THE GUN-BOATS AT BELMONT AND FORT HENRY.
BY HENRY WALKE, REAR-ADMIRAL, U. S. N.PIC. 358/1
ARMY TRANSPORTS AT THE CAIRO LEVEE. FROM A WAR-TIME SKETCH.

AT the beginning of the war, the army and navy were mostly employed in protecting the loyal people who resided on the borders of the disaffected States, and in reconciling those whose sympathies were opposed. But the defeat at Manassas and other reverses convinced the Government of the serious character of the contest, and of the necessity of more vigorous and extensive preparations for war. Our nay yards were soon filled with workmen; recruiting stations for unemployed seamen were established, and we soon had more sailors than were required for the ships that could be fitted for service. Artillerymen for the defenses of Washington being scarce, five hundred of these sailors, with a battalion of marines (for guard duty), were sent to occupy the forts on Shuter's Hill, near Alexandria. The Pensacola and the Potomac flotilla and the seaboard navy yards required nearly all of the remaining unemployed seamen.

While Foote was improvising a flotilla for the Western rivers he was making urgent appeals to the Government for seamen. Finally some one at the Navy Department thought of the vive hundred tars stranded on Shuter's Hill, and obtained an order for their transfer to Cairo, where they were placed on the receiving ship Maria Denning. There they met fresh-water sailors from our great lakes, and steamboat hands from the Western rivers. Of the sea-

FLAG-OFFICER FOOTE IN THE WHEEL-HOUSE OF THE "CINCINNATI" AT FORT HENRY.