From a photograph.
A consideration of this fight shows that the Union forces had their blood up, and that nothing but an impregnable ship could have withstood this onslaught. The Tennessee was not that kind of a ship. The defects in the shutters and the steering gear, and the inability to keep up the fires after the smoke-stack fell, ruined her chances. These matters must be emphasized because such defects are inevitable in ships built during actual war. The Confederacy lacked ships just as the United States would lack them in case a war with a first-class nation were suddenly precipitated upon us, and the ships we should then build would very likely fail, as the Tennessee failed. It is worth noting that not one shot penetrated the Tennessee’s casemate, but one from the Manhattan bulged the wood backing of the armor into a mass of splinters.
The Tennessee lost two killed and ten wounded. The Union forces lost fifty-two killed by shots, 120 drowned in the Tecumseh, and 170 wounded.
The Chickasaw shelled Fort Gaines on the 6th, and it surrendered next day. The fort on the other point was invested by the troops as well as the ships, the shelling beginning on the 22d of August, and the next day it surrendered. This effectually closed Mobile harbor as a port for blockade-runners, but the city was not taken until the middle of the next spring. The naval forces helped in bombarding the defences about the city, but the only incidents of real importance to history of this kind were the various losses from torpedoes. The bay was swept for torpedoes thoroughly, and yet the Milwaukee ran on one on returning from a trip up to shell a fort near the city, and was sunk. The Osage, in shifting her anchorage in a fresh breeze, was sunk in like fashion. The wrecking steamer Rodolph, while going to raise the Milwaukee, struck another and went down. Even after the Confederate troops withdrew and 150 torpedoes had been removed from the Tombigbee channel, two tugs and a launch struck torpedoes and were destroyed. The danger from such obstructions had never been so well shown as at Mobile.
CHAPTER XIV
TALES OF THE CONFEDERATE CRUISERS
THE MOST INSTRUCTIVE CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES—WORK ACCOMPLISHED BY AN ENERGETIC SEAMAN IN A SHIP HIS BROTHER OFFICERS CONDEMNED—BRILLIANT WORK OF THE FLORIDA UNDER JOHN NEWLAND MAFFIT—BAD MARKSMANSHIP AND A WORSE LOOKOUT OFF MOBILE—A CASE OF VIOLATED NEUTRALITY—SEMMES AND THE ALABAMA—THE BATTLE WITH THE KEARSARGE—WHAT KIND OF A MAN IS IT THAT FIGHTS HIS SHIP TILL SHE SINKS UNDER HIM?—AMERICAN COMMERCE DESTROYED—THE BRITISH WITHOUT A RIVAL ON THE SEA, AT LAST, AND AT VERY SMALL COST.
The most instructive chapter in the history of the United States is that relating to the deeds of the cruisers in the Confederate navy; for, though few in number, they proved to the world that the over-sea commerce of a nation at war could be swept away entirely by means so inexpensive and of such little power as to be absolutely insignificant. Consider the first Confederate cruiser worth mention—the Sumter. She was a small coaster lying at New Orleans. Her cabins for passengers were on deck, and her coal-carrying capacity was equal to but five days at sea, and her hull was so frail that she was condemned by a board of able Confederate officers who examined her. But Raphael Semmes eagerly took hold of her. He cleared away the cabin hamper on deck, overhauled her sails and rigging, mounted an eight-inch pivot and some thirty-two-pounders from the Norfolk Navy Yard, and then did one other thing to her worth especial mention: “The engine which was partly above the water line was protected by a system of woodwork and iron bars.” So says Semmes’ “Memoirs”; and that is important because he said the captain of the Kearsarge, having used chains for armor, was unchivalrous. He began work on April 22, 1861. On June 3d he put her in commission under the name of Sumter. Thereafter some time was spent in drilling the crew, and then he dropped down to the head of the Passes to wait opportunity to get to sea. Very naturally he was astonished to find that the Brooklyn, the only blockading steamer, was lying out at sea instead of anchoring at the head of the Passes. He was also astonished that he was not attacked by the Brooklyn during the nine days that he lay there, and the reader is likely to share his feeling. And then came Sunday, June 30th. While the men on the Sumter prepared themselves for the usual man-o’-war inspection, a report that the Brooklyn was off on a chase was received.
Raphael Semmes.
From a photograph owned by Mr. C. B. Hall.