ar or long after
it.

The Lafayette and Choctaw, of one thousand tons each, were purchased
by the Government and converted into ironclad gunboats with rams.
Built deliberately, they were strong and serviceable vessels, but not
able to carry as much armor as had originally been intended. They were
side-wheel steamers, the wheels acting independently, but had no
screws. The Choctaw had a forward turret with inclined sides and
curved top, armored with two inches of iron on twenty-four inches of
oak, except on the after end and crown, where the iron was only one
inch. Just forward of the wheels was a thwartship casemate containing
two 24-pound howitzers pointing forward and intended to sweep the
decks if boarders should get possession. Over this casemate was the
pilot-house, conical, with two inches of iron on twenty-four of oak.
From turret to wheelhouses the sides were inclined like casemates and
covered with one-inch iron, as was the upper deck. Abaft the wheels
there was another thwartship casemate, sides and ends also sloping, in
which were two 30-pound Parrott rifles training from aft to four
points on the quarter. It had been at first proposed to carry in the
forward casemate two guns on a turn-table; but as this did not work,
four stationary guns were placed, three IX-inch and one 100-pound
rifle, two of which pointed ahead and one on each beam. The Lafayette
had a sloping casemate carried across the deck forward, and as far aft
as the wheels, covered in the lower part with one inch of iron over
one inch of indiarubber; the upper part of the bulwarks had
three-quarter-inch plating, and the deck half-inch. She carried two
XI-inch bow guns, four IX-inch in broadside but well forward, two
24-pound brass howitzers, and two 100-pound stern guns. The draught
of these two boats was about nine feet.

Besides these vessels may be mentioned the Black Hawk, a fine steamer,
unarmored, but with a battery of mixed guns, which had been remodelled
inside and fitted as a schoolship with accommodations for five hundred
officers and men. She carried also syphon-pumps capable of raising any
vessel that might sink. The old ram Sampson had been fitted as a
floating smithery. The two accompanied the fleet, the former taking
her place often in battle and serving as a swift flag-ship on
occasions.

Active operations again began toward the end of November, when the
rivers were rising from the autumnal rains. The great object of the
comb