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[651]

Hartford (flag-ship), Capt. P. Drayton;

Brooklyn, Capt. James Alden;

Metacomet, Lt.-Com'r J. E. Jouett;

Octorara, Lt.-Com'r C. H. Green;

Richmond, Capt. T. A. Jenkins;

Lackawanna, Capt. J. B. Marchand;

Monongahela, Com'r J. H. Strong;

Ossipee, Com'r W. E. Leroy;

Oneida, Com'r J. R. M. Mullany;

Port Royal, Lt.-Com'r B. Gherardi;

Seminole, Com'r E. Donaldson;

Kennebec, Lt.-Com'r W. I. McCann;

Itasca, Lt.-Com'r George Brown;

Galena, Lt.-Com'r C. H. Wells;

1Tecumseh, Com'r T. A. M. . Craven;

2Manhattan, Com'r J. W. A. Nicholson;

3Winnebago, Com'r T. H. Stevens;

4Chickasaw, Lt.-Com'r T. H. Perkins.

Gen. Canby had sent from New Orleans Gen. Gordon Granger, with a cooperating land force, perhaps 5,000 strong, which had debarked on Dauphine island, but which could be of no service for the present; and did not attempt to be. Pollard says that our fleet carried 200 guns with 2,800 men.

Thursday, August 4, had been fixed on for the perilous undertaking; but, though the troops were on hand, the Tecumseh had not arrived; and — in contempt for the nautical superstition touching Friday--the attack was postponed to next morning ; when, at 5: o'clock, the wooden ships steamed up, lashed together in couples; the Brooklyn and Octorara leading, followed by the Hartford and Metacomet; the iron-clads having already passed the bar, and now advancing in line on the right, or between the fleet and Fort Morgan. The Tecumseh, leading, at 6:47, opened fire on Fort Morgan, still a mile distant, which responded at 7:06 ; and forthwith, every gun that could be brought to bear on either side awoke the echoes of the startled bay.

The Brooklyn, when directly under the guns of the fort-which, disregarding the iron-clads, were trained especially on the Hartford and her, while their progress was retarded by the slowness of the monitors-had just opened on the fort with grape, driving its gunners from its more exposed batteries, when the Tecumseh, then 300 yards ahead of her, struck a torpedo which, exploding directly under her turret, tore a chasm in her bottom, through which the water poured in a flood, sinking her almost instantly, and carrying down Com'r Craven and nearly all his officers and crew. Out of 130, but 17 were saved; part in one of her own boats and part by a boat sent, by Farragut's order, from the Metacomet, under a terrible fire.

Farragut had reluctantly consented to let the Brooklyn lead the wooden fleet, because of her four chaseguns specially adapted to the work in hand, and because she had a peculiarly ingenious contrivance for picking up torpedoes. “Exposure is one of the penalties of rank in the navy,” is his characteristic observation; in accordance with which, he had stationed himself in the Hartford's main-top, as the point whence every thing that transpired could best be observed; and the strong presumption that the Rebel fire would be concentrated on the flag-ship rendered him specially anxious that she should be accorded the post of preeminent peril and honor. Overruled at the outset, Farragut, when the Brooklyn very naturally recoiled at the spectacle of the Tecumseh's destruction, directed Drayton to go ahead, followed by the rest, in the full belief that several must pay the penalty of heroism just exacted of

1 Iron-clads.

2 Iron-clads.

3 Iron-clads.

4 Iron-clads.

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