every respect, surrendered. Boarding her,
Union sailors found a complete mess. Fif-
teen men lay mangled and one lieutenant,
his bowels ripped out, flapped over the
breach of a cannon. When Lieutenant
Patrick Murphey of Selma, his arm in a
sling, came aboard to surrender, he drew
up before his old friend and stiffly said,
“Captain Jouett ... the fortunes of war
compel me to tender you my sword.” Jou-
ett would have no part of such formality
and replied, “Pat, don’t make such adamned fool of yourself. I have had a bot-
tle on ice for you for the last half hour.”
The Gaines, hit in 17 places, her rudder
disabled, and leaking badly, sought refuge
near Fort Morgan and Tennessee, but
foundered 400 yards short. The Morgan,
momentarily grounded, freed herself and
gained a position under the guns of Fort
Morgan. Later, under cover of darkness,
she escaped to fight another day. Likewise,
the Tennesseecontented herself to lie
under the guns of Fort Morgan and fire at
the approaching vessels. In this position,Farragut’s natural assumption was that
Buchanan would either aid the fort to pre-
vent a future exit of his fleet from the bay,
or he would steam to sea and play havoc
with the transports and light gunboats. In
any case, the prevailing opinion of the
fleet’s officers was that Ol’ Buck would
seek no general action against the intrud-
ing Yankees away from the supporting
guns of Fort Morgan.
The Hartfordanchored about four miles
northwest of Fort Morgan, due east from
Fort Powell, at about 8:35, the rest of thefleet anchoring astern of her. When Far-
ragut disengaged himself from his lashings
and came down to the poop deck, Captain
Drayton approached him, “What we have
done has been well done, sir, but it all
counts for nothing so long as the Tennessee
is there under the guns of Fort Morgan.”
The admiral agreed, ”I know it, and as
soon as these people have had their break-
fast, I am going for her.”
Across the way, the hero of Hampton
Roads, limping up and down the deck
impatiently, pacing in perplexity, knew hehad a decision to make. His ram had been
inspected and found to be generally
undamaged, but the Tennessee had been
hit several times in the smokestacks, and
the perforations had reduced her draft so
that she could not attain anything like
maximum speed. Still, she had not been
built for speed anyhow, and as long as she
could move at all, Admiral Buchanan was
content. In this quiet interlude the men of
the Tennesseealso breakfasted on hard-
tack and coffee. Surgeon Conrad remem-
bered “the men all eating standing, creep-
ing out of the ports on the after decks to
get fresh air,” and he described Ol’ Buck as
“grim, silent and rigid.”
After some 15 minutes,
Buchanan called out to the
captain, “Follow them up,
Mr. Johnston, we cannot
simply let them go this
way.” As the fact pene-
trated, and the surgeon
heard muttered com-
ments from every rank,
he ventured to ask the
question himself, “Are
you going into that fleet,
admiral?” Instantly came
the reply, “I am, Sir!”
Turning toward another
officer, Conrad whispered
under his breath, “Well,
we’ll never come out of there
whole.” Afterward he learned
the reason for this apparently
suicidal decision. The Tennessee
had only six hours of coal, and Buchanan
meant to burn it fighting to the end. “He
did not mean to be trapped like a rat in a
hold, and made to surrender without a
struggle.” As naval historian William M.
Still, Jr., correctly supposes, Buchanan was
counting on surprise (the enemy was at
anchor) to inflict the maximum damage
possible, then retreat again under the guns
of Fort Morgan and act like a floating bat-
tery.
Farragut had been planning his own
next move and had come to the conclusion
that he would wait for dark, then board
the Manhattanand personally lead theSailors rescue USS Tecumsehsurvivors.U. S. Naval Historical CenterCWQ-EW16 Mobile Bay_Layout 1 10/22/15 1:09 PM Page 66