The character and strength of the enemy's fleet on the upper and lower Mississippi having been fully reported to the Confederate Navy Department, a more effective means of defending the river from these threatened attacks was submitted to and approved by Capts. Ingraham and Collins, Lieut. Brooke, and Naval Constructor Pierce, and for that purpose $800,000 was appropriated by the Act of Congress of July 30th, 1861.

The construction of the Louisiana by E. C. Murray was begun in New Orleans on October 15th, 1861. The blockade of the river having begun prior to that date, the timber had to be procured from Lake Ponchartrain and from the forests along the New Orleans and Jackson Railroad. There was used in her construction 1,700,000 feet. The engines of the steamer Ingomar

were bought and transferred to the Louisiana, but it required two months for their removal by Leeds & Co. The contractor used 500 tons of railroad iron in the vessel. Delays of construction were frequent, in consequence of strikes among the hands for higher wages, from having to wait for iron, and from alteration in the port-holes. Mr. Murray, the contractor, had been a practical ship-builder for twenty years, and had built over 120 boats-steamers and sailing-vessels; but with all possible diligence on his part, it was not within his power to complete the boat earlier than thirty days before the fall of New Orleans. It was a practical impossibility to have completed the boat earlier than she was launched, while other vessels were building at New Orleans, and the blockade of the river prevented the receipt of timber and iron from abroad. The gunboat Livingston was under construction at that time in the yard of John Hughes & Co., but was not iron-shielded. The Bienville and Carondelet-the former built by Hughes & Co.,

and the latter by Naval Constructor Sidney D. Porter-were also being at this time built in New Orleans yards. The Livingston was completed February 1st, 1862, the Bienville April 5th, 1862, and the Carondelet March 16th, 1862, the first in seven months, the second in six months; and in November, 1861, Mr. Mallory had at New Orleans, under construction, a fleet consisting of the floating battery New Orleans, 20 guns, the floating battery Memphis, 18 guns; the gunboat (incomplete) to carry 6 guns; the gunboat Grotesque, afterwards the Maurepas, 6 guns; the Lizzie Simmons, afterwards the Ponchartrain, 6 guns; the Bienville and Carondelet (incomplete) each to carry 6 guns; the Pickens and the Morgan, each 3 guns, and the two iron-clads, the Louisiana and the Mississippi, each, when complete, to mount 16 guns. When the Federal fleet reached New Orleans, Capt. Porter, U. S. N., wrote to Senator Grimes, of Iowa, that of the naval vessels constructed at New Orleans, "the best one I saw floating by me was a dry dock turned into a floating battery, mounting 16 guns, and the entire engine, which was to propel it, hermetically sealed by a thick iron turret against shot. She was sunk, but floated down to Southwest Pass, and is now aground on the bar and can be easily raised."

The failure to complete at New Orleans the iron-clad steamer Mississippi was a matter of much discussion and of crimination against the Navy Department. Of that vessel, Commodore Hollins stated before the joint committee that "she was the greatest vessel in the world. I don't suppose there was ever such a vessel built." Of the same tenor was the testimony of Capt. Sinclair, C. S. N.: "She was entirely a new conception, and a remarkably fine vessel, and very formidable, in my opinion. I am satisfied that she could have, as I stated before, kept that river clear against the blockade. That vessel, as I have said, was entirely a new conception. She was a ship that was most creditable to the country, as far as my judgment goes. Capt. Porter, U. S. N., in his letter of May 6th, 1861, to Senator Grimes, bore testimony to the strength of the Missis sippi, by saying:

"In New Orleans our naval officers found the most splendid specimen of a floating battery the world has ever seen (a sea-going affair, and had she been finished and succeeded in getting to sea, the whole American navy would have been destroyed. She was 6,000 tons, 270 feet long, 60 feet beam; had four engines, three propellers, four inches (and in some places more) of iron, and would steam eleven knots an hour. She cost Mr. Mallory & Co. $2,000,000."

The projectors of the Mississippi were the Messrs. Nelson and Asa F. Tift. These gentlemen were brothers, the former a citizen of Georgia, and the latter a citizen of Florida, who had been a member of the Convention of that State which passed the Ordinance of Secession, which Mr.

Tift signed, and for this his property in that State, at Key West, had been seized by the authorities of the United States, and Mr. Tift removed to Georgia, to the estate of his brother. These unimportant facts are stated because superservicable Confederates, like the Hon. Henry S. Foote, of Mississippi, who abandoned the Confederacy in the hour of its supreme trial, and made his individual peace with Mr. Lincoln, endeavored by insinuation and innuendo to impeach the loyalty of the Messrs. Tift to the Confederate cause.

At the breaking out of the war, Mr. N. Tift considered that the weakest point of the Confederacy, as well as the strongest point of the United States, was on the water, where the greatest deficiency of the Confederacy existed, and where the supreme necessity existed for maintaining, at least, the ability to hold communication with foreign nations, and there the enemy possessed the means and the skill of inflicting the most serious injury to our means of defence both on water and land. To contribute all that was in his power towards the public defence, he set his mind to considering the best means of attack and defence which the Confederates could make, in their then situation of almost utter destitution of mechanics skilled in naval architecture, as well as of the means of building the ships. To supply necessities, and overcome obstacles, Mr. Tift saw that it was necessary to work the abundant pine timber into vessels by the ordinary house- carpenter. And that, if war-vessels made of green pine timber could be shielded with iron, the Confederate States would have taken a very important step in equalizing the conditions of war with the United States. To that end he applied his mind, and perfected the model of the Mississippi. Having submitted his design to the judgment of his brother, they both went to Richmond, where the model, which had been examined and approved in Savannah by Commander Tatnall, and in Charleston by prominent naval officers, was submitted to the examination of Mr. Mallory. The Messrs. Tift asked no compensation for their model, did not seek fortune by contracting to build the ship, but tendered their services to the government without compensation to superintend the building of the vessel.

