Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1862-01-12
THINGS AT CAIRn-
A correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial,
under date of December Doth, thus speaks Of
matters and things at Cairn.

under date Of December Doth, thus speaks Of
matters and things at Cairo:
THE FLoTILLA.
The chief fact about Cairo now-excepting its
unredeemable and irredeemable ugliness-is its
military importance. Soldiers occupy the town,
and gunboats the river. There is nothing new
to you about the former. Volunteers look much
the same everywhere-careless and s~lovenly.
But the sailors and hotilla are features. Jack,
in his Scotch cap, with a dainty black ribbon
floating behind, and in neat blue shirt and flow
ing brooches, has a rOllicksOme, iaunty air of
aqueous propriety, that always makes a good pic
ture and pleases your fancy. Fresh water Jack
is hardly SO taut a craft as Jack on the ocean.
but he is a good emblem of naval discipline a
little slack. But if McClellen could get equal
" smartnesS" infused into his volunteer army,
he would probably On to Richmond at once.
There is an elegance, a cOurtliness, and a gen.
temauliness too, about the genuine naval officer,
which has much to do in marking the distinc-
ton between sailors and volunteer soldiers and
l may say, too, the distiction between naval
officers and West Pointers in high position, is
very brOad-sltOgether in favor Of the former
Your thoroughbred naval officer never has SO
much business on hand that he forgels he is a
gentleman. Your heterogeneous and brigadiers,
of both schools, regular and volunteer, often for
get to be courteous, whether they have business
or not. But 1 suppose that rudeness or super
ciliOusness in a general, is an indication of
greatness which the public had overlooked, or
of which they had not thought, and bye the bye,
our western river naval officers, employed in the
gunbOat service, with their professional bluff,
hearty department, seem to have put on a supe-
rior grace of manner with their diStiHgue uni
forms, so that our vanity is pampered a little to
see them wear their honOTs so hOnOrably, and
orrr asfaau, for Aha,, $1,000 o-.,,Isn-l-
THE %GUNBoATs.
Our western hotilla has been described hereto
fore, so l will touch it lightly. The navy Of the
Ohio and Mississippi consists of three classes of
boats. TIL first class were constructed of old
steamboats, cut down and built up again from
the water line. They stand about as high out of
the wateTas an ordinary steI n-wheel steamer, the
bulwarksbeing carried up from the water line to
a hight about equivalent to the caves Of an
ordinary hurricane deck. They are painted black,
with the exception Of a white water line-which
is an admirable target for an enemy endeavOTing
to hull them-and with their unusually tail
smokestacks and frowning armament, they pre-
sent a very formidable aspect. Unde a heavy
fire l should be desperately afraid that s]plinters
would destroy more life on them than the iron
missiles.
The second class, numerically, are rara G0is
IN aqua. The sailors have dubbed them sand
turtles. Exaggerated, corrupted swapping tur-
ties, or terrapins, rather. They resemble snap
ping turtles with long black horns, more than
anything else you can imagine. 1t would hardly
be profane to worship them, because they are
not like anything on the earth, under the earth,
or above the earth-if you viii allow magma
ton a little lee-way. But still l am afraid they
will not realize public expectations in some
respects. They were built by contractors! Do
you want any further explanation? They will
cost when complete-exclusive of armaments-
about Sl25,000 each, being $4,000 more than
contract price. Some of the work about the
boilers was not properly constructed, and, since
their arrival here, it had to be done again-thus
delaying their completion.
They are very powerful in every respect, with
some inexcusable defects, apparent to the veriest
land-lubber who c~riticises. A Congressional in
vestigation is highly necessary in relation to the
contracts perhaps a ~corOner's inquest may be
necessary in some of them, hereafter. They will
be completed-at some future time.
The third class are simply floating water bat
teries, designed to carry a heavy mortar each.
They consist Of a logs cToss-tied, and strongly
bolted, so that they are unsuitable and imperisha-
bic under a cannOnade. The mortar tenders are
protected by heavy bulwarks and rifle shot proof
iron casing. They are managed with sweeps, or
tugbOats but, where once anchored, will be ex-
pected to stand their ground at long taw. They
never can keep themselves out of difficulty, ex-
cept by fighting.
The feet now lies directly in front of Cairo,
some of the boats anchored out in the stream,
others at the wharf. The tout ensemble is curl
Gus and striking-snd with the activity of
workmen, the clangor Of hammers and iron, and
the constant putting, whirr and flutter of tug
~propellers, and steamers in the river, the hsrbor
at Cairo is quite a spirited place. But if l de-
sired to punish prisoners for rebellion, l would
confne them to Cairo.