was spending the days with his friends, when the country was startled
and electrified by the news that Fort Sumter had been fired on in
Charleston harbor and that civil war had begun. Dewey's patriotic blood
was at the boiling point, and one week later, having been commissioned
as lieutenant and assigned to the sloop of war _Mississippi_, he hurried
thither to help in defence of the Union.

The _Mississippi_ was a sidewheel steamer, carrying seventeen guns, and
was destined to a thrilling career in the stirring operations of the
West Gulf squadron, under the command of Captain David Glasgow Farragut,
the greatest naval hero produced by the Civil War, and without a
superior in all history.




CHAPTER II.

DEWEY IN THE WAR FOR THE UNION.


No one needs to be reminded that the War for the Union was the greatest
struggle of modern times. The task of bringing back to their allegiance
those who had risen against the authority of the National Government was
a gigantic one, and taxed the courage and resources of the country to
the utmost. In order to make the war effective, it was necessary to
enforce a rigorous blockade over three thousand miles of seacoast, open
the Mississippi river, and overcome the large and well-officered armies
in the field. The last was committed to the land forces, and it proved
an exhausting and wearying struggle.