American Civil War Marines 1861–65

The attack was launched at dawn the next day, with 14 warships tied in pairs and led by the screw sloop Brooklyn, which was lashed to the side-wheel steamer Octorara. Aware of the danger near Fort Morgan, Farragut ordered his captains to stay within the channel marked by buoys, as the water to either side was infested with torpedoes; but the monitor Tecumseh, commanded by Capt Tunis Craven, veered outside the channel and struck a mine, sinking within 20 seconds and taking 92 officers and men with her. Shocked by the loss and anxious that the Brooklyn should not meet the same fate, Capt James Alden ordered his engines into reverse. As a result the rest of the Federal line of battle was halted, under a brisk fire from Fort Morgan and the nearby floating batteries.
Lashed securely to the rigging of his flagship, Farragut ordered the Hartford to take the lead with the immortal words, ""Damn the torpedoes! Full steam ahead!"" The other vessels followed; and Pte Enoch Jones, part of the small Marine Guard aboard the screw sloop USS Lackawanna, recorded that his ship ""received a shot from the water battery witch [sic] passed through our bullworks just forward of our fore rigging & about 15 inches above the spar deck at NO 2 gun a 150 PD. Rifle killing the captain of the gun & wounding most all of her crew & officers of the division so that the gun was silenced.""