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The enemy had long contemplated the possession of
Mobile Bay guarded at its entrance by two imposing fortifications.
Here was a difficult point to blockade; here was a nursery of the Confederate navy; and here vessels were already being constructed for raising the blockade.
In the latter part of July,
Gen. Canby sent
Maj.-Gen. Gordon Granger, with such forces as he could collect, to co-operate with
Admiral Farragut against the defences of
Mobile Bay.
On the 5th August the Federal fleet, numbering fourteen steamers and four monitors, carrying in all more than two hundred guns, and manned by twenty-eight hundred men, moved steadily up the main ship-channel into
Mobile Bay.
Having once passed
Fort Morgan, this huge armada had to encounter a Confederate naval force composed of one iron-clad — the ram
Tennessee-and three wooden vessels.
The
Brooklyn took the lead of the enemy's fleet in passing
Fort Morgan, keeping up such a broadside fire on its batteries that the guns of the fort were almost silenced.
But another danger had to be run; and as the fleet moved grandly on, a torpedo exploded beneath the iron-clad
Tecumseh, and in a moment she had disappeared beneath the waves, carrying down with her her commander and nearly all her crew.
As the fleet got past the fort, the ram
Tennessee dashed out at the
Hartford,
Farragut's flagship, but finding her starboard side completely protected by the
Monitors, was unable to reach her, and was content with an exchange of harmless fire.
The three Confederate gunboats, the
Morgan,
Gaines and
Selma were ahead, the latter pouring a raking fire into the enemy's fleet.
The enemy passed up to a pocket of deep water, where he bore off somewhat to the westward, and appeared to be collecting his fleet.
About this time the
Gaines was disabled, and forced to retire in a sinking condition.
The
Morgan and
Selma continued to fire into the
Hartford and
Brooklyn, the leading vessels of the enemy.
The
Metacomet, which had up to this time been lashed to the port-side of the
Hartford, was now cast off, and steamed forward in the direction of the
Selma and
Morgan, the fire from the enemy's fleet having ceased.
The
Metacomet was a wooden gunboat, mounting ten heavy guns; and the
Morgan and
Selma were also wooden gunboats, the former carrying six and the latter four heavy guns.
At this time the Confederate flagship
Tennessee, with
Admiral Buchanan on board, was in the neighbourhood of
Fort Gaines, beyond signal distance of the
Morgan and
Selma.
Shortly after the time when the
Metacomet cast off, two other vessels of the enemy
