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and poured 11-inch shot upon it with very little effect.
Giving the
Tennessee another blow, the
Monongahela lost her own beak and cut-water.
The
Lancaster then, running at full speed, struck the ram heavily, but crushed her own stem without much injuring her adversary.
the
Hartford now tried her power upon the sea-giant.
She gave the
Tennessee a glancing blow and a broadside of 10-inch shells at. Ten feet distance.
Then the armored
Chickasaw ran under its stern, and at about the same time the
Manhattan, approaching the same point, sent a solid 15-inch bolt that demolished its stearing-gear, and broke square through the iron plating of its hull, and the thick wood-work behind it. Meanwhile,
Farragut ordered
Drayton to strike the ram another blow with the
Hartford, and he was about to do so, when the crippled
Lackawanna, in making another attempt to bruise the foe, came in collision with the flag-ship, and damaged her severely.
Both vessels then drew off, and started at full speed to give the
Tennessee a deadly stroke by each.
At the same time the
Chickasaw was pounding away at its stern, and the
Ossipee was running at full speed to strike.
Thus beset, and now badly wounded, the
Tennessee hauled down its flag, and flung out a white one in token of surrender.
The
Ossipee, then near, tried to avoid the victim, and gave it only a harmless glancing blow, in passing.
so ended the desperate struggle, at about 10 o'clock in the morning, in which the
Confederate squadron was virtually destroyed.
In that fight the
Tennessee had depended more upon its invulnerability and its power as a ram, than upon its guns — not one of which was fired after the
Hartford gave her first blow.
It became so crippled, that it could no longer work.
Its smoke-stack was shot away; its steering apparatus was gone, and several of its port-shutters were so battered by shot, that they could not be opened.
Admiral Buchanan was found with his leg so badly injured, that he lost it, and six of his crew were dead or wounded.
1 so the
Tennessee, perhaps one of the most powerful vessels ever built, and its officers and men, became captives to
Admiral Farragut.
the
Confederate squadron was destroyed, but
Farragut's work was not done.
There stood the forts guarding the entrance to
Mobile Bay, almost unharmed, with full armaments and garrisons.
These must be captured before the object of the expedition would be accomplished.
To that business the
Admiral now addressed himself, after sending the wounded of both parties to
Pensacola, on the
Metacomet.
General Granger was on
Dauphin Island, and had begun the siege of
Fort Gaines.
Farragut sent
the
Chickasaw to help him. She shelled the
Fort with such effect that, on the following morning,
Col. Anderson, its commander, asked for conditions on which he might surrender.
The frightened garrison at Fort Powell, at
Grant's Pass, had
