the Ohio River, on 8 May for fitting out and commissioned on 14 May 1864. After commissioning, Chickasaw patrolled the Mississippi River against Confederate raids and ambushes for several months. She was transferred to Rear Admiral David Farragut's West Gulf Blockading Squadron on 9 July, together with her sister . The ship required some time to refit at New Orleans and prepare for the voyage to Mobile across the Gulf of Mexico, so the two sisters did not depart New Orleans until 29 July. On the voyage down the Mississippi to the Pass A Loutre, Chickasaw was forced to anchor overnight because of steering problems and the two ships did not cross the sandbar at the mouth of the pass until the evening of the following day. Once in the Gulf, Chickasaw was taken under tow by the sidewheel gunboat Tennessee for the voyage across the Gulf. The two ships were forced to stop at Ship Island so Chickasaws engines could be repaired. That required only a day and the sidewheel gunboat towed the monitor the rest of the way. Farragut briefed Lieutenant Commander George H. Perkins, Chickasaws commander, on his ship's intended role in the battle. The larger, more heavily armed monitors and were to keep the ironclad ram away from the vulnerable wooden ships while they were passing Fort Morgan and then sink her. Chickasaw and Winnebago were to engage the fort until all of the wooden ships had passed. The four monitors would form the starboard column of ships, closest to Fort Morgan, with Chickasaw in the rear, while the wooden ships formed a separate column to port. The eastern side of the channel closest to Fort Morgan was free of obstacles, but "torpedoes", as mines were called at the time, were known to be present west of a prominent black buoy in the channel. The two Milwaukee-class ships bombarded Fort Morgan for about an hour and a half while the wooden ships passed through the mouth of Mobile Bay. Chickasaw fired 75 rounds at the fort beginning at 07:10; the return fire badly damaged her funnel so that the crew was forced to use tallow and coal tar to generate enough steam to keep the ship in the fight. She engaged the Tennessee two hours later until the ironclad surrendered at 10:40. The Confederate ironclad was shooting at the wooden ships at this time at point-blank