FARRAGUT AT MOBILE
THE FORTS AND THE CONFEDERATE SQUADRON THE UNION FORCES WERE
COMPELLED TO FACE--THE CONFEDERATE IRONCLAD JUST MISSED BEING A
MOST FORMIDABLE SHIP--TEDIOUS WAIT FOR MONITORS--WHEN THE SOUTHWEST
WIND FAVORED--THERE WAS A FIERCE BLAST FROM THE FORTS AT FIRST,
BUT THE TORPEDO WAS WORSE THAN MANY GUNS--FATE OF THE _TECUMSEH_
AND CAPTAIN CRAVEN--THE LAST WORDS OF THE MAN FOR WHOM “THERE WAS
NO AFTERWARD”--TORPEDOES THAT FAILED BENEATH THE FLAGSHIP--CAPTAIN
STEVENS ON THE DECK OF HIS MONITOR--WHEN NEILDS UNFURLED THE OLD
FLAG IN THE MIDST OF THE STORM--HOW FARRAGUT WAS LASHED TO THE
MAST--JOUETT WOULD NOT BE INTIMIDATED BY A LEADSMAN--MOBBING THE
_TENNESSEE_.
[Illustration: Entrance to Mobile Bay.
_From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_]
Mobile Bay lies like a great bell open to the south--a bell that is
thirty miles long, fifteen wide at the mouth, and six at the head. It
is a shoal-water bay, save for a rather deep hole (twenty-one feet)
just within; the two sandy islands that stretch out from either side
across its mouth almost meet. That is to say, they reach within 2,000
yards of each other, and between them lies the entrance to the channel.
In these days a wide ditch carries twenty-three feet of water from the
deep hole inside the islands clear to the town of Mobile; but at the
time of the Civil War that had not been dredged, and the water shelved
gradually from the ripples at the beach to twelve feet at the centre
line above the hole. There was a bar outside; but ships drawing twenty
feet of water could pass. The main point of land at the entrance to
Mobile Bay lay on the east, and was called Mobile Point. On the west
lay Dauphin Island, and the water between this island and the mainland
was and is called Mississippi Sound--a stretch of shoal water that
gives inland navigation to New Orleans. The Confederate defences,
ashore and afloat in 1864, are described by Mahan as follows:
“The entrance from the Gulf was guarded by two works, Fort Morgan
on Mobile Point, and Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island. The approach by
Mississippi Sound was covered by Fort Powell, a small earthwork on
Tower Island, commanding the channel which gave the most water, known
as Grant’s Pass. Gaines was too far distant from the main ship channel
to count for much in the plans of the fleet. It was a pentagonal work
mounting in barbette three X-inch columbiads, five 32-, two 24-,
and two 18-pounder smooth-bore guns, and four rifled 32-pounders;
besides these it had eleven 24-pounder howitzers for siege and for
flank defence. In Fort Powell there were one X-inch, two VIII-inch
and one 32-pounder smooth-bore and two VII-inch Brooke rifles; these
bore on the sound and channels, but the rear of the fort toward the
bay was yet unfinished and nearly unarmed. The third and principal
work, Fort Morgan, was much more formidable. It was five-sided, and
built to carry guns both in barbette and casemates; but when seized
by the Confederates the embrasures of the curtains facing the channel
were masked and a heavy exterior water battery was thrown up before
the northwest curtain. The armament at this time cannot be given with
absolute certainty. The official reports of the United States engineer
and ordnance officers, made after the surrender, differ materially,
but from a comparison between them and other statements the following
estimate has been made: Main fort, seven X-inch, three VIII-inch and
twenty-two 32-pounder smooth-bore guns, and two VIII-inch, two 6.5-inch
and four 5.82-inch rifles. In the water battery there were four X-inch
and one VIII-inch columbiads and two 6.5-inch rifles. Of the above, ten
X-inch, three VIII-inch, sixteen 32-pounders and all the rifles, except
one of 5.82 calibre, bore upon the channel.
“In the waters of the bay there was a little Confederate squadron under
Admiral Franklin Buchanan, made up of the ram _Tennessee_ and three
small paddle-wheel gunboats, the _Morgan_, _Gaines_, and _Selma_.
