The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-01 00:00:00

The Operations at Mobile.

Admiral Farragut's full official report of the ope-
rations in Mobile Bay is now published, and will be
found to contain some most interesting particn■

lars :

"United States' flagship Hartford,
Mobile Bay, Aug. 12.
Sir,—l had the honour to forward the department
on the evening of the sth inst. a report of my entree
into Mobile Bay on the morning of that day, and
which, though brief, contained all the principal
facts of the attack. Notwithstanding the loss of
life, particularly on this ship, and the terrible dime
ter to the Tecumseh, the result of the fight was a
glorious victory ; and I have reason to feel proud
of the officers, seamen, and marines of the squadron
under my command, fur it has never fallen to the
lot of an officer to be thus situated and thus sus-
tained. Regular discipline will bring men to any
amount of endurance, but there is a natural fear of
bidden dangers, particularly when so awfully dee
structive of human life as the torpedo, which re-
quires more than discipline to overcome. Prelimi-
nary to a report of the action of the sth I desire to
call the attention of the department to the previous
steps taken in consultation with Generals Canby
find Granger on the Bth of July. I had an inter-
view with these officers on board the Hartford, on
the subject of an attack upon Forts Morgan and
Gaines, at which it was agreed that General Canby
should send all the troops he could spare to co-ope-
rate with the fleet. Circumstances soon obliged
General Canby to inform me that he could not de-
spatch a sufficient number to invest both forts, and
in reply I suggested that Gaines should be the first
invested, engaging to have a force in the Sound
ready to protect the landing of the army on Dau-
phin Island, in the rear of that fort, and I assigned
Lieutenant-Commander Da Krafft, of the Cone-
maugh, to that duty. On the let inst. General
Granger visited me again on the Hartford. In the
meantime the Tecumseh had arrived at Pensacola,
and Capt. Craven informed me that he would be
ready in four days for any service. We therefore
fixed upon August 4 as the day for the landing of
the troops and my entrance into the bay, but owing,
to delays mentioned in Capt. Jenkins' communica-
tion to me, the Tecumseh was not ready. General
Granger, however, to my mortification, was up to
the time, and the troops actually landed on Dauphin
Island. As subsequent events proved, the delay
turned to our advantage, ae the rebels were busily
engaged during the 4th in throwing troops and
supplies into Fort Gaines, all of which were cap-
tured a few days afterwards. The Tecumseh arrived
on the evening of the 4th, and, everything being
propitious, I proceeded to the attack on the follow-
ing morning. As mentioned in my previous de-
spatch, the vessels outside the bar which were de-
signed to participate in the engagement were all
under way at 5.40 in the morning in the following
order, two abreast and lashed together :—The
Brooklyn, Capt. Alden, with the Octarora, Lieut.-
Commander Green, on the port side; the Hartford,
Capt. Drayton, with the Metacomet, Lieut.-Com-
mander Jouett ; the Richmond, Capt. Jenkins, with
the Port Royal, Lieut.-Commander Gherardi ; the
Lackawanna, Capt. Marchand, with the Seminole,
Commander Donaldson ; the Monongahela, Cora.
mender Strong, with the Kennebec, Lieut.-Com-
mander M'Cann ; the Ossipee, Commander Leroy,
with the Itasca, Lieut.-Commander Brown ; the
Oneida, Commander Mullany, with Galena, Lieut...
Commander Wells. The ironclads Tecumseh, Com-
mander Craven ; the Manhattan, Commander
Nicholson; the Winnebago, Commander Stevens;
and the Chicksaw, Lieut.-Commander Perkins, were
already ahead inside the bar, and had been ordered
to keep up their positions on the starboard side of
the wooden ships, or between them and Fort Mor-
gan, for the double purpose of keeping down the
fire from the water battery and the parapet guns of
the fort, as well as to attack the ram Tennessee as
soon as the fort was passed. It was only at the
urgent request of the captains and commanding
officers that I yielded to the Brooklyn being the
leading ship of the line, as she had four chase guns
and an ingenious arrangement for picking up tor-
pedos, and because, in their judgment, the flagship
ought not to be too much exposed. This I believe
to be an error; for, apart from the fact that exposure
ie one of the penalties of rank in the navy, it will
always be the aim of the enemy to destroy the flag..
ship, and, as will appear in the sequel, such attempt
was very persistently made, but Providence did not
p:rmit it to be successful. The attacking fleet
steamed steadily up the main ship channel, the
Tecumseh firing the first shot at 6 47. At 7 6 the
fort opened upon us, and was replied to by a gun
from the Brooklyn, and immediately after the action
became general. It was soon apparent that there
was some difficulty ahead. The Brooklyn, for some
cause which I did not then clearly understand, but
which has since been explained by Capt. Alden in
his report. arrested the advence of the whole fleet,
while at the same time the guns of the fort were
playing with great effect upon that vessel and the
Hartford. A moment after I saw the Tecumseh,
struck by a torpedo, disappear instantaneously
beneath the waves, carrying with her her com-
mander and nearly all her crew. I determined at
once, as I had originally intended, to take the lead,
and, after ordering the Metacomet to send a boat
to save, if possible, any of the perishing crew, I
dashed ahead with the Hartford, and the ships fol•
lowed on, their officers believing that they were going
to a noble death with their commander-in-chief. I
steamed through between the buoys where the tor-
pedoes were supposed to have been sunk. These
buoys had been previously examined by my Flag-
Lieut. J. Crittenden -Watson, in several Lightly ree
connaissances. Though he had not been able to
discover the sunken torpedoes, yet we had been as-
sured by refugees, deserters, and others of their ex-
istence ; but, believing that from their having been
some time in the water they were probably innocu-
ous, I determined to take the chance of their explo-

