herself in mid-career, and caromed into the
helpless ram. Her skipper, Commander
William LeRoy, a comrade from the old
navy, hailed, “Hello, Johnston, how are
you?” He sent a boat and Johnston came
aboard, “I’m glad to see you, Johnston,
here’s some ice water for you,” he said.
They disappeared into his cabin to renew
old times over a bottle.
For his part, Farragut acted properly,
although not as generously as he might
have. He did not go aboard the Tennessee
to call on the wounded admiral, and
demanded that a junior officer board the
ram to take the admiral’s sword. This was
the same sort of insult that years earlier
had inspired the rage of his adoptive father,
Captain David Porter, when a British
junior officer tried the same during the sur-
render of his flagship at Valpariso Bay in
the War of 1812, on which ship Farragut
was then a midshipman. To the junior
Confederate officers Farragut was polite, if
distant; yet when the fleet surgeon visitedBuchanan, who indicated no particular
friendship for Farragut, the surgeon made
it clear to Farragut that the admiral’s feel-
ings had been hurt. General Page asked
that Buchanan be sent under parole to
Mobile, but Farragut refused.
After the battle, in writing to Secretary
Welles, Farragut, a Southern man by birth
and association, was far more gentle with
Admiral Buchanan. But, he had a personal
grudge against those officers who had been
trained by the U.S. government, had sup-
ported that government, had been sup-
ported in turn by it, but had then turned in
rebellion against it. He might have friends
in the South, but personally his emotions
were too involved to allow him to treat
Buchanan as he might have.
Farragut also thanked the officers and
men of the fleet, and mentioned that he
“led” them into Mobile Bay. Captain
Alden of the Brooklyn, who had been
posted to lead the fleet in and who had
nearly lost the battle for the Union, tookoffense at the admiral’s statement and
went aboard the Hartfordto protest. Far-
ragut took the man below to his cabin, and
what transpired there we know not, but
ever afterward there was a coolness
between the two men.
Farragut had won a brilliant victory, but
at what cost? Fifty-two officers and men
had been killed and 170 wounded. Adding
the losses of the Tecumseh, the number of
killed increases to 145, and the total losses
to 315 killed and wounded. Aside from the
loss of an ironclad, the sloop Oneidahad
been disabled, the Hartfordhad been hit
20 times and the Brooklyn59 times. Oth-
ers had received serious damage except for
the ironclads which, though they had been
repeatedly hit (the Winnebagoalone 19
times), had resisted well. A supply ship
that tried to follow the fleet against orders
was disabled by a shot from Fort Morgan,
grounded, and later burned by the Con-
federates. The Southerners lost 12 killed
and 20 wounded. Taken prisoner were
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