They were unarmored, excepting around the boilers. The _Selma_ was an
open-deck river steamer with heavy hog frames; the two others had been
built for the Confederate Government, but were poorly put together.
The batteries were: _Morgan_, two VII-inch rifles and four 32-pounders;
_Gaines_, one VIII-inch rifle and five 32-pounders; _Selma_, one
VI-inch rifle, two IX-inch, and one VIII-inch smooth-bore shell-guns.
Though these lightly built vessels played a very important part for
some minutes, and from a favorable position did much harm to the Union
fleet in the subsequent engagement, they counted for nothing in the
calculations of Farragut.
“The _Tennessee_ was the most powerful ironclad built, from the keel
up, by the Confederacy, and both the energy showed in overcoming
difficulties and the workmanship put upon her were most creditable to
her builders. The work was begun at Selma, on the Alabama River, one
hundred and fifty miles from Mobile, in the spring of 1863, when the
timber was yet standing in the forests, and much of what was to be her
plating was still ore in the mines. The hull was launched the following
winter and towed to Mobile, where the plating had already been sent
from the rolling mills of Atlanta.
“Her length on deck was 209 feet, beam 48 feet, and when loaded, with
her guns on board, she drew 14 feet. The battery was carried in a
casemate, equidistant from the bow and stern, whose inside dimensions
were 79 feet in length by 29 feet in width. The framing was of yellow
pine beams, 13 inches thick, placed close together vertically and
planked on the outside, first with 5½ inches of yellow pine, laid
horizontally, and then 4 inches of oak laid up and down. Both sides
and ends were inclined at an angle of forty-five degrees, and over the
outside planking was placed the armor, 6 inches thick, in thin plates
of 2 inches each, on the forward end, and elsewhere 5 inches thick.
Within, the yellow pine frames were sheathed with 2½ inches of oak.
The plating throughout was fastened with bolts 1¼ inches in diameter,
going entirely through and set up with nuts and washers inside. Her
gunners were thus sheltered by a thickness of five or six inches of
iron, backed by twenty-five inches of wood. The outside deck was plated
with two-inch iron. The sides of the casemate, or, as the Confederates
called it, the shield, were carried down to two feet below the water
line and then reversed at the same angle, so as to meet the hull again
six to seven feet below water. The knuckle thus formed, projecting ten
feet beyond the base of the casement, and apparently filled in solid,
afforded a substantial protection from an enemy’s prow to the hull,
which was not less than eight feet within it. It was covered with four
inches of iron, and being continued round the bows, became there a
beak or ram. The vessel carried, however, only six guns; one VIII-inch
rifle at each end and two VI-inch rifles on each broadside. These were
Brooke guns, made in the Confederacy; they threw 110-pound and 90-pound
solid shot. The ports were closed with iron sliding shutters, five
inches thick; a bad arrangement, as it turned out.
“Though thus powerfully built, armored, and armed, she had two
grave defects. Her engines were not built for her, but taken from
a high-pressure river steamboat, and though on her trial trip she
realized about eight knots, six seems to be all that could usually be
got from her. She was driven by a screw, the shaft being connected
by gearing with the engines. The other defect was an oversight, her
steering chains, instead of being led under her armored deck, were over
it, exposed to an enemy’s fire. She was therefore a ram that could only
by a favorable chance overtake her prey, and was likely at any moment
to lose the power of directing her thrust.”
While Banks was on the useless Red River expedition Farragut had
been anxious to attack Mobile, but had been unable to do so because
no troops could be spared for use against the forts and to hold the
place when it should be taken. For six months, in fact, the admiral
had to lie idle while the Confederates strengthened their works--even
watching them while they brought the _Tennessee_ down the river on
which she had been built, and then carried her over the shoal waters of
the upper part of the bay, just as Perry carried his two brigs out of
Erie harbor on Lake Erie when he went out to win his great victory. It
was in March, 1864, that the Confederates began this slow task under
Farragut’s eyes (figuratively speaking; Farragut was not with the fleet
constantly), and it was not until May 18th that they had her anchored
in the deep water within the forts guarding the channel.
