The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

)) Y, PK’ KES SSS SS ) @ vA 7 SS SS SSS SS William H. Harrison's Anecdotes Recall Grim Days When Skill and Daring of Mississippi Wheelmen Saved a Fleet to the Nation HE stern old breed of river milots. is. fast - disappearing. Changing transportation methods have to a great extent robbed them of their occupation. Here and there one may be found, bent and grizzled now but hale as ever, and more than willing to recall to his hearer the great days when America’s inland commerce de- pended on the skill of his profession. He will tell of the perilous times of ‘61-65, when the daring of river pilots made possible the victories of David Glasgow Farragut and “Essex” Porter’s valiant son—victories which won _ the - Mississippi and cut the Confederacy in two. : A living reminder of the heyday of river pilotage is venerable Captain Wil- liam H. Harrison, of Cincinnati, relative of the late President Benjamin Harrison and a veteran of the Civil war. The son of a bank-side tavern keeper at Cullom’s Ripple, O., Harrison ran away from home and stowed away on the famous old RaritAN when a mere boy. He was discovered and put off at Louisville. Here a friendly steamboat captain, knowing young Harrison’s father as an old river man, found the lad and gave him passage home. Recog- nizing the nautical strain in his son’s makeup, the elder Harrison apprenticed him to two seasoned captains, Phil Hecker and Sam Fletcher. In _ those days the professional riverman was a character who exacted and received not only respect but the handsomest of emoluments. Fifty-six steamers plied be- tween Cincinnati and New Orleans in the fifties, and the pilots were sought after. Captain Powers of SHAMROCK paid his helmsman $75 “and all found” for every one-way trip of eight or 10 days. A round trip often consumed 25 days, when barges were towed. Famous vessels plied the Father of Waters then, before the darkey on the safety-valve and the furniture stripped to feed the furnaces had become a myth. Such craft were the big side-wheelers ATLAN- TIS and ZAcHARY TayLor. (On _ these and other boats equally memorable in the annals of inland navigation, young Har- rison learned the trick of the wheel and the uncanny knowledge of the river’s eccentricities, which were soon to prove of value to his country. All of the old-school pilots hark back in their reminiscences to Civil War CAPTAIN , WILLIAM. H. HARRISON times. In ’61 Harrison, for some years a full fledged navigator, went into gov- ernment service and for a year guided vessels carrying recruits to the Union armies. A Hunt for Pilots Commodore Farragut reached Vicks- burg with a big squadron in ‘62, making the voyage from New Orleans through hostile waters without pilots, the water being exceptionally high. When the time drew near for the fleet’s return, it proved almost impossible to secure pilots, for the river was falling rapidly. The river men, fearing that the least mishap to ships under their guidance would be interpreted as the result of treachery and would result in their death, refused to volunteer. Farragut himself was afraid to risk the down trip without expert steersmen. ‘The trip north from New Orleans had _ been marred by several disasters, the sloop of war BROOKLYN grounding below Natchez Island and another ship running ashore on the blind side of an island. This vessel was only liberated by a big tow- boat which hammered against her stern until she floated. A third ship ground- 295 By F. J. Koch ed off Cole’s creek above Natchez, los- ing her anchors and chains. These still lie rusting in the mud at that point, for five yoke of oxen failed to drag them forth. Reports that the Confederate ram ARKANSAS was coming out of the Yazoo. river to look for battle did not reassure Farragut, this dreaded craft being arm- ored with railroad iron which made her more than a match for his wooden ships. So he sent Captain Frank Rich- ardson of Covington, Ky., to search for navigators. Richardson in turn enlisted Captain Henry Jones and. Captain Thomas Sherlock of Cincinnati in the task, but they were unsuccessful, every available pilot refusing to run a block- ade of more than 400 miles between Vicksburg and Memphis. At this time Pilot Harrison was guid- ing the course of a commissary boat running to Shiloh,” having transferred to her from Sunny SourH. Reaching the scene of Grant’s victory over Albert Sidney Johnston, he found orders await- ing him to take the craft to Memphis, just captured. Here food was distrib- uted from the stores on board to the soldiers. Harrison now returned to Cin- cinnati, where several army officers, hearing of him from Captain Thomas Sherlock, asked him to come to the aid of Commodore Farragut. The intrepid seafighter had ventured as far as the mouth of the Yazoo river, in spite of the menace of ARKANSAS and her rail- road armor; but common sense prevent- ed him from risking his ships over the rest of the voyage without qualified pilots. When Harrison heard of the Com- modore’s plight he instantly volunteered to lend his services. “It took me but a few minutes to get ready,” he says, “although I did not have to go until the next day. My family lived too far away for me to pay them a farewell visit, so I put in the time hunting for more pilots. Only two consented to go. These were my brother, Henry B. Harrison, now deceased; and Joseph B. Dickerson, son of the great pilot of 1830. Going on to Louisville, we picked up two more volunteers, coal pilots named Brown and Seymour. The latter was a mem- ber of the crew of the ill-fated Mussiss- Ippl, destroyed the next year. The five of us sailed on Forest Queen for Memphis, which was as far as any