Accordingly, the government decided to take possession of Port Royal, and in October, 1861, began to gather a fleet of warships and transports at Hampton Roads for that purpose. On October 10th Flag Officer Samuel Francis Dupont hoisted his flag on the steam frigate _Wabash_, of which Capt. C. R. P. Rodgers was commander. The squadron under him included the _Susquehanna_, Capt. J. L. Lardner; _Mohican_, Capt. S. W. Godon; _Seminole_, Capt. John P. Gillis; _Pocahontas_, Capt. Percival Drayton; _Pawnee_, Capt. R. W. Wyman; _Unadilla_, Capt. N. Collins; _Ottawa_, Capt. T. H. Stevens; _Pembina_, Capt. J. P. Bankhead; _Seneca_, Capt. Daniel Ammen, and the _Vandalia_, Capt. F. L. Haggerty. All of these were regular warships, and the _Vandalia_ was the only sailing ship in the squadron. In addition to these, there were six merchant steamers that had been purchased and armed for use as warships. The warships proper carried 125 guns, all told, of which seven were eleven-inch Dahlgrens, and seventy-nine were eight-inch or better--most of them being nine-inch. The converted merchantmen carried from two to eight thirty-two-pounders each, save one, the _Isaac Smith_, which carried a rifled thirty-pounder. A force of soldiers, 12,000 strong, under Gen. Thomas W. Sherman, was detailed to coöperate with the squadron, and transports were provided to carry them, while coal-laden schooners were gathered in order to keep the steamers in fuel. [Illustration: C. R. P. Rodgers. _From a photograph._] The older readers of this will remember very well the excitement occasioned throughout the nation by the gathering of this vast fleet at Hampton Roads. For the administration had determined to keep the destination of the expedition a secret, and it succeeded so well that the mystery remained until after the fleet was gone. [Illustration: S. W. Godon. _From a painting at the Naval Academy, Annapolis._]