As a matter of fact, Buchanan, the Confederate admiral, intended to
go out and attack Farragut’s fleet that night, as the _Merrimac_
had attacked the wooden fleet in Hampton Roads. What he would have
accomplished may not now be guessed; but Farragut had wooden ships
only to meet the _Tennessee_, although he had done everything he could
to get ironclads. However, the _Tennessee_ grounded, and when she was
floated Buchanan, for some reason unknown, changed his mind.
Meantime the Confederate had anchored forty-six beer-keg torpedoes and
134 torpedoes made of tin, all fitted with percussion fuses, across the
channel, leaving a pass, marked by a red buoy, near Fort Morgan (on the
east side) for the blockade-runners. The pass was about 100 yards wide
and at the most deadly range from the fort.
After six months of tedious delay four monitors came with the assurance
that a sufficient number of troops would coöperate. Two of these
monitors had single turrets, armored with ten inches of iron and
carrying two fifteen-inch Dahlgren guns--guns that used sixty pounds of
powder (and might have used a hundred) behind solid-steel shot weighing
440 pounds. The others had eleven-inch Dahlgrens.
Eventually a day for landing the troops on Dauphin Island was
fixed--August 4, 1864--and Farragut was to pass the forts and anchor in
the bay before daylight. The troops were landed, but Farragut had to
wait for some of his squadron that had failed to arrive. But during the
day they were all there. The wooden ships were prepared much as they
had been at the battle of New Orleans, and then all that was wanting
was a flood-tide to help sweep the ships, and a southwest wind to blow
the smoke of battle into the eyes of Fort Morgan’s gunners. As fortune
turned, Farragut got both early on the morning of August 5, 1864. It
had been raining the night before, and it is recorded that Farragut
could not sleep well. At 3 o’clock in the morning he sent a man on
deck to ask how the wind was, and the man brought word that it was
southwest.
“Then we will go in this morning,” said Farragut, and a few minutes
later the boatswains were turning out all hands on every ship of
the fighting squadron. It was not a long task to get the men to
quarters, but the ships had to be lashed together two and two,--the
little _Octorara_ on the off side of the _Brooklyn_, and the little
_Metacomet_ on the off side of the flagship _Hartford_, and so on, to
protect the little ones from the fire of Fort Morgan.
[Illustration: Farragut and Drayton on Board the _Hartford_ at Mobile
Bay.
_Drawn by I. W. Taber from a photograph._]
When this was done the line was formed in two columns, the monitors on
the right, next to the fort, in the following order of battle:
Monitors--starboard column: _Tecumseh_, 1,034 tons, two guns, Commander
T. A. M. Craven; _Manhattan_, 1,034 tons, two guns, Commander J. W. A.
Nicholson; _Winnebago_, 970 tons, four guns, Commander Thomas H.
Stevens; _Chickasaw_, 970 tons, four guns, Lieut.-commander George H.
Perkins.
Wooden ships--port column: _Brooklyn_, twenty-four guns, Capt. James
Alden; _Octorara_, six guns, Lieut.-commander Charles H. Greene;
_Hartford_, twenty-one guns, Rear-admiral David G. Farragut, Capt.
Percival Drayton; _Metacomet_, six guns, Lieut.-commander James E.
Jouett; _Richmond_, twenty guns, Capt. Thornton A. Jenkins; _Port
Royal_, six guns, Commander Bancroft Gherardi; _Lackawanna_, eight
guns, Capt. John B. Marchand; _Seminole_, eight guns, Commander
Edward Donaldson; _Monongahela_, eight guns, Commander James H.
Strong; _Kennebec_, five guns, Lieut.-commander William P. McCann;
_Ossipee_, eleven guns, Commander William E. Le Roy; _Itasca_, five
guns, Lieut.-commander George Brown; _Oneida_, nine guns, Commander
J. R. M. Mullany; _Galena_, ten guns, Lieut.-commander Clark H.
Wells. The _Octorara_, _Metacomet_, and _Port Royal_ were side-wheel
double-enders; the others were screw ships. All had been built for the
naval service.
The signal to move rose to the _Hartford’s_ masthead at 5.30 o’clock,
and by 6.10 the leaders were crossing the bar, heading for the narrow
passway marked by the red buoy just under the heaviest guns of Fort
Morgan.
