 imagine they were frightened; no man could stand under that iron
  shower; and the brave fellows returned to their guns as soon as
  it lulled, only to be driven off again.

  At twenty minutes past seven we had come within range of the
  enemy’s gunboats which opened their fire upon the _Hartford_, and
  as the Admiral afterward told me made her their special target.
  First they struck our foremast and then lodged a shot of 120
  pounds in our mainmast. By degrees they got better elevation;
  and I have saved a splinter from the hammock netting to show
  how they felt their way lower. Splinters after that came by
  cords, and in size sometimes were like logs of wood. No longer
  came the cheering cry “Nobody hurt yet.” The _Hartford_ by some
  unavoidable chance fought the enemy’s fleet and fort together for
  twenty minutes by herself, timbers crashing and wounded pouring
  down,--cries never to be forgotten.

By half past seven the iron-clad _Tecumseh_ was well up with the
fort and drawing slowly by, when suddenly she reeled to port and
went down straightway with almost every soul on board. She had
struck a mine. For a time this appalling disaster spread confusion
in the fleet.

“What’s the matter?” was shouted from the flag-ship to the
_Brooklyn_ just ahead.

“Torpedoes,” was the response.

“Damn the torpedoes,” said Farragut, “go ahead.”

Go ahead the fleet did and at length had passed Fort Morgan and was
in the sheltering waters of the bay. The cost of this operation in
the Union fleet was 335 men. Of the 130 men in the _Tecumseh_ when
she was struck only 17 were saved.

Fort Gaines, the works on the western side of the channel, now
surrendered. But Fort Morgan kept on fighting. The Union vessels
were in Mobile Bay, but they had not yet forced the indomitable
fort on Mobile Point to its knees. Admiral Farragut wrote to a
friend:

  We are now tightening the cords around Fort Morgan. Page is as
  surly as a bull-dog and says that he will die in his ditch....

  How little people k