Mississippi Gun Boats

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

[OCTOBER 5, 1861.

630

UNITED STATES MISSISSIPPI GUN-BOATS BEING BUILT AT CARONDELET, NEAR ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

[SKETCHED BY ALEXANDER SIMPLOT.]

GUN-BOATS ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

WE publish herewith a picture of the GUN-BOATS which are now in course of construction near St. Louis, on the Mississippi, for the Federal Government. A St. Louis correspondent writes :

The work upon the four gun-boats at Carondolet, five miles below the city, is going forward rapidly, and Captain James B. Eads, who has the contract, is displaying great energy. The boats are built of oak, unseasoned, and are called respectively the Nathaniel Lyon, John C. Fremont, Simon Cameron, and—I fear the name of the fourth has escaped me, but if it is not Jessie Fremont, it ought to be.

The boats are to be delivered by 5th October. They are to be cased with iron plates 2 1/2 inches thick.

THE REBEL STEAMER "PAGE"

THIS little steamer, of which we give a sketch herewith, was built by THOMAS COLLYER, of this city, about seven years ago. She has been employed in the passenger trade on the Potomac River

since she was launched. She is an ordinary river boat. Since the rebellion she has been kept at Acquia Creek. Lately she has been fitted up as a war steamer, mounting two rifled cannon, one forward and the other aft. When the late Captain Ward shelled the batteries at that place he endeavored to sink the Page, but was unable to do so. She is a fast vessel, and could be made very useful by the rebels in transporting troops across the river, or in towing flat-boats containing troops from place to place. Her dimensions are as follows: Length, 128 feet ; beam, 26 feet ; depth of hold, 7 feet. Her draught of water is only about four feet.

THE MEN-OF-WAR IN OUR
HARBOR.

ON page 628 we illustrate the men-of-war now (September 17) lying in the harbor of New York.

There are two French steamers—the Catinat, a side-wheel steamer, mounting about four guns, and the Jerome Napoleon, a screw steamer, of which we

gave a portrait and description in a previous number, when she arrived here. Both vessels have turned their leisure in port to good account by painting their sides and trimming up their general appearance. They leave with the Prince Napoleon.

There are also two British steamers—the Rinaldo, a very handsome and fast screw steamer, clipper built, and bark rigged—she carries thirteen guns—and the gun-boat Steady, a handsome craft, which carries five guns, one of them a 68-pounder. Both of these vessels will have left by the time our picture reaches the public.

The Brazilian vessel is the steam corvette Boberibe, which carries seven guns. She, too, looks better now than when she arrived, and is really a very handsome model.

Finally, our own Jamestown, Commander Green, completes the group. We gave a picture of one of her exploits in our last number. She is an old ship, and her build is not the latest style ; but she is stanch, and her crew are the men to make her name familiar to the public ear.

THE FORTIFICATIONS AT BALTIMORE.

WE illustrate on page 631 the fort now being erected on Federal Hill, Baltimore. The battlements are being rapidly completed. When the whole work is finished it will be one of the most impregnable fortifications in the country. Major Brewerton is in charge of the works, and gives employment to a large number of Union cartmen. When they are done, Murray Hill will next be fortified, and then Lafayette Park.

As some foolish stories are afloat with regard to General Dix's treatment of his prisoners, we subjoin the following from the Tribune correspondence:

No intercourse is suffered with the State prisoners at Fort McHenry—not even are their families permitted to see them. The stories set afloat of harshness being used by the police in the capture of the prisoners are utterly untrue, for when required by the commandant of Fort McHenry to reduce their charges to writing, the complainants declined, saying that, perhaps, after all, their captors behaved with more than usual deference—as was really the case. The trouble was not in the police, but in the fact of the arrest, with these traitorous parties.

THE REBEL STEAMER "PAGE," NOW LYING AT ACQUIA CREEK.—[SKETCHED BY LIEUTENANT OSBON.]