Battle of Mobile Bay

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Battle of Mobile Bay
Part of the American Civil War

Battle of Mobile Bay, by Louis Prang.
Date August 2 – August 23, 1864
Location Mouth of Mobile Bay, off the coast of Alabama
Result Union victory
Belligerents
Flag of the United States United States (Union) Flag of Confederate States of America CSA (Confederacy)
Commanders
David Farragut (navy)
Gordon Granger (army)		 Franklin Buchanan (navy)
Dabney H. Maury (army)
Strength
14 wooden ships
(including 2 gunboats)
4 ironclad monitors
5,500 Land Force Troops		 3 gunboats,
1 ironclad,
2,000 Troops at Fort Morgan
Casualties and losses
145 killed
170 wounded
1 ironclad sunk
7 Land Troops wounded		 12 killed
20 wounded
123 captured
2 gunboats and the ironclad captured
Fort Morgan:
1 killed
3 wounded
Operations in Mobile Bay
Mobile Bay - Fort Gaines - Fort Morgan
Map of Mobile Bay, 1861: shows Fort Gaines (lower center) on Dauphin Island, west of Fort Morgan, across the bay entrance.
Map of Mobile Bay, 1861: shows Fort Gaines (lower center) on Dauphin Island, west of Fort Morgan, across the bay entrance.
Sketch of the battle, August 5, 1864.
Sketch of the battle, August 5, 1864.

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

[edit] 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.

[edit] Opposing Forces

[edit] Union

NAVY
14 wooden ships:

4 ironclad monitors:

ARMY
Mobile Bay Land Forces - Major General Gordon Granger

  • Clark's Brigade - Colonel George Washington Clark
  • 2nd Brigade - Colonel Henry Bertram
  • 3rd Brigade (2nd Division, XIX Corps) - Colonel Joshua J. Guppey
  • Engineer Brigade (Corps d'Afrique) - Colonel George D. Robinson
  • Engineer Brigade (XIX Corps) - Brevet Brigadier General Joseph Bailey
  • Artillery (XIX Corps) - Brigadier General Richard Arnold

[edit] Confederate

NAVY
1 ironclad:

3 gunboats

ARMY
District of the Gulf - Major General Dabney Maury

  • Fort Morgan - Brigadier General Richard Page
  • Fort Gaines - Colonel Charles D. Anderson

[edit] See also


[edit] 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.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Levin, p. 1344.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mobile_Bay"
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