Mobile Bay, Alabama, Mobile and Baldwin Counties,

August 2–23, 1864

By Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr.

The first line of defense for the strategic city of Mobile in the summer of 1864 consisted of three forts guarding the entrances to Mobile Bay. Fort Morgan, a pentagonal bastioned work built of brick on the western extremity of Mobile Point, commanded the main ship channel into the bay. An earthen water battery mounting seven heavy cannons stood at the base of the fort next to the channel. Fort Gaines, another old masonry work, was on the eastern end of Dauphin Island. Confederate engineers had constructed an earthen work at Grant’s Pass on the Mississippi Sound and christened it Fort Powell. CS Brigadier General Richard L. Page commanded the garrisons of the three forts and had his headquarters in Fort Morgan.

To help obstruct all of the ship channels, Confederate engineers drove wooden pilings and floated mines (torpedoes) in the waters near the forts. The engineers left a gap of four hundred to five hundred yards between the easternmost torpedoes and Fort Morgan to allow blockade runners to pass in and out. A small naval squadron within the bay supported the forts. Commanded by CSN Admiral Franklin Buchanan, this squadron consisted of the ironclad ram Tennessee and three wooden gunboats: the Morgan, the Gaines, and the Selma. The forts, obstructions, and naval squadron combined gave Mobile defenses that would be a stern challenge to any attacking force.

In late July 1864, at USN Rear Admiral David G. Farragut’s request, US Major General Edward R. S. Canby, commander of Union land forces on the Gulf, sent about 1,500 men under US Major General Gordon Granger to attack the forts in a joint operation. Farragut’s objective was the reduction of the forts, sealing off blockade running in and out of the bay. At daylight on August 5 Farragut’s fourteen wooden gunboats and four monitors entered the main ship channel. The squadron steamed up in pairs, lashed together, with the more powerful ships on the side facing Fort Morgan. The monitors were between the gunboats and the fort, creating a “wall of iron” to shield the wooden vessels. The Federal squadron took about forty-five minutes to pass the fort. Heavy smoke from the artillery obscured the Confederate gunners’ vision, and their fire did little damage.

The leading monitor, the Tecumseh, was proceeding through the gap between the torpedoes and Fort Morgan when its commander directed the ship into the torpedo field so that he could engage the ram Tennessee. The Tecumseh struck a mine and sank. The commander of the Brooklyn, the leading wooden gunboat, ordered his vessel to back up to avoid the torpedoes. This maneuver threw confusion into the battle line and threatened either to force a retreat or to cause the gunboats to remain under the heavy Confederate artillery fire. While Farragut did not yell, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,” he did utter some choice expletives and ordered his squadron to continue into the bay. He moved his flagship to the head of the line and through the torpedo field. Farragut’s vessels destroyed the Confederate naval squadron. They disabled the Gaines, and the Selma was surrendered. Of the wooden vessels, only the Morgan escaped. It reached safety under the guns of Fort Morgan and ran past the Union squadron to Mobile during the night. Once inside the bay, Farragut’s vessels gathered about four miles from Fort Morgan and began to anchor. Buchanan decided to attack them with the Tennessee alone. All of the Federal gunboats joined in the hour-long battle in which the cannon fire cut the Tennessee’s steering chains so it could not be steered. When they shot the smokestack away, the ship filled with smoke, and its commander finally surrendered the ironclad.

Cut off from reinforcements and without the support of any naval vessels, the forts could not hold out. The 140-man garrison abandoned Fort Powell during the night of August 5 and blew up the fort’s magazine. Fort Gaines surrendered on the morning of August 8. The next day the Federals turned on Fort Morgan. Granger’s infantry, reinforced from New Orleans, landed at Navy Cove and moved toward the fort. When Page refused to surrender, the Federals began siege operations. By August 21 Granger had twenty-five cannons and sixteen mortars ready to bombard Fort Morgan. Joined by all the vessels in Farragut’s squadron, the Federal artillerymen opened a tremendous fire on the fort. After a day-long bombardment, Page surrendered on the morning of the twenty-third.

The Federal victory stopped blockade running at the port but left Mobile under Confederate control. Farragut’s fleet could not take the city without a strong infantry force. In March 1865 Canby moved against Mobile, and the city surrendered on April 12.

Estimated Casualties: 327 US, 1,500 CS