|
Prev
| Next
| Contents
DIDN'T EVEN NEED STILTS.
As the President considered it his duty to keep in touch with all the
improvements in the armament of the vessels belonging to the United
States Navy, he was necessarily interested in the various types of these
floating fortresses. Not only was it required of the Navy Department to
furnish seagoing warships, deep-draught vessels for the great rivers and
the lakes, but this Department also found use for little gunboats which
could creep along in the shallowest of water and attack the Confederates
in by-places and swamps.
The consequence of the interest taken by Mr. Lincoln in the Navy was
that he was besieged, day and night, by steamboat contractors, each one
eager to sell his product to the Washington Government. All sorts of
experiments were tried, some being dire failures, while others were more
than fairly successful. More than once had these tiny war vessels proved
themselves of great service, and the United States Government had a
large number of them built.
There was one particular contractor who bothered the President more
than all the others put together. He was constantly impressing upon Mr.
Lincoln the great superiority of his boats, because they would run in
such shallow water.
"Oh, yes," replied the President, "I've no doubt they'll run anywhere
where the ground is a little moist!"
Prev
| Next
| Contents
Stories and Anecdotes About the Life of Abraham Lincoln
|