The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-01-03
pHE FIGHT IN MOBILE BAY.
Conrderate iEfrorts to Equip Naval
Force.

Force.
J. y Eggleston in Charieston Weekly Neps.
Mritimo nations WELD power out Of
all proportion to their population and
geographical limits as compared with
non-naritipe States. Holland, with the
sea Der TO her fleets, triumphed, after a
wearof forty years. over the great mill
tarypower of Spain. Napoleon, with
Contaental Europe enlisted under his
banbr, succumbed at last to the power
of th Mistress of the Seas. Against tho
unafed military power Of the North we
migf have triumphed in the late war,
butgainst her maritime power the. CON
testn our part was hopeless from tho
beginning.
Anies may be improvised, but navies
are te slow growth of time. National
enthusiasm or the enforcement of con-
scrip laws may bring the former sud.
denly into existence, but no edict of
Government can at once convert into
navie the raw material of the forests
and I mines. Yet that was the task,
for tb performance of which Secre-
taryslallory was so soundly and persist
entity abused by our own people. To
be Brre the failure TO accomplish it
meanrthe failure of our cause, but none
the les Mr. Mallory and his subordi.
mates merit praise for what they did do
rather than censure for what they did
not.
The question of questions with us was
to meet the enemy on the sea as we'll as
the land, and break the blockade that
held US as with band Of iron. At all
apparently feasible points in our control
we made siren hous efforts to accomplish
such a result, gut all in vain.
A MOSQUITO SQUADRON
When Admiral Buchanan took com.
mand at Mobia the so.called naval force
there consistettof four vessels, viz: The
side-wheel steahers Gaines and Morgan1
mounting EACH six 32.pounders the
Selma, a formelpay boat, mounting five
guns of the samtealibre, and the Baltic,
"a nondescript 3ncern, with shield
covered with railroad iron forward Of
her wheelhouses,a mounting four guns.
Properly speaking they were collec-
ton Of man-trap3 rather than men.of-
war.
HOW THEY WERE EMPLOYED.
While Fort Mugan remained in our
possession there wa aSlittle or nothing for
these vessels to do 9cept to keep look
out for fishing butts and other small
craft seeking to Communicate with the
enemy's blockading feet, or to carry on
a smuggling trade Nth New Orleans.
Certainly that was nd the sort of service
that the officers of hpse vessels would
have preferred, but iswas such as they
were called upon to ,erform, and they
did it cheerfuily. Th.time came, how
ever, when work Of cry different sort
presented itself, and tfat was when Far
ragut's fleet ran into Mobile Bay past
the guns of Fort Morgai.
-FOUR 1RoNciADs.
The construction of foAf ironclads was
begun on the Alabama River in the
year 1862 and 1863, and when partly
finished they were towedj to Mobile, TO
be completed there. ThIee of the yes.
sells were propellers bui!e somewhat on
the model of the Merrimic, but, 80 far
as their shields were conhrned. with a
modification thet was an improvement
on the latter. This was tle addition Of
"knuckle," that was meant to protect
the vessel against the assault of another
ram. The section of q hulliready to re-
ceive an iropclad shield with h "knuckle"
would resemble the section Of q common
meat dish. A pencil placed with one
end on the edge of the dish Ind held at
an angle Of 45o would Represent o sec.
ton of the shield. In the completed
ironclad the line ofjunction of the shield
with the hull was some two feet below
the water.line, and presented en- iron
edge all round the vessel, making her
essentially defensive, if not an often.
sive, ram st every point.
Tie Tuscaloosa and the Huntsville
for 30 the smalier nrnnelers were
nemed-wou!d have been 7erj formida-
Bile little .yessels if they had had suffi-
ciept motive power; for their shields
were capable of resisting heavy bonn.
oasdulent, and the guns they mounted
were formidable for that period, being
Brooke rifles of 6 inch and inch diane.
ter of bore-each vessel mounting
inch rifle forward and inch on each
broadaide. If either the Me :iimac or
Monitor, in the famous encounter in
Hampton Roads, had been armed with
z inch rifles, her opponent you'd have
been forced TO surrender. But the vital
defect in these vessels, and ohe which we
could not overcome, was their want Of
motive power. There Tsre 10 machine
shops in the Confederate Stas! 3 capable
of turning out o marine engine, and for
the vessels that we built Ws we're forced
to patch up such engines as wsre already
in the country. Those In the Huntsviile
and Tuscaloosa had been ussd in >aaw
mills, and the utmost speed of those yes.
sells was not over, Eve knots an hpur.
Their accommodations were so con-
structea and badly ventilated that the
crews were quartered in cotton ware
houses near the wharves to which the
vessels were moored. For that reason
they were not stationed in the lower bay
to obeiready to aid in resisting the possi-
BILE entrance of the enemy's feet. -.
e5.51, THE "TENNEssEE" :.
was vessel Of far greater pretension
than those just mentioned, but not near
80 formidable as Federal accounts might
lead one to suppose, At the same time
she gas, a3ys Ia tie, yssy Important: mat
.s= af .natsEa E5.sE, .!:5 s:..i .ios u Inc
Merrimac, for she was clad with two lay.
era of two-inch iron plates, instead of
with one only, as in the case of the last
named vessel, and while she carried
only eight guns to the Merrimac,s ten,
hers were fifiesi with penetrating
power greatly in; excess of tho smooth.
bore Dahlgren guns that were, used by
both sides in the Hampton Roads bat
ties E.- i.i,sss .rh
OF the eight guns of the Tennessee two
vare ?s;a.eis s=::taa31ss =::ta31ss pointing uTeF bow aud
stern respectively, and the othersi were
6 inch rifles mounted on the broadsides.