Today in History—August 23: The End of the Battle of Mobile Bay

Fort Morgan was running out of supplies.

For two weeks the fort’s garrison had watched Union ships tighten their control of Mobile Bay. Fighting valiantly but doomed by a lack of supplies, soldiers surrendered the fort on this day in 1864, bringing the Battle of Mobile Bay to its end.

With that, the Confederacy lost its major last foothold on the Gulf Coast.

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But getting to this point required one of the Civil War’s most famous naval gambles.

Union forces had taken New Orleans in 1862, leaving Mobile, Alabama, as the Confederates’ prize port on the Gulf Coast. By 1864, seizing that prize had become a priority to aid a Union push northward.

Mobile Bay was heavily fortified. The Confederate ironclad Tennessee patrolled the bay, and Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines stood sentry over the entrance. The channel was also pockmarked with mines (then called “torpedoes”). The only safe route into the bay passed directly under the guns of Fort Morgan.

Leading the Union charge was Rear Adm. David Glasgow Farragut, who literally joined the naval service at age eight. On the Confederate side, Adm. Franklin Buchanan commanded the Tennessee.

On August 5, Union ships entered the bay in two columns, with the wooden ships tied together to help guard against damage. But the lead ironclad, the Tecumseh, struck a mine and sank. The lashed-together ships were now exposed and at risk of edging into the minefield—if they all didn’t run into each other first.

Farragut maneuvered his flagship, the Hartford, into the lead. A captain of one of the wooden ships yelled to warn Farragut of the minefield, and his alleged reply has gone down in history: “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” (There exist many, many variations on this wording.)

Regardless of his exact command, ahead they went: The other ships fell in line, and they sailed into the bay, where Farragut defeated the Tennessee and trapped the Confederates in their forts.

Fort Gaines capitulated almost immediately.

Over the next two weeks, the Union ships extended their control of the bay, creating an effective blockade and capturing Southern ships. Then they turned their guns on the star-shaped holdout that was Fort Morgan—until it too officially surrendered.

Confederate dominance of the Gulf Coast was over.

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