DK - The American Civil War

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY

The Union victory at Mobile Bay was one of

a series of Southern defeats in the summer

of 1864 that helped ensure Lincoln’s

victory in the upcoming election.

FORTS CAPTURED

Victorious at sea, the Union forces completed the

capture of Forts Morgan, Gaines, and

Powell by the end of the month. Together

with Sherman’s capture of Atlanta in late August

and Union advances on other fronts, Farragut’s

success maintained the crushing Union

pressure on the South.

SEALING THE BLOCKADE

The last port on the Atlantic seaboard was

Wilmington, North Carolina, through which

some supplies could reach Lee’s embattled Army

of Northern Virginia. After the powerful

Confederate ship CSS Albemarle was sunk in

October, Union forces were able to close

in on Wilmington’s outpost Fort Fisher. The first

attacks in December were unsuccessful, but a

renewed assault in January 1865 brought

Fort Fisher’s surrender 310–11 ❯❯.

PETERSBURG CAMPAIGN

On the war’s main land battlefront around

Petersburg, Virginia, Grant’s relentless siege

was supplemented by a series of attacks

around the perimeter of the Petersburg position.

These failed to encircle Petersburg itself and

were halted in late October as winter set in.

Full-scale fighting was resumed in late March

1865, when the Confederate forces were

quickly defeated 314–15 ❯❯.

unsinkable due to her heavy armor, the

Tennessee was too slow to ram any

invading ships. As the fleets battled in

the waters of Mobile Bay, most of the

Union vessels concentrated on

disabling the Tennessee, pummeling it

with heavy guns and making repeated

attempts to ram her.

The Tennessee gave as good as she

got. While Union cannonballs bounced

off the iron plating, the Tennessee’s

broadsides ravaged the wooden hulls of

her adversaries. But the sheer volume

of Union firepower soon began to tell.

Buchanan’s three other ships had

either sunk, surrendered, or escaped to

Mobile. Soon the Tennessee, rammed

repeatedly and facing 157 Union guns,

was too damaged to continue resisting.

With her surrender, the fighting came

to a halt. It was an overwhelming

Union victory, but not without cost.

Final toll

By the end of the battle, 150 Union

sailors were killed, many of them in the

sinking of the Tecumseh, and 170 were

wounded. Only 12 Confederate sailors

were killed and 19 wounded.

AFTER

Steaming into Mobile Bay

Julian Oliver Davidson’s Battle of Mobile Bay (1886)

shows Farragut’s warships and ironclads exchanging

fire with Fort Morgan on the left. The Union monitor

Tecumseh, on the right, has hit a mine and is sinking.

and 14 wooden vessels. In the light
of dawn on August 5, Farragut
concluded that conditions were
ideal to attack.
The Confederates had deployed
mines at the entrance to the bay.
If an invading fleet were to avoid these
“torpedoes,” it would have to steer
dangerously close to the forts. Though
one of his monitors, the Tecumseh,
struck a mine and quickly sank,
Farragut ordered the rest of his ships
to steam straight through the
minefield at full speed. No other
vessels were damaged, since many
of the mines had corroded. As the
ships passed the guns of Fort Morgan,
they came under heavy fire.
Admiral Buchanan, hoping to
intercept the Union fleet, then
steamed out in his flagship,
CSS Tennessee. Believed to be

KEY MOMENT

SURRENDER OF THE TENNESSEE

The CSS Tennessee was the pride of the

Confederate fleet stationed at Mobile Bay.

In the final conflict she went head to head

with Admiral Farragut’s flagship, USS Hartford,

and came close to ramming her, but could

only manage a glancing blow. Pounded from

all sides by the Hartford and the other

wooden Union ships, the Tennessee (in the

foreground) had her funnel shot away,

reducing engine power, and her rudder

mechanism destroyed. Then the Union

monitor Chickasaw began a relentless

close-range fire. The Tennessee’s armor held

but the crew was powerless to fight back.

Admiral Buchanan himself was wounded

and had no option but to surrender.

Farragut’s service dress
This wool jacket and cap with a leather brim were
worn by Farragut while directing the fire of the
Hartford at Mobile Bay.

“Damn the

torpedoes!

Full speed

ahead.”

ATTRIBUTED TO DAVID FARRAGUT, ON BEING

TOLD THAT MOBILE BAY CONTAINED HIDDEN

MINES (“TORPEDOES”), AUGUST 5, 1854