short engagement, succeeded in forcing her to surrender, having shot
away her smoke-stack, destroyed her steering gear, and jammed her
afterparts so that her stern guns were rendered useless. As she could
not steer she drifted down the bay, head on, and I followed her close,
firing as fast as I could, my guns and turrets, in spite of the strain
upon them, continuing in perfect order. When Johnston came on the roof
of the Tennessee and showed the white flag as signal of surrender, no
vessel of the fleet was as near as a quarter of a mile, but the Ossipee
was approaching, and her captain was much older than myself. I was wet
with perspiration, begrimed with powder, and exhausted by long-continued
exertion. I drew back and allowed Captain Le Roy to receive the
surrender, though my first lieutenant, Hamilton, said to me at the time:
'Captain, you are making a mistake.'"

Knowing full well that the Chickasaw's eleven-inch shot would not
penetrate the stout side-armor of the Tennessee, Perkins made for the
weakest part of the vessel--her stern, and hung there close aboard,
pouring solid shot of iron and steel into that vital part with the
accuracy of pistol-shooting, until the ram surrendered; then taking her
in tow, carried her near the flagship. He had fired fifty-two shots,
and, says the officer of the Hartford already quoted: "The guns of the
Chickasaw jammed the steering gear of the ram, also the port stopper of
the after port disabling the after gun, and a shot from the Chickasaw
broke Admiral Buchanan's leg."

But said Commander Nicholson of the Manhattan, in his official report:
"Of the six fifteen-inch projectiles fired from this vessel at the rebel
ironclad Tennessee, I claim four as having struck, doing most of the
real injuries that she has sustained"; then enumerating the injuries
inflicted, which included most of those claimed for the Chickasaw. Upon