James Barnes, author of David G. Farragut, Naval Actions of 1812, Yank ee Ships and Yankee Sailors, Commodore Bainbridge , The Blockaders, and other naval and historical works, The Photographic History of The Civil War: in ten volumes, Thousands of Scenes Photographed 1861-65, with Text by many Special Authorities, Volume 6: The Navy.
Francis Trevelyan Miller, Ed.

Government, and a number of well-armed wooden vessels. They added immensely to the defensive strength of the city.

General Gordon Granger landed on Dauphine Island, on the 3d of August, 1864, with fifteen hundred men and moved up to Fort Gaines. Entrenchments were thrown up before the works on the 4th, and arrangements made to cooperate with Farragut's fleet, which was to enter the harbor the next morning, in order to close the port of Mobile and destroy the great ram Tennessee. At six o'clock in the morning, Farragut's powerful fleet of eighteen vessels entered the main channel.

The Federal ships were all thoroughbred war vessels; not a single one but what was built for the service. They swept on to the attack with four monitors in the starboard column, close inshore. As they passed the Fort and water batteries, where the Brooklyn and Richmond came very nearly going aground, they completely smothered the Confederate fire.

The Tecumseh, under the command of Captain T. A. M. Craven, was sunk by a torpedo as the fleet advanced. Admiral Farragut, unable to see through the smoke, went up the mainmast almost as high as the maintop. While here, a quartermaster fastened a rope around him to keep him from falling.

But if deeds of bravery are to be mentioned in telling of Mobile Bay, much credit must be given to the small Confederate gunboats, Morgan, Gaines, and Selma, that kept up a raking fire which caused great havoc among the advancing vessels. To the great ram Tennessee and the magnificent fight that she fought, honor is due also. Her engines were hastily constructed, and of insufficient strength. She charged through the whole line; the Hartford dodged her, although it had been the desire of brave old Admiral Buchanan's heart to sink the flagship. The Brooklyn had a narrow escape, and the Monongahela, under Commander James H. Strong, attempted to ram the Tennessee, and drove, bows on, against her side; the blow hardly changed the great ram's direction. The Ossipee attempted to follow the Monongahela's lead, but the Tennessee