There Were Left
There One Regiment And One Colonel, Who Kindly Described To Us The
Battles He Had Fought, And Gave Us Permission To See Everything That
Was To Be Seen.
Four of these gun-boats were still lying in the
Ohio, close under the terminus of the railway, with
Their flat, ugly
noses against the muddy bank; and we were shown over two of them.
They certainly seemed to be formidable weapons for river warfare,
and to have been "got up quite irrespective of expense." So much,
indeed, may be said for the Americans throughout the war. They
cannot be accused of parsimony. The largest of these vessels,
called the "Benton," had cost 36,000l. These boats are made with
sides sloping inward at an angle of forty-five degrees. The iron is
two and a half inches thick, and it has not, I believe, been
calculated that this will resist cannon-shot of great weight, should
it be struck in a direct line. But the angle of the sides of the
boat makes it improbable that any such shot should strike them; and
the iron, bedded as it is upon oak, is supposed to be sufficient to
turn a shot that does not hit it in a direct line. The boats are
also roofed in with iron; and the pilots who steer the vessel stand
incased, as it were, under an iron cupola. I imagine that these
boats are well calculated for the river service, for which they have
been built.
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