ost ruined fortress, amid salvos of artillery and the cheers of
a victorious army and navy.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY.

The last two actions of the United States navy in the civil war were
destined to be the grandest successes of a long record of daring and
successful exploits. Farragut at Mobile, and Porter at Fort Fisher,
added to their wondrous careers the cap-sheaves of two victories
wrested from apparently unconquerable adversaries.

It was on a bright August morning in 1864 that Admiral Farragut stood
on the deck of his stanch frigate the "Hartford," that had borne him
through so many desperate battles. Around the flagship were clustered
the vessels of the Gulf squadron. There was the battered old
"Brooklyn," scarred with the wounds of a dozen fights; the "Richmond"
and the "Itasca," that received their baptism of fire at the fight
below New Orleans. In all there were fourteen wooden vessels and four
iron-clad monitors assembled in front of the strongest combination of
harbor defences that warships ever yet dared attack. Yet Farragut was
there that bright summer morning to enter that bay, and batter the
forts of the enemy into subjection. To capture the city was not his
purpose,--that he left to the army,--but the harbor forts and the
great ram "Tennessee" must strike their colors to the navy.

Before arranging for the attack, the admiral made a reconnoissance,
the results of which are thus told by one of his officers: "On the
afternoon of the day of our arrival, Admiral Farragut, with the
commanding officers of the different vessels, made a reconnoissance on
the steam-tender 'Cowslip,' running inside of Sand Island, where the
monitors were anchored, and near enough to get a good view of both
forts. On the left, some two miles distant, was Fort Gaines, a small
brick-and-earth work, mounting a few heavy guns, but too far away from
the ship-channel to cause much uneasiness to the fleet. Fort Morgan
was on the right, one of the strongest of the old stone forts, and
greatly strengthened by immense piles of sand-bags covering every
portion of the exposed front. The fort was well equipped with three
tiers of heavy guns, some of them of the best English make, imported
by the Confederates. In addition, there was in front a battery of
eleven powerful guns, at the water's edge on the beach. All the guns,
of both fort and water battery, were within point-blank range of the
only channel thro