ates Navy which he had
resigned. He was at first assigned by the Governor to the defense of
James river, but in a short time was ordered to assume command of the
steamer _Patrick Henry_.

When Virginia became one of the Confederate States, all the officers
of the Virginia Navy were transferred to the Confederate States Navy,
with the same rank they had held in the United States Navy. The
_Patrick Henry_ was also transferred by the State of Virginia to the
Confederate States. This vessel was a paddle-wheel steamer of about
1,400 tons burthen; she was called the _Yorktown_ before the war, and
was one of a line of steamers running between Richmond and New York;
she was reputed to be a fast boat, and deserved the reputation.

When Virginia seceded this vessel was in James river, and, together
with her sister steamer _Jamestown_, of the same line, was seized by
the authorities of the State, taken up to the Rockett's wharf, at
Richmond, and the command conferred, as has been said, upon Commander
Tucker; this assignment of duty being afterwards confirmed by the
Secretary of the Confederate States Navy. Naval Constructor Joseph
Pearse, with a number of mechanics from the Norfolk Navy Yard, who had
been brought to Richmond for the purpose, commenced the necessary
alterations, which had previously been determined upon, and in a short
time the passenger steamer _Yorktown_ was converted into the very
creditable man-of-war _Patrick Henry_, of 12 guns and one hundred and
fifty officers and men. Lieutenant William Llewellyn Powell, who soon
afterwards resigned from the Navy, entered the Army as Colonel of
Artillery, and died a Brigadier-General at Fort Morgan before its
fall, was her executive officer while she was being fitted out, and to
him, as well as to Constructor Joseph Pearse, much credit is due for
having made her as serviceable as she was for purposes of war. Her
spar-deck cabins were removed, and her deck strengthened so as to
enable it to bear a battery. Her boilers were slightly protected by
iron plates one inch in thickness. V-shaped iron shields on the
spar-deck, forward and aft of her engines, afforded some protection to
the machinery, but none to the walking beams, which rose far above the
hurricane-deck. It is probable that Lieutenant Powell suggested the
first American attempt to protect steamers with iron armor, unless the
Stevens floating-battery, which was so long building at Hoboken for
the United States, was