shots came through below her water-line and put out the flames. She was
then set afire in four places aft, and when the flames were well under
way, so as to make her destruction certain, Captain Smith and his first
lieutenant (George Dewey) left the ship, all the officers and crew
having been landed before.

"The _Mississippi_ was soon ablaze fore and aft, and as she was now
relieved of a great deal of weight--by the removal of her crew and the
destruction of her upper works--she floated off the bank and drifted
down the river, much to the danger of the Union vessels below. But she
passed without doing them any injury, and at 5:30 o'clock blew up and
went to the bottom."

When the time came for the crew to save themselves as best they could,
all sprang overboard and struck out for shore. A little way from the
blazing steamer a poor sailor was struggling hard to save himself, but
one arm was palsied from a wound, and he must have drowned but for
Dewey, who swam powerfully to him, helped him to a floating piece of
wreckage and towed him safely to land.

The lieutenant was now transferred to one of the gunboats of Admiral
Farragut's squadron and engaged in patrol duty between Cairo and
Vicksburg.

[Illustration: GUNBOATS PASSING BEFORE VICKSBURG.]

The latter surrendered to General Grant July 4, 1863, and the river was
opened from its source to the Gulf. Early in 1864 the lieutenant was
made executive officer of the gunboat _Agawam_, and when attached to the
North Atlantic squadron, took part in the attack on Fort Fisher, one of