tauk, and later on destroyed the Confederate
privateer Nashville. After the war, he was promoted to rear-admiral, and
remained in the service until 1886.

There were others in the war whose deeds brought glory to themselves and
to the navy--Lieutenant William B. Cushing, who destroyed the
Confederate ram Albemarle in Plymouth harbor, a deed comparable with the
burning of the Philadelphia early in the century; David Dixon Porter,
whose work on the Mississippi was second only to Farragut's, who four
times received the thanks of Congress, and who, in the end, became
admiral of the navy; Charles Stuart Boggs, who, in the sloop-of-war
Varuna, sank five Confederate vessels in the river below New Orleans,
before he was himself sunk--but none of them, and, indeed, none of those
whose exploits we have given, measured up to the stature of Farragut,
one of the greatest commanders of all time, and, all things considered,
the very greatest in the history of America.

* * * * *

Thirty years and more passed after that epoch-making contest between the
Monitor and the Merrimac before the world witnessed another battle to
the death between ironclads. Theoretically, wood had long since been
displaced by iron, iron by steel, and steel by specially-forged
armor-plate, battleship designers struggling always to build a vessel
which could withstand modern projectiles. But as to the actual results
in warfare, there was nothing but theory to go upon until that first
day of May, 1898, when George Dewey steamed into the harbor of Manila,
at the head of his squadron, and opened fire upon the Spanish fleet.

Dewey had received his training under the best of masters, Farragut.
Graduating from Annapolis in 1858, he served as lieutenant on the
Mississippi, when that vessel, as part of Farragut's fleet, ran past the
forts below New Orleans. A short time later, in trying to pass the
Confederate batteries at Port Hudson, the Mississippi ran hard and fast
aground. Half an hour was spent, under a terrific fire, in trying to get
her off; then Dewey, after spiking her guns, assisted in scuttling her
and escaped with her captain in a small boat. He saw other active
service, and got his first command in 1870. He was commissioned
commodore in 1896, and on January 1, 1898, took command of the Asiatic
squadron.

Few people in the world beside himself suspected, even in the dimmest
manner, the task which lay before him; but with