Steve, just a note to say that I'm a hundred pages into "Earthen Walls, Iron Men" and am enjoying it immensely. It's nicely supported by original research, well-annotated, and is a smooth read to boot. (It strikes me that I haven't paid as much attention to the war in Louisiana between Farragut at New Orleans and the Red River Expedition of 1864 as I might.) I recognized the illustration on page 179 as one that Henry Walke did as an illustration for Porter's History; the original sketch is in the collection of the Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis. Walke was not present at that action, but it wouldn't have been the first time that he had illustrated something he had not witnessed; in the mid 1850s, he was one of the illustrators of the publication of Perry's visit to Japan, though he was not on the expedition. (An artist who was along did the land and sea-scapes; Walke contributed the naval vessels, based on the descriptions of their positions in the various scenes.)

Having just read one of your swipes at Porter (deserved), I thought you might be amused by this, in case you're not familiar with it: Fletcher Pratt's book, _Civil War on Western Waters_, includes a short bibliographic essay at the end; in it he dismisses Porter's _Incidents and Anecdotes_ with the succinct phrase, "A damned bad book." :D