three Union monitors, exploiting their
shallow draft and gigantic Dahlgrens, in
attack against the Tennessee.
Buchanan saved him the trouble. For a
few minutes a heavy rain squall passed
over, and when pushed away by the wind,
a call, at about 8:45, came down from aloft
the flagship, “The ram is coming for us.”
Farragut refused to believe it, thinking, “I
did not think Ol’ Buck was such a fool.”
Conrad watched as “one after another of
the big wooden frigates swept out in a wide
circle.” With inferior speed and exposed
tiller chains, Tennesseewas not equipped
for close-in fighting, and by attacking the
whole Union squadron, Buchanan threw
away his great defensive strengths.
According to Admiral Mahan, Buchanan
should have exploited the light draft of his
vessel, as well as the range of his Brooke
rifles, by staying in shallow waters far from
the Federal ships and battering them from
afar. By attacking at close quarters, he was
playing into Farragut’s hands. Mahan’s
view makes sense. So how does one explain
Buchanan’s decision to come to close quar-
ters? First, if the Tennesseestayed in shal-
low waters, she could have stopped the
three Union ironclads (whose draft was
equal to or less than hers) from coming to
close quarters. Second, from the whole bat-
tle, as well as from his report afterward, it
is clear that Buchanan (thinking, perhaps,
of his experience with the Virginia) trusted
in the ram. This hope would prove his
undoing. Experience had proven that a ship
could not be rammed while in motion.
Indeed, two years later at Lissa the Aus-
trian ironclad Herzhborg Ferdinand Max
would succeed in ramming the Italian Re
d’Italiaonly after the latter, struck in the
rudder, was lying still in the water.
When Farragut saw the Tennessee com-
ing, he ordered all ships to steer for her at
once, seizing the initiative and putting the
Confederates on the defensive. The Brook-
lynlunged first, firing steel-cored shot
from her bow chasers. At the very last
moment the Tennesseesheared off, giving
her some heavy shots in passing. That
ended the day for the Brooklyn, 11 dead
and 43 wounded. Then the wooden shipMonongahela, with her consort Kennebec
still lashed on her port side, separated from
the circle of ships, and with a tower of
white foam creaming from her iron prow,
came running at full speed, “which we on
board the Tennessee,” said Surgeon Con-
rad, “fully realized as the supreme moment
of the test of our strength.”
The Monongahelastruck the ironclad’s
armored knuckle with tremendous but
glancing impact, tearing away her own
iron prow, shattering the butt ends of her
planking. The shock threw most of the
men in both ships to the deck. At the
moment of impact, the Tennesseefired two
shots that completely penetrated the hull
and passed out the opposite side. The
Monongahelaresponded with an impres-
sive broadside that did no more damage
than scrape the paint.
She was hardly away, reported the Ten-
nessee’s Lieutenant Wharton, “when a
hideous-looking monster came creeping up
on our port side,” the monitor Manhattan,
“whose slowly revolving turret revealed the
cavernous depth of a mammoth gun.
‘Stand clear of the port side!’ I shouted. A
moment after a thundering report shook us
all, while a blast of dense, sulphurous
smoke covered our port-holes, and 440
pounds of iron, impelled by 60 pounds of
powder, admitted daylight through our
side, where before it struck us there had
been over two feet of solid wood, covered
with five inches of solid iron ... I was glad
to find myself alive after that shot.”
With hardly time to recover, the Ten-
nesseenow found herself the target of the
sloop Lackawanna. Under a full head of
steam, Lackawanna smashed at right
angles into the after end of the ram’s case-
mate, crushing the wooden ship’s stem andcausing a considerable leak. She struck
with such force that the two vessels swung
parallel head to stern, the Tennesseebring-
ing two guns to bear on the Lackawanna,
but the Union ship bearing only one. The
bluejackets were close enough to hear the
Rebels swearing at them, and from the
Lackawannawere hurled a spittoon and a
holystone to add to the shot and shell. The
Tennesseesent two percussion shots that
lit up the berth deck like a pinball machine,
knocking down men by the bunch and set-
ting fire to the magazine. This was
answered with a shot that damaged Ten-
nessee’s thinly protected tiller chains, jam-
ming her steering gear to cause a lazy left
turn. Another shot immobilized the after-
port shutter. Buchanan sent for a repair
party of firemen to clear it with sledge-
hammers. Two braced their backs against
the casemate, holding the shutter bolt
steady, while their mates slammed away.
“Suddenly,” said Surgeon Conrad, “there
was a dull sounding impact, and at the
same instant the men whose backs were
against the shield were split in pieces. I saw
their limbs and chests, severed and man-
gled, scattered about the deck, their hearts
lying near their bodies.” Everyone includ-
ing the admiral was “covered from head to
foot with blood, flesh, and viscera.” Lost in
the horror was Ol’ Buck, cut down by an
iron splinter, alone in his agony. Conrad
saw that one of Buchanan’s legs was
twisted and crushed under his body. The
medic diagnosed the wound as a com-
pound fracture, and from every indication
the leg would have to come off. Sending for
the captain, in frightful pain Buchanan
gasped, “Well, Johnston, they’ve got me.
You’ll have to look out after her now. This
is your fight, you know.”
Now the two flagships, Rebel and Yan-
kee, warily approached each other bow to
bow. Then the two ships rushed at one
another in a struggle that became an awful,
prolonged affair of violent give and take.
The Hartfordstruck a glancing blow, which
was further mitigated by her port anchor
catching in the gunwale of the Tennessee.
The flagship poured her whole port broad-
side into the ram, 980 pounds of smashing“Follow them up,
Mr. Johnston, we
cannot simply let
them go this way.”
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