Note 35 — Chapter VIII · ToC
Reading edition
This was said in the hearing of Lieutenant-Commander (now Captain) Kimberley, the executive officer of the Hartford. Commodore Foxhall A. Parker (Battle of Mobile Bay) mentions that Farragut had written in a note-book after the engagement: "Had Buchanan remained under the fort, I should have attacked him as soon as it became dark with the three monitors." The statements are easily reconciled, the latter representing the second thought.