She was then set afire in four places aft, and when the flames were well under way, so as to make her destruction certain, Captain Smith and his first lieutenant (George Dewey) left the ship, all the officers and crew having been landed before.
"The _Mississippi_ was soon ablaze fore and aft, and as she was now relieved of a great deal of weight--by the removal of her crew and the destruction of her upper works--she floated off the bank and drifted down the river, much to the danger of the Union vessels below.

But she passed without doing them any injury, and at 5:30 o'clock blew up and went to the bottom." When the time came for the crew to save themselves as best they could, all sprang overboard and struck out for shore.

A little way from the blazing steamer a poor sailor was struggling hard to save himself, but one arm was palsied from a wound, and he must have drowned but for Dewey, who swam powerfully to him, helped him to a floating piece of wreckage and towed him safely to land.
The lieutenant was now transferred to one of the gunboats of Admiral Farragut's squadron and engaged in patrol duty between Cairo and Vicksburg.
[Illustration: GUNBOATS PASSING BEFORE VICKSBURG.] The latter surrendered to General Grant July 4, 1863, and the river was opened from its source to the Gulf.

Early in 1864 the lieutenant was made executive officer of the gunboat _Agawam_, and when attached to the North Atlantic squadron, took part in the attack on Fort Fisher, one of the strongest of forts, which, standing at the entrance of Cape Fear river, was so efficient a protection to Wilmington that the city became the chief port in the Confederacy for blockade runners.

Indeed, its blockade was a nullity, despite the most determined efforts of the Union fleet to keep it closed.