flag-ship, the Hartford, and putting on all steam, led off through
a track which had been lined with torpedoes by the rebels; but he
says, "Believing that, from their having been some time in the water,
they were probably innocuous, I determined to take the chance of their
explosion."

Turning to the northwestward to clear the middle ground, the fleet
were enabled to keep such a broadside fire on the batteries of Fort
Morgan as to prevent them from doing much injury. After they had
passed the fort, about ten minutes before eight o'clock, the ram
Tennessee dashed out at the Hartford; but the admiral took no further
notice of her than to return her fire. The rebel gunboats were ahead,
and annoyed the fleet by a raking fire, and the admiral detached his
consort, the Metacomet, ordering her commander, Lieutenant-commander
Jouett, to go in pursuit of the Selma, and the Octorara was detached
to pursue one of the others. Lieutenant-commander Jouett captured the
Selma, but the other two escaped under the protection of the guns of
Fort Morgan, though the Gaines was so much injured that she was run
ashore and destroyed. The combat which followed between the Tennessee
and the Union fleet, and resulted in the surrender of that formidable
iron-clad vessel, is best described in the admiral's own words:

"Having passed the forts and dispersed the enemy's gunboats, I had
ordered most of the vessels to anchor, when I perceived the ram
Tennessee standing up for this ship. This was at forty-five minutes
past eight. I was not long in comprehending his intentions to be the
destruction of the flag-ship. The monitors and such of the wooden
vessels as I thought best adapted for the purpose, were immediately
ordered to attack the ram, not only with their guns, but bows on at
full speed; and then began one of the fiercest naval combats on
record.

"The Monongahela, Commander Strong, was the first vessel that struck
her, and in doing so carried away her own iron prow, together with the
cutwater, without apparently doing her adversary much injury. The
Lackawanna, Captain Marchand, was the next vessel to strike her, which
she did at full speed; but though her stem was cut and crushed to the
plank-ends for the distance of three feet above the water's edge to
five feet below, the only perceptible effect on the ram was to give
her a heavy list.

"The Hartford was the third vessel that struck her; but, as the
Tennessee quickly shifted her helm, t