that the engine was so badly out of order that several hours must be consumed before we could again expect to move. There lay the enemy in plain view, and we as helpless as a shear-hulk. Hundreds of people had assembled to witness the fight. In fact, many ladies in carriages had come to see our triumph. They waved us on with smiles and prayers, but we couldn't go. But Stevens was not the man to give up. A quantity of railroad iron, which had been laid on deck loose, was thrown overboard, and in a few hours we were afloat. The engineers had pulled the engine to pieces and with files and chisels were as busy as bees, though they had been up constantly then for the greater parts of the two preceding nights. At dark it was reported to the commanding officer that the vessel could be moved. In the meantime some coal had been secured (our supply was getting short), and it was determined to run up stream a few hundred yards and take it in during the night, and be ready for hot work in the morning. Therefore we started to move, but had not gone a hundred yards before the same engine broke down again; the crank pin (called a "wrist" by Western engineers) of the rock-shaft broke in two. Fortunately one of the engineers was a blacksmith, so the forge was set up and another pin forged. But this with our improvised facilities used up the whole night. Meantime the enemy became aware of our crippled condition, and at daylight moved up to the attack. The Essex led, and came up very slowly, at a rate not to exceed two miles an hour. She had opened on us before the last touch had been given to the pin, but it was finished and the parts thrown together. As the ship again started ahead Stevens remarked that we were brought to bay by a superior force, and that he should fight it out as long as we would swim. The battle for the supremacy of the river was upon us, and we must meet the grave responsibility as men and patriots. His plan was to go up the river a few hundred yards and then turn on and dispatch the Essex, then give his attention to the numerous force of wooden vessels which had been assembled since the morning before. The pleasant sensation of again being afloat and in possession of the power of locomotion, was hardly experienced before our last and final disaster came. The port engine this time gave way, broke down and would not move. The engineer was now in despair, he could do nothing, and so reported. The Essex was coming up astern and firing upon us. We had run ashore and were a hopeless, immovable mass. Read was returning the fire, but the two ships

were scarcely near enough for the shots to tell. We were not struck by the Essex, nor do I think we struck her. An army force was reported by a mounted "home guard" to be coming up the river to cut off our retreat. Stevens did not call a council of war, but himself assumed the responsibility of burning the ship. I recollect the look of anguish he gave me, and the scalding tears were running down his cheeks when he announced his determination. Read kept firing at the Essex until Stevens had set fire to the wardroom and cabin, then all jumped on shore, and in a few moments the flames burst up the hatches. Loaded shells had been placed at all the guns, which commenced exploding as soon as the fire reached the gun deck. This was the last of the Arkansas.

I am aware that the same class of people who accused the Tifts of treason (the stay-at-home-guards), were sure that the engineer had caused the engines to break down. I am also aware that many lawyers, doctors, planters, and gentlemen of elegant leisure, who had then been soldiering a twelve month, were sure they could have managed the business much better than the gallant and experienced naval officer who had it in charge. I am also aware that several old, influential and wealthy sugar planters were witnesses of the disaster, and gave it as their solemn and well considered opinion (Jack Bunsby was in the habit of giving "opinions" also), that the vessel was "unnecessarily sacrificed!" I trust that whoever undertakes our naval history will give due weight to the opinions, suspicions and insinuations referred to, always referring to their source.

We have now told all about the career of our great ship. We have gone with her through fire and smoke, death and destruction ; and if the reader is so minded we will go back and learn something more of her. As related in the first chapter, she was built a short distance below the city of Memphis by Captain John T. Shirley. It seems that Captain Shirley organized in the early months of 1861 what he called a river brigade ; but owing to the lack of facilities for operations he was compelled to disband his force. Not being content, however, to remain idle, he conceived the plan of building a couple of powerful gunboats for river service. The plan was adopted at Richmond, and the sum of $125,000 appropriated for the purpose. This sum was found totally inadequate, and in order to raise funds, which were supplied tardily by the Government, Captain Shirley was compelled to sell his homestead. Nothing daunted, the enthusiastic projector pushed forward. Competent mechanics were scarce, and he sent to St. Louis for them — for the

