The Tennessee was built in Selma, Alabama according to the standardized design drawn up by John L. Dixon and propagated by Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory. These ships were designed for a defensive rôle, holding Southern ports and rivers against Union assault. At 1,271 tons, she was the largest Confederate ironclad completed. Well and strongly constructed, but with weak and temperamental engines (the Achilles' heel of most Confederate ironclads), the Tennessee was to prove one of the most successful of all Confederate ironclads. Fulfilling her defensive mission, she single-handedly held off an overwhelming Union fleet for almost four hours at Mobile Bay in August 1864.
Tennessee was at heart a heavily-built wooden vessel. Profiting from experience with the Virginia, she had a diamond-shaped, slanted casement with oblique panels on the corners and smooth joining of the conning tower to the sides. The casement was composed of 20 inches of oak and pine below the 6 inches of armor. Her armor, composed of a triple layer of railroad iron (T-bar rails) rolled into 2-inch plates, then laminated in different directions for increased strength, stood up to an immense pounding from Union solid shot and shell guns, which destroyed everything unarmored about the vessel. The outer layer of the Tennessee's armor was indeed cracked in several places, but only two of her 133-man crew were killed by the four-hour cannonade from hundreds of guns.
The ship was laid down in 1862 but not commissioned until 1864. The partially completed Tennessee was towed from Selma to Mobile in early 1864 to fit out and become part of the port's defenses. She became a key link in the chain of fortifications, along with forts, batteries, obstructions, and the unprotected wooden steamers Morgan, Selma, and Gaines. Together these created a choke point on shipping approaching the Bay from the south via the narrow deep-water channel. For an apreciation of the formidable system of forts, study the chart. At right is one of the Brooke 6.4" muzzle-loading rifles mounted on the Tennessee, which was captured on her surrender at the Battle of Mobile Bay. All the ironclad's former ordnance is now on display at the Washington Navy Yard.
Plans & Specifications
Specifications for the Tennessee:
Dimensions: 209' x 48' x 14' Displacement: 1,273 tons. Armament: (2) 7" Brooke MLR; (4) 6.4" Brooke MLR. Armor: 6" railroad iron, 14" wood backing. Maximum speed: 5 kts. Crew: 133.
Metric Specifications:
Dimensions: 63.7m x 15.6m x 4.3m Displacement: 1,273 tons. Armament: (2) 180 mm Brooke MLR; (4) 163 mm Brooke MLR. Armor: 152 mm railroad iron, 356 mm wood backing. Maximum speed: 9.26 km/hr. Crew: 133.
The Battle of Mobile Bay
Tennessee and two cotton-clad steamers (left) emerge from the shadows of Ft. Morgan as the Union fleet forces its way in, in this detail from the classic 1886 canvas by J.O. Davidson from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Collection. Full painting - enlarged view
The Tennessee proved her lethal worth as the main defender of the fairway at the Battle of Mobile Bay, fought on the night of August 4-5, 1864. The Union fleet crept in, formed in two columns (ironclad monitors in the column closer to the forts, the other column composed of the larger fighting ships, with smaller ships and transports lashed to their non-engaged sides by huge cables). Suddenly, the lead monitor Tecumseh sheared off course as waterspouts erupted under her starboard side: she had exploded two contact mines (torpedoes), and sank immediately. It was at this point that Union Adm. David Glasgow Farragut, lashed to the shrouds of his flagship USS Hartford, ordered: "Damn the torpedoes, go ahead."
Emerging from under the guns of Ft. Morgan in Tennessee, Capt. James D. Johnston charged into the fray at full speed, attempting to ram. But her paltry 5-knot speed enabled Union ships to avoid her thrusts. Tennessee then engaged great wooden warships such as the Hartford (seen below) and Brooklyn virtually muzzle to muzzle, inflicting considerable damage.
The Union had adapted its tactics, however, and with safety in numbers was confident of eventual victory. Tennessee was rammed repeatedly by the wooden sloops Monongahela, Lackawanna, and Susquehannah, starting her seams. Although her armor held up quite well, Tennessee suffered the muzzles blown off several guns, rendering them inoperable. Unprotected parts of the ship were all shot away: the stack, boat davits, and, most harmfully, the steering chains, which ran unprotected along her afterdeck. Unable to maneuver, his boilers crippled, and leaking like a sieve, with Adm. Franklin Buchanan and 8 crewmen wounded, 2 killed, Johnston had no humane choice left but to haul down his colors, as shown in an old engraving. While the artist has certainly omitted the fog of cannon smoke for clarity, he has scarcely exaggerated the closeness of the ships, nor the naval preponderance of the Union fleet. Tennessee was the only rightful naval vessel the Confederates had at Mobile (her mates were tinclad side-wheelers), and she had to engage the entire Union fleet single-handed after her consorts were sunk or driven ashore. Like the South itself, Tennessee had fought with valor and gallantry in a doomed cause.
Taken into the Union Navy briefly, Tennessee was sold for scrap in a public auction at New Orleans in 1867.
A Real Solid Tennessee Excursion
The Tennessee broadside-to-broadside with the Oneida; monitor Chickasaw at left, Winnebago in background; bowsprit-less ("knockabout") wooden gunboat USS Pequot at right rear. Painting by Tom Freeman.
Farragut in the mizzen shrouds observes the muzzle-to-muzzle action between Hartford and the Tennessee at Mobile Bay. Few depictions capture the swirl of battle better than this canvas, An August Morning with Farragut, by Swedish artist William Heysham Overend.
After the storm has spent its fury: the monitor Chickasaw frames a grouping of Mobile Bay warships in this canvas by Xanthus Smith. Enlarge
The Tennessee photographed at Algiers, Louisiana after capture.
Folk art rendering of the Tennessee.
Chart of Mobile Bay. The Union fleet took the main shipping channel, between Fts. Morgan and Gaines(below).
Detail of the area of the main action at Mobile Bay.
Civil War buffs fire a Model 1829 32-pounder Seacoast gun at Ft. Morgan in a 2009 re-enactment of the battle.
