And that was true. Both the bow and the stern port shutters were jammed so that the guns of the _Tennessee_ could not be worked at the ends of the ship. Her smoke-stack was shot away, and the smoke from the stump poured down through the upper-deck gratings to fill the casemate, where the temperature had risen to 120 degrees. Buchanan, to clear one of the port shutters, sent for a machinist and personally superintended his work for a few moments, when one of the _Chickasaw’s_ projectiles struck the iron plating just outside where the machinist was at work, and the concussion, although the shot did not enter, reduced the man to a pulp, so that his remains were shovelled into buckets to be carried away. Worse yet for the ship, an iron splinter was driven through the admiral’s leg, breaking the bone. It was near this time that the tiller chains were carried away, and that completed the needed work of destruction. Capt. J. D. Johnson took command of her when Buchanan fell, and for twenty minutes longer endured the hammering while wholly unable to return the fire or steer the ship. But to hold out longer under such circumstances was useless, and the flag was hauled down. As it happened, the flag had been shot down before, and it was flying from a boat hook thrust up through a deck grating. The Union forces, supposing the flag had been shot away again, continued firing, and to end the matter Johnson went on the upper deck and waved a white flag. Just then the _Ossipee_ came slicing through the water at top speed to ram the _Tennessee_. Captain Le Roy was out on deck, and recognized Johnson instantly as an old friend. Sheering the _Ossipee_ to one side, he shouted cheerfully: “Hello, Johnson, old fellow! How are you? This is the United States steamer _Ossipee_. I’ll send a boat alongside for you. I’m Le Roy; don’t you know me?” The boat was sent. The American flag was hoisted on the _Tennessee_. The battle was ended. Farragut, in his report, gave special praise to the following men: Capts. Percival Drayton and Thornton A. Jenkins; Commanders Mullany, Nicholson, and Stevens; Lieut.-commanders Jouett and Perkins; Lieutenants Watson and Yates; Acting-Ensigns Henry C. Nields, Bogart, and Heginbotham; Ensign Henry Howard Brownell, Secretary McKinley, the pilot Martin Freeman, Acting Volunteer Lieuts. William Hamilton and P. Giraud. Of his crew he said: “I have never seen a crew come up like ours. They are ahead of the old set in small arms, and fully equal to them at the great guns. They arrived here a mere lot of boys and young men, and have now fattened up and knocked the 9-inch guns about like 24-pounders, to the astonishment of everybody. There was but one man who showed fear, and he was allowed to resign. This was the most desperate battle I ever fought since the days of the old _Essex_.” [Illustration: The Confederate Ram _Tennessee_, Captured at Mobile. _From a photograph._]