This powerful gunboat, the _Lafayette_, though accompanying Admiral Porter
on the Red River expedition, was not one of those entrapped at Alexandria.
Her heavy draft precluded her being taken above the Falls. Here we see her
lying above Vicksburg in the spring of 1863. She and her sister ship, the
_Choctaw_, were side-wheel steamers altered into casemate ironclads with
rams. The _Lafayette_ had the stronger armament, carrying two 11-inch
Dahlgrens forward, four 9-inch guns in the broadside, and two 24-pound
howitzers, with two 100-pound Parrott guns astern. She and the _Choctaw_
were the most important acquisitions to Porter's fleet toward the end of
1862. The _Lafayette_ was built and armed for heavy fighting. She got her
first taste of it on the night of April 16, 1863, when Porter took part of
his fleet past the Vicksburg batteries to support Grant's crossing of the
river in an advance on Vicksburg from below. The Lafayette, with a barge
and a transport lashed to her, held her course with difficulty through the
tornado of shot and shell which poured from the Confederate batteries on
the river front in Vicksburg as soon as the movement was discovered. The
_Lafayette_ stood up to this fiery christening and successfully ran the
gantlet, as did all the other vessels save one transport. She was
commanded during the Red River expedition by Lieutenant-Commander J. P.
Foster.
[Illustration: FARRAGUT AT THE PINNACLE OF HIS FAME