Connecticut western news., 1897-10-14

uuired miracle to defeat the ram, which was an improvised affair, cobbled up from l an old abandoned hull and the odds and | ends of machinery and railroad iron, was | in itsele- encouraging to her projectors. | The next effort in that line might produce veritable 'sca devil, D while the second crop of monitors might not be so valiant as tho first, or at least not so fortunate
 The Arkansas in the Yazoo and the Mis- sfssippi followed tho Merrimac and expert cnced similar fate but before ending a short yet dashing career she ran amuck, cutting her way through two of the best equipped Union fleets in tho Mississippi, | and her antagonists were glad to let her alone The Albelnarlc next took up the gage, terroiizing the sounds and rivers of | North Carolina until brave Gushing sent l her to the bottom with torpedo, the only l one of the three formidable ironclad rams | to go down at tho hands of an enemy. | The Merrimac and tho Arkansas commit | ted suicide, as it were, in order to escape I the shame of capture-that is, they were | abandoned and blown up by their com | manders. Both ran their careers in 1862, | and two years passed before the Confed | crates had the tcmerity to revive this method of naval warfare Desperation | drove them to it. They were lacking in | yards, in shops, in machinery and ma | terial for constructing navy to compete with Uncle Sam's, but they had standing i timber and old scrap iron in abundance and stout willing hands to grapple with | the task of building rude ships in the slow | old way.
 ! The fight of tho south against Union \ blockaders was in two years narrowed I down to contest for three ports-Wil- I mington, Charleston and Mobile. The | last named, having but one entrance, suf ] fered the most from the blockade, and | early in 1864 the Confederates set to work | to raise it by means of powerful ram. | Admiral Buchanan, the commander of the | Merrimac in the Hampton Roads battle, was then at the head of naval affairs in | Mobile bay. Other officers of tho first ram l still served under him and devoted their | skill and experience to the building of n I new monster, tho Tennessee, with the ex- press purpose of dashing into Farragut's s | blockading squadron and putting an end I to it. But about the time the ram got ready for business Farragut brought up ] four ironclads from the Mississippi, and | placing them at the head of his fleet of wooden ships of war set sail for the bay, 1 intending to knock to pieces the forts and | slighter vessels defending the city before | the famous 1am, of which he had heard, 1 could come to tho rescue. The battle of I Mobile Bay, Aug. 5, 1864, was the result. 1 The hull of the ram Tennessee had been ! constructed the previous winter on the ! wooded bluffs along the Alabama river I above Selma Her machinery and battery | were placed in at Mobile, and at the same 1 time her monstrous shield received plat- \ ing of iron. She was modelled upon the | Merrimac and resembled her very much | when lying in the water. Her hull, 209 I feet long, was surmountcd anidships by 0 l shield made of alternate layers of yellow pine and white oak plank 25 inches thick
 extending at an angle of 45 degrees from l below the water over her batteries, en- l zines and quarters. The planking in the
 shield was eight feet in length Over it, | when completed, she carried six inches
 of plating in three layers bolted through
 the thick wooden backing Her guns, six
 In number were mounted in sponsons pro. jecting from the sides of the shield. Her
 battery was light, consisting of four inch
 rifles in broadside and two 715 inch rifles
 in pivot fore and aft. Her strength lay ! in her iron armor and in her massive spur or ram. This arm was constructed by
 bending her planking and plating, short ened to about six feet at a sharp angle all
 around her bow. Had other things been equal the armor and iron beak would have
 made the Tennessee the most powerful of
 all the dreaded rams of the Confederacy.
 Owing to an accident, she was deprived of
 thc chance of surprising the blockading
 fleet and spreading havoc among the vul-
 norable wooden boats, as the Merrimac
 and Arkansas had done before her. She