ns, which the British had tried to take nearly
fifty years before; and there was the Mississippi River that led
straight to it. But strong forts had been built along that river and
armed boats were on its waters, and the Yankees of the North might find
it as hard to get there as the British did.

Now I have to speak of another brave man and good seaman, David D.
Porter. He was a son of the captain of the old _Essex_, and a life-long
friend of David G. Farragut.

Porter was sent down to help blockade the Mississippi in the summer of
1861, and while there he found out all about the forts and the ships on
the river. Then he went to Washington and told the Secretary of the Navy
all he had learned, and asked him to send down a fleet to try to
capture the city.

"Where can I find the right man for a big job like that?" asked the
Secretary.

"Captain Farragut is your man," said Porter. "You have him now on
committee work, where a man like him is just wasted, for you have not
half as good a seaman on any of your ships."

And in that way the gallant Farragut was chosen to command the fleet to
be sent to capture the great city of the South. Porter, you see, did not
ask for a command for himself, but for his friend.

When the fleet was got ready it numbered nearly twenty vessels, but most
of them were gunboats, and none of them were very large. The Mississippi
was not the place for very large ships. Farragut chose the sloop-of-war
_Hartford_ for his flagship and sailed merrily away for the mighty
river. He did not forget his friend Porter. For twenty mortar boats were
added to the fleet, and Porter was given command of these.

A mortar, you should know, is a kind of a short cannon made to throw
large shells or balls. It is pointed upward so as to throw them high up
into the air and then let them fall straight down on a fort. Porter's
mortar boats were schooners that carried cannons of this kind.

When Farragut had sailed his fleet into the river, he made ready for the
great fight before him. Of course, he had no iron-clads, for the
_Monitor_ had just fought its great battle and no other iron-clads had
been built. So he stretched iron chains up and down the sides of his
ships to stop cannon balls. Then bags of coal and sand were piled round
the boilers and engines to keep them safe, and nets were hung to catch
flying splinters, which, in a fight at sea, are often worse than
bullets.

But the most interesting thing done w