n; the two
Hills--Daniel H. and Ambrose P., both renowned fighters, the latter
immortalized by Stonewall Jackson's last words, "A. P. Hill, prepare for
action!" Another was Richard S. Ewell--not, like all the foregoing, a
West Point graduate, with training and notable service in United States
armies and wars, but, like many Federal generals, a volunteer, who
achieved high rank by efficient activity.

In naval affairs, naturally, the South had little chance to show her
mettle, having neither navy-yards nor navy, and all her ports being
blockaded. The chief attempts on the water were the iron-plated ram
_Merrimac_, commanded by Commodore Franklin Buchanan, which after
sinking several wooden men-of-war in Hampton Roads was defeated by the
new iron-turreted _Monitor_ under Lieutenant (later Admiral) John L.
Worden; the iron-clad ram _Albemarle_, which damaged Northern shipping
until blown up by Lieutenant W. B. Cushing, U. S. Navy, in a daring
personal adventure; and the British built, equipped and manned
_Alabama_, under Commodore Raphael Semmes of the Confederacy, which
destroyed millions of dollars in Northern ships on the high seas in
1862-1864, until sunk by the war-steamer _Kearsarge_ under Captain
(later Admiral) John A. Winslow, off Cherbourg, in June, 1864.

The principal naval activities of the Federals during the war were in
the reduction of fortified places on land in cooperation with the
armies, and in blockading ports of the South to keep in their cotton and
to keep out foreign supplies. One of the earliest feats was the
effective use by Captain Andrew H. Foote in February, 1862, of the
gunboats built in 1861 by Fremont for river warfare, when Foote daringly
shelled Forts Donelson and Henry on the Cumberland River, enabling Grant
to attack and summon them to "unconditional surrender." And on the long
seaboard, the North soon had a line of battle-ships stretching from Cape
Hatteras around to Florida, New Orleans and the further coast of Texas.
Besides its few original war-ships, out of coasters, steamers and old
junk the Navy Department constructed a fleet. But it was the man behind
the gun who maintained the blockade, starved the Confederacy, and
cleared the Mississippi River.

The story of men like Farragut and his boys is like a chapter out of a
wonder book. In April, 1862, with a fleet of wooden frigates,
mortar-schooners, and half-protected boats he entered the mouth of the
Mississippi below New Orleans