[Illustration:
B. Brooklyn.
B1. Brooklyn backlog.
C. Chickasaw.
H. Hartford.
L. Lackawanna.
M. Monongahela.
Mh. Manhattan.
O. Ossipee.
On. Oneida.
R. Richmond.
R1 Richmond backing
T. Tecumseh.
T1. Tecumseh, Position of Wreck.
Ts. Tennessee (Confederate.)
W. Winnebago.
I. Position of vessel when Tecumseh struck the Torpedo.
II. Position of vessels when Tennessee passed down the Union line.
III. Conflict of Tennessee with the fleet.
IV. Selma surrenders.
Figures not attached to vessels give the soundings. Within the
channel they indicate depth in fathoms; beyond the dotted lines,
feet.
1. Octorara.
2. Metacomet.
3. Port Royal.
4. Seminola.
5. Kennebec.
6. Itasca.
7. Galena.
b. Buoy marking torpedo line.
g. Gaines (Confederate.)
m. Morgan. (Confederate.)
s. Selma. (Confederate.)
w. Water Battery.
? Anchorage before Tennessee was seen coming up to attack.
? Torpedoes.
* Light House.
Battle of Mobile Bay.
_From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_]
“It was a glorious sight to see those brave fellows wearing a smile of
joy upon their faces in view of such odds against them, and not knowing
how soon they and their comrades would be lying at the bottom of the
bay. All could not hope to escape this trying ordeal, when several of
the coolest officers calculated that at least six of the ships would be
blown up. They never stopped to consider whose fate this would be; all
they desired was to grapple with the enemy, and see the Union flag
floating over the forts that had been taken from their lawful owners.”
Slowly--too slowly, the squadron steamed in, the American flag
fluttering at every peak until within easy range, when the _Tecumseh_,
the leading monitor, hurled two fifteen-inch shot at the fort. There
was no reply, and the squadron continued slowly on with the monitors
blazing away.
The silence of the fort was ominous, for its garrison were waiting for
the shortest range; but at 7.7 o’clock, as the head of the squadron
drew in to make the turn at the red buoy, the time had come, and a
roaring blast of iron hail struck the leading ships. But ominous as
the silence of the fort had seemed, the result of their best aim was
insignificant, for only one shot did any damage worth mention, and that
one killed nearly all of a gun’s crew on the _Hartford_.
All the guns of the fleet that would bear were now opened on the fort,
grape and canister being chiefly used in order to drive the men from
the guns, and so steady was the rain of the small projectiles through
the fort’s portholes that the fire there was instantly slackened.
[Illustration: T. A. M. Craven.
_From a photograph owned by Mr. C. B. Hall._]
And then came the Confederate squadron from behind the fort to take
a position above the line of torpedoes to help repel the fleet. As
the _Tennessee_ opened fire the monitor _Tecumseh_, at the head of
the Union line, had her turret turned with portholes from the fort
while the guns were loaded. Captain Craven, intent on reaching the
_Tennessee_ as quickly as possible, saw that if he had to pass between
the red buoy and the fort, his route would be a crooked one, and
turning to the pilot at his side in the pilot-house, he said:
“It is impossible that the Admiral means us to go inside the buoy;
I cannot turn my ship.” He knew that outside the red buoy lay the
torpedoes, but saying “starboard” to the man at the wheel, he headed
the _Tecumseh_ straight for the Confederate ram. For a few minutes she
held her course undisturbed, but as the red buoy was brought abeam,
her bow was suddenly lifted out of water, she lurched heavily from side
to side, and then down she went bow first, her screw lifted up to view,
and with a minute or two of time between the shock and the sinking.
A torpedo had ripped open her hull. A few men in the turret climbed
out. Craven and Pilot John Collins both started for the opening in the
pilot-house, and then Craven drew back and said:
“After you, pilot.” But there was no afterward for Tunis Augustus
Craven. There was a chance for one, but not for two. “When I reached
the uppermost round of the ladder,” said Collins, “the ship dropped
from under me.” In all, ninety-two good men went down with their
immortal captain.
