in mid
career the Lackawanna ran into her, striking near the person of the
admiral, who had a narrow escape from being killed, and cutting the
flag-ship down to within two feet of the water.

Meanwhile the monitors had come up. The Manhattan had lost the use of
one of her XV-inch guns early in the day by a fragment of iron which
dropped into the vent and could not be got out; she was therefore able
to fire only six of her heavy shot, one of which broke through the
port side of the casemate leaving on the inside an undetached mass of
oak and pine splinters. The Winnebago's turrets could not be turned,
so the guns could only be trained by moving the helm and her fire was
necessarily slow. The Chickasaw was more fortunate; her smoke-stack
had been pierced several times by the fort, so that her speed had run
down and she had not yet reached the anchorage when the Tennessee came
up, but by heaping tallow and coal-tar on the furnaces steam was
raised rapidly and she closed with the enemy immediately after the
Hartford rammed and fired. Passing by her port side and firing as she
did so, she took position under her stern, dogging her steadily during
the remainder of the fight, never over fifty yards distant, and at
times almost touching, keeping up an unremitting fire with her four
XI-inch guns.[36]

The bow and stern port shutters of the Tennessee were now jammed, so
that those guns could not be used. Soon her smoke-stack came down and
the smoke rising from its stump poured through the gratings on to the
gun-deck, where the thermometer now stood at 120 deg.. At about the same
time the tiller-chains were shot away from their exposed position over
the after-deck. Losing thus the power of directing her movements, the
Tennessee headed aimlessly down the bay, followed always by the
unrelenting Chickasaw, under the pounding of whose heavy guns the
after-end of the shield was now seen, by those within, to be
perceptibly vibrating. The Manhattan and Winnebago were also at work,
and the Hartford, Ossipee, and other vessels were seeking their chance
to ram again. During this time Buchanan, who was superintending in
person the working of the battery, sent for a machinist to back out
the pin of a jammed port shutter; while the man was at work a shot
struck just outside where he was sitting, the concussion crushing him
so that the remains had to be shovelled into buckets. At the same
moment the admiral received a wound from an iron splin