As the event showed, Eads was for the Mississippi what Ericsson was on the coast. He was a man of original ideas. And yet, as Porter says, “it is strange how slowly even the cleverest of men receive new ideas.” He built ironclads, it is true, but with the smooth water in which he was to send them afloat they might have carried a thickness of armor fit to turn the heaviest shot instead of the boiler plate that was used. As described by Eads himself, these boats “were to draw six feet of water, carry thirteen heavy guns each, be plated with two-and-a-half-inch iron, and have a speed of nine miles an hour. The _De Kalb_ (at first called the _St. Louis_) was the type of the other six, named the _Carondelet_, _Cincinnati_, _Louisville_, _Mound City_, _Cairo_, and _Pittsburg_. They were 175 feet long, 51½ feet beam; the flat sides sloped at an angle of about thirty-five degrees, and the front and rear casemates corresponded with the sides, the stern-wheel being entirely covered by the rear casemate. Each gun-boat was pierced for three bow guns, eight broadside guns (four on a side), and two stern guns. Before these seven gun-boats were completed, I engaged to convert the snag-boat _Benton_ into an armored vessel of still larger dimensions.” [Illustration: The _Pittsburg_. _After a photograph._] Each was propelled by a single paddle-wheel set into the stern, where it was protected by the fork-shaped hull as well as a casemate. The boats were expected to fight bow on, and the iron plate across the bow was backed by two feet of oak. On the sides opposite the boilers the iron armor was not backed save by a slender supporting frame, while the stern had neither armor nor oak wall. The pilot-house was of good oak covered with two and a half inches of iron in front and an inch less in the rear. The crews had every incentive to keep the bow of the ship toward the enemy. “The armament was determined by the exigencies of the time. The army supplied thirty-five old forty-two-pounders, which were rifled and so threw a seventy-pound shell. These having lost the metal cut away for grooves, and not being banded, were called upon to endure the increased strain of firing rifled projectiles with actually less strength than had been allowed for the discharge of a round ball of about half the weight. Such makeshifts are characteristic of nations that do not prepare for war, and _will doubtless occur again in the experience of our navy_.” So says Mahan. [Illustration: The Mississippi Fleet off Mound City, Illinois. _From a photograph owned by Mr. C. B. Hall._]