S84 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS The fleet which was to take part in the attack consisted of fourteen sloups-of- war and gunboats, and four ironclad monitors. The admiral arranged them for the attack as follows : the Brooklyn and Octorara were lashed together, the Brooklyn being on the starboard side, nearest Fort Morgan the Brooklyn be- ing, much against the admiral's wishes, allowed the lead ; next the Hartford and Metacomet, followed by the Richmond and Port Royal, the Lackawanna and Seminole, the Monongahela and Kennebec, the Ossipee and Itasca, and the Oneida and Galena. The four monitors were arranged in the following order, to the right or starboard of the gunboats : the Tecumseh, Commander T. R. M. Craven, taking the lead, and followed by the Manhattan, Commander Nichol- son ; the Winnebago, Commander Stevens ; and the Chickasaw, Lieutenant- commander Perkins. The rebels, in addition to three forts all manned with large garrisons, had a squadron consisting of the ironclad ram Tennessee, regarded by them as the most formidable armed vessel ever constructed, and three powerful gunboats, the Selma, Morgan, and Gaines. The fleet steamed steadily up the channel, the Tecumseh firing the first shot at 6.47 A.M. The rebels opened upon them from Fort Morgan at six minutes past seven, and the Brooklyn replied, after which the action became general. The Brooklyn now paused, and for good reason the Tecumseh, near her, ca- reened suddenly and sank almost instantly, having struck and exploded a tor pedo ; and her gallant commander and nearly all her crew sank with her. Directing the commander of the Metacomet to send a boat instantly to res cue her crew, Admiral Farragut determined to take the lead in his own flag-ship, the Hartford, and putting on all steam, led off through a track which had been lined with torpedoes by the rebels ; but he says, " Believing that, from their hav- ing been some time in the water, they were probably innocuous, I determined to take the chance of their explosion." Turning to the northwestward to clear the middle ground, the fleet were en- abled to keep such a broadside fire on the batteries of Fort Morgan as to prevent them from doing much injury. After they had passed the fort, about ten minutes before eight o'clock, the ram Tennessee dashed out at the Hartford ; but the ad- miral took no further notice of her than to return her fire. The rebel gunboats were ahead, and annoyed the fleet by a raking fire, and the admiral detached his consort, the Metacomet, ordering her commander. Lieutenant-commander Jou- ett, to go in pursuit of the Selma, and the Octorara was detached to pursue one of the others. Lieutenant-commander Jouett captured the Selma, but the other two escaped under the protection of the guns of Fort Morgan, though the Gaines was so much injured that she was run ashore and destroyed. The combat which followed between the Tennessee and the Union fleet, and resulted in the surren- der of that formidable ironclad vessel, is best described in the admiral's own words : " Having passed the forts and dispersed the enemy's gunboats, I had ordered most of the vessels to anchor, when I perceived the ram Tennessee standing up