The model of the Mississippi was the adaptation of straight timber to her construction, in a new and simple form, upon which the ordinary house-carpenter could work, and by which strength and efficiency could be obtained, rather than the old lines of curved frames, crooks and knees, peculiar to the old style of naval architecture. The model avoided the necessity of employing skilled ship-carpenters and joiners, of which there were very few in any of the ports of the Confederate States. All surfaces of the Mississippi were flat, or in straight lines, except the four corners which connected the two ends of the ship with her sides. There was to be no frame:

but the work was solid for the required thickness, which was three feet, and to be covered with three-inch iron plates. The model first submitted to the Navy Department was during construction lengthened in the middle division 20 feet, by which two sets of 8 boilers, each 42 inches in diameter, and 30 feet long, gave the necessary steam to work 3 engines 36 inches in diameter, 2 feet stroke shelf valves, with 3 propellers 11 feet in diameter, on wrought-iron shafts.

The Mississippi was 260 feet long, 58 feet extreme breadth, 15 feet depth of hold, about the same size as the U. S. steamers Colorado and Roanoke. The Algerine News Boy, of December 30th, gives the following items:

"The bottom of this gunboat is twenty-two inches thick, in solid planks, solidly bolted and calked, and its walls two feet solid in thickness, with numerous thick keelsons to brace it.

"The hold will be fourteen feet in depth, and on its summit will be placed the battery, composed of several heavy rifled and shell guns, all under casemates.

"Above this is a cupola, which will contain various conveniences, and be surmounted with another battery, and a shooting-gallery for sharp-shooters.

The vessel is to be strengthened by iron bolts through and through, and be plated over with three-inch iron. She will be drawn by three propellers, worked by powerful engines. Another such a gunboat will immediately follow this one. Near by is another just begun, still larger, which will combine the breadth of the floating battery with some of the advantages of a self-propelled boat."

Much difficulty was experienced in procuring a first-class designer, and after trying several who failed to satisfy the projectors of the ship, E. M. Ivens and Chief Engineer Warner completed the designs, and Acting Naval Constructor Pierce was appointed superintendent; and on September, 25th, 1861, the preparation of the ship-yard was commenced on the east side of the river, immediately above the corporate limits of the city, and within the corporate lines of Jefferson City, on the property of Mr. Millandon, who tendered its use without charge. There Constructor Pierce commenced his preparations for building on the 28th of September. In thirty days he made the body, and put the floors in the ship; in two months the sides had risen three feet high; in 110 days the wood-work was completed. This extraordinary dispatch was owing to the peculiar plan of construction.

Before the Investigating Committee of the Confederate Congress, E. C. Murray, a practical ship-builder of twenty years and the contractor for building the Louisiana, testified that:

"I think the vessel was built in less time than any vessel of her tonnage and character, and requiring the same amount of work and materials, on this continent. That vessel required no less than 10,000,000 feet of lumber, and, I suppose, about 1,000 tons of iron, including the false works, blockways, etc. I do not think that amount of materials were ever put together on this continent within the time occupied in her construction. I knew many of our naval vessels requiring much less

material than were employed in the Mississippi, that took about six or twelve months in their construction. She was built with rapidity, and had at all times as many men at work upon her as could work to advantage. She had, in fact, many times more men at work upon her than could conveniently work. They worked on nights and Sundays upon her, as I did upon the Louisiana, at least for a large portion of the time.”

Contracts for every part of the steam machinery were made immediately with the Messrs. Jackson & Co., of the Patterson Iron Works, at New Orleans, to be completed in ninety days. There was not a foundry and hammer in the Confederacy capable of making the wrought-iron shafts for the vessel. Three of these shafts were required; that for the middle to be fifty feet long, and those on the sides each forty feet long, and all nine inches in diameter. The middle shaft was fitted up at the Tredegar Works in Richmond and did not reach New Orleans until April 9th, at which time one of the side-shafts was at Leeds & Co.'s, and the third shaft was just forged and would not be ready for nine or ten days. New Orleans fell on April 24th; Capt. Whittle was informed that the Mississippi would be ready for her guns on April 23d, and ready for service on the 1st of May; the plating was going on as fast as possible, but it would require from twelve to fourteen days to completely shield the ship with iron.

It was not the purpose of the projectors to launch the ship until the shafts and propellers had been put in, but Capt. Mitchell and Capt. Sinclair having given their opinion that the enemy might pass the forts at any moment, the Mississippi was launched on the 19th of April with her iron on below the surface of the gun-decks, and the remaining iron was being rapidly put on; the furnace work was completed and all the machinery on board; the wood-work was entirely done, and two weeks of more time would have seen the Mississippi fully completed, equipped and commissioned.

When the Federal fleet passed the forts, the Mississippi in her unfinished state could neither fight nor run away, and Commander Sinclair, who was in charge of her, made every effort to obtain boats to tow the vessel up the river. To that end he employed the St. Charles and the Peytona, which, after an unaccountable delay of nearly twelve hours, was unable to move the ship up stream on account of the current, there being a freshet at the time which made the current even stronger than usual. After the whole night spent in fruitlessly trying to move the ship up stream, and finding that they were losing ground and floating down towards the approaching enemy, the Mississippi was committed to the flames and burned to the water's edge, and sunk in the river.

Commander Arthur Sinclair testified before the Court of Inquiry, that

"The Mississippi might doubtless have been launched and towed up the river many days previous to the enemy's passing the forts, and there