 Attempts were made to fix the problems and were at least partially successful in stopping many of the leaks . The ship was commissioned on 22 November and became the flagship of Flag Officer Josiah Tattnall , commander of the naval defenses of Georgia . Under pressure from Mallory to engage the blockading ships , Tattnall attempted to engage them before any ironclads arrived on 5 January 1863 , but army engineers could not clear the obstacles blocking the channel in a timely manner , despite early coordination being made by Tattnall to do so . It took another month to actually clear the obstacles and two monitors arrived before the end of January . Nonetheless Tattnall attempted to pass through the obstructions during high tide on 3 February , but high winds prevented the water from rising enough to allow the ship to do so . After Atlanta successfully passed through them on 19 March , Tattnall planned to attack the Union base at Port Royal , South Carolina while the monitors were attacking Charleston . <unk> revealed <unk> 's plan while he was waiting at the head of <unk> Sound and he was forced to retreat when three monitors augmented the defenses at Port Royal . <unk> with Tattnall 's perceived lack of aggressiveness , Mallory replaced Tattnall as commander of the Savannah squadron later that month with Commander Richard L. <unk> . <unk> , in his turn was relieved in May by Commander William A. Webb ; Atlanta remained the squadron flagship throughout this time . 
