Qualla: Battle of Mobile Bay

Battle of Mobile Bay: Introduction

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CaptJayRuffins, CC BY-SA 4.0. The words may never have been spoken. Most popular accounts claim that when the monitor Tecumseh struck a torpedo and sank in minutes on the morning of August 5, 1864, and the lead ship Brooklyn stopped dead in the channel, Rear Admiral David G. Farragut -- lashed to the rigging of his flagship Hartford to see above the gun smoke -- roared, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" Men present at the battle doubted any voice could carry above the din of the guns. What likely happened was quieter: Farragut told Captain Percival Drayton to take Hartford around the stalled Brooklyn, then shouted to the commander of Metacomet, lashed alongside, "Go ahead, Jouett, full speed." Time polished the phrase into legend. But what Farragut actually did -- steering his wooden ship directly through a minefield that had just swallowed 93 of Tecumseh's 114 crew -- needed no embellishment.

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Image: CaptJayRuffins | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Mobile Bay: The Last Open Door

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Altairisfar, Public domain. By the summer of 1864, Mobile was the last important Confederate port on the Gulf of Mexico east of the Mississippi River. After New Orleans fell in April 1862, the city had become the center of blockade running on the Gulf, funneling trade between the Confederacy, Havana, and th...

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Image: Altairisfar | Public domain

Battle of Mobile Bay: Dawn Attack

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit National Museum of the U.S. Navy, Public domain. Farragut's fleet numbered 18 vessels: four ironclad monitors, eight conventional wooden warships, and six smaller gunboats and double-enders. He lashed the 14 wooden ships together in pairs so a disabled vessel's partner could keep it moving. The monitors formed a column along th...

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Image: National Museum of the U.S. Navy | Public domain

Battle of Mobile Bay: Through the Minefield

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hal Jespersen at en.wikipedia, Public domain. Brooklyn's captain, James Alden, confused by conflicting orders, stopped his ship and signaled for instructions. The entire Union column was stalling under Fort Morgan's guns. Farragut, watching from Hartford's rigging where Captain Drayton had sent a sailor to tie him fast, refu...

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Image: Hal Jespersen at en.wikipedia | Public domain

Battle of Mobile Bay: Tennessee's Last Stand

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Farragut expected Buchanan to shelter Tennessee under Fort Morgan's guns. Instead, the Confederate admiral drove his ironclad alone against the entire Union fleet. Federal sloops rammed Tennessee repeatedly -- Monongahela had been fitted with an iron bow shield for this purpose -...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Battle of Mobile Bay: A One-Two Punch

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0. The three forts fell in sequence. Fort Powell's garrison spiked its guns and fled to the mainland. Fort Gaines surrendered on August 8 after its commander, Colonel Charles D. Anderson, ignored orders from Brigadier General Richard L. Page forbidding him to capitulate. Fort Morgan...

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Image: Michael Rivera | CC BY-SA 4.0