The Brooklyn hesitates,

suffering so severely that two thirds of her whole loss had already occurred, paused and backed in order to go round what evidently was a nest of torpedoes. This brought the whole fleet into imminent peril. Had Farragut also halted, the ships would all have been huddled helplessly together under the guns of the fort, as the monitors were at Charleston at the time of Dupont's attack, and a similar catastrophe would have been the result.

and Farragut takes

It is in such a moment of imminent peril that the qualities of a commander are seen. Farragut inthe lead in his ship. stantly ordered his own ship ahead, and, under a full press of steam, led the fleet forward through the line of torpedoes.

The Brooklyn was quickly under headway again, following the Hartford. At the time of his taking the lead, Farragut ordered the Metacomet to send a boat to save, if possible, some of the perishing crew of the Tecumseh. Only 17 of them were thus rescued.

From the moment he turned to the northwestward to clear the Middle Ground, Farragut kept such a broadside fire upon the batteries of Fort Morgan that its guns did comparatively little injury.

He is attacked by

three gun-boats.

Just after the Hartford had passed the fort, which was about ten minutes before eight o'clock, the the Tennessee and ram Tennessee made a dash at her. She had been lying in wait, expecting that the ships would be in a crippled condition. The gun-boats Morgan, Gaines, and Selma aided her in this attack. The Hartford suffered severely. Her captain, Drayton, says: "We could direct our fire only on one of them at a time. The shots from the others were delivered with great deliberation and consequent effect, a single one having killed ten men and wounded five." Farragut therefore ordered the Metacomet to cast off and go in pursuit of the Selma, which had thus annoyed him excessively with her three

The gun-boats driven off or captured.

stern guns, and which he could not answer, owing to his rifle gun-carriage having been destroyed by a shell. In an hour the Selma was captured. The Morgan and Gaines succeeded in escaping to the protection of the guns of Fort Morgan. The latter, however, was so injured that she had to be run ashore, and was subsequently burned. The Morgan found her way up to Mobile in the night.

Tennessee.

Her construction and strength.

gun.

Having passed the forts and dispersed the enemy's Battle with the boats, Farragut had ordered most of his ships to anchor, when he perceived, at 45 minutes past 8, the ram Tennessee making directly for him. He saw at once that it was the intention of Buchanan, the Confederate admiral, to assail the whole fleet. He therefore ordered the monitors, and such other vessels as he thought best adapted for the purpose, to attack the ram not only with their guns, but "bows on at full speed." The Tennessee was built on the plan of the celebrated Merrimac, which had caused so much destruction in Hampton Roads. She was very strongly constructed of oak and yellow pine, with iron fastenings. Her length was 209 feet; breadth, 48 feet; draught, 14 feet. Her deck was covered with iron 2 inches thick, her sides with two layers of 2-inch iron; the thickness of the sides was 8 feet. Her casemate was very strong, its plating 6 inches thick. Her armament was six rifles, two pivots of 7 inches bore, and four 6-inch broadsides. The Confederate admiral believing, from the result of the battle of the Merrimac in Hampton ment of her oppo- Roads, that he could destroy Farragut's wooden ships, had resolved to make the attempt. Of the fourteen wooden ships, three were large sloops of 2000 tons burden, carrying very heavy armaments of 9-inch Dahlgrens and 100-pounder rifles. The smaller vessels were also heavily armed. Two of the mon itors had 11-inch guns; one, the Manhattan, had 15-inch

Number and arma

nents.

guns. "Although the Merrimac had been defeated by the Monitor, it was thought that she was not seriously injured by 11-inch shot. The monitors had failed in their atPrevious battles of tack on Charleston; the Albemarle had beaten iron-clads. off a whole fleet; and, though the Atlanta had been captured, her armor was only four inches thick. The casemates of the Tennessee were covered with six inches of iron, an armor which, up to this time, had never been penetrated. Buchanan knew that his ship was invulnerable not only to the 9-inch guns and rifles of the wooden ships, but to the 11-inch Dahlgrens of the monitors. The experi ence which wooden ships had thus far had in ramming ironclads was not calculated to alarm him, while the destruction wrought on wooden vessels by armored ships assured him that he would be likely to destroy any one that he could fairly strike. There was but one vessel in the fleet whose guns he had reason to fear, the monitor Manhattan; and there were not then many naval officers in America or in Europe who believed that the 15-inch trate armor 6 inches thick."

