated the combatants. The left of his regiment not being assailed, he moved two companies from that flank to his right. As he was making this change General Thomas appeared on the field, and at once placed the 10th Indiana in position to cover Fry’s exposed flank.
The fall of Zollicoffer and the sharp firing that followed caused two of his regiments to retreat in confusion. Crittenden then brought up Carroll’s brigade to the support of the other two, and ordered a general advance. . . .
Note.— Thomas defeated Crittenden at Mill Springs, and about the same time (January 10) Colonel James A. Garfield defeated the Confederates on the Big׳ Sandy River, under Humphrey Marshall. With the retreat of Marshall the last Confederate force was, for the time being, driven from Kentucky.
Thomas. On his way he notified Colonel Van Cleve, of the 2d Minnesota. As Manson dashed through the camp of the 4th Kentucky shouting for Colonel Speed S. Fry, and giving warning of the attack, the men, wearied with the muddy march of the day before, were just beginning to crawl out of their tents to roll-call. Forming rapidly, Fry led them at double-quick in the direction of the firing. Having no one to place him, on coming in sight of the enemy, he took position along a fence in the edge of the woods, with his right resting near the Mill Springs road. In front of him was an open field, across which the enemy were advancing from the shelter of woodland on the opposite side. A ravine ran through the open field parallel to Fry’s front, heading near the road on his right, with steep sides in his front, but sloping gradually beyond his left. Before Fry’s arrival Zollicoffer had deployed his brigade, and had forced Wolford and the 10th Indiana to fall back, almost capturing the horses of Wolford’s men, who were fighting on foot. A portion of Wolford’s command, under his immediate charge, and Van-ardsall’s company of the 10th Indiana, rallied on the 4th Kentucky when it appeared, the remainder of the 10th falling back to its encampment, where it re-formed its lines. Fry was at once subjected to a severe attack. The enemy in his front crawled up under shelter of the ravine to within a short distance of his lines before delivering their fire, and, Fry, mounting the fence, in stentorian tones denounced them as dastards, and defied them to stand up on their feet and come forward like men.
A little lull in the firing occurring at this juncture, Fry rode a short distance to the right to get a better view of the movement of the enemy in that direction. The morning was a lowering one, and the woods were full of smoke. As Fry turned to