Aug 8 1862.  A letter from a correspondent in Memphis has been published in the Chicago Times.  The letter read, “Late advices from the South by rebel sources are somewhat important.  Ten iron-clad gunboats, built in England, and fully equipped, have arrived off Mobile harbor, and signaled Fort Morgan.  Three more are on the way.  These constitute the fleet ordered by the Southern Confederacy to be purchased in Europe.  They mount from ten to thirty guns each, and are said to be mailed with six-inch iron, being regular war steamers in every sense of the word.  Gen. Bragg has been telegraphed to furnish 350 seamen to man them with, and orders are being dispatched over the whole Confederacy for supplies and munitions to furnish them equipment.  The Commanders will be selected from officers of the old United States Navy who joined the Confederate service, and have been idle for want of a fleet.  Their armament consists of the most approved modern artillery, and each boat is constructed with a view to ram service.  The blockage was run openly by dint of superior strength and weight of metal, and Mobile is considered to be open to the world, with the support of her newly acquired power.  The remaining vessels will be on soon.  The above is from an authentic source, and is entitled to belief.”

This report is false and treasonous.  I sent a letter to Gen. Sherman in Memphis, “Herewith I send you an article credited to the Memphis correspondent of the Chicago Times which is both false in fact and mischievous in character.  You will have the author arrested and sent to Alton Penitentiary under proper escort for confinement until the close of the war unless sooner discharged by competent authority.”

The Papers of Ulysses S Grant, Vol 6, p 274

Chicago Times, July 28 1862

Chicago Public Library