The mess kits were on the deck when word came down that the _Tennessee_, instead of staying near Fort Morgan, as Farragut had supposed she would do, was coming. In a jiffy the scouse and coffee were sent back to the galley, and the men ran to their guns. The anchor was slipped, and with signals flying to direct the _Monongahela_, _Lackawanna_, and _Ossipee_ to ram the Confederate ship, and the monitors to attack her, the _Hartford_ headed at full speed to lead the ramming gunboats. In this the spirit of Farragut was shown even more faithfully than when he braved the fire of the forts, for the _Tennessee_ was a much more powerful ship than the _Merrimac_, and the _Hartford_ was not so powerful as any of the steamers that lay in Hampton Roads when the _Merrimac_ made her first raid. Indeed, one involuntarily compares the action of Farragut on this day with that of Goldsborough on the day that the _Merrimac_ ran down within range of the Rip Raps, and defied a squadron gathered especially to ram her. There was no hesitation at Mobile. The _Monongahela_ was the first to reach the Confederate ship. Two raking shots were received, but at full speed the _Monongahela_ struck her amidships on the starboard side, and a minute later, as the two swung side by side, the _Monongahela_ gave her a broadside. And then came the _Lackawanna_ to ram the _Tennessee_ on the port side. A good blow it was too; but as the _Hartford_ approached to give a third blow, the _Tennessee_ turned so that she and the _Hartford_ struck bow to bow, but both glanced clear. A broadside from the _Hartford_ also proved harmless, but the _Tennessee_, that had been unable to return the fire for some time on account of defective primers, managed to discharge one shell that entered the _Hartford_, though it did no material damage. And then the danger of mobbing a ship, as the _Tennessee_ was mobbed, became apparent, for the _Lackawanna_, in coming around to ram again, struck the _Hartford_ instead of the _Tennessee_, and narrowly missed sinking her, while Farragut, by an equally narrow margin, escaped death, for he was standing near where the _Lackawanna_ struck. Meantime the three monitors were coming with all speed, the _Chickasaw_ burning tallow and tar to get up steam faster. Passing along the _Tennessee’s_ port side, the _Chickasaw_ got under the stern of the Confederate, and there she hung, working her four eleven-inch guns with deadly accuracy. The monitors _Manhattan_ and _Winnebago_ both attacked the _Tennessee_, but one of the former’s guns was accidentally spiked, and the latter’s turret machinery failed, and it was the _Chickasaw_ that did the work. “D----n him!” said the _Tennessee’s_ pilot afterward. “He stuck to us like a leach; we could not get away from him. It was he who cut away the steering gear, jammed the stern port shutters and wounded Admiral Buchanan.”