Ramming needs speed, and command needs visibility

The combat around Tennessee turns the armour-firepower-speed trade-off into a concrete tactical lesson: a slow ram cannot compel a faster target to accept contact. Lackawanna could make 10.5 knots, twice Tennessee's speed, so Union ships could evade, turn back, and strike in sequence. Lackawanna and Hartford even collided during repeated attempts to ram the Confederate ironclad. Buchanan's position inside Tennessee gave him poor visibility once gun smoke filled the confined water. With no command-information center beyond direct human observation, the enclosed ironclad was the worst platform from which to direct the Confederate squadron, unlike Farragut's communicative flagship.