Naval Battle in Mobile Bay
Fort Pillow and Memphis

Civil War Navy
August 1864

Entrance of Rear Admiral Farragut in to Mobile Bay
August 5th 1864

Chart of the action, prepared by RAdm. D.G. Farragut, Washington, D.C., March 1st, 1865.
"Explanation of Diagram from the five stand points of the Mobile fight." (printed in the lower left):
"No.1. Ships lashed together and running in from Sea, and the monitors running out of "Monitor Bay" to take their station inside or eastward of the line."
"No.2. Running up the channel in line of battle, and engaging 'Fort Morgan' leading ship 'Brooklyn' encounters what she supposes to be 'torpedoes' monitor 'Tecumseh' is struck by one and sinks; Brooklyn backs astern causing confusion; Flag Ship takes the lead and passes up and engages the ram Tennessee and the gun boats of the enemy."
"No.3. Running fight with the enemy's fleet which ends in the capture of one, destruction of another, and the ram and one gun boat take shelter again under Fort Morgan."
"No.4. Fleet passes up and are in the act of anchoring when the ram Tennessee is seen coming out to attack them"
"No.5. Shows the manner the attack was made by the fleet upon the ram by ramming her in succession and keeping up a constant fire upon her at the same time."
"The points of contact are shown by the sketch in the north east corner of the plate."
"De Kraft's flotilla bombarding Fort Powell." (in upper left of the chart).
Ships are (as numbered in "Reference" list at left):
1. Tecumseh ; 2. Manhattan ; 3. Winnebago ; 4. Chickasaw ; 5. Brooklyn ; 6. Octorara ; 7. Hartford , Flag Ship; 8. Metacomet ; 9. Richmond ; 10. Port Royal ; 11. Lackawanna ; 12. Seminole ; 13. Admiral's barge Loyal ; 14. Monongahela ; 15. Kennebec ; 16. Ossipee ; 17. Itaska ; 18. Oneida ; 19. Galena .

Passing Fort Morgan and the Torpedoes
Artwork by J.O. Davidson, 1886, depicting the Union and Confederate squadrons at the moment that USS Tecumseh sank after striking a mine ("torpedo").
Confederate ships (left foreground) are Morgan , Gaines and Tennessee . Union monitors visible astern of Tecumseh are Manhattan and Winnebago . USS Brooklyn is leading the outer line of Union warships, immediately followed by USS Hartford .

Reproduction of an 1864 pen & ink drawing by George Waterman, C.S.N., depicting the action as seen from above and inside the entrance to Mobile Bay.
Confederate ships present are (as identified on the drawing): Selma , Morgan , Gaines (shown twice, in the battle line, and beached off Fort Morgan after the battle) and Tennessee .
Union monitors shown are (from the front of the line): Tecumseh (sinking after striking a mine), Manhattan , Winnebago and Chickasaw . The leading two steam sloops in the Union line are Brooklyn and Hartford .
Small diagram in the lower right represents the various efforts by Union ships to ram the Tennessee later in the action.

USS Monongahela rams CSS Tennessee as other Union warships move into position to engage. The two twin-turret monitors depicted at the right are USS Winnebago and USS Chickasaw .
Civil War vintage artwork, photographed by T. Lilienthal, New Orleans, Louisiana.


Ironclads and Big Guns of the Confederacy : The Journal and Letters of John M. Brooke
Information about the Confederate Navy's effort to supply its fledgling forces, the wartime diaries and letters of John M. Brooke tell the neglected story of the Confederate naval ordnance office, its innovations, and its strategic vision.






Life in Mr. Lincoln's Navy
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Confederate Phoenix: The CSS Virginia
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Confederate Ironclad 1861-65
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Confederate Submarines and Torpedo Vessels 1861-65
Interesting information and many excellent illustrations. It addresses the CSA David class torpedo boats and the Hunley (and its predecessors), as well as Union examples such as the Alligator and the Spuyten Duyvil






War, Technology, and Experience aboard the USS Monitor
The experience of the men aboard the Monitor and their reactions to the thrills and dangers that accompanied the new machine. The invention surrounded men with iron and threatened their heroism, their self-image as warriors, even their lives


Wolf of the Deep: Raphael Semmes and the Notorious Confederate Raider CSS Alabama
In July 1862, the Confederate captain Raphael Semmes received orders to report to Liverpool, where he would take command of a secret new British-built steam warship. His mission: to prey on Union commercial vessels and undermine the North's ability to continue the war






Glory in the Name: A Novel of the Confederate Navy
From Norfolk to Hampton Roads, from Roanoke Island to the nighttime battle on the river below New Orleans, Glory in the Name tells the story of the Confederate States Navy, and the brave men who carried forward against overwhelming odds






Naval Strategies of the Civil War: Confederate Innovations and Federal Opportunism
Compare and contrast the strategies of the Southern Secretary of the Navy, Mallory, against his rival in the North, Welles. Mallory used technological innovation and the skill of individuals to bolster the South's seapower against the Union Navy's superior numbers

CSS Tennessee surrounded by Union warships, near the end of the battle. The two twin-turret monitors depicted off her bow and stern are USS Winnebago and USS Chickasaw .

Line engraving after an artwork by J.O. Davidson, published in "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War", Volume 4, page 378.
Entitled "Surrender of the 'Tennessee,' Battle of Mobile Bay", it depicts CSS Tennessee in the center foreground, surrounded by the Union warships (from left to right): Lackawanna , Winnebago , Ossipee , Brooklyn , Itasca , Richmond , Hartford and Chickasaw . Fort Morgan is shown in the right distance.

"Admiral Farragut's Fleet Bombarding Fort Morgan, August 22, 1864", it depicts the following U.S. Navy ships (from left to right): Lackawanna , Manhattan , Octorara , Brooklyn , Winnebago and Richmond . Fort Morgan is shown in the right center distance, and a battery is at the far left.


The Siege of Mobile--Wreck of the 'Osage' and the Monitor 'Milwaukee'
Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 29 April 1865, depicting USS Osage striking a mine and sinking near Spanish Fort on 29 March 1865.
The wreck of USS Milwaukee , which had been sunk by a mine on the previous day, is in the center middle distance. The twin-turret monitors at right are two of the following: USS Winnebago , USS Chickasaw and USS Kickapoo . Ships in the right distance are "Double-Ender" and "Tinclad" gunboats also engaged in attacking the Confederate-held Spanish Fort.

More on the Battle at Mobile Bay


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American Civil War Naval Book Titles

Blockaders, Refugees, and Contrabands: Civil War on Florida'S Gulf Coast, 1861-1865
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Confederate Ironclad vs Union Ironclad: Hampton Roads 1862
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Release date Nov. 2008
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Personal view of the Civil War Navy. The monitor saw action in several significant naval assaults by the Union's Squadron. It took part in the failed Federal attack on Sumter in April 1863. The "Nahant" also participated in the capture of the Confederate Ram "Atlanta," and in the assault on Fort Wagner
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Civil War History Documentary DVD Movie Titles

Halls of Honor
The U.S. Navy Museum takes you on an informed and entertaining romp through one of North America s oldest and finest military museums. The museum has been in continuous operation at the Washington Navy Yard since the American Civil War
Raise The Alabama
She was known as "the ghost ship." During the Civil War, the CSS Alabama sailed over 75,000 miles and captured more than 60 Union vessels. But her career came to an end in June of 1864 when she was sunk by the USS Kearsarge off the coast of Northern France
The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns
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Civil War Journal - The Conflict Begins
These four programs from the History Channel series Civil War Journal cover critical aspects of the early days of the war.


Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
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US Naval Archives


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