and Foote returned to New York in the
spring of 1837. He made a visit to his home, when he was once more
ordered to the West Indies.

About this time he was brought under religious influence. He read his
Bible and spent many hours in prayer, and finally yielded completely to
God. He made his mother inexpressibly happy by sending her the glad
news, and thenceforward throughout his stirring life he was one of the
most humble, devout and consecrated of Christians.

Like Havelock, he did an amount of good among those placed under his
charge, the full extent of which can never be known in this world. While
on duty at the Naval Asylum in Philadelphia he persuaded the men to give
up their grog rations and sign a pledge of total abstinence, and when
executive officer on the _Cumberland_ he did the same thing with its
crew. He was a voluntary chaplain and gave a religious address on the
berth deck every Sunday evening to those who wished to listen.

Disease of the eyes incapacitated him for duty for a long time, and he
was much disappointed that he was not permitted to take any part in the
Mexican war. One of his most practical temperance addresses was that,
while engaged off the coast of Africa in suppressing the slave trade, he
persuaded the men under him on the _Perry_, of which he was the
commander, to give up the use of liquor. Although exposed to one of the
most pestilential climates in the world, he did not lose a man.

At the breaking out of the Civil War he was in command of the Brooklyn
Navy Yard. He was overwhelmed with work for a time, and was glad when,
early in the autumn of 1861, he was ordered to the West to help in the
building of an inland navy on the Mississippi.

Captain Foote worked with the tremendous energy which he threw into
every task, and succeeded in getting together seven boats, four of which
were partly protected by armor. At the beginning of February, 1862, he
started from Cairo to ascend the Tennessee, his objective point being
Fort Henry, though the Confederates were deceived into thinking it was
Columbus, on the Mississippi. He asked the Government for more men with
which to man additional boats, but they were not furnished, and he went
forward with such as he could get.

On the night preceding the attack on Fort Henry the little fleet
anchored abreast of the army under General Grant, which was encamped on
the bank. The night was cold and tempestuous, but the morning dawned
keen and clear,