e Mississippi,
covering an advance of troops on the Missouri side. A brisk cannonade
followed between the boats and the Confederate artillery, and shots
were exchanged with the gunboat Yankee. On the 24th, Captain Foote, by
order of General Fremont, moved in the Lexington up the Ohio River to
Owensboro. The Conestoga was to have accompanied this movement, but
she was up the Cumberland or Tennessee at the time; arriving later she
remained, by order, at Owensboro till the falling of the river
compelled her to return, there being on some of the bars less water
than she drew. A few days later this active little vessel showed
herself again on the Mississippi, near Columbus, endeavoring to reach
a Confederate gunboat that lay under the guns of the works; then again
on the Tennessee, which she ascended as far as the Tennessee State
Line, reconnoitring Fort Henry, subsequently the scene of Foote's
first decisive victory over the enemy. Two days later the Cumberland
was entered for the distance of sixty miles. On the 28th of October,
accompanied by a transport and some companies of troops, she again
ascended the Cumberland, and broke up a Confederate camp, the enemy
losing several killed and wounded. The frequent appearances of these
vessels, while productive of no material effect beyond the capture or
destruction of Confederate property, were of service in keeping alive
the attachment to the Union where it existed. The crews of the
gunboats also became accustomed to the presence of the enemy, and to
the feeling of being under fire.

On the 7th of November a more serious affair took place. The evening
before, the gunboats Tyler, Commander Walke, and Lexington, Commander
Stembel, convoyed transports containing three thousand troops, under
the command of General Grant, down the Mississippi as far as Norfolk,
eight miles, where they anchored on the east side of the river. The
following day the troops landed at Belmont, which is opposite Columbus
and under the guns of that place. The Confederate troops were easily
defeated and driven to the river's edge, where they took refuge on
their transports. During this time the gunboats engaged the batteries
on the Iron Banks, as the part of the bluff above the town is called.
The heavy guns of the enemy, from their commanding position, threw
easily over the boats, reaching even to and beyond the transports on
the opposite shore up stream. Under Commander Walke's direction the
transports wer