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The 'Battle of Mobile Bay' was a naval battle fought on August 5 1864, during the American Civil War. In addition to shutting down one of the two remaining Confederate ports, the other being Savannah, Georgia, this Union victory (together with the capture of Atlanta), was a significant boost for Abraham Lincoln's bid for re-election.

Contents

Battle

Ships

Union Navy

Confederate Navy

See also

References

Notes

External links

Battle

Commanding the Union forces was Admiral David Farragut, while Admiral Franklin Buchanan commanded the Confederate fleet. The battle took place off the coast of Alabama, at the mouth of Mobile Bay, which was defended by two Confederate forts, Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines, and by a torpedo field (in modern terms, naval mines) that created a single narrow channel for blockade runners to enter and exit the Bay.
The biggest challenge for Farragut was entering the bay. With eighteen vessels, he commanded far greater firepower than the Confederate fleet of four. The Union fleet suffered the first major loss when the USS ''Tecumseh'' was critically damaged by an exploding torpedo after it wandered into the field. Within three minutes, the vessel was completely submerged. 94 men went down with the ship. Under fire from both the Confederate fleet and Fort Morgan, Farragut had to choose between retreating or risking the minefield. According to some accounts, he then issued his famous order, "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!"^[1]
Farragut took his flagship through the minefield safely, followed by the rest of the fleet. When Union fleet reached the bay, they defeated the Confederate flotilla led by the giant ironclad CSS ''Tennessee''. Buchanan surrendered to Farragut aboard the USS ''Hartford''. Over the next three weeks, a combined operation by the Navy and one Army division captured the forts defending the bay. Although the city of Mobile remained in Confederate hands, the last blockade-running port on the Gulf Coast east of the Mississippi was shut down.

Ships

Union Navy

14 wooden ships:

★ USS ''Brooklyn'' (screw sloop)

★ USS ''Itasca'' (gunboat)

★ USS ''Kennebec'' (gunboat)

★ USS ''Monongahela'' (screw sloop)

★ USS ''Oneida'' (screw sloop)

★ USS ''Richmond'' (screw sloop)

★ USS ''Seminole'' (screw sloop)

★ USS ''Hartford'' (2900-ton screw sloop; Farragut's flagship)

★ USS ''Galena'' (950-ton ironclad gunboat/screw steamer)

★ USS ''Metacomet'' (1173-ton ''Sassacus''-class "double-ender" steam gunboat)

★ USS ''Octorara'' (981-ton "double-ender" side-wheel gunboat)

★ USS ''Lackawanna'' (1240-ton steam screw sloop-of-war)

★ USS ''Ossipee'' (1240-ton steam screw sloop)

★ USS ''Port Royal'' (sidewheel steamer gunboat "double-ender")
4 ironclad monitors:

★ USS ''Tecumseh'' sunk by torpedo (2100-ton Canonicus-class monitor)

★ USS ''Manhattan'' (2100-ton ''Canonicus''-class monitor)

★ USS ''Winnebago'' (1300-ton ''Milwaukee''-class ironclad river monitor, twin-turrets)

★ USS ''Chickasaw'' (1300-ton ''Milwaukee''-class ironclad river monitor, twin-turrets)

Confederate Navy

1 ironclad:

★ CSS ''Tennessee'' (1273-ton ironclad ram; Buchanan's flagship)
3 gunboats

★ CSS ''Morgan'' (863-ton side-wheel gunboat)

★ CSS ''Gaines'' (863-ton side-wheel gunboat)

★ CSS ''Selma'' (320-ton side-wheel gunboat)

See also

★ History of Mobile, Alabama

★ Siege of Fort Morgan

References

★ Levin, Kevin M., "Mobile Bay", ''Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History'', Heidler, David S., and Heidler, Jeanne T., eds., W. W. Norton & Company, 2000, ISBN 0-393-04758-X.

Notes

1. Levin, p. 1344.

External links

★ See Fort Morgan and the Battle of Mobile Bay for a lesson on the Battle of Mobile Bay from the National Park Service's Teaching with Historic Places.

★ Paintings of the battle