The Confederates had completed a more terrible ironclad than the _Merrimac_, which they named the _Arkansas_.

Manned by brave officers and crew, it came down the Yazoo into the Mississippi, and, secure in her fancied invulnerability, challenged the whole Union fleet which was assisting in the siege of Vicksburg.

In the furious engagement that followed Captain Porter, with the _Essex_, succeeded in destroying the ironclad.

He rendered his country other valuable service, but his health gave way, and, while in the East for medical attendance, he died in the City of New York at the age of fifty-three.
The more famous son of Captain Porter was David Dixon, who was born in Chester, Pa., in 1813.

He entered Columbia College, Washington, when only eleven years old, but left it in 1824 to accompany his father on his cruise in the West Indies to break up piracy in those waters.