280, including Admiral Buchanan, whose
leg would be saved. The Tennesseeand
Selmawere captured, and the Gaineswas
gutted. Fort Morgan had only one killed
and three wounded.
The press and the masses hailed Far-
ragut as the greatest naval officer since
Nelson. The dauntless manner in which
he had damned the torpedoes and hurled
the wooden prows of his cruisers against
the iron-knuckled sides of the Tennessee
brought praise from naval experts as wellas from laymen. Admiral Mahan consid-
ered Mobile Bay the strongest evidence for
Farragut’s audacity and naval genius, and
wrote pages of praise on the tactical han-
dling of the fleet, thus consciously or
unconsciously obscuring the admitted fact
that this battle was void of major strate-
gic importance.
And perhaps it was just as well, for Far-
ragut had not then, and has not yet,
received full historical credit for his telling
blows on the Mississippi River. President
Lincoln considered the Southerner the
best appointment made in either service.
Secretary Welles wrote in his memoirs, “I
considered him a great hero of the war.”Atlanta fell to Sherman on September 2,
and combined with Farragut’s victory dra-
matically enhanced Lincoln’s prospects for
reelection. Secretary of State William
Seward came to the heart of the matter:
“The victory at Atlanta comes in good
time, as the victory in Mobile does, to vin-
dicate the wisdom and energy of the war
administration.”
Within a few hours after the surrender
of the Tennessee(which was towed to
New Orleans and pressed into Union ser-
vice), the Chickasawsteamed westward
and joined five gunboats in pummeling
Fort Powell. The fort commander readily
saw that his position was untenable and atU.S. monitors steam closest to Fort Morgan as
the action begins in this dramatic overview of the
battle. The USS Tecumsehsinks at right as the
Rebel gunners blaze away at the invasion force.Anne S.K. Brown Military CollectionCWQ-EW16 Mobile Bay_Layout 1 10/22/15 1:10 PM Page 70