army refused to allow the detail of men to work on gunboats. Thus cramped for want of money and mechanics, the work necessarily progressed slowly. One vessel, the Arkansas, was finally launched before the fall of New Orleans, and the other was burned on the stocks. Orders came from Richmond to tow the Arkansas up the Yazoo, and when the writer joined her she was at Greenwood. Captain Brown assumed command of her at that place, and fearing that the water would get too low to float her out after she was completed, he at once took her down the river to Yazoo City. Upon arriving at the latter place the outlook was certainly anything but encouraging. There was neither foundry or machine shop in the place. The ship was in a very incomplete condition. The iron of her armor extended only a foot, or a little more, above the water line, and there was not a sufficiency of iron on hand to finish the entire ship. Of guns, we had enough, but were short four carriages. In the matter of ammunition and outfit for the battery we were also very deficient. It was fearfully discouraging, but Brown was undismayed. He summoned the planters from the neighborhood and asked for laborers, and all the blacksmiths' tools they could furnish. In a few days we had several hundred laborers and their overseers. Numbers of forges were sent in, and the work commenced. The hoisting engine of the steamboat Capital was made to drive a number of steam drills, whilst some dozens of hands were doing similar work by hand. A temporary blacksmith shop was erected on the river bank, and the ringing of the hammer was incessant. Stevens went to Canton and got the four gun carriages. I have often been greatly amused when thinking of this latter achievement. He made no drawing before his departure, not knowing that he could find a party who would undertake the job. Being agreeably disappointed in this latter respect he wrote back for the dimensions of the guns. With two squares I made the measurement of the guns ( all different patterns) and sent on the data. In a week or a little more Stevens appeared with four ox teams and the carriages. However it would take more space than is necessary to recite all that was done, and how it was done. It is sufficient to say that within five weeks from the day we arrived at Yazoo City we had a man-of-war (such as she was) from almost nothing — the credit for all of which belongs to Isaac Newton Brown, the commander of the vessel.

The following is a complete list of the officers who served in the Arkansas during her four great battles. Some others were attached to her but were not present at the time indicated :

I. N. Brown, Mississippi, Commander. Lieutenants — Henry K. Stevens, South Carolina; John Grimball, South Carolina; A. D. Wharton, Tennessee; Charles W. Read, Mississippi; Alphonse Barbot, Louisiana, and George W. Gift, Tennessee. Masters — Samuel Milliken, Kentucky, and John L. Phillips, Louisiana. Midshipmen— Dabney M. Scales, Mississippi; Richard H. Bacot, South Carolina, and Clarence W. Tyler, Virginia. Master's Mate, John A. Wilson, Maryland; Surgeon, H. W. M. Washington, Virginia; Assistant Surgeon, C. M. Morfit, Maryland; First Assistant (acting Chief) Engineer, George W. City, Virginia; Second Assistant Engineer, E. Covert, Louisiana; Third Assistant Engineers, W. H. Jackson, Maryland; J. T. Dolan, Virginia; C. H. Browne, Virginia; John S. Dupuy and James Gettis, Louisiana; Gunner, T. B. Travers, Virginia; Pilots — John Hodges, James Brady, William Gilmore and J. H. Shacklett.

Captain Brown is now a successful planter, on his place in Bolivar county, Mississippi; Stevens, poor fellow, was killed on the Bayou Teche, in Louisiana, during the war; Grimball is a lawyer in New York City; Read commands a fine steamer plying between New Orleans and Havana; Barbot is dead; Millikin and Phillips are both dead; Scales, no longer a big midshipman with a round jacket on, is a lawyer in Memphis. All the pilots except Shacklettt are dead. I do not know the whereabouts of the remainder.

Letters from Fort Sumter.

By Lieutenant Iredell Jones, of First Regimerit South Carolitia

My Dear Father, — We have been pretty severely pelted and shelled to-day. The enemy opened at daybreak this morning with their monitors and land batteries on Wagner and Sumter, and the bombardment continued with unabated fury until dark. It is now 8 o'clock P. M., and the land batteries are firing slowly on Sumter. For some reason our fort did not reply this morning until 1 1 130 o'clock, when we opened a brisk fire on the monitors and gunboats, and in the course of an hour succeeded in driving all of them off. The land batteries, however, we could not silence, and they have given us bricks all day long. The casualties are one man killed and fif-

teen privates and three officers wounded. In all the enemy fired 910 shots at the fort, out of which 600 struck. The fort is badly used up — four guns dismounted, though all unimportant. Our battery has not been hurt so far. We expect a renewal of the attack tomorrow. Batteries Wagner and Gregg are uninjured. At the former the casualties were seven killed and twenty- eight wounded ; at the latter one killed and five wounded.

My Dear Father, — The bombardment still continues hot and heavy, and we are holding out as well as possible under the circumstances. It is useless longer to conceal the fact — the fort is terribly knocked to pieces. Though there is no reason at present to abandon it, its fall is only a question of time. Many guns have been dismounted, and all the guns on the gorge face are unserviceable on account of the parapet's being knocked away. The enemy throw 200-pound Parrotts at us at the rate of one thousand per day. They ceased firing last night, the first intermission since day before yesterday morning. The fort has not replied since day before yesterday, though our main battery is still in good condition. I cannot imagine the reason, and the policy is condemned by every officer of the garrison. It may not, it would not, alter the state of affairs to open fire, but the honor of our country, the honor of ourselves, and the reputation of the gallant old fort demands it. I trust we will remain and fight the fort to the very last extremity. If she falls, let her and her devoted defenders fall together and gloriously.