The last Confederate port of the Civil War fell on May 5, 1864. Union Rear Admiral David Farragut led his fleet, superior in number, against Confederate Admiral Franklin Buchanan's fleet, which was guarding Mobile Bay. Farragut's plan took him around Fort Morgan pushing the ships through mined waters. It was risky, but he felt it was necessary because without bypassing the fort he would be vulnerable to Confederate land-based cannons. His gamble paid off and the journey only cost him one ironclad Monitor, the USS Hartford, leaving him three additional ironclads and fourteen wooden ships. The Confederate fleet, which consisted of four ships, three of which were wooden, was outmatched. Their numbers were quickly reduced to one, the ironclad CSS Tennessee. The Tennessee was the Confederacy's most powerful warship and it continued to fight the fleet alone.
The Tennessee was designed to battle wooden ships, with a large ram on its bow and a solid armament of two 7-inch and four 6.4 inch Brooke rifles. Despite its technological advantages, it was outgunned and had an achilles heel that Farragut's fleet was quick to take advantage of: the chains that controlled steering for the vessel ran on the deck. Repeated firing bounced off the iron hull, but the chains broke, leaving the Tennessee a sitting duck, its ram worthless. At 9:35 am the ironclad fired its last shot. Around 10:00 a wounded Buchanan surrendered the vessel and her 190 person crew. Shortly thereafter, Farragut captured or neutralized the remaining forts and the last Confederate port closed, tightening the noose around the the Confederacy. Farragut's gamble paid off, with 315 casualties. The Confederate forces suffered only 32.
The story of the Tennessee does not end there, however. It was captured and turned into the USS Tennessee and after repairs she would help in the defeat of Fort Morgan, the very fort she once protected. She served the Union well, a member of the U.S. Navy's Mississippi Squadron, until after the end of the war. Though she was decommissioned and sold for scrap in November, 1867, one of her double-banded 7-inch Brooke rifles is on display at East Willard Park in the Washington Naval Yard in Washington, DC.
-Professor Walter
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