and that there were no quarters
for so many more officers, for whom, moreover, he had no use. Later on
Foote writes to the Navy Department that not more than fifty men had
joined from the army, though many had volunteered; the derangement of
companies and regiments being the reason assigned for not sending the
others. It does not appear that more than these fifty came at that
time. There is no more unsatisfactory method of getting a crew than by
drafts from the commands of other men. Human nature is rarely equal to
parting with any but the worst; and Foote had so much trouble with a
subsequent detachment that he said he would rather go into action half
manned than take another draft from the army. In each vessel the
commander was the only trained naval officer, and upon him devolved
the labor of organizing and drilling this mixed multitude. In charge
of and responsible for the whole was the flag-officer, to whom, though
under the orders of General Fremont, the latter had given full
discretion.

Meanwhile the three wooden gunboats had not been idle during the
preparation of the main ironclad fleet. Arriving at Cairo, as has been
stated, on the 12th of August, the necessity for action soon arose.
During the early months of the war the State of Kentucky had announced
her intention of remaining a neutral between the contending parties.
Neither of the latter was willing to precipitate her, by an invasion
of her soil, into the arms of the other, and for some time the
operations of the Confederates were confined to Tennessee, south of
her borders, the United States troops remaining north of the Ohio. On
September 4th, however, the Confederates crossed the line and occupied
in force the bluffs at Columbus and Hickman, which they proceeded at
once to fortify. The military district about Cairo was then under the
command of General Grant, who immediately moved up the Ohio, and
seized Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee River, and Smithland, at
the mouth of the Cumberland. These two rivers enter the Ohio ten miles
apart, forty and fifty miles above Cairo. Rising in the Cumberland and
Alleghany Mountains, their course leads through the heart of
Tennessee, to which their waters give easy access through the greater
part of the year. Two gunboats accompanied this movement, in which,
however, there was no fighting.

On the 10th of September, the Lexington, Commander Stembel, and
Conestoga, Lieutenant-Commanding Phelps, went down th