Farragut, who had climbed into the port main rigging of the _Hartford_,
where he could see over the smoke of battle, saw the _Tecumseh_ sink,
and turning to Capt. J. Jouett, of the little _Metacomet_ alongside,
asked him to send a boat to rescue some of the _Tecumseh’s_ crew. But
Jouett had already ordered the boat away, and it carried another hero
of that battle--Ensign H. C. Neilds. Neilds was only a lad, but he
sat unmoved in the stern of the frail craft as it passed out from the
shelter of his ship into the hurtling storm that ripped the water into
a misty spray. A moment later he remembered that his flag was not
flying, and standing up, as a Perry might have done, he unfurled the
flag, set it to its staff in the face of friend and foe, and then sat
down quietly to guide the boat on her mission.
Over on the monitors was still another hero--Commander Stevens, of the
_Winnebago_. He was of the old school of seamen, who believed that the
captain’s place was on the quarter-deck. The double-turreted monitor
had no quarter-deck, but Stevens, restive in the iron box, got out
on the deck between the turrets, and pacing to and fro alone in the
storm, gave his orders now to one turret and then another. And what
was more, the monitors were all driving ahead in the wake of the lost
_Tecumseh_--driving toward the torpedoes.
But just then the captain of the _Brooklyn_, being in the lead of all,
saw some little floats that marked the location of a nest of torpedoes,
and first stopped and then backed his engines. It was not the right
move for a ship in Farragut’s squadron to make, and it threw the line
into confusion, and held the ships under the hottest fire of the
fort--held the _Hartford_ in particular where the shot from the enemy
turned her gun-deck into a slaughter pen so that blood ran in streams
from her scuppers, and the splinters of her walls and bits of flesh and
clothing from the dead were scattered in a shower over the deck of the
gunboat lashed alongside.
As the _Hartford_ ranged up near the _Brooklyn_, Farragut, from his
perch in the rigging, asked what was the trouble, and the one word
“torpedoes” came back to him.
“D----n the torpedoes! Follow me,” said the admiral, and as the
_Hartford_ took the lead of her column, he signalled for “close order.”
A moment more, and the _Hartford_ had reached the torpedo nest. The
torpedo cases were distinctly heard striking against her bottom, and
their primers were heard snapping, but not one exploded.
It was at this time that Captain Drayton, of the _Hartford_, seeing
Farragut clinging to the shrouds just under the maintop, sent a sailor
up to make fast a slender rope from one shroud to another in such a way
that the admiral could not fall in case he was struck. It is so far
literally true that Farragut was “lashed to the mast.”
[Illustration:
Fort Gaines.
U. S. Fleet.
_Hartford._
Monitors.
_Tennessee._
Fort Morgan.
Battle of Mobile Bay.
_Front a painting by Admiral Walke._]
And then came the _Richmond_ with her consort to narrowly escape a
collision with the _Brooklyn_, but as she turned away, her broadside
was brought to bear fairly on the fort, and she opened such a rapid
fire that she was wholly hid from view. Admiral Buchanan, who had
watched her with more than ordinary interest because of a personal
friendship for Captain Jenkins, was led to say:
“What became of Jenkins? I saw his vessel go handsomely into action,
and then lost sight of her entirely.”
Nevertheless, Jenkins was there, and in a most active condition of
health. With the other larger ships, she helped to silence the forts so
far that the last ships of the line passed in with but slight damage.
But once inside the line of torpedoes--torpedoes that had failed
because made of tin that rusted away or because of other defects
in make--the Union squadron had to face the Confederate ships. The
Confederate gunboats had seemed of no moment at first, but as the
_Hartford_ advanced they retreated slowly, keeping within about 700
yards, and delivering an effective fire. Farragut sent the _Metacomet_
after them, and she disabled the _Gaines_, drove another flying back to
the fort, while the third, the _Selma_, kept on, with Jouett eager in
the chase. The two were soon in shoal water, and the man at the lead
on the _Metacomet_ called out a foot less water than she drew. It was
reported instantly to Jouett.
“Call the man in,” said Jouett. “He is only intimidating me with his
soundings.”
Fortunately, it was a soft mud bottom. The _Metacomet_ kept on. A
squall came to hide the _Selma_, but when it passed, Jouett was upon
her, and her flag came down.