sion, From the moment I turned to the north-west-
ward to clear the middle ground we were enabled to
keep such a broadside fire upon the batteries of Fort
Morgan that their guns did us comparatively little
injury. Just after we passed the fort, which was
about 10 minutes before 8 o'clock, the ram Tennessee
dashed out at this ship, as had been expected, and
in anticipation of which I had ordered the monitors

on the starboard side. I took no iurther notice of
her than to return her fire. The rebel gunboats

Morgan, Gaines, and Selma were ahead, and the

latter particularly annoyed us with a raking fire,
which our guns could not return. At two minutes
after 8 o'clock I ordered the Metae,omet to cast off
and go in pursuit of the Selma. Captain Jouett
was after her in a moment, and in an hour's time he
had her as a prize. S'ae was commanded by P. N.
Murphy, formerly of the United States Navy. He
was wounded in the wrist; his executive officer,
Lieut. Comstock, and eight of the crew killed, and
seven or eight wounded. Lieut.-Commander Jonett's
conduct during the whole effair commands my warm-
est commendations. The Morgan and Gaines suc-
ceeded in escaping under the protection of the guns
of Fort Morgan, which would have been prevented
had the other gunboats been as prompt in their
movements as the Metacomet. The want of pilots,
however, I believe, was the principal difficulty. The
Gaines was so injured by our fire that she had to
be run ashore, where sho was subsequently destroyed
but the Morgan escaped to Mobile during the night,
though she was chased and fired into by our cruisers.
Iliving 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 845 o'clock. I was not
long in comprehending her interests to be the de-
struction of the fl igship. The monitors and such
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, &nd then began one of the fiercest naval
combats on record. The ,7,lonongaliela, Commander
Strong, was the first vessel that struck her, and in
doing so carried away his own iron prow, together
with the cutwater,
, without apparently doing his ad-
versary much injury. The Lackawanna, Capt. Mar-
chand, was the next vessel to strike her, which she
did at fall speed,
but, though her stern was cut
and crushed to the plank ends for the
distanceon only
3ft above the water's edge to sft below, the
perceptible effect on the ram was to give her a heavy