Still in the Hartford, with a gunboat lashed alongside, he passed the batteries under a ter rific fire. None of the other vessels succeeded in getting past. The Mississippi, of which George Dewey was the executive officer, grounded, was set on fire by Confederate shells and burned to the water's edge. Farragut had only partially succeeded. Still the Hartford and the Albatross patroled the river and practi cally cut all communication west of Vicksburg.
After the fall of Port Hudson he returned to New Orleans and on 1 Aug. 1863 sailed for New York to recuperate his health, impaired by his arduous labors. In January 1864 took command of the naval forces acting against Mobile. On the morning of 5 August entered the bay. The mouth was protected by two formidable forts, Morgan and Gaines. The nar row channel was obstructed by piling and lines of floating torpedoes. Farragut's fleet com prised 30 vessels, of which 8, including the flag ship Hartford, were steam sloops-of-war of the first class. There were 4 monitors and 18 gun boats.
He attempted the passage with seven of his heavy sloops, each one lashed to a gunboat on its port side. The four monitors, the Tecumseh leading, were sent ahead, followed by the Brooklyn-Octorara couple, then the Hartford Metacomet couple, and the other ships in suc cession. Farragut had ordered the column to pass close under the .walls of Fort Morgan, through an opening left free of torpedoes for blockade runners.
At 7:45 A.m. the Tecumseh opened fire. The Confederate batteries did not reply until 20 minutes later. In Mobile Bay lay three gun boats and the ironclad ram Tennessee (Corn. Franklin Buchanan), a match, it was believed, for the whole Union fleet. As Farragut approached, the ram took a position behind the torpedo line. In his eagerness to engage this redoubtable foe, Craven, on the Tecumseh, dis obeyed the admiral's order, and instead of pass ing through the opening, headed for the Ten nessee. He struck a torpedo and was blown up just as the Brooklyn got fairly under fire. Striking empty shell boxes thrown overboard from the vessels preceding, it was thought she was in danger of torpedoes. She stopped and swung with her head toward the fort where none of her guns bore. The Confederates poured a rain of shot and shell upon her. The Hartford, coming up nearly fouled the Brooklyn. The hesitant ships were bunched and made a target for every Confederate gun. The battle
seemed lost.
Farragut, ascertaining that the Brooklyn had stopped for fear of torpedoes, ordered the Hart ford to the head of the line, giving utterance to that immortal phrase: "Damn the torpedoes! Go ahead 1p The Hartford passed the Brook lyn, narrowly escaping shoals to port and raced up the bay toward the Tennessee. It was now impossible to pass through the designated chan nel and Farragut drove the Hartford across the torpedo line. The example of the admiral put spirit into the Brooklyn and with the other ships she followed the flag. Fortunately no other torpedoes exploded and the whole fleet successfully passed the forts after a bloody and desperate battle.
The Tennessee had ranged along the Union ships and, immune to their fire, had shelled them at will. As soon as the passage had been made, the Union gunboats were cast off from the frigates and the Confederate gunboats were captured or driven to the shelter of Fort Mor gan. At 9 a.m. the Tennessee, with surpris ing gallantry, came up toward the Middle Ground to engage the Union fleet. To this battle Farragut was nothing loth. By his or ders the wooden ships were hurled upon their antagonist. The Monongahela struck her a ter rific blow at a right angle. The Lackawanna repeated the ramming tactics. The bows of the wooden ships were stove in to the water line. Both ships were raked by the Tennessee's rifles, their return broadsides doing no damage to the iron plating. The Tennessee made straight for the Hartford, which was bearing down directly upon her, bows on. One or the other ship would have been sunk had not the Tennessee swerved so that the Hartford struck her a glancing blow. The ram was now beset by all the vessels of the Union fleet which could get at her. She was rammed, hammered and pounded. The monitors with their heavy guns were racking her from stem to stern. In the melee the Lackawanna rammed the Hartford, cutting her down to the water's edge. Finding his ship would still float, Farragut ordered her again to ram the Tennessee. By this time the ironclad's smokestack had been shot away, the casemate was an inferno, the heavy battering had jammed the port shutters, shot had entered through the ports, not a gun could be fired, steam ran down in the boilers. She could neither fight nor fly, so she surrendered, after one hour of as fierce fighting as was ever recorded.