Page 60 - NS-2 Textbook

THE CIVIL WAR 53

line of 200 moored torpedoes (mines) extended that bar- this time, all of the ships had moved several miles north
rier to within a quarter of a mile of Fort Morgan. A buoy of Fort Morgan, so the fort's guns could not help the
marked the eastern end of the minefield, which left only Confederate ships. Now the Union ships started closing
a 150-yard-wide charmel for blockade numers. in. The Confederate glmboat Selma was forced to smren-
Key to the Mobile defenses was a brand-new Con- der, the Gaines was sunk, and the Morgan escaped to the
federate ironclad, the CSS Tellnessee, from which Admiral city. TIle Tennessee retired under the guns of Fort Morgan.
Buchanan flew his flag. TIle ship, though better built than Farragut anchored the Union fleet 4 miles north of
the CSS ViJginia, still had design flaws. It had only 6 knots Fort Morgan and ordered the crews to breakfast. They
of speed, its steering chains were exposed on topside, and had barely finished when Buchanan charged forth again.
its gun-port shutters easily januned. Tluee other small He wanted to sink the Hartford.
gunboats completed the little Confederate fleet with a The Union ships weighed anch01; sUl'rounded the
total of 16 guns, compared to Farragut's battle force of Confederate, and began to fire point-blank. Buchanan
eighteen ships and 159 guns. In the morning of 4 August could do little but maneuver slowly. He got off some
1864 Farragut landed army units on Dauphine Island to good shots, but his ammlmition was poor and often did
lay siege to Fort Gaines. The next day his fleet started up not fire. Gradually, the TfIlnessee's gun ports were
the charmel, with the monitors closest to Fort Morgan, jarnmed and the steering chains cut. The stack was shot
and the other ships lashed together in pairs, larger ships away, so her gun deck was filled with suffocating heat
facing the fort. TIle Union monitors were no faster than and fumes. Adlniral Bucharlan was wounded. As the en-
the Tellnessee, but they had heavier armor and 15-inch and tire Union fleet closed in for the kill, Buchanan autho-
ll-inch Dahlgren smoothbore glUlS, compared to the rized the Tellnessee's captain to surrender. It ,vas the end
Confederate's 7-inch and 6.4-inch rifles. The Union mon- of the Confederate navy. The forts quickly surrendered.
itor Tecumseh headed the van, her conm1anding officer No serious attempt to capture the city itself was made
concenh"ating his attention on the Tellllessee rather than until the spring of 1865, but the war had now passed the
his navigation. He ran into a huge mine that exploded city by, and it was lost to the Confederacy.
and ripped out her bottom. The ship sank almost in- Shennan, \vho had been moving slowly tm·vard At-
stantly, taking most of her crew of 100 down with her. lanta, now broke loose and defeated the Confederates in
The other monitors kept going, hnwevel~ in order to three sharp battles. The city fell on 2 September 1864. He
avoid disaster. As it 'vas, the ,vaoden frigates headed by then set out with 60,000 shock troops with light rations,
the Brooklyn heard confused reports about objects in the living off the countryside, and in what became known as
water ahead and stopped right in the middle of the chan- "Sherman's march to the sea," cut a devastating path 60
nel. The whole federal line was in danger of colliding miles wide to the coast, wiping out the Confederacy's
with one another. last agricultural area. Savannah fell in Decembel; and he
Farragut now was faced with the most important de- surged northward into the Carolinas. Charleston fell on
cision in his career. He climbed into the rigging of his 18 Februmy. Grant's master plan had now confined Lee
flagship, the USS Hartford, and surveyed the scene. He to the Petersburg-Richmond area. Wilmington, North
saw that he must go ahead into the danger of the mine- Carolina, connected to Richmond by rail .. ,vas nuw the
field or turn back with a major naval defeat on his hands. only port still open to Confederate blockade rmmers.
He took a calculated risk, figllring that most of the mines
had been in the water so long that they were probably FORT FISHER
ineffective due to leakage. His voice shouted out the now-
famous ,vords "Danm the torpedoes!" Then he ordered Fort Fisher was the key to Confederate defenses at the
Captains Jouett of the gunboat alongside and Drayton of mouth of the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. Wilining-
the Hartford: "FoUl' bells! Captain Drayton, go allead! ton ,vas located up the river. The port continued to receive
Jouett, full speed!" a trickle of foreign war supplies through the winter of
The ships moved through the minefield, often bump- 1864-b5 despite the Union blockade. An attempt to capture
ing and scraping the easily seen black mines. Not a sin- Fort Fisher vvas made in late Decelnbel~ but this was un-
gle one detonated. The entire Union battle line swept successful because the Army supplied a force that was less
into the bay, and into the charging Confederate force. than half the l1lll1ber requested by tlle Navy for an am-
Admiral Buchanan tried desperately to ram one of phibious assault. General Grant was so dissatisfied with
the Union's wooden ships, but it skipped out of his way. the Army general's performance that he sent him home.
Buchanan wanted to keep the Union ships bunched up at Both sides prepared for the next assault. The Con-
the entrance where the fort's gillls could be brought to federates heavily reinforced Fort Fisher arld repaired and
bear. T"wo of the Union monitors ramlned the Tellllessee, extended the fortifications. Meanwhile, Grant sent Gen-
damaging themselves more than their enemy. The Har/- eral Alfred Terry to head an 8,000-man Army landing
ford now unleashed a full broadside into the Tennessee. By force, the l1lunber the Navy had requested in the first