h were connected abaft the
wheel by planking thrown from one side to the other. This after-part
was called the fantail. The casemate extended from the curve of the
bow to that of the stern, and was carried across the deck both forward
and aft, thus forming a square box, whose sides sloped in and up at an
angle of forty-five degrees, containing the battery, the machinery,
and the paddle-wheel. The casemate was pierced for thirteen guns,
three in the forward end ranging directly ahead, four on each
broadside, and two stern guns.

As the expectation was to fight generally bows on, the forward end of
the casemate carried iron armor two and a half inches thick, backed by
twenty-four inches of oak. The rest of the casemate was not protected
by armor, except abreast of the boilers and engines, where there were
two and a half inches of iron, but without backing. The stern,
therefore, was perfectly vulnerable, as were the sides forward and
abaft the engines. The latter were high pressure, like those of all
Western river-boats, and, though the boilers were dropped into the
hold as far as possible, the light draught and easily pierced sides
left the vessels exposed in action to the fearful chance of an
exploded boiler. Over the casemate forward was a pilot-house of
conical shape, built of heavy oak, and plated on the forward side with
21/2-inch iron, on the after with 11/2-inch. With guns, coal, and stores
on board, the casemate deck came nearly down to the water, and the
vessels drew from six to seven feet, the peculiar outline giving them
no small resemblance to gigantic turtles wallowing slowly along in
their native element. Below the water the form was that of a scow, the
bottom being flat. Their burden was five hundred and twelve tons.

The armament was determined by the exigencies of the time, such guns
as were available being picked up here and there and forwarded to
Cairo. The army supplied thirty-five old 42-pounders, which were
rifled, and so threw a 70-pound shell. These having lost the metal cut
away for grooves, and not being banded, were called upon to endure the
increased strain of firing rifled projectiles with actually less
strength than had been allowed for the discharge of a round ball of
about half the weight. Such make-shifts are characteristic of nations
that do not prepare for war, and will doubtless occur again in the
experience of our navy; fortunately, in this conflict, the enemy was
as ill-provided as