gun could

pene

The ram was now fast approaching Farragut's fleet, and Effect of ram-blows all such questions were soon to be settled. on the Tennessee. The Monongahela, of fourteen hundred tons, carrying thirty pounds of steam, and her screw working sixty revolutions, was the first vessel that struck the Tennessee. She She gave her a fair blow at full speed. In so doing she carried away her own iron prow and her cutwater; then, swinging round, she fired into the iron-clad her 11inch guns at the distance of a few feet. The Tennessee apparently received no injury. The Lackawanna was the next vessel to strike her, which she also did at full speed; but, though her own stem was cut and crushed to the plank ends for the distance of from three feet above the water's edge to five feet below, the only perceptible effect on the ram was to give her a heavy list. The Hartford was the third vessel which struck her; but, as the Tennessee

quickly shifted her helm, the blow was a glancing one, and as she rasped alongside, the Hartford gave her whole port broadside of 9-inch solid shot within ten feet of her casemate.

shot on her.

The monitors worked slowly, but delivered their fire as Effect of cannon- opportunity offered. The Chickasaw succeed. ed in getting under the Tennessee's stern, and a 15-inch shot from the Manhattan broke through the iron plating and heavy wooden backing of her casemate, though the missile itself did not enter the vessel.

The Tennessee

Immediately after his collision with her, Farragut ordered his captain to bear down for the ram strikes her flag. again. He was doing so at full speed, when the Lackawanna ran into the Hartford just forward of the mizzen-mast, cutting her down to within two feet of the water's edge. However, she soon got clear again, and was fast approaching the ram, when Buchanan struck his colors.

The Tennessee was at this time sore beset. The Chickasaw was firing at her stern; the Ossipee was approaching her at full speed; the Monongahela, Lackawanna, and Hartford were bearing down upon her. Her smoke-stack had been shot away, her steering-chains were gone, several of her port-shutters were so jammed that they could not be opened. Indeed, from the time the Hartford struck her until her surrender, she never fired a gun. Her crew could not keep their feet under the tremendous blows she was receiving. They had become demoralized. As the Ossipee was about to strike her, she hoisted the white flag; and that vessel immediately stopped her engine, though not in time to avoid a glancing blow.

Losses in the battle.

During this contest with the gun-boats and ram Tennessee, which terminated in her surrender at ten o'clock, many more men were lost than by the fire of the batteries of Fort Morgan. On the Confederate side, Buchanan was severely wounded. The cap

tain of the Tennessee came on board the Hartford to surrender his sword and that of Buchanan.

Farragut's loss was 165 killed and drowned; of these, 113 went down in the Tecumseh. He had 170 wounded. On board the Hartford there were 25 killed and 28 wounded. The Oneida had 8 killed and 30 wounded, among them her commander. This loss was mainly due to the explosion of one of her boilers by a 7-inch shell, nearly all her firemen and coal-heavers on duty being scalded by the steam. Nevertheless, while her steam was still escaping, her guns were fired without intermission. An explod ing shell set fire to the top of her magazine; but it was extinguished, the serving of the powder still going on.

the monitors.

It is interesting to remark that, setting aside the loss in No losses on board the Tecumseh, while there were 52 killed and 170 wounded on board the wooden vessels, there were none killed and none wounded on board the monitors. The ships were more severely injured at Mobile than at New Orleans, and, except in the case of the Brooklyn, the damage was mainly caused by collisions with the Tennessee, and by her shot and shell.

forts.

Thus far the forts had been passed, not taken. But, durSurrender of the ing the ensuing night, Fort Powell was abandoned and blown up. Fort Gaines was shelled the next day by the Chickasaw, and compelled to surrender. The fleet was on one side of it, Granger's troops on the other. With it were taken 800 prisoners.

Fort Morgan was captured on August 23d. Granger's troops had been transferred to the rear of it. On the 22d it was bombarded. A fire broke out which compelled the garrison to throw 90,000 pounds of powder into the cisterns. The fort was soon reduced to a mass of ruins. Its commander, Page, resisted one day, and then surrendered at discretion. Before surrendering he threw his sword into a well, and injured his guns and other material of war. With the defenses of Mobile there were taken 104 guns and 1464 men.