Meantime the _Tennessee_ had run amuck among the Union squadron.
Her first attempt to ram was on the _Hartford_, but the _Hartford_
was swifter and handier, and so escaped. Then she passed the
_Brooklyn_, the _Richmond_, and the _Lackawanna_, and turned toward
the _Monongahela_. Captain Strong of this ship strove in turn to ram
the _Tennessee_, and each glanced from the other. Thereafter the
_Tennessee_ passed clear through the fleet, doing and receiving but
little damage. Then she turned near the fort to follow up the Union
squadron.
At about this time (8.35 o’clock) Farragut ordered the men on the
_Hartford_ sent to breakfast. Captain Drayton said:
“What we have done has been well done, sir, but it all counts for
nothing so long as the _Tennessee_ is there under the guns of Morgan.”
“I know it,” said Farragut, “and as soon as the people have had their
breakfasts I’m going for her.”
The mess kits were on the deck when word came down that the
_Tennessee_, instead of staying near Fort Morgan, as Farragut
had supposed she would do, was coming. In a jiffy the scouse and
coffee were sent back to the galley, and the men ran to their guns.
The anchor was slipped, and with signals flying to direct the
_Monongahela_, _Lackawanna_, and _Ossipee_ to ram the Confederate ship,
and the monitors to attack her, the _Hartford_ headed at full speed to
lead the ramming gunboats. In this the spirit of Farragut was shown
even more faithfully than when he braved the fire of the forts, for
the _Tennessee_ was a much more powerful ship than the _Merrimac_, and
the _Hartford_ was not so powerful as any of the steamers that lay in
Hampton Roads when the _Merrimac_ made her first raid. Indeed, one
involuntarily compares the action of Farragut on this day with that of
Goldsborough on the day that the _Merrimac_ ran down within range of
the Rip Raps, and defied a squadron gathered especially to ram her.
There was no hesitation at Mobile. The _Monongahela_ was the first to
reach the Confederate ship. Two raking shots were received, but at full
speed the _Monongahela_ struck her amidships on the starboard side, and
a minute later, as the two swung side by side, the _Monongahela_ gave
her a broadside.
And then came the _Lackawanna_ to ram the _Tennessee_ on the port
side. A good blow it was too; but as the _Hartford_ approached to give
a third blow, the _Tennessee_ turned so that she and the _Hartford_
struck bow to bow, but both glanced clear.
A broadside from the _Hartford_ also proved harmless, but the
_Tennessee_, that had been unable to return the fire for some time
on account of defective primers, managed to discharge one shell that
entered the _Hartford_, though it did no material damage. And then
the danger of mobbing a ship, as the _Tennessee_ was mobbed, became
apparent, for the _Lackawanna_, in coming around to ram again, struck
the _Hartford_ instead of the _Tennessee_, and narrowly missed sinking
her, while Farragut, by an equally narrow margin, escaped death, for he
was standing near where the _Lackawanna_ struck.
Meantime the three monitors were coming with all speed, the _Chickasaw_
burning tallow and tar to get up steam faster. Passing along the
_Tennessee’s_ port side, the _Chickasaw_ got under the stern of the
Confederate, and there she hung, working her four eleven-inch guns with
deadly accuracy. The monitors _Manhattan_ and _Winnebago_ both attacked
the _Tennessee_, but one of the former’s guns was accidentally spiked,
and the latter’s turret machinery failed, and it was the _Chickasaw_
that did the work.
“D----n him!” said the _Tennessee’s_ pilot afterward. “He stuck to us
like a leach; we could not get away from him. It was he who cut away
the steering gear, jammed the stern port shutters and wounded Admiral
Buchanan.”
And that was true. Both the bow and the stern port shutters were jammed
so that the guns of the _Tennessee_ could not be worked at the ends of
the ship. Her smoke-stack was shot away, and the smoke from the stump
poured down through the upper-deck gratings to fill the casemate, where
the temperature had risen to 120 degrees. Buchanan, to clear one of
the port shutters, sent for a machinist and personally superintended
his work for a few moments, when one of the _Chickasaw’s_ projectiles
struck the iron plating just outside where the machinist was at work,
and the concussion, although the shot did not enter, reduced the man to
a pulp, so that his remains were shovelled into buckets to be carried
away. Worse yet for the ship, an iron splinter was driven through the
admiral’s leg, breaking the bone.
