Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) The Riverside Biographical Series ANDREW JACKSON, by W. G. BROWN JAMES B. EADS, by LOUIS HOW BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, by PAUL E. MORE PETER COOPER, by R. W. RAYMOND THOMAS JEFFERSON, by H. C. MERWIN _IN PREPARATION_ WILLIAM PENN GENERAL GRANT LEWIS AND CLARKE Each about 100 pages, 16mo, with photogravure portrait, 75 cents. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. BOSTON AND NEW YORK [Illustration: Jas. B. Eads] JAMES B. EADS BY LOUIS HOW HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY Boston: 4 Park Street; New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street Chicago: 378-388 Wabash Avenue The Riverside Press, Cambridge COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY LOUIS HOW ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PREFACE I must mention with particular gratitude several books that were invaluable in preparing this sketch, in supplementing the usual biographical dictionaries and naval histories. These are: Captain Mahan's "The Gulf and Inland Waters;" Boynton's picturesque "History of the American Navy during the Great Rebellion;" Mr. Fiske's "Mississippi Valley in the Civil War;" Snead's "The Fight for Missouri;" Mr. C. M. Woodward's "History of the St. Louis Bridge;" Mr. Estill McHenry's edition of Eads's "Papers and Addresses," with a biography; two memoirs by Senores Francisco de Garay and Ignacio Garfias, of the Mexican Association of Civil Engineers; and, above all, several memoirs and addresses and the history of the Jetties by Mr. Elmer L. Corthell, C. E., without which I could scarcely have written this Life. I must also cordially thank for kind personal aid and advice Chancellor Chaplin (of Washington University), Dr. William Taussig, Mr. Albert Bushnell Hart, Major George Montague Wheeler of the Engineer Corps (retired), Messrs. Winston Churchill, William L. Wright, C. Donovan, E. L. Corthell (who was as obliging as he was helpful), Estill McHenry and John A. Ubsdell, Mrs. Susan F. Stevens, and especially my mother--to whose help and encouragement this Life of her father is due. L. H. ROCKPORT, MASS., July 30, 1900. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. EARLY TRAINING 1 II. THE GUNBOATS 22 III. THE BRIDGE 49 IV. THE JETTIES 75 V. THE SHIP-RAILWAY 105 JAMES B. EADS I EARLY TRAINING