Damn the torpedos!

I am a member of the Civil War Preservation Trust, and recently, while at work and bored out of my mind, I was reading their publication Hallowed Ground (Winter 2008 issue). Now, I haven't read or researched much into the battle of Mobile Bay, but as many of us civil war history buffs know, this is the place where Admiral David Farragut made the famous quote, "Damn the torpedos!" Which was actually, "Damn the torpedos! Four bells. Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!" The order was is reference to the sinking of the Tecumseh amoungst the mine field before Fort Morgan. His fleet balked while running the guns, and began to back up directly in front of the fort. As the lead ships plowed ahead, sailers claimed to have heard faulty primers snapping as the lead ships hit the "infernal machines". While the thought of Farragut lashed to the rigging of his flagship, the Hartford, as it made its way through a minefield and cannon fire is brave, I was impressed to learn an equally brave action by his opponent.

Admiral Franklin Buchannon (incidently the only man to be given the rank of admiral in the Conferacy) was aboard the ironclad, CSS Tennessee. After several failed attempts to ram the faster wooden vessels of Farragut's fleet, he brought his vessel back to its anchorage off of Fort Morgan. While his men ate a quick breakfast, he ordered the vessel brought back up to steam saying, "We can't let them off that way."

The Tennessee charged at 4 knots directly at the flagship Hartford. As Farragut realized that Buchannon was not yet finished, he turned the Hartford directly at the Tennessee and ran at 10 knots towards the ironclad vessel. A slow game of naval chicken carried on for a full 15 minutes as the two admirals charged at each other like jousting knights of old. The collision would most certainly have destroyed both ships had it not been for the helmsman of the Tennesee veering just at the last moment so that the two vessels merely scraped hulls. Even though the Tennessee was the ship attempting to ram, she found herself the recipeint of several rams herself, including several by the Monongohela and Lackawanna, doing more damage to the federals that to the hulking ironclad.

Buchannon's ship plodded on, directly into the federal fleet, where the Tennessee suffered the full wrath of the union guns. Both sides suffered, the yanks less due to the constant misfires of the inferior confederate powder. Finally, the Tennessee was disabled as she lost her steering chains and smokestack, which left her unsteerable and without steam to power her screws. The USS Manhattan closed in and began to pound away with her 15 inch guns, bending the iron shielding of the vessel and shattering the oak supports, wounding many including Buchannon himself. Badly pummelled and dead in the water, the Tennessee surrendered.

Wow! Imagine something like that on the Hollywood big screen! If the movie Windtalkers made it to production, why can't something like this make it? Serioulsy? Anyway, happy Monday, another day another dollar...