It was near this time that the tiller chains were carried away, and
that completed the needed work of destruction. Capt. J. D. Johnson
took command of her when Buchanan fell, and for twenty minutes longer
endured the hammering while wholly unable to return the fire or steer
the ship. But to hold out longer under such circumstances was useless,
and the flag was hauled down.
As it happened, the flag had been shot down before, and it was flying
from a boat hook thrust up through a deck grating. The Union forces,
supposing the flag had been shot away again, continued firing, and to
end the matter Johnson went on the upper deck and waved a white flag.
Just then the _Ossipee_ came slicing through the water at top speed to
ram the _Tennessee_. Captain Le Roy was out on deck, and recognized
Johnson instantly as an old friend. Sheering the _Ossipee_ to one side,
he shouted cheerfully:
“Hello, Johnson, old fellow! How are you? This is the United States
steamer _Ossipee_. I’ll send a boat alongside for you. I’m Le Roy;
don’t you know me?”
The boat was sent. The American flag was hoisted on the _Tennessee_.
The battle was ended.
Farragut, in his report, gave special praise to the following men:
Capts. Percival Drayton and Thornton A. Jenkins; Commanders Mullany,
Nicholson, and Stevens; Lieut.-commanders Jouett and Perkins;
Lieutenants Watson and Yates; Acting-Ensigns Henry C. Nields, Bogart,
and Heginbotham; Ensign Henry Howard Brownell, Secretary McKinley, the
pilot Martin Freeman, Acting Volunteer Lieuts. William Hamilton and P.
Giraud. Of his crew he said: “I have never seen a crew come up like
ours. They are ahead of the old set in small arms, and fully equal
to them at the great guns. They arrived here a mere lot of boys and
young men, and have now fattened up and knocked the 9-inch guns about
like 24-pounders, to the astonishment of everybody. There was but one
man who showed fear, and he was allowed to resign. This was the most
desperate battle I ever fought since the days of the old _Essex_.”
[Illustration: The Confederate Ram _Tennessee_, Captured at Mobile.
_From a photograph._]
A consideration of this fight shows that the Union forces had their
blood up, and that nothing but an impregnable ship could have withstood
this onslaught. The _Tennessee_ was not that kind of a ship. The
defects in the shutters and the steering gear, and the inability to
keep up the fires after the smoke-stack fell, ruined her chances. These
matters must be emphasized because such defects are inevitable in ships
built during actual war. The Confederacy lacked ships just as the
United States would lack them in case a war with a first-class nation
were suddenly precipitated upon us, and the ships we should then build
would very likely fail, as the _Tennessee_ failed. It is worth noting
that not one shot penetrated the _Tennessee’s_ casemate, but one from
the _Manhattan_ bulged the wood backing of the armor into a mass of
splinters.
The _Tennessee_ lost two killed and ten wounded. The Union forces lost
fifty-two killed by shots, 120 drowned in the _Tecumseh_, and 170
wounded.
The _Chickasaw_ shelled Fort Gaines on the 6th, and it surrendered next
day. The fort on the other point was invested by the troops as well as
the ships, the shelling beginning on the 22d of August, and the next
day it surrendered. This effectually closed Mobile harbor as a port
for blockade-runners, but the city was not taken until the middle of
the next spring. The naval forces helped in bombarding the defences
about the city, but the only incidents of real importance to history
of this kind were the various losses from torpedoes. The bay was
swept for torpedoes thoroughly, and yet the _Milwaukee_ ran on one on
returning from a trip up to shell a fort near the city, and was sunk.
The _Osage_, in shifting her anchorage in a fresh breeze, was sunk in
like fashion. The wrecking steamer _Rodolph_, while going to raise the
_Milwaukee_, struck another and went down. Even after the Confederate
troops withdrew and 150 torpedoes had been removed from the Tombigbee
channel, two tugs and a launch struck torpedoes and were destroyed.
The danger from such obstructions had never been so well shown as at
Mobile.