ttle was won.

"It was the most desperate battle I ever fought since the days of the
old _Essex_," said Farragut.

The figure of the brave admiral in the rigging, fighting his ship amid
a cyclone of shot and shell, made him the hero of the American people.
It was like Dewey on the bridge in Manila Bay in a later war. There was
no rank high enough in the navy to fit the glory he had won, so one was
made for him, the rank of admiral. There was rear-admiral and
vice-admiral, but admiral was new and higher still. Only two men have
held this rank since his day, his good friend and comrade, David D.
Porter, and the brave George Dewey.

CHAPTER XXIV

A RIVER FLEET IN A HAIL OF FIRE

ADMIRAL PORTER RUNS BY THE FORTS IN A NOVEL WAY

OF course you know what a tremendous task the North had before it in the
Civil War. The war between the North and the South was like a battle of
giants. And in this vast contest the navy had to do its share, both out
at sea and on the rivers of the country. One of its big bits of work was
to cut off the left arm of the Confederacy, and leave it only its right
arm to fight with.

By the left arm I mean the three states west of the Mississippi River,
and by the right arm, the eight states east of that great river. To cut
off this left arm the government had to get control of the whole river,
from St. Louis to the Gulf, so that no Confederate troops could cross
the great stream.

You have read how Farragut and Porter began this work, by capturing New
Orleans and all the river below it. And they went far up the river, too.
But in the end such great forts were built at Vicksburg and Port Hudson
and other points that the Confederate government held the river in a
tight grasp.

In this way the Confederacy became master of the Mississippi for a
thousand miles. We are to see now how it was taken from their grasp.

James B. Eads, the engineer who built the great railroad bridge over the
Mississippi at St. Louis, made the first iron-clads for the West. There
were seven of these. They were river steamers, and were covered with
iron, but it was not very thick. Two others were afterward built, making
nine in all.

Each of these boats had thirteen guns, and they did good work in helping
the army to capture two strong Confederate forts in Kentucky. Then they
went down the Mississippi to an island that was called Island No. 10. It
was covered with forts, stretching one after another all along it