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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, this Union victory (together with the capture of Atlanta), was a significant boost for Abraham Lincoln's bid for reelection.
Battle
Commanding the Union forces was Admiral David Farragut, while Admiral Franklin Buchanan led 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, a minefield) 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. He then issued his famous order, "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!"
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 Octorara (981-ton "double-ender" side-wheel gunboat)
- USS Hartford (2900-ton screw sloop; Farragut's flagship)
- USS Metacomet (1173-ton Sassacus-class "double-ender" steam gunboat)
- USS Richmond (screw sloop)
- USS Port Royal (sidewheel steamer gunboat "double-ender")
- USS Lackawanna (1240-ton steam screw sloop-of-war)
- USS Seminole (screw sloop)
- USS Monongahela (screw sloop)
- USS Kennebec (gunboat)
- USS Ossipee (1240-ton steam screw sloop)
- USS Itasca (gunboat)
- USS Oneida (screw sloop)
- USS Galena (950-ton ironclad gunboat/screw steamer)
- 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)
The 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
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
Naval battles of the American Civil War | Battles of the Operations in Mobile Bay of the American Civil War
"Battle of Mobile Bay"