224
��Captain George Hamilton Perkins, U.S.N.
��[April,
��The enemy's defences consisted of Fort Morgan, commanding the chan- nel at Mobile Point, mounting seventy guns ; Fort Gaines, on the eastern point of Dauphin Island, some three miles northwest of Fort Morgan, armed with thirty guns, and Fort Powell, about four miles from Gaines northwest, at Grant's Pass, with four guns.
Across the channel, which runs close to Morgan, several lines of torpedoes were planted, and just beyond them
��iron spur projecting from the bow some two feet under water. Her sides " tumbled home " at an angle of forty- five degrees and were clad in armor of five and six inches thickness, over a structure of oak and pine of twenty- five inches. Her guns, six heavy Brooke's rifles, were arranged, by port and pivot, for an effective all-round fire, and her speed was six knots.
All was ready for the attack on the evening of the fourth of August, and at
���THE TENNESSEE.
��to the northward of the fort, in line abreast waiting their opportunity, was the rebel squadron, comprising the Tennessee, flagship of Admiral Bu- chanan, and the gunboats Morgan, Gaines, and Selma, carrying in the aggregate twenty -two guns — eight rifles and fourteen smooth-bores. The Tennessee, the most powerful ship that ever flew the Confederate flag, was two hundred and nine feet in length, and forty-eight feet in width, with a heavy
��half-past five the next morning the signal was thrown out to weigh, and fall into the order prescribed ; the wooden ships in couples, and the ironclads in line by themselves; the Tecumseh in the van and the Chickasaw in rear, according to the rank of their com- manding officers.
At half-past six the fleet was across the l)ar and in order of battle. No starlight or favoring clouds now, to par- tially mask its movements